Phantasy Star IV (Genesis, 1995)

The RPG was a genre that was not favored highly on the Genesis.  Sega's 16-bit console was suited mostly to action games that were quick and cheap to produce, not lengthy, expensive RPGs, which were still a niche genre in the States.  The first Phantasy Star game was released for Sega's ill-fated Master System, their equivalent to the NES.  Considered to be a good game, but not very well remembered and a commercial failure.  Phantasy Star II was one of the earliest games for the Genesis, and is well-remembered by fans, but has not aged well.  Phantasy Star III is easily the worst in the series.  However, Phantasy Star IV (1995) is an underrated masterpiece of retro RPGs.
You play as Chad, a new recruit of the Rangers, essentially an emergency response, and police force of the planet he lives on.  He and his friend Alys are sent to small village to investigate a monster infestation.  One outbreak of monsters leads to another one, and before long the cause of them all is revealed to be the doing of a man named Zio.  Zio has been spreading a false religion across the planet, perverting the people which gives fuel to his master plan, resurrect the evil deity, Dark Force.  1000 years prior to this game (in fact, the events of the first Phantasy Star) a warrior names Alis defeated Dark Force and sealed him away.
Phantasy Star IV follows the basic RPG template set by Dragon Warrior, but perfects it.  You may have up to five characters in your party, who come and go as the story goes along.  You gain experience from random enemy battles, and characters level up, gaining new skills at certain levels.  All characters can fight with a weapon, but some characters have different abilities.  Some characters are avid magic users, having the best spells, while some have more techniques, special moves that are unique to each individual character. In earlier Phantasy Star games, the battle systems were rather awkward.  Both II and III used a system where character actions had default sets, and you let turns play on until you won, lost, or told the game to stop.  In IV, This is abandoned in favor of a simple to use menu system, and only one turn plays at a time.
The art style of this game is eclectic, to say the least, but nothing feels out of place.  The game takes place in the distant future, but most technology has been forgotten.  People live in adobe-style houses in desert towns.  Relics of the high technology of the distant past are sealed away deep underground.  You uncover some of these in your fight against Zio, and the include a tank, a burrowing vehicle, a a few spaceships.  There are several planets to travel between, all unique in their landscapes and denizens.  Story elements are told in comic book style cutscenes.  All of this is tied together by an anime aesthetic.
For a Genesis game at this time, it is a fairly ambitious and gutsy game.  Religious materials were still taboo with Nintendo, so in this game, having the themes of false gods, messiahs, and dogma handled maturely and seriously is actually quite remarkable.  Zio promises the people an easy and false route to paradise, at the cost of their souls.  Going into one of the Zio temples throughout the game you will be assaulted with the mindless remarks of the zealots therein.  There is no way to awaken these drones to the truth, you just have to accept that the people you must save are the ones who are against you.
Phantasy Star was always meant to be Sega's answer to Final Fantasy, but do they stack up next to Square's giants?  In short, not really.  These games have always been behind the inventions and innovations of Final Fantasy, but the fourth installment of Phantasy Star does hold up on its own.  By this time, Final Fantasy VI had come out and it was too late for this series to play catch-up, but in its own way is something special that could only be one of those rare RPGs for the Sega Genesis.