PUBLISHER/DEVELOPER: Sega
RELEASE DATE: 03/1991 (JP)
The parade of needless Phantasy Star II side-stories continues with Huey’s Adventure. I’ve already reviewed four of these buggers, and I recommend reading them before you read this one.
Phantasy Star II: Amia’s Adventure
Phantasy Star II: Shilka’s Adventure
Phantasy Star II: Kinds’ Adventure
Phantasy Star II: Anne’s Adventure
Huey – known as Hugh Thompson in the English version of Phantasy Star II – is a college student studying the effects of genetic engineering on plants and flowers. He’s in close with the President of the college, has a smokin’ hot girlfriend named Rita (the game goes out of its way to mention this fact, so I will too), and is bullied by Rody and his gang of science-hating thugs.
Rumors of mysterious creatures running around the college reach the President’s office. The President tasks Huey with figuring out what’s going on, and the “adventure” begins. But what does the adventure entail? Mostly walking around a series of dark corridors, occasionally talking to someone, and killing a bunch of genetically engineered flowers. Hmm, who do we know that’s studying the effects of genetic engineering on plants and flowers? That’s right, Huey. All of this is Huey’s fault. The flowers, the endless hallways, the boring adventure, all of it. Please blame Huey.
That was not a jokey rant. Huey’s experiments got free and wreaked havoc around the college, all in the name of science. At the end of the game (spoilers for a game you will likely never play), the President chastises Huey for his part in the flower madness and his girlfriend Rita smacks him across the face. Ouch! He totally deserves it.
If you heeded my words and read the other Phantasy Star II adventures reviews, you know two things. 1) All the games are structured exactly the same. They’re menu-based with typical adventure game actions – Use, Look, Move, etc. No turn-based fights or overworld navigation like the main Phantasy Star games. 2) Save for Anne’s Adventure, I don’t care for these titles. The stories are thin, the gameplay is boring, and they fail to flesh out the characters’ personalities and backstories, their supposed reason for being.
One might think I’m being too hard on these Phantasy Star II vignettes, over thirty years removed from their original release date. After all, the games were intended for Sega Meganet, a niche service on a niche-in-Japan console. Few people were ever destined to experience them, and Sega likely knew this, hence the lack of effort. If that’s the case, then why would Sega make these games at all? Just to fill the Sega Meganet service’s lineup? Regardless of intent or time frame in which they were released, the Phantasy Star II adventures lack any real purpose or meaning. Sega deserves all respect for their forwardthinking ideas (online gaming with Phantasy Star II DLC in 1991!), but that doesn’t stop Huey’s Adventure from being a complete pile.
D-