Phantasie

Phantasie from Strategic Simulations, Inc. was among the most popular RPGs on the Commodore 64 in the mid-1980s, offering a somewhat more accessible alternative to the dominant, considerably more demanding dungeon crawlers of the time, such as Wizardry. The player leads a party of adventurers through a vast fantasy world full of towns, caves, graveyards, and wilderness, ultimately facing the evil mage Nikademus, whose dark plans threaten the entire land and its inhabitants.

The game combined a top-down map view with textured mazes and turn-based combat, in which an entire row of monsters could face the party at once, depicted with simple but distinctive, easily recognizable icons. A notable asset of Phantasie was the included paper map of the game world, which helped players orient themselves far more easily than in many competing titles with no automap or hints at all. The experience system, character progression, and equipment management were clear and well balanced, making the game feel overall less merciless than, say, the aforementioned Wizardry, without sacrificing gameplay depth and strategy.

Phantasie earned praise on release for both its accessibility and its content, and it kicked off a successful series of sequels in the following years that retained a loyal following throughout the 1980s. On the Commodore 64 it was among the best-selling RPGs and helped popularize the entire genre with a wider audience beyond the core of hardcore players who had until then made up the bulk of the community around such titles. The sound was solid for its time of release and, combined with colorful, clear graphics, gave the game a pleasantly cozy adventure atmosphere. Today the game is interesting mainly as a reminder of an era when computer RPGs were still searching for the balance between systemic depth and accessibility for the average player.

Why play it: For players interested in the balance between depth and accessibility in early RPGs, where cozy graphics and sound make playing a pleasant reminder of the genre's search for its roots.