Phantasy Star II – Yushis's Adventure is one of those classic Genesis RPGs that somehow still holds up. You start off with Yushi, this scrappy little hero, and right away you're thrown into a world that feels way bigger than the 16-bit graphics suggest. The first town's got that cozy-but-mysterious vibe, with NPCs dropping hints about some looming disaster—standard RPG stuff, but it works.

Combat's turn-based but snappy, and the dungeon designs? Brutal in that old-school way where you'd better bring graph paper. The music's got those iconic Sega FM synth tracks that somehow make grinding against slimes feel epic. It's not as polished as later entries, but there's something charming about how ambitious it was for its time—like they crammed a whole sci-fi/fantasy novel into a cartridge.

If you're into retro RPGs, this one's a time capsule worth cracking open.