The fourth and final game in Sega's long-running RPG series, Phantasy Star: The End Of The Millennium (alternately titled simply Phantasy Star 4) can be taken as both a great end to a great series, or a well-rounded (if somewhat confusing) stand-alone game, dependant on when you play it.

A working knowledge of the rest of the series can be rewarding while playing this game, but it's not absolutely necessary. Following in the footsteps of the previous Phantasy Star games, the premise of Phantasy Star 4 is that 1,000 years have passed since a great calamity befell the Algo solar system, and in the time since then, the world has been slowly rebuilding, until another horrible disaster is about to happen, and it becomes your job to prevent it. The hero of our story is Chaz Ashley, a hot-tempered, 16-year-old greenhorn Hunter partnered to the beautiful, famous (or perhaps infamous...), veteran Hunter, Alys Brangwin. The story begins on planet Motavia, with Alys and Chaz heading to the Motavia Academy in the city of Piata to take on a commission from the headmaster there. In no time, they find themselves caught up in an increasingly complex plot, getting more deeply embroiled and eventually leading them to Zio the Black Magician, a strange, fanatical figure who's been terrorizing the countryside in recent months. Along the way they encounter and are joined by such characters as Hahn (a student at the Academy), Rune Walsh (an arrogant, powerful, mysterious man who knows far more than he lets on), Gryz (a native Motavian with a grudge against Zio), and Rika (a 1-year-old, fully grown, genetically engineered girl with cat-ears and a sweet — if naive — disposition). Other characters move in and out of the party as the plot demands, and generally if you lose a person or two, you know they'll be replaced soon enough, as past a certain point the party will rarely have fewer than five members. Over the course of the story you're pushed from city to city, and even to other planets, always chasing the next vital person or object that our heroes hope will answer the growing questions. Of course, to tell more would be a grave disservice to a wonderful story. While it might not seem much at the beginning, the plot (barring a few confusing bits due to translation errors) is very rewarding and deep, and well worth playing through 'til the end.

For the era when it first came out (1994), Phantasy Star 4 has wonderful, clean graphics. The walking sprites are tall, well-detailed, and following in Phantasy Star tradition (and a nice change from most RPGs of the time) non-"SD" format, although perhaps they can be seen as a bit on the tiny side, especially if you're playing on a smaller screen. The overworld map is lush and colorful, and the dungeons are well-plotted and interesting to look at. As with the rest of the Genesis-era Phantasy Star series, movement is viewed from above, and in combat the enemies are viewed head-on from behind the party. The combat sprites are functional, and decently animated, if limited and repetitive. Most Techniques (the long-running term for "magicical powers" in the Phantasy Star series) and Skills are interesting to see, if equally as limited and repetitive as normal attacks. Some of the most fascinating graphics come from the boss battle sprites, and of course the "combination attacks" that two or more characters will occasionally pull off with proper timing and the appropriate abilites.

The music in Phantasy Star 4 is good for it's time, and there are more than a few toe-tappers in the soundtrack. After wandering about a dungeon for several hours levelling up, the music can get repetitive and bothersome, though rarely grating. The battle sounds are decently executed and serve their purpose... and are very easily ignored and forgotten. After beating the game, a hidden sound test mode option can be opened by pressing the B button from the title screen, though the titles of the songs are barely translated from the original japanese and can be somewhat confusing. Two of the dungeon themes in the game were remixed from the original Phantasy Star, which is interesting and refreshing if you've played the first game.

The controls are standard RPG-fare; one button opens the camp menu, one cancels, one is used to examine objects and speak to people, and you can change the controls however you like by pressing Start during the game and choosing a different setting. The game's habit of making you take an extra step in a seemingly random direction when you walk into a wall or other object can be jarring at first, in most cases irritating even after you get used to it, and it can make looking at things difficult — and you'll usually want to look at everything, whether out of need to find something, or just for a joke, as Chaz will usually remark on just about anything you can examine that's not a plain, flat wall. The menu system is simple and easy to navigate, and does it's job, even if it's not "visually attractive" and customizable (i.e "Final Fantasy"-ish). An interesting plot device in Phantasy Star 4 is the android characters; most Techniques don't work on them, so they can only heal themselves (though they do regenerate while walking), and they have no techniques of their own, nor do they gain Skills with Levels — you have to find "attachment" pieces for them. The usage of the androids can force a bit more strategy into battles than just the normal hacking and slashing fair of the games that proceeded this. As for challenge, the game itself can be easily classified as "beginner," especially when compared to the previous Phantasy Stars (i.e. it's actually not only possible but plausible to have the entire party equipped with the necessary equipment to survive the next, more difficult area/dungeon).

One touch I rather enjoyed in Phantasy Star 4 was the aforementioned Combination Attacks. As an example, let's say Chaz uses the Tsu Technique, Alys uses Foi, and Hahn uses Wat — if they act in that exact turn order, they'll execute the Triblaster attack, which is far more powerful than the techniques alone, and damages all enemies on the screen. There are 14 total Combination Attacks in the game, some easier to pull off than others. Making it at least a little easier to execute them is the Macro menu, which allows you to edit specialized orders for the party, whereby everyone will go in the order that you set in the Macro. Unfortunately, this doesn't take into account the enemies' turns, so be warned that sometimes trying a Macro, even if you know it's a Combination Attack, might not work if, say, one enemy goes between Chaz and Alys, in which case the characters will do their moves as normal — usually not with the intended effect. In my experience, the best time to do Macros in normal combat is only if you have the initiative. Macros usually (though not always) will work in boss battles, if techniques that speed the party up are used first. Personally, I know of 13 of the Macros, having personally discovered many during trail and error, and the rest having been found by my brother. I never have found the last Combo, nor found info about it, and it's lead me to keep trying, so at least to me (as a completist) the game has great replay value — even if just for that.

When all's said and done, Phantasy Star: The End Of The Millennium is a somewhat easy game that relies more heavily on its characters and plot than the need to level constantly to move the story along. Hardcore gamers seeking a challenge might want to pass this one by, but for anyone who's played the previous Phantasy Stars for their story (as hard as this might be to imagine), or for those who just want an involving (if not too hard to advance) plot, I can heartily recommend giving this game a try.

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