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This was my first time playing PSIV and it was a joy with this patch! (note: I played the Purist patch). For the most part the script is very much alike to the original only spruced up at times or expanded for lore. An obvious example being Zio's past being explained by Rune.

The changes it does make are a positive in my opinion. It delivers both for characters, their dynamic and the humor when it's appropriate, such as Raja's joke dialogue being altered. I did compare scenes every now and then out of curiosity and I think the few added bits that didn't hit or felt out of place mostly took place in the beginning hours of the game. Which is a bit of a shame cuz I think it gives people the wrong impression.

I'm especially thankful for the lore consistency this patch brings. Even with it being based on the "generation remakes", as someone who played modernized patches of the original PS I+II I didn't see anything that felt conflicting.

My one complaint with the patch would be the naming inconsistency of the original PSIV cast. Rudy, the main character and Jiam, a one-of-character who is playable for a short section, both had their names reverted to their Japanese ones but the rest of the cast still keeps their localized names. Technically, Wren is also referred to with his JP name "Forren" but there is an added explanation for the Wren "nickname". It just seems a bit random to mix and match.

I think most people would have been fine with two separate JP/EN name patches instead of the author picking and choosing names to their liking (it is their patch though so the choice is theirs). I understand though that Demi's and Rune's original names, Freyna and Thray, wouldn't fit in the character limit as of now due to only having space for 4 characters. I'm also aware the author of this hack does take requests for changing Proper Nouns but I still believe the main patch should keep an order to the names. It is a nitpick but character names are important.

My recommendation if you're going with this hack is the Purist patch. The "working designs" patch take things a bit too far with its jokes and I don't think it's something most people would like, especially as a first-time experience!

I've played a lot of PSIV hacks and I've liked them all, but I was really impressed with this one! The new dialogue is really great. While not all of it is particularly notable, the new story elements and character developments it adds are amazing, especially the lore to characters unearthed from developer interviews.

Other changes like the two unused enemies being added back and more equipment being usable for other characters (like the Rykros Ring) were also welcome changes. Overall, I think it's clear a lot of effort was put into this hack and I definitely recommend it.

I played the game till reaching the Kuran satellite and i wasn't able to go further, the purist patch isn't as purist as it says, i can say that when i played i felt like this wasn't Phantasy Star 4. The dialogs didn't have the feel of Phantasy Star, before this patch i played the game once till Zio's fort many months before this patch so i can compare both the official and the purist translations and say this for sure. I'm now using lory's patch with bugfixes and i'm happy even after playing it for a short time, i'll stick with it to the end. The purist patch also has A LOT of unneeded commas and typos that didn't make me feel good about it.

Luckly i didn't lose much of the original game since there isn't a long distance between Zio's fort and kuran. I recommend the people to go with lory's patch.

The earlier versions of this retranslation definitely left a lot to be desired. Rife with amateurish dialogue and grammatical errors, I didn't hold out much hope for this project succeeding at its stated goals. But now at version 6.0, it looks like they have actually made it there. The dialog is now polished to a mirror sheen, and flows far more naturally than in the original American release of PSIV.

One recommendation––avoid the "Working Designs" version. The readme does warn you what you're in for, but it's indeed a little too over-the-top and frequently strikes the wrong tone.

These patches here are something special. It's not often that authors are so attentive to details and the particular tastes of the fanbase in one single sweep: from script depth and breadth to smaller things like name preferences, these patches have you covered.

Whether you like a lighthearted, colorful script or something closer to vanilla (with much needed corrections in many instances) you'll find it here.

With such a fragmentary and divisive canon as Phantasy Star has, such contrasting dualities are necessary and well understood by the author, and indeed, it is the best way to play what is arguably the finest game in the franchise and one of the very best on the system.

It's impossible to return to vanilla standard now; wholeheartly recommended.

I played the original game near till the end and enjoyed it thoroughly, but always thought most dialogue was pretty bland and uninteresting.

We have this amazing universe with incredibly advanced technology, magic, monsters and whole lot of intriguing lore, but have to keep reading those boring lines.

I doubt what makes people love the classic series is the dialog. Unless you are a little kid you can't honestly say those dialogues are really good. They're serviceable. Be it because the developers were not good at writing dialogue, didn't have the time/budget, for hardware constraints or a combination of those.

This re-work of the script makes so that I (as an adult) can read the lines without getting bored.

To be quite frank, even the No-Joke script is not that interesting to read. But to each their own.

I got this patch because I wanted a translation that expanded on the very little that we got as well as making it more precise and interesting. I definitely got what I was looking for and I'm happy with it.

Thank you, GhaleonUnlimited.

My decision to not recommend is somewhat up to personal opinion, but I think that the tone of the re-translation is too jokey or inserts references that don't really fit with the world.

For example, at the start, Rudy (Chaz) and Alys talk about going to the Motavia Academy town and then talk about the students all being drunk (because college town). A little while later in town, Alys berates a NPC for not being a "partier" (yes that what Rudy says in game). Then makes a quip about how that poindexter probably couldn't even tap a keg. Seems really out of place.

Some text seems fine. However, it's very obvious when the translator put in their own flavor text. For that reason, I have to give this relocalization a pass even though the idea is sound. Translations for games were poor back when PSIV came out and it could use a new one. The addition of proper-case and bug fixes all in one patch is also great. If the modern references and tone shifts were taken out of the translation, this would be a good hack IMO.

I greatly prefer this to the original translation. All of the characters have much more emotion to them.

Alys feels much more like a older sister figure and mentor to Rudy, and teases him like an older sister would. The scene after getting the Psycho Staff is also much more emotional.

It is also much clearer with the romance between Rudy and Rika.

Rudy's reasons for being upset with Le Roof were also much better explained, and several story points better detailed.

The only negative that I had was the changed tech and skill names. They went from one nonsense name to another nonsense name. I know they are more in line with the other entries now, however this just made a new set of terms to learn, since very few of them are self explanatory. This is a minor complaint, though, and solved just by casting them once in battle.

Over-all a wonderful job.

The changes to the main character Alys's personality are for the worse. She was a strong confident commander in the original, now she's a rotten c*nt. Putting down everyone she comes across, name calling, berating and being a complete smart arse at every opportunity. You know how Joss Whedon's scripts are just full of way too many quips? how everyone is a comedian and it's really insufferable?, this is kinda like that, except really mean spirited. I do not want anything to do with this character anymore as she is now just awful.

Some of the jokes and references and humour that the NPC's and character sprout is completely out of place in the world of Phantasy Star, like NPC's calling someone an "emo kid". Does that mean that Earth's 1990's emo music is now part of the Phantasy Star canon?

Also I've run into some pretty bad bugs too - specifically if you use the party chat feature, the text box glitches out, and then the character portraits get stuck to the background graphics. You have to walk until they scroll off screen to get rid of them.

Honestly I'd stick with the original translation. The characters are much more human and aren't trying to be comedians or quippy every 5 seconds. Add some bug fixes or font rendering hacks if you like but this newly written dialogue is not suited to this type of game.