Play Phantasy Star (Brazil) Online

Phantasy Star on the Master System was way ahead of its time—this thing had first-person dungeons, a sci-fi/fantasy mashup world, and an actual female protagonist in 1988. You start as Alis, out for revenge after her brother gets killed, and the pixel art still holds up surprisingly well. Those dungeons? Brutal without graph paper, but weirdly satisfying once you get the hang of them.

What really got me was how much personality they crammed into 8-bit sprites—the towns feel alive, and some of the enemy designs are just gloriously weird. Yeah, the random battles will wreck you if you’re underleveled, but grinding feels worth it when you finally take down a boss that’s been stomping you for an hour. It’s one of those games where you can see the DNA of every JRPG that came after it.