Fantasy Zone II (1987) | Wranker 4K Master System Real Hardware Playthrough | Retrotink 4K

Full playthrough of Fantasy Zone II, released in 1987 for the Master System. In a rare occurrence, this was in fact the original Fantasy Zone II, with it being ported to the arcade using the Sega 16 arcade board a year later. This was unusual as the porting process was usually done the other way round.
Fantasy Zone II plays much like the original game, with some tweaks in gameplay, including warp zones, and stationary shops the player can visit at anytime. The story once again follows Opa-Opa, fighting against the Menon forces, set 10 years after the first battle.
This really is a fantastic series, with this being my favourite. The visuals produced by the 8-bit system are remarkable, and much like the other entries, the controls are so tight. There is certainly a step up in difficulty from the first installment, but this is off-set with revisitable shops, and with visiting the shops clearing the screen, it's a mechanic I unapologetically took advantage of.
Fantasy Zone II was one of the titles that made use of the Yamaha YM2413 sound chip, producing FM sound. In a rare change, I have used the FM sound rather than the standard PSG the Master System natively outputs. I used it here, and in Vigilante, and I got to be honest, I'm not a fan. It has strange distortion effect when the sound gets intense (bosses are the best example), and I personally prefer the chip tune sound of PSG. I will mix and match, but in future, I will mainly be playing the games without the enhancement. Let me know your thoughts in the comments as I am interested in the consensus.
This channel is used to upload gameplay footage used in my retrospectives. If you are interested in lengthy, in-depth reviews of retro games, check out my main channel @TheCriticalWranker
#gaming #retrogaming #gameplay
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*******Timestamps*******
Stage 1 00:01:07
Stage 2 00:04:30
Stage 3 00:09:43
Stage 4 00:17:31
Stage 5 00:23:59
Stage 6 00:30:20
Stage 7 00:38:15
Boss Rush 00:45:28
Final Boss 00:46:45
Ending 00:47:38
******* Notes on this Video *******
This playthrough was captured on a VA1, Asian, Model 1 Megadrive fitted with a Master Base Converter. I have modded the console with a custom RGB Triple Bypass to remove noise and the dreaded jailbars. This is arguably the best picture output possible from any Megadrive/Genesis. The VA1's are hard to find, so if you are a creator, and need any footage for a video, contact me, and I'll sort it out for you.
The gameplay was integer scaled and correctly clocked with the RetroTink 4K, recorded in 4K using the M.2 Avermedia 4K Live Gamer capture card, both great bits of equipment, highly recommended for retro game enthusiasts.
I upload these playthroughs, mainly for real hardware footage preservation, which is why I use no watermarks or overlays and record the footage in integer scaled 4:3. Feel free to use it as you wish, all I ask, is you don't just reupload it in full. Credit to my main channel would be greatly appreciated, but not required. UA-cam, obviously bit-crushes video and audio while compressing, so if you want the raw footage of this video, contact me.
******* PC used for capture *******
Ryzen 9 7950 X3D Processor
Asus ROG X670e Extreme Motherboard
Geforce RTX4090 24GB
128GB DDR5 RAM
Avermedia 4K Live Gamer PCI-e Capture Card
Minor editing done using Adobe Premiere