"Whenever you release new hardware or equipment, users are going to have high expectations for it. For example, with the Sega Master System, the 3D dungeons in Phantasy Star probably grabbed a lot of attention for that reason. I know we’ve had a lot of requests to add the 3D dungeons back in for the Megadrive Phantasy Star games. However, players won’t be satisfied with SMS-era technology for the 3D dungeons in a Megadrive game, and it doesn’t make sense with our design plans either: everything has to be rotatable, floors, ceilings, etc, and that would take up far too much memory."

"Anyway, developments always have to be try push beyond what players expect. For that reason, we abandoned the idea of 3D for PSIV. The first games that were developed for the Megadrive, like Alex Kidd and Altered Beast, graphically speaking it’s kind of surprising now to look back and see how many flaws they have, but no one was used to developing for the Megadrive then. To be honest, it wasn’t until Phantasy Star II that we really became competent with the Megadrive’s capabilities—which is why, in that sense, that game had a very high level of technical polish."