Yuji Naka says Phantasy Star was "heavily inspired" by Star Wars

Coming from a Retro Gamer interview with Yuji Naka...

“Phantasy Star was all done on a huge scale. What we were trying to do was to create something on such a scale in a sci-fi setting, and it was heavily inspired by Star Wars. I’m proud that we managed to keep it very original. With the first game the main character was a female – at the time, we didn’t have a lot of games with a female character as the main character, which makes it a unique experience.”