Yapamadım beyler, olmadı. Güzel de başlamıştı ama yok; 15 saatten fazla bir süreyi hak etmeyecek kadar çeşitli ve derinlikte bir oyun sadece ama 50 saat olacak ve ırzına tükürdüğümün oyunu bitmiyor. Hadi uzunluğa sıkılarak katlanabilirim de; oyun ilerlemiyor. Plot çok oyalanıyor sürekli boş yere, hadi onu da geçtim; dungeon'lar çok kanser. Random encounter sıklıkları yüzünden nereye gideceğimi sürekli unuttuğumdan boş yere dolanmakla geçti en takıldığım dungeon'da. Ve o kadar ilerleme kaydederken oyun takıldı, son save'e dönmek zorunda kaldım oyunu yeniden başladım. Bu da saatlerce progress kaybı olunca "Agam ben iptalim yeter" oldum. Çünkü 1-2 kere gelmedi bu başıma sadece, aynı dungeon'da 3.kere oyun takıldı ve son save'e dönmek zorunda kalınca yine; bana geldiler.
Çok istedim bu oyunu bitirmek ve çok olmasa da istedim bu oyunu sevmek. Sevebilirdim de, eğer bitirebilseydim şu dungeon'larda takılmadan; "Oyun 15 saat sonra sıkıcı ama yine genel olarak fena oyun değil, daha iyi olabilirmiş ama canı sağ olsun, markanın ilk oyunu sonuçta" der geçerdim ve 3.5'i yapıştırırdım, iyi yönleri de var çünkü.
Ama şu anlık benden uzak olmasını istiyorum. Bir gün geri döneceğim çünkü yarım bırakmayı sevmem. Ama o gün bugün değil, ne zaman özlersem o vakit dönerim. Şimdilik akıl sağlığımı korumak için oyundan uzak kalmam gerekiyor.
Çok istedim bu oyunu bitirmek ve çok olmasa da istedim bu oyunu sevmek. Sevebilirdim de, eğer bitirebilseydim şu dungeon'larda takılmadan; "Oyun 15 saat sonra sıkıcı ama yine genel olarak fena oyun değil, daha iyi olabilirmiş ama canı sağ olsun, markanın ilk oyunu sonuçta" der geçerdim ve 3.5'i yapıştırırdım, iyi yönleri de var çünkü.
Ama şu anlık benden uzak olmasını istiyorum. Bir gün geri döneceğim çünkü yarım bırakmayı sevmem. Ama o gün bugün değil, ne zaman özlersem o vakit dönerim. Şimdilik akıl sağlığımı korumak için oyundan uzak kalmam gerekiyor.
I got with this because I thought it looked better than the GBA one by miles, idk for the SNES one yet.
Loved this to bits -- it's solid and excellent, in a subtle way. A few notes:
- This isn't Final Fantasy VII -- dungeons are numerous, mazey, long, and chock-full of random encounters. Multiple times the main story pauses until you go to two or three dungeons (in any order) to get the required plot tokens. This is bad if you see rpg dungeons as an unpleasant obstacle in the way of progressing the rpg story. But I loved the combat system, and I was in the mood for a classic, dungeon-y, meat-and-potatoes jrpg, so I had a really fun time.
- Small cast sizes are good! There are only six playable characters, and they all get plenty of time to shine throughout the story. I semi-recently played FF9 and Xenogears for the first time; both those games have much bigger casts, and both drop the ball with many of their characters. There are no Ricos or Freyas here, characters with a couple good scenes early on that have nothing to do otherwise. The skits, added in the PSX remake, obviously go a long way in helping me further connect with the characters. Their ending resolutions, and the extended pre-final dungeon scene in Early, cemented them in my heart as an all-time favorite rpg cast. (The excellent, playful writing in the Phantasian Productions patch also definitely helped.)
- The main villain is introduced in the first seconds of the game, and he stays the main villain for the entire story. There's no bait-and-switch, no big twist. There are two main act break setpieces, one about three hours in and one about twenty hours in, that each further establish the villain and develop your relationship with him. When I got to the finale and the full arc of his story was revealed to me, I was really moved. A big part of that is that they didn't pull a new villain out of their ass for the final boss -- this is Dhaos's story from start to finish as much as it is Cress and co.'s, and that's a rare feat for an RPG story.
The only other Tales game I've played is Vesperia, and it frustrated me because of its extremely long, sloppy story full of dropped threads and its very easy fighting. Phantasia was the perfect antidote -- it's more tightly focused, and the dramatic fights kicked my ass. I have a lot of friends that adore Tales; I'm really happy I found the right game to invite me into the series.
- This isn't Final Fantasy VII -- dungeons are numerous, mazey, long, and chock-full of random encounters. Multiple times the main story pauses until you go to two or three dungeons (in any order) to get the required plot tokens. This is bad if you see rpg dungeons as an unpleasant obstacle in the way of progressing the rpg story. But I loved the combat system, and I was in the mood for a classic, dungeon-y, meat-and-potatoes jrpg, so I had a really fun time.
- Small cast sizes are good! There are only six playable characters, and they all get plenty of time to shine throughout the story. I semi-recently played FF9 and Xenogears for the first time; both those games have much bigger casts, and both drop the ball with many of their characters. There are no Ricos or Freyas here, characters with a couple good scenes early on that have nothing to do otherwise. The skits, added in the PSX remake, obviously go a long way in helping me further connect with the characters. Their ending resolutions, and the extended pre-final dungeon scene in Early, cemented them in my heart as an all-time favorite rpg cast. (The excellent, playful writing in the Phantasian Productions patch also definitely helped.)
- The main villain is introduced in the first seconds of the game, and he stays the main villain for the entire story. There's no bait-and-switch, no big twist. There are two main act break setpieces, one about three hours in and one about twenty hours in, that each further establish the villain and develop your relationship with him. When I got to the finale and the full arc of his story was revealed to me, I was really moved. A big part of that is that they didn't pull a new villain out of their ass for the final boss -- this is Dhaos's story from start to finish as much as it is Cress and co.'s, and that's a rare feat for an RPG story.
The only other Tales game I've played is Vesperia, and it frustrated me because of its extremely long, sloppy story full of dropped threads and its very easy fighting. Phantasia was the perfect antidote -- it's more tightly focused, and the dramatic fights kicked my ass. I have a lot of friends that adore Tales; I'm really happy I found the right game to invite me into the series.
As I like the original version, I really liked this one also. Just the definitive way to play this game, improved on a number of things and fixed a few smaller issues as well. I guess this game just clicks for me. Played some of the optional stuff too.
A solid 6/10 old school JRPG when it's not doing something to actively piss me off. Unfortunately, it's doing something to actively piss me off about 80% of the time.
For whatever reason this game really clicked with me. It's not the most innovative RPG, but it's comfy. The story is as barebones as it can get for an RPG and only gets worse as the story progresses, with its second act not only being incredibly short and obviously underdeveloped but also having some issues with the narrative and difficulty.
It's quite a funny game at times, but can also be incredibly cringe-worthy, as it has some sexual jokes which are, as usual for a jRPG, delivered via one of two tropes: characters are so afraid of even mentions of opposite sex that they blush immediately and characters who act like Johnny Bravo. The latter in this game is also a 17 year old girl, and her wild remarks often feel more like someone's fetish than a joke. The game has good humor from time to time so I'm not sure where the funny is when a girl tries to hit on someone, talks in her dreams about sexual acts, or insinuates she's not a virgin. I don't know whether to be glad it doesn't come up often or be frustrated since it's so infrequent it feels out-of-character when it does happen.
Thankfully the game has a really beautiful art-style. In battle you'll be staring at very pretty pixel art of your party and enemies, while on the field you can access quick party talk that's presented a lot like MGS' Codec, complete with adorable mid-90s anime portraits. Some of said party talks are genuinely charming due to their PowerPoint-esque animation, even when the dialogue is as anime as it gets.
The biggest thing that separates it from other games in the genre is the battle system which allows you to walk on a 2D battlefield, reminiscent of Zelda II. However, there lies it's biggest weakness, too.
Tales of Phantasia for PS1 is only available with a fan-patch so it's likely you'll play it via an emulator, which is a really good decision. I think my opinion of it would be much, much lower if I couldn't press the speed up button at any time as the game REALLY needs it.
The battle system is interesting in theory, but in practice it's a mess. Throughout most of the game three of your party members will be mages who cast spells with long attack animations and who are often quite braindead: casting incredibly strong spells on weak enemies and AOE attacks onto a single foe. This slows the game WAY down and makes you hate your party members, as it'd be way faster to just stab any given enemy.
There are strategy menus and you can switch their spells on and off, but this feels like a bandaid on a fairly flawed system.
Turning spells off limits the offensive potential of mages, and trying to minmax it so that they'd only have spells for present enemy's weaknesses available will just mean you'll spend more time in menus than most any jRPG out there, and certainly WAY more than I'd expect from a game with action-y nature.
In the end, I would rather choose attacks and spells from a turn-based menu, as it guarantees me immediate satisfaction of hitting an enemy, rather than switch between spells and occasionally order my mages to perform them while stopping what's supposed to be action where I can freely control myself.
Frankly, the biggest fix would be to make party members smarter: let them do correct spells for groups and utilize weaknesses once you discover them. I honestly don't know why the spectacles item which reveals HP and stats of the enemy can't automatically "fix" mages into performing right magic.
It's not so much a resource issue, as this game's equivalent of MP recharges on its own after battle and it's never expensive to replenish, but it's time consuming and frustrating.
However, despite it's simple story that's not even worth mentioning, some cringy dialogue and really messed up battle system with which I started interacting only via the fast-forward feature, I've enjoyed my time with this title. I've pretty much binged through the first part. And while the second had some issues with its difficulty spikes and the final boss who I've only killed by getting him stuck in the corner (despite having NO issues with preceeding dungeon), I get that. It's the first title in the series, some jank is expected.
It's quite a funny game at times, but can also be incredibly cringe-worthy, as it has some sexual jokes which are, as usual for a jRPG, delivered via one of two tropes: characters are so afraid of even mentions of opposite sex that they blush immediately and characters who act like Johnny Bravo. The latter in this game is also a 17 year old girl, and her wild remarks often feel more like someone's fetish than a joke. The game has good humor from time to time so I'm not sure where the funny is when a girl tries to hit on someone, talks in her dreams about sexual acts, or insinuates she's not a virgin. I don't know whether to be glad it doesn't come up often or be frustrated since it's so infrequent it feels out-of-character when it does happen.
Thankfully the game has a really beautiful art-style. In battle you'll be staring at very pretty pixel art of your party and enemies, while on the field you can access quick party talk that's presented a lot like MGS' Codec, complete with adorable mid-90s anime portraits. Some of said party talks are genuinely charming due to their PowerPoint-esque animation, even when the dialogue is as anime as it gets.
The biggest thing that separates it from other games in the genre is the battle system which allows you to walk on a 2D battlefield, reminiscent of Zelda II. However, there lies it's biggest weakness, too.
Tales of Phantasia for PS1 is only available with a fan-patch so it's likely you'll play it via an emulator, which is a really good decision. I think my opinion of it would be much, much lower if I couldn't press the speed up button at any time as the game REALLY needs it.
The battle system is interesting in theory, but in practice it's a mess. Throughout most of the game three of your party members will be mages who cast spells with long attack animations and who are often quite braindead: casting incredibly strong spells on weak enemies and AOE attacks onto a single foe. This slows the game WAY down and makes you hate your party members, as it'd be way faster to just stab any given enemy.
There are strategy menus and you can switch their spells on and off, but this feels like a bandaid on a fairly flawed system.
Turning spells off limits the offensive potential of mages, and trying to minmax it so that they'd only have spells for present enemy's weaknesses available will just mean you'll spend more time in menus than most any jRPG out there, and certainly WAY more than I'd expect from a game with action-y nature.
In the end, I would rather choose attacks and spells from a turn-based menu, as it guarantees me immediate satisfaction of hitting an enemy, rather than switch between spells and occasionally order my mages to perform them while stopping what's supposed to be action where I can freely control myself.
Frankly, the biggest fix would be to make party members smarter: let them do correct spells for groups and utilize weaknesses once you discover them. I honestly don't know why the spectacles item which reveals HP and stats of the enemy can't automatically "fix" mages into performing right magic.
It's not so much a resource issue, as this game's equivalent of MP recharges on its own after battle and it's never expensive to replenish, but it's time consuming and frustrating.
However, despite it's simple story that's not even worth mentioning, some cringy dialogue and really messed up battle system with which I started interacting only via the fast-forward feature, I've enjoyed my time with this title. I've pretty much binged through the first part. And while the second had some issues with its difficulty spikes and the final boss who I've only killed by getting him stuck in the corner (despite having NO issues with preceeding dungeon), I get that. It's the first title in the series, some jank is expected.
I played this with my brother and I always did arche's spin attack to swag on the enemies. Good game and klarth is my favourite guy. Also the luna sprite is lit
While this game has a mostly great cast and fun plot, the combat can feel a bit repetitive.
Was my first old school JRPG and i have a lot of fun, going to be playing all of the tales of games now.
Super cool game with a cute graphical style and an addictive battle system. Wolf Team absolutely had something big on their hands when they developed this game and the success of the Tales Of series really shows. It does a lot more legwork than many of its contemporaries from a narrative POV, possibly owing to the fact that it was adapted from a developer's idea for a novel.
This review contains spoilers
O jogo definitivamente é nichado, com certeza não recomendaria esse ser o primeiro jogo para ninguém que quer começar a jogar a série Tales.
A história é bem apresentada com uma boa progressão, certas coisas você pode até perder (exemplificando o meu caso, onde eu quase "perdi" uma personagem, Suzu, na qual você precisa entrar no colisseu para conseguir liberar ela em sua party), e outras você não espera de fato.
Os skits, que é algo conhecido já da série, surge nesse jogo e de fato aumentam bastante o vínculo do player com os personagens
O combate pode ser um pé no saco, já que muitas vezes os dois magos vão jogar uma magia e ficar parando a tela de tempos e tempos e isso fica acumulando até não dar mais, fazendo as batalhas se estenderem bastante.
No geral, se você já é um fã de Tales of é um bom jogo para você entender as referencias que são feitas nos próximos jogos (pelo menos é o que dizem só joguei 2 até o momento da review) e se você é aberto a experiênciar jogos antigos ou fã disso.
A história é bem apresentada com uma boa progressão, certas coisas você pode até perder (exemplificando o meu caso, onde eu quase "perdi" uma personagem, Suzu, na qual você precisa entrar no colisseu para conseguir liberar ela em sua party), e outras você não espera de fato.
Os skits, que é algo conhecido já da série, surge nesse jogo e de fato aumentam bastante o vínculo do player com os personagens
O combate pode ser um pé no saco, já que muitas vezes os dois magos vão jogar uma magia e ficar parando a tela de tempos e tempos e isso fica acumulando até não dar mais, fazendo as batalhas se estenderem bastante.
No geral, se você já é um fã de Tales of é um bom jogo para você entender as referencias que são feitas nos próximos jogos (pelo menos é o que dizem só joguei 2 até o momento da review) e se você é aberto a experiênciar jogos antigos ou fã disso.
This review contains spoilers
MUITO DIFICIL MAS GOSTEI
Game Review - originally written by Spinner 8
Most people walked away from the SNES Tales of Phantasia thinking it a great, but somewhat flawed, game. This Playstation ground-up remake has improved graphics and music, as well as an updated Tales of Destiny battle engine. And it has anime at the beginning which is very pretty!
(editor's note: "Mint has that quiet elegance to her but I bet Arche fucks like a tiger" yes I know that's from the SNES version but I had to say it)
Most people walked away from the SNES Tales of Phantasia thinking it a great, but somewhat flawed, game. This Playstation ground-up remake has improved graphics and music, as well as an updated Tales of Destiny battle engine. And it has anime at the beginning which is very pretty!
(editor's note: "Mint has that quiet elegance to her but I bet Arche fucks like a tiger" yes I know that's from the SNES version but I had to say it)
My favorite tales game. Cless is the goat and the intro slaps
This review contains spoilers
I have no idea what it is about this game, but something just clicked the moment I started playing it and it had me HOOKED. I've played a number of other JRPGs from around the same time Phantasia released and this is absolutely one of my favourites of the bunch.
The main story itself isn't anything revolutionary, in fact it's pretty generic, but there is something about the characters and how they interact with the world and the people around them that, to me, feels so unique for games of this era. I think the inclusion of skits in the open world definitely helped with developing the party and their relationships with one another in a really effective way that didn't require any tedious sidequesting or optional exploration to unlock.
I was honestly caught off guard by the game's main antagonist and how much I adored him. Dhaos, much like the main party, has so much more depth than I was expecting going into this game. I loved the parallels between his own quest to save his homeland and that of our protagonists. His goals were noble but so poorly executed, and the conclusion to his story was tragic because throughout the game he was presented as a villain, yes, but one that under other circumstances could have been a powerful ally.
I think the game stumbles in places for sure, especially in the latter half. The combat grows a bit stale after a couple dozen hours and the reused/recoloured enemy models that are used throughout the last couple of dungeons don't help with keeping battles all that engaging. I also found the unskippable magic animations to be incredibly frustrating as they slowed a lot of fights down to a crawl. I also think that the ending could have been improved slightly if we got to actually see flashbacks of Dhaos' backstory or even if we had him tell us his story himself before he died instead of the hard cut to the party standing by Yggdrasil which was pretty jarring.
All in all though, this was a fantastic introduction to the Tales of series and I'm so glad that I decided to start from the beginning instead of with the newer releases. I'm excited to see what's in store for me if this is the foundation that the series was built off of!
The main story itself isn't anything revolutionary, in fact it's pretty generic, but there is something about the characters and how they interact with the world and the people around them that, to me, feels so unique for games of this era. I think the inclusion of skits in the open world definitely helped with developing the party and their relationships with one another in a really effective way that didn't require any tedious sidequesting or optional exploration to unlock.
I was honestly caught off guard by the game's main antagonist and how much I adored him. Dhaos, much like the main party, has so much more depth than I was expecting going into this game. I loved the parallels between his own quest to save his homeland and that of our protagonists. His goals were noble but so poorly executed, and the conclusion to his story was tragic because throughout the game he was presented as a villain, yes, but one that under other circumstances could have been a powerful ally.
I think the game stumbles in places for sure, especially in the latter half. The combat grows a bit stale after a couple dozen hours and the reused/recoloured enemy models that are used throughout the last couple of dungeons don't help with keeping battles all that engaging. I also found the unskippable magic animations to be incredibly frustrating as they slowed a lot of fights down to a crawl. I also think that the ending could have been improved slightly if we got to actually see flashbacks of Dhaos' backstory or even if we had him tell us his story himself before he died instead of the hard cut to the party standing by Yggdrasil which was pretty jarring.
All in all though, this was a fantastic introduction to the Tales of series and I'm so glad that I decided to start from the beginning instead of with the newer releases. I'm excited to see what's in store for me if this is the foundation that the series was built off of!
EL INICIO DE UNOS CUENTOS LEGENDARIOS
Tras el boom de Dragon Quest, todas las compañías japonesas deseaban tener su trozo de pastel creando su propio juego de ese género nombrado como JRPG. Squaresoft con Final Fantasy, SEGA con Phantasy Star, Nintendo con Earthbound, Capcom con Breath of Fire y Konami lanzó el mismo año que este juego el primer Suikoden.
En los últimos años de vida de la Super Famicom, Namco decidió crear su propia saga JRPG contratando a Wolfteam. Sin embargo, debido a diferencias creativas, el equipo se disolvió en medio del desarrollo, una parte fundó Tri Ace y con las ideas descartadas del juego que querían crear hicieron el primer Star Ocean, la otra se quedó con Namco para crear el Namco Tales Studio y acabar ese JRPG que la compañía quería.
De esta curiosa historia nació Tales of Phantasia. Un juego que se desmarcaba de absolutamente todos sus competidores, ofreciendo un estilo artístico único y precioso, una increíble banda sonora de manos de un maestro como es Motoi Sakuraba, un apartado sonoro espectacular con el uso de voces digitalizadas en un juego de Super Famicom, opening cantado y un sistema de combate propio, Linear Motion Battle System, combinando aspectos action RPG, tácticos y de juego de lucha.
Detalles que hicieron de Tales of Phantasia un absoluto clásico y el inicio de una de las sagas más queridas, conocidas e importantes del género JRPG, no obstante, no hay que negar que los años y el hecho de ser la primera entrega principal le pesan un poco a la versión original de Famicom.
Por suerte, Namco notó esto y decidió hacerle un Remake para la primera PlayStation con muchas mejoras, extras, añadidos y arreglos.
Si su versión para Famicom y Tales of Destiny eran las semillas y raíces de la saga, este Remake es el primer brote que salió y que se acabaría convirtiendo en un árbol. Primer Tales of con mapamundi 3D, primer Tales of con skits, primer Tales of donde podías combear ataques normales. Todos los diálogos de las skits y de las batallas grabados, sprites redibujados para que coincidan con los artes conceptuales del juego, más rápido y cómodo jugablemente y en ratio de encuentros aleatorios, mayor número de elementos 3D que en Destiny, añadido de Suzu Fujibayashi como personaje jugable, música de mejor calidad incluyendo una nueva versión del tema principal de Super Famicom, y escenas anime.
A falta de jugar la versión de PSP, la mejor versión de este clásico por ahora.
No te pierdas la oportunidad de vivir el primer cuento y conocer la aventura de Cless, Chester, Mint, Klarth y Arche en su periplo para detener al poderoso hechicero Dhaos a través del tiempo y el espacio en esta oscura historia de guerra.
Tras el boom de Dragon Quest, todas las compañías japonesas deseaban tener su trozo de pastel creando su propio juego de ese género nombrado como JRPG. Squaresoft con Final Fantasy, SEGA con Phantasy Star, Nintendo con Earthbound, Capcom con Breath of Fire y Konami lanzó el mismo año que este juego el primer Suikoden.
En los últimos años de vida de la Super Famicom, Namco decidió crear su propia saga JRPG contratando a Wolfteam. Sin embargo, debido a diferencias creativas, el equipo se disolvió en medio del desarrollo, una parte fundó Tri Ace y con las ideas descartadas del juego que querían crear hicieron el primer Star Ocean, la otra se quedó con Namco para crear el Namco Tales Studio y acabar ese JRPG que la compañía quería.
De esta curiosa historia nació Tales of Phantasia. Un juego que se desmarcaba de absolutamente todos sus competidores, ofreciendo un estilo artístico único y precioso, una increíble banda sonora de manos de un maestro como es Motoi Sakuraba, un apartado sonoro espectacular con el uso de voces digitalizadas en un juego de Super Famicom, opening cantado y un sistema de combate propio, Linear Motion Battle System, combinando aspectos action RPG, tácticos y de juego de lucha.
Detalles que hicieron de Tales of Phantasia un absoluto clásico y el inicio de una de las sagas más queridas, conocidas e importantes del género JRPG, no obstante, no hay que negar que los años y el hecho de ser la primera entrega principal le pesan un poco a la versión original de Famicom.
Por suerte, Namco notó esto y decidió hacerle un Remake para la primera PlayStation con muchas mejoras, extras, añadidos y arreglos.
Si su versión para Famicom y Tales of Destiny eran las semillas y raíces de la saga, este Remake es el primer brote que salió y que se acabaría convirtiendo en un árbol. Primer Tales of con mapamundi 3D, primer Tales of con skits, primer Tales of donde podías combear ataques normales. Todos los diálogos de las skits y de las batallas grabados, sprites redibujados para que coincidan con los artes conceptuales del juego, más rápido y cómodo jugablemente y en ratio de encuentros aleatorios, mayor número de elementos 3D que en Destiny, añadido de Suzu Fujibayashi como personaje jugable, música de mejor calidad incluyendo una nueva versión del tema principal de Super Famicom, y escenas anime.
A falta de jugar la versión de PSP, la mejor versión de este clásico por ahora.
No te pierdas la oportunidad de vivir el primer cuento y conocer la aventura de Cless, Chester, Mint, Klarth y Arche en su periplo para detener al poderoso hechicero Dhaos a través del tiempo y el espacio en esta oscura historia de guerra.
I’m not gonna sugarcoat it, I’ve been going through an incredibly rough time recently, and it almost did not end well. So I’m gonna talk about a game that helped me through a really rough spot.
This is Tales of Phantasia, released for the SNES (Super Nintendo Entertainment System) in 1995, although it wouldn’t release here until 2006 for the Game Boy Advance. I don’t know how many people are familiar with the Tales series, it’s mostly known outside of Japan for the games Berseria and Arise, but it started with this game. This is a very special game for a multitude of reasons. It was the first game of it’s time to have full-voice acting, in addition to a combat system called the Linear Motion Battle System, which is kinda like a fighting game as you play on a linear plane with a focus on combos. You can switch your attacks on the fly and even switch characters while playing, in general it’s a very unique system and felt really fast-paced and fun. There are also plenty of things outside of the main game. You can find secrets all over the overworld, sidequests that help flesh out the world and characters, and additional weapons and gear that can help you later in the game, it’s even better if you’re planning on replaying the game multiple times!
In terms of the story I was expecting something really cliched and basic but for a game from 1995 it’s actually really intractate, dealing with a lot of mature topics such as mass genocide, found family, racism, discrimination, existentialism, long-distance relationships, and more. The story is about Cress Albane and his friend Chester Burklight, who one day after a hunting trip find their village has been destroyed by bandits and their entire families killed, yes even the children which becomes a pivotal part in Chester’s arc to avenge his sister. Cress will have to go on a journey to become more than he is, he’s a wonderful character who experiences a lot of growth and maturity throughout the game and I loved his arc especially how he aspires to become an even greater swordsman than his father and his personal journey to make that a reality. Other characters include the claric, Mint Adenine, who struggles with post-traumatic stress and aspires to be as good of a healer as her mother, a great parallel to Cress’s journey, the summoner Claus, who initially starts as a very immature and childish researcher who matures into a leader and deals with a long-distance relationship with his colleague, the half-elf Arche Klein, who faces racism and discrimination for being a half-elf, and Suzu Fujibayashi, a shinobi from the future struggling with the loss of her parents. Together they must defeat the evil Dhaos, who threatens to endanger their world. I found all these characters to just be wonderful, they all grow together and feel so much like a family in spite of everything that they go through. Dhaos is also a fantastic villain, whose looming presence is felt through the entire game.
In short, Tales of Phantasia is a magical journey that brought me back to what I really love about videogames. I love the atmosphere which reminds me of the dark fantasy movies and books I read in my youth, such as Princess Bride, the Hobbit, or Labyrinth. It really helped make me feel good about myself again after such a difficult time. I still have a long way to go, but I cannot thank the game enough for how it helped me. I recommend this to anyone looking for a classic role-playing experience.
This is Tales of Phantasia, released for the SNES (Super Nintendo Entertainment System) in 1995, although it wouldn’t release here until 2006 for the Game Boy Advance. I don’t know how many people are familiar with the Tales series, it’s mostly known outside of Japan for the games Berseria and Arise, but it started with this game. This is a very special game for a multitude of reasons. It was the first game of it’s time to have full-voice acting, in addition to a combat system called the Linear Motion Battle System, which is kinda like a fighting game as you play on a linear plane with a focus on combos. You can switch your attacks on the fly and even switch characters while playing, in general it’s a very unique system and felt really fast-paced and fun. There are also plenty of things outside of the main game. You can find secrets all over the overworld, sidequests that help flesh out the world and characters, and additional weapons and gear that can help you later in the game, it’s even better if you’re planning on replaying the game multiple times!
In terms of the story I was expecting something really cliched and basic but for a game from 1995 it’s actually really intractate, dealing with a lot of mature topics such as mass genocide, found family, racism, discrimination, existentialism, long-distance relationships, and more. The story is about Cress Albane and his friend Chester Burklight, who one day after a hunting trip find their village has been destroyed by bandits and their entire families killed, yes even the children which becomes a pivotal part in Chester’s arc to avenge his sister. Cress will have to go on a journey to become more than he is, he’s a wonderful character who experiences a lot of growth and maturity throughout the game and I loved his arc especially how he aspires to become an even greater swordsman than his father and his personal journey to make that a reality. Other characters include the claric, Mint Adenine, who struggles with post-traumatic stress and aspires to be as good of a healer as her mother, a great parallel to Cress’s journey, the summoner Claus, who initially starts as a very immature and childish researcher who matures into a leader and deals with a long-distance relationship with his colleague, the half-elf Arche Klein, who faces racism and discrimination for being a half-elf, and Suzu Fujibayashi, a shinobi from the future struggling with the loss of her parents. Together they must defeat the evil Dhaos, who threatens to endanger their world. I found all these characters to just be wonderful, they all grow together and feel so much like a family in spite of everything that they go through. Dhaos is also a fantastic villain, whose looming presence is felt through the entire game.
In short, Tales of Phantasia is a magical journey that brought me back to what I really love about videogames. I love the atmosphere which reminds me of the dark fantasy movies and books I read in my youth, such as Princess Bride, the Hobbit, or Labyrinth. It really helped make me feel good about myself again after such a difficult time. I still have a long way to go, but I cannot thank the game enough for how it helped me. I recommend this to anyone looking for a classic role-playing experience.
Just a great start of a franchise and this port/remake just makes it so much better. The plot may be kinda straightforward, but the way it's built and the little plot twists makes it so special and the cast of characters I think is one of the strongest to this day.
The skits added on this one adds a whole level of characterization, but even without it you can notice and get to love them by the way they are portrayed and their evolution, how each one have their own purpose and some personal objective.
Sadly it doesn't get the same kind of attention some of the new entries got, the newest remakes weren't localized, the game didn't get a new remake like some other games from this era got like Mana and so on.. but it's really a special game that every Tales of fan should try.
The skits added on this one adds a whole level of characterization, but even without it you can notice and get to love them by the way they are portrayed and their evolution, how each one have their own purpose and some personal objective.
Sadly it doesn't get the same kind of attention some of the new entries got, the newest remakes weren't localized, the game didn't get a new remake like some other games from this era got like Mana and so on.. but it's really a special game that every Tales of fan should try.
Was really surprised by this one. Was a little put-off by the combat style early on, but as the game went on the gameplay got better and better. A truly dense game, with lots of optional areas, skills, summons, etc. The story, while a little nonsensical, was engaging and felt like it ramped at a pretty decent pace. The characters were fun and extremely different skill-wise, and the environments and overworld were fun to explore. Had a blast playing this game!
Very hard difficulty spikes
Review transferred from the SNES page that had the Playstation version listed as the same game: this is in fact a remake that overhauls the graphics and adds significant content.
Tales of Phantasia could've been something absolutely special, but production setbacks and publisher demands caused 2/3rds of the game to be cut, and what's left is perfectly adequate, but ultimately "just another JRPG".
The story is incredibly standard, as are the characters, but they all have solid, if generic, personality to them. The gameplay is much like your standard JRPG: overworld, towns, random encounters, levelling, buying equipment, dungeons full of loot, yada yada.
Where the game stands apart from its contemporary competitors is the battle system, which is real-time, but still has some kinda turn-based elements such as giving commands to your party to use their abilities, ranging from magic, to summons, to fancy arrow-shooting. Thanks, Chester. It controls a little stiff and it doesn't help that you don't get manual control over your protagonist, Cless, until a fair few hours in. There's room for potential here, but the spell animations are very slow and can't be skipped or sped up.
It's a very simple and lighthearted JRPG that'll last 40 hours if you do some of the side content, I had intended to do all but some of them are beyond frustrating, and I wouldn't recommend actually trying to 100% this game.
Phantasia represents Tales as a whole: it's perfectly competent, but it doesn't offer much unique to itself.
Tales of Phantasia could've been something absolutely special, but production setbacks and publisher demands caused 2/3rds of the game to be cut, and what's left is perfectly adequate, but ultimately "just another JRPG".
The story is incredibly standard, as are the characters, but they all have solid, if generic, personality to them. The gameplay is much like your standard JRPG: overworld, towns, random encounters, levelling, buying equipment, dungeons full of loot, yada yada.
Where the game stands apart from its contemporary competitors is the battle system, which is real-time, but still has some kinda turn-based elements such as giving commands to your party to use their abilities, ranging from magic, to summons, to fancy arrow-shooting. Thanks, Chester. It controls a little stiff and it doesn't help that you don't get manual control over your protagonist, Cless, until a fair few hours in. There's room for potential here, but the spell animations are very slow and can't be skipped or sped up.
It's a very simple and lighthearted JRPG that'll last 40 hours if you do some of the side content, I had intended to do all but some of them are beyond frustrating, and I wouldn't recommend actually trying to 100% this game.
Phantasia represents Tales as a whole: it's perfectly competent, but it doesn't offer much unique to itself.
いつまでたっても比べられ続けちゃうスタート地点。でもそれだけの熱量と世界があってこそ。