Tales of Legendia

"Give It An Hour Or Two and You'll Fall In Love"

The Tales Series is an RPG brand from Namco. There have been many releases in Japan, but only a select few have came to the U.S. shores. Tales of Legendia is the second of the NGC, PS2 Tales games to come to the U.S. Did it live up to Tales of Symphonia? Read on...

Game Play

Tales of Legendia plays like a Beat em' up RPG. The battles take place on a 2-D field, and you run right or left. You use "X" for basic attacks which is an attack with your weapon.. And you use "O" and a directional button for a special attack called an "Eres". There are two types of Eres. An "Iron Eres" which is a physical attack. And an Eres called "Crystal Eres" which is a magic attack.

Enemies attack you with the same basic commands. Picture a fighting game like Street Fighters. You run around with three other A.I. controlled characters and kill monsters... This can get repetitive but once you get into more advanced techniques it gets more fun...

The Overland is a big ship called the Legacy. It has one main town that acts like the "Hub" of your adventure. And then you travel across the Legacy where there are many dungeons. It can get dull, you see a few forests and bridges... You don't see your enemies on the world map, instead you have random encounters...

After you get done with the main game there are Character Quests that will keep you into the game. They give you more information on the characters of the game and gives you 20 or so more hours of play time.

All and all the game play is your run-of-the-mill RPG... With a lemony 2-D twist.

Story

The story of "Tales of Legendia" is one of the best you can get for an RPG. It starts out really slow... But after an hour or so you will be hooked... It is not as epic as a Final Fantasy story... But is epic in its own way. It starts as the generic brother that is overprotective of his weird sister storyline. But then it starts it's own thing a little more into the game...

Characters

The characters are the best in any RPG I've played... You can hate one character then love him an hour later... And some you will be surprised what their intent is/was. If you play Tales of Legendia for any reason you'll play it for the characters.

Graphics

The graphics are mediocre. The in-game models are sub-standard. When a character is sleeping, you can still see there eyes! But you can see the anime influence... Every now and then there will be a conversation with anime busts of the characters talking... There are the famous emotions in there too... If you are an anime junkie, you'll love this game!

Sounds

The sound is well orchestrated. The song that plays when you first control Senel is one of the best in the game! And the other music is great too... But the main flaw is that there is no voice acting for the Character Quests! It bums me out because I enjoyed the voices. Another minor annoyance I found was the repetitive victory conversations... Every other one is either Senel doing push-ups or him and Chloe doing the 80's style pose... But they aren't bad enough for you to stop playing.

Replayability

After the main game and the character quests you unlock the Grade Shop... You can buy bonuses for your next playthrough... But they aren't worth it to play through it again...

Over View

All in all this is an alright game... It can get repetitive and boring in parts. But it won't make you hate it... If you are a fan of the old style Tales games, get it. But if you are into Tales of Symphonia and Tales of the Abyss. Stay away... Like I said, give it an hour or more before you trash it...

8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/05/07