Tales of Legendia

"Characters Development > Battles > Extras (Twice the Version, Twice the Review)"

-Tales of Legendia (JPN & ENG)-
This review is based on both the Japanese and English version. To help distinguish the difference between the two versions, italics paragraphs will be used for the English-specific opinionated portion of the review AND "ENG"/"JPN" will be used to help differentiate between the two versions in ratings. If neither "ENG" or "JPN" is stated, the Grade/Breakdown is related to both versions.

-PLOT- [09]
{Breakdown JPN: Main Plot- B, Character Plot- A, NPCs- A}
{Breakdown ENG: Main Plot- B, Character Plot- C, NPCs- C}
What makes this 15 chapters game interesting is the way the game is split into two halves: Main Storyline (Chapter 01-07) & Character Quests (Chapters 08-15). The Main Storyline is the first half of the game, about Senel and Shirley on an ancient ship known as Legacy. After beating the main storyline, you'll be playing the second half of the game "Character Quests"; storylines about the other 6 characters in your party.

Don't be fooled though, the "Character Quests" is NOT a side-quest or anything. It gives the whole spotlight to that specific character, thus the game can learn more about him/her (hence a greater development). Saying so, you should consider the Main Storyline as "Senel + Shirley's Character Quest" since the Main Storyline is focused on those two character specifically.

The main storyline's plot itself is average and similar for a Tales game, but the main catch is the Character Quests. This allows to deeply give detailed persona about the characters which rpgs lacked these days. Even the npc, Mimmy Bread, the latest Wonder Bread/Cook has a great personality and short "plot" if you view all her cutscenes. This is definitely something you don't see in the other Tales game (and other rpgs). Mimmy Bread is definitely the best Wonder Bread/Cook in all Tales thanks to such personality and extremely amusing cutscenes. *Does the Mimmy dance*

If you haven't seen any crazy introduction for a NPC, check out the Pheromone Bombers... it is just shocking.. and fun. More of a reason how the developers show the amount of time used to spend on character developments.

Unfortunately for Mimi Baker (the ENG counterpart to Mimmy Bread), she is not voiced. Luckily the Bantam Bouncers (counterpart to Pheromone Bombers) is voiced. What hurts even more is the fact the Characters Quest (unlike the Japanese version) is NOT voiced at all.

-GAMEPLAY- [07]
{Breakdown: Difficulty- C, Battle System- C, Puzzles- A, Control- B}
The difficulty in this game is extremely odd. For the main storyline (1st half of the game), the enemies are just plain too EASY. It takes nearly no skill to win at all since most enemies barely hurt you. All you do is gun-ho (full offense) for the win, BUT bosses do prove to be a challenge though, so don't let your guard down.

For the 2nd half of the game, the normal enemies suddenly gain a huge difficulty boost. Enemies can hurt you if you play too carelessly, bosses actually are a threat if you don't block or play carelessly. Near the end of the game, normal enemies gets EXTREMELY TEDIOUS and ANNOYING. Unless you have Extreme Symbol (attack up greatly, defense down greatly), you'll be dealing 3000-5000 damage in combos on normal enemies who may have around 30,000 to 60,000+ HPs (plus gives low experiences). This is NOT fun which may result in running away from battle or using Light Bottles to avoid less encounters.

It's interesting the difficulty is set like this. I assume that the 1st half is aimed toward new players to get used to the game, while the challenges is for the 2nd half of the game. It's about 20-40 hours average per half (main and characters story), so expect around 40 to 80 hours of average gameplay for the full game (even longer for completing Collector's Book).

ToL is back to using random encounter as it's system. Unfortunately, the battle system in this game is pretty much "basic" (meaning it goes back to it's old school days of ToP, ToD, ToD2, ToE fighting) and doesn't contain much new factors. Using normal attacks along with the control pad will help determine the angle you're attacking (up+attack is good against flying monsters, down+attack is good against small monsters). Skill are set on your "X" button (O for the ENG version) which you can set up to 4 skills (up+x, down+x, left/right+x, x) and finally L2 and R2 can be set for 2 more of your own skills or skills to tell your allies to use it. Blocking is "Square" button and "Triangle" button is to open up the menu for additional options such as tactical and using items.

Technique skills are learned by two requirements: Usage and Level. The higher level you are the more techniques you can learn. Using skills to the max of 50 usage may unlock a higher branch of two particular skills. For example, use Majinken (Demon Fang) 50 times plus Chirisazame (Sword Rain) 50 times and you'll unlock a combination of these two skills known as "Shuu Majinken" (Sword Rain Demon). Now you can combo from Chirisazame (Sword Rain) to Shuu Majinken to preform a high hitting damaging combo. Simple to understand and nothing complex about the techniques system.

There are a three new features which makes melee fighters so good in ToL's battle system. The first feature actually applies to all your characters. Hitting down on your control pad in front of an enemy will allow you to "pass through"; allowing you to go behind the enemy thus avoiding it's attacks or going to another enemy.

The second feature is throwing. This ability is available to Senel, the main character who uses hand-to-hand type melee attacks. When an enemy is knocked down, which happens often, Senel can pick up the enemy and throw them assuming the right skill is equipped. This deals major damage to the enemy but also it allows you to injure any other enemies that's being thrown on.

Last, the 3rd feature is the new Climax Mode. Similar to Tales of Symphonia's Unison Bar, you build up the Climax bar by dealing damage (extremely little gain) or taking damage (the more damage received the greater the gain). Hit L1 to activate Climax Mode when it's full and it'll freeze time, allowing you to deal unlimited attacks during that duration. If you hit L1 again during Climax Mode, you'll activate the Climax finisher which deals one huge damage. Climax mode has a huge advantage over Symphonia's Unison system since it allows you to go full bash-fest dealing thousands of damage for that duration. Sadly, the Climax Finisher is always the same generic look regardless of the party members used (unlike Symphonia's Compound Unison finisher).

Spell skills in this game is either a good or bad thing, depending on the point of view on which character you use. For all characters, it's horrible to use in terms of combos. Most if not all of the spells will either cause two effects: 1) pops the enemy into the air or 2) cause a knockdown. Neither is a good thing when you're in the middle of a high combo and a spell ruin it. But the good point for these spell's effect is that it provides a breather to help reorganize your battle tactics AND/OR allow Senel to go on a massive throwing spree (again, providing you have the correct throwing skill equipped). Overall, spells in this game isn't as effective nor as "pretty". Indignation is pathetic with weak damage and ugly looks. Ray looks more like a colorful-indignation but lack the damage and combo ability. Tidal Wave looks great but juggles the enemies out of the screen (or knockdown) which makes it hard to combo off it at all. The ONLY spell which seems to be the best, IMHO, is Blizzard. Blizzard hits full screen (thus all enemies), can stagger monsters (stopping their casting) and extremely combo-friendly. All in all, spells is decent for the 1st half of the game but the last half isn't as effective at all (low magic damage vs high HP from monsters).

Spell skills, unfortunately, have two requirements: Level and Sculptures (Eres Stones in the ENG version). While gaining the spell from leveling is easy, gaining required sculptures is not. Without meeting both requirements, you may NOT use the spell. Sculptures/Eres-Stones are dropped from enemies (chance of drop depends on the enemy) and each spell requires two different types of monsters sculptures. For example, the spell Ray for Norma requires 862 Lizard Sculptures and 530 Mandrake Sculptures. This may seem a lot to gain, but luckily the amount dropped can range from 100 or more, depending on the monster and chance rate. This can be simple or tedious depending on your luck. There was one part I could finally get a chance to get this particular sculpture to activate and use Volt Arrow (Thunder Arrow) spell. Unfortunately, I didn't get any sculpture/eres-stones to drop at all during that whole event. Thus, I was lucked out in not able to use it till hours later into the game, when I was finally able to fight those type of monsters again. That was very frustrating.

Remember, in ToL, when an enemy (or you characters) is knocked down, they can not be hurt at all by either attacks or spells. The only way damage can be inflicted during a downed is by being thrown.

Enemies in this game is generic, in terms of the same model being used all the time (different coloring or different status to make the monster different). As stated, they are pretty much weak and easy killing on the 1st half, but 2nd half of the game it can be a challenge. Sadly I hate some of the enemies in this game. Flying enemies, extremely small enemies and "starfish type" enemies are the most tedious. Hitting flying and small enemies takes a while due to their nature of flying (or small size for the small monsters). Starfish enemies tend to run through, interrupt and damage your characters from one side of the screen to the other; turning into a game of "catch and hit me if you can all over the screen". Enemies may have over 60,000 HPs for the near-end game just to make it worse.

You CAN NOT override your allies's commands but can only queue. So if you tell them to cast a particular spell or use an item WHILE they are in casting mode (preparing to cast a spell before the command), you'll have to wait till they either finish casting the spell or get interrupted. This can make or break your gameplay in the most critical time of battle, especially if you need quick healing from your ally.

There is no multiplayer mode in Tales of Legendia.

Puzzles in this game are basically push and shoot your "ring" to activate the exit "portal". Puzzles are all contained in a puzzle room which you enter through a "puzzle portal". From there you must solve the puzzle to get out (via the "exit portal"). Difficulty-wise, it is easy and gradually gets harder, but not to the point where it's nerve-racking. The BEST things about the puzzles in this game is there are no enemy encounters at all, and you can SKIP the puzzles by choosing the "I Give Up" option. This, of course, will prevent you from gaining a title for completing all the puzzles.

Last, Legendia basically has one huge town (Werites Beacon), which serves as the central point for shopping and where your "base" is located. From there you travel throughout the outworld to many places (dungeons, very small villages, forests, etc) which usually has a "duct" (a portal which brings you back to Werites) next to it. While all the areas are brand new on your first half of the game.. be prepared to re-visit it all on the 2nd half when it's the character quests (which sucks especially if there's a few places you dislike).

-GRAPHICS- [07]
{Breakdown: Graphics- C, Animation- A, Full Motion Videos- A}
Characters model are so cute and the movement is realistic (thanks to real motion capture). Animation is great and contains a lot! There is 21 fmvs unlike 4-5 from Tales of Symphonia.

In terms of gameplay design graphics, it isn't exactly super detailed but simple enough to look pretty and easy to navigate around. Even though the design is plain and simple, the coloring is great.. it helps a nice compatible environment(s) for the character models when exploring.

-Composition- [08 JPN] [05 ENG]
{Breakdown JPN: Background Music- B, SFX- C, Voice- A}
{Breakdown ENG: Background Music- B, SFX- C, Voice- C}
Great and beautiful music but not the most memorable. The main thing is that it's orchestrated by the New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra. The music does it's part by setting some good mood in this game. I hope future Tales games uses orchestrated music, it's really great to listen to.

Voice acting is damn good and really shows the personality of the characters from Chloe to Norma and to the almighty Mimmy Bread! Really top notch acting. If it wasn't for the voice acting, the drama and emotions wouldn't be as great as it would be, especially for the final character quest which ends the game (reading text would definitely make the mood less emotional if there was no voicing).

Unfortunately for the ENG version, while the voice acting was great (and as well as all the skits), there is a major huge blow to the game. The whole Characters Quest (Chapter 08-15) is total dead silent. Aside from the animated ending sequence for each of the quest being voiced, the rest is pure text reason. This is not acceptable and makes the game half-empty and half-completed. Why have the 1st half fully voiced but the 2nd half non-voiced at all? Not a smart business decision.

-REPLAY- [LOW]
{Breakdown: Extra Difficulties- F, Secret Moves- F, Bonus dungeons- F, Collectors- B, NewGamePlus- C}
No Mania or Unknown difficulty, no secret moves, no bonus dungeons, no anything after beating the game really doesn't give any incentive to replay the game. True there is a Grade Shop (for New Game Plus) which you can buy stuff like: inherit skills/techniques, costume formal or mascot and more. Any replayability will be mainly for the harder difficulty (HARD mode) or completing the Collector's Book.

Aside from those 2 incentives, there is really no reason to replay the game again.

-THE FINAL GRADE- 08 / 10 JPN
-THE FINAL GRADE- 06 / 10 ENG
Awesome character development and a great plot. Sadly the developers seemed to concentrate that more than the battle system (which may drive you to boredom or frustration) or extras (bonus dungeons, secrets, etc). If anything, buy this game for the plot and lovable character developments.. not for it's classic and "lack of innovated" battle system and extras.

The ENG version of this game is what I would consider a half-finished product due to bad business decision. It takes no gamers: new to this game or from an importer to realize how horrible it is to have the 2nd half of this game have ZERO VOICING at all. Here I was, all happy listening and engaged with the plot and characters.. then BAM! Suddenly for the 2nd half, it was as silent as the grave. This hurts the development of the characters since reading text is not as emotional as listening to them voiced.

Granted that even having voiced will NOT guarantee it to be emotional (especially if there is bad acting), but this is yet better than having a sudden chance of style in the game which hurts the players eventually who's expecting the quality of style from the 1st half of the game.

Aside from that huge problem (and Mimi having no voicing, which isn't game-breaking), the voice acting and scripting is excellent.

Thus my opinion for both Jpn and Eng versions:

Renting the game is recommended if you are NOT sure about buying it. The only problem is while you'll get the feel of how the pacing is for the game (dialogue, going to places, battles), the 1st half of the battles will make you feel the game is too easy which may hurt your decision to buy it or not.

For those who played the older Tales series (ToD, ToP, ToD2j, ToE), you will feel, somewhat, right at home with the battle system. Unfortunately for those who got "into" the Tales series by playing Symphonia will most likely feel disappointed from a step-backward of the battle system. Regardless, the story and character developments (and execution) in Tales of Legendia is definitely better than all it's previous Tales installments.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 10/11/05, Updated 02/15/06