Tales of Legendia

"This is what legends are made of"

Tales of Legendia (NTSC-US) PS2 REVIEW
Well I've decided to devote some space here to reviewing games when I'm not feeling to lazy. The first game on the chopping block? Tales of Legendia for the PS2.

The "Tales of" series by Namco has been a long time favorite of mine.I remember as a young lad renting Tales of Destiny. At the time it wasn't very well known and really didn't get a lot of recognition. Comparing the newer titles it definaetly doesn't feel as polished yet in it's own right it is still an excellent game. Maybe one day I'll do a retro-review. Off that subject for today.

Let's start with the graphics. However! **GRAPHICS MEAN NOTHING TO ME**. A game can have the most amazing graphics conceivable but the gameplay and story may fall flat on it's face.

Graphics 9/10

When I first set my eyes on screen shots of this game before the Japanese version was even released it was obvious eye candy. A very different step from Symphonia but they managed to pull it off spectacularly. Detail is everything in RPG's and Legendia's designers managed to do everything perfectly. When you walk into a house/room there is plenty to look at. You can search a house for 5 minutes easily just taking in all the small little details.

The backdrops and scenery look great. They have a water colour type of look to them and everything again is done with great detail. The world map is all around very nice looking, much appreciated comparative to some RPG's this generation with no world map at all(I'm looking at you final fantasy X and Shadow Hearts).

Character design as with all Tales games is excellent. They look just fine wether your cruising town, the map or kicking ass in battle. Everyone has little things that make them unique looking giving them more character. Weapons are great as well.

Music 10/10

What a great sound track. Songs will have you humming along and really help you get in the mood. I miss the Japanese intro but it was expected to be taken out. One of the best I've heard in awhile.

Gameplay/Controls 8/10

Controls are pretty straight up outside of battle. Your normal traditional japanese RPG. As said there is a world map which for me at least is a real plus.

Battles are completely random(besides boss battles of course). Anytime you are on the world map or in dungeons you may encounter enemies. The game changes from the traditional RPG here. The battle system is best defined as real time fighting. This one takes us back to the traditional Tales of games with a single line of battle. What this means is that the fighting takes place on a single plane ala Street Fighter or original Mortal Kombat. Battles play out sort of like a fighting game. Another way to explain it is very much like the Star Ocean series. Of course Star Ocean was created by some of the original team of Tales of Phantasia, but some people might know this series better as it's more well known(especially since Square took over Enix).

There is a block button(square), you press X for normal attacks and for special attacks you press circle along with either up, down, left/right(or no) press on the directional pad/analogue stick at the same time. These are assigned before battle to the specific direction you want. L2 and R2 can be set to control other characters skills. Battles are fairly fast paced and you get "grade" when you complete them which can be positive or negative, obviously depending on how you do.

Special moves are called "Eres". There are two types of Eres, Crystal and Iron. Iron Eres are what some other games may call physical special attacks. Crystal Eres are magic spells. As you level up fighters get new "Base" Eres. You may level these up and when fully leveled they will combine with other fully leveled ones making a new Ere. Crystal users get new spells as they progress in level. You may choose which character to use in battle by switching the leader providing for a lot of fun learning different weapons and Eres.

Like all RPG's there are puzzles involved and side-quests/other things to complete.

Story 10/10 :

Okay, so this is always a huge part of RPG's. The story is excellent. It is fun and light hearted while still holding some serious qualities. It is the perfect mix of these two things. There is plenty of comedy that will keep ya laughing and plenty other moments that will touch your heart. I won't add any spoilers but while some of it might seem like the generic "Save the girl, world" kind of thing that appears in so many RPG's the ToL team has manged to also steer it in it's own direction. There are lots of new concepts and some nice breaths of fresh air which the Tales series has become well known for.

The characters are all very likeable. Character interaction is great to put it simple. It really helps that the voice actors are so talented. The past two Tales of games have been great like that. The voices really do fit the characters and you can hear emotion in the readers voices. There are some games that I play the JP version of first and then when I play the english version it's a kick in the ass. This however I near right away adjusted too. It was also a little bit funny to hear Kratos(from Symphonia) as Will this time round but I'm adjusting to that. I'll have to stay away from Symphonia until I'm completely done with this for awhile though(should be a few more playthroughs).

The story is split into different "arcs". There is the main story and once you finish that you get individual character stories. This adds a lot to character development which brings you a lot closer to the story and in understanding everything.

Replay 6/10

The game sort of falls short here. It's kind of sad that they didn't add the ability for multi-player in battle. That was the major let down and something that will hurt the number of times I replay.

Another thing is no mania mode? What is this insanity? Mania was and always has been a major part of replay for me. Hard is unlocked from the get go, I would of prefered to have to unlock it by a playthrough.

There is all the other cool stuff like grade(to buy bonuses on future play throughs), completion lists and other stuff but this should all just be a given in RPG's these days....

Overall : 8/10

Basically this is a great game and does have a lot to offer. The story alone is worth at least one play through. If you don't like or are getting bored of the normal turn based RPG's then this might be the breath of fresh air your looking for. All the good story is there as well as a kick ass battle system with a good ammount of customization and challenge. A must buy if you like the Tales of series, a must try if you like RPG's and want to spice them up a bit.

SUPPORT THE FRICKIN' DEVELOPERS SO WE CAN SEE MORE TALES OF TITLES IN NORTH AMERICA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 02/13/06