"Another legendary addition to a legendary series"

When I first heard about this game, which was 3 or 4 months prior to its NA release, I thought to myself just as many others have... "A Tales game... finally on the PS2". Out of all the RPGs to be released in 2006, this is the one I anticipated the most at the time for a few reasons. First of all, it is a Tales game which usually never falls short of my expectations, and also because out of all the RPGs I was looking forward to, this was the one i'd first get my hands on. But as the launch date (February 14) came closer and closer, I learned a few things. One of them was the JP release of the next Namco title, 'Tales of the Abyss. From the reviews, trailers, videos, and opinions of those who had played the game... ToA sounded like it was superior to ToL in almost every conceivable way. I forgot about ToL for a while, even though the release date was so close now, and anticipated a NA release for ToA more! I also found it strange that Namco would decide to localize ToL instead of ToA... but as long as ToA does get localized, I suppose it doesn't matter much. So now part of the reason I purchased ToL was to encourage a NA release for ToA as well. Anyway, onto the review.

Gameplay - 8
Battle System: 7.5
Dungeons: 9
Controls: 8
First of all, let me say that the battle system of this game will surprise those who have only played ToS out of the Tales series. ToL is much different from ToS in that aspect, it is a little more shallow and not as complex but it follows the traditions of the earlier Tales game such as ToE and ToP. The battle system allows four characters in your party who fight in a linear battlefield (Crossover Linear Motion Battle System) much like a 2D fighting game such as Street Fighter and King of Fighters. There are two types of fighters... those who use crystal eres and those who use iron eres. You'll mostly be controlling the iron erens (or at least it is recommended) whose job is to get into attacking range and destroy the enemy by unleashing large combos. Crystal erens stay at the back and cast offensive/supportive spells to aid you in battle. Other choices you have are to defend enemy attacks (VERY useful), use commands from the menu to have your AI characters perform an action or to use an item, escape, or change battle tactics. Another very significant part of the battle system is the Climax Mode. One of your biggest priorities when fighting enemies will be to get your combo chain as high as you can by hitting the enemy rapidly not leaving any time to pause. Thus, Climax Mode allows you to freeze time where the only action being performed is by your characters. This lasts for about 30 seconds and is one of the best ways to build up your combo chain very quickly. The best method to perform combos normally when in battle is: three basic attacks -> base eres -> arcane eres. Once you use your arcane eres, or while you're using it... give command to one of your crystal eres to begin casting a spell so he/she can keep the combo chain going while you're recovering. The controls in this game aren't very tough to get used to and most of the actions are performed smoothly in this game. The only problem you will come across is the way they changed the command of each buttons for this game.

The world map/dungeon layout in this game is excellent. There are chaotic zones within dungeons which are areas that increase encounter rate and tough enemies await you in battle. However, once you make it through the chaotic zone, you'll be in for some really nice rewards... sometimes they're worth it and sometimes they're not. Another thing that makes the dungeons interesting are the puzzles. You will find a duct in where you have to complete a puzzle before you can move on further. In this puzzle, you will not be fighting, and so all you have to use is your mind to get you through. It adds a lot of variety and it can be fun sometimes while other times, frustrating. While the dungeons and the world map have a beautiful layout and a good encounter rate... there is just not much exploring to do at all in this game which is the only problem it suffers from. There is hardly any difficulty in this game with the exception of a few bosses and enemies in the character quests who have immense amount of HP and the battles can take very long to finish. One more important thing to note...

THERE IS NO MULTIPLAYER MODE.

Plot - 9
Main Quest: 8
Character Quest: 8.5
Character Development: 10
One very good feature about ToL is that while the other 'Tales' games were more about gameplay rather than the plot and characters, it is the other way around for ToL. This makes ToL quite unique in its own series. You start off with your main character, Senel, and his sister Shirley on a boat when suddenly you get attacked by monsters. Eventually, disaster strikes and you get washed ashore on a beach. Senel meets Will who tells him that he's on a large ship known as the Legacy which looks like a huge island and this is where you will be staying for the rest of your game (don't worry... the ship is HUGE). Shirley gets kidnapped and Senel tries to rescue her with the aid of Will and from there the plot starts to get more interesting where you learn many things about Senel and Shirley.

The character quests are a little different. First of all, the characters are a lot more laid back, and this time the plot revolves around different characters in different chapters with the exception of Senel and Shirley. These characters include Chloe, Will, Norma, Moses, Jay, and Grune. I found this to be slightly better than the main quest since each character has a different plot and a different experience to offer for you. The character quests also allow you to connect yourself with the characters more and it gives them a lot more depth. The main quest consists of seven chapters while the character quests has eight chapters.

Sound - 6
Music: 9
Voice Acting: 5

The music in this game is orchestrated beautifully. It has a nice relaxing and soothing tone to it and there isn't one piece which I find annoying or one that I disliked. Not much else to say about it, other than that I hope Namco provides music like this in the future Tales games.

While the voice acting in this game is actually extremely well done, it has one huge problem which really brings its score down... its non-existent for the second half of the game. Yes, there is no voice acting in any of the character quests. It seems odd as to why they would cut that out since the original JP version had voice acting throughout the whole game. There are also a few NPCs who do not have a voice actor either. Considering as to how great the VA for this game is, it feels like a terrible loss when you are playing the game without anymore voice acting.

Graphics - 7
Character Design/Sprites: 7
Visual Appearance: 8

Many dungeons in ToL have a unique background and look very different from each other. This is part of the beauty in its graphics... and while it may not be up to par on some other PS2 games out there, it's certainly not ugly at all. The sprites are actually very well done. They look very much alike to the sprites in Final Fantasy IX. The character designs are also very appealing and they look very different from each other. The look of each character also reflects his/her personality which is brilliant.

Extras - 5
Replay Value: 5
Bonus Dungeons: None
Extra Difficulty Modes: None
There is hardly any reason to replay this game again, unless if you started on easy or normal difficulty and you want to play it all over again on hard difficulty. There's not much difference anyway, and you can buy pretty much everything from the Grade Shop on your first playthrough. However, it's nothing to moan about... the length of this game alone gives you a nice worthwhile experience and depending on how much you liked the plot, you might want to play this game again or maybe you can find other good reasons yourself to replay this game. (Hint: Challenges!)

Overall - 7
Averaging all of the scores then, we reach a final score of 7. Remember though, 7 is not a bad score at all and if it doesn't satisfy you... keep in mind the only thing pulling my score for this game down from 8 then is the lack of voice acting (in the second half) and the replay value. All in all, it's a great game which is more than worthy of a Tales title.

Rent or Buy?
This is a tough one. I would definitely say buy it mostly because the amount of sales of this game is extremely important and a deciding factor as to whether we will be getting Tales games in the future or not. We were already left out for Tales of Rebirth and Tales of Destiny 2 and if this game does not do well, Namco may have second thoughts about ToA and decide not to release it here at all. So support the sales of this game AS MUCH AS YOU CAN. However, if you are not interested in Tales of the Abyss or if you're just interested in this game alone... then I suggest you rent it first and try it out to see whether you like it or not.

In conclusion, first off... I want to thank Namco for localizing this game and I hope to see further games from the Tales series being localized here. I'd also like to thank GameFAQs for posting my review and yes, this is my first review as well. ;)

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 02/27/06