Tales of Legendia

"Every series makes mistakes."

Hey folks, Nyghtsaber here, with a review of Tales of Legendia! I was at least 30 hours into the game before I created this review, so it is rather veritable. I will be rating each segment on the game on a scale from 1 to 10, 1 being the worse, and 10 being the best. Keep in mind that I am a Tales series fanatic. I will be rating the key things that make the game what it is, so here it goes!

Storyline- 2

I found the storyline to be TERRIBLE. Guy and girl on boat. Boat crashes onto island. Island is really a giant ship. Girl is special. Villain wants to use girl because she can power the giant ship. Villain most likely want to conquer the world, blah. Guy chases villain for over 30 hours. I yawn, lose interest, trade game in for money.

OK, that may be the story in a nutshell, but it got much worse. Was I the only person that was disturbed by the fact that the main guy (Senel) was in love with the main girl (Shirley), and that both of them proudly proclaimed that they were siblings? And neither of them had the same last name? Asides from that, the storyline is a downward spiral from the moment you start the damn game. It has a minor amount of human harvesting like TOS, but elsewise, I really didn't give a damn about the plot.

Characters- 3

The characters in the game are bizarre. I hated the majority of them. We have our main character, Senel. Senel is an ass. For a main character, he had no real development the entire time I had the game. All he was good at was being an ass. He was generally cold and mean, and only cared about coveting his "sister" for a majority of the time. He also sucked in battle. He's the "first Tales hero" to not use swords. I usually like RPG fistfighters. Not Senel. He just sucked. Then there's Will Raynard. He is a supposed criminal that came to the island to become a leader of some sort. Shallow guy. And he was also an ass, as he would thoughtlessly slap half the viewable characters onscreen for saying a basic word or two. All that ego, and no way to back it up in battle. In battle, Will is a mage. And a crappy one at that. He totes a giant hammer for a weapon. Too bad he never really attacks with it, and if he does, it SUCKS. Then there's Chloe, the fashion impaired knight. Now Chloe is one character I liked, seeing to it that she used SWORDS as her weapon, an she also used the moves that all Tales series sword users before her used, which is a true relief. I also liked her personality quite a bit. Then there's Norma. She's the RPG's token obnoxious girl. She had magic abilities, that was a plus. Her physical attack (she blows sinister bubbles out of a straw) is quite powerful also. Then there's Moses Sandor. He was funny, and I liked him. His attacks were hit or miss, but I still kinda liked him. Then there are 3 characters I never got to play as, and I dont really feel I missed anything. Grune, Jay, and Shirley.

Graphics- 3

The graphics in TOL are a massive step down from Tales of Symphonia's. Instead of hauntingly beautiful cel shading, they resorted to detailless 3D models. Real small 3D models. The characters look no better than Brave Fencer Musashi. In fact, if you look at Will's glasses out of battle, you see giant white circles for eyes. Looks like a "nerd" trainer from Pokemon blue. Real sad indeed. The backgrounds themself are prerendered and not all that nice looking. And the camera is fixed, which is a real bad idea. In cutscenes, for the most part, the characters will enter the area from the bottom left of the screen. Maybe I was paying too much attention, but that was just annoying. The anime scenes were OK, but wasn't there only like one the entire game? In battle, the character models look .75% ass instead of half ass. There is actual implied detail in the characters in battle! Now the enemies are a different story. All the enemies look like Sesame Street muppets. And that aint cool. Really, its not.

Audio- 7

The music was tolerable. The SFX were annoying. The only song I liked throughout the entire game was Moses's theme, which was a jazz track.

Controls- 4

The out of battle controls were typical RPG fare. IN battle, the controls were like playing a game with a melting controller. You can jump, I just never really found out how. All I know was that every now and then I could jump. You can attack. And believe me, you will be doing it alot. In fact, you are compelled only to hammer X the entire time in battle. Sure, you can use magic, but why waste your time? You can also press a direction and O to unleash a technique. The techniques in this Tales are as basic as rock-paper-scissors. And the advance techniques are even worse. You'll get a double of one technique which is as useful as just doing the tech once, then pressing X, since the game has the damndest habit of senselessly repeating every tech you do if you just press X right after it. Glitch? I believe so. And the other advance techs are just one move right after another, defeating the purpose. There's Sword Rain. Then Sword Rain Demon. Sword rain is an attack where Chloe rapidly pokes the target with the sword in the typical Tales fashion. Demon Fang the typical Tales move where a shockwave travels across the ground after the hero swings their sword. Sword Rain Demon is a mix of both of them. WOW. HOW FREAKIN' AWESOME =_-. Oh, TOL introduces the "CLIMAX GAUGE". It's nothing real special, like the gauge on TOS. If you hit R1 once the gauge is full, time stops, and you get to arbitrarily continue the battle while the enemies stand still. Once the gauge is empty, the enemies can move again. WOW.

Replay Value : LOW

I never beat the main game, and I got real bored with it REAL fast. Supposedly after you beat the game, you can go into all the playable characters pasts. No voice acting, not like it really mattered to begin with. Cop out from the dev team? Feels like it.

Well folks, there you have an honest review of Tales of Legendia, the one Tales game that should be erased from all Tales fan's memories.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 04/10/06