Tales of Phantasia

"One of the greatest Snes RPGs there is, although very few have played it."

Since this is a RPG, let's start a bit with a story. The game begins with an introduction sequence where a man is battling four people. He loses the battle. The game then cuts to Cless Alvein, the hero. He and his friend Chester are going hunting. They spot a boar and catch it. After this, they notice a great tree. Before they have time to admire it, the village alarm bell rings. They hurry back home to see...well, that's enough. If you want to know more, play the game.

This RPG has an interesting battle system. It's kind of a mix between Final Fantasy and Secret Of Mana. The battles are fought real-time but the player can pause the action anytime to use items, cast spells etc. The main character is the only one the player controls, others are computer-controlled.

Graphics 9/10
The graphics are great. Animation is good and there are lots of different enemies with unique looks. Sound 10/10
Absolutely perfect. That's the only thing I can say. The music is awesome and and there is loads of speech. Whenever a character casts a spell, or in Cless' case, performs a techique, they yell it out loud. They also shriek in pain when they are hit and get killed. On top of it all, there's the best sound test any game has ever seen. Pitch, pan, graphic equlizer, it's all there. Fun 10/10
It's just tons of fun to play. Nothing beats the feeling of performing a lethal sword techique on an enemy and watching Cless beat them senseless.

The bad: Of course, this game isn't completely perfect. One frustrating thing about this game is that the inventory system only allows 15 items of one kind. And a certain place in this game is just plain hellish, because of strong enemies and mazelike structure it has. Not only that, you are forced to visit that place twice!

Anyways, if you like RPGs, and understand Japanese or are willing to use walkthroughs, be sure to get this Namco's 48 mbit masterpiece!

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/99, Updated 11/01/99