Tales of Phantasia

"I, just, don't know what to say..."

Well, what can I say about this masterpiece, together with Star Ocean (and probably with Far East of Eden Zero too) this is by far the most imposing game for the Snes. It is true that the first thing that catches everyone’s attention are the, how can I say, super-ultra-hyper astonishing graphics and intro song, but Tales of Phantasia isn’t just fancy graphics, it also introduced the absolute best battle system of all time, an anthological cast of characters, and in my opinion the best soundtrack ever made, Tales of Phantasia was way ahead for its time.

Story 10/10:
One day Cless and his friend Chester decide to go hunting at the forest nearby, when they return to their village everything they found their parents as well as all the villagers assassinated and the entire village destroyed.
Of course this is just the beginning of the story, everything gets deeper later in this splendid plot, long, full of twist and beautiful places to visit... the way it should be.

Graphics 10/10:
FLABBERGASTING, PlayStation quality, but more than everything, they are insanely beautiful, while you are walking in the forest you’ll see dragonflies flying, your reflect in the water, rabbits hiding from your presence, wind blowing over the grass, raccoons here, birds there, everything is full of life. Every single sword, potion or ring is beautifully designed and showed in its full glory in the shops or menus. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.

An special mention deserves the more than wonderful character designs by the manga artist Kosuke Fujishima, there are even a lot of Art Books (only in Japan of course) with the characters of this game, they add a lot to the game because of their charisma.

Music 10/10:
The absolute best soundtrack I’ve ever heard. Forget Final Fantasy IV, VI, Chrono Trigger or even Final Fantasy VII and Suikoden II. Of course this is just my humble opinion, but it think that if you don’t like this game’s music you have a serious problem.
The voices are wonderful, funny sometimes, but wonderful.
And if all of that weren’t enough, Tales of Phantasia has an outstanding singed opening theme (Yume Wa Owaranai).

This game was made back in 1994, almost ten years have passed, and I have yet to hear something better.

Gameplay 10/10:
If you disagree here better go and hid behind a rock because you are not from this world. The battle system is the most fun, quick, and good looking ever created, just ask anyone which game has the best battle system and they will immediately say the Tales of series, and if you are thinking about Grandia better know that this one is even better.

So, how does it works?, the battles are randomly generated, you can’t see your enemies in the battlefield, once you enter the battle screen you’ll see that it is side scrolling, you will be able to move to the left or to the right as you please, if you press the attack button your character will immediately run towards the enemy to attack. Cless is the only playable character during the battles, with the rest of the bunch you’ll only be able to cast magic or summon beasts.

Some people complaints about the encounter rate because they say it is high, and maybe is a bit higher than the usual rpg for the Snes, but it is not high, and anyway, who cares with those awesome battles?

I have found one flaw though, well, maybe it is not exactly flaw, the thing is that more or less at the middle of the game there is a part where you have to get into a tower that is on fire, what you have to do to survive in that place is unimaginable, I had to use a faq for this place because I didn’t knew what to do, it was a bit annoying.

Replay Value:
Tales of Phantasia is a long as any Final Fantasy for the Snes, it will last for 35-40 hours more or less, but then we have a nice amount of secrets like finding all the summonings, the captain’s hidden treasure (I can’t remember his name sorry), finding and perfecting Cless techniques, etc.

Just as a curiosity, it seems that the game is based on a novel or a tale called Tale Phantasia, that would explain the little text at the beginning of the game, but I’m not sure, I jus suppose.

To sum up:
I am still perplexed, every time you play you’ll wonder how can something be so good, but we are not talking only about graphics here, I don’t mind about them, I’m talking about the plot, music, gameplay… I just can’t understand how can someone not like this work of art, it is a must not matter if you like rpgs or not. Tales of Phantasia is, and it is always going to be, a game to be remembered.

””My lack of vocabulary and grammatical errors (if there’s any) are because I’m not from an English speaking country, sorry.””

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 10/21/03