Tales of Phantasia

"Well, the series has certainly come a long way, hasn't it?"

Tales of Phantasia (ToP) is the first game in the Tales of...series, but we people in America had to wait until recently to get an English version of it for the first time. Well, we got a GBA port, and it's by no means BAD, but after seeing the SNES and PSX footage of this game, there's no doubt in my mind the US got the worst version. (But at least we got it)

STORY

After watching a hilariously awful voiced over opening scene, you're put in control of a 17 year old boy named Cress. Cress's dad gives him a mysterious pendant for his birthday, and after getting the pendant, Cress and his friend Chester go out into the woods to do some hunting. But when they return, they find that their town has been destroyed. Now the two of them are out for revenge on who destroyed their home town, but as anyone familiar with RPGs will know, their quest for revenge will soon turn into a struggle to save the world.

The story to ToP isn't anything special, but for a handheld, it does okay. I can't remember one time I found the story gripping and where I was anxiously waiting to find out what happened next, but it was enough to keep me interested and at least have some desire to see the next part of the game. But considering the story is over ten years old, I suppose it should be cut some slack. (After all, this was originally released when RPGs didn't rely on ground breaking stories to be considered good)

The story is told well, and although the pacing seems a little off at times, it still stays pretty consistent the whole way through. The characters, as always, can play a huge role in how the story is told, and unfortunately, this is one of the bigger problems with ToP: the main characters. ToP has one of the more bland casts of protagonists that I've seen in a game, but luckily the game features a good villain. As with the main story, I guess having not-so-interesting characters shouldn't be a huge problem, because character development wasn't too important back in the mid-90s for RPGs, either.

GAMEPLAY

The gameplay to ToP starts off fun, but it can get a little tedious after a while. It starts off simple enough with just going from town to town via the overworld map and doing something important before setting off to go to a dungeon to progress the story further. But once you get into dungeons, the gameplay quickly takes a nose dive. Most of the storyline dungeons in the game gradually increase in difficulty as the game goes along (although they're really nothing you shouldn't be able to manage, for the most part). But as you may expect, it's not hard to solve most of the puzzles in the dungeons; the REAL annoying part is when you have to go through it and suffer through random encounter after random encounter. Which leads me to the next area-the area that made Tales games unique back in the day...

BATTLE SYSTEM

The battles in ToP take place in real time, which was pretty daring for when the game first came out in 1995, which automatically makes me credit it. You control one character with up to three other computer-controlled party members as you battle your way through the monsters in the world of Tales of Phantasia. You can either move left or right to attack enemies. There are regular attacks, and then there are special moves you can perform by hitting the B button and holding down a direction on the D Pad. The fights go on, as always, until either all of your party members or all your enemies lose their HP.

The biggest problem I had with the battles is that the most control you can get over a character is "semi-auto", so even though you still basically control your character, they sometimes act with a mind of their own. Because of this, controlling your character during battles can become very clunky and annoying. (Not to mention adding some unnecessary difficulty to the battles) The biggest example of this is how later on when controlling Cress, he'd attack the enemy and then run sometimes all the way to the end of the battle field for almost no reason.

Even though it has its flaws, the battle system in ToP gets the job done...for the most part. While it's incredibly boring and bad compared to today's standards, I guess it isn't that bad considering the history of this game. Still, the fights can be pretty sluggish at times, so it would have been nice if the whole system had been polished just a bit more.

GRAPHICS

Nothing amazing here. The graphics really show their age in this game, but they're no eye sore. The character models look very chibi, even in battles, which isn't necessarily a good thing. The towns, on the other hand, look more colorful and lively, which is a plus. The spells that are cast during the battles also look nice for SNES standards, although maybe they could have been touched up a little for the GBA port. While this is one game you won't be buying for the graphics, it's not a game that will make your eyes bleed.

SOUND

I'll start with the music. Nothing too memorable here, although some tunes do sound very nice, especially the battle themes. The songs you hear while in towns usually fit the mood of the town very well. Not really much else to say other than that the music gets the job done, and despite the fact it's overall pretty average, there are a few tunes that stick with you.

Now, onto the voice acting. Ooooooh boy. All right, I won't mince words here: it's awful. I know this is the GBA we're talking about here, but the voiced over parts in this game are inexcusable. You'll find yourself asking "What the HECK is THAAAAAAAT???!! after hearing the voice acting in the opening, and the catch phrases you hear during battles aren't much better. Not only are some of the moves barely understandable (It sure doesn't sound like you're saying "Nurse", Mint; and someone watching me play insisted Klaus saying "Volt" sounded closer to saying "Shoe")

The voice acting is easily the worst part of the game, but luckily it gets cancelled out as far as sounds go by the nice music that plays.

LENGTH

For a handheld game, ToP certainly is long enough. In fact, there were console RPGs I've played with shorter lengths than ToP. The first typical playthrough should take you at least 20 hours to finish, although I wouldn't be surprised if it ended up taking longer. So if you buy this game and want a long experience, that's one thing I can almost guarentee ToP should live up to. (Provided you want a long experience for a hand-held, that is)

PROS

+ Alright story (isn't bad, by any means...)
+ Music is well done
+ Long length for a handheld
+ Good villain
+ A few sidequests to make the game longer
+ Real time battle system
+ Nice graphics

CONS

- Main characters are boring and lack too many redeeming or likable features
- WAY too Frequent random encounters
- Lots of annoying dungeons
- Battle system is kind of clunky
- Terrible, TERRIBLE voice acting

CLOSING NOTES

Tales of Phantasia was a fun game to play. Since the Tales of...series is my favorite RPG series, it was great to be able to it at its roots and where it all began. While I didn't exactly care for the voice acting, somewhat annoying battle system, long dungeons and way-too-often random encounters, ToP was still pretty fun to play. However, I must admit that overall it wasn't anything stellar and is quite possibly the worst handheld RPG I've ever played. (Remember, a 6 is classified hear as just above average, as in "okay, but there are many better." That sums up ToP almost perfectly)

RECOMMENDATON

While I had fun playing this, I would have to say that this is only a game for RPG fans. If you're a fan of the Tales of...series, you'll definitely want to get this game, but that's the only group I can guarantee a recommendation to. Fans of Final Fantasy or other series like that may find this game enjoyable, or they could find it to be completely awful.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 11/27/06, Updated 09/04/07

Game Release: Tales of Phantasia (US, 03/06/06)