Tales of Phantasia

"An Amazing Game"

To start, let me say I had my doubts about this game. I loved Tales of Symphonia, but I saw some bad reviews for this. I got this as a birthday present, and I have to admit, I am blown away.

Graphics: 9/10
These are pretty good for a gba game. Big, colorful sprites, and detailed backgrounds make this game a pleasure to look at. The only problems are some awkward moments, mostly during cutscenes, where it's hard to tell what's going on.

Sound: 7/10
Pretty standard fare. Battle cries, good music, but the voice acting! That is truly the only part of this game that I wish they took out.

Story: 9/10
A pretty good story that has some good twists. The characters all have their own personalities, and it shines through in cutscenes. I admit I am not someone who is hard to impress when it comes to story, but this is truly well done.

Gameplay: 10/10
This is where the game truly shines. The sheer variety of the battles, the thrill of exploration, it's all there. First off the battle system is what stands out. Instead of inputting commands on a menu, you are controlling your character on a 2-d plane. You have an astounding amount of flexibility when it comes to your attacks. For example, you could do a simple normal attack combo. Or, once you get into the game, you can link normal attacks with special attacks, or techs, to do some truly impressive damage. Because of this, all attacks are likely to be used to raise the combo count, not just the ones that do big damage with one shot. Now on to dungeons. I found these perfectly tailored to my tastes. I do not like huge, hard to navigate dungeons. The dungeons in this game are quick, and never made me feel like I just wanted to get out.

Replay: 8/10
There is a fair amount of optional things that you can do, but other than that there is not much replay value here, but it's so long, I didn't feel like that was a problem.

Buy or Rent:
If you are into RPG's, or fighting games you should definitely buy this. Otherwise, I would try to find a copy to borrow/rent before buying this.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 03/14/06