Tales of The World: Radiant Mythology

"Definitely, a Tale for the Fans, but non-fans? Well..."

Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology is quite an unusual game. It is an installment in Namco's long-running "Tales of" series, which contains probably around two-dozen entries. While only about ten of these or so are considered "main" installments, the rest are strange, quirky titles, best defined as unique puzzle games, strange compilations, or odd fanservice games. The Tales series actually has a huge following in Japan, so while only a handful of the games ever get released outside of the asian region, there are plenty of these more obscure titles that most have probably never even heard of.

Like many RPG series, hypothetical questions often come up such as "If you could put four Tales characters on one team, who would you choose?" or "Wouldn't it be cool if you could use your favorite Tales leads together?" Obviously, these are just general examples, but Radiant Mythology is less of a game, and more of a huge vote of fan service. It is also not the first or only Tales game to do so. There are three games on the Gameboy Advance (The "Tales of the World: Narikiri Dungeon" series) which does the same thing, except, much more efficiently. Radiant Mythology plucks a select few characters out of their games of origin (Such as Tales of Symphonia, Tales of the Abyss, and Tales of Destiny) and casts them together as allies trying to save a dying world.

The premise of games like these is truly promising. Unfortunately, while RM has plenty of it's own merits, and is certainly a fun game in its own right, it suffers from a few problems that really, simply shouldn't exist.

Graphics - 7/10:

Truth be told, there's really nothing wrong with the graphics here. They certainly have a very "Tales of the Abyss"-like appearance. That being said, Radiant Mythology (RM) has some of the same strengths and weaknesses as Abyss.

To start, the game actually has no world map, but rather just a sort of background, with various areas you move to automatically by clicking on them. This really isn't so bad, as the backgrounds look quite nice. Once inside the dungeons and towns are definitely reminiscent of Abyss. Areas themselves certainly look quite nice, although there is little variety from floor to floor of each dungeon. The individual areas are all typical (There's a fire dungeon, an ice dungeon, an old mine, a forest, etc) but the design and detail in each is nice. The only problem with the dungeons is that they're typically three or four floors, and there is almost no difference in the appearance between each floor, aside from the layout.

Character and enemy models look almost identical to Tales of the Abyss' character models. It's actually interesting seeing some of the characters from 2-D Tales games (Such as Destiny, Phantasia, and Eternia) translated into 3-D, and their transition from sprites to dimensional models is pulled off pretty well. As I mentioned, the models look similar to Abyss' character models. In fact, most of the enemies and NPC towns people are ToA character models. This seems really lazy on Namco's part. The problem is mostly with the enemy models. Most NA gamers probably wouldn't realize it, but this is the third game in which Namco has reused these same enemy models. They originated in Tales of the Abyss, and were reused in Tales of the Tempest and Radiant Mythology. What's worse, from early screen-shots, it appears that the upcoming Tales of Innocence, and the tentative Tales of Symphonia sequel feature some of these models yet again. Namco sometimes gets a bad rap for not being very inventive with the series overall as it is, the last thing they need is to be recycling character models over and over again, making the games not only play similarly, but also looking almost identical...

One other interesting thing to note is that changing various equipments alter your character's appearance. You have a pretty wide variety of equipment types (Helmets, armors, shields, gauntlets, and more) and equipping different items will change your character's outfit. It's fun to experiment with each new piece of equipment, just to see which ones look the best, not to mention that there are a number of unique and even purposefully silly looking items for you to equip.

All in all, the score comes not from the graphics looking bad (because they really don't) but rather from Namco reusing already existing models. It wouldn't be so bad if they were just reused once, or if they just reused a few, but nearly every enemy is straight from Abyss, so the points got tacked off for being a bit uninspired, especially since some people thought ToA's character models were somewhat bland to begin with.

Story - 7/10:

As the game opens, your character (who is literally a faceless generic) is awakened by Mormo, a small, white, flying animal thing. Turns out, your character is what is known as a "Descender," a warrior born from the world tree. Descenders are born when the world's mana supply is being threatened, and it is up to them save the mana from being totally depleted. Backtracking a bit, at the very beginning of the game, you're actually given a small amount of customizability over the main character, altering their gender, appearance, hairstyle, and voice. This might seem really neat, but you're given maybe two or three options in each category, meaning you're fairly limited anyway.

Now, you might be saying "That's great and all, but how do the Tales characters fit into all of this?" Most of the Tales characters are members of a small resistance known as Ad Libitum--a small faction of fighters trying to stabilize the people, and save what's left of the world's mana. Their part in the game is probably most accurately compared to the Final Fantasy character's part in the Kingdom Heart's games. (Though unlike those games, the majority of the Tales characters actually are playable).

Straight to the point, Ad Libitum is basically a small group of mercenaries that accept jobs in order to help people, and that's exactly how you progress through the game. There are a number of quests you can accept, some of them are actually quite fun, because they pit you against various Tales characters or teams, or they have you fighting bosses for powerful pieces of equipment. On the other hand, there are a number of ridiculous quests, which have you fetch an item, or defeat a single enemy, or find a person who is lost somewhere in a dungeon. Sadly, these boring fetch quests generally outweigh the good quests, but you'll need to do them in order to build up your fame.

Fame is a numerical value assigned to you, and it increases when you successfully clear missions. You need to increase your fame to unlock the new events and missions which will progress the story. Fame is also important in raising your relationship with the different Tales characters. The game also has the series trademark "skits," which are different short events which generally elaborate on the character's personalities. Probably the most interesting thing about the skits in RM is seeing the different characters from various Tales games interact with one another. The results are often quite humorous, and sometimes completely unexpected. Usually during skits and events, you actually have an option of what your character says, and, like your fame rating, this will alter your relationship with the characters. You want your relationship high, because it dictates whether or not the characters will join your battle party when you ask them for help. More on that later.

Overall, the story is pretty thin, and quite typical, even for a Tales game. The plot is held together with a number of redundant and often times, boring, quests but seeing your favorite Tales characters interact with each other, and being able to use a number of them in battle, somewhat offsets these laughable "errands."

Controls - 9/10:

The game functions exactly like any other Tales game, at least in battle and in the menus. There's not much freedom in traveling, as far as the world map goes, but at least it's easy to navigate, as are the rest of the commands and menus. The interface is simple enough, and although there are a fair number of sub menus, and text-boxes and things, they're placed in a very accessible, and easy to navigate way. As per Tales standard, in-battle controls are are fairly simple. One button allows you to guard, one to attack, and one is there for executing skills, and you can use the D-pad or analog nub to easily move around.

Battles - 7/10:

For the most part, the battle system itself is nearly identical to the system found in Tales of the Abyss. Battles are fought on a 3-D plane, where you can execute skills and other attacks in real-time. Using the analog nub, you can execute Free-run which was skill in Abyss that allowed you to freely move around the battlefield, not being confined to a single line, which you were in previous Tales games. The difference from Abyss is that enemies seem to also be able to move around much more freely as well, which can often result in much frustration as you're commonly missing, or end up completely surrounded or cornered by enemies.

Skill execution is still pretty typical of a Tales game, though. You are allowed to set up to four skills (or eight, if you use the shortcuts) and by using the D-pad in conjunction with the skill button, you can perform various attacks as well as chain combos if you execute skills in a proper order one after another. Interestingly, your controlled character isn't confined to one skillset, as Radiant Mythology allows you to swap various classes throughout the game. You can choose from various melee classes (Such as Warrior, and eventually Fighter and Swordsman) as well as offensive and healing mage classes. This allows you to develop your character any way you want, and you can switch classes at any time. The downside to this is that switching classes brings your level back down to 1. So if you had, say, a level 50 Swordsman, and decided you wanted to switch classes to a Fighter, you'd be back to level 1, with almost no skills, and poor equipment options. (Though, if you change back to the Swordsman, you'd retain your level 50, along with any skills you learned in that class.) This means that there's a lot of work and investment that goes into each class. If you're planning on just casually playing through the game, there's little reason to change your class more than once or twice, lest you want to start all over again.

Of course, the game allows you to choose characters from various Tales games to fight alongside you. This might seem like the ace reason to play the game, there are drawbacks even to this. First off, each Tales character has an opinion of you. As mentioned previously, your fame, and your reaction during skits generally determines how highly or poorly the characters think of you. You might be excited to find that you've run into a new Tales character and want to recruit them into your party, but once you go to place them in your roster, you find that your fame isn't high enough, and they reject your offer. That's right, when a character's opinion of you isn't high, they're reject any offer you make to them to join you. What's more, there's an evaluation screen, and if a character doesn't like you, they'll be scowling at you, angrily. Yikes. Even if you do get their opinion of you high enough, that doesn't always mean that they'll join you.

The Tales characters aren't the only ones who can join you. There is a pre-made set of generics, much like the character you made for your "main" character who can also join your party. Sadly, these characters are actually more useful than the Tales characters for a number of reasons. For one, your character is the only one in the game who you can actually equip with items. Those other generics can have equipment too, but you can't change their equipment, and they're stuck with whatever they join you with. The Tales characters can equip nothing at all, generally meaning their stats are a lot lower than your main character, or any of the other generics. What's more, the generics all level up as your main character does, while the Tales characters don't, meaning that if you want to use them, you'll have to be rotating them in and out of the party constantly to keep their levels up. In a way, the whole situation reminds me of Radiata Stories, where you have all these interesting characters, yet have no control over their statistical growth, or equipment. On the plus side, you can actually switch your main character, and manually control any of the other characters (including the Tales characters) during battle.

The game also hosts are fairly complex customization system. You find raw materials, parts, and food, and can use them to cook recipes, modify weapons, or create other items. The more you use the customization system, the higher your rank gets in that category. (Food, tools, etc) Unfortunately, even this has drawbacks, as you can sometimes attempt to create an item and fail over and over again, wasting materials until you actually succeed in eventually making something useful.

So, the game has a fairly typical battle system, but it definitely works. The other generic characters are nice, but personally I would like to have seen more Tales characters instead, since there are only an average of about two or so characters from each game in the series, and some of them aren't even playable. The battle system and customization elements are definitely solid, although they seem to lack a coat or two of shine to really make them stand out.

Music - 9/10:

Radiant Mythology's music itself is good. Not hugely memorable, but the most interesting thing is that there are times when you can accept quests, and it will be mandatory to take a certain Tales character with you. On those occasions, you'll actually hear the main battle theme from the game that particular character is from. So, it's a nice throwback in that respect, since most of the battle themes in the Tales games are quite memorable, or at least stick out otherwise.

Just as a mention, the voice acting in the game is done quite well. Not all of the characters who were previously voice acted had their VA return, but some of the characters (Such as Kratos, Luke, and Tear) had their original VAs. Most of the rest of the new voices are satisfyingly fitting.

Replay - 9/10:

Tales games are known for all of their extra content, and Radiant Mythology is really no exception. Beating the game unlocks new difficulties and things, but---and I'm pretty sure this is a first for the Tales series---beating the game allows you to carry over everything from your previous file. Past Tales games had you accumulate GRADE points throughout the game, and then you could "buy" certain options at the end of the game, such as carrying over skills, or obtaining experience modifiers. In RM, everything automatically carries over: Items, equipment, levels, titles, etc. This makes playing through the game over quite easy, and is actually one of the strongest points of the game.

Overall - 7/10:

Liking this game depends mostly on how big of a Tales series fan you are. The whole game is mostly fanservice, what with combining teams from previous Tales games, and all. The game does have a lot of funny moments, and some of the skits and events, and the way characters react to eachother is flat-out hilarious. If you're a fan of the Tales series, I certainly recommend picking it up, if for no other reason than you can never get enough of some of these character's personalities. On the other hand, if you're a person out looking for a deep, strong game Radiant Mythology is probably not what you're seeking. A thin plot held together with a number of random fetch quests could likely turn people off. I might not recommend this to someone who is looking for their first Tales game, as many of the character's quirks and personalities need to be established before going into, and understanding a game like this. Otherwise, the cast comes off as being a bizarre bunch of oddball misfits.

Well, I take that back. They're a bunch of oddball misfits anyway. Playing the other games first just helps understand them a bit better. But if you're just looking for a PSP RPG, it may be worth checking out anyway, regardless of if you've played the others.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 07/24/07