This game makes me wonder why Nintendo is widely considered as notorious for banal RPGs.
The Bad: The battle system is so simple, and strategy omitting that it actually hurts; Having a 2D battle plane sucks compared to Symphonia's awesome 3D combat; Frustrating button mahing; Frequent random encounters; Dungeons are so trite that you'll actually forget what direction you were going after a battle; Blocky character models; Ugly world map that's easy to get lost in; The world map needs to zoom out after every battle on the field; The music is often repeated, no variety included; Most of the music is ear splitting elevator jazz; The characters constantly fighting overpowers the humor; An overall lackluster experience...
The Tales series returns. What a shame that this entry feels almost as aged as Phantasia...
Gameplay: The battling sucks; plain and simple. You're on a 2D plane, you can't truly choose what enemy you're going to attack, and all you ever hear when you attack is the same line, over and over. Senel is particularly guilty of this. "HOO, HA, EAT THIS! HOO HA EAT THIS!" That's all you'll ever hear from him. You need to listen to that for every battle, for the entire game. You can switch Senel out, but I wouldn't recommend it. No multiplayer either? Go figure, Playstation. There's no strategy involved in the combat either, you just button mash until it's over. It's VERY bad for me to actually fall asleep during a Tales battle system. It also feels like a rip-off to expect a game to be almost two years superior to the last, and then be left with a junk battle system. The dungeons are boring and repetitive enough to actually make you forget which way you were going. When a battle statrs up, I should not need to repeat to myself which direction I was going; it should come naturally. If Playstation is the 'God of All Games', than why is it's strongest genre's (RPGs) new tales game faltering compared to the GC's Symphonia? I sometimes wonder why the Big N lost so much support. The puzzles are interesting, but they consist of the same green room every time. They get REALLY boring after a while, and because you can skip any of them, any time, you get the impression that the developers did that to prevent boredom. The story saves the gameplay a bit, and is slightly more creative than Symphonia's, but it's mostly more of the same. Graphics: The characters are too blocky, and the visuals are bland. This fault is amplified on the world map. The nice color saves this one. Sound: Repetitive Jazz music and good character voices make it a mixed bag. Cam Clarke has returned, but his role isn't very exciting compared to the last Tales game's Kratos. It just doesn't fit with his norma attitude. The dialogue is funny, but they take it too far sometimes. Even good voice overs don't cover up a cast that is always quarreling over something. Although I do think that Will Raynard's constant need to bonk the characters over the head is funny. The sound effects are complimented by this and many others.
Value: Don't buy into it. Once (Or 'if') you play through it, you'll never want to open your case again. Just say no.
Tilt: I like RPGs and the Tales series, but this and Phantasia are two of them that I'll probably never go back to. I'm gonna go play some Symphonia or Abyss now; excuse me.