If you are going to import one RPG for the PSP, let it be this one!
GAMEPLAY ~
By the time Eternia was released the Tales series already had two games under its belt, but Tales of Eternia was the archetype for all future Tales titles.
Just like all the Tales games before and after it expect the battles to be a main focus point. Linear Battles are the name of the game, and that means all combat is like a fighting game, Heroes on one side, villians on the other! The magic users have a set of magic they can use, and the fighters get a huge list of moves at their disposable. As you use your abilities more often you will acquire different abilities over time. But mainly you'll be hacking, slashing & beating that X and O button till it can't be beat no more. The targeting system works well, but I hardly relied on it and all the menus were easily navigated and are organized well.
Monster AI is slightly above retarded and will give you a nice workout until you learn the patterns. The game host many big boss battles and these you need a strategy for, because if you run head first into it expect to die over and over again, unless you are leveled beyond all comparison, than hey! Go right ahead!
Over-world controlling of the characters and the ship is fine and the running should be settable. But I did notice that movement was smoother with the analogue than the D-Pad, but since the analogue is so small, I ignored it. No real complains in gameplay, just as good as it was on the PS1.
STORY ~ 8/10
It's good and I'll leave it at that!
GRAPHICS ~
The game runs nice and fast and there isn't much in loading times. Sure, it takes 2 to 3 seconds to enter combat, but that isn't worth complaining about, the real problem I had was with some of the larger summoning spells, especially Efreet. In some instances it worked nicely, others he became a bunch of block shaped "O's" in the form of Efreet. Not too impressive and this happened every other summon. Besides that the PSP does ToE justice.
The game hosts a ton of CG scenes but not so many Anime cut-scenes. I don't think the original one had many if any at all, and if they were cut during the process, I guess they weren't too flattering. I would defiantly give up the cut-scenes to have the entire game hosted on 1 UMD. This is also the first Tales game to have a night and day transition.
Again, I'll mention, 1 UMD, that is far better than lugging around 4, 4 inch PS discs.
SOUND ~
I can't remember much from this games soundtrack. Sure, I can think of the battle themes and some of the own themes, and that annoying song played while using the AIRFISH, but other than that... not memorable one bit.
The voice-over work isn't any better. Yeah some of the voice work is strong, but why does Meredy talk like a Neanderthal just learning English when all other inhabitants of their world speak perfect English? I can't understand that. Also by the end of the game there was some voice-over issues, where in a crucial part of the game, dialoged from the beginning of the game plays in place of whatever was suppose to be there, very annoying.
Not the series strongest showing in sound, at least it makes up for it in other areas.
REPLAYABILITY ~
Here is where Tales of Eternia shines and sets the pattern for all other Tales games. There is a but-load to do when the game is said and done, in fact you can probably tack on an additional 20+ hours with just side-quests alone. There is cooking mastering, arena battles, optional summons to battle a bonus dungeon to explore several small mini-games and a ton of moves waiting to be learned.
If you don't find yourself returning to a FAQ through your journey you haven't really experienced ToE to it's fullest! The PSP offers it's own sleep-mode, but ToE offers you a save anywhere feature which was almost useful, the average run time of the game is around 30 hours, with all the sidequest done, expect 50+ hours of exceptional findings and what have you.
Defiantly worth trying again with the New Game + feature! Just don't save over your existing game!
OVERALL ~
It was shame Tales of Eternia was never released outside of Japan and Europe, it would have been a powerhouse of an American sales machine and really pushed for other Tales series to be imported over. I guess we'll all just have to take the chance and import this game, well worth all the suspense in wondering if my copy worked or not!