Tales Of Phantasia is truly deserving to be among the Golden Age of RPG's.
Tales of Phantasia begins by showing a recount of a heroic battle between four yet-unknown warriors against an evil sorceror, Dhaos, whose outcome changed the fate of the world. The warriors were victorious, and sealed Dhaos away using the power of two pendants, thus returning peace to the world.
The adventure begins in the town of Totus ten years later, where a young swordsman named Cless Alvein and his best friend, archer Chester Barklight, live. The town is destroyed by a dark knight and his soldiers while Cless and Chester are out hunting in the forest. Every villager is killed in the attack, including Chester's sister and both of Cless' parents. While Chester is in mourning, Cless vows for revenge and proceeds to the town of Euclid in search of the dark knight.
Unfortunately, he is betrayed there by his cowardly uncle and is thrown in jail, captured by the dark knight. The heirloom pendant entrusted to Cless by his father Miguel is taken away from him, but Cless does not know of its significance in holding Dhaos sealed, nor that his father was one of the original four who sealed him away.Cless meets Mint Adnade (a Mana healer) in the jail, and she joins the party and helps him escape. Soon afterwards, the party meets Chester again at Tornix Morrison's house, another of the four original warriors.
Tornix informs the party that he knew Cless' parents and Mint's mother quite well, and they once fought together to seal away a great evil. But he is horrified to hear that Cless' pendant has been stolen, and immediately runs off towards a nearby masoleum. Cless and party figure out that the dark knight must be there, and follow Tornix without him knowing. Unfortunately, the dark knight manages to release Dhaos using the pendants before Tornix and party can stop him. With no hope of dealing with the all-powerful Dhaos for now, Tornix transports Mint and Cless back in time so that they can learn about Dhaos and acquire the skills to defeat him. Chester and Tornix are left behind to suffer Dhaos' wrath. The story contunies on with Cless and the party to stop Dhaos ambition to rule once again.
The Gameplay is somewhat different to many other RPGs. The unique battle system which has been referred to as a Linear Motion Battle System, (a real time battle system similar to Street Fighter) is used when battling monsters and bosses. You fight left to right where you are free to move and walk to or from the enemies on screen, however they can move as well. You can attack from anywhere with your character because once attack is Initiated they automatically run to the enemy to strike. From then you can attack immediately again before the enemy has a chance to repel, same goes with the enemy. Magic and summons are also used which simply are used from a distance.
As for Graphics, Tales of Phantasia was the first SFC game to be 48MBit in size which extended its graphics detail to include beautiful world design, backdrop detail, animation including smoke and water, and detail on characters. They all remain among one of the best on the snes console.
For Sound, because of the 48MBit size, the game was also the first to feature streamed audio voices. When a party member chants a spell, you can hear the voice of the character just before they perform the spell. The Music/Soundtrack is great with many different beautiful pieces throughout the entire game and fits well with each environment and area. Great sounds in magic, weapon bashing and just sounds all around area's such as birds chirping and sounds of the ocean.
For Value, the game's length is very long with many different areas to explore throughout the world. You'll be visitjng many different people, and many different places which will consume you for a good while.
Tales of Phantasia is a unique game which in the midst of what many gamers consider to be the Golden Age of RPGs. It's beautiful graphics, amazing soundtrack, and unique battle system make the game apart of the greatest RPG's ever made. Either find it on the internet or download the rom and play it for 24 hours, and play it, it’s truly amazing.