A good game, that has some bad mistakes thanks to the translation. It's still a good game, just not as good as it was.
Story: The story in ToP is actually still one of the most original stories out there, and of course is the reason certain stories exist in games today. The game opens, with a cutscene that happened in the past, so right away you won't know what's going on. I'll try to tell you as much of the story as I can, without giving away any spoilers. You start out in a town, your name is Cless (changed to Cress in this version) and you live there with your friends and family. You and your friend Chester decide to go hunting, and you head off for the forest right next to your village.
After you finish up hunting, you return to your village only to find it completely destroyed and all of your family and friends dead. This starts your quest for revenge, that will span three different timelines. Of course, there are plenty of twists that will keep you guessing right up until the final fight. All the characters have so much personality, that by the end of the game you feel like you're their friend. The quest for revenge, becomes a quest to save the world and discover what mysteries have been buried for over 100 years.
Audio: Music in any game, is very important and can be very memorable or it can be just enough to get you through the game, and ToP falls somewhere in between these two. First off, they removed the original opening song that so many loved, and it was just a perfect opener. The new song is okay, but doesn't compare with the original. Some of the other music has been changed a bit as well, and isn't quite as good as the original stuff, but it's still good for this game. Most of the tunes, are heard often and sometimes too many times, but for the most part it's pretty enjoyable. There are secrets that let you hear some of the original music, and that was a nice touch although, they never needed to change any of it to begin with. Mostly the overall music is untouched, but some of it is different. It pretty much fits the game very well, but it's not exactly as good as the original.
Now if you wanted a game with some voice acting and good sound effects, ToP was your game.....or atleast it used to be. The voice acting and grunts and groans that characters and enemies made back in the original, were amazing, and especially since it was on the SNES, but the GBA's voice acting and effects don't add up. The once crisp and clear voices, are replaced with annoying, usually hard to hear voices that really bring the game down. Sometimes you can't even understand what they're saying and it completely ruins the effect the voice acting had to begin with. Even if you've never played the original ToP, you'll still be bothered by the mediocre job of voice acting. The sound effects aren't too bad, and still fit the game just not as well.
It's sad that all the great songs, effects, and voice acting, was replaced by these new things, it doesn't make sense why they would fool with perfection. This just proves, that some things never need to be touched no matter how old they are.
Graphics: These graphics were and still are amazing and really show off the hardware no matter what version it is. Back in '96 the graphics were really great, and fortunately they look even better on the GBA. You can see the shadows of characters, see leaves fall, grass sway, and everything just seems to be alive. The water effects are very good and it's hard to believe you can get these kinds of graphics on the GBA. Artwork for the characters looks great, the expressions when they're happy, sad, or got hurt in battle are still awesome and you couldn't ask for more. The detail in everything, the enemies, NPCs, bosses, dungeons, towns, and even just forests is amazing and great to look at.
It's the kind of game that you look at and say "I can't believe those are possible on the GBA." The magic looks good too, not quite as good as some games, but the summons and magic do look very well done, and show off amazing detail. Because there's a better selection of color now, the graphics are brighter and look better than the original's do. Of course, while it looks really good overall it's not quite on the same level as some other games and that is to be expected. But everything looks great and just adds to the experience. It's also nice to see different items on the characters, because they look good and you can see the obvious difference in each item. Backgrounds are really well done, they look great and on the level of the best games for graphics.
Gameplay: This is the main thing that still sets ToP in a different league than other RPGs. In most RPGs, you either take turns or atleast wait for a time to attack, but this is not the case with ToP. The action-oriented combat system is a lot of fun to use, you control Cless, and can attack using the attack button in combination with the control pad for different techniques. You can do jumping attacks and normal attacks, plus you'll learn secret techniques that are very powerful and are a lot of fun to pull off. This system is interesting, and it lets you chain regular attacks and secret techniques, so you can practically juggle your enemies. If you want to learn the secret techniques, you'll first have to master two regular techniques and then you can use it. While you control Cless, you can attack of course, give orders to your allies, and use different items on who you want to. Of course your allies aren't helpless, they'll assist you with magic and items, to win the battle.
You can choose what you want your allies to do in battle, by selecting them to either use their best spells, save magic, or don't use magic at all. While they're a big help, they're only AI, so sometimes you'll have to select the right move to use against a certain elemental boss, like with a fire type boss, they might use fire magic, so you need to get them to use water attacks. You can also turn on and off what magic you want them to use. The way you run away from battles is also different, you run to the left or right edge of the screen, and a meter will fill up and when it does you can run away, but getting hit will lower the meter so be careful. Fighting isn't all you'll be doing though, you'll be going to towns and villages, talking to NPCs, for clues and items, tackling dungeons and side quests, fighting bosses, and all the other RPG kind of stuff.
Besides the usual leveling up, you find items that can increase your attack, TP, HP, agility, and defense. These items are rare, and very helpful when you find them. Besides the main adventure, there will be tons of secrets and side quests to unlock and uncover. They range from trading cards to finding someone, to winning a race. ToP is pretty open-ended and that means you can go at your own pace, and explore what you want to. The puzzles in dungeons, aren't too difficult and are pretty standard for RPGs. You'll get to discover different things about characters, that are optional and are pretty cool, and it will add to the character's personality. This is a very immersive and addicting game, from the second I put it in my GBA, I couldn't stop playing for hours. You really feel like you accomplish something with each dungeon, and you can't wait to do the next thing.
The gameplay is slower than the PSX and SNES versions, but that's to be expected since it's on the GBA. Framerate is not a problem with this game and it flows smoothly throughout. Even though it's slower, it fits the game on the GBA, so it doesn't feel out of place. The story is filled with tons of cool subplots, and these help give more personality to each character. Even though they did change some of the original music, some of the names of the characters and items, they added some stuff as well. They wanted this to feel kind of like ToS, so there's now a Collector's Book which tells you how many of the total items you got, and there's a Cooking System now, that's like the one in ToS. There's also a Monster Book, which records the enemies you've fought and their strengths and weaknesses.
What's nice is, that whether you do get secrets and sidequests, the game will still last you atleast 30 hours on your first time through. Even though there's so much to do all the time, you never feel bogged down and frantic thinking about what to do next. The story is amazing, and is one of the main driving forces behind why this game is so addicting. There's also difficulty levels in ToP, you can start out playing on Easy or Normal, and once you beat the game you can choose Hard. Some of the downsides, are the changes made to what was pretty much perfection, there's no no log book or anything like that, so if you get lost it could be for a while, so pay attention. For some reason, random battles happen way more than they should, in fact in dungeons where it's really bad it's the battles not the puzzles that will frustrate you. There is an item to make them less frequent, but even then they're pretty bad. The original ToP had another first, it was rated M. There was swearing, including use of the "f" word, there was tons of sexual humor and it all made this game feel more unique than ever. All of the mature stuff was pretty funny, and most enjoyed it, and that was the reason it never made it to the US. So, the game is edited, it got an E10 rating, and most of the language is taken out. You'll hear damn sometimes, but nothing more, and the sexual humor is barley suggestive now, so even though you didn't need it, it was still nice to have in there. The only other thing, is that when you save, it takes a full minute to save, so you'll find yourself trying not to save as often as possible.
Features: Once you beat the game, you can start a New Game +, where your Collector's Book and Monster Book carry over, so you can have a chance at a perfect game. You also unlock a mini game, called "Let's Go Arche!" It's an interesting mini game, and won't take you a long time to beat, but it ties into the main story nicely, and there are five different endings. You won't get anything other than an ending for beating it, but it was a nice addition. You'll also get the Hard difficulty, which makes the game much harder than it is. There's also a secret character this time, her name is Suzu she was in ToP before, but this time you can play as her when she joins your party.
Replay: Although you'll be addicted to it, and won't be able to put it down until you beat it, once you beat it you probably won't feel like playing it through again just yet. It's a fun game, and is pretty long so you will eventually go back to enjoy this game again, but not more than probably 2-3 times a year. Because of how good a game this is, you will keep returning to it, because of how much fun it is. The replay is good, and while there are games that have better replay value, there's still a good amount in ToP.
Overall: ToP was and still is a good game, thanks to the rich story, interesting characters, exciting battles, fun puzzles, length, and the slew of secrets and side quests. Because of how well everything was done and because of such a high production value, this is still one of the best RPGs to this day. While Misnaming characters and items, changing some music, taking out the mature content, and a few other things, wasn't a good idea and definitely takes a good deal away from the game, it's still a good game. The graphics are amazing and make this game just come to life, it's truly great looking and rivals Golden Sun, Gunstar Super Heroes, and Minish Cap. The sound of course, is not nearly as good as it was originally, but atleast it still fits the game.
ToP is finally portable, and is still a good experience and should be missed by no one. The fighting is still fun, while it doesn't have the same sense of new and revolutionary that it did back in the day, it's still fun and interesting. The characters all come alive thanks to the great lines, and unique personalities. While the voices were poorly done, they still are nice to hear. Going through three timelines to conquer evil is still cool. Even with all the mistakes made, ToP is still a good game at it's core. The replay is pretty good, and the new features are nice and a welcome addition to a solid game. All these years later ToP still is a good example of how to make a game, and that's because it wasn't afraid to be different. We owe ToP thanks for influencing all RPGs after it.
Score: 8.3/10. GNR's "Buy It" Award
If you've never been lucky enough to play the defining RPG, then now is your chance. For those that have never played this game, it is a must buy, and for those of us that have played any of the other three versions, you might as well just stick with the version you have. Players that have never played the others, won't notice the differences, and they'll enjoy it more than those of us who have. After 10 years, ToP is finally in the US, and it's still a good game, with mistakes that mostly only players of the other versions will notice.