Following the giant footsteps of well known RPG's such as Final Fantasy I & II Dawn of Souls, and Final Fantasy IV Advance, comes a lesser known RPG, Tales of Phantasia. In it's day Tales of Phantasia paved the way for the rest of the Tales's series, such as Tales of Symphonia, a grand masterpiece. For people who loved other Tales' games, it's not such a bad idea to buy the Tales' game that started it all, and the one that never reached american shores ever before. Altogether, Tales of Phantasia is a good game, it boosts a strong story, and a unique battle system that is both it's success and downfall. With a looooong story and a plethora of items and side quests to attain, ToP will keep you busy for a long while. That is, if you can deal with the minor annoyances the game throws at you. First of all, ToP's real time battle system, although unique and interesting for a handheld game, doesn't come close to other RPG's real time battling system. The characters annoying yelling and screaming sounds tacky and painful on the GBA tiny speakers, and characters painfully slow attacks make the purpose of "real-time" battling pointless. You'll hit a button, say the attack button, and 5 or 6 seconds after you press it the character will actually finish the attack, and that's just for the simple attack, more complex moves require annoying timing and a lot of waiting and frustration. The characters move so awkwardly in battle you'd think it was in slow-motion. On the topic of sound ToP is just plain annoying. The moment you turn it on you hear some old man quoting some boring irrelevant quote over the GBA's tiny, speakers. Who thought of putting voice overs in a GBA game? Luckily, the game offers the option to turn the voice audio OFF, and for good reason because those annoying battles with the characters yelling annoying voice-overs are a killer. To sum it up, adding voice to GBA games is EVIL TO YOUR EARS! it sounds so painfully tacky I laugh at the developers for putting it in there, you stupid peices of... sorry, it's just THAT bad, end of rant. As for graphics, the developers did a fair job of touching up the graphics, allthough for newer players who are obsessed with good graphics, this game will disapoint, if just a bit. Perhaps the most annoying thing about the graphics is the poor lighting. The inside of dungeons, houses, castles, forests, etc. is so dim you can barely make out anything. It took me about 3 hours of playing before I could finally settle for the fact that my eyes were not going and that the game is just incredibly dim. This is annoying because you can't see where your going sometimes and can't tell what your surroundings are in the game. However the game IS playable, even though it's a bit dim. In conclusion, this game is a bit of a let-down, I liked FF IV for the GBA, which came out last december, but just because one remake was good, doesn't mean they all are. ToP manages to be worth playing because of it's deep storyline and classic RPG play, and if you liked any other Tales's games (You'll see a lot of parralells) this one might be worth buying. But if your looking for a RPG that is wondefully made and presented, look further, This game just isn't all it's trying to be.
I would advise anyone who has played the SNES version or the PS remake of this game, to stay away from this. I mean lets face it, Tales of Phantasia is Tales of Phantasia, its still one of the best games ever made, a... Read Full Review
Tales of Phantasia is a great game. I'll go out and say that now. It's an old game, but with the word "Tales" in front of it, you know it's going to be great. ToP starts out with a boy named Cress. Cress lives in the ... Read Full Review
