An Epic The Likes We Will Never See, Part 1

[Dracos]

In the mid ninteen ninties, The Super Nintendo was dying out.  The Dolphin was on the horizon.  The Playstation thundering slowly into town.  It was during this that Nintendo Power did a brief spread on some new game that was in development by Namco.  Tales of Phantasia.

This game never made it here.  It was a tragedy.  The executives decided that in the end era of the SNES it would be completely overshadowed by what was leading the way on the playstation.  They may have been right, but it robbed us of a truly great game.

This though would not stand and thanks to very persistant hackers, a translated version of the game was eventually made.

It was glorious.

Tales of Phantasia is easily within the top three RPGs produced on the SNES system, delivering a powerful and epic story of a few young adventurers and their battle against the Dhaos, a mystical king who has waged war against mankind for many years before being sealed away by their parents.

From there we see their battle across time and space, deep into the underground and in the skies above.  An epic story spanning hundreds of years with neat characters and witty dialogue and voice acting back two eras before it became commonplace in games, possibly the earliest known example in console RPGs.

Tales of Phantasia also featured a rather unique 2d action fighting system which set the trend for the rest of the Tales series.  You played Cless, a mighty fighter who could wield a variety of weapons and utilize a number of interesting skills while the other characters (all more magically or ranged inclined) backed you up in a street fighter like playing field with the monsters spread about.  The result was you really felt like you were playing Cless, not the team.  Instead of the casual sort of 'everyone is replacable' setup, there was a real sensation that THIS was who you were role playing, augmented by some solo segments throughout the game.  The other characters were controlled by a combination of programmable AI and commands that could be issued.

The graphics, while not astonishingly impressive by today's standards, were easily the best to grace the SNES stage.  The music was composed by Motoi Sakuraba of Star Ocean fame who was simply at his best for the performance, making what stands as one of his most memorable soundtracks.

This is one of the better RPGs to grace the scene and something not to be missed.  Do it, or Arche won't moan for you.

Dracos

[Rift120]

Hey Draco, having just recived a the OST for ToP (My preciousss....yes..it is... ) reminded me to ask this:


Considering that NIntendo is now releasing Tales of Phantasia for hte GBA stateside,you going to update this?

[Dracos]

This review?  No.

I may well review the GBA version though.

Dracos