GBAtemp Recommends Revival # 022

[Another World]

Welcome to the 22nd issue of the GBAtemp Recommends Revival Project! This project is a weekly feature where we share our favorite games and applications with you. The things we recommend may be "old school" titles, a Homebrew, a ROM hack, sleeper hits, an application, etc, but one thing's for certain, we think they are fantastic and deserve your attention!

This issue has been written by GBAtemp community member Rydian

GBAtemp Recommends!

Tales of Phantasia​

From left to right: SNES, PSX, GBA​

Tales of Phantasia is a jRPG game originally released for the Super Nintendo. It's a story of time travel and revenge, taking place in three time periods across the world. The game was quite advanced for the time, containing a fully-voiced intro song, an active battle system (opposed to the pseudo-turn-based ones of the day), and a long storyline with many optional sidequests and some optional dungeons. The characters have their pasts and motives fleshed out, providing backstory and plot twists, even up through the ending. The graphics are well-done, the music is memorable, and overall it's a very good RPG.

However, being the first game in the Tales series but not getting an official english release for over 10 years, it's a relatively-unknown entry. Originally released in 1995, it was remade for the Playstation three years later with an updated engine and included many enhancements. Later it was remade for the GBA with many of the PSX's enhancements, though in the graphical style of the SNES version.

• The SNES version was only released in Japan, but has been fan-translated into many languages. This is the original version, but that doesn't mean it's the best. Although it was technically-advanced for the time and the first to use a 48Mbit cart, it was still limited in some cases by the capabilities of the SNES, which is likely why a remake was made for the PSX only three years later.

• The PSX version was remade with a different engine, and includes such enhancements as FMVs, a 3D world map, and many additions to the gameplay including a new playable character and a couple more cutscenes and quests. Some of the core mechanics of the game have been changed (such as removing the food bag system in favor of cooking), and the battle system has been fleshed out a bit, with some characters gaining abilities and additional controls for characters being added. Overall it's quite a well-done remake.

• The GBA version retains many of the story, gameplay, and balance improvements from the PSX version, but uses the 2D maps and world graphics from the SNES version due to hardware limitations. Unfortunately the FMVs and intro song have been removed, though voice acting for character spells and attacks is retained, with english voices for the localized copies. While this version does have a lot of things from the PSX one cut, it is very close to the original and still retains many of the improvements so it's worth considering, especially since it's likely the easiest to get ahold of.

Genre: RPG
Type: Retail Release
Release Date: December 15, 1995 / December 23, 1998 / March 6, 2006
Published by: Namco
System: SNES / PSX / GBA

If you enjoyed this weeks edition of GBAtemp Recommends! please leave a comment in the thread. This helps us monitor feedback and ensures we keep posting these articles in the future.

Official GBAtemp Recommends! Mini-Page & History

 

[Cyan]

This is a great game, which I played in Japanese.
I understood just enough to know what to do next and where to go.

I couldn't beat the last boss (no attack connected, I guess It required something special but I didn't understood what to do).
Few months later, DeJap released their English patch, but I didn't have time to re-play it. Someday I'll play it again on Snes, not GBA or PSX, for nostalgia.

Graphically advanced for the Snes, with a lot of voice over (song intro, all spells are dubbed), Innovative battles on a side view, it will stay for me one of the best game I played.

 

[Ryupower]

i like the tales game
i played 3 versions

but
there is a psp version(s) of the game as well
Tales of Phantasia ~ Full Voice Edition
Tales of Phantasia X

there is also an English patch of the psx version
http://a0t.co/phantasia/

 

[Rydian]

Didn't mention the PSP version since it's status on going into english (officially or not) is undecided, whereas all the others are english either officially or not.

I couldn't beat the last boss (no attack connected, I guess It required something special but I didn't understood what to do).

One of the story points was that Dhaos could only be hurt by magic, which is partially why your group goes out of it's way a lot to gather summons and spells and such first. In the final battle he'll switch colors to denote he can either be hurt with physcial attack, or only with magic. Even then it's still kinda' hard..

 

[Cyan]

I understood that I needed something special like a magic, but the fight lasted many minutes without me figuring which magic to use.
I hope to replay it in English

 

[Rydian]

Usually one of Arche's will do, the main character's skills aren't really considered magic for the point of the story... though once Dhaos's sheild is down, using the soul techniques is awesome.

 

[Nathan Drake]

Something to note is that many of the jokes and innuendo was deemed inappropriate, and was cut from the GBA version. The humor is one of the reasons some people really love this game. I personally got near the end, but only with an FAQ. Maybe I just wasn't patient enough, but the lack of direction was really killing me. I own the GBA cart though, so maybe I'll try it again, eventually.

 

[Satangel]

So, if I want to play this game, which version do you recommend? I have the luxury of being able to play all of these versions on my PSP.

 

[Rydian]

Something to note is that many of the jokes and innuendo was deemed inappropriate, and was cut from the GBA version. The humor is one of the reasons some people really love this game. I personally got near the end, but only with an FAQ. Maybe I just wasn't patient enough, but the lack of direction was really killing me. I own the GBA cart though, so maybe I'll try it again, eventually.

I've actually read that some or possibly a lot of the humor was inserted by the DeJAP team. Apparantly the unofficial PSX translation sticks to the original better, but I haven't played it to see what it has or not. The GBA version certainly didn't have these moments.

So, if I want to play this game, which version do you recommend? I have the luxury of being able to play all of these versions on my PSP.

The PSX version appears to have the most content and accurate translation.

 

[servant]

I'm a bit torn on this one.
I don't typically pirate console games unless they are of older generations but from the previous post it sounds like the playstation version is the definitive version.
the game never got a English localization so is it really much better than the gba and snes ports?

 

[Rydian]

I haven't played the PSX version myself, but the GBA is still an improvement to the original, and shouldn't be that hard to find (I got my copy at walmart a few years back).

 

[servant]

thanks, I guess I'll start looking.