Tales of Phantasia for Game Boy Adv Reviews by Gamers

Wow. That was a beautiful game. Lets go into the categories shall we?

DISCLAIMER- you need to like RPGS to enjoy this

Graphics-10-Like the RPGs of old. Nothing beats the pixel days! Then again, its up to personal preference. I thought they were good, and to be honest, the look really takes you back to a day where RPGs were a dime-a-dozen...but a good one came rarely. This is one of those.

Gameplay-8-Ah, thank you "Tales Of" games. On the whole, the Tales Of games have a phenomenal combat system. Its all real-time, its all quite fast-paced and action-loaded, the attacks are cool and unique-and they each have strategic values which must be balanced to play effectively. This would earn a 9 (it would be 10 if there was a targeting system) BUT there's still RANDOM BATTLES! AARGH! These things really get old. However, it wouldn't be so retro if it didn't do random battles.

Storyline-10-10-10-10- 10- Very good. Deeply engrossing and emotionally involving. Plot lines flow gloriously, and when a twist comes, it rocks you so hard. I won't lie-my lip was trembling at the big twist... :,-(

Length-9-Most RPGs are long. This was a doooooozy. I mean, honestly. 92:some-odd hours. Thats roughly a month of playing 12 hours a day.

Overall Rating-9.5(which rounds to a 10). Final opinion- DON'T MISS THIS GAME!

Tales of Phantasia is another installment of the "Tales" series, which has been increasing in popularity since the American release of Tales of Symphonia. But a big name doesn't make the game.

Graphics: 7/10
The graphics were somewhat sub-par to what I'm used to on the GBA. Some of the characters were illustrated very well, but some of the time the animations threw me off. The backgrounds can become repetitive, and some of the monsters are just recolors of others.

Sounds: 5/10
The funny part of this is that the game has voiceovers. The bas part is that they sound pretty shoddy. The opening was in voiceovers, and I couldn't understand it. The BGMs are something out of a classical music album, so they lack originality.

Gameplay: 3/10
This is the worst part of the game. Outside of battle, moving is clumsy, and I once had troubles getting my character to step on a Save Glyph. Movement isn't grid based, so that's a plus. Inside battle, however, this game controls HORRIBLY. Phantasia has real time battles, in which you move around and press A to attack. This is performed clumsily, as they provide you with two options for battle. Semi-auto is where you control the attacks, but your character automatically runs back without giving you chance to guard a counterattack. Auto is when your character fights on its own (VERY poorly). To guard you have to hold down BEFORE you press R, if you hold R and press down, you issue the "Stay" command, which makes your other party members stand around and do nothing. I'm pretty sure that's a pretty bad place to set guard at.

Overall 3/10 - I sent it back the day I got it.

A little background. This is another installment of the "Tales" series, which features Real Time random battles. Now, Real time is sort of like... Zelda. But, these are random battles, with HP, magic, ect.

Story 4/10.
I made it through the first two hours of the game before I decided I didn't like it. VERY generic. I've played a few games with most of these plot elements. You and a friend go out into the woods... kill something, find out your town is in trouble, and BAM, everyone is dead, including your parents, and you want revnge... Then, you find out who does it (in a matter of... 20 minutes), and they summon this evil king character who has amazing powers, and basicly kills everyone, and you escape into the past. Thats as far as I got.

Graphic 7/10.
I enjoyed the smooth looking characters and backdrops. Sometime, I'm actually amazed by them. Others... it gets repeditive.

Sound 4/10.
The only points this gets... is from the music. Which is okay. The begining has VOICE OVERS (?!), which are poorly done, and you can't hear them. Then, well, when you cast a spell or something, your character shouts the name of the spell, which is mostly misunderstood, unless you know the name of the spell.

Controls 2/10.
Horrible. The controls aren't grid based, and I had loads of trouble getting on a savepoint a few times. RT battles are slow, and you barely have control over your character.

Battles 5/10.
Aside from the RT standplint, you have strategies your party members can use. Other than that, it is a bunch of button mashing, and even then, you really don't have full control over your character.

Overall 3/10.
I've had some trouble getting this game from GF (they sent me the wrong game, then it took another week or so to get it sorted out...) and come to find out, this game isn't worth it. The other files on the game were only played for ~4 hours. I'll be sending this one back today.

while in battle run in and then run back out to save hp

I played this game for a while and did not like it at all. I need games that arre mote like the Minish CAp!!

A really good game, aside from the summons taking forever, I wish the antagonist was more developed, but still a good play through, regardless. Dhaos, rocks.

I have to say, I am a huge fan of the tales series, but after playing Tales of Vesperia, I'm having a LOT of trouble going back to play the older ones. Phantasia just felt so much emptier then i recalled. I'm sure this is happening to a lot of us who have gotten used to next-gen gaming, and it's a real shame. What I'm saying: Boatload of fun and awesome story, but I couldn't jump back in time. My lust for graphics and better interactivity i kept me from enjoying this game.

If you haven't played it before, and are looking for a good RPG to play, I'd recommend Tales of Symphonia or Vesperia over this. Especially if you're like me and have lost touch with your roots. sad

ok, first of this game was great as a rom on you comp cause it ran smoothly but the fact is this port is ugly, I mean really ugly. more ugly in this game than a rolling stones group photo.

the game start's out well enough but then quickly turns sour. I felt gipped by the poor sound and bad battles. I got maybe 20 minutes into the game before I turned it off and sent it back.
now for tales port this game should have been a lot better. now if you can sit through the random battles and poor controls you might actully enjoy it. but I didn't and that's sad. so to keep it short and simple. don't rent it.

Just listen to the opening dialogue. If that doesn't convince you not to play the game, you're beyond help.

Some small measure of the gameplay is still intact beyond that, but it's honestly not worth trying. If a piece of chocolate falls into a pile of dung, you don't wipe the dung off and eat the chocolate.

The translation/localization/- sound people have done a horrible disservice to mankind and have completely destroyed a classic game.