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.