Tales of Phantasia Info

Tales of Phantasia

Release dates and platforms:
SuperFamicom (JP) - December 15, 1995
PlayStation 1 (JP) - December 23, 1998
GameBoy Advance (JP) - August 01, 2003
GameBoy Advance (US) - March 06, 2006
PlayStation Portable (JP) - September 7, 2006

Story:

Long before the actual story of the game, the Demon Lord Dhaos wreaked havoc in the land of Aselia. Four warriors, still unknown at the beginning, were able to seal him off using the power of two pendants.

Years later, young swordsman Cless Alvein and his bestfriend, the archer Chester Barklight of the village of Totus go off on a hunting trip, only to find their village razed to the ground when they returned. During the massacre, Chester's little sister Amy and both of Cless' parents get killed.

After a series of events, Cless meets the cleric, Mint Adnade, who mysteriously holds a pendant similar to that Cless' father gave to him. Later, they realize that these are the keys that seals off Dhaos power. Unfortunately, they are too late, and the Dhaos is revived. They are then sent to 100 years in the past in order to find more powerful warriors to aid them. And so, their journey begins...

Cast:

Cless Alvein
Mint Adnade
Chester Barklight
Arche Klaine
Klarth F. Lester
Suzu Fujibayashi (she's playable since the 1998 version)

Systems:

Cooking

Cooking is a way to recover HP and TP or to cure from a status. To cook the player must first find the recipes, which are usually hidden, and obtain ingredients from battles or buy them. If the meal is cooked successfully the character’s cooking skill will increase, which is important, because if a character’s cooking skill is low that character may fail to cook the meal.

Monster Collector Book

When a player encounters a monster, its data, such as HP, TP, EXP gained after battle, will be recorded in this book. The player can then view this book at any time to gain and remember knowledge on previous encounters, so they can be better prepared for the future.

Skits

This feature only appears in the PSP version and this is when animated pictures of the characters faces appear and they have conversations that are crucial to character development, and really help to flesh out the plot and even give hints and help on what to do next.

Grade Shop

The Grade Shop is also a PSP feature only. After battles you will receive a certain amount of Grade, based on your performance, and when you end the game the Grade Shop will be available for your next play. Here you can purchase items that will help you on your next playthrough, such as double EXP, more GRADE, transfer all items, etc.

Battle:

Linear Motion Battle System

Tales of Phantasia was the first game to ever utilize the Linear Motion Battle System, and it was unlike anything ever seen before when first released for the Super Famicom in Japan. It is real-time and it allows the player to attack, slash, thrust the enemy and perform skills and spells all with different button combinations, very similar to the engine in any fighting game. The player is only able to control one character in battle, however, the player can give orders to the other party members. The player will be able to attack the enemies with a press of a button and perform skills and spells by pressing a specific combination of buttons.

Unfortunately, this system was a little too ambitious for its time, and suffered a bit in consequence. The battle system was very choppy, and the action would constantly stop whenever a spell or summon was performed. Also, for some reason, the character was not under full player control, and would contstantly move around, uncalled for. Both the Super Famicom and Game Boy Advance versions are plagued with this problem.

Playstation and PSP Re-release

The remake for the original Playstation in 1998 fixed this problem, and the battle system became much smoother and quicker. Also, the port to PSP was the first to change the disproportionate chibi-style sprites Tales of Phantasia had been using for the past ten years. The characters were taller, and the sprites were more in a style akin to Tales of Eternia than any previous Tales of Phantasia game.

Theme song:

Title Yume-wa Owaranai
Artist Seiji Sasaki
Language Japanese
Lyrics http://www.animelyrics.com/game/top/topywo.htm
Yume-wa Owaranai, or "The Dream will not die," was the first theme song to be used in the Tales series. It was also a landmark because the full song, including vocals, was played in-game in the Super Famicom version. No other game at the time had ever inserted vocals in a game, and it was quite a feat for the Tales series

«The original Phantasia gained attention as «the RPG that sings.» -Mint

Viva Tales of: Apple Gumi (Tales of Phantasia):

part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIqPHbdf_K4
part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-yB3-pQAhs

The Animation:

http://www.fantasyanime.com/legacy/top.htm

This link also leads to alot of information and stuffs about Tales of Phantasia.