Tales of Phantasia (Super Nintendo) Review

Rather than creating a spectacular and intriguing storyline that grips you from start to finish, unfortunately all that we are 'treated' to is a bog-standard tale of a town that is completely destroyed, thus starting a mission to save the world. Vexed over the loss of his home, Cless is drawn into the mass battle, which takes place over three time periods, somewhat akin to the idea found in Chrono Trigger. As the game progresses, the story becomes slightly more interesting, with a fight for Magic control, five interesting characters that are met along the way and a sly humour that runs all the way through, showing that the game does not take itself too seriously, which is definitely a good thing.

Drawing yet another parallel to Seiken Densetsu 3, Tales of Phantasia is definitely a looker. The characters themselves might not have been quite up to Squaresoft standards, but on the whole everything was a level up from the usual SNES calibre. The hand-painted look was plentiful and really stood out, looking stunning on your television set. This game was eventually ported the PlayStation, but other than the added FMV clips the visual differences were minimal and the game stands out as being very attractive even with today's fancy next-generation hardware. Watching as the well-built sprites wander around and have their own reflection in nearby water, or the knee-shaking magical effects during battles is something that could be done all day long.

When the game was being hyped up for release, the main focus in all the magazines was on how Namco was planning to create the most music-intensive game to date. The cartridge was to be the biggest ever on the Super Nintendo, purely because a plethora of tunes, songs and even proper voices were going to be squeezed in alongside the high quality graphics and lengthy game itself. And damn is this a special aural treat! At the time, the idea of speech in a 16-bit game was unheard off really, but Namco had included a spoken introduction piece, constant player shouts during battles, a complete song (!) as well as an extensive soundtrack full of catchy tunes that sound brilliant pumping through a stereo system when your SNES is hooked up to one! All round Tales of Phantasia was and still is a resounding success in this area.

Remember the days when role-playing games were plagued by dreaded random battles? Yes, sure they still occur in RPGs nowadays, but things have been toned down considerably from way back when (or that is how it feels, anyway…) where every other footstep resulted in a fight. Guess what, though? Tales of Phantasia is a key example of such a game and it really can get to the point of stupidity, with it seeming just like as stated – run a few steps, fight, move on a little bit more, another fight. Rinse and repeat. However, the main reason why this remains a damn good game is due to the battle system not being obtuse. The little extras thrown in and side-quests also help to add a large amount of variety to the proceedings as well.

The actual battle mechanic takes place in a two-dimensional side-scrolling viewpoint, the now infamous 'Linear Battle System', starting with you and your team usually appearing on the left to begin with and your opponents on the other side. Your aim is take control of Cless, whilst the computer moves around your teammates, using any technique you can to despatch those in your way. This can either be by tapping the attack button as quickly as possible, choosing magical attacks from a pop-up menu screen, or even using D-pad combinations to reel off special moves.

Everything proves to be highly intuitive, but not too simple that it becomes tiresome. The special moves are particular interesting, as it brings a different feel to the genre, a somewhat Street Fighter-esque slant that adds a lot, especially as new skills are picked up over the duration of the game. You can also change the way your other fighters act in the midst of a battle, such as making Mint heal automatically whenever anybody needs it, having Klarth summon magical spirits constantly until his magic points run out or have Arche unleash her mysterious powers to a specific degree. And if you tell them to do something, then that is what they do – these are not stupid characters like in some RPGs, they do actually follow orders!

Tales of Phantasia, as mentioned before, is a little bit tongue-in-cheek at times. For instance, one of the running themes in the game is that of cooking. Yes, you can seriously whip up a tasty little dish whilst playing through the game! Each character has different areas of expertise and over time, the more they cook, the better they become. Depending on the quality of the final product, the outcome can greatly increase your health or magic points in-between battles. However, you cannot 'cheat' as such by over-feeding each character because they will tell you that they are no longer hungry or thirsty. Levelling-up your team is imperative as the game gets very hard later on, but this does not prove to be too arduous as the amount of battles encountered tend to make it so your whole group are quite powerful by half-way through the adventure. Finally, just as found in the recent Tales of Symphonia on the GameCube, you will find that your actions will change the Title given to each character, which can prove to be a nice little amusing addition that rounds off a sometimes frustrating, but ultimately highly enjoyable romp.

Weighing in at a tasty forty-fifty hours before even thinking about starting the side-quests and hidden extras, Tales of Phantasia proves to be one of the most satisfying adventures and best value for money that can be found on the 16-bit platform. However, there is the small drawback of the length being extended by a pointless amount of random battles. But as most normal enemies can be finished off quite quickly this should not prove to be too much of a deterrent. The first parts of the game should not be too difficult for gamers to work through thanks to the ease with which you can become familiar with the battle system, but real thought will have to come into play later on in order to overcome the tougher foes. Not bad, no?