Gaming often moves in mysterious ways. Games that are critically praised sell only a handful of copies, consoles and games that are snubbed at the time of their release gather a cult following as time passes, games that no one of would have bet two cents on become massive hits; and last but not least, games that don't have a shred of originality in their code become the starting point of a thriving franchise that's still going strong twenty years later.
That last sentence perfectly applies to Tales of Phantasia.
First released on the SNES in 1995 and then on a slew of other systems, ToP is
the prime example of a game that should have remained a one-shot yet somehow
miraculously managed to give birth to a whole series. They say hindsight is
20/20; but hindsight is no help at all when trying to understand how an RPG so
unremarkable and cookie-cutter could become the founding ground of what is
today one of the most recognizable JRPG series. ToP is a lacklustre
potpourri of all the 16-bit RPG tropes under the gaming sun and could as well
have been called "16-bit RPG 101". It has your nondescript 16-bit-ish
pixelated graphics that should elicit nostalgia yet fail partly at it because
of the colours being on the dreary side of the spectrum, your mandatory Mode 7
map that stopped being impressive long ago, your strident soundtrack that tries
to sound mysterious and inspired and fails utterly at it, your peaceful home
village that will inevitably end up burnt to the ground and kickstart the whole
adventure in the process, your cast of colourful characters that join the hero
a mere five minutes after meeting him, your everything that screams
16-bit RPG. I don't think I've ever played an RPG that felt so utterly familiar
and derivative and borrowed so much from its forebearers (except maybe for Tales
of Hearts R; but more on that later). This shameless borrowing actually
verges on plagiarism, with the story being a pared-down rip-off of Secret of
Mana sprinkled with a bit of Lord of the Rings. I guess the only
reason why Squaresoft didn't sue Namco into oblivion at the time was the fact
that all RPG stories were pretty unimaginative back then and tended to recycle
the same elements ad nauseam. Now that I think of it, they still do so
nowadays — but I
digress.
So if ToP is that run-of-the-mill, uninventive 16-bit RPG, how could it
achieve what countless other more original 16-bit RPGs, from Bahamut Lagoon to
Secret of Evermore, failed to achieve? How could it warrant no only a
sequel, but fifteen of them — and that's without even counting the spin-offs?
Well, I have my own theory about the matter. I'd wager that the first and most
minor reason ToP became the first entry in a series rather than a mere
one-shot is its very title. The Tales of- structure can lend
itself to all sorts of variations and potentially give birth to a infinity of
games, and it carries an aura of mystery and whimsical sophistication to boot.
Now that may seem like a petty and silly reason to transform an isolated game
into a full-blown series; but let's be honest, stranger things have happened in
the gaming industry, and we all know how important a striking title is in
establishing a gaming series' brand.
But not wanting to waste a perfectly good title is obviously not the only
reason ToP became the founding ground of its own series; in my
opinion, the second and major reason this happened is ToP's fighting
system. Pompously dubbed the "Linear Motion Battle System" by Namco
themselves, this fighting system is all at once the game's saving grace and its
only genuinely original feature. It revolves entirely around position and
timing, the key to fighting prowess being to move around nimbly and to trigger
attacks at the right time in order to strike foes without being hit. It also
has a steep learning curve and requires a lot of practise to be fully mastered,
but it only gets better as the game progresses. Although it's prone to the
occasionnal bout of clunkiness, with Cress being sometimes as easy to move
around as a 36 ton truck, this fighting system is overall a true gem that
stands halfway between the hecticness of action-based fighting systems and the
deliberation of turn-based fighting systems. I'm quite convinced that this
highly technical and demanding fighting system, which is still pretty unique
and unrivaled to this day, is the jewel in the series' crown and its main
selling point. It's not a coincidence if Namco have been refining and honing
this fighting system with virtually every Tales entry; it was a huge
asset in 1995 and still is nowadays, all the more as no other mainstream RPG
series has dared tread on that ground.
In a way, even ToP's utter genericness may actually be a strength,
thanks to its all-encompassing quality. This is the kind of genericness that
stems not from a lack of inspiration, but rather from a true love for its own
genre and a desire to be inclusive and comprehensive. I already commented on
the fact that Tales of Hearts R felt like a compendium of all modern
JRPGs; and since the same holds true for ToP, I'm starting to think that
this is an overall characteristic of the Tales series. That makes that
series a perfect flagship for the JRPG genre; as a matter of fact, if I had to
recommend a JRPG to someone who never played any, I would probably go for the Tales
series. Tales games pack all the tropes and trappings of the genre
while offering a compelling fighting system that should draw in players
allergic to turn-based combat, they involve little to no level-grinding and
last but not least, they are mercifully shorter than your average Final
Fantasy or Dragon Quest, clocking at roughly 35 hours on average.
Heck, you could easily get your regular fix of over-the-top JRPG-ness solely by
investing in the Tales series.
I've poured 14 hours in the GBA version of Tales of Phantasia so
far, and a future run report is obviously in the pipeline. I'll keep the
suspense intact by shelving my feelings about the game until then — which basically means that this post is a wrap.
See you soon for a more personal take on my ToP experience, dear fellow
gamers! Thanks for reading, and be my guest anytime!
8 comments:
Funny thing
that you should mention the Tales series. I'm also trying to get into the
series right now, though the only games I have are the ones available on PS3
and PS4 (minus Berseria cause it's so new and it hasn't been on sale yet). Me
being me I decided to start with the legendary Tales of Symphonia, since it was
the oldest title I had.
And I can see why it's legendary. I'm 10 hours into it and the story already
has more twists and emotional punches than most other RPGs combined, and I know
I've barely scratched the surface. There's no doubt in my mind that the plot is
a real stand out among average RPGs. It touches all the generic tropes, but it
does bring it own uniqueness to them. Even if the other games you're tried have
failed to capture your attention, I think the plot in Symphonia would win you
over.
And yet...I don't wanna play it anymore, at all. I abandoned it in January so I
could get ready for Digimon Next Order and to play the demo to Tales of
Berseria. Ironically enough I've preferred to replay the Berseria demo over and
over than come back to Symphonia. Purely because I find the combat in Berseria
to be fun, and the one on Symphonia to be boring. While you say the combat is
Phantasia's only saving grace, I cannot stand how it works in Symphonia and
Abyss. I much prefer the newer titles in that regard, even if classic lovers
think it's simplified.
Maybe the combat gets better later on, but it doesn't change the fact that it's
really boring for me right now and I don't like to wait 25 hours before the
combat gets good, especially not in RPGs were grinding is necessary! And it
really doesn't help that traveling to the world map is also really boring and
that the grinding it so slow that it feels terribly unrewarding to even fight
the boring battles in the first place. And for someone who usually likes
grinding, making that part of your RPG boring is a cardinal sin. That's the
main reason I play!
I also don't really care for the graphics, so I don't even enjoy looking at the
boring battles. I have a lot of trouble with the chibi style graphics of most
RPGs of the time, which doesn't help. I'm okay with the chibi style we have
today in most games, but the ones in the PS2 era look awful to me.
I had a similar experience with Tales of the Abyss on the 3DS, another beloved
tittle in the franchise. Only I could barely stand the 6 hours I put into it.
Unlike Symphonia, the little I saw of the story and characters put me off
immensely and did I mention the battles were boring already? I sure hope the
rest of that game is stellar story-wise, otherwise I really can't see why that
game is so beloved.
Sometimes, the newer titles in beloved series are better suited for late
comers, no matter how classic and "intricate" the old titles were.
I'm definitely glad that the battle system is miles better nowadays and that
they got rid of the awful world map entirely. I'm thinking of giving up on
Symphonia and jumping over Tales of Graces F entirely; I know tales of Xilia
and even the much maligned Tales of Zesteria would be a much better fit for me.
I'm not even gonna think about the 16-bit titles.
On other news, did you know Atlus is bringing over Caligula on the Vita to the
West on May 2nd, in both Europe and America? It's sadly digital only, but I'm
SO excited!! This is the game that I want the most on the Vita, even more than
Demon Gaze 2. Everything about it just screams it's something I'd love. With
500+ NPCs to use in battle, I'm not even ashamed to admit I'm gonna make a male
harem tailored to my tastes (if 4 people is a harem that is). No annoying
tsundere princesses or stand offish jerks in my combat party, I can finally
ignore them like I always wanted to. And that art! So delicious and pleasing to
the eyes, yet unique enough to sorta stand out from the average anime stye.
Mmm, May 2nd cannot come fast enough, I love you Atlus.
"And I can
see why it's legendary/And yet...I don't wanna play it anymore, at all":
These sentences somehow sum up my relationship with the Tales series so far.
I've played two entries before Phantasia, namely Tales of Hearts R and Tales of
the Abyss, and my feelings towards these games are similar: I both love and
hate them, if such a thing is possible. They had be glued to my 3DS and Vita
allright, but they also irritated me to no end. No other game series ever had
this effect on me.
Tales of the Abyss is a truly remarkable game, mostly due to its excellent
pacing. The game world is gorgeous and the characters really grow on you after
a while. I polished it off in a mere five days in some sort of frenzy; and yet
when the credits rolled, I vomited the whole thing and never wanted to touch it
again. Yet at the same time, I really loved it. It's a weird mix of feelings,
and I just can't wrap my head around them.
I knew about Caligula, and it's definitely on my purchase list! Too bad it's
digital only; but hey, that's the way the gaming industry is going. If I love
it, I'll probably invest in a japanese copy. ^^
The Tales of
games are a weird thing. On one hand, they're not that great at all. On the
other hand, I keep buying them all, playing them and having fun. Well, at least
I'm having fun and that's what matters. Except Symphonia and Xillia. Those two
were a pain to play.
Oh and Isleif, you should play the SNES version of ToPhantasia at least a bit
just to compare the experience. The GBA port is in the hall of fame of some of
the worst ports ever. Blind idiot translation, terrible sound quality, bad palette conversion,
etc etc. Namco did a
really poor job with GBA Phantasia.
That's a great
summary of the Tales series. These games are neither truly remarkable nor
ground-breaking, yet they manage to be genuinely fun.
I cannot promise that I'll ever try the SNES version of ToP, because I've
pretty much given up on emulation after diving back into gaming a couple of
years ago... :P But I sure notice that this GBA port was more than a bit
butchered.
I tried playing
Tales of the Abyss on the 3DS about a year and a half ago. To quote the first
Gamefaqs thread I found while trying to figure out the more complicated battle
mechanics: "I'm about 5 hours into the game and I feel like I don't have a
clue what's going on. FoF circles? Cores? I have no idea how to play this
game."
That is how I felt after 18 hours. Nothing at all about it made sense, the
story was all over the place, I had to look up Youtube story explanations on
the hour, I mean come on.
Ya know, the concept of wanting to love a video game is very strange to me,
because sometimes they feel perfect, and other times they feel the complete
opposite. Not very often do you find something in the middle, it's either it
works for you or it doesn't. Spending 18 hours only to quit and never have even
an inkling of a desire to go back really says a lot.
This game constantly struggled to be on the positive side, but ultimately tooka
nose dive off the other side. Constant endless cutscenes, hundreds of
characters introducing themselves only for me to forget their names hours
later, long-ass diatribes and flashbacks, stories, oh please. I just couldn't
do it.
Which is unfortunate because I would have loved to find a new series that
wasn't turn based. But it just didn't happen. Every time I won a boss battle, I
felt like I was just mashing buttons and even after EIGHTEEN HOURS I barely
even had a battle strategy except for "get really lucky".
Really turned me off to the Tales of series!
It looks like
Tales of the Abyss traumatized more than one gamer out there... I mean, this
post is all about Tales of Phantasia, and yet we're talking about TotA in the
comments, which is quite telling.
To be honest, TotA is not the best game for a newcomer to the series. It has a
fighting system that's way too complicated for its own good and a story that
is, as you put it well, "all over the place". If you want to give the
series another chance, I would recommend going for Tales of Hearts R on the
Vita. It has a simple and clear-cut plot and a fighting system that's much
easier to understand and master. Tales of Phantasia is also a good game in its
own right, especially if you're a 16-bit RPG aficionado. It has all the
trappings of the genre, combined to a really refreshing fighting system that
was quite a novelty at the time and is still pretty rare nowadays. From what I
know, only the Star Ocean series offered a similar fighting system, and they
didn't refine at as much as Namco did refine the titular Tales fighting system
over the years.
Oh awesome!
I've considered trying Tales of Hearts R (or at least picking it up cheap) on
the Vita while surveying the game offering landscape on more than one occasion.
I will have to glance through a Let's Play and see if it looks like it'll be
something I enjoy.
Thanks Isleif!
You're welcome, Geddy! I hope you'll like it. :)
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