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Whatcha Playing: Tales of Phantasia (PSX)

Posted by Bob Mackey

I've just sent my unfinished copy of Tales of Vesperia back to that big GameFly distribution center in the sky (or possibly Pittsburgh), which makes it the fourth Tales of title since Symphonia that I've been completely bored with--the others (in chronological order) were Legendia, The Abyss, and Dawn of the New World. As much as I wanted Vesperia to grab me, it was loaded down with the same problems that make me feel like a jackass for still showing interest in the JRPG genre; hell, even I can't tell you what keeps me coming back.

Around the same time I started playing through Vesperia, I picked up my first laptop, which unexpectedly became a portable Playstation--through completely legal means, I assure you. And since I'd been holding onto the new-ish translation of the PSX Tales of Phantasia remake (unreleased here), I figured I'd give it a spin to see if my interest in the franchise was always so ill-fated. Would you be surprised if I told you I ended up sinking more time into Phantasia than its much younger sibling?

No, I guess you wouldn't.

I think my love of the early Tales games (Phantasia, Destiny, and Eternia--released here as Destiny 2) stem from the fact that they feel like such labors of love. Arguably, Wolfteam was on firm ground from Destiny onwards, but the first three games of the franchise feel like they were handled with much more care than the factory-processed Tales games Namco now poops out twice yearly.The entirely-2D nature of the older titles may have a lot to do with it; the Tales series always had a reputation for really crisp, detailed sprites, but in the move to 3D, things got much more spartan and boring. Phantasia also has a refreshingly simple battle system in comparison to the cluttered controls of Vesperia, which asks you to push up and a button at the same time for a simple action like jumping. I dunno; it seems that the older I get, the more I start to realize that the limited framework of the traditional JRPG can only be stretched too far before it breaks.

For a more in-depth discussion on the JRPG, I'm afraid you'll have to wait for this Friday's 61FPS Roundtable Discussion on the topic. But please weigh in with your thoughts on the Tales series; I'm interested in knowing if it's lost anyone besides me.

Related Links:

Bad Games With Good Music: Tales of Legendia
Pay-Per-Grind: Tales of Vesperia Lets You Level With Cash
Star Ocean and the HD-JRPG Conundrum

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Posted Feb 11 2009, 04:00 PM

Filed under: tales of vesperia, jrpg, bob mackey, tales of, tales of games, tales of phantasia

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About Bob Mackey

For a brief period of time I was Bull from TV's Night Court, but some of you may know me from the humor column I wrote for Youngstown State University's The Jambar, Kent State University's The Stater, and Youngstown's alternative newspaper, The Walruss. I'm perhaps most well-known for my bi-weekly pieces on Something Awful. I've also blogged for Valley24.com and have written articles for EGM, 1UP, GameSpite and Cracked. For all of my writing over the years, I have made a total of twenty American dollars. It's also said that I draw cartoons, which people have described with words such as "legible." I kidnapped the Lindbergh Baby and am looking to do so again in the future.

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