New Tales of Phantasia?

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New Tales of Phantasia?

Postby Fitz Tayo » Thu Mar 09, 2006 3:46 pm

Well, I've noticed they've remade Tales of Phantasia for the GBA. So I thought, "It'd be nice to play it again." and took it upon myself to check it out.

I was expecting a direct copy of the SNES version, maybe with some extras and probably worse sound (For example, I didn't expect the song in the pre-start menu intro type thing (Not the introduction to the game but the little clip you often see before the game menu (you know, with New Game etc. (Brackets are fun)))).

Well, sound-wise I was correct, but they'd also drastically altered the intro too, which miffed me a bit. Secondly sound-wise, they've re-recorded all the voices with tacky non-japanese voices. Some might enjoy this, I however don't. It just sounds cheap, cliche' and just plain crap like most English-language voices for games (barring things such as Metal Gear Solid or some other rare things).

Well now the next thing I noticed, they've removed that classic menu and replaced it with a much more bland one. This also however includes Tales of Symphonia aspects such as Titles, but without displaying what stat changes. As far as I could see (By comparison between titles), there were no stat changes. This pissed me off, I enjoyed ToS while playing it, but when it was done I realised I thought it was shite and now that's been branded onto this.

I said that was the next thing I noticed, but it wasn't, I just put it before this to build up to this: they've "improved" the graphics. Now in my opinion, the ToP graphics were top-notch, for SNES or GBA and an exact copy of those graphics wouldn't bother me at all. But they didn't re-do ALL the graphics, no. They just did the Characters with pointless bright colours so they're inconsistent and don't match with the surroundings they're walking about. This REALLY pissed me off, what was wrong with the old graphics? Why improve them badly? Infact, why improve them at all? This was also true for the Battle graphics, though they weren't as visually disgusting to me as the walking on-map ones.

And another thing (Yeah there's more). Due to the limits of the GBA "controller" if you can call it that, I found battles outlandishly hard to win without sustaining major damage. To get round the lack of buttons they used the ol' ToS trick and stuck directional buttons to the "Tech" button. I could've lived with that, but it wasn't just the button configuration, oh no, it just didn't work like the old one did. Cless (Now named Cress, but who the hell cares about that? It's a translation thing) seemed to be impossible to manoeuvre, you seemed to be able to attack in a variety of useless ways. Each resulting in you most likely missing the enemy followed quickly by them smashing into you for a strangely large amount of damage. And, correct me if I'm wrong, but weren't you allowed to block in the old one. It could be because I didn't manage to get to a point where I could equip a shield, maybe that was it, but it still pissed me off greatly.

And no, it's not because I'm bad at games... I own at games, and I used to completely kick ass with the old ToP. (Not to toot my own horn or anything)

Please, I beg of you, at least play the new GBA version somewhere before buying it to see if you don't loathe it to infinity such as I do.
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Postby EmperorJeramyu » Thu Mar 09, 2006 4:04 pm

I've played the GBA version long before it was released in english.

It's actually more of a port of the PSX version of ToP, as opposed to the SNES version. That's where the "new" in-battle sprites came from, though I can't remember if the out-of-battle sprites were adjusted for the PSX version. The PSX version was pretty cool. The battle system was ultra-fluid (I believe it uses the ToD system), the sound was remastered, and there were some badass anime cutscenes.

I'll say, though. The GBA version is pretty ugly. The sound is poop, the screen size is too small, and the entire game is incredibly jerky, especially the battle system, which is nigh-impossible to utilize efficiently, IMO. I'd stick with the SNES or PSX version. It's just too crappy of a port, even with some extra stuff in it.

A great stuff of all things ToP is http://www.fantasyanime.com/legacy/top.htm, which has a lot of resources and information. You can even watch subbed episodes of the ToP anime online! (Albeit, with pretty crappy quality, but it's much easier than finding a good torrent...).
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Postby Jasonflare » Thu Mar 09, 2006 6:45 pm

I might not get this game, as Kingdom Hearts II is coming out this month. But reviews for it place it highly-average.
But I'd probably rent it first.
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Postby Sage Of The Wise » Thu Mar 09, 2006 8:47 pm

I havent played this in a long time. Never could get passed Demital.
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Postby Forerunner » Fri Mar 10, 2006 12:49 am

Hehe, I liked the tree in his garden.

I also like the boat trip, funny as hell and I didn't see it coming.
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Postby Teenr0cker » Fri Mar 10, 2006 2:02 am

So, the question on my mind:

What about the awesome Japanese text? When I say "Japanese Text", I am referring to how lenient the Japanese are with language in some games. I specifically recall the term "But I bet Arche fucks like a tiger" and now I must know how nintendo butchered that.



As for using the D-pad for combos, that was in the SNES version...but it was some uber-item that took a while to master. Overall, sounds like a let-down...


I'll try and get a copy some time...one where, you know, I don't have a glitch that lets me find the summoners best book-weapon in the first like..3 minutes after you get him. I can thank DeJap for that one, I believe.
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Postby Sage Of The Wise » Fri Mar 10, 2006 6:54 pm

Well, I just picked the game up becuase it was cheap, and after these comments, I was pleasantly surprised. Battles really arnt that slow, the only slow things about it is how Cless walks so slowly, but that was in the snes version, and the battles go into slow motion for a few seconds when you win which is annoying. Though I have heard that the for some reason the rom has really slow battles. Voices are nothing great, but its gba so i dont expect them to be. Battles arnt really hard at all, but yeah guarding helps. Its hold the down arrow and press R, not to be confused with holding R and pressing Down, that tells your teamates to not move or make any other action what so ever, dunno why. That and how pressing start makes you go into auto mode are the only two things that I really dont like.

What about the awesome Japanese text? When I say "Japanese Text", I am referring to how lenient the Japanese are with language in some games. I specifically recall the term "But I bet Arche fucks like a tiger" and now I must know how nintendo butchered that.

I think most of that stuff wasnt even in the japanese version and was just added by Djap. Though I'm sure it was still more lenient in this game.
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Postby Forerunner » Wed Mar 15, 2006 8:22 am

Yeah, when I saw that text. The first think I thought (after I recovered first from mild shock, and then from not-so-mild fits of laughter) was "Didn't Japanese children play this game?"
But it being added in by Djap makes more sense, or at least seems more likely.

(Yay, I finally got Origin, for some reason he reminds me of Jera.)
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Postby Lumino » Sun Mar 19, 2006 10:42 pm

Don't forget Arche's lewd dreams and the infamous hot tub scene.

"Wow Mint your breasts are HUGE!"

That was SO great!
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Postby Forerunner » Mon Mar 20, 2006 12:41 am

hehe. Chester got hit by a bucket.
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