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Tales of Phantasia

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Tales of Phantasia
This file may be deleted after Wednesday, 28 November 2007.
Developer(s)Wolf Team/Namco Tales Studio
Mineloader Software (PSP)
Publisher(s)Namco
Nintendo (Outside Japan) (GBA)
Composer(s)Motoi Sakuraba
Shinji Tamura
SeriesTales
Platform(s)Super Nintendo, Game Boy Advance, PlayStation, PlayStation Portable
ReleaseJPN December 15, 1995 (Super Nintendo)

JPN December 23, 1998 (PS1)
JPN August 1, 2003 (GBA)
NA March 6, 2006 (GBA)
UK March 31, 2006 (GBA)

JPN September 7, 2006 (PSP)
Genre(s)Role-playing game
Mode(s)Single player, multiplayer

Tales of Phantasia (テイルズ オブ ファンタジア, Teiruzu obu Fantajia) is a Super Nintendo game in the RPG genre published by Namco and released in Japan in 1995. It is the first mothership title in the Tales RPG series and was later remade/re-released on the PlayStation, Nintendo Game Boy Advance and PlayStation Portable. The Super Famicom version did not have a characteristic genre name, the PS1 and GBA versions of Tales of Phantasia had the characteristic genre name Legend's RPG (伝説のRPG, Densetsu no RPG), and the PSP version Tales of Phantasia ~ Full Voice Edition's characteristic genre name is Voice Will Paint, Legend's RPG (声が彩る、伝説のRPG, Koe ga irodoru, densetsu no RPG). This game was originally developed by Wolf Team. It was written and programmed by Yoshiharu Gotanda, designed by Masaki Norimoto and scored by Motoi Sakuraba and Shinji Tamura. The character designs were created by mangaka Kosuke Fujishima. An anime series based on the game has also been created.

Gameplay

Battle system

Main article: LMBS

Plot

Story

Tales of Phantasia begins by showing a heroic battle between four unknown warriors against an evil sorcerer, Dhaos, the outcome of which changed the fate of the world. The warriors were victorious, but Dhaos escaped through time. However, four different heroes are awaiting him: they seal the weakened Dhaos away using the power of two pendants, thus returning peace to the world.

In the town of Toltus ten years after Dhaos had been sealed away, where a young swordsman named Cress Albane and his best friend Chester Burklight live. The town is destroyed by a dark knight named Mars and his soldiers, while Cress and Chester are out hunting in the forest. Every villager is killed in the attack, including Chester’s sister and both of Cress’s parents. While Chester mourns, Cress vows for revenge. He decides he will head to the town of Euclid, as his mother asked of him before she passed away. The two friends decide they will meet up later, in Euclid.

Upon his arrival in Euclid, Cress is soon betrayed by his uncle and is thrown in jail, captured by Mars. The heirloom pendant entrusted to Cress by his father Miguel is taken away from him, but Cress does not know of its significance in holding Dhaos sealed, nor that his father was one of the four who sealed him away.

Cress meets Mint Adnade in the jail, and she joins the party and helps him escape. Soon afterwards, the party meets Chester again at Trinicus D. Morrison's house, another of the four warriors. Trinicus informs the party that he knew Cress’s parents and Mint’s mother quite well, and they once joined together to seal away a great evil. He is horrified to hear that Cress’s pendant has been stolen, and immediately runs off towards a nearby mausoleum. Cress, Mint, and Chester deduce that Mars must be there, and so follow Trinicus without his knowledge and against his will. Unfortunately, Mars manages to release Dhaos using the pendants before Trinicus and the party can stop him. With no hope of dealing with the all-powerful Dhaos for now, Trinicus attempts to send Cress, Mint, and Chester back a century into the past, so that they will learn about Dhaos and procure a means to preemptively defeat him. After killing Mars, Dhaos attacks the party with a magic spell that Chester dives in front of. So it is that Chester and Trinicus are left behind to suffer Dhaos’s wrath, with only a broken bow and a diary respectively all that Mint and Cress have to remember them by.

In the past, Dhaos is still causing chaos, preparing for an imminent war against the two largest human countries — Alvanista and Midgards. These events happened ninety-four years before he was sealed. In this time period, Dhaos’s evil pervades most of the world, and he even controls the prince of Alvanista’s royal family. The party learns that the only way to defeat Dhaos is by using magic, but neither Cress nor Mint can practice the magical arts — only elves and half-elves can use the powerful spells. However, they soon meet Claus F. Lester, a summoner, and Arche Klein (a half-elf witch), who join them in their quest. Claus is a researcher of summoning (the act of evoking a magical spirit or elemental), and is thus one of the only humans who can indirectly use magic by forming a pact with the spirits via special rings and then summoning them to attack in battle. He suggests that the spirit Luna may be useful to them and so the party travels across the world to the deserts of Freyland, the depths of the ancient dwarven caverns of the Morlia Gallery, and to mountains above and caves below in search of rings and spirits to help them fight Dhaos.

Eventually, the party reaches Midgards and succeeds in helping fend off Dhaos’s army in the conflict called the Valhalla War. They proceed to Dhaos’s castle in search of him, with hopes of restoring peace to the world and avenging the deaths of their loved ones. Reaching the throne room, an epic battle with Dhaos ensues. Unfortunately, Dhaos escapes. Dhaos is down, but not out.

The party travels back to their original time to interrupt the resurrected Dhaos from killing Trinicus and Chester in the mausoleum, and fight him once more. This time, Dhaos is thoroughly defeated, and the cave begins to collapse in on itself, and an unconscious Dhaos. The party escapes and then decides that, with Dhaos most likely dead, they have succeeded and can part ways so that Claus and Arche can return to their original time. But at that moment, a time-traveller arrives from the future to inform them that Dhaos is still alive and is terrorizing the future. Cress and company immediately travel forward in time fifty years to deal with Dhaos and his minions once and for all.

Upon the advancement of their journey, Cress, Mint, Arche, Claus, and Chester (in the later versions, Suzu Fujibayashi can also join the party) learn of the Eternal Sword, which is considered to be the only weapon that may eliminate Dhaos once and for all. After acquiring it, the party ventures into Dhaos’s floating castle, invisible to those who do not wield the Eternal Sword. When they reach the top, they battle against Dhaos, who they learn is much more than a simple sorcerer. He happens to be from another world that is trying to save The Tree of Life (Yggdrasill, or as Dhaos calls it, The Giant Kharlan Tree) from withering and dying; the Mana that the tree exudes is of utmost importance to the survival of this world, the planet Derris-Kharlan. After his defeat, Cress and the others return to the Tree, and the Goddess Martel explains Dhaos’s circumstances. The game’s protagonists come to realize that, in the end, Dhaos was merely trying to save his people; by defeating him, they had doomed his world. Finally, Claus and Arche return to their own time Suzu however leaves before Claus and Arche. Martel, however, after the party leaves, decides to form a Mana Seed and travels to Dhaos’s world to save their Tree of Life. In the Super Famicom version, Dhaos’s corpse as well as Martel herself both become part of the seed, but in the later versions, Martel sends the Mana into space including only Dhaos (in the GBA version, Mint creates a barrier around Yggdrasill before leaving, so that the Mana Seed can be formed).

Characters

Cress Albane:

  • Japanese version: Cless Alvein (クレス・アルベイン, Kuresu Arubein)
  • German version: Cress Albion
  • Japanese Voice Actor: Takeshi Kusao
  • English Voice Actor: Robert Tsonos

Age 17. In the Super Famicom version, he was the only character playable. He is the front-line warrior, able to equip various melee weapons such as swords, spears, axes, and the heaviest armor. He can also use various techniques in battle. His techniques can be gained through levelling and he gains combos from Secret Skill Books. His last name Albane sounds somewhat similar to Tales of Symphonia 's Irving, which is Lloyds last name, it is thought that Cress is a descendant of Llyod Irving's.[citation needed]
He makes a cameo in the semi-sequel Tales of Destiny as an NPC that gives the player a quiz alongside Arche. In Tales of Eternia, Cress appears alongside Arche in the arena. Also, he has a semi-cameo in Tales of the Abyss, as a costume for Anise's doll.

This file may be deleted after Wednesday, 28 November 2007.

This file may be deleted after Wednesday, 28 November 2007.

Chester Burklight:

  • Japanese version: Chester Barklight (チェスター・バークライト, Chesutā Bākuraito)
  • Japanese Voice Actor: Takeshi Kusao (Super Famicom version), Kentarou Itou (PlayStation, GameBoy Advance, and PlayStation Portable versions)
  • English Voice Actor: Peter von Gomm (GBA Version)

Age 17. He mostly provides support in battle by shooting arrows with his bow from the rear of the party and he can also use various techniques in battle. His techniques can be gained through leveling. In the Super Famicom version, he had no techniques and relied on brute force.
Chester appears in a cameo in Tales of Eternia as an audience member in the coliseum, as well as a playable character in Tales of the World.

This file may be deleted after Wednesday, 28 November 2007.

This file may be deleted after Wednesday, 28 November 2007.

Mint Adnade (ミント・アドネード, Minto Adonēdo):

  • Japanese Voice Actor: Satomi Koorogi (Super Famicom version), Junko Iwao (PlayStation, GameBoy Advance, and PlayStation Portable versions)
  • English Voice Actor: Lynn Harris (GBA Version)

Age 18. The healer of the party, using her rod she is able to cast various healing and support mana spells in battle. Her mana based spells can be gained through leveling.
Mint appears in a cameo in Tales of Eternia as an audience member in the coliseum, and alongside other Tales heroes in an arena battle in Tales of the Abyss.

Claus F. Lester:

  • Japanese version: Klarth F. Lester (クラース・F・レスター, Kurāsu F. Resutā)
  • Japanese Voice Actor: Kazuhiko Inoue
  • English Voice Actor: Peter von Gomm

Age 29 (31 in Summoner's Lineage). Having exclusive knowledge of spirits, he is able to call upon them in battle with his books to wreak havoc on the enemy party. His summons are gained by making pacts with spirits after usually defeating them and using a pact ring. He is related to Fulein K. Lester from Tales of the World: Summoner's Lineage. He lives with a woman named Mirald Rune, who supposedly helps him with "research."
Claus appears in two cameos in Tales of Eternia, first to administer a quiz at Mintche University, and second as an audience member in the coliseum. A Gentleman enemy with Claus's hat and Efreet summon appears in Tales of Destiny (PS2), in two separate optional battles.

This file may be deleted after Wednesday, 28 November 2007.

This file may be deleted after Wednesday, 28 November 2007.

Arche Klein:

  • Japanese version: Arche Klaine (アーチェ・クライン, Āche Kurain)
  • German version: Amber Klein
  • Italian version: Ambra Klein
  • Japanese Voice Actor: Mika Kanai
  • English Voice Actor: Helen Morrison

Age 17. She is a half-elf and an offensive magic user. She also flies using her broomstick. Her spells can be gained through spell books, either found or bought throughout gameplay.
She appears alongside Cress in an arena battle in Tales of Eternia. She also appears as a playable character in Tales of the World Radiant Mythology

This file may be deleted after Wednesday, 28 November 2007.

This file may be deleted after Wednesday, 28 November 2007.

Suzu Fujibayashi (藤林すず , Fujibayashi Suzu ):

Age 11. Suzu appears in the Super Famicom original as a non-playable character, but in the PlayStation, Game Boy Advance, and Playstation Portable versions, she became a playable character. Suzu is a ninja and uses her katana and ninja skills to eliminate the enemy. Her skills can be gained through scrolls or by being taught by other ninja. She is thought to be related to Sheena Fujibayashi from Tales of Symphonia, as they share the same last name and are both ninja (the background music in both of the hidden villages are also highly similar). Despite to her young age, she acts more like an adult than a child. She is also very quiet.

Development

Wolf Team controversy and the birth of tri-Ace

After seeing many of their games sell poorly due to a bad reputation of their parent company Telenet Japan,[citation needed] Wolf Team looked for an outside publisher and financier for the game (with Telenet Japan's permission). After negotiations with several companies (Enix and Namco being the two companies that have been known to place a bid to publish the game), Namco was selected to produce the game.

The game is based on the novel Tale Phantasia, written by the game's total programmer Yoshiharu Gotanda. However, Namco changed many aspects of the game's marketing. This included changing the name of the game from Tale Phantasia to Tales of Phantasia, sparking a protest from Gotanda. Other changes included the removal of virtually the entire Dhaos backstory (which was re-inserted through later side stories and radio dramas), changing the names of every playable character, and abandoning sprite artist Yoshiaki Inagaki's original character designs in favor of redesigns from mangaka Kōsuke Fujishima.[1]

Game designer Masaki Norimoto was likewise displeased at how the game was positioned in its branding, and Joe Asanuma was upset that he was removed from his directing duties in favour of Eiji Kikuchi. These protests pushed the game's development back by about one year. (The fact that the story was written in 1994 is probably why the game holds that year for a copyright, despite being released almost at the end of 1995.)

After the game was released, these three (Gotanda, Norimoto, and Asanuma) left Telenet Japan and founded tri-Ace. Many of the staff involved with the game and other Wolf Team members, who had backed up and defended the three during the controversy, also followed. Known members that left to Tri-Ace are Hiroya Hatsushiba, Yoshiaki Inagaki, Mari Kimura, Kenichi Kanekura, and Shigeru Ueki. The members that remained would eventually become part of Namco Tales Studio.

Meanwhile, composer Motoi Sakuraba went freelance. He began composing music for tri-Ace and Camelot Software Planning, while retaining his composing duties for Telenet Japan. He and Shinji Tamura continue to provide music for the Tales series.

The game was originally to be published by Nintendo, however the company dropped the title as focus was shifting to the next-gen consoles (i.e. N64 and PlayStation). This left Namco in the lurch, which caused them to hardly support the Nintendo 64 at all (releasing very few titles) as well as the Sega Saturn (as Sega and Namco were major arcade rivals) instead favoring the PlayStation.

Namco itself owns the copyright for the actual game, and has the rights to use the trademark. They have thus turned the series into what it is known for today.

Technical achievements

Tales of Phantasia was the first Super Famicom game to be 48MBit in size, and was also the first to feature streamed audio voices, made possible by sound programmer Hiroya Hatsushiba. This sound engine was titled the "Flexible Voice Driver," and overcame the Super Famicom's small audio memory capacity by swapping short vocal samples on the fly. (This is also why .SPC rips of the game music for Tales of Phantasia and Star Ocean frequently sound scratchy and garbled: The files only store the initial sound samples at the time of the .spc capture, rather than similarly rotating samples during the course of the song.[citation needed] The "Yume Wa Owaranai" song, for instance, doesn't play any of the vocals at all, and several other songs go off-tune not far into the melody.)[citation needed]

Localization

DeJap's translation

Namco had deliberately kept the game Japan-only, believing that Namco of America would not make enough money from the game to warrant its publishing.[citation needed] However, the Super Famicom version of the game was unofficially translated not only into English, but also into Italian, German, French, Spanish, Norwegian, Dutch, Swedish, Brazilian Portuguese, and Finnish (by various online translation groups under the supervision of DeJap Translations who made the English version, and using the Japanese version as a reference).[2] Not only has the game been fan-translated, but attempts to redub the actual in-game speech in English were also made. This project, which has been very challenging due to not only the need to recompress the vocals to SPC700 form, but split them into segments so they can be properly put back into the ROM structure and played by the Flexible Voice Driver, is titled "Vocals of Phantasia" and is at version .999.

File:Dejapoftales.JPG
The DeJap translation is best known for its controversial lines.
Game Boy Advance translation

Many fans were unhappy with the localized GBA port of Tales of Phantasia, in part because they were introduced to the game through the DeJap fan translation of the super Famicom version. In particular, the translations of many important characters' names were different. Whether the GBA translators changed them in order to sound less awkward as English names is unknown, but existing fans were accustomed to the romanized names that had been used for almost a decade in Japan in either Phantasia's marketing and merchandise, or in the original games themselves (the names are in the credits). The term "Ragnarok" was also mistranslated as "Kangaroo," sparking derision from fans.

PlayStation translation

A group of fans translated the Sony PlayStation version of Tales of Phantasia. The patch (v1.0) was released on December 25, 2007 by Gemini and throughhim413. It has the option of using Romanized skill names or English skill names (ex. a choice between Majinken or Demonic Blade). The translation patch remains true to the story and no fan alterations. For example, in the DeJap translation's scene in which Cless and Klarth talk about Mint and Arche on the way to Alvanstia, the two excessively use vulgar language; another example is where the boy in Euclid village in the past listens to a traveling band, stating, "These guys SUCK ASS!" Originally, he says, "I feel bad since no one's going to listen to their performance, so I'm listening to them." Oz is called OS (Operating System). Methodists are those who can use Mana and Magicians are known as Sorcerers/Sorceresses. The Morlia Gallery is now the Moria Mines. The poem in the Moria Mines is translated without giving hints (DeJap just gave the answer straight out "Fire North, Earth South, Wind west, and water east"). The password for gaining entrance to Gnomes place isn't "Kikurin," but "Password". The fully-voiced skits are also subtitled.
There is also an ongoing project by Phantasian Productions to translate this remake into English as well, though Phantasian Productions' project was the first to begin working on Phantasia for the PlayStation. This patch will seem more of an "official" style compared to throughhim413 and Gemini's translation, keeping consistency with later Tales games and continuity with Tales of Symphonia, a game in the same series that also takes place in Tales of Phantasia's world.[3][4]

Audio

The original game soundtrack was arranged by veteran composer Motoi Sakuraba, as well as Shinji Tamura; these two have been the primary music composers for the series since then. Sakuraba has a cameo appearance in the SNES and GBA versions of the game; when you visit a major city, you can meet him and get him to play the theme of the game on a piano.

Also, there a few vocal tracks associated with the game or anime:

  • The Dream Will Not Die (夢は終わらない, yume wa owaranai, lit. “the dream will not end”) – First heard in the Super Famicom version, it was featured in the original animated opening to the PS1 remake (this opening was reused for the PSP port). It was performed by YO-MI (PS1/PSP versions) and Yoshida Yukari (Super Famicom version & GBA versions). The Super Famicom version was arranged by Hiroya Hatsushiba.
  • A Star in the Sky (星を空に, hoshi-wo sora-ni) – performed by Yoshida Yukari. This is the PS1/PSP ending
  • The End of a Dream (夢の果て, yume-no hate) - performed by Masami Suzuki. Tales of Phantasia THE ANIMATION's opening song
  • Prière (“Prayer” in French) – performed by Masami Suzuki. Tales of Phantasia THE ANIMATION's ending song

Like other vocal songs of the Tales series, Yume wa Owaranai was removed from the North American release of the GBA version.

File:Aselia Maps.jpg
Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World to Tales of Phantasia map

While the storylines in most games in the main Tales series are not connected to each other there are a few games in the Tales series that take place in the same world as Phantasia.

Re-releases

PlayStation version

Main article: Tales of Phantasia (PS1)

Tales of Phantasia was remade three years after its Super Famicom release, for the Sony PlayStation (PS1). The remake was released only a year after the second game in the series Tales of Destiny had been released. The remake runs on an enhanced Tales of Destiny engine and benefits from all the enhancements and refinements to the gameplay it had to offer. For example, Chester, who relied on brute force in the Super Famicom version, was given nine TP-consuming moves, which carried over into future versions. Also carried over from Tales of Destiny was the voice-acted face chats (skits), but now the user simply needs to push select on the world map to see them, rather than stand still for awhile on the world map as in ToD. In addition, it gave birth to many new features still seen (and being improved upon) in modern Tales sequels today, such as cooking, and titles. As in Tales of Destiny, you have the ability to control any party member (as well as take Cless, the hero, out of the fighting party, something Tales of Destiny didn't allow with Stahn Aileron and his team.). Many other changes, such as adding a fully animated anime style opening sequence, new sidequests, new spells, a new summon, a new playable character, and a more player-friendly battle encounter rate were also made. The audio was remastered at a higher quality with additional channels.

Game Boy Advance version

In 2003, Nintendo released a Game Boy Advance port of Tales of Phantasia, this is the third version of ToP to be released, this version combined various elements from both the original Super Famicom version and the PS1 remake into one game. The sprites and battle graphics were based on the PS1 remake, but the opening sequence, map and field graphics were directly recycled from the Super Famicom version. Graphics were also brightened and oversaturated to compensate for the dark screen of the original GBA, which was not backlit. Some feel this looks unpleasant on newer hardware which is adequately bright. The GBA version featured a handful of original additions and sidequests, and most of the additions that appeared in the PS1 remake but not the Super Famicom version. Conversely, the lack of quality hardware music meant that the music had to be re-arranged for software mixer which was considerably lower quality than the previous versions.

The GBA version was localized for North America (translated by Bowne Global Solutions) and released on March 6, 2006. Separate translations were made soon after for a European release.

PlayStation Portable version

A port for the PSP called Tales of Phantasia ~ Full Voice Edition was released in Japan in September 2006 developed by Mineloader Software. This version of the game is largely based upon the PS1 remake, and contains completely redone voice acting which are now used for most story events. This version also features new battle sprites for the main characters with less exaggerated proportions, closer to those of later games in the series, such as Tales of Eternia. The PSP version also includes a grade system, also from later games of the series.

Screenshot comparison

Screenshots of typical battles:

Trivia

  • Tales of Phantasia characters make the most cameos in later games. Cless and Arche appear in Tales of Eternia as Arena boss characters, and Mint appears in Tales of the Abyss' arena. They also appear as cameo characters in Tales of Destiny and all the Tales of the World games containing all of Tales of Phantasia characters.
  • The four unknown warriors that appear battling Dhaos at the beginning are often mistaken for being Trinicus D. Morrison, Miguel Alvein (Cless’ father), Maria Alvein (Cless’ mother) and Meryl Adnade (Mint’s Mother): these people can be seen soon after, sealing Dhaos away. The group during the opening battle is actually Edward Morrison and three other characters who are never referenced or named in-game. However, they are named on the Drama CDs and novels. The swordsman is Alan Alvein (also spelled “Alain”), the cleric is Carol Adnade (also spelled “Carole”) and the injured woman is Winona Bigford. There’s also a portion of this story presented in Tales of Phantasia: Narikiri Dungeon, a Japanese-only game for Game Boy Color.
  • Unlike all the other tunes in Tales of Phantasia, Yume Wa Owaranai is not played using the normal music selection method on the PS1 remake. Instead, a lower option allows you to play certain music tracks, which includes the theme.
  • There are many references to Norse mythology;
  • Tales of Phantasia is now also a 4 episode anime OVA, based roughly off the game's plot. The anime was released by Geneon in the USA and Canada.
  • The summon spirit battle theme, Fighting of the Spirit, has become immensely popular since its debut in Phantasia and is either consistently used in other Tales games or is arranged to make it sound even more powerful than before:
    • The original version used in the Super Famicom game and all of its ports/remakes
    • The arranged version on the Tales of Phantasia OSV for the Super Famicom version
    • A new version heard in Tales of Symphonia
    • An extremely “hardcore” version by online synth rock arranger, Saitama Saishu Heiki (otherwise known by fans as S.S.H.)
  • The church theme, titled Perverse Religion, is adapted from Little Fugue in G Minor (BWV 578) by Johann Sebastian Bach.
  • Dhaos had only two forms in the original version for SNES in the final battle, whereas in PS and GBA versions, he gains a third form, which bears a striking resemblance to Mithos Yggdrasill's adult form in Tales of Symphonia.
  • In the final battle against Dhaos, in his angelic form, the battle music is "I Miss You", but in the GBA version, it is "The Stream of Time".
  • Dhaos will make an appearance in Tales of Vesperia in the arena to battle the player one-on-one.

References and Notes

  1. ^ http://members.at.infoseek.co.jp/retorono310/COLOR.html Original character designs by Yoshiaki Inagaki. These designs were used for the sprites in the first Super Famicom game, causing various inconsistencies with the Fujishima art that appeared in cutscenes and packaging.
  2. ^ DeJap Translations - Tales of Phantasia
  3. ^ Merry Christmas from Absolute Zero! « Absolute Zero
  4. ^ Tales of Phantasia - Jikan no Forum

^ - One such confirmation was by producer Yoshizumi in the Tales Ring radio show, volume 12.

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