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Tales of Phantasia (Japanese: テイルズ オブ ファンタジア, Teiruzu obu Fantajia ) is a Super Famicom game in the RPG genre published by Namco and released in 1995. It was later re-released or remade on various other gaming machines, including the Game Boy Advance.

Tales of Phantasia launched the popular Tales series which has since become the third most successful in Japan, after Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy, although it has yet to rival those series in America.

Tales of Phantasia was developed by Wolf Team, written and programmed by Yoshiharu Gotanda, and scored by Motoi Sakuraba and Shinji Tamura. The character designs were created by manga artist Kosuke Fujishima.

Tales of Phantasia is regarded as a classic gaming gem and an import classic by some RPG fans, because it is a quality game but is not well-known by average gamers since it was never released outside of Japan. It had some of the most impressive graphics ever produced on the SNES/SFC, a memorable soundtrack, and an innovative battle system (Linear Motion Battle System, a real time battle system similar to Street Fighter) that distinguished it from all other RPGs of the time.

Tales of Phantasia was released in the midst of what many gamers consider to be the Golden Age of RPGs. Other SNES/SFC games of that era that were of comparable influence include Chrono Trigger, the original Star Ocean, Dragon Quest V, Dragon Quest VI, Final Fantasy IV, V, VI, and the early Seiken Densetsu (Secret of Mana) games. In particular, Star Ocean is often regarded as a spiritual cousin to Tales of Phantasia. It was developed by tri-Ace, a company founded by members of Namco's original Wolf Team, who created Tales of Phantasia, as a result it employs many similar gameplay and battle traits found in the earlier game.

Tales of Phantasia is now also a 4 episode anime OVA, based off the game's plot.

Storyline

Tales of Phantasia begins by showing a heroic battle between four unknown warriors against an evil sorceror, Dhaos, whose outcome changed the fate of the world. The warriors were victorious, and sealed Dhaos away using the power of two pendants, thus returning peace to the world.

The adventure begins in the town of Toltus ten years later, where a young swordsman named Cless Alvein (Cress Albane in the Game Boy Advance version) and his best friend, archer Chester Barklight, live. The town is destroyed by a dark knight named Mars (Malice in the DeJap translation) and his soldiers while Cless and Chester are out hunting in the forest. Every villager is killed in the attack, including Chester's sister and both of Cless' parents. While Chester is in mourning, Cless vows for revenge and proceeds to the town of Euclid in search of the dark knight.

Unfortunately, he is betrayed there by his cowardly uncle and is thrown in jail, captured by Mars. The heirloom pendant entrusted to Cless by his father Miguel is taken away from him, but Cless does not know of its significance in holding Dhaos sealed, nor that his father was one of the original four who sealed him away.

Cless meets Mint Adnade (a Mana healer) in the jail, and she joins the party and helps him escape. Soon afterwards, the party meets Chester again at Trinicus (Tornix) Morrison's house, another of the four original warriors. Trinicus informs the party that he knew Cless's parents and Mint's mother quite well, and they once fought together to seal away a great evil. But he is horrified to hear that Cless' pendant has been stolen, and immediately runs off towards a nearby mausoleum. Cless and party figure out that Mars must be there, and follow Trinicus without him knowing. Unfortunately, Mars manages to release Dhaos using the pendants before Trinicus and party can stop him. With no hope of dealing with the all-powerful Dhaos for now, Trinicus attempts to send Cless, Mint and Chester 100 years in the past, so that they can learn about Dhaos and acquire the skills to defeat him. Dhaos attacks the party with a magic spell, which Chester dives in front of. An injured Chester and Trinicus are left behind to suffer Dhaos' wrath.

In the past, Dhaos is still causing chaos with an imminent war against the two largest human countries - Alvanista and Midgalds (Midgard). These events happened almost a century before he was sealed. In this time period, Dhaos' evil pervades throughout 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 Cless nor Mint can practice magic - only Elves and half-Elves can use the powerful magic spells. But they soon meets Klarth F. Lester (Claus F. Lester in the Game boy Advance version) (a summoner) and Arche Klaine (a half-elf witch), who join the quest. Klarth is a researcher of summoning (the act evoking a magical spirit or elemental) - and is thus one of the only humans who can indirectly use magic, by contracting with the spirits via rings and then summoning them to attack in battle. He suggests that the spirit Luna may be able to help their quest, and the party travels across the world to the deserts of Freeland, 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 Midgalds and succeeds in helping fend off Dhaos' army in the war called the Valhalla Conflict. They continue to Dhaos' castle in search of the fiend, in the hope of restoring peace to the world and avenging the deaths of their loved ones. After opening a lock which requires a bit of coodination by the player, an epic battle with Dhaos ensues, and good overcomes evil. Unfortunately, Dhaos escapes.

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. Good overcomes evil yet again, and the cave begins to collapse on itself. The party escapes and then decides that, with Dhaos most-likely dead, they have succeeded and can part ways so that Klarth and Arche can return to their original time. But at that moment, a traveller arrives from the future to inform them that Dhaos is still alive and is terrorizing the future. Cless and company immediately travel forward in time fifty years and have to deal with Dhaos and his minions once and for all.

Upon the advancement of their journey, Cless, Mint, Arche, Klarth, and Chester (In later versions, Suzu Fujibayashi can be included to the party) learned of the Eternal Sword, which is considered to be the weapon to eliminate Dhaos once and for all. After acquiring it, Cless and the gang ventures into Dhaos's floating castle, which is invisible to the naked eye, yet is visible with the Eternal Sword in hand. When they reach the top, they battle against Dhaos, whom they learn is much more than a simple sorcerer. He happens to be from another world that is trying to keep the Tree of Life (Yggdrasill, or as Dhaos calls it, Giant Kharlan Tree) from its demise. He needed the Mana to sustain his own people on the planet Derris-Kharlan (translated as Derris Karren in the GBA version). After his defeat, Cless and the gang return to the tree and Goddess Martel offers them a bit of history, which in turn come to realize that in the end, Dhaos was only trying to save his people and by defeating him, the gang annihilated his world. In the end, Klarth and Arche return to their own time. Martel, however, after the party leaves, decides to form a Mana Seed and travels to Dhaos' 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 remakes, Martel sends the Mana into space including only Dhaos.

Later Games in the Aselian Timeline

While the storylines in most games in the main Tales series are not connected to each other (much like Final Fantasy), there are a few games in the Tales series that take place in the same world as Phantasia.

Localization

DeJap's Translation

Namco had deliberately kept this game Japan-only, believing that Namco of America would not make enough money from the game to warrant its publishing. However, the Super Famicom (SFC) 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). DeJap has admitted to changing dialogue or exaggerating it, evident in the scene where instead of Arche snoring, she's dreaming of having sex with Cless/Cress. Not only has the game been fan translated, Gingo17 attempted to translate the actual in game speech. This project is titled "Vocals of Phantasia" and is at version .999.

Namco's Translation

Some fans are unhappy with the localized GBA version of Tales of Phantasia, and especially with the names that Namco chose, likely in part because they were introduced to the game through the DeJap fan translation. The in-game dialogue also suffered from gramatical errors, such as Suzu's "seals" becoming "steels".

Playable Characters

Names in parentheses refer to the American Game Boy Advance translation of Tales of Phantasia.

Cless Alvein (Cress Albane) (クレス・アルベイン, Kuresu Arubein ): The seiyuu (Japanese voice actor) is Takeshi Kusao. He is the frontline 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 leveling and he gain combos from Secret Skill Books. Age 17.

Chester Barklight (Chester Burklight) (チェスター・バークライト, Chesutā Bākuraito ): The seiyuu is Takeshi Kusao for the Super Famicom version and Kentarou Itou for the PlayStation version. 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. Age 17.

Mint Adnade (Mint Adenade) (ミント・アドネード, Minto Adonēdo ): The seiyuu is Satomi Koorogi for the Super Famicom version and Junko Iwao for the PlayStation version. The healer of the party, using her rod she is able to cast various healing and support magic in battle. Her magic can be gained through leveling. Age 18.

Klarth F. Lester (Claus F. Lester) (クラース・Ｆ・レスター , Kurāsu F. Resuta ): The seiyuu is Kazuhiko Inoue. 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. Age 29.

Arche Klaine (Arche Klein)(アーチェ・クライン , Āche Kurain ): The seiyuu is Mika Kanai. A magic user, just like Mint, but she uses offensive magic instead. She also flies using her broomstick. Her spells can be gained through spellbooks, either found or bought throughout gameplay. Age 17.

Suzu Fujibayashi (藤林すず , Fujibayashi Suzu ): The seiyuu is Taeko Kawata. Suzu appears on the Super Famicom original as a non-playable character, but she is playable in the PlayStation and Game Boy Advance remakes. Suzu is an 11-year-old ninja and uses her katana and ninja skills to eliminate the enemy. Her skills can be gained by scrolls or being taught by other ninjas. Age 11.

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. Specifically, this sound engine was titled the "Flexible Voice Driver," and overcame the SNES's small audio memory capacity by swapping short vocal samples on the fly. The fan translators did not dub the voices, however. Notably, this technology, which was able to do superior voices on a small cartridge, fell far short of it's normal quality when Nintendo dubbed the games.

Music

The original game soundtrack was arranged by veteran composer, Motoi Sakuraba. Sakuraba has a cameo appearance in the SNES and GBA version of the game, in that, 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:

  • "Yume wa Owaranai" (The Dream Will Not Die) - First heard in the Super Famicom version, it was featured in the original animated opening to the PS1 release. It was performed by yo-mi(PS1 version) and Yoshida Yukari (SFC & GBA version) respectively. The SFC version was arranged by Hiroya Hatsushiba. This was the first-ever sung theme song to a computer game because the software to be able to store it on the available medium had just been developed.
It was removed, with much contraversy, from the Nintendo translation, with many fans believing that Nintendo had removed it worthlessly.

  • "Hoshi wo Sora Ni" (A Star in the Sky) - performed by Yoshida Yukari. This is the PS1 ending

  • "Yume no Hate" (The End of a Dream) - performed by Masami Suzuki. Tale of Phantasia THE ANIMATION's opening song

  • "Priere" (Prayer) - performed by Masami Suzuki. Tale of Phantasia THE ANIMATION's ending song

Developer Controversy

The game is based on the novel Tale Phantasia, written by Yoshiharu Gotanda. Namco changed many aspects of the games marketing, and even changing the name of the game from Tale Phantasia to Tales of Phantasia. This sparked a protest from Yoshiharu Gotanda. Masaki Norimoto was really upset at how the game was positioned in its branding and was protesting in that way. Joe Asanuma was upset that he was removed from his directing duties in favour of Eiji Kikuchi. Other staff were also backing up and defending these three key staff members. These protests pushed the game's development back by about one year. After the game was released, these three left Telenet Japan, and founded Tri-Ace. Many of the staff involved with the game and other Wolf Team members also followed. Known members that left to Tri-Ace including these three are: Hiroya Hatsushiba, Yoshiaki Inagaki, Mari Kimura, Kenichi Kanekura, and Shigeru Ueki, while composer Motoi Sakuraba went freelance, and composed music for Tri-Ace, Camelot Software Planning and retained his composing duties for Telenet Japan. Namco itself owns the copyright for the actual game, and has the rights to use the trademark. Namco then turned the series into what it is known for today.

Remakes

PlayStation Remake

Tales of Phantasia was remade three years later for the Sony PlayStation (PS1). The remake was released only a year after the sequel 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, Cless gained "secret techniques", which he learned by aquiring a skill book- usually by buying it from a swordsman. Chester, who relied on brute force in the Super Famicom version, was given 9 TP-consuming moves. These caried onto future remakes. In addition, it gave birth to many new features still seen (and being improved upon) in modern Tales sequels today, such as cooking, titles, event voice-acting, voice-acted face chats (skits), and the ability to control any party member (as well as take Cless, the hero, out of the fighting party). 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 generous battle encounter rate were also made. This version is generally considered the best.

It is currently undergoing a fan translation like the Super Famicom version did.

Game Boy Advance Remake

In 2003, Tales of Phantasia was ported to Nintendo's Game Boy Advance handheld system. This version combines various elements from both the original SFC and PS1 versions. The sprites and battle graphics were from the PS1 version, while the opening credits sequence, map, and field graphics are from the SFC version. The GBA version features a handful of original additions and sidequests, and many, but not all of the additions made to the PS1 version. This version of the game has been localized to North America and Europe by Namco and published by Nintendo, and was released on March 06, 2006 in North America.

PlayStation Portable Remake

On June 19, 2006, leaked scans indicate that Tales of Phantasia is being remade for the PlayStation Portable (PSP). Other than the confirmation that the remake was in development, details remain scarce. On June 20, 2006, Namco confirmed the development on its main Tales website, also mentioning that it would be a "full-voice" edition.

Trivia

  • Tales Of Phantasia characters make the most cameos in later games, with Cress and Arche appearing in Tales Of Eternia as Arena boss characters, and all the Tales of the World series containing at least one Tales Of Phantasia character.
  • Unlike all the other tunes in Tales Of Phantasia, Yume Wa Owaranai is not played using the normal music selection method on the PS1 version. Instead, a lower option allows you to play certain music tracks, which includes the theme.
  • There are many references to Norse mythology;

Screenshot comparison

Screenshots of typical battles: Image:Tales of Phantasia Battle Screenshot.png|Super Famicom (English fan-translation) Image:Tales_of_Phantasia_Battle_Screenshot(GBA).png|Game Boy Advance Image:TalesofPhantasiaBattleScreenPSOne.png|Sony PlayStation

Notes

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

External links

1995 computer and video games | 1998 computer and video games | 2003 computer and video games | Super NES games | PlayStation games | Game Boy Advance games | PlayStation Portable games | fantasy anime | Tales series

Tales of Phantasia | Tales of Phantasia | テイルズオブファンタジア

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Tales of Phantasia".

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