Tales of Phantasia

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Tales of Phantasia
Developer(s) Wolf Team/Namco Tales Studio
Publisher(s) Namco
Nintendo (Outside Japan)
Release date(s) Super Famicom:
JPN December 15, 1995
PlayStation:
JPN December 23, 1998
Game Boy Advance:
JPN August 1, 2003
NA March 6, 2006
GBR March 31, 2006
PlayStation Portable:
JPN September 7, 2006
Genre(s) Role-playing game
Mode(s) Single-player, multiplayer
Rating(s) CERO: A (All Ages)
ESRB: E10+ (Everyone 10+)
PEGI:7+
OFLC: PG
Platform(s) Super Famicom, Game Boy Advance, PlayStation, PlayStation Portable
Media 48 Megabit (SFC) / 64-128 Megabit (GBA) Cartridge, PlayStation CD-ROM, PlayStation Portable UMD
Input Gamepad

Tales of Phantasia (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 Japan in 1995. It is the first game in the Tales RPG series and was later re-released or remade on the PlayStation, Nintendo Game Boy Advance and PlayStation Portable. The game was originally developed by Wolf Team, written and programmed by Yoshiharu Gotanda, designed by Akira Yoshizumi and scored by Motoi Sakuraba and Shinji Tamura. The character designs were created by mangaka Kosuke Fujishima.

Contents

[edit] Storyline

Tales of Phantasia begins by showing a heroic battle between four unknown warriors against an evil sorcerer, Dhaos, whose outcome changed the fate of the world. The warriors were victorious, but Dhaos escapes through time. Though, four new heroes are waiting and seal the weakened Dhaos away using the power of two pendants, thus returning peace to the world.

The adventure begins in the town of Toltus ten years after the sealing, where a young swordsman named Cless Alvein (translated as Cress Albane in the GBA localization) 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 four who sealed him away.

Cless meets Mint Adnade (a healer) in the jail, and she joins the party and helps him escape. Soon afterwards, the party meets Chester again at Trinicus (Tornix) D. Morrison's house, another of the four warriors. Trinicus informs the party that he knew Cless's parents and Mint's mother quite well, and they once joined 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 Cress, 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 Midgards. 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 (translated as Claus F. Lester in the GBA localization) (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 forming a pact 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 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' army in the conflict called the Valhalla War. 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. 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 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 Klarth and Arche can return to their original time. But at that moment, a traveler 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 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 Karran in the GBA localization). 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 had doomed 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. (In the GBA version, Mint creates a barrier around Yggdrasill before leaving, so that the Mana Seed can be formed.)

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Other 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.

[edit] Connections to Tales of Symphonia

[edit] Matching names and locations

  • Asgard and Midgards In Symphonia, there is a town called Asgard in the world of Sylvarant, a few distance away from Luin, a town located on an island amidst a big lake. When the worlds were unified, the area where Asgard was became a barren wasteland of snow. In Phantasia, Midgards is located where Luin used to be. It could be theorized that: Asgard's population migrated to Luin; that Luin was conquered by Asgard's people; that the people of Luin died out, and the people of Asgard took over their town, among others. It is also to note that the Valhalla Plains are implied to have been formerly part of the Kingdom of Midgards, before Dhaos took them over.
  • Ymir Forest and Heimdall
  • Altamira and Alvanista
  • Palmacosta and Venezia
  • Meltokio and Arlee

[edit] Localization

[edit] 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, as is evident in the scene in which Arche has a dream involving herself and Cless/Cress. Not only has the game been fan translated, Gingo17 attempted to redub the actual ingame speech in English. This project is titled "Vocals of Phantasia" and is at version .999.

[edit] Game Boy Advance translation

Some fans were unhappy with the localized GBA version of Tales of Phantasia, likely in part because they were introduced to the game through the DeJap fan translation. In particular, the translations of the characters' names were different from those found in the DeJap version. Whether this was due to the deliberate intentions of the translators or an accident is unknown, but it is not uncommon for the English language name of a video game character to not directly correspond to the Japanese counterpart's. Numerous examples exist in the Fire Emblem series, in which character names have often been slightly modified or changed entirely during the localization process. Likewise, the decision on what the characters' official English language names in Tales of Phantasia are falls to the staff at Namco.

In addition to the above, the GBA version's dialogue and menu text also suffered from various grammatical errors; one such example involved Suzu's "seals" becoming "steels". Also, "Ragnarok" was mistranslated as "Kangaroo."

[edit] Playable characters

Cless Alvein (クレス・アルベイン, Kuresu Arubein): Known in the English version as Cress Albane and in the German version as Cress Albia. The seiyū (Japanese voice actor) is Takeshi Kusao. In the SNES version, he was the only character who was playable. 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.
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, Cless appears alongside Arche in the arena. Also, he has a semi-cameo in Tales of the Abyss, as a costume for Anise's doll.

Chester Barklight (チェスター・バークライト, Chesutā Bākuraito): Known in the English version as Chester Burklight. The seiyū 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.
Chester appears in a cameo in Tales of Eternia as an audience member in the coliseum.

Mint Adnade (ミント・アドネード, Minto Adonēdo): Known in the English version as Mint Adenade. Her seiyū 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, called "mana", in battle. Her magic can be gained through leveling. Age 18.
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.

Klarth F. Lester (クラース・Ｆ・レスター, Kurāsu F. Resutā): Known in the English version as Claus F. Lester. The seiyū 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. He is related to Fulein K. Lester from Tales of the World: Summoner's Lineage. Age 29.
Klarth appears in two cameos Tales of Eternia, first to administer a quiz at Mintche University, and second as an audience member in the coliseum.

Arche Klaine (アーチェ・クライン, Āche Kurain): Known in the English version as Arche Klein and in the German version as Amber Klein. Her seiyū 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.
She appears alongside Cless in an arena battle in Tales of Eternia.

Suzu Fujibayashi (藤林すず , Fujibayashi Suzu ): The seiyū 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 a 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. She is thought to be related to Sheena Fujibayashi from Tales of Symphonia, as they share the same last name and are both ninjas. (Also the background music in both of the hidden villages are highly similar). Age 11. Despite to her young age, she acts more like an adult than a child. She is also very quiet.

[edit] 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 Super Famicom's small audio memory capacity by swapping short vocal samples on the fly.

[edit] Music

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 version 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:

  • "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 versions). The SFC version was arranged by Hiroya Hatsushiba.
  • "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

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

[edit] Developer controversy and the birth of tri-Ace

The game is based on the story Tale Phantasia, written by 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. 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.

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, 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.

Composer Motoi Sakuraba, meanwhile, 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.

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.

[edit] Remakes

[edit] 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, Chester, who relied on brute force in the Super Famicom version, was given nine TP-consuming moves, which carried over into 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 player-friendly battle encounter rate were also made.

[edit] 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 based on the sprites 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.

[edit] PlayStation Portable remake

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

[edit] 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 at least Cress as a cameo in Tales of Destiny, Mint on Tales of the Abyss, and all the Tales of the World games containing at least one Tales of Phantasia character.
  • The four unknown warriors that appear battling Dhaos at the beginning are often mistaken for being Tornix Morrison, Miguel (Cless' father), Maria (Cless' mother) and Mary (Mint's Mother). The group is actually Edward Morrison and three other characters who are never referenced or named. However, they are named on the Drama CDs and novels. The swordsman is Alan Alvein (also pronounced "Alain"), the cleric is Carol Adnade (also pronounced "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 version. 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 off the game's plot.
  • 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 on the Super Famicom version
    • The new version on the Playstation remake
    • The arranged version on the Tales of Phantasia OSV for the Playstation remake
    • 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.

[edit] Screenshot comparison

Screenshots of typical battles:

Super Famicom (English fan-translation)

Game Boy Advance

Sony PlayStation

[edit] Notes

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

[edit] External links

Tales series
Main series: Phantasia — Destiny — Eternia — Destiny 2 — Symphonia — Rebirth — Legendia — Abyss — Tempest
Tales of the World series: Narikiri Dungeon — Narikiri Dungeon 2 — Summoner's Lineage — Narikiri Dungeon 3 — Radiant Mythology
Other games: Tales of Fandom (Vol.1) — Tales of Mobile — Tales of Eternia Online
Animations: Tales of Eternia: The Animation — Tales of Phantasia — Tales of Symphonia OVA
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