20/03/2017

Tales of Phantasia: See you, so long, goodbye, hooray


Now's the time to reveal my feelings about Tales of Phantasia, and said feelings can be summed up in one short sentence: I love that game. I love it so much that it can claim the honour of being my favourite Tales entry so far. I love everything about that debut, from its retro aesthetics to its dreamy atmosphere, without forgetting its thrilling fighting system and unobstrusive story deliciously light on cutscenes. And the cast is by far the best I've seen on a Tales game: no whiny teenager, no hysterical loli, no overbearing big brother, but rather a dignified quartet intent on fulfilling a crucial mission. Sure, said crucial mission is by no means original, since we're talking about the meat and potatoes of all J-RPGs, i.e. Saving The Bloody World; but still, things are presented in a way that's pleasantly toned-down for a J-RPG and a Tales game  especially when compared to latter Tales entries and their distinctly hysterical storytelling.

So yes, I do love Tales of Phantasia. I love it so much that I would be hard-pressed to find a glaring flaw in that gem of a game; but if I had to nit-pick about something, that would probably be the fact that the random encounter rate is a trifle too high in dungeons and a trifle too low on the world map. I would have preferred to get either the opposite or a more balanced encounter rate overall  all the more so as dungeons are labyrinthine and bristling with puzzles, and it can be quite hard to keep track of what you're doing when you're interrupted every five seconds by a random battle. I could also mention the stiffness and slowness of the fighting system, which makes retaliation or escape impossible if you happen to be stuck in a bad pattern of enemies cornering and chain-hitting your team. But since it was a first try, I'll be lenient and forgive the fighting system's shortcomings, all the more so as it's quite efficient and entertaining overall.

I love Tales of Phantasia, I really do; and yet, I'm now dropping it after roughly 20 delightful hours of play. And the reason for this untimely defection is quite simple: I've had enough of it, in the most positive way possible. As a matter of fact, as far as my personal RPG clock is concerned, ToP should end right now, at the 20-or-so hour mark; this just feels like the perfect length for that game. Not only that, but I've explored the whole game world and I'm currently standing at the foot of the big baddie's castle, so now would be the absolute perfect time to wrap up that game. But we're talking about a Tales game there; and if my meagre experience in the Tales department is any indication, ToP simply cannot end in such an unfussy and straightforward way. There has to be a plot twist down the line, as well as a whole lot of detours and meanderings that will obviously involve backtracking. To confirm my growing suspicions that I was in fact far from being done with ToP, I checked an online walkthrough; and sure enough, it turned out that I had actually only cleared two thirds of the game. With that, my decision to quit was cemented, and I erased my save file to make sure that I wouldn't crawl back to the game in a moment of weakness. I'd rather stop playing while the game is still pleasant and restart a brand-new run if I feel the need to play it again; since I know what to do now, the early stages will flow faster and I can hopefully come considerably further, maybe all the way to the end of the game, before I start longing for closure.

Still, it amazes me to see that I always get that feeling that Tales games should wrap up and bid adieu around the 20-hour mark. In my opinion, these games seriously overstay their welcome and try to inflate their average play time by resorting to fake longevity tricks such as forced backtracking, time-sensitive side quests (which I never touch) and high random encounter rates in dungeons. The issue here is not the playing time per se  35 hours is a perfectly reasonable playing time for an RPG, and I've been pouring many more hours than that in many RPGs  but rather the fact that Tales games don't have the necessary resources to sustain such long playthroughs. They usually feature pretty small game worlds, which makes backtracking mandatory in order to stretch playing time beyond the 20-hour mark. Likewise, dungeons are quite tiny despite being mazy, so the random encounter rate must be cranked up to eleven to ensure that these dungeons last longer than five minutes. And last but not least, the fighting system is only skin-deep despite its steep learning curve. Once you've mastered the art of positioning your characters and timing your attacks, you're pretty much set; and the only thing you'll need to learn afterwards are the resident foes' move and attack patterns and the range of your new Skills. Basically, what you do during your very first battle in the Forest of Spirits is what you'll do throughout the whole game, only with flashier and more potent Skills. I genuinely love ToP's unique brand of fighting; but for all the flashiness of its name, it's hard to deny that the "Linear Motion Battle System" is definitely not deep enough to provide 35 to 50 hours of continuous enjoyment.

And so I'm quitting Tales of Phantasia before it becomes stale and aggravating; but I'll probably come back to it one day, if only because I enjoyed it so much. That being said, I wonder if there is a Tales entry out there that lasts less than twenty hours; if such a game indeed exists, then I would gladly get my paws on it, because a Tales entry that doesn't overstay its time and keeps things nice and short would most certainly be a blast to play as far as I'm concerned. Feel free to fill me in in you know anything about the matter, dear fellow gamers. Thanks for reading, and be my guest anytime!

8 comments:

  1. C'mon Isleif. You can't say you love a game if you didn't trudge through all the lows and highs the game has to offer, as well as watch, through your own efforts, the disappointment (or not) ending of the game first-hand.

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    1. Hahaha! :P Well, not trudging through all the lows and highs of ToP is the very reason I can claim I love that game. Had I forced myself to play it till the bitter end, I would probably have ended up vomiting it and never wanting to touch it again, just like with the other two Tales games I've played. ^^

      With hindsight, I really regret not having given up on Tales of Hearts R at the 20-hour mark, just after the plot twist. My feelings towards that game would certainly be more positive nowadays if I hadn't forced myself to soldier through its excruciating last 15 hours...

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    2. All the Tales games really have that palpable feeling of being padded to double their length. I think the shortest one may be either Eternia or Xilia, having finished both in the 25 hours mark. Eternia in particular, is pretty good in terms of story. Well, as far as Tales of games go anyway. It has one of the best plot twist/reveal I've seen at the end, just before the final battle.

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    3. Wow, 25 hours sounds perfect! And a plot twist right at the end is the kind of thing I really dig; not like stupid Tales of Hearts R, which shoved a plot twist at the halfway mark. Now that makes me more eager to play Tales of Eternia, which I obviously own. Not right now, though; I've had my share of Tales for a while. :p

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    4. Hearts R problem was that it had more padding than the original Hearts DS, thanks to adding Chalcedony to the playable cast. But the game itself already had its fair amount of padding anyway.

      Eternia sits comfortably between being a "retro" Tales of and a "modern" Tales of. I really recommend you play it down the line. It's fun and the twist is something that even today, and despite not being a true Tales of fan, I remember it fondly. It really made my chin drop at the time. Oh, and beware if you're going to play with the english voices. They're HORRIBLE. Bottom of the barrel quality voice acting, even considering the era's (PS1) average quality.

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    5. Talking about Tales games on DS, have you played the other two Japanese exclusives, i.e. Tales of the Tempest and Tales of Innocence? I'd like to know if they're worth purchasing.

      If there's an option to play without voices, I'll gladly choose it. I loathe voice-acting in games, japanese as well as english. On that front, I'm unashamedly retro. ^^

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    6. I've played Tempest and Hearts to some extent and finished Innocence. If I really have to be honest about it, only Hearts would be worth a purchase because, at the very least, it has nice sprites and better gameplay.
      Innocence is pretty bad in general. Story is bad, characters are kinda boring and even the gameplay, usually the only redeeming thing about Tales of, is bland and uninteresting. And worst of all, the dungeons are terrible. Seriously, dungeon design is nearly non existent. Just corridors. Heck, the last dungeon is a 45 minutes long upward spiral staircase with 2 boss battles in between and the last boss at the end. A real joke.
      Tempest was a mistake. No one should have to play that thing.

      Oh, and in case you're wondering, Tempest and Innocence both have a English patch.

      >"I loathe voice-acting in games, japanese as well as english"
      Eh, I wouldn't go so far. I do mute some games though, but I also like to appreciate a good voice cast, be it JP or ENG. What I really loathe is the importance gaming companies give to voice acting nowadays. A shame so much money and development time is wasted in recording and programming the lines instead of polishing the actual game. You know, the actual combat system and dungeons/world design?

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    7. "A shame so much money and development time is wasted in recording and programming the lines instead of polishing the actual game": amen to that. And "recording and programming the lines" could be replaced by plenty of other things, such as "designing characters in skimpy outfits whose future cosplays will give otakus boners at conventions" or "writing algorithms to generate huge but ultimately empty open worlds". Gameplay and level design should always come first in games; the rest is but details, nice little bonuses that should under no circumstances be treated as major selling points.

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