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better then ever

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: February 10, 2006
Author: Amazon User

hey i just bought this game yesterday from Ebgames and man shocked how good of a job that Namco did, better then Tales of Symphonia and Tales of Destiny 2. the graphics are cool the characters the story everthing. If u like any these series then its worth getting this one
Story 5/5
Graphics 5/5
Gameplay 5/5

A Legend of Its Own!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: February 12, 2006
Author: Amazon User

The Tales series has been in good hands lately. Tales of Symphonia, which was a masterful game, was grand. Tales of Legendia is even better and more fleshed out. From start to finish, the game shines.

The game begins with Senel Coolidge and his sister Shirly fleeing from enemies aboard their ship. Soon another ship called the Legacy comes by and over takes them. The Legacy, we discover, is an ancient artifact from the Kingdom of Terises. When Senel and Shirly board the legacy we discover Shirly has the ability to breathe underwater which means she may be of a race called Ferines. But that's not all, because locals think she is a Merines, she might also be able to pilot the Legacy. Unfortunately she also gets kidnapped by bandits within the first five minutes or so. It's a lot to swallow, but you'll find out all the answers as the story progresses.

The Tales series is known for having well-developed characters, and Tales of Legendia is no exception. Each character that joins your party is neatly fleshed out to the point where they are their own self. What helps the character development (besides the well crafted dialogue), is how they will react and interact with one another in battle. Each character has his or her own attitude and way of thinking. You'll easily fall in love with these characters.

The biggest strength of Tales of Legendia though is without a doubt, the battle system. It's real time battling, mixed with a sort of Action/Adventure appeal. That is to say, you actully run up to an enemy and start attacking as if it really were an action/adventure title. It's fun, intense and well executed. You can only control one character at a time. The other characters in battle are controlled strictly by AI. AI usually has a bad reputation in RPGs. Not in Tales of Legendia. Your AI characters are actually smart, and they stick around for a while. You'll actually come to see that they're good at keeping themselves alive. It easily works out to the point where you don't have to babysit a weak character.

Each character also has Eres. Magic abilities that cost magic points to use. These attacks are devasting and beautiful. Your characters have several kinds of Eres they can perform on enemies, and they'll get more and more. And each one is more beautiful and more devastating than the last.

You can take advantage of the battle system by the combos as well. As you and your allies take on the monsters you'll be able to get some pretty high combos. Not only do combos work to cancel or slow down enemies, but the higher your combo, the bigger bonus experience bonus you'll get. If you're really good, you'll get several experience points just off combos alone.

There are a lot of battles in Tales of Legendia. This is good because battling is fun, but it's also bad because they're random battles. Dungeons tend to be long and drawn out (with a lot of backtracking) and the encounter rate is high. You'll have lots of fun battling, but you'll be begging for a break. It might've been best to stick with contact based battles like in Tales of Symphonia.

The Random Encounter rate also doesn't help when moving around on the world map, either. Since you move rather sluggish on the world map, you're just asking for a lot of battles. Walking across the world map is simple, but using the map provided can be tough sometimes. Towns don't make themselves that well known. So if you're traveling to a town, you might find yourself walking on the wrong side of a mountain range and not know it because it wasn't clearly pointed out on the world map. This is a minor problem, though, and probably won't frustrate you. Although the random encounter rate might start to eat at even the most patient gamers.

Tales of Legendia is a beautiful game. Every area shines with beautiful detail. You'll be in awe with these graphics from the moment the game opens up. Everything is bright and colorful, and the game doesn't suffer from any framerate issues. The characters are also detailed, and some of the story plays out in animated cutscenes. The music is also really good. One of the most beautiful soundtracks you'll hear in an RPG. The characters voices are also well performed. This is some of the best voice acting in a video game.

Tales of Legendia is worth it. With an incredible story, remarkable characters, engaging battle system and astounding beauty, the casual RPGer should be awe-struck throughout.

The Good
+Beautiful Graphics
+Great Soundtrack
+Engaging story
+Beautifully developed characters
+Top-notch voice acting
+Tons of extras and secrets
+Incredible Battle System, I've never had more fun with an RPG

The Bad
-There's only one con that sticks out. When you mix the high random encounter rate with the length of these dungeons and sluggish movement on the world map, even the most patient RPGers will lose it... but it's easily resolved with a FUN battle system!

Another great RPG from Namco

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: February 14, 2006
Author: Amazon User

First I'll have to say that I admit I'm really getting into Namco's "Tales of...". Of course, even though I've played various other RPGs over the decade (namely, Final Fantasy, Xenogears, Valkyrie Profile, etc.) along with the first Tales game released in the US (Tales of Destiny. See my review for feedback on that game) I played enough games to be able to see which is fun and which is a big baloney among all hyped RPG releases. I once loved the Final Fantasy series until I've figured out that not all games from that series are as good as the hype they generate (especially the recent releases). On the other hand, the "Tales of" series has a better record for me when it comes to what games should be: FUN.

With that being said, the tales series are always fun to play with its unique, interactive and exciting battle system, flashy and cool-looking spells and skills, likeable characters, numerous secrets, amusing side quests, etc. The recently released Tales of Legendia is no exception.

There are so many things I really like in this game that I've decided to mention the bad parts first. I'm sure this game won't be liked by everyone, probably due to the lingering (and probably outdated by now) interest on certain big name RPG series we all know and used to love. The battles would pose a problem to those who kept the initial settings (semi-auto), but this can easily be solved by selecting manual mode instead. Those who are used to turn-based RPGs may not be able to adjust immediately to the frantic action Legendia's battles offer. First hours in the game is riddled with cliches, but it won't be much of a problem since it sets you up in anticipation of the major and interesting story a bit later in the game. Some may not like a few characters (which, in turn, makes you like the other characters). It may ba a little easy to most, which can be remdied by the fact that you can change difficulty in-game to seek a btter challenged for skilled players. Tales fans will be a little disappointed on some stuff that didn't make it from the japanese version of this game. That's all the bad things I can think of.

As for the good, I tell you theses:

The battles are AWESOME to fight in. The tales series, for me, is the only RPG that makes me look forward to battle enemies, even to the point that I'd use items that raises encounter rate and whack the heck out of every enemy I get to meet. As a total fighting game fan, guarding, pulling off combos, adding in skills (special attacks) and magic attacks, and unique to this tales game: throwing enemies and the time bending Climax mode, it's all heavenly for me. Yes, it's a little easier to pull high-hitting combos this time around, yet it's immensely satisfying.

The music is just as amazing, I tell you. Previous tales composers (one is Motoi Sakuraba) can pull off nice tunes that I dig (especially a few ones that comes up to mind, including battle themes), but Go Shiinai is no pushover! In fact, I love the background tunes in the game so much more than most music in previous installmens of the tales series. Ranging from orchestra-like violins to upbeat jazzy tunes, to vocalized music with a very soothing quality to it, I found myself a new favorite game music composer. Listen to believe.

The voices are surprisingly well done (aside from one character's voice, which is but a lone mismatch compared to the well-voiced overall cast). Many will like the fact that Cam Clarke (voice of the fan popular Kratos from Tales of Symphonia and Liquid Snake from the Metal Gear series) does the voice on one of the characters in the game (Will Reynard). Others fits well too, from the serious but cating hero (Senel), the wild and loud (Moses), to the fun and bubbly (Norma), the high profile voice actors bring character and life to the cast of characters, making the voiceovers on events a sweet treat to hear out.

The graphics are nice, colorful, vibrant, and has a nice flair to it in which can't grasp why (it's probably the "softness" and far blurs that makes the game look refreshing). The character 3D models has good detail with a sleek touch. The character animation is superb, not surprising coming from the makers of Soul Calibur, you got to see it to believe the aesthetic wonder good animation can pull off, especially in a game where such animations play a large part in beauty of battles. MOnster designs are a little similar with the types of monster classification, but each one is modeled with good detail, so it's no mere pallete swap. The spell effects and skills are truly nice view for all, and it never makes a battle look dull (it made me go *ho-hum* on turn based battles ever since playing tales of games)

Anyway, this review is getting longer than expected. I guess it's the fact that I can't deny such awesomeness in front of me (I was making this review with the game right in front of me). A really, REALLY cool bonus for buying this game (and the upcoming Tales of Phantasia, which is great also) is an increased chance of a US release of Tales of the Abyss, the BEST tales of game ever known (Famitsu score: 38/40 - very few games reach that range from the tough reviewers of Famitsu). I am but one among legions who are really excited over this fact.

Be the judge yourself when you try the game out.

Good Game

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 6
Date: February 19, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Honestly this game is good. Okay but um... let's see uh.... IT'S NOT GAME OF THE YEAR MATERIAL AS OTHERS MAKE IT SEEM!People say it is better than Symphonia NAHA! NO FREAKIN, WAY! Reason 1 Norma uses a STRAW! Grune uses an URN and Shirley which ya don't really use at all uses a PEN!!!!!! But now for the positive. It's very humorful for kids but not adults. And remember the Wonder Chef he had a sex change into the Wonder Baker who constantly trips after being made fun of. The graphics I guess are actually pretty good. The combat is fun of course.But you know every about 12 steps you are in a battle What a pokemon! I think it's educational because Shirley uses a pen LOL!
We have beatiful Anime cutscenes too. We have Senel the main character who punches and kicks,Shirley his sister who always gets kidnapped. We got Will who is the smart one with a hammer and the voice of Kratos Aurion.Moses the bandit who jokes and has a spear.Chloe who seems to crush on Senel and wiels a sword as a knight. Norma who is funny and makes up nicknames.Grune uses an urn kisses Senel all the time and lost her memory. Jay the info dealer who is my favorite and wields a dagger.The envirements are cool. But before you play let me tell you that map navigation is hell!!!!!

OK sequel, but doesn't have the spirit of earlier games

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: February 20, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Tales of Legendia is one of numerous sequels in the Tales series. First hitting stores in 1995, Tales of Phantasia debuted on the SNES setting the stage for one of the most popular RPG series. As the years followed, more sequels found their way to different systems. Some of the games were pretty successful, and yet others crashed and burned. Sadly, North America has only received a few of these and the majority of the PS1 releases were far inferior compared to their Japanese counterparts.

The story of Tales of Legendia is a great one to say the least. The story follows a young Eres Master named Senel Coolidge and his sister Shirley as they drift lost at sea. Eventually, their food and water supply depletes and the couple must quickly find land. When they stumble upon and island, they soon find out that the island is a ship named "Legacy" and they must unravel the mystery that surrounds it.

Following the great story that most Tales games have is a very unique gameplay that will probably leave most hardcore RPG gamers playing for hours. The gameplay of Legendia has went back to the roots of the early Tales series. For one, the game is moving away from the force gauge and it's multiple line of combat and now using just a single line of battle that makes the game a lot easier to follow and understand.

Now there are a lot more changes in the gameplay from Tales of Symphonia than that. A huge point in the gameplay is the Climax System. In this, throwing out and receiving some damage can fill a meter. Once the meter is full, a simple push of the L1 button will activate the Climax System which leaves the enemies frozen in their tracks and will allow you to unleash some major damage on them. Now if you push the button twice, a special signature or special move will be preformed and dish out some major pain to the enemy.

Another new feature in the game is the ability to sneak around enemies and avoid battles with them. This is great if you're low on health or just don't feel like fighting. Now this feature is completely based on timing and not as much as skill. Another nifty feature is called "throwing". Throwing allows you to shoot out some long-range shots and do some major damage from a far distance.

Tales of Legendia also offers some amazing graphics. As you can see, the anime like styles bring a great feel to the game. The characters are also very well drawn out bringing every little detail there is to offer. Now if this wasn't enough for you, he areas and land designs are sheer amazing. You can clearly see everything there's to offer in great design and great detail. Also the 3D designs in most views are pretty sweet. For the most part, Namco did a great job designing the graphics.

However, the gameplay has take a back seat to the very disjointed story. I feel as though the game were thrown together by different teams (or team members), and was never properly organized to have a true purpose. The storyline feels quite stunted. For instance, in the opening sequence we see that Shirley is harmed when she comes into contact with seawater. OK...well then why does she go outside? *spoiler Shirley is kidnapped, and it seems none of the characters can save her let alone saw the kidnapper coming. This smacks of sillyness & it makes the story a bit hard to believe. The dialogue also seems out of place at times...I won't spoil the game but I hope you can twist your head to understand some of the character interactions.

Tales of Legendia tries very hard to make sense, looks pretty, and has a good theme but ultimately fails to satisfy. I look forward to Namco bringing out another Tales game and making things right. TOL doesn't accomplish the same high level of quality of previous games. I give it 3/5 stars.

Another Great Entry in the Tales Series

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: February 21, 2006
Author: Amazon User

When I picked up my copy of Tales of Legendia I immediately set high expectations upon it. Why shouldn't I? I had played through Tales of Symphonia multiple times, and beaten Tales of Destiny 2 as well as Tales of Phantasia. Luckily, Legendia did not disappoint me one bit.
The first and most important thing to look out for in a RPG of course is the quality of the story. There is no mistaking that the story can be clichéd at times, however, not only is it able to present the story well despite this, the originality and uniqueness of the characters is able to make this a negligible point. What surprised me the most about the story is the amount of comedy that is put forth. Sure, the other games had some of it, but not nearly as funny as what's shown in Legendia. It may seem like this would contradict the seriousness of the main story; yet, the game is able to balance it out and keeps things from getting melodramatic. It was refreshing to play a RPG for once that was able to be serious without being too serious and was able to laugh at its characters and itself at times. The character development that is presented is astounding. As I progressed through the game, I began to connect with characters like Norma, Senel, and Chloe and I really cared about what was happening to each of them. The character side quests do a great deal too as they really flesh out each individuals back story which was nice as I was able to get a better feel from where the characters were coming from. One thing I would have liked to have seen however would be some different endings or at least different character endings added. Still, the new game plus feature is great, and along with scores of mini-games, side quests and others, it gives Legendia a ton of replay value.
Some would say that the graphics are the weakest point of the game, this I would have to disagree with most passionately. Yes, the characters are not ultra-realistic looking; however, the level of detail that was put into the sprites is well done. Not only that, but the backgrounds are simply stunning. The artistic flair with which this game utilizes will make you sit back and admire for quite sometime. So while it may not be the best graphics game, it is the one of the most beautiful and artistic games to have ever graced the Playstation 2 console. This is also not even mentioning Kazuto Nakazawa's amazing character designs which rival other greats such as the legendary Tetsuya Nomura and Kosuke Fujishima who worked on Tales of Symphonia.
The battle system is undoubtedly the first thing that comes to most peoples minds when they think of the Tales series, and while this does neglect that great stories that the series has told it is true that it does have an addictive battle system and Legendia is no different. There isn't too much that is different from the battle system in Symphonia, but the ability to throw characters, going back to the 2D feel after utilizing a more 3D looking one in Symphonia, and the improvement over the Unison Gauge known in Legendia as the Climax Gauge. I found the Climax Gauge to be far more interesting than the Unison one from Symphonia since not only were you able to rack up huge combos with it, it still allowed you to be able to use a combination attack featuring all four of the characters in your party known as a Climax Combo. It would have been nice however, if new Climax Combos could have been used depending on either what level your characters were or even which character you were in control of.
Tales of Legendia most assuredly lived up to the expectations that lovers of the Tales series have undoubtedly put upon it. This is a game that should not just be enjoyed by fans of the Tales series, or even fans of real time battle systems, but instead should be enjoyed by all RPG fans. Though it may not be the first RPG to launch this year, it is definitely is an early contender for best RPG of the year despite the notable games coming out later this year. If you like your RPG's to have a great story, well developed characters, amazing artwork, an awe inspiring score by Go Shina, and an awesome battle system and you haven't purchased Tales of Legendia yet, do so immediately, you won't regret it.

The undying will of humanity

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: February 23, 2006
Author: Amazon User

is the main source of this game
Pros:
-Cute graphics that suits the game's mood
-Awesome soundtrack(It's a nice blend of Jazz, and has nice chourses in some stages)
-Excellent voice acting
-Rapid fight style gameplay
-Great story(And a ending that might be a bit emotional for some, like me)
-I love the cheerful comedy this game brings(If you just played a horror game, it's never a bad idea to turn to this to cheer you up
-It said 70 hours, and man this was the clostest that any game has close to being right about it's lenght on the back cover(I was only 15 minutes over 70 hours)
-Very nice animated ciniematics(It provides much more than the 2 Tales of Symphonia had)
-Excellent group of characters:
--Senel:The main man who walks around with the strenght of 100 men. He can be a pain sometimes. (Like when he abandoned his party, and felt like a total @$$ later)
--Will:The 28 year old man, who uses a hammer, but uses to much magic.(What is the point of having a hammer that can crush a cinderblock at ease if you're hardly gonna use it)
--Chloe:The knight with a generation of greatness before her, but she has loads of doubt and revenge in her(At one point it will, and I mean WILL piss you off)
--Norma:Where would this game be without the cheerful, bubbleheaded Norma. She brings loads of comedy, keeps the game from being completly boirng, well she's like Ed from Cowboy Bebop.
--Moses:And no he's not the guy who said let my people go. He's kinda like Zelos, and he's a bit of a goofball, and he provides comedy as well.
--Jay:I swear the first time I saw this dude I thought he was a chick. She-male lookin' sunova... Anyway, he's the least likable for me, because he always acts like he's too good for everyone.
--Grune:Ah, other than the fact that she lost her memory, she reminds me of Sheena, super sexy, fights with a weird weapon, has a relationship with summon spirits, the perfect woman, a Goddess(Seriously, and she's generaly rather nice to Moses, unlike Sheena and Zelos' relationship)
--Shirly:Senel's sister, and he cares for her a lot, but yet, she always seems to find a way to be a complete burden for like 2 of the game, but she's usually sweet.
-Gald is hardly a problem(The fact that you usually have more than you can spend from time to time)
-Skits have voice acting(Which is suprising since it wasn't that way in tales of symphonia
-Nice load of extras after the game was completed
-This game is a ton of fun, and is very enjoyable installment of the tales series.
Cons:
-No multiheal items(Only Norma can heal everyone, but it's not always enough)
-No Voice acting through Character quest.(Throughout the final 35 hours the only way you can hear voice acting is through the animated FMVs or skits. I missed the voice acting so much, I almost forgot what the voices for some characters sounded like)
-No summon spirits used(Their names are mentioned but they're never used. What happedned there)
-I hate random battles(The dungeons are wayyy to long and random battles are a bit frequent. I don't know what was wrong with the Tales of Symphonia system)
-The world map sucks! The paths are not far away, but Senel runs way too dang slow!(Not to mention there's nothing of an airship or anything like that)
-Puzzle booths are annoying(The only good thing I found about it, is you don't get into random battles with them.
-During character quest this game suffers from Magna Carta syndrome where you backtrack through previous dungeouns(Dungeouns I thought I'd never have to see again. They could have gave a quick jump like Tales of Symphonia did.)
-I wish you could cook after that battle and eat, and get a limited status raiser like in Tales of Symphonia(But, you gotta wait till after the battle.)
-No alternative endings(That is a real downer, seeing as how it is very common in RPGs today)

Tales of Lengendia is a great fun experience, but in pails in comparision to it's Gamecube predicessor Tales of Symphonia. This game looks like it was the prediseccor, and Tales of Symphonia was the successor. Seriously this game was inferior to it. Yet this game is enjoyable, and PS2 owners that never played the Gamecube success, nor had a international PS2 to play the japanese version(Which was realesed on PS2 there, and had much more extras than the gamecube version, and a casino, which was messed up), should enjoy this Tales experience, altho I played better.

peace

bad angel, why you so bad?

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: February 28, 2006
Author: Amazon User

well basically all i had to say was already (...) in the reviews, and all i can say is that if you have the chance, play tales of symphonia first. this is a way different experience imo. oh and ignore the kid's review. so what if their weapons are funky. that dosen't matter.

Disappointing, boring...

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: March 03, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I snapped this title up as quickly as possible, having loved Tales of Symphonia to death. I was extremely excited to play, as it seemed to have all of TOS's gameplay mechanics with a new story and characters.

Well, call me disappointed to say the least. Sure, all the ingredients are here for a great RPG, but the chef has left the building. TOS's unique, charming characters and dialogue have been replaced by bland sterotypes and endless conversations that I could have predicted after the first sentence. Here's a hint, Namco: Gamers like to play as people that they actually LIKE. There's nothing fun about having as a party a perpetually angry teen (who looks like a mutant), his nauseatingly sweet sister, a bland older man who could be everyone else's babysitter, a whiny female knight, a "cowboy" with a stupid accent...the list goes on and on.

Gameplay is similar to TOS, but it's dumbed-down and feels like an endless pattern of "go here, talk to some people, run around these corridors, get into a battle, mash the buttons to win, repeat..." And the random encounters were irritating--I would have liked to see my enemies before battling.

Overall, it seemed that Namco wanted to duplicate its previous RPG success, but failed to add that extra kick and charm. In a previous review, an enamored me called Namco "the next Squaresoft". I guess this is only true when they develop for the GameCube.

Pretty Good RPG

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: March 03, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Tales of Legendia is a lot like the recent Tales of Symphonia. All of the "Tales" games have been very similar and they've made suddle changes each game that makes each one play a bit differently. There are many good things about this game.

One of the best things about the game are the graphics. At first, you might hate them. The first dungeon looks terrible in my opinion, however over the game the graphics improve. Some of the dungeons are extremely well done, and each one has a different style. The character designs themselves are really good. At first I was a little bit put off, but after a few battles they grow on you.

Another great thing about the game is the voice acting. Practically the entire game has voice acting(with the exception of random npcs in towns and a few lines here and there). Senel has a very good voice actor. One of the best I've heard in a long time. Vaclav also has a great voice actor, as he kinda sounds like Jeremy Irons.

The battles are like the other tales games. You run left and right and perform combos. There are some interesting new additions to the battle system. One of them is the ability to combine various abilities into a new ability. You won't do this often, but the new abilities you create can be very powerful against certain creatures.

The story is good. It is cliched, but it is well done. There are interesting characters and a very interesting relationship between the main character and his sister. The game is long enough so you develop a lasting attacthment to the characters.

I would highly reccomend that any fan of the Tales games picks this up. I don't think it will stand the test of time, but it's definetly a great RPG right now.

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