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Lately, I've been drawing many links between Tales of Phantasia and Final Fantasy VII. It sounds like an odd comparaison to make, but there's some sense to it once you think about it. Both are extremely popular classic RPGs from the mid 90's. Both have an incredibly large fanbase – perhaps larger than it deserves to be-- that celebrated the object of countless doujinshis and fan fictions. Also, the two titles are model examples of games that get too many sequels, remakes and rehashes (Phantasia had Summoner's Lineage and FFVII just about everything). But Phantasia is the only one of the two to receive constant ports from system to system. 2005 was a very special year for Namco's Tales series, as it celebrated its 10th year anniversary, which debuted with none other than Tales of Phantasia's fourth version, this time, on the PSP.
ToP's original version in 1995 was a delightful, super-deformed masterpiece, but was dragged down by very high encounter rates and some pretty choppy art. It was revolutionary at the time for including large amounts of voice acting and its very own vocalized theme song, devoting an entire 16 megabit ROM bank just to compressed audio. To commemorate the game's success, a remake was printed for the PlayStation in March of 1997. The update carried over much of what made the original so great while considerably reviving the game's visuals, enhancing the battle system by making commands more seamless as well as enabling players to recruit Suzu Fujibayashi. There were many other minor improvements and Easter eggs that made fans of the original game grin from ear to ear, making this the definitive and ultimate version for ToP fans. Though, four years later, an even more "enhanced" version was released for the GBA, but it was easily the worst version due to the game's locked brightness settings and drawbacks for being ported to the first generation Game Boy Advance.
Tales of Phantasia: FVE may just very well be the best handheld RPG you'll play in a while.
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And today in 2006, we shake our heads once more as Namco revives the series' origin, for what seems to be its last encore. This is good news, since the PSP version is a based closely on the PlayStation remake with some added features from the GBA port as well. After repackaging Phantasia so many times, and especially after experiencing ToP GBA, it would be common to expect a poor effort in porting to cash in on selling the franchise name.
Full Voiced Edition made several improvements to Phantasia's core, that renders the original and GBA game archaic and obsolete. The most obvious addition, the re-done voice acting, is fantastic. It sounds great and, while there isn't voice acting in every scene in the game, it's present for all the major storyline bits you would come to expect while playing. Character sprites were also made from scratch, losing their chibi forms and adhering more to a proportionate design. The newly redrawn sprites look a lot like the ones found in Tales of the World: Nakiriri Dungeons 2&3, though they've clearly been redone. They look great and are a nice change for once, though it may upset fans used to seeing big heads float across screen. A series favorite, the Grade shop, was also added and is available after finishing the game. Using Grade (which is like a score to reward prowess in combat), you can purchase various goodies to enjoy on subsequent plays (bonus experience, titles, gald, etc). FVE makes good use of the PSP's 16:9 screen, extending the width of maps and battle screens without stretching any of the content, another useful change, especially during battles.
The lovely tunes of Motoi Sakuraba were left untouched, but there is a Reverb switch in the options, which is more or less stereo panning with a strange buzzing in the background. Whether or not you enjoy reproducing the lower quality sound in the original game, is entirely up to you. The soundtrack is the same delectable experience it was on the PlayStation and it sounds great, if not better on the PSP. Personally, I've always found the PS remake to have the best soundtrack, since every tune is crisp and clear, and holds up best when compared to the GBA and Super Famicom versions. And even if there have been subtle, yet interesting remixes made to the GBA's score, it still isn't enough when compared to the remakes soundtrack. So if you've played ToP on the PS1 before, you're in for a second round of more or less the exact same bells and whistles. Music is of high quality and rather diverse, so you never run in and out of areas to avoid the town or dungeon themes.
Every previous iteration of Phantasia has managed to annoy me in some way. I hated the Super Famicom game for its high encounter rate, as well as the fan-based translation hack for its exaggerated (and adult) dialogue. The PlayStation game was perfect, but I couldn't take it with me anywhere. I could however, travel around with the GBA game, which felt more like a punishment then anything. But even if each game had its faults, they also had their strengths, something Tales of Phantasia: FVE picked up on while dropping the former. Having an ultimate version of a game that had several releases is pretty satisfying and aside from the fact that Dhaos is still very hard, there really are no complaints. If you like RPGs and aren't new to importing, this game may just very well be the best handheld RPG you'll play in a while.
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