The Tales franchise has been around for quite some time, dating back many years ago to my personal favourite system of all time... The Super Nintendo Entertainment System. This was way back in 1994, and the game was exclusively released to Japan. That did not stop the game from migrating west, as the company remade the game for the Playstation One using a new and different game engine. Realistically, unless you know Japanese, you have not played the true edition of the game.

A lot has changed from the initial release back in 1994, and different Tales games have been released since that time. As proof of this a short while ago I reviewed their latest game for the Playstation 2, Tales of Legendia. Also we were previously treated to Tales of Symphonia for the Nintendo GameCube as well. Before those games there were also multiple hits for the Playstation. While this new Tales adventure is decent, the sad fact is that this is still not a true edition of the original Tales Of Phantasia game, as it combines features of the Playstation One game, the Nintendo GameCube release, and the original game.

Lets start off with what has stayed untouched, and that is the storyline. All seems quite well in the small village of Toltus, but after two boys go off on a hunting trip, they return to find that every person in the village has been slaughtered. Cross -- the main character -- has returned to not only find his mother and father slain, but also his sister and her fiancé. It seems the entire village was wiped out in an instant, leaving Cross and his friend Chester (The other boy) orphans. Cross is determined to go to his aunt and uncle’s home to try and find out what had happened, while Chester stays behind to bury the bodies. From there the story expands and each character learns more about what happened that day and faces a series of trials and tribulations that lead to an epic journey of monumental proportions.

One of the key elements of the Tales series has been its fighting system. The fighting does take a little bit of getting used to, even for a veteran of the Tales games. You are battling in a 2D environment, sort of like Street Fighter (just like Tales of Legendia) and everything is on the same path, which keeps things strategic. In this form of combat the enemy hits hard, so if you leave yourself open to attack, only a few are needed to bring the strongest of warriors to their knees. You may control the positioning of combat, choosing where the characters start off in battle. You can move them to the front, the back, or somewhere in the middle. The trick is to make sure your team is balanced in case you are attacked from both sides.

Choosing your character’s attacks will depend on which direction you are pressing on the d-pad, and the action button you press. Your attacks will generally cause your main character to run up to the enemy and do an attack of some type, verses a standing swipe. You can link the attacks together, either with your attacks, or with the help of your team mates. You can also juggle them in the air, which prevents them from counterattacking. This is a key to keeping them docile. When trying to do this you may end up in a situation where the enemy is able to sneak in an attack, while you are recovering from your own attack, so of course it is best to minimize this. Further problems arise when you are attacked from both sides, where if you keep your protected characters deep in the back of the group, they will be the first ones attacked. This means your weakest characters can end up dying easily.

Luckily the system does have a bit of customization for battle controls. You cannot directly control anyone other than the main character, but you can give team mates guidelines on combat. Sometimes your weak team mates will join in on physical combat, which generally leads to them being slaughtered. There are a few things that help you protect them when playing as the main character. The first thing are the weapons you battle with, which provide at least two different types of attacks. Beyond this you will have shortcuts to their magic attacks, but you are limited to how many spells you can bring into combat. You can also have your team mates use items or their spells to assist you.

Now since the game retains its former style of battle, the controls are a tad sluggish. In the newer incarnations you have more control, like in Tales of Symphonia, but in this game there is dramatically less than that. For example, let us say you just preformed a rush move on your enemy. If you do not hold your d-pad towards the enemy you will rush back to where you started the move. This distances you in combat, keeping things a little less than active. If you hold your character still though, you will be open to counterattack. There is little balance in this, and it feels like you are battling against the system to continue the fight. This is where improvements should have been made, as the character hardly feels like you have control of them. In the end if you get tired of this, luckily you can set them to auto attack so they can battle for you.

A number of features from various Tales games have been added to this new game. A feature returning from the GameCube game is the ability to gain titles. This will help your statistics, which will help you grow your characters beyond what would normally be possible. This is needed because this game can be a bit difficult.

Another nice feature of the game is that it includes a fair amount of voice work. This is no small feat considering it's on the Game Boy Advance. I am glad that this was included, because it really gives the game a punch over most other GBA games. The main voice does come off rather creepy, but it keeps you hooked and entertained.

Moving back to your characters and equipment, in this game you can only hold up to 15 of one item. This can limit how you would normally play through a game as well. The items do seem to be quite expensive as well, but items restore relative values of health to your characters through percentages. That means that they retain their value to the end of the game, so there is no need to get potions, then hi-potions, and finally the x-potions. Luckily though you can further assist with keeping your team healthy and rejuvenated by cooking things for them. This will lead you through many hours of side quests trying to scoop up all of the recipes you can. It is beneficial to go through the motions of finding these recipes because of the limit on the number of items you can carry.