Tales of Phantasia

Tales of Phantasia is the first installment of the Tales series, and was released by Namco in 1995 for the Super Famicom. It featured the Linear Motion Battle System at its most basic.

In this game, the protagonist is Cress Albane, along with his comrades: Chester Burklight, Mint Adenade, Claus F. Lester, Arche Klein, and later in the ps1 remake, Suzu Fujibayashi. They fight against Dhaos, an evil sorcerer, while traveling through time to save their world.

Premise
Having lost their homes and families to genocide, Cress Albane and Chester Burklight set out on a journey for revenge against the Demon King Dhaos. Their quest sees them pursuing the warlord through time and space, fighting great battles and rewriting history as they travel. And yet... They don't truly understand what it is they're fighting for...

Characters

 * Cress Albane: A young swordsman from the village of Toltus who set out on a revenge-fuelled journey after losing his family in a bloody massacre.


 * Chester Burklight: Cress Albane's childhood friend who lost his little sister when their village was destroyed. Bow in hand, he swore to get revenge by defeating the Demon King Dhaos.


 * Mint Adenade: A calm and collected cleric who was taken prisoner by evil knights just before the Demon King Dhaos was released. Cress freed her though, and she joined him on his quest for revenge.


 * Claus F. Lester: A scholar from the village of Euclid who helps Cress out by summoning spirits. His goal is to one day master the art of magic, but he'll never succeed unless Dhaos is defeated first.


 * Arche Klein: A cheerful half-elf witch who can feel the world's energy slowly draining away.


 * Suzu Fujibayashi: A young ninja who searched desperately for her parents, only to find them under the ruthless control of Dhaos. Only she can defeat them, but she can't do it without Cress' help...


 * Dhaos: The "Demon King" who wishes to eradicate all human life... Actually has just motivation... And could be classed as something of a hero...

Super Famicom
Released at the end of 1995, Tales of Phantasia is considered one of the crowning achievements for its time. It had graphics that pushed the SFC to its limits, an addictive and original, never-before-seen battle system (the Linear Motion Battle System) and the addition of actual voices and voice actors. It was also the first (and only SFC game) to feature an entirely original, vocalized theme song featured directly in the game.

PlayStation Remake
Released at the end of 1998, a year after the release of Tales of Destiny, this game was not simply a re-hash of the SFC version, but rather an entirely overhauled and remade version. It took advantage of the improved Linear Motion Battle System used in Tales of Destiny, as well as featuring an all-new Anime intro and anime cut-scenes, new side quests, skills, items, a new character (Suzu Fujibayashi), the addition of the now popular cooking option, and fully vocalized skits.

Game Boy Advance Port
The Game Boy Advance port of Tales of Phantasia is a mixture of both the original SFC version and the PS1 remake. It uses the sprites and battle system from the PS1 remake, but the map graphics, among others, are from the SFC version. This version's American localization received intense criticism from fans (many of whom had played the DeJap translation of the SFC version) for many issues surrounding it, including lag and slowdown during battles, an odd translation (With names being romanized using "r"s in place of "l"s and vice versa), and bad voice acting. Many fans were also very upset that the opening song, "Yume wa Owaranai" (The Dream Will Not Die) was almost completely removed from the game by Nintendo.

PlayStation Portable Port
It is the "full voice edition" with all of the main dialogue voiced. The game also features new battle sprites more on par with that of Tales of Eternia, and a GRADE shop like recent Tales games.

Other Details
Tales of Phantasia originally was only available in the US through the fan translation of the Super Famicom version done by DeJap. Phantasian Productions has worked and is still working on a translation of the PS1 version. The GBA version was then translated and released commercially for North America and Europe in 2006.

This game has also spawned a four-episode OVA that was released sporadically over the course of 2004-2006.