

The player could control only one of the characters, the attack and techs were made by pressing the correct buttons or sequence of buttons. It was the hardest of the non-action RPG genre. It was one of the first/few RPGs to feature a difficult level selection. It is hard to explain but the battles were so fast paced that one could end them under 10 seconds or die in under 10 seconds. The battle system was a hybrid of 2d fighting games and action RPGs. The graphic was so good that later when Namco ported the game to Playstation and Game Boy Advance systems they had no problems with the game looking dated. It is one of the few Snes games to feature real voice acting and a singed opening theme. What's more, some of the previous save point locations, particularly ones near big boss battles, have been removed.Released only in Japan, Tales of Phantasia innovated enough in the RPG genre to start the Tales of franchise that have more than 10 games today.Tales of Phantasia is the best looking and most complex game developed for the Super nes. Beyond the difficulty level, every item in the shop costs twice as much as before, and Namco Bandai has removed the ability to save or even load game files without an internet connection. Touch Arcade's Shaun Musgrave played Tales of Phantasia long enough to catalog its many sins. That wouldn't be too bad on its own, but Namco locked the game in at what was in previous versions – including the 2006 Game Boy Advance port – the highest difficulty setting. The game is free to download, with in-game boosts you can buy with real money. The problem is Namco has completely redesigned what was a great game in the hope that it can Candy-Crush people into paying more for it. This is only the second time English audiences have been able to play it, so that's nice. The good news is Namco Bandai's classic Super Nintendo role-playing game is finally available on the iPhone. I've got good news and bad news about Tales of Phantasia.
