Tales of Phantasia for PS1 Review! - The Game Collection!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 10 ก.พ. 2025
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Tales of Phantasia is a game with a complicated history, but regardless of how much of the story you tell, you have to mention Yoshiharu Gotanda who worked for Wolf Team. Tales of Phantasia is the brainchild of this man, who not only wrote the original scenario from the ground up but also was lead programmer for the game. He had a bold new vision for a grand story as told through three different perspectives and… suffered some heavy-handed changes by the big corporate publisher Namco Bandai, which created a huge chasm of creative differences, resulting in a massive falling out between Wolf Team, Telenet, and Namco Bandai. The majority of Wolf Team staffers left to form Tri-Ace who would later make the competing series Star Ocean, leaving Wolf Team utterly gutted with a half-finished project. Namco Bandai stuffed the development team with their own members to finish the job and what we got out of that was Tales of Phantasia.
#talesofphantasia #jrpg #review
I would once again like to extend my thanks to the supporters of the show on Patreon -- unfortunately this video is being claimed by Victor Entertainment for using music from the game. And it's _because_ of that support that I am able to take the hit to ad revenue, and not have to compromise my vision for the show. Thank you all so much!
Stop giving these devs free money since they are gonna be greedy just because they live in a shoe now
At least you have artistic integrity
The video being claimed sucks though
"It might have been schlock, but it's my kind of schlock." I'm gonna have to put that quote on the wall above my game collection.
the best memory of this game I have is one of the translations has a line that says Arche fucks like a tiger and I lost my mind when it was said
It's really true that once you go back to games that have an overworld map, it really makes you remember how much you love & miss them!
HOOORAAAY GREAT JOB!!! SO PROUD OF YOU FOR PLAYING YOUR FIRST TALES OF GAME. Shout out to this mysterious person who called you out and pushed you toward playing one. Eh heh.
Also I personally think this game looks HECKIN' GREAT for snes/ps1. Holy shit. I agree it is a shame that they're denying the West this treasure. I'd like to get in older Tales of games if they were made available.
Yeah! Huge thanks to _whoever_ _that_ _was_ for being the impetus for my exploration of the series. I shall return to it another day. :)
I distinctively remember playing the fan translation of the game in an emulator back on the day, when I was a teenager. The game struck me deeply because of that, as most of the cast are teens, like Cress and Mint. I really liked Arche, she is my favorite, mainly because she is the powerhouse of the party but also because of her funny, quirky and spicy dialogue. And although the fan translation may have changed a lot, I think they did a pretty good job. That's why I remember fondly those characters. To me, Tales of Phantasia holds a special place in my heart, from the intro song to the overall theme, from the battle system to the convoluted plot.
That fan translation got me too! It is a great game.
Same! Played the dejap translation when I was a teen. There was something about the fact that the games were unreleased that made them even more mystical than regular fantasy games. Like you were experiencing something rare that a lot of others would not. Maybe to me that added to the sense of escapism I desired in those tumultuous times.
What perfect timing. Thanks for your time and effort super D
Thanks! Appreciate you watching. :)
Super Derek: hasn’t played a game
Me: immediately absorbs new content
I always wanted to try the origins of this franchise, loved the review! I'll be back in 25 years once you finish the rest of the games lmao
Always good to see you back on the reviews, thanks for the upload.
So glad these videos are back!
I played this one last year, and one thing that keeps coming back in almost every Tales of game is story and characters.
Many party's in the games are a fun combination of diverse characters, the skits and sprites are imo the best things of this version of the game.
I'm so happy that you're devoting more time to The Game Collection. I really love the series
Despite being the first entry in a now massive franchise, I still look towards this as a benchmark for both story and characters. While the whole revenge plot can feel antiquated these days, rarely do we ever see it reach such a natural conclusion like Phantasia. No backpedaling. No what-ifs or alternative routes. Once the village was razed, conflict became all but inevitable.
And that's what I love about Tales of games. The ones that do not hold back with the themes that they are presenting usually are my favorite games of all time.
I really loved this game on the GBA. Never knew the PS1 version would be more complete. Still a great experience. "if there is evil in this world, it lays in heart of men."
I want to play this one so badly, but so many games, so little time! Great vid!
This is my favorite SNES ((more accurately, Super Famicom) jRPG other than Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger. I love everything about it. The plot, the lore, the characters, and especially the music!! "Be Absentminded" by Moto Sakuraba, and the game's intro song are something else. This is a lovely title that sadly many people don't even know exist :/
This got uploaded as I just won a bid for Tales Of Hearts R on eBay! Excellent timing, Derek!
Congrats Kev!
Dang it Derek now I have to go play this game again, this should come with a nostalgia warning lol. Great video thank you 😉. If you keep making videos like these, I will end up playing all these classic games all over again.
Oh hey, it's my favorite game! I own six copies on various systems and it's probably the game that first convinced me that I needed to learn Japanese.
It undeniably has some flaws (and some subjective things like the plot/setting you mention), and I can see why some people can't get into it, but I'm glad you finally got to it and seemed to enjoy it well enough.
I really love that new piano intro, it brings lots of nostlagia from the early years of the show!
Thanks so much man! Makes me really happy to hear that! :)
I have to point out what seems to be a glitch:
at 3:15 there are some lines that are present in the subs but are missing from the audio, namely "a several minute prologue", "Cless hallucinates in the woods", and "mirrors are spooky". I did hear the "time skip" line and everything else that should be alternating between channels. And I checked in on both headphones and speakers.
Otherwise, a fantastic and honest review, thank you very much for it!
Yep, you're right, I noticed there's an audio glitch around then that I hope to resolve without re-uploading the whole video and dealing with the extra complications that come from that, but before I can I need to resolve this copyright thing with victor first. Wish me luck!
@@SuperDerek good luck!!!
Please Derek you must play Tales of abyss!! Cheers from Brasil, i enjoy your channel so much.
Another great video for the archive
"Shes into the booze and into the dudes." Kudos, Super Derek.
The Tales games are comfort food, for me. It full of clichés and stereotypes, but it's usually well used. I never tried the Playstation version, but it looks great, though. GBA has one of the greatest typos of all times, though, when Ragnarok suddenly becomes... The Nightmarish Kangaroo for a line!
Thank you sir for your insightful wisdom you remain among the gaming review Legends
Great review, nice way to start my morning!
I love the Tales series and am glad you had a good first experience. I'll need to try this game too!
Thanks! Releasing a video first thing is one of my favorite ways to start my day too! :)
Are you going to review more games in the series? Amazing review dude!
I suspect I will -- I have Tales of Destiny and I think it would be a shame to let that go to waste! I do have some other games on my immediate horizon I need to take care of first though. :)
Watching your breath of fire series only earlier today. Enjoyed the comedy comparisons to Majora's mask et al. Great work!
Thanks dude! Those reviews have gotten pretty old while I wasn't looking, I still remember them fondly though! :)
@@SuperDerek most welcome my friend and thank you for your reply. Time flies when you're having fun! Thanks again for the great videos :)
That music though! Really feels just like the SO2 soundtrack, which is very distinctive. Ahhh, one of these years I'll have time to play a Tales game to the end...
I remember playing TF out of this when I was in 8th grade when the first DeJap translation patches were making their rounds. Thought it was an amazing game back in 2002, played the PSX version which was even better, and also the GBA version which is not good lmao. Awesome content, D!
Always a pleasure to watch one of your reviews. Great work!
Love your reviews. You always do a killer job
Hey-I caught my name in the credits! What a thrill! Thanks for the great content as ever. This one has been on my list since the days of the DeJap translation but somehow I never got around to it. Maybe it's time to bump it up the list.
Strange that one day I saw you streaming Arc Rise on Twitch, where I thought you were just somebody enjoying a lesser known JRPG. Then suddenly I’m finding you as one of my favorite youtubers to watch, the quality and depth you go into its great. Keep up the great work Derek.
My fave game. Many of the others have better gameplay but this was the first. I played this on the zSNES in Japanese and then I found out it was made for the PS1! I imported that too from NCSX or what import game companies existed back then (it still exists, I just checked!!). Good times. Didn't understand much at all but had a blast playing it. Thanks to DeJap for translating the game!
I didn't know this game had voiced skits! Will totally be playing this.
Phantasia and Eternia are my favorite classic tales games
Always good to see a video from you posted. I like your style and genuine personality. I’d try to be your friend if I knew you in real life.
Thanks dude! :D
Love all your videos and thank you for doing this!
Thank _you_ for watching! :)
This was honestly my favorite in the series. And the PSX version has such gorgeous pixel art.
Except the chibi artstyle makes every character look stretched to widescreen. Don't get me wrong I love pixel art in PSX games. This just isn't it for me.
I've owned this game for years and never played it, its certainly moved up in rank in the backlog list!
Awesome review Derek! Even today this game does look great and still sound amazing
The version of this game that came with Tales of Phantasia: Narikiri Dungeon X would probably have to be the most definitive edition. I played the Full Voice Edition for the PSP (which is a different UMD all together), and I thought it was great, but the Narikiri Dungeon X version includes a bonus character that ties into the sequel, as well as making it so the battles don't freeze when you cast a spell. It's a shame that the west misses out on a lot of these. Tales of Destiny received a PS2 remake, for example, and it never came west either. We also missed out on entire games in the series. Oh well...
Anyway, great video as always. Thanks for your insight.
It's great waking up to Awesomeness.
Thanks, mate. Love the content. Admire the passion. You're in my to ten.
Appreciate it man, have a great day!
As crazy as it is - I never even realised there was a PS1 version! I've only ever played it emulated on SNES. Definitely need to check this out as it looks miles better!
Enjoyed this review quite a bit. Always thought about giving this series a shot.
Yo Mothra! Good to see you, it's been _ages_ since you popped into a stream! Thanks for watching man. :)
This video is making me want to play this game more now then I originally did.
Very neat to finally see the old studio version of Yume Wa Owaranai playing in a semi-big review on TH-cam without getting instantly taken down.
Next step, Tales of Eternia?
Yeah, it got claimed so the ad revenue is going to Victor Entertainment, but thanks to Patreon supporters I can afford to let that revenue go this time. Next steps in the sieres I was leaning toward Tales of Destiny, but I've got some other games I'll be playing through first. :)
@@SuperDerek Well, best of luck in your journey!
2:20 "Cless" is the canonical romanization (from the intro of ToP Cross Edition on PSP).
I was looking for this type of video, then booom... This upload appeared 😁
Loved the video!
Doing all the tales games now?! Sweet
whoa whoa whoa! Not all at once, but yeah I'll start dipping my toes into the series from now on. :)
@@SuperDerek haha just joshin ;) good stuff man
Awesome review, Derek! I have a repro of Phantasia I should boot up again... I originally played the game on snes9x over a decade ago and fond memories made me buy a repro copy when opportunity arose
Great review! Got any plans to play more Tales games?
I do have Tales of Destiny, I ought to check that one out, but I do have some other games I've gotta play through first for... a special occasion.
@@SuperDerek Yay! Look forward to whatever you post!
My third Tales game and the PSX version is the definitive version for me.
Commenting before watching the video.
Doing another playthrough now.
Great Episode !!
I'dd love to hear your thoughts on Tales of Symphonia for the GameCube!
This is honestly just in time, good point to reflect upon the "Tales of" series and even where I started with this series before becoming a longtime fan. Especially with Tales of Arise coming out later this year, which looks to be a somewhat formulaic change in the series.
I was really hoping with the 25th anniversary of tales that we would get some of the Japan only games ported to modern consoles but guess not. Tales of destiny 1 is one of if not my favorite RPGs of all time.
Played the PSX version in Japanese when it was released. I had no idea what was going on, but damn it, the game was great!
Phantasia holds a special place in my heart, the very first Tales game i played even though I never understood a single thing it was in japanese it wasn't until the 2000's that the dejap translation patch came out and i finally got to understand the storyline.
now i kinda miss those fan translated games Bahamut Lagoon and Romancing Saga games
The 90’s in retrospect was the golden age of rpg.. I do think we may be in another one now tho..
Never played this game, didn't even know it existed back in the day. My first Tales game was Tales of Destiny for the PSX. But the gameplay looks fairly similar to this one. I loved that game and from there I bought Tales of Eternia (named Destiny 2 in the US) and then Tales of Symphonia for the Gamecube. Haven't really played any since then but definitely think well of the Tales Series.
Oh, my favorite tales of game is Innocence. It's so fun, and the story is amazing! It's a shame it was never localized
Looks fun. Also good pixel art.
How long was the playthrough?
Awesome LIVE STREAM with Erick Landon today! Surprisingly I always start this game and never manage to get far in it. I gotta finish it myself. Great content as always man!!
Thanks, it was a blast!
That set though!
Thanks! Glad you like it! :D
Hooray, I'm glad you're finally taking the dive into the Tales series! Though, to me, Phantasia has always felt more like "Star Ocean Zero" that the first Tales xD
And I'm actually really happy you addressed the different fan translations. The SNES translation from the early 2000s seems to be the most common one people seem to have played and hoo boy, is it not great. I really want to check out the Phantsian Productions one myself, I didn't know that one was already finished!
I really wish Bandai Namco would give the west a rerelease of this game. We've been stuck with the GBA game as the only real official release for a decade and a half
Just started playing this a couple of months ago. Didn't even know there was a fan translation for the game or even that it existed until then. Love the original tales style. TOD is my favorite, love the living weapons.
WOOO NEW REVIEW!
Aw yeah! :D
@@SuperDerek My first Tales of game was Symphonia. I only watched a friend play this one years ago. It was neat to watch you play it
I called you out for this years ago though... but glad you finally have dipped your toe into the best series. Now play the rest!
xD Yeah this may be something I've been called out for several times in the past, only difference is this time I decided to finally give it a go. Also people voted on it too in the Discord. :-P
@@SuperDerek You know I've long given up trying to manipulate the discord voting process when my first few efforts failed lol
My favorite Tales of game is Destiny, it's too bad we never got the updated PS2 version
Never get tired of these awesome retro game reviews. PS1 is my favorite console after all. Your quality content is a joy to watch. 😊
P.S. - So glad to see your subscribers grow, you totally deserve it Derek.
Thanks Cynthia! :D
I LOVE this game sooo much. Randomly got it for an emulator and once I started it I couldn’t put it down. The battle system was fun and unique and it had a decent story too.
I really like El Viento. That's a Wolf Team classic.
wait until you experience the masterpiece that is tales of symphonia
Tales of the Abyss is where is at.
Tales of tales wins all
this game just plays around with your feelings with that gray area of an antagonist
I know...Dhaos deserves better
I always liked the older 2D games in this series. The combat in the 3D games felt dry to me. I didn't know about the Tri-Ace connection, but it makes sense in hindsight.
Congrats on finally playing a tales game... Can't wait until you get your hands on abyss or graces
I never knew there was a ps1 version of this! i played the snes one, ill play this one next
The more contact I have with the PS1 version, the more I like the SNES version.
The battle backgrounds in the original game looks like nature paintings in oil, while on the PS1 they look like generic pixel art.
Art direction in general is better on the original too, might be a reminiscent trace of the Tale Phantasia prototype which drew heavily from norse mythology and looked like the part, while the Ps1 version went full blown on the anime kawaii/chibi style.
Even the OST is inferior on the remake, sure a few tracks sounded better, but it's amazing how some on the PS1 version sound a lot worse than on the SNES, Mystic Forest sounds especially better on the SNES.
Don't even get me started on how the original game had SURROUND SOUND, compatible with Dolby Prologic, and the PS1 remake, with lot's of disc space and superior audio hardware didn't have it.
I have a receiver compatible with Dolby Prologic in my hometheater setup , and I can confirm it works a lot better than you'd expect!
All in all, both are great games, but to me the original version looks like a massive, almost impossible to pull of, masterpiece on a 16bit machine. While the remake looks like a generic 2D 32bit game.
Tales of Berseria is absolutely my favorite. I felt like too many of the games though were too hit and miss to me from fan opinions to try many others but I did enjoy what I played of this game on the Super Famicon and Playstation. Cool to see where it all began and how closely it was tied to Star Ocean at first.
I played a bit of Vesperia (like 3-4 hours) but wasn't fond of the combat, or locations or the characters. Thankfully I tried it from Gamepass so didn't actually spend on it. Then I decided to take the plunge with Berseria. I'm 64 hours in and I would guess close to the end, but I can safely say it's a great game. The writing is inconsistent imo (some story sections and dialogue are really good, while others make no sense and are dumb/cringy) but honestly I don't mind at all since the characters are so interesting and the combat so damn fun. Now I wonder which Tales game to play next, I bought Symphonia since it was super cheap though so I guess I'll play it next.
tales of symphonia is the only other game to take place in the same universe of phantasia if you are interested in the continuation of the story, even though they aren't technically linked, there are many references to the first game.
Aww you forgot the 6th party member Suzu! but it's all good
Oh I didn't forget, I just thought some people would consider her a late-game spoiler so I didn't talk about her. :)
@@SuperDerek hey! appreciate the reply! I played the original on SNES and from what I know she was not playable there.
PS4 remake will be awesome.
I love this game a remake would be awesome for the PS4/5
I think most of us have never played Tales of Phantasia or if someone has most likely emulated. I mean I think Tales of Phantasia only been released to the west on the Gameboy Advance and GBA port is not so good and now old Tales is extremely expensive. The Games People start with is usually Symphonia Vesperia or the new fans with Berserkia
Also, in my many ways "Tales of Phantasia" is an improved "Final Fantasy V". Story-wise, not gamplay-wise...
Excellet work Derek! You did the right thing starting at the beginning of the franchise! the super famicom version is one of my favourite jrpgs. I like it so much that i finished the gba JAPANESE version (it retrospective, yeah it's a bad port) i hope you play the rest of the tales series (word of advise: tales of destiny is good BUT the encounter rate is absurd! by the end i was op enough to beat the final level and boss in the first try!)
This was my first tales of series game that I played, I played the GBA version and one of my favourite GBA games including chain of memories kingdom hearts
Oh my god, i just realized that Game Arts is still around, Lunar has a chance to come back, if we speak with are wallets, they are on Twitter
nice one, Tiger.
Do you ever plan on doing a review on Valkyrie Profile? : )
Not sure, should I? :)
I had to come running since you were talking about tales of phantasia and long story short with the news of Tales of Arise coming out, Bamco should DEFINITELY rerelease Tales of Phantasia either as a remake or a remaster or a bundle with Tales of Destiny Remake. I know a good chunk of people who would buy that in a heart beat and it would definitely further promote the series going forward. That and I think we would all like to forget the GBA version of Tales of Phantasia because after playing the PS1 version myself, it is a huge improvement.
Whoops, replied to the wrong comment there. You're definitely right though, PS1 is the way to go! :)
Yep, ToD DC and ToD 2 would be nice
@@michaelclifton9498 YES ANOTHER PERSON WHO UNDERSTANDS!!!!!!
🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
@@MrDarksol i'm guessing those games are kind of popular.I only know about them because of gameplay clips on youtube
@@michaelclifton9498 Oh they are.
I played this when it originally came out on GBA, so the "bad" version but I really liked it and would love to play it again and complete it.
I've been curious about this game.
Imagine if we got a remake of this
Thank you!
Dude niiiice!!!Tales love!!