I realize that I’m writing this quite late in the game, though perhaps I can justify it, what with the recent announcement of Odin Sphere for the PS2 Greatest Hits lineup. In any case, I recently played Odin Sphere for the first time and I wanted to share me thoughts on it, even if nobody else really cares to listen.

Battle System

The battle system in Odin Sphere is quite simple compared to many action RPGs. You fight on a 2D field that forms a complete circle, you have your standard attacks and your specials. Here’s the catch – Odin Sphere has 5 different protagonists, each of which has their own special skills and attack patterns. Here is a basic rundown of the characters:

Gwendolyn – Uses a psypher spear. The most balanced character, possess the ability to glide. Her ultimate ability is by far the best in the game.
Cornelius – Uses a psypher sword. Powerful combos, but short range. Can use a spinning aerial attack. Moves very quickly.
Mercedes – Uses a psypher crossbow. Strong ranged attacks, but low stamina. She can fly and fire charged multi-shot. She has a unique ability that shoots a powerful shot across the screen.
Oswald – Uses a psypher sword. Short range, but rapid combo potential. Can transform into a shadow monster to boost power temporarily.
Velvet – Uses a psypher chain. Long reach, but slow combos. Her charged attack homes in on the enemy for a powerful ranged attack.

Each character has only two stats, Power and HP. Power can be increased by absorbing phozons from enemies, alchemy, or plants. HP can be increased by eating food (or later by eating at the Pooka restaurant). Items can be obtained by clearing levels or stealing them from monsters. Among these items are several types, the most important being plants and alchemy mixes. By planting seeds and allowing them to absorb phozons, the player can grow food that allows them to recover HP and can be used in cooking. Alchemy Mixes are items that, when combined according to the right recipe, allow the player to create new items. Items created with alchemy range from healing potions to napalm. Obtaining these alchemy recipes is up to the player, but being able to craft a variety of potions will certainly be to the benefit of any player.

Odin Sphere’s battle system seems basic at first glance, but it requires you to master five different ways of fighting, along with packing the right items and picking the right time to use them. Using an item before being hit will cause the player to drop the item. Timing is quite important in battle. Most characters do not possess the ability to block attacks, so it is up to the player to dodge powerful attacks on their own. It is worth noting here that Odin Sphere is a challenging game. I was unable to beat the game on my first playthrough on the Normal setting. I had to reduce the difficulty to Easy in order to make it through, and even then I found myself dying against some bosses and in some of the harder areas. Do not underestimate the difficulty of the game, Normal on Odin Sphere would be “hard” on most other games. Thankfully, you can play any of the books over as many times as you want to, so just because you’ve beaten the story for a character, it doesn’t mean that you can’t make them more powerful.

While I am on the topic of the battle system, I have to offer up my biggest complaint about Odin Sphere. In areas with many enemies (particularly in the underworld) the speed of the game sometimes grinds to a screeching halt. There is a noticeable slowdown. I had ripped my copy of the game and was using HD Loader and I STILL experienced this slowdown. I can only imagine what load times and lag must have been like playing from the disc…

Visuals

This might be the first and last time I ever make this statement, but the visuals might be Odin Sphere’s biggest selling point. I have never once considered myself a person whose opinion is easily swayed by nice graphics. Graphics are an asset – one part of what a game can use to provide an overall experience. But the graphics themselves can never justify the purchase of a game… Odin Sphere made me question that philosophy for the first time. I can honestly say that I purchased the game just based on the beautiful 2D graphics. Vibrant colors, stunning detail, and beautiful locations set the stage for a truly rich visual experience. While the graphics are not the whole of the experience, they contribute more than their fair share in creating a deep fantasy world. As a fan of 2D games, I’m honestly not sure how much better a game can look than Odin Sphere. Character movement is subtle yet dramatic, very fluid and very natural.

There is one minor complaint I have about the graphics, but it is so minor that I almost hesitate to make it. My complaint is that the game made no effort to create character models that accurately reflect a left vs. right profile. What I mean is that the character looks identical no matter if they are facing right or left, which obviously isn’t the case with real people. Still, with how perfect everything else in the game looks, I’m totally willing to believe that every character is ambidextrous and call it a day.

Music

I absolutely loved Odin Sphere’s soundtrack. Certainly within the game, there wasn’t a single piece of music that I did not like. Even once I was listening to the OST independent of the game, I still loved almost every track on it, which is actually very rare. Each area in the game has its own specific music, and of course there are event specific themes as well. It’s difficult for me to describe the tone of the songs properly, I simply lack the necessary vocabulary to do so. The music doesn’t feel like your ordinary game, most game music seems like you could probably fit it into most games if you wanted to, but Odin Sphere’s music is distinct. It was clearly written to fit the specific fantasy setting, which it does to perfection. In my ignorance, I might describe the tone of the music as an “aggressive classical”. I’m actually not sure if I can pick a single track that I think is the best. Battle on the Snowy Mountain and Facing the Darkness are certainly two of my favorites, but honestly, I could list off 20 other songs that I like almost as much. Fans of game music won’t be disappointed by the Odin Sphere OST, it’s truly a complete package and one of the strongest game soundtracks I have heard in years.

I’m not sure if I have any more comments to make, but as always, RPGFan has a detailed review of the soundtrack up. If you’re interested in that sort of thing, you can find it here.

Voice Acting

Odin Sphere includes an option to play the game with either the original Japanese voiceover or the English dub. The entire story is voiced, even generic NPCs encountered between levels are voiced. Obviously the game has less text than your standard RPG, but the voice is a huge part of the experience in Odin Sphere. I played the game with in Japanese because I wanted to examine how they translated certain things. Normally, after I have played a game once in either Japanese or English, it is difficult for me to adjust to the other language right away. However, that was not the case at all with Odin Sphere. After my first playthrough, I switched the language back to English and found myself confronted with one of the best dubs I have ever heard. It was completely natural and was in keeping with the fantastic translation Atlus provided. I honestly don’t have a preference for one or the other. I am perfectly content playing either way and for the first time in a very long time, I can say that I can enjoy one just as much as the other. I think many fans of anime will immediately go for the Japanese option, but let me encourage everyone to give the English version a shot, I think that a lot of people are going to find themselves pleasantly surprised by it. You would really be missing out if you never heard it.

Characters and Story **No Spoilers**

Odin Sphere’s story is fantastic. The tales of five different people blend together, cross paths, and create a single, powerful story. The game is divided into books, each focusing on one of the five characters. The stories cross over, often pitting one protagonist against another. The game kind of toys with you, at least that’s what it felt like to me. You are forced to play the game in order – Valkyrie (Gwendolyn, The Pooka Prince (Cornelius), Fairy Land (Mercedes), The Black Sword (Oswald), and Fate (Velvet). Now, I’m going to assume that most people are like me, and after Gwendolyn’s awesome story, were just DYING to play Oswald’s story (which was strongly connected to Gwendolyn’s). Instead, the game jumps to Cornelius, the only character that we DIDN’T meet during Gwendolyn’s story. Well, that was fine, Cornelius had an interesting story too. So interesting, in fact, that I couldn’t wait to play Velvet’s story. Surely her story came next, I mean, their stories obviously contained deep links. Nope! The game proceeds to focus on Mercedes, THEN Oswald, THEN Velvet. The game really went out of its way to seperate the most connected portions of the story. In the end, I wasn’t really upset about the order. Rather, I realized that the stories were told in just the right way to keep the player begging for more from beginning to end. Still, I never could shake the feeling that the game was just messing with me…

Odin Sphere has fantastic characters. They all have tons of depth, even down to the support characters and enemies. You see many familiar faces across all five books, so you learn more and more about the entire cast as you proceed. Just because a certain book focuses on a certain character doesn’t mean that others won’t be developed, in fact it’s just the opposite. The amazing part is that the game manages to hide several twists until the later books, something that seems like it would be rather difficult to accomplish. Each of the stories is complete in its own right, yet the later stories are always adding more to them. While all of the characters do get their share of time in the spotlight, I think that most people would agree that Gwendolyn is the game’s star. Her story feels the most “complete” of any of them. Some of the other stories feel like they jump around the timeline a bit more, whereas the only big jump in Gwendolyn’s has a clear reason behind it.

Odin Sphere’s structure makes it the kind of game that is best played quickly. Even as a gamer who often likes to achieve ridiculous levels before beating games, I beat Odin Sphere in 30 hours. My levels for Power and HP were also around 30. For me, that is insanely fast. The reason is that I wanted to know the story so bad that I didn’t have an extra moment to spare. In fact, I think that the story might be hard to follow if the game were played over several weeks. I beat the game in about 3 days, and even then I had trouble making all the connections in my head. Thankfully, the game has a built in timeline so you can see which events coincide with others and what certain characters were doing during important events. This becomes very useful once you have completed the whole timeline. Another nice feature is the ability to rewatch any of the story scenes at any time during the game from the story menu.

I have mentioned the five book structure, but that’s not where the game ends. After completing these five stories, you unlock the sixth book – Armageddon. This is the book that brings everything together, all of the stories come to a single, conclusive ending. And maybe, just maybe, if the prophesies are true, you may find one final tale waiting for you. Odin Sphere’s ending was one of the most satisfying in a long while. It was about as conclusive as a game ending can be and I wouldn’t be lying if I said part of the ending brought me to tears. Odin Sphere doesn’t just feel epic, it truly is an epic. It’s so easy and so fun to get wrapped up in the story of Odin Sphere. The characters and the story are unique, powerful, and unforgettable.

Translation

This is my main reason for wanting to write this review. I want to offer up some praise to what might very well be the best game localization to date. Let me start with a simple fact – it takes courage to include a Japanese audio option on a US game. By doing so, you are offering up your English script to scrutiny and criticism. You risk revealing changes made to the script or mistakes in its translation. By including the Japanese, you give many players the option of hearing a language that they likely do not understand, forcing the text itself to stand alone without the support of voices in some ways. What it means is that Atlus had a lot of confidence in the script that they produced, and frankly, I don’t blame them for it.

In discussing the quality of this translation, there is absolutely no need to discuss accuracy. Quite frankly, the localization left me in awe – never have I seen an English script of this quality. Where the Japanese script used generic words like “shinigami” for the reapers, the English version used “Halja”, an archaic word to match the Norse origins of the mythology. This is no straight-forward translation, Odin Sphere goes out of its way to match the setting, seeking specific mythological terms in many cases. Likewise, the psypher weapons that are simply referred to as “maseki” or “demonic jewel” weapons in the Japanese are given proper names in the English version. It’s very clear that the translators paid a lot of attention to the setting even when writing standard NPC dialogue. The style invokes archaic fantasy without ever feeling forced. The result is an English version that has truly surpassed the Japanese script, reinterpreting lifeless terminology using relevant mythology, replacing empty terms with vibrant references.

The translation of Odin Sphere made me wonder what a guy needs to do to work for Atlus. There are a lot of companies out there, but from the games I’ve played recently, I honestly don’t believe that anybody out there is doing better translations than Atlus is right now. They are producing faithful localizations without letting the game sound the least bit dry. Their attention to detail and efforts to read into the intent of the original dialogue have produced amazing results. I’m glad that I played Odin Sphere, if not for the amazing game itself, then for for the lessons that it taught me about translating.

Final Thoughts

I can’t seem to put this game down. I beat it in 30 hours, but I still wanted more and put in another 15 just playing around before I knew it. If I haven’t yet used the word “setting” enough for you, let me reitterate this one last point. Everything about Odin Sphere goes back to its setting – it is a powerful mythological fantasy supported by a strong cast of characters, simultaneously independent and interdependent. With moving music, powerful dialogue, and stunning visuals, Odin Sphere is unmatched in its ability to draw the player into the world. This might be my all time favorite PS2 game. It’s battle system is enough to please most action RPG fans, simple yet very fun. If you haven’t played Odin Sphere, you really owe it to yourself to give it a try. It’s a shame that the Greatest Hits version will ruin the amazing boxart, but no matter what you have to do to play this game, don’t miss out on it. Atlus, thanks for bringing us this masterpiece.

Most of you are probably wondering what I’m thinking, writing something like this so after the fact. More importantly, why am I not working on my translations day and night, am I right!? This review is coming way after the fact, but I’m writing it following the announcement of Ar tonelico 2 for US release. Basically, I just had a lot of thoughts that I desperately wanted to get down. They were floating around in my head and I can’t get any translating done like this. So if you have some time and perhaps some interest in playing this game (is there anyone left like that?) maybe it will be useful.

Game Mechanics

Now I’m a fan of action RPGs, but that is a recent trend in my tastes. Like most all gamers, my first experiences in the RPG world were turn based. I may have fallen out of love with the concept of turn based games, but every once in a while, I really get into one. Ar tonelico had enough innovation that it was interesting to play, though I wouldn’t necessarily call it groundbreaking in any way. During combat, the player controls 3 combat characters and one Reyvateil. Reyvateils are the only spellcasters, handling all powerful magic which breaks down into support, healing, and attack varieties. Combat characters work to weaken enemy defense while dealing damage, which increases the potential power of song magic. Including the main character, there are 5 combat characters and 3 Reyvateils in the game. Who you use is really mostly dependent upon who you have the best equipment for and who is available at the time. The special combat moves in the game aren’t really worth too much, most damage will either be done by pure brute force from your combat characters or spells cast by Reyvateils.

The turn based system is pretty pure. The only exception to it are the Reyvateils, whose attacks are charged as the battle proceeds and can interrupt the normal flow of battle. More detailed systems exist within the game, but the only way to truly understand them is to play with them. New song magic is obtained by using the “Dive System” to interact with individual Reyvateils. In addition, the player learns much about the backstory for the Reyvateils is told through this system. The best items are created using a system called “Grathmelding”. It’s a fairly basic item creation mechanic that involves combining old equipment and various materials. There are certainly more things that I could go into about the mechanics, but that’s not what I really want to focus on with this review. I will state that I was fairly impressed with the basic game mechanics, they kept me interested without becoming overly complicated or distracting me from the main story.

Music

If there is anything worth praising in Ar tonelico, it is without a doubt the soundtrack. The game centers around music, so it’s understandable that they would put a lot of focus on the music. The hymns are certainly some of my favorite tracks on the OST, but sadly, they were left completely untranslated. That aside, the music in Ar tonelico was well timed and none of it felt overused. Likewise, the battle theme changed between the different sections of the game, which helped them to stay fresh. Dungeon music was usually unique to the area or changed based on game progress. Considering the length of the dungeons, the encounter rate, and the limited number of areas in the game, I certainly have to give credit to the music for preventing the game from feeling repetitive.

Voice Acting

Ar tonelico includes an option to play the game with either the original Japanese voiceover or the English dub. I personally found the English to be somewhat difficult on the ears, and given that I wanted to evaluate the translation anyway, I opted to play the game in Japanese. And so began my problems… First of all, I don’t know if they changed the sound levels or what, but with the default settings, it’s almost impossible to hear the Japanese audio. You have to crank the BGM and SFX way down for them to be audible. That was an annoyance early on, but once someone told me how to correct it, it got a little better. My second complaint is that cutscenes are in English no matter what audio option you choose. Now I realize that they would have to have included both videos for the audio to change, but they honestly should have done it. Having a sudden and unexpected language shift is like waking up to a bucket of cold water.

Getting down to the voice acting itself, most of my experience was with the Japanese voice acting. I haven’t played the entire game in English, though I did play some of the important scenes over again in English. The Japanese voice acting was average. Not great, not bad, just average. Some characters really surpassed their roles while others were underperformers. I don’t feel the need to comment on characters individually, but overall, it was a decent enough performance. Lyner has some of the corniest lines that I’ve ever heard, but that’s the fault of the script, not the voice actor. Additionally, it would have been nice to have had more of the main story include voice acting, but that’s a complaint that can’t be helped at this point.

If I had to make one comment on the English cast, it would be that their performance is very flat. They fail to capture all of the emotional ups and downs of some of the important events and it really makes it hard to enjoy. Many of the characters, particularly the females, sound much older than I think they should. The actors are trying way too hard with normal dialogue and then often not trying hard enough when they need to put some feeling into it. I was also disappointed that they didn’t make any attempt to translate the Hymns, especially the ending theme. That song isn’t just there to sound cool, it really embodies a lot of what the journey was about, what the world is made of. By leaving the hymns in Japanese, the player experiences NONE of that. I realize that translating songs like these is one of the hardest things for a translator to do, but the entire ending hinges on Phantasmagoria, so much of the meaning is lost without it.

Characters and Story **No Spoilers**

Ar tonelico has a very dating-sim-esque structure to it. I think that’s a big part of what I didn’t like about it. By letting the player decide on the ending, it really didn’t feel very powerful. Even in games with multiple endings, especially ones with sequels, there is usually a sense that one of the endings is the “true ending”. Tales of Symphonia might be case-in-point. With Ar tonelico, I really didn’t feel like the game had a conclusive ending. Because the game wanted to make ANY of the endings seem possible, it made it feel like none of them were truly conclusive.

The thing I hate the most about the dating-sim model is usually the main character. The character is supposed to embody the player. So the character has to be an everyman, but for some reason, he always becomes a faceless void. I will praise Ar tonelico in that Lyner did have some personality. However, the multiple endings forced him to be a wishy-washy idiot when it came to interaction with the female characters. For much of the game, he was a very flat character. It wasn’t until the final stretch that he finally grew into someone interesting. The supporting cast honestly felt pretty weak to me. Most of the character backstories only scratched the surface. As a result, I hardly felt any connection to companions that I was supposed to be fighting alongside. I chose my party based on pure strength, because their personalities really didn’t matter much to me. The exception, of course, were the three Reyvateils. The entire dive system focused on providing them additional (and much needed) backstory. Without the dive system, I’m not sure that I would have completed the game. The group felt like a bunch of people who liked fighting and dungeon crawling, because for most of them, if they had some deeper reason for fighting, it never felt very strong.

Ar tonelico had an interesting world and a varied set of characters to work with. It built itself a strong foundation that should have allowed a great story to be built on top of it. Unfortunately, like the Tower of Ar tonelico itself, the story was built straight up. The story certainly was interesting, but without any of the supporting structure, the world was unable to expand and grow. It felt very small. Only a few cities seemed to have more than 20 residents since the game did a poor job of creating the illusion of depth. Even the main cast lacked the essential depth that should have been a basic element of the story. It was a sad waste of a good setup.

Translation

Ar tonelico’s translation was uninspiring at best and downright awful at worst. If Odin Sphere is the example of how to translate a game, Ar tonelico is a guide of how not to. Character dialogue was often very dry, most of the characters were not but shells of their Japanese selves. Perhaps the biggest downfall of the translated script was the lack of subtlety. Games that want to work romance without actually having to bring it to fruition live and die on their ability to drop subtle hints. And Ar tonelico was a case where it certainly died with it. Further, mistranslations abounded. Awkward word choice and further contributed to an unnatural feeling that I just couldn’t shake. They translated “utahime” as “singing princess”. Seriously!? I don’t know anyone in their right mind who would look at those kanji as separate entities. Singer, songstress – practically anything would have been a better choice. There were also some unexplained changes to names (Tenpa to Tenba), but those sorts of things often occur in localization, so I’m sure there was some reasoning behind those changes. That being said, I would have translated countless lines very differently.

There were also some things that I could hardly believe I was seeing in an official game. I’m not even sure if they managed to implement a variable width font. The ellipses were all off on their spacing, likewise many words like “Leaf” didn’t seem to space out correctly. Often times, the more expensive items in the game would overrun the windows, making costs of 50,000 look like 150,000. Likewise, some item names were so long that they barely fit on-screen much less inside of their respective boxes. The font they used was rather displeasing as well. The capital “A” looked so much like a capital “R” that I honestly thought one of the girls names was “Rurica” at first glance. Frankly, it was just a haphazard localization. The kinds of mistakes and oversights made in this localization were things that I don’t even forgive in fan translation, so certainly to see them in a real localization was a bit of a shock and a disappointment.

Final Thoughts

Ar tonelico is the most fantastically average game that I have played in quite some time. I don’t mean it was bad average. I don’t mean it was good average either. I mean it was practically a non-event for me. I put 50 hours into the game and I hardly know what to think of it. I do recommend playing the game, if for no other reason than to experience the battle system and the music. Plus, I admit, I have never played a game that is so perfectly average. I have played truly bad games and I have played truly great ones. Most fall to one side or the other, but Ar tonelico is the most truly average game that I have ever played. That being said, I think the game has preformed beyond expectations. It seems to have a fair number of dedicated fans, which I think is admirable for a game of its nature. I think I will probably be buying the sequel when it comes out. I believe that the world has a lot of potential, there is so much possibility. I hope that the sequel can show how much NIS America has improved since the first game.

It occurred to me that I hadn’t put a review up on my blog in a long time. It also occurred to me that despite my obsession with Tales of Phantasia, I had never posted a proper review, never given people a reason WHY they should be interested in using the full translation I did of the game. Some of this might overlap with what I’ve said in the translation itself, but I hope to give a new understanding of my love for ToP in writing this.

Tales of Phantasia was originally released in 1995 for the Super Famicom (SFC) in Japan. [Note: The US knows the SFC as the Super Nintendo or SNES.] Phantasia marked the beginning of the Tales series, which over time would grow to be one of Japan’s most successful RPG franchises. However, the SFC version of the game would never arrive on foreign shores. Several years after the original release of the game in Japan, DeJap released a fan-translation of the game, which exposed many people in the English speaking world to Tales for the first time. Although the script was far from accurate at times, many fans still look back to the DeJap translation as the definitive one.

Following the release of Tales of Destiny for the Sonly Playstation in 1997, Namco remade Tales of Phantasia on a modified version of the Tales of Destiny game engine. As a result, the remake featured a battle system which was vastly improved and is much more akin to what modern Tales fans are used to. The remake also featured more changes to the food and cooking system, as well as adding a fully animated anime opening, voiced Face Chats, and Character Titles. Tales of Phantasia PSX also saw the addition of Fujibayashi Suzu as a playable character, among a slew of other changes to sidequests and plot elements. The game was truly remade from the ground up.

In 2003, the game fell victim to a poorly done port of the PSX version to the GameBoy Advance. The game was downgraded from the greatness that had been Tales of Phantasia PSX. The graphics and battle system failed to match up with the previous version and the sound likewise suffered setbacks. Although the game was licensed by Nintendo (an unusual party to license the Tales series) and localized, the localization suffered mistranslations in several places. The decision was made to translate the character names differently from what fans had become used to from both official Japanese sources (including the game itself) and from the DeJap translation. The Japanese vocal opening was removed (although this is common in Tales localizations) and the game was dubbed. Whether due to poor GBA sound capacities or simply bad dub actors, the voice acting was heavily criticized. Many regard the GBA version as the worst version of Tales of Phantasia, being the only version of the game which seemed to be a regression. The only additions to the GBA version was the post-game minigame “Let’s Go Arche!” and an altered version of the Elven Bow sidequest in the game itself. Most agreed that these additions were hardly enough to offset the downfalls of the GBA port. Regardless, it is the first and only officially localized version of Tales of Phantasia.

Finally, 2006 brings us to the version of the game which I regard as the greatest. Tales of Phantasia ~Full Voice Edition~ for the Sony Playstation Portable (PSP). Although this is also a port of Tales of Phantasia PSX, it made several improvements that put the game firmly in line with more modern Tales games. First, as implied by the name, the game features a fully voiced main story. The original seiyuu for the main cast return to repeat their roles, excluding Dhaos. However, perhaps the most important addition to the PSP version is the GRADE Shop. As in past Tales games, GRADE is collected based on performance in battle (although in ToP PSP, it was given out like candy). At the end of the game, GRADE can be used to purchase upgrades for future play-throughs of the game, giving the game additional replay value without adding much additional content. Also, the Elven Bow sidequest in the PSP version was changed to be the same as it was in the GBA version. A few small changes were made to the script in the main story, but most of them are rather seamless. Now then, with that history lesson out of the way, let’s get down to specifics.

Battle System

Of course, like all Tales games, Tales of Phantasia is an action RPG. It is built upon the Linear Motion Battle System, in which all characters and enemies are set on a 2D plane. The player controls one member directly and controls the other 3 by customizing their AI and issuing direct commands. The Tales of Phantasia engine is, of course, one of the more primitive examples of the system, but it has smoothed out many of the flaws of the two systems that came before it. It’s the first Tales game in the series to feature what I consider to be a fully functioning version of the standard Tales battle system.

Given that the battle system was built off of the Tales of Destiny engine, I think it’s rather surprising how much it was improved in so little time. Tales of Phantasia PSX featured the largest changes to the battle system to date, and marks the larger part in bridging the gap between the Destiny and Eternia battle systems. Fans of more recent Tales games will feel right at home with it. Special attacks and be mapped to four different slots and two buttons are mappable to other characters’ abilities. Any character can be set as the controlled character and any 4 characters can make up the party. With the use of an item, the controlled character can be set to either Auto, Semi-Auto, or Manual control modes. In the PSX version, a separate item also enables multiplayer functions, meaning that with multiple controllers, the entire battle party could be controlled directly. However, given the nature of the PSP, this item as well as the multiplayer features were removed. Cless, Mint, and Chester all obtain Tokugi simply by gaining levels. However, Cless can also gain Ougi by finding Ougi Books scattered around the world. In order to use an Ougi, Cless must master the two skills that make it up. Additionally, Cless has two secret abilities. One is a Tokugi, Satsugeki Bukouken, which is obtained if the player has the sword S.D. equipped and gains a level (assuming Cless is at least level 99). It is executed with a series of commands that is not unlike a fighting game move combo and the full combo can be used only with the S.D. equipped. The second technique is ToP’s version of later games’ Hi-Ougi. When Cless is in critical HP, pressing Square + X + Circle lets him execute a devastating special attack. Klarth gains many of his summons throughout the course of the game, but like Arche and Suzu, some of his later abilities must be sought out. Arche and Suzu also obtain many abilities by purchasing them.

On the downside, both the PSX and PSP versions suffer from spell-freeze. This means that whenever a mid-level or above spell or summon is cast in battle, time and movement are halted for the duration of the spell. This causes battles to become elongated and many fans were disappointed that the PSP version didn’t make the effort to remove the delay. I didn’t find it to be that bothersome, but as the game went on, I often opted to remove the two spell casters from the party in favor of the physical fighters (except in boss fights). I should also comment on the PSP itself. Due to the number of buttons on the PSP compared to the PSX controller, some of the button mappings are a bit awkward. Select + Left/Right chooses the target, Select + Up inverts the battle formation, and Select + Down stops the party in place. It takes some getting used to, but again, it isn’t unplayable. Likewise, the joystick and the D-Pad on the original PSP left much to be desired, and first time PSP users could find playing Tales of Phantasia on the PSP more awkward than its PSX counterpart with a controller.

Visuals

Normally I don’t consider visuals to play a large enough role to be specifically mentioned in a game review, but Tales of Phantasia ~Full Voice Edition~ may be an exception. The PSP is a widescreen display, unlike PSX games, which were fit to the common 4:3 television resolution. Interestingly, not only does Tales of Phantasia PSP expand the viewable area on the horizontal, it also gives additional viewing area on the vertical side thanks to the high resolution PSP screen. This can be most clearly seen when opening the menu, which filled the whole screen in the PSX version. In the PSP version, the menu only covers the center of the screen, leaving a portions of the background viewable all around the menu. This additional viewable area really adds to the impact of the game and makes playing a much more pleasant experience. Some scenes that come to mind that really benefited from the graphical upgrades were those that took place around the World Tree, Yggdrasill. It’s somewhat hard to explain, but to those who have played both versions, I think most would agree that the game certainly benefited from being properly displayed in widescreen, neither stretched nor cropped.

One other visual element of the game worth noting is the battle scenes. Like with the rest of the game, the PSP’s screen resolution allowed for a wider display of the battle area. To take further advantage of this, the character portrait and statistic displays were changed as were the sizes of the enemy information boxes. These factors received little criticism, but another portion of the battle display did. The decision was made to replace the Tales of Phantasia PSX battle sprites with updated sprites based on those in Tales of the World: Narikiri Dungeon 3. At first, I was a die-hard fan of the PSX sprites and I wasn’t happy with the changes to the game. However, it didn’t take long before I was singing praises to the new sprites. ToP PSX fans might need to make the same adjustment, but I think in the end, the majority of people are happy with the decision to change the sprites. The 3-head high sprites featured in Tales of Phantasia PSP definitely made the game feel more ‘real’ than the PSX sprites had. This of course comes down to opinion, but I do think in the long run, even the critics of the new sprites changed their tone for the most part.

Music

Tales of Phantasia represents some of my favorite game music and the soundtrack contains many songs that have become staples of the Tales series. Between Tales of Phantasia PSX and PSP, there’s no real difference in the music. The only thing that comes to mind is that the ending song was changed to an instrumental for the PSP version. In all honesty, I preferred this instrumental to the vocal ending of the PSX version. I can’t really think of much else to say in regard to the music. It’s some of the best, it’s as simple as that.

Voice Acting

I’ve always loved the voice acting in Tales of Phantasia. In the PSX version, it was mostly limited to the Face Chats and select portions of the main story, but it was enough of a taste to leave me wanting for more. Thankfully, the Full Voice Edition was everything I could have asked for in that regard. Truly, the addition of voice acting to the game adds so much more then I imagined it would. But obviously there isn’t much need to say that voices add to the impact of the story, that’s common sense. If I had to pick a favorite member of the voice cast, I think it would have to be Iwao Junko as Mint. She has been one of my favorite seiyuu since I first heard her in Card Captor Sakura, and her work as Mint is fantastic.

Characters and Story **No Spoilers**

I think the overall story and development along the way are Tales of Phantasia’s strongest point. In all Tales games, these are the elements that really set the Tales series apart from other game series. That being said, there was something about Phantasia that really took it above and beyond for me. It’s actually very difficult to put my finger on what exactly it was. In terms of its story, I wouldn’t call Tales of Phantasia all that revolutionary (especially now, when so many similar games have since been released). I think it must be the development that each individual character receives. Having a small cast (only 6 characters), it is much easier for the game to give each character specialized development while ensuring that their role as a part of the whole is maintained. Tales of Phantasia takes special care in providing extensive introductory events for each character and from the beginning, it never feels as if a stranger is joining the party. In addition, extensive sidequests and face chats expand upon the developments of the main story, providing a background and personality for not just the main cast, but even many smaller characters and villains. In all of the Tales series, I find Phantasia makes some of the best use of its characters, providing a balance of unique and yet equally likable personalities.

Without a doubt, I would describe Tales of Phantasia as what I consider to be the most ‘epic’ of the Tales games in terms of story progression. This isn’t something that every game is capable of capturing, in fact, few truly are. To me, that kind of epic feeling is the sense that the party accomplishes much more then anyone could have expected. ‘Save the world’ stories aren’t uncommon these days. In almost any RPG, the player is responsible for saving one world or another. But to me, Tales of Phantasia is really more about the what, why, and how of the journey. What does it mean to save the world? Why does any one of these characters go to such great lengths? How is it that a group of 6 people who were only tied by the thinnest of fate’s strings came to this place? The sense is very much that the party, and by extension the player, have been cast as the heroes in a legendary tale. What begins as a quest for vengeance quickly grows beyond that, the story expanding and swallowing up the player before you even realize it has happened. All of the characters have their own flaws, their own regrets, their own passions. No one character is like the others, and Tales of Phantasia is one of those rare games where I cannot name a favorite character, nor can I name a least favorite. They simply are who they are, those imperfections just one part of what makes them such fantastic characters.

Final Thoughts

Tales of Phantasia is my absolute favorite game, without exception. The music, voices, and the story itself enable the game to set a mood that I’ve rarely encountered in my gaming history. It was everything I hoped for and more. It was when I first played the PSX version that I was first inspired to translate the game. It was a project that allowed me to push my knowledge and test my ability to translate, in turn allowing me to gain even greater knowledge and appreciation of the game. And of course, knowing that there were many people out there who were unable to play what was at the time, the best version of Tales of Phantasia, I couldn’t help but want to translate it. I hope that people will make use of the guides I’ve provided here. Nothing makes me happier than seeing the kind comments offering their thanks for my work. In the end, this was a project that I did for myself, but if others can use what I created to enjoy this game to its fullest, that’s all I can hope for. I can’t remember how many times I’ve played Tales of Phantasia at this point, but each time, it’s like being reintroduced to old friends. This project was one that I’m sure I’ll never forget.

Battle System

Quite frankly, Tales of the Abyss features the best battle system that I’ve seen in a Tales game yet. To be honest, I felt like in many ways, Symphonia’s battle system was flawed. It was 3D, but only in name and not in application. You couldn’t actually control your movements except on the 2D plane. So in reality, it was just another edition of the standard Linear Motion Battle System, and it really hadn’t improved on the post-Destiny Tales games by a whole lot. If the Tales series had continued to develop Symphonia-type battle systems, I would have been worried. The LMBS has always been the thing that truly set Tales apart from other RPGs. However, I see now that all of my concern has been for naught. At the most basic level, you can call Abyss’ system an evolution of the Symphonia engine. However, it does far more than that. First is the Free Run ability. By holding down the L2 button, the controlled character can be moved around the map freely, and takes reduced damage if struck while in this Free Run state. However, in order to actually attack, the player must release L2, at which point the view shifts and places the player back on the 2D fighting plane. It makes perfect sense, afterall, the 3D battlefield is just made up of an infinite number of points which in turn make an infinite number of horizontal planes upon which to fight.

The system also improves upon the basic combat engine. You can still execute the four types of ordinary hits (up, down, forward, and standard), after which you can execute a Base or Arcane Art. As you go on, you gain the ability to not only improve the length of the initial combo, but to link Base Artes to Arcane ones and then to Mystic Artes. Although, Mystic Artes (or Hi-Ougi as they are referred to in Japanese) have been available in past Tales games, they have never made up such a large part of the combat system. By activating Overlimit mode and holding down the X button after an Arcane Arte or High Level Spell, each character can execute their own Mystic Arte. Considering the absurd rate at which the Overlimit mode charges for use, these Mystic Artes become a large source of both damage and GRADE throughout the game. On top of that, on later playthroughs, each character gains an additional Mystic Arte. These are more akin to what older Tales gamers are used to and many require special conditions to be met in order to use them.

Probably the best addition to the actual combat system in Abyss are Fields of Fonons (or FOFs). FOFs enable some of the most powerful and useful abilities in the game. The problem with them? They require some practice in order to properly use. Basically, during the course of battle, as your allies and foes use elemental attacks, elemental fields (FOFs) will form on the battlefield. Not all of these will be possible to use right away, sometimes an Arte must be used twice before a usable FOF will form. FOFs are activated in different ways. For many Strike Artes (physical), you must be inside of the FOF in order for the ability to activate. i.e. Luke’s Base Arte Fang Blade will change into Lightening Tiger Blade if it is used inside of a Wind FOF. For Support or Healing Artes, the person being healed or boosted must be inside the FOF. i.e. If Natalia casts Barrier on Luke while Luke is inside a Water FOF, it will become Aqua Protection. For Fonic Artes, the fonic spell must strike inside of the FOF circle in order to activate. i.e. If Jade casts Thunder Blade on an enemy standing inside of an Earth FOF, the Arte will become Gravity Well. Many Arcane Artes do not have an FOF activation and each Arte has only one element that will activate it’s FOF ability (Wind, Water, Fire, and Ground). However, Light and Dark create special FOF Circles. Light Circles will activate either Wind or Fire FOFs while Dark Circles will activate Water and Ground type FOFs. Thus, having characters who can cast High Level Light and Dark Fonic Artes will be the best way to ensure that there will be plenty of FOF activations during battle.

Artes and Core System

Obviously, on top of the battle system itself, there are many other ways that the player can power up the characters. These are generally introduced more slowly and some of these options will not be available through partway through the game. First, Leveling Up and Capacity Cores. Each time you level up, as you would expect, your different statistics increase like with any RPG. On top of that, as you level you will gain all of your Base Artes. If you use these Base Artes enough and are above the required level, you will start to obtain Arcane Artes. This is all standard fare for Tales players.

However, the most important feature when leveling up are Capacity Cores. You gain access to the Capacity Core menu not all that far into the game and it will continue to be important throughout the rest of the journey. Capacity Cores allow you to boost certain stats more then others as you level up. These stats are kept separate from your normal stats and can be seen on the C. Core menu. They will display as (Normal Stat) + (Boosted Stat). At first glance, this system doesn’t appear to be anything special. Okay, great, so it lets me boost a few stats here and there. They primary use of the C. Core system actually has very little to do with the boosted strength that the Cores give you. As certain stat boosts grow, they will allow you to acquire Additional Skills (or AD Skills). What are AD Skills? Simple, they’re the most effective way to increase your efficiency in battle on your first and every playthrough thereafter. Many of the first AD Skills that you will gain will be gained simply by leveling up. This is how you will gain the first abilities like Free Run and standard skills like Backstep, Overlimit, and the ability to use Mystic Artes. However, the best of the skills you might not obtain at all if you don’t go at it with some direction. Abilities that keep you from staggering from attacks, abilities that make it so spell casting cannot be interrupted, and abilities that revive once you when you are killed in battle. And these are just a few of the nearly 90 AD Skills that can be obtained by using your Capacity Cores well. In order to obtain every skill, you will need to get 200 Physical Attack, 70 Physical Defense, 70 Fonic Attack, 60 Fonic Defense, 90 Agility, and 90 Enhancement. My recommendation? Make sure you work on keeping everyone’s Physical Attack abnormally high. The other points will be [EXTREMELY] easy to obtain if you manage to get the ultimate C. Core, Tutti. However, 200 P.Attack is a lot no matter how you look at it.

Okay, if that wasn’t enough to impress you with additional components of the combat system, let me throw one more at you. Fon Slot Chambers. The quick version is that for every single Arte in the game, you can improve it in one of four ways using different gems. Red Carmine Chamber – Increases the Damage or Effectiveness of a particular Art. Blue Cobalt Chamber – Increase the Knockback/Stun Effect or Reduces the Recovery Time of an Arte. Green Grass Chamber – Reduces the TP Cost or adds a Steal or Heal Effect to an Arte. Yellow Sunlight Chamber – Allows for the activation of FOFs inside of incomplete FOF Circles. Honestly, the best way to figure which gem works best where is to experiment with them. Basically, here’s how it works though. If you use an ability while you have a gem equipped, you will slowly start to master it. If you use that ability 100 times without ever removing that gem, it will be mastered and will activate 100% of the time. Thus, if you wanted to master all 4 abilities on a single Arte, you have to use that ability 400 times total with each type of gem equipped. However, I don’t advise doing this your first time through the game unless you’re as crazy as I am. There’s really no reason to do all of them. You can only have one type of gem equipped at a time, so you will have to decide for yourself what the best setup is.

Characters and Storyline *No Spoilers*

This is where Abyss truly won me over. The battle system and level of control were great, but the reason that I came to love this series in the first place was because of the story. And Abyss has surpassed all Tales except for Phantasia in this regard. The cast is easily among the best in the series. Your party features 6 characters, all of whom have their glaring flaws and issues that they will have to sort through during the game. You will come to love characters that you hated, laugh at characters that annoyed you, and understand characters that confused you. Undoubtedly, this game features the best character development that I have seen in the series. Period. Their story is one of growth more then it is one of truth and justice. There is no perfection to be found. Each one of your party members and even better, each one of your enemies fights for what they truly believe is right. At times, the line between friend and foe will be drawn in sand and at others, it will be carved in stone. The story progresses in an excellent manner. It isn’t unpredictable, but you also can’t imagine some of the places that it will go. The story and characters in this game are first class. I went in with high expectations, and I will admit that they were completely shattered and surpassed.

Other

There is so much else that I could talk about. I haven’t even mentioned the mini-games, sidequests, skits, voice-over, or many of the other things that the game could certainly be praised (and sometimes criticized for). You can expect the usual Namco cameos, the painful experience of leveling up cooking, and the joys that Tales gamers have come to expect of the series. The AI in the game is very good and I never had a problem with it. You can also customize how your party members act by the standard Strategy menu, though I found it didn’t have as many options as I was used to in the past.

Final Word: This game is truly awesome. If this is the direction that Tales is headed, I’m damn excited. [TFR]. Fo juice.

Well, yeah. Okami. This has been what has absorbed my time for the last week or so. I beat it last night, and I couldn’t have been happier with the ending. But I’m getting ahead of myself, let me back up. I hadn’t even heard of Okami until the day before its release when a friend told me about it. He showed me a promo video, and I was instantly absorbed. Considering that a brand new PS2 game which looked to be loads of fun would come out for $40, I figured it was very much worth a try. So the next day, I went over to EB Games and picked myself up a copy. Having no idea what I was getting myself into, I declined the offer for 20% off if I bought the player’s guide with the game (I would be going back to buy it the next day, though I still got the discount in the end). Upon starting the game, I had some very positive initial signs. First off, the game is cel-shaded. I’ve absolutely loved this style of game every since the original Jet Grind Radio for the Dreamcast where I first saw it. Secondly, the music was wonderful. Each new piece of music was very enjoyable and very fitting. And third, the Celestial Brush, a key element of the game, was very easy to control and work with.

So here’s a little bit about the game. You play as the sun goddess Amaterasu reborn. You are a wolf. To most you appear as an ordinary white wolf, but your true form bears ornate red tatoos and a Divine Instrument resting on your back. At first, the game appears to be a very standard action-adventure game. Not a genre that I frequently delve into, but one that I always seem to play the best parts off. In any case, I won’t try to explain the entire back-story to the game, as it is VERY comprehensive. In any case, the reason for your birth is effectively that you will restore nature and finally put an end to the demon Orochi, an 8-headed dragon. Anyway, back to Amaterasu. As I said, she is a sun goddess, and she once controlled the powers of 13 Celestial Brush Techniques. However, since those days of legend, those powers have been lost to her. So as you travel, you must regain these 13 techniques of the Brush Gods and use them to combat evil wherever you find it.

Sounds like a pretty basic game, right? Some pretty visuals, some standard music, a basic battle system, just another cookie-cutter game, right? No. Couldn’t be further from the truth. The battle system in this game makes The Legend of Zelda games look like their controls were designed by a child. And I loved the battle systems in those games. In Okami, first of all, you have your choice between three types of weapons in battle. There are Reflectors, your basic close range weapon which can quickly combo and is a primary weapon for the beginning of the game. There are also Rosaries, which are long range, whip-type weapons. They combo very rapidly, but inflict poor damage for the most part and can be difficult to control against multiple enemies. Finally, my personal favorite, Glaives. These sword-type weapons are slower then Reflectors and don’t combo as well, but they are extremely powerful and the attacks can be charged up for extra damage. For each of these weapons, there are 5 different levels, which increase in power at each level. Each weapon can also be powered up one time with an item called Gold Dust, of where there are thankfully 15 in the game. Besides using the primary weapon, you can also equip a sub weapon. The Reflector acts as a shield as a sub weapon, the Rosary is like a gun almost, and the Glaive works… like a sword. However, the true power of the sub weapon comes once you gain abilities. You can boost the power of your weapon if you use a weapon and a sub weapon of the same type. Two Glaives, both powered by Gold Dust, man, that’s a nasty combination. BUT this is just talking about your physical attacks. Of course, you can use the Celestial Brush in battle as well. This allows you to do some awesomely powerful attacks, assuming that you have enough ink to cast them. The boss battles in Okami are awesome, and often require Amaterasu to make full use of her Celestial Brush abilities. The final boss really pulls out all the stops, you’ll be using abilities that you’d forgotten you had. It’s one of the best designed battles I’ve ever fought. On top of everything I’ve mentioned before, you can also level up to a degree. As you complete quests and progress through the game, you get Praise. You use this Praise to increase your stats. You can increase your Health up to 15 points (it can go up to 20 if you collect the Sun Fragments). You can increase Ink Pots to to a total of 10, Astral Pouches up to a total of 4, and Money can be increased to hold up to 99 million I guess. I don’t know who would ever have that much money though… Finally, you have the ability to gain further skills with your weapon and boost their combo or power capabilities along the way. You can also boost the power of your Celestial Brush techniques in similar ways. Basically, this battle system is extremely open, you have many options, all of which can be changed to work with a personal fighting style. Can’t beat that kind of deal in an action-adventure game, right?

If you ever liked action-adventure games, you NEED Okami. It’s an epic game. I put 70 hours into it before I even noticed. It’s such an easy game to get wrapped up in. At first, it seems like it has a fleeting story that you don’t really care that much about, but the more you play, and the more you learn, the more entrapped in the game you become. The battle system is beyond amazing. The visual appeal isn’t even the best thing about this game, and yet it’s easily among my favorite games in terms of art style. The music is awesome, the bosses are awesome. The game is scaled perfectly in difficulty. It’s a fair enough that almost anyone can get through the game, but anyone who says that it is an easy game has never done the sidequests. Nobody who has fought the Kusa 5 (more like 8, those bastards), nobody who has gathered all 100 Stray Beads, would ever claim this is an easy game. And let me say this, if you’ve not done your best to try and get everything in this game, then you haven’t really played Okami. This is a game that is meant to be played to exhaustion. The more you play it, the more you will love it. And I love it. This game is among my favorites ever. And it very well might end up being the best game I play this year. Maybe not, if there’s a better game, I cannot wait to play it. ^_^

In terms of controls, ZX is the most advanced that I think I’ve seen in the Rockman series as far as I’ve played. You start out with Biometal X. You have two busters, which you can charge seperately giving you the ability to shoot two power shots as seen in Rockman X2. Not too long into the game, you end up obtaining Biometal Z, which results in the fusion of Z and X to create Rockman ZX. As anyone who has played the previous games can probably guess, Biometal Z has replaced one of your busters with a badass sword. As you go along, you’ll obtain many other Biometals. Hx, the power of lightning, allows you to do an air dash (which includes a slight upward dash) or to fall more slowly. It was my favorite Biometal. The air dashing is essential for finding many of the hidden items and for moving quickly through areas. It sports two swords of different lengths and speeds. Rockin. Others are Lx – Water, Fx – Fire, Px – Dark, and Ox – Omega. I don’t feel like going into depth, but you can find out when you play. In any case, the level of control that the player has is far greater then I’ve seen in Rockman to this point. On top of the fact that you have a Weapon and a Subweapon, almost all of them can do a more powerful charged attack and a special charged attack (if you hold up when charged). Consider this along with the fact that you can power up any attack by using the A button and you’ve got a ton of options.

So yeah, in terms of an overall reaction, I would easily group this with Rockman 7 and Rockman 8, which are, thus far, my favorites. So I really enjoyed it. I really can’t think of anything in the game that I didn’t like. It had a good story, great controls, it was visually very attactive, it was well balanced in difficulty, and it had awesome music. I really hope for and look forward to seeing more titles in the ZX line of Rockman games.
As for progress on the translation… I’ve been slacking, I’ll get back to it soon hopefully.

• 80% camo in all situations
• Constanly restores Stamina
• Infinite Ammo
• Quick reload
• Tranq rounds
• Always silenced
• Laser sight

I think that’s it, but hell, I may have forgotten something. Add to that fact that the Spirit camo makes your footsteps silent and you can pretty much sprint up next to an enemy and be just fine. As always, tranqing some of the bosses was a pain. Specifically, The Fear. Anyone who has fought this guy can attest to how damn annoying he is to stamina kill. Thankfully, with the use of Poison Dart Frogs and some poisoned mushrooms, I managed. Oh yeah, and The End was still a blast. Volgin is always fun and The Boss, well, she’s a crazy crazy monster, so you know how that goes. So in the end, I got my Active camo. And it is fun, and it is cheap. So for now I’m done with MGS3. Unless you count playing all of those bonus minigames. >_<

Well, yeah, that’s about it for now. Last night I beat Metal Gear, so tonight I’ll be trying my luck at Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. After that, I’m going home for the weekend when I will pick up Metal Gear Solid and Metal Gear Solid 2. I’m not sure if I’m going to play the Gamecube’s Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes or just play the original. At the moment, I think I might be leaning towards Twin Snakes. I’ve heard that the story is better presented on the Cube, so I’m willing to give that a shot. But, either way, I’ll be playing a great game. And the new found Metal Gear fan in me will no doubt be happy. But my wallet won’t… Now I’m going to have to buy a PS3 eventually… Not that I wasn’t planning to, but I definately want to play some Metal Gear Solid 4.

And such it is. This is why the ToP Translation hasn’t moved lately, at least online. I have worked on it, I’m just distracted. In other news, I’m currently reading Hajime no Ippo. Which is amazing, I’ll write more later. After or during this Metal Gear tear, I’m going to finish watching Card Captor Sakura for the third time. Then I’ll be finishing up Hunter x Hunter for the second time. Then, I’m glad to say, I’ll be looking into watching things like Akazukin Chacha and Romeo’s Blue Skies, both of which I am really looking forward to.