Tales of Legendia

Tales of Legendia lasts. From 30 hours or main storyline, and 40 hours for Character Quests (great for added character development) the game never seems to end, and any player will like it that way. And even after, there's more fun to be had with challenging yourself to be better, to track your records and restart with what you've earned already. Legendia continues the tradition of great games in the Tales series. With great gameplay and production values, it is not to be missed and any PS2-owning RPG fan will just love it to death; casual or hardcore.
 
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I’ve been awaiting Tales of Legendia since its US release was announced, and I’ve not been disappointed. ToL is a pretty engaging experience, and is a nice change from the turn-based rpgs I play. It has some weak spots, and it might not be for everyone, but I’m having a blast playing it. ToL starts when Senel and his sister Shirley wash ashore the Legacy, a huge ship that looks like an island. Shirley is prophesized to be the Merines, and is said to be the key to unlocking the Legacy’s secrets. Thusly, many different people are after her for their own gain. The game starts out with Senel and his party members doing the whole “save the kidnapped damsel” thing quite a lot. At first the plot seems rather dry, but it does eventually pick up steam and become something a bit more epic. The story is more character driven than I’m used to seeing in rpgs (I’m looking at you, Shadow Hearts: Covenant). The characters interact with one another and show their personalities in every cutscene, so fans of character development will love this. After the first half of the game is finished, you can move on to the Character Quests. Throughout the game, hints are dropped about the pasts of your party members, but the only characters who really get development are Senel and Shirley. Character Quests are chapters devoted to one specific character, where you can finally discover their history and bring closer to the story. A nice touch is the inclusion of anime movies. Some are rather short, but they’re all pretty and well animated. The battle system is real-time, and plays sort of like a fighting game. You can move left or right on the battle field, while pressing the circle button to use special attacks. “Passing through” allows you to move behind enemies if you’re in a tough spot. The Climax mode stops time, allowing you to beat on enemies until the gauge runs out. Press the L1 button again before the bar runs out and you’ll initiate a Climax Combo. The only bad thing about the battle system is the AI. You receive negative Grade (points won in battle that can be used to unlock bonuses after the game) for doing things like attacking enemies with elements their strong to. Crystal eres users use any magic they feel like, whether the monster is strong to it or not, and this can cause a huge loss in grade. Sometimes melee characters will just stand by idly on the battlefield and do nothing for a few seconds. Sometimes they run straight into attacks and Fields of Effect. It’s very annoying, but you can do a few things to help the AI along. The game’s also pretty easy outside a few challenging battles, so the bad AI won’t cause you to get game overs or anything. The graphics of ToL are to my personal liking. They’re vibrant and beautiful, and use lots of bright colors to bring the Legacy to life. Some of the areas are quite a treat to look at. The character models are super-deformed 3D models, which some may not like. They look nice in motion (mostly during battles), but sometimes I wish for larger, more detailed models. Some may think the backgrounds and models look too soft and “doughy”, but the style is unique and I enjoyed it. The music is a high point. The composer is Go Shiina, who replaces Motoi Sakuraba, the usual composer for the Tales games. Shiina is a very talented composer, and there are very few tracks in the game that I don’t enjoy. Some themes are often repeated, but I liked the tracks enough not to be annoyed by listening to them over and over. The voice acting is above average. Some lines seem a bit awkward, but nothing is really cringe worthy. The voices fit the characters. The only problem is the lack of voice acting in the Character Quests. It’s a rather sudden transition, made even more so by the fact the some scenes don’t have background music. I grew used to it soon enough, and I have no problem reading, but the voice acting was so good I was sad to see it go. Overall, I found Tales of Legendia to be a welcome addition to my collection. It does have its flaws (as every game has), but it’s still very fun and a nice change of pace
 
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Tales of Legendia is another great game in the Tales series, and in some aspects it's one of the best in the series. OVERALL : 9.5 Presentation : 10 The presentation of the characters and stories is very well done. Everything develops nicely. Graphics : 10 The graphics are nice and vibrant, and the character motion in battle is rather well done. Sound : 10 The music sounds wonderful. The eight songs performed by the New Japan Philharmonic sound great, and so do the handful of vocal songs. Gameplay : 9 The gameplay is the classic Tales battle system with its own little features. The battles are fun, but they don't seem as good as those in other recent games in the series such as Tales of Symphonia.
 
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Ahh Tales of Legendia, one of few games to introduce itself to you, take you away, pull you close then sucker-punch you in the face. Not that those are bad things, mind you; Legendia's a fantastic game with lots of inspiration and is guaranteed to immerse you in its world. The deeper you get, the more lifelike and difficult it becomes...It's a rare quality for a video game nowadays, and should be relished by any fan who likes their RPGs fast and furious with emotions and tension on high. The story of Legendia takes place all upon a giant ship known as The Legacy. Senel Coolidge and his sister, Shirley Fennes crash upon The Legacy, believing it to be an island. Soon enough, people start to come after Shirley, referring to her as the "Merines" and so starts Senel's quest to protect his sister, and to unravel the mysterious behind the giant ship they wound up on. Friends are to be met, with their own pasts and problems. All willing to help Senel for his noble cause, or even for their own reasons, characters such as Will Raynard, the nerdy sheriff of Werites Beacon and Chloe Valens, an honourable knight of Gadoria appear to add their pieces to the ever-growing puzzle that is Tales of Legendia. After completing the epic main story of Legendia, the player is given a chance to dig deeper into the pasts and present lives of the wonderful characters they meet on the island. These Character Quests offer deep insight into each character and have wonderful plot direction, though more abstract than the main story at times, the substance and enjoyment is still where it belongs. Throughout the game, random encounters in dungeons and on the Legacy's surface are to be fought. Tales of Legendia makes use of an RPG-fighter hybrid combat system known as the X-LMBS, or Crossover Linear Motion Battle System. Essentially what the name entails, is that the party of four fighters will be fighting on a two-dimensional plane, although with three-dimensional graphics; directions are limited to up-down, left-right. The battle system is of course, played in real-time with X set to launch normal attacks and O to launch special techniques known as "Eres" in accordance to the direction pressed. (Other buttons are used to access the menu or as shortcut keys for other attacks.) The techniques set to the directions may be changed at any time, in or out of battle, so the first character's selected list of moves is created by the player. Eres come in two varieties, the people who use them being "Eren." Crystal Eres are the typical ranged magical spells mages use in RPGs, where-as Iron Eres are physical attacks and combos. Crystal Eres are learned by levelling up a Crystal Eren to a proper level, at which they acquire a spell book. When the right amount of Eres Stones, according to the spell, are acquired from enemies of different species, the Eres will be available to use. Iron Eres are learned by levelling up an Iron Eren and at the proper level, they may use the new Eres technique. When an Iron Eres is used 50 times, it is mastered and usually automatically combined with other Iron Eres to form Arcane Eres, an advanced skill that also can be mastered. Compound Eres are a special type of Iron Eres that is formed by combining three separate mastered Iron Eres outside of battle to form an attack. Depending on the character, some requirements may apply for the attack to initialize and all Compound Eres require a high amount of TP, or tech points. Senel has a special type of Iron Eres, that allows him to throw enemies when they are knocked down, or in the "Down" state. Each skill applies to enemies of various weights, so obviously, you cannot use a throwing Eres of the Feather weight on a bear (which would probably be a Heavy weight.) Of course, when using throws of heavier weights on lighter enemies, the throw of the lower weight will be used instead. The other attractive aspects of gameplay involve baking and customization. Customization being available only late in-game, involves making weapons out of various components as opposed to buying them in shops. Baking features making various types of bread dishes, which you learn from the quirky Mimi Baker. Finding her hiding inside a spinning goofy, and out-of-place object on the field means acquiring a new recipe after a funny cutscene. Taking the right ingredients to a bakery or an oven somewhere on the Legacy, then selecting the bread you want to make is all it takes. Then anywhere on the field when necessary, the Square button brings up the bread basket where you can eat your currently stored bread, healing the entire party with its affects. Now that you know how the game lays out, here's a summary of how it all feels and works in the end: Tales of Legendia continues the tradition of great games in the Tales series. With great gameplay and production values, it is not to be missed and any PS2-owning RPG fan will just love it to death; casual or hardcore. All we can hope for now is that we will see more of this series in the future and that the art from Tales of the Abyss featured on the back of the manual was hinting at something...
 
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First I'll have to say that I admit I'm really getting into Namco's "Tales of...". Of course, even though I've played various other RPGs over the decade (namely, Final Fantasy, Xenogears, Valkyrie Profile, etc.) along with the first Tales game released in the US (Tales of Destiny. See my review for feedback on that game) I played enough games to be able to see which is fun and which is a big baloney among all hyped RPG releases. I once loved the Final Fantasy series until I've figured out that not all games from that series are as good as the hype they generate (especially the recent releases). On the other hand, the "Tales of" series has a better record for me when it comes to what games should be: FUN. With that being said, the tales series are always fun to play with its unique, interactive and exciting battle system, flashy and cool-looking spells and skills, likeable characters, numerous secrets, amusing side quests, etc. The recently released Tales of Legendia is no exception. There are so many things I really like in this game that I've decided to mention the bad parts first. I'm sure this game won't be liked by everyone, probably due to the lingering (and probably outdated by now) interest on certain big name RPG series we all know and used to love. The battles would pose a problem to those who kept the initial settings (semi-auto), but this can easily be solved by selecting manual mode instead. Those who are used to turn-based RPGs may not be able to adjust immediately to the frantic action Legendia's battles offer. First hours in the game is riddled with cliches, but it won't be much of a problem since it sets you up in anticipation of the major and interesting story a bit later in the game. Some may not like a few characters (which, in turn, makes you like the other characters). It may ba a little easy to most, which can be remdied by the fact that you can change difficulty in-game to seek a btter challenged for skilled players. Tales fans will be a little disappointed on some stuff that didn't make it from the japanese version of this game. That's all the bad things I can think of. As for the good, I tell you theses: The battles are AWESOME to fight in. The tales series, for me, is the only RPG that makes me look forward to battle enemies, even to the point that I'd use items that raises encounter rate and whack the heck out of every enemy I get to meet. As a total fighting game fan, guarding, pulling off combos, adding in skills (special attacks) and magic attacks, and unique to this tales game: throwing enemies and the time bending Climax mode, it's all heavenly for me. Yes, it's a little easier to pull high-hitting combos this time around, yet it's immensely satisfying. The music is just as amazing, I tell you. Previous tales composers (one is Motoi Sakuraba) can pull off nice tunes that I dig (especially a few ones that comes up to mind, including battle themes), but Go Shiinai is no pushover! In fact, I love the background tunes in the game so much more than most music in previous installmens of the tales series. Ranging from orchestra-like violins to upbeat jazzy tunes, to vocalized music with a very soothing quality to it, I found myself a new favorite game music composer. Listen to believe. The voices are surprisingly well done (aside from one character's voice, which is but a lone mismatch compared to the well-voiced overall cast). Many will like the fact that Cam Clarke (voice of the fan popular Kratos from Tales of Symphonia and Liquid Snake from the Metal Gear series) does the voice on one of the characters in the game (Will Reynard). Others fits well too, from the serious but cating hero (Senel), the wild and loud (Moses), to the fun and bubbly (Norma), the high profile voice actors bring character and life to the cast of characters, making the voiceovers on events a sweet treat to hear out. The graphics are nice, colorful, vibrant, and has a nice flair to it in which can't grasp why (it's probably the "softness" and far blurs that makes the game look refreshing). The character 3D models has good detail with a sleek touch. The character animation is superb, not surprising coming from the makers of Soul Calibur, you got to see it to believe the aesthetic wonder good animation can pull off, especially in a game where such animations play a large part in beauty of battles. MOnster designs are a little similar with the types of monster classification, but each one is modeled with good detail, so it's no mere pallete swap. The spell effects and skills are truly nice view for all, and it never makes a battle look dull (it made me go *ho-hum* on turn based battles ever since playing tales of games) Anyway, this review is getting longer than expected. I guess it's the fact that I can't deny such awesomeness in front of me (I was making this review with the game right in front of me). A really, REALLY cool bonus for buying this game (and the upcoming Tales of Phantasia, which is great also) is an increased chance of a US release of Tales of the Abyss, the BEST tales of game ever known (Famitsu score: 38/40 - very few games reach that range from the tough reviewers of Famitsu). I am but one among legions who are really excited over this fact. Be the judge yourself when you try the game out.
 
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When I picked up my copy of Tales of Legendia I immediately set high expectations upon it. Why shouldn’t I? I had played through Tales of Symphonia multiple times, and beaten Tales of Destiny 2 as well as Tales of Phantasia. Luckily, Legendia did not disappoint me one bit. The first and most important thing to look out for in a RPG of course is the quality of the story. There is no mistaking that the story can be clichéd at times, however, not only is it able to present the story well despite this, the originality and uniqueness of the characters is able to make this a negligible point. What surprised me the most about the story is the amount of comedy that is put forth. Sure, the other games had some of it, but not nearly as funny as what’s shown in Legendia. It may seem like this would contradict the seriousness of the main story; yet, the game is able to balance it out and keeps things from getting melodramatic. It was refreshing to play a RPG for once that was able to be serious without being too serious and was able to laugh at its characters and itself at times. The character development that is presented is astounding. As I progressed through the game, I began to connect with characters like Norma, Senel, and Chloe and I really cared about what was happening to each of them. The character side quests do a great deal too as they really flesh out each individuals back story which was nice as I was able to get a better feel from where the characters were coming from. One thing I would have liked to have seen however would be some different endings or at least different character endings added. Still, the new game plus feature is great, and along with scores of mini-games, side quests and others, it gives Legendia a ton of replay value. Some would say that the graphics are the weakest point of the game, this I would have to disagree with most passionately. Yes, the characters are not ultra-realistic looking; however, the level of detail that was put into the sprites is well done. Not only that, but the backgrounds are simply stunning. The artistic flair with which this game utilizes will make you sit back and admire for quite sometime. So while it may not be the best graphics game, it is the one of the most beautiful and artistic games to have ever graced the Playstation 2 console. This is also not even mentioning Kazuto Nakazawa’s amazing character designs which rival other greats such as the legendary Tetsuya Nomura and Kosuke Fujishima who worked on Tales of Symphonia. The battle system is undoubtedly the first thing that comes to most peoples minds when they think of the Tales series, and while this does neglect that great stories that the series has told it is true that it does have an addictive battle system and Legendia is no different. There isn’t too much that is different from the battle system in Symphonia, but the ability to throw characters, going back to the 2D feel after utilizing a more 3D looking one in Symphonia, and the improvement over the Unison Gauge known in Legendia as the Climax Gauge. I found the Climax Gauge to be far more interesting than the Unison one from Symphonia since not only were you able to rack up huge combos with it, it still allowed you to be able to use a combination attack featuring all four of the characters in your party known as a Climax Combo. It would have been nice however, if new Climax Combos could have been used depending on either what level your characters were or even which character you were in control of. Tales of Legendia most assuredly lived up to the expectations that lovers of the Tales series have undoubtedly put upon it. This is a game that should not just be enjoyed by fans of the Tales series, or even fans of real time battle systems, but instead should be enjoyed by all RPG fans. Though it may not be the first RPG to launch this year, it is definitely is an early contender for best RPG of the year despite the notable games coming out later this year. If you like your RPG’s to have a great story, well developed characters, amazing artwork, an awe inspiring score by Go Shina, and an awesome battle system and you haven’t purchased Tales of Legendia yet, do so immediately, you won’t regret it.
 
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Tales of Legendia follows the exploits of the powerful Alliance Marine Senel Coolidge. A master of the "Eres" art and fueled by the desire to find his kidnapped sister Shirley, Senel sets out on a journey that spans the enormous face of a giant sea going vessel known as the Legacy. This is probably one of the best rpg's to date! In real time battles for the first time, you can throw your opponents. Great storyline, amazing cg sequences, and over 70 hours of gameplay! What more could you want?
 
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Let me just start with what i think of this game, Its just...greatness. Beliefe me when i say if played a lot of RPG's but this truely is the one which i enjoyed the most. Maybe the start can be confusing because things happen very fastly but don't worry as you continue playing you will find the pace of the game just perfect. One of the best things in this game are the graphics its set in a colorful and very beautifull looking world, every time i see a river it just suprises me how great the water looks so no complains in there. But like many people say: ''its not about graphics but about gameplay''. Well...don't worry about that if theres one thing better about the graphics its the gameplay. The game takes place on a big ship called the Legacy, the main character is Senel Coolidge. He an his sister ( Shirley ) are on a small boat on the run for the enemies, but not very later they are overtaken by a great ship called the Legacy. Once a board you discover Shirley can breath underwater, thus making her a ''Ferines''. These are just the first few minutes of the game ( no point in me telling how the whole game goes ;-) ) The cast of characters are great to, their personalitys, the voice acting, good character models... it all is just perfect. All the battles are set in real time, in battle the characters and enemies are placed in a straight 2D plain you control the main character ( Senel ) and the others are controled by the computer. The game isn't to difficult, the last few puzzles can be hard and some boss fight can put you in a nasty position, but thats all the hard points. The games music...one word perfect i can talk ages about it, so your best bet is to buy this game and check out what i mean. Well thats realy all i can say about this game, ofcourse i could talk about every little detail but that could be a pain to read it all
 
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I really love this game brings something new to RPG fans and not many games have voices on it which is why I like Tales of games they have voices for the characters and the gameplay is great monsters are fun to look at and the battle system is great it's not like a turn based battle system more of a free or something like that and the graphics are great too and the anime cut-scenes are well done I just love it. I would recamend this game to anyone to buy or rent it's a great game and very fun.
 
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Tales of Legendia is a truly awesome game. Not only does Tales of Legendia have the same great battle system as Tales of Symphonia, but it also has more anime cutscenes! The voice actors are very good too. The 3D graphics are surpringly detailed. The story keeps you wanting to know what happens next. The script is written well as that of Symphonia. The skits have voice overs! Plus the Wonder Chef/Baker have actual dialogue instead of just gicing you the recipe.The graphics are amazing, there are many anime cutscenes, Battle System is awesome, Climax mode is the best. You have to get it!
 
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