|
|
Game Information
|
Preview
|
Review |
Screenshots
|
Forum |
»Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology
"Not radiant per se, but not bad."
So Tales fans are probably nutting themselves over
this one. The concept behind this Tales of the World game is to take
various characters from past games and throw them together in one big
clusterfuck of guild missions. Understandably, players will have mixed
views on this, but all in all it’s assembled quite nicely.
The first thing you’ll notice when you start the game is
that it has great hand-drawn artwork. I get a real Saturday morning
cartoon feel from the character portraits. Less impressive is that I
also got the same feeling from the voice acting found dispersed,
seemingly at random, throughout the game. Voice-overs range from
outstanding to “does this guy even know his lines?” Only some of the
lines in the game are actually spoken and this adds to the idea that
the game may have been better without them. Even with all that said,
the game has a very distinct anime feel to it and I think many will
appreciate the seemingly small character flaws you discover through the
dialog “skits” that take place as the game progresses.
As I stated, the game is mission-based, however; what I
didn’t mention is that the game is also highly menu-based. Even the
city you are trapped in is navigated via menus. This isn’t totally a
bad thing, but it does seem a tad bit unnecessary. You could easily
navigate a city map as well as you could the game’s various dungeon
maps.
Once you get beyond that, there is a fairly deep guild
system in place here. You find yourself joining a guild that is
secretly helping the ‘prisoners’ of this town by breaking the laws and
leaving to run errands and fight off threats to the town that may
arise. You see, there’s this real jackass who runs the town and demands
things from people without allowing them to leave town for supplies and
such. Your guild is in direct opposition to this evil poo-poo head and
his uncontested regime.
I think what fans have come to love about this series is
the battle system. It’s not too complex or daunting. In fact, it’s
quite simple. You control only the main character, but you can give
simple commands to your party members. As you level up, you’ll learn
new skills that you can assign to the d-pad. Pressing the X button
allows characters to attack, while multiple presses will initiate
combos. Holding the Square button will allow you to block incoming
attacks. Pressing the Circle button will activate one of your special
skills, depending on what direction you press with it. This is the main
degree of the game’s depth – knowing which skills to have assigned for
the right area.
Speaking of those areas, dungeon maps aren’t always as
beautiful as the rest of the game’s bright and lively visuals. Some of
them are absolutely atrocious and abysmal. Others are actually
well-designed and pretty. Despite the sometimes lacking visuals in the
backgrounds, all the enemies and allies you encounter in the world look
fantastic.
As for movement, unlike the rest of the game, the battle
system is the furthest from menu-based. You move your character around
in instanced battles in real-time. Avoiding the weaker enemies is
rather simple, but the stronger ones are quite the pain in the neck.
The harder enemies will chase you down and have a greater range. It can
be really frustrating if you’re not good at blocking so, expect to
spend a lot of your gald (the game’s currency) on healing items if you
can’t learn to hold that guard button at the right times.
While the game screams fanfare like no other game in the
series, it works well in this case as Tales has always had a very
portable-friendly game design. You can save anywhere except during the
dialog sections. It’s very easy to pick up and get into a quick quest
or play for an hour or so. Also, the fact that when you die on the
battlefield, you awaken in town; having failed your mission is a nice
touch and doesn’t take you out of the game entirely. On the subject of
playing for extended periods of time, I found the game to be friendlier
on a pick up and play basis.
If you’re a Tales fan, you already bought this game and
don’t need my confirmation that the game is worth a buy. If you’ve
never played a Tales game, this isn’t going to have the same impact on
you as it would a fan, but it’s still a good game to get a feeling for
the newer style of the series. As a stand alone RPG on the PSP, this is
one of the better games, well worth investing some time in. Original
RPGs are few and far between on the PSP. Good ones are even scarcer,
but this one might just hit the spot.
Article by: Bloodspoor
Posted on: Aug. 17th, 2007 |
|
|
|
Review Recap |
| Gameplay |
| The mission-based gameplay really didn’t sit well with me considering the battle system’s lack of any real depth. The game is fun, just not epic. |
 |
|
|
Graphics |
| I like the hand-drawn images and the polygonal sprites look just as good but some of the levels you encounter are just blah. |
|
|
|
Sound |
| The music is perfect and exactly what you might expect from a game of such pedigree. The voice acting, on the other hand is sometimes so poor that I would just rather not hear it. |
 |
|
|
Replay Value |
| There are a lot of familiar faces and a lot of unlockable secrets to find if you care to look for them. I just couldn’t find it in me to do so. |
|
|
|
Comments |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
