Tales of Legendia

Purchase at Play-Asia

Even though the Tales games arrived of the Playstation, it wasn’t until Tales of Symphonia when the series picked up in America. Symphonia was a great RPG that utilized the series’ trademark, the linear battle system. Four player support and the lack of any other Gamecube RPGs made Symphonia an instant hit. However after Symphonia’s success the Tales series seemed to drop off the face of the Earth, even though more games were released in Japan. Finally, we get a chance to play Tales of Legendia.

In Legendia the story starts in the middle of the sea. Senel Coolidge is sailing along with his sister Shirley Fennes. Everything is going fine except they’re low on supplies and under attack by monsters. As they sail through the misty fog, they stumble upon an island, where Shirley gets kidnapped because people believe she is the legendary “Merines”. This is because this “island” is actually a living ship and the Merines can be used to steer the ship. Even though the story is one of the highlights of Tales of Legendia it isn’t well presented. Tiny characters play out scenes on screen, which doesn’t give you the same effect as full motion video. To compensate for the midget sized actors, Legendia zooms in on characters by showing their faces above text boxes. But the character drawings they show are so emotionless these animations aren’t a replacement for larger characters. Every once in awhile you’ll be treated to a couple seconds of an anime by Production IG (Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex) instead of regular text cutscenes. These videos are great, we just wish there were more of them.

You’ll spend most of the game tracking down Shirley with Senel. He’s a hotheaded martial artist that loves his sister, but is rather rude to everyone else. He’ll be joined up by Chloe Valens, a female knight from a far who’s seeking out a man with a snake tattoo. Will Raynard plays the mentor of the group since he’s a bit older than the rest of the crew. Every RPG needs comic relief and that’s where Norma Beatty comes in. She’ a feisty treasure hunter that has a knack for creating nicknames for all of the crew and her cheerful attitude is the opposite of Senel’s cold ways. Jay is a calm tactician and a master of information. Then there’s Moses, who originally kidnaps Shirley. After a change of heart he joins the party and his knowledge of the forest is sure to come in handy. Each of the party members have their own goals and reasons to help Senel out. Norma is looking for the Everclear and Moses wants to get a legendary eres. In the main story you won’t delve into these side quests much since Legendia forces you to follow the story route. You aren’t even free to explore the world map, if you travel too far you’ll get a warning to stop and go somewhere else.

While the story is the heart of the game, the linear motion battle system is the heart of gameplay. Instead of giving players a menu with options like fight and magic for combat, you’ll be thrown into a 2D battlefield. All four party members will appear along with a couple of monsters. You can move around with the D-pad, start a combo by pressing X and use your “eres” powers by pressing circle. There aren’t any real classes in Legendia, just two different eres users iron and crystal (read: fighter and mage). If you control an iron eres character like Senel or Chole your job is to act as a tank between the monsters and other crystal eres users. If you’re playing a crystal eres character like Will or Norma you just sit in the back and cast spells. Honestly, most people won’t want to play as a crystal eres user because sitting in the back is boring. The game is designed with iron eres characters in mind. As Senel you can start a flurry of kicks by pressing X and then finish with a divine dragon move to launch an enemy into the air. Continuing combos is a helpful strategy because monsters won’t be able to attack you while they’re being juggled. Although combos can be kind of chaotic, since you never really know what moves your partner characters are going to use. All you can do is control your single character and pummel your way to a victory. Each successful punch and sword slash fills up the climax gauge. When it’s completely full you can press L1 to freeze time and unleash attacks uninhibited by any enemy fire. Or press L1 again to do a climax combo, which draws upon the special skills of your four party members into one super attack.

It’s a good thing that fighting is the highlight of Legendia, since random encounters are plentiful. For some reason Legendia decided to remove visible enemies and other elements that Symphonia had. Take puzzles and the Sorcerer’s ring as an example. In Tales of Symphonia each dungeon had puzzles to solve like hitting switches with fire from the Sorcerer’s ring. Instead Legendia removes all puzzles from dungeons, except for designated puzzle rooms. When you enter a puzzle zone, you’re given a Sorcerer’s ring and you have to hit all of the switches with a burst of fire. You’ll push around blocks so you can properly aim the Sorcerer’s ring and build a path to the exit. While it’s good to see some puzzles instead of just long dungeon treks, they seem like a forced IQ test instead of being cleverly integrated into the game.

Legendia does have some interesting additions like “chaotic zones”. Instead of running into corners in search of good treasure bubbly spheres separate you from loot. If you step into a chaotic zone you have a high chance of getting attacked by some strong monsters, but you’ll score a new sword or gel to recover your HP. Another intelligent addition are ducts around the map. Each time you find a new area you’ll open up an adjacent duct, which lets you travel back to town at anytime. However, if you want to teleport to a different area you’ll have to warp to town first then to the area of your choice. Like other Tales games there’s cooking system. Instead of cooking full meals you’ll make sandwiches at the bakery in town. By stocking up on ingredients like bread and ham you can make a tasty treat that can recover 15% of the party’s HP. Sandwiches can only be eaten after battle, but they are essential for surviving the game’s arduous dungeons. If you want to learn how to make more tasty treats you need to seek out Mimi the Wonder Baker. She’s hidden in out of place objects throughout the game like a Christmas tree or a floating Pac-Man. Also Tales of Legendia has hundreds of titles to collect. If you complete a high combo, reach a certain level or just progress through the story you’ll earn titles to equip on your characters. These allow you to alter your stats by adding valuable points to your HP or a boost to your evade. While these are no replacement for real character classes, the titles are often story related like Chole’s “Cranky Knight” title that she gets after a fight with Senel.

Between the pages of dialogue and character skits you can access at anytime you really feel like you get to know the cast. This makes the character quests that you get after beating the game even more rewarding. Since you don’t get to deviate from the seven chapter story at all, exploration comes after you see the credits roll. When you start the game again you can explore the Legacy to solve different character quests. The second quest also adds in item synthesis and a battle arena. This extends Legendia well beyond the original story, character quests nearly double the gameplay.

While the 3D presentation may not be that slick and Legendia may have one too many random encounters for gamers, the game is fun to play. These minor flaws may make it less accessable in the beginning, but that’s acceptable since Tales of Legendia’s greatest rewards can only be accessed by playing through the entire forty plus hours.

Import Friendly? Literacy Level: 0

Namco Hometek released an English version for the USA.

US Bound?

The USA release is in stores as of February 6, 2006.

+ Pros: While it’s slow to start out Tales of Legendia has a great story and cast to go along with it. Combat is another high point since it sticks to the linear battle system instead of menu based combat.

- Cons: Random battles and the lack of two player support make Legendia feel like a step backwards in the series.

Overall: If you’re looking for a traditional console RPG with a fast paced combat system Tales of Legendia clearly fits the bill. If you get through all the long dungeons and lots of random battles you’ll enjoy a rich game.

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