Play Tales of Phantasia Online

Tales of Phantasia on GBA plays like a mashup of the SNES and PS1 versions—slower combat, some voice clips, and the old-school 2D map, but you still get Suzu’s dungeon and cooking. Missing FMVs and co-op hurts, though.

Developer: Namco

Genre: Role-Playing Game

Released: 2006

File size: 6.68 MB

Game Overview

So, Tales of Phantasia on GBA—it's kind of a weird mix of the original Super Famicom and PlayStation versions. The combat feels like the PS1 remake but slower, and you’ve got some of the voice clips (though not as many as you’d hope). The intro song? Straight from the SNES, not the PS1’s vocal version, which is a shame. The world map’s also the old-school 2D one, not the 3D remake style.

They kept some good stuff from the PlayStation version, like Suzu as a recruitable character (plus her dungeon), cooking, and that run button outside battles. But they cut a lot too—no FMVs, no local co-op, no Groovy Arche minigame. And the Manual/Auto controls? Basically useless until way later because they moved the Technical Ring to the endgame.

There’s new stuff, though. The Chameleon summon is back, but it’s totally different from the SNES one. Chester’s bow repair quest got expanded with new characters, and there’s a whole new dungeon in the Morlia Mineshaft where you can grab the Pluto summon. After beating the game, you unlock a fun little mini-campaign where you play as Arche trying to finish as many quests as possible in five minutes—Szu helps by warping you around, and the ending changes based on how many you complete.

It’s a decent port, but you can tell the GBA had its limits.