Tales Of Legendia

by Darren Lee Taylor - 2008/02/10 11:47am

Tales Of Legendia starts with Senel and Shirley at sea, sailing the stormy deep blue of a neo-materialised ocean of prosperous adventure. What with the simple ethics of the game opening with lush, dreamy events, even the monstrous attack of the titles preliminary enemy cannot retract from the original sense of freedom and charisma from the main characters. From the dynamic chase at sea, to the discovery of new lands, the first quarter of the game is very linear, very straightforward, very ordinary. Not the best of starts for a title that promised new directions for the series.

After an initial 40 hour quest, taking you through bordial landscapes and simple locales, the characters of the game still feel horribly composed, instead creating a falsified depiction of any emotion or real control for the player. Their are many frustrating moments in Tales, with the slow progress of the developments of the main characters causing a real problem for the games narrative and the respecting penetration between casual and hardcore.

Moving away from the characters and structure of Tales' main storyline, the graphics in Tales of Legendia are another unoriginal blend of washed out Playstation 2 blends and palette shades, with a revamp in a few particular areas of higher powered gloss. Instead of just following suit with older earlier Tales designs; they used disgustingly unarticulated 3D models that unfortunately creates a very undistinguishable flavour to a so far uninspired pot of spoiled broth.

The tunes and melodies that bounce out of your Playstation 2 are a positive resonating beat of stylish notes and symbols that really do help make the mistakes in character design and level structure all that more tasteful, and with a full orchestral soundtrack complimenting a lacklustre title in the Tales universe, this really is one of the only high selling points and features.

If you were still undecided about whether to purchase Tales Of Legendia yet, the main controls for the very common and frequent battle sections are dreadful. While in battle, it's almost as if you're completely compelled to hammer X and O until the controller breaks, because backstepping hardly gets any distance between you and the enemy. It's sad, really. Backstepping is one of the most fun things to do in the 3D Tales games. Also, you can apparently guard, but why guard when you can rapidly press X throughout the entire game?

There is also supposed to be a 'jump' feature in the game, although trying to execute this can be a real problem. Trying to reach high places for example or to frontflip over the enemy somehow feels disjointed and very bolted on. The battle techniques known as Artes/Eres/Techs aren't really that great in this game either. There are only about five or six base Artes, and all your arcane artes are combinations of those moves, and so your repitoire is limited at best. It's actually quite hard to execute a linked combo aswell because the controls have the habit of repeating a previously used Arte, not executing it at all, or not linking it correctly.

Tales of Legendia also introduces the Climax Gauge.They should've just stuck to naming it the Unison Attack gauge. You can go through the entire game without ever having to actually touch the Climax Gauge, because a tutorial on how to use it and an explanation was never fully offered, and so problems arise when trying to attract new skills and abilities.

With so many negativities in this Tales title, its hard to encourage replay at all. To have to trudge your way back through so many problematic excercises is a terrible act of pain on any human soul, and so to reinforce this, Namco should have made the main quest far more accessible, with some extra content or brand new features.

In all honesty, the game became very unappealing after all the voiceovers were gone. The game felt like a cop-out of the development team, which is another reason why it's disappointing. Voiceovers were one of the few things that actually helped new and veteran players becomen attracted to the series.

The game gets tiring very quickly, and is really only for a hardcore Tales fan who must play the game to complete their chronological completency. Be warned, to enjoy this title you really must be a fan of the series and its many dynamic changes through history. For a new player, this Tales game can only really be offered through rental or bargain bin. It really is all we can offer for the best value for money, as this Tales game certainly wont be going down in Legends anytime soon. Disappointing.