Tales of Phantasia is the enriched PS1 version of Namco's Super Famicom classic. Cless Alvein in a time-spanning revenge story with the series' first combat system. Improved visuals and voices over the original. A well-preserved foundational JRPG for Tales series fans on PS1.
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RPG1 player12+
Description
Japanese Wolf Team and Namco PlayStation port of the Super Famicom RPG Tales of Phantasia, first installment of the series. Created by Wolf Team and Namco, released in 1998 in Japan under the Tales of Phantasia title. Side-scrolling real-time combat in classic LMBS, hero Cress and companions traversing three eras of history, Kosuke Fujishima character design and Motoi Sakuraba and Shinji Tamura rock orchestral soundtrack. Japanese edition under the Tales of Phantasia title.
Tales of Phantasia review
4/5
Art direction
★★★★★
"Striking"
4/5
Music
★★★★★
"Excellent"
4/5
Story
★★★★★
"Captivating"
The conversion brings Kosuke Fujishima's characters back to the front, soft featured and cleanly dressed, and gains richer colour than the Super Famicom version. The three eras crossed are told apart at a glance: medieval forests, overrun ruins, rebuilt cities, each redrawn to exploit the PlayStation's wider palette.
Motoi Sakuraba and Shinji Tamura use the CD format to give their symphonic rock the breadth it previously lacked: rounder organ, better separated drums, battle themes that climb in stages. The opening song, performed in Japanese, launches the adventure in a register no console role playing game had used before this series.
It all begins with a massacre: Cless comes home to find his village destroyed, and his search leads him to Dhaos, a demon king sealed a century earlier. The time travel that follows forces him to look at the same places across three ages, until it turns out the designated enemy may not have been entirely wrong.
Complete: box, manual and disc/cart very clean. Lightly handled.
Q1 damagedQ6 completeQ10 new
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Collector interest
An enhanced PlayStation port of Tales of Phantasia, the series' founding title first seen on Super Famicom, here given voice work and added scenes. This version restored to the saga's starting point a presentation worthy of its standing, making it a milestone prized by those wanting the cycle's origin on the era's reference hardware. Its interest rests on this historical weight within a franchise still closely followed.
Is Tales of Phantasia still worth playing in 2026?
An enhanced PlayStation port of the first Tales, originally on the Super Famicom, Tales of Phantasia unrolls a time travel epic carried by the real time side view combat that founded the series. The colourful sprites, the memorable soundtrack and the ambitious story mixing past and future keep an intact charm, here dressed up with voices and added scenes. The grinding and a sometimes slow pace call for investment. A foundational JRPG for fans of the Tales saga and classic Japanese RPGs.
