Telling of tall tales
Tales of Phantasia producer spills beans on his time-travelling morally-sensitive fantasy game
With most of Nintendo’s attention focused on DS, it’s good to know there’s still quality gaming on the way for its long-in-the-tooth brother GameBoy Advance.
One of the four big GBA games set for release this spring is Namco’s role playing game Tales of Phantasia, and its producer Makoto Yoshidumi has been spilling some details.
“Originally we thought a role playing game with a strong animation style might not be well received outside of Japan,” Mr Yoshidumi begins.
Namco’s view changed after the success of sister title Tales of Symphonia on GameCube. Both games are set in the same universe, with Tales of Phantasia describing a world a few thousand years older than that of Symphonia.
The story of Phantasia concerns the quest of two young boys, Chester and Cress, whose village is mysteriously destroyed. As they travel through the land to find out what happened, they’re joined by Mint, a healer, Arche, a sorceror, and the bounty hunter Class, and also discover the ability to travel in time. The anti-hero of the game is Daos, a supreme being from another world who initially appears totally evil in his desire to take over the planet, but whose motives may be somewhat different from what you expect.
Asked how he thought Tales of Phantasia was different to other RPGs, Yoshidumi-san points out several features. “In terms of the gameplay, we’ve got a unique combat system, which is closer to that of an action game. This gives you the sense of the stress and nervousness of combat against enemies and monsters.” Another reason is the cooking option, where you can create potions from the ingredients you find during the adventure. There is also some very appealing graphics and music, and an in-depth story where a good versus evil viewpoint becomes merged into different shades of grey. “Any game with the world Tales in the title cannot be a mere linear story-based role playing game,” laughs its creator.
A full interview with Makoto Yoshidumi can be found at www.nintendo-europe.com (free registration required). Tales of Phantasia is released on Game Boy Advance on the 31st March.
