Tales of Legendia

by Namco

Product Features

• Face enemies bigger than any you've seen in an RPG
• Battle huge monsters with fighting-game-like controls with the X-LiMBS (Crossover Linear Motion Battle System) battle system
• Fantastic 3D graphics, with a different look that's perfectly suited to the game
• Unique character design by renowned artist Kazuto Nakazawa

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000AVBFU8
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches ; 5.6 ounces
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: September 8, 2006
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (42 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,847 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
  • #59 in Video Games > PlayStation 2 > Adventure

Product Description

Tales of Legendia is an epic tale of love and heroism that explores the ties that bind us all. Senel Coolidge, a young expert in the special skill called "eres," was drifting in the ocean on a small boat with his sister Shirley when they stumbled upon a mysterious giant ship called Legacy. Have they stumbled upon an unknown civilization, or is the Legacy a relic of something long past? FInd out with them, and become part of an incredible new adventure!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The undying will of humanity, February 22, 2006

By 

Samario C. Oliver (VA) - See all my reviews

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Tales of Legendia (Video Game)

is the main source of this game
Pros:
-Cute graphics that suits the game's mood
-Awesome soundtrack(It's a nice blend of Jazz, and has nice chourses in some stages)
-Excellent voice acting
-Rapid fight style gameplay
-Great story(And a ending that might be a bit emotional for some, like me)
-I love the cheerful comedy this game brings(If you just played a horror game, it's never a bad idea to turn to this to cheer you up
-It said 70 hours, and man this was the clostest that any game has close to being right about it's lenght on the back cover(I was only 15 minutes over 70 hours)
-Very nice animated ciniematics(It provides much more than the 2 Tales of Symphonia had)
-Excellent group of characters:
--Senel:The main man who walks around with the strenght of 100 men. He can be a pain sometimes. (Like when he abandoned his party, and felt like a total @$$ later)
--Will:The 28 year old man, who uses a hammer, but uses to much magic.(What is the point of having a hammer that can crush a cinderblock at ease if you're hardly gonna use it)
--Chloe:The knight with a generation of greatness before her, but she has loads of doubt and revenge in her(At one point it will, and I mean WILL piss you off)
--Norma:Where would this game be without the cheerful, bubbleheaded Norma. She brings loads of comedy, keeps the game from being completly boirng, well she's like Ed from Cowboy Bebop.
--Moses:And no he's not the guy who said let my people go. He's kinda like Zelos, and he's a bit of a goofball, and he provides comedy as well.
--Jay:I swear the first time I saw this dude I thought he was a chick. She-male lookin' sunova... Anyway, he's the least likable for me, because he always acts like he's too good for everyone.
--Grune:Ah, other than the fact that she lost her memory, she reminds me of Sheena, super sexy, fights with a weird weapon, has a relationship with summon spirits, the perfect woman, a Goddess(Seriously, and she's generaly rather nice to Moses, unlike Sheena and Zelos' relationship)
--Shirly:Senel's sister, and he cares for her a lot, but yet, she always seems to find a way to be a complete burden for like 2 of the game, but she's usually sweet.
-Gald is hardly a problem(The fact that you usually have more than you can spend from time to time)
-Skits have voice acting(Which is suprising since it wasn't that way in tales of symphonia
-Nice load of extras after the game was completed
-This game is a ton of fun, and is very enjoyable installment of the tales series.
Cons:
-No multiheal items(Only Norma can heal everyone, but it's not always enough)
-No Voice acting through Character quest.(Throughout the final 35 hours the only way you can hear voice acting is through the animated FMVs or skits. I missed the voice acting so much, I almost forgot what the voices for some characters sounded like)
-No summon spirits used(Their names are mentioned but they're never used. What happedned there)
-I hate random battles(The dungeons are wayyy to long and random battles are a bit frequent. I don't know what was wrong with the Tales of Symphonia system)
-The world map sucks! The paths are not far away, but Senel runs way too dang slow!(Not to mention there's nothing of an airship or anything like that)
-Puzzle booths are annoying(The only good thing I found about it, is you don't get into random battles with them.
-During character quest this game suffers from Magna Carta syndrome where you backtrack through previous dungeouns(Dungeouns I thought I'd never have to see again. They could have gave a quick jump like Tales of Symphonia did.)
-I wish you could cook after that battle and eat, and get a limited status raiser like in Tales of Symphonia(But, you gotta wait till after the battle.)
-No alternative endings(That is a real downer, seeing as how it is very common in RPGs today)

Tales of Lengendia is a great fun experience, but in pails in comparision to it's Gamecube predicessor Tales of Symphonia. This game looks like it was the prediseccor, and Tales of Symphonia was the successor. Seriously this game was inferior to it. Yet this game is enjoyable, and PS2 owners that never played the Gamecube success, nor had a international PS2 to play the japanese version(Which was realesed on PS2 there, and had much more extras than the gamecube version, and a casino, which was messed up), should enjoy this Tales experience, altho I played better.

peace

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Legend of Its Own!, February 11, 2006

By 

S. Rhodes - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Tales of Legendia (Video Game)

The Tales series has been in good hands lately. Tales of Symphonia, which was a masterful game, was grand. Tales of Legendia is even better and more fleshed out. From start to finish, the game shines.

The game begins with Senel Coolidge and his sister Shirly fleeing from enemies aboard their ship. Soon another ship called the Legacy comes by and over takes them. The Legacy, we discover, is an ancient artifact from the Kingdom of Terises. When Senel and Shirly board the legacy we discover Shirly has the ability to breathe underwater which means she may be of a race called Ferines. But that's not all, because locals think she is a Merines, she might also be able to pilot the Legacy. Unfortunately she also gets kidnapped by bandits within the first five minutes or so. It's a lot to swallow, but you'll find out all the answers as the story progresses.

The Tales series is known for having well-developed characters, and Tales of Legendia is no exception. Each character that joins your party is neatly fleshed out to the point where they are their own self. What helps the character development (besides the well crafted dialogue), is how they will react and interact with one another in battle. Each character has his or her own attitude and way of thinking. You'll easily fall in love with these characters.

The biggest strength of Tales of Legendia though is without a doubt, the battle system. It's real time battling, mixed with a sort of Action/Adventure appeal. That is to say, you actully run up to an enemy and start attacking as if it really were an action/adventure title. It's fun, intense and well executed. You can only control one character at a time. The other characters in battle are controlled strictly by AI. AI usually has a bad reputation in RPGs. Not in Tales of Legendia. Your AI characters are actually smart, and they stick around for a while. You'll actually come to see that they're good at keeping themselves alive. It easily works out to the point where you don't have to babysit a weak character.

Each character also has Eres. Magic abilities that cost magic points to use. These attacks are devasting and beautiful. Your characters have several kinds of Eres they can perform on enemies, and they'll get more and more. And each one is more beautiful and more devastating than the last.

You can take advantage of the battle system by the combos as well. As you and your allies take on the monsters you'll be able to get some pretty high combos. Not only do combos work to cancel or slow down enemies, but the higher your combo, the bigger bonus experience bonus you'll get. If you're really good, you'll get several experience points just off combos alone.

There are a lot of battles in Tales of Legendia. This is good because battling is fun, but it's also bad because they're random battles. Dungeons tend to be long and drawn out (with a lot of backtracking) and the encounter rate is high. You'll have lots of fun battling, but you'll be begging for a break. It might've been best to stick with contact based battles like in Tales of Symphonia.

The Random Encounter rate also doesn't help when moving around on the world map, either. Since you move rather sluggish on the world map, you're just asking for a lot of battles. Walking across the world map is simple, but using the map provided can be tough sometimes. Towns don't make themselves that well known. So if you're traveling to a town, you might find yourself walking on the wrong side of a mountain range and not know it because it wasn't clearly pointed out on the world map. This is a minor problem, though, and probably won't frustrate you. Although the random encounter rate might start to eat at even the most patient gamers.

Tales of Legendia is a beautiful game. Every area shines with beautiful detail. You'll be in awe with these graphics from the moment the game opens up. Everything is bright and colorful, and the game doesn't suffer from any framerate issues. The characters are also detailed, and some of the story plays out in animated cutscenes. The music is also really good. One of the most beautiful soundtracks you'll hear in an RPG. The characters voices are also well performed. This is some of the best voice acting in a video game.

Tales of Legendia is worth it. With an incredible story, remarkable characters, engaging battle system and astounding beauty, the casual RPGer should be awe-struck throughout.

The Good
+Beautiful Graphics
+Great Soundtrack
+Engaging story
+Beautifully developed characters
+Top-notch voice acting
+Tons of extras and secrets
+Incredible Battle System, I've never had more fun with an RPG

The Bad
-There's only one con that sticks out. When you mix the high random encounter rate with the length of these dungeons and sluggish movement on the world map, even the most patient RPGers will lose it... but it's easily resolved with a FUN battle system!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another great RPG from Namco, February 13, 2006

By 

sukotsuto (California, USA) - See all my reviews

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Tales of Legendia (Video Game)

First I'll have to say that I admit I'm really getting into Namco's "Tales of...". Of course, even though I've played various other RPGs over the decade (namely, Final Fantasy, Xenogears, Valkyrie Profile, etc.) along with the first Tales game released in the US (Tales of Destiny. See my review for feedback on that game) I played enough games to be able to see which is fun and which is a big baloney among all hyped RPG releases. I once loved the Final Fantasy series until I've figured out that not all games from that series are as good as the hype they generate (especially the recent releases). On the other hand, the "Tales of" series has a better record for me when it comes to what games should be: FUN.

With that being said, the tales series are always fun to play with its unique, interactive and exciting battle system, flashy and cool-looking spells and skills, likeable characters, numerous secrets, amusing side quests, etc. The recently released Tales of Legendia is no exception.

There are so many things I really like in this game that I've decided to mention the bad parts first. I'm sure this game won't be liked by everyone, probably due to the lingering (and probably outdated by now) interest on certain big name RPG series we all know and used to love. The battles would pose a problem to those who kept the initial settings (semi-auto), but this can easily be solved by selecting manual mode instead. Those who are used to turn-based RPGs may not be able to adjust immediately to the frantic action Legendia's battles offer. First hours in the game is riddled with cliches, but it won't be much of a problem since it sets you up in anticipation of the major and interesting story a bit later in the game. Some may not like a few characters (which, in turn, makes you like the other characters). It may ba a little easy to most, which can be remdied by the fact that you can change difficulty in-game to seek a btter challenged for skilled players. Tales fans will be a little disappointed on some stuff that didn't make it from the japanese version of this game. That's all the bad things I can think of.

As for the good, I tell you theses:

The battles are AWESOME to fight in. The tales series, for me, is the only RPG that makes me look forward to battle enemies, even to the point that I'd use items that raises encounter rate and whack the heck out of every enemy I get to meet. As a total fighting game fan, guarding, pulling off combos, adding in skills (special attacks) and magic attacks, and unique to this tales game: throwing enemies and the time bending Climax mode, it's all heavenly for me. Yes, it's a little easier to pull high-hitting combos this time around, yet it's immensely satisfying.

The music is just as amazing, I tell you. Previous tales composers (one is Motoi Sakuraba) can pull off nice tunes that I dig (especially a few ones that comes up to mind, including battle themes), but Go Shiinai is no pushover! In fact, I love the background tunes in the game so much more than most music in previous installmens of the tales series. Ranging from orchestra-like violins to upbeat jazzy tunes, to vocalized music with a very soothing quality to it, I found myself a new favorite game music composer. Listen to believe.

The voices are surprisingly well done (aside from one character's voice, which is but a lone mismatch compared to the well-voiced overall cast). Many will like the fact that Cam Clarke (voice of the fan popular Kratos from Tales of Symphonia and Liquid Snake from the Metal Gear series) does the voice on one of the characters in the game (Will Reynard). Others fits well too, from the serious but cating hero (Senel), the wild and loud (Moses), to the fun and bubbly (Norma), the high profile voice actors bring character and life to the cast of characters, making the voiceovers on events a sweet treat to hear out.

The graphics are nice, colorful, vibrant, and has a nice flair to it in which can't grasp why (it's probably the "softness" and far blurs that makes the game look refreshing). The character 3D models has good detail with a sleek touch. The character animation is superb, not surprising coming from the makers of Soul Calibur, you got to see it to believe the aesthetic wonder good animation can pull off, especially in a game where such animations play a large part in beauty of battles. MOnster designs are a little similar with the types of monster classification, but each one is modeled with good detail, so it's no mere pallete swap. The spell effects and skills are truly nice view for all, and it never makes a battle look dull (it made me go *ho-hum* on turn based battles ever since playing tales of games)

Anyway, this review is getting longer than expected. I guess it's the fact that I can't deny such awesomeness in front of me (I was making this review with the game right in front of me). A really, REALLY cool bonus for buying this game (and the upcoming Tales of Phantasia, which is great also) is an increased chance of a US release of Tales of the Abyss, the BEST tales of game ever known (Famitsu score: 38/40 - very few games reach that range from the tough reviewers of Famitsu). I am but one among legions who are really excited over this fact.

Be the judge yourself when you try the game out.