Tales of Phantasia 1995

Is it still worth playing?

Wolf Team's action role playing game for the Super Famicom, released only in Japan in December 1995, the first Tales game. A Game Boy Advance version in 2003 was the first to be officially available in English, in 2006. Fights use the Linear Motion Battle System: they play out on a 2D terrain wider than one screen, so it scrolls left and right, with a pause menu to pick a spell or item. You can assign items or combination moves to buttons as shortcuts. You directly control only the main character, in real time, and the other party members can be set to passive, which only defends, or to an active mode where the computer controls them. Directly controlling one fighter among computer controlled allies still makes each battle a matter of timing and positioning.