The European Namco Bandai Entertainment YouTube channel recently posted a video as part of the Tales of Memoria series of videos celebrating the Tales of Series 25th Anniversary by looking back at the series' first entry: Tales of Phantasia.
The short video quite literally opens with a book opening to a page detailing simple release information for the game, exhibiting the title screen from Tales of Phantasia: Cross Edition. Snippets from the animated opening and gameplay from the PlayStation 1 version of the game are also shown, with short tagline text appears over a simple black background, starting with "The heartbeat of fate pierces the earth." One of the more curious lines is "Neither your friends nor the world will let you like it!"
If I may break character for a moment, this is completely untrue. My friends have and would let me like Tales of Phantasia and I'll thank you, Mr. Bamco, to not tell me what I can and cannot do. The video otherwise is a pleasant trip down memory lane.
The video is also available on the Taiwanese (and Hong Kong) Namco Bandai Entertainment YouTube channel. And on the official page for the 25th anniversary, the Japanese version of Tales of Memoria has videos covering the games up to Tales of Symphonia are available. Based on this English video, one may assume that the others will be translated as well, with more on the way in the near future.
Tales of Phantasia is the first and founding title for the Tales of Series, first released back in 1995. At present, it is the title with the most number of ports and/or remakes and also has an anime OVA adaptation. The game features heavy influences of time travel and a bit of Norse mythology. It is confirmed as a distant sequel to Tales of Symphonia.
