Tales of Legendia

With so many RPG’s vying for those last few PS2 dollars, Namco sought to make theirs stick out like a troll at an elves’ convention and so they’ve reached deep into their bag of tricks to present something truly original, while sticking to the genre’s time-honored covenants and their decidedly storybook-meets-manga design etiquette. [Jan 2006]

The company promised Soul Calibur and delivered Street Fighter in its battle system. The final verdict on Tales of Legendia is that it’s a solid entry and an enjoyable game

While it really doesn’t bring anything new to the genre, Tales of Legendia is an excellent RPG worthy of any RPG fan’s time.

Despite its flaws with pacing and the emphasis on role-playing clichés, Tales of Legendia is a very enjoyable game. The disappointment here stems largely from the fact that many fans hold the Tales series to a relatively high standard and expect a certain consistent level of quality across all facets of the experience.

It's exciting, engaging, and is unlike any other real-time RPG on the market.

That level of minutiae separates good games from great ones, but in Tales Of Legendia, much of the detail pops up in the periphery, which enhances the experience more than it affects the gameplay.

It takes the same old RPG elements and lengthens them or changes them in such a way as to make them a little different. It's just a re-invention of the wheel but that may be enough to keep some fans happy, especially those that like combat and treasure hunting.

If you’re a fan of action RPGs or just a gamer who would like to break out of the normal turn-based combat, then Tales of Legendia should be in your PS2!

Some blemishes exist, most prominently in the tuning of the encounter rate and how world travel is handled, but genre and series fans will find it easy to like this otherwise well-crafted adventure.

If for whatever reason "Tales of Symphonia" didn't grab you, you might want to consider giving Tales another try with Legendia. [Mar 2006, p.87]

Legendia continues the excellent Tales RPG series, thrilling fans with good pacing, strategy-laden real-time combat and very stylish visuals.

If you're an RPG fan looking for something new and different ... stop kidding yourself and go look into the Shadow Hearts series.

Legendia is definitely slanted towards more action-oriented role-players who don't mind breezing through an easy twenty hours before getting to the real tests of skill. Regardless, when all is said and done the game is actually pretty rewarding.

A mix of incredibly simplified fighting and some elements of turn-based combat, Tales of Legendia’s 2D-style battle system continues to carry the torch for the franchise. [Mar 2006, p.80]

Legendia seems a sure hit among the series' dedicated fans -- provided they don't feel that familiarity breeds contempt. But for everyone else, this flawed adventure's good looks and occasional moments of cleverness probably won't go far enough to distinguish Namco's latest Tales from the last few.

It's one of the few soundtracks that I would highly recommend buying, as the quality of the music is that good.

The game does continue on in the Tales style, but the bulk of the content is only average.