| Tales
of Eternia | Published by Namco | November 30, 2000 |
In
the beginning, there was Tales of Phantasia on the Super Famicom,
released in Japan on December of 1995. NCS seems to remember the pop style song in the
beginning of the game with vocals and the popularity of this title back then. It held 48
megabits of cartridge rom when 32 megs was the norm for high-meg carts at the time. Had
the game not utilized the pop song and in-game voices, it would have probably settled in
at 32M. Phantasia was
re-released by Namco for the Playstation in 1998 with improved graphics, cinemas, and
sound.
Tales of Destiny
followed Phantasia and was released to the Japanese market in December of 1997. Namco
enhanced the linear motion battle system where the gamer controlled the main character in
full 2-D fighting action while being supported with back-up attacks from party members.
TOD was popular in Japan, thanks to it's excellent character designs and grass roots
storyline. It passed relatively unnoticed in the USA market.
Tales of Eternia, expected later this year, brings
the Tales series to trilogy status. Channeling, or the control of party members in
addition to the main hero, is now a possibility during battles and special experience
points are bestowed when the player spins out natty combos during a fight. As in Tales of
Destiny, Jun Toyoda returns as script master and Mutsumi Inomata provides the character
designs. Previous versions of Tales included a cooking element where you searched out or
purchased ingredients to cook up new items and food to use during the game. This feature
returns in Eternia.
Namco will release a regular edition of TOE on November 30 at Y5800
and a limited edition at Y9800. The limited edition ships in a special container and
includes the following premium goods: Clock with Eternia character design, mobile phone
carrying strap, five character mascot figures for use with the phone carrying strap, and a
visual artbook. The regular edition will use 2-color printing for the CD-Rom while the
limited edition uses a special 4-color printing process.
NCS is currently accepting pre-orders for both regular and limited
editions of Eternia via e-mail or through the on-line store. |
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