Tales of Phantasia – Consumer Guide

According to the ESRB, this game contains: Fantasy Violence

Parents have very little to worry about. Tales of Phantasia's violence—perpetrated with swords and magic spells—is less disturbing than anything you'd find in Harry Potter. There's no bad language, and the game's sexual innuendo is extremely gentle. There's a minor crisis when the hero and his female companion stay at an inn with one bed, and there are some ingenuous shenanigans in a hot spring. After discussing each others' 16-bit figures (“You look fabulous, Mint! I'm so skinny!”; “Look at you, Chester! All that training has really paid off!”), characters of one gender wander into the hot spring room of the other, and lots of yelling and shooing ensue.

RPG lovers, fans of Namco's Tales series and videogame nostalgists should definitely pick this up. It's got a good story, fun characters, a battle system that's not shackled to a menu, CPU-controlled party members with brains, and lots of things to do. Best of all, it's 20 bucks.

Deaf and hard of hearing gamers: unfortunately, there's a multi-step music puzzle in the Tower of the Zodiac, and I can't find an online FAQ that provides the answers. (On each floor, the player must touch statues to change the theme music to whatever the floor's sign reads—doing so opens the door to the floor above). The game is accessible in all other respects.