[PSP] Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology - insanecrazy07

Published by: Namco Bandai
Developed by: Namco Tales Studios
Release Date: July 17, 2007
Genre: RPG
Size: 332 MB (I'm starting to add this in here to build a case that size isn't everything)
Review Written #5
Review Published #4

A cool little perk about this game is that you can completely customize your character. I went all out anime on this one with a girl with blue hair. The guys look like girls so I just eliminated the ambiguity and chose a girl.

I was retarded when I chose my character’s class because I picked the Mage class. It even says for advanced players, and of course; I ignored that and chose it anyway. Just go with the warrior for your first time through…

This took me 20 minutes just to customize because I was so damn picky on what class I wanted.


You are born from a Mana Tree (What? FF? Square? Copyright infringement?) and you have this little annoying flying moogle-like thing that rivals Navi in “most annoying flying thing by your head.”
Do you see the dot dot dot barriers? Tell me that's NOT a ripoff from Final Fantasy XII.

This reminds me of Dark Cloud where all you do is do favors for people and dungeon crawl all day.
(They even made me talk to everyone in town, and then do favors)

You are recruited into a guild and you do quests for the guild. The important people you have to talk to have a yellow icon over their head like World of Warcraft.

The professions are a huge ripoff from World of Warcraft. The fact that you gain skill points from it and sometimes (or most of the time) you fail at making it, just bugs the crap out of me. It reminds me of the skinning profession where most of the time you would get ruined scraps. You also have to learn recipes to make higher-level items. The only good note is that you learn all of the professions. The rewards for customization aren't all that great, and they don't outweigh the hassles of replacing harvest equipment.

Harvesting is a nuisance because you have to buy a new pickaxe every time you mine. So if you mine two veins, you need two pickaxes. I always find myself buying 15 sickles since the supplies they extract are vital for the starting professions. It would also be nice if the veins would extract only one type of resource, not a variety of random items. I wanted to harvest wheat from the grass vein but only got it 1/5 of the time, while I got nothing but Logs. They should've made a trade goods vendor that has basic goods like wood and wheat.

There are no random battles since the monsters are onscreen, and of course, unavoidable. They have a certain “aggro” range so if you stay out of that, you can get around them. Too bad the area is narrow…

The quests still continue even if you die so feel free to kill yourself when you are out of mana. Kill a few of the quest monster, and then die. Now that you have full HP and MP, kill the rest.

You get guest characters on some of the quests, so when you see that one will accompany you, TAKE THAT QUEST! You have no idea how helpful it is to have a guest character that is 15 levels higher than you take out everything in it’s path and you get the experience.


You can have four characters with you maximum, but you only control one, while the other three are on auto. Even though the auto has a little customization, it sure isn’t gambits. I would much rather frantically, and impossibly control all four at once.


Quick! Use a Phoenix Down! …sort of.

Presentation: 7.5/10. The menus are fine, but sometimes confusing at first. Not being able to really walk around in a town is my main disappointment.

Graphics: 7.5/10. I’ve seen better graphics for RPGs that try to aim at this style of graphics. So no “perfect 10.” Other RPGs aren’t as big in filesize as this and have better graphics.

Sound: 7/10. Eh. Average. Nothing striking. I forgot to mention voice acting, which isn't half bad for once. Voice acting is becoming rather standard on most RPGs now.

Gameplay: 7.5/10. Cast time sucks for mages, and of course, you run around in a restricted ring so there’s no room to set up for a cast. Their attacks interrupt your spellcast and you will NEVER be able to pull one off it they are attacking you. Mages are sweet in World of Warcraft, not this game. Health and mana regenerate in World of Warcraft, not this game. The delay from when you press the button to the time she actually swings is annoying. Surely, it’s not an instant swing but it should be reactive. Your character never faces the right direction when swinging, or you have to be exact on the angle to hit your opponent. Also, casting while not facing the right direction is unrealistic.

Lasting Appeal: 7.5/10. I’m not going to replay this even as a warrior.

Total Score: 37/50
Average: 7.4
Overall: 7.5
Rating: 3 stars. Fair.

Final Comments: Dark Cloud is the better dungeon crawler.
Highly unoriginal: Final Fantasy Tactics Advance guild feel, with World of Warcraft professions (my MAIN complaint), and not a real place to walk around.
If you end up picking a mage, be sure to capitalize on the missions that give you allies. A mage is only useful if it isn't the one under direct fire.
I'm not making this any longer as there is nothing else to say about it that would help it's case on being a better game.
"There wasn't something that was truly unique about this one, just a combination of mechanics that we have already seen in past games."

 

Nice review insane, man Winterr is going to have it rough

 

Winterr is going to hate that I got my PSP flashed with 3.90 M33-3...

 

My only question on the game is: is one of the available classes something like a Mageknight, sort of like Kratos or Zelos from Tales of Symphonia? Ya' know, someone who uses both melee and magic attacks? If so, I would so be sold on this game...

A good review, though you compare it to other games a bit too much, and oftentimes claim it as a rip-off. Unless something has been taken from another game entirely and has had absolutely no changes made to it, it's not really ripping off something, simply borrowing a gameplay mechanic that, hopefully, was good. Just a constructive critique - otherwise, you've a very good review.

 

There's warrior, thief, priest and mage.

as far as the ripoff thing goes, if another company made a game that took ATB (and kept it ATB) and used it in one of their games, Square would have a fit!

World of Warcraft is the only game that I know of that takes professions to the same level as this game.
yeah, there is FF9 synthesis, Dark Cloud synthesis, but that's not even close to the similarity.

there's skill points, skill requirements, recipes etc. (they're also color coded, red being you can't make it)
and since it has the chance of failure, that is definitely stealing the idea from WoW.

the little quest icons above people's heads screams out WoW ripoff to me. I thought that was unique of WoW and other competing MMORPGs like maybe LOTR. (dunno if LOTR had the quest icon thing or not)

in fact, LOTR: Return of the King used FFXII's battle engine because it was so good. (even says so in the FFXII collector's edition DVD). That is fine...I guess since they had permission to use their system.

stealing the idea from another game may not be a legality issue but it certainly detracts from any future game that decides to borrow it.

That's like saying if I made a game using RPG Maker, stealing all of the basic mechanics of a game, and calling it my own creation. It isn't, and if I sold this said game for monetary purposes, that would be copyright infringement. (if I kept it in my basement, maybe gave it to a few of my friends, then fine, not really liable there)

I compare games to other games to show similarity and a standard of value.
although, you said I compared too much, really RPGs are pretty much the same no matter what RPG you play. There wasn't something that was truly unique about this one, just a combination of mechanics that we have already seen in past games.

edit: oh god, they really do take the guild and quest part from FFTA. seriously, call it something else. it's been overused as it is.

 

Well insanecrazy07, this is a good review. Just wait until tomorrow, clash of the RPG reviews!
Good work though

 

Good review, keep up the competition.

 

Wow just reading about this makes my skin crawl, it must be really annoying going through all the customization and some troubles like pickaxes. And the gameplay looks tedious.

Thanks for the review