Tales of Eternia Remastered Review

Tales of Eternia is the next installment in the Tales franchise's remaster project, and today we review it. Tales of Eternia is not only one of the best entries in the Tales franchise, but can even be considered one of the finest works

The Tales of Eternia game is the next version in the Tales franchise remaster project, which we will review today.

The title Tales of Eternia can not only be considered one of the best versions of the Tales franchise, but it is even referred to as one of the best JRPGs of the fifth generation. Now, in the process of releasing old versions of the franchise for modern consoles, it's Eternia's turn to immerse fans in its experience again. Tales of Eternia Remastered is considered to be the best remaster of this franchise so far, which brings a fascinating experience with multiple and impressive QOLs to the modern era.

As the name suggests, Tales of Eternia takes place in Eternia, a world divided into Inferia and Celestia, with Inferia being the lower world and Celestia being the upper world. These two worlds have not been connected to each other for about 2000 years and therefore the religion, politics and beliefs of Inferia have spread against Celestia. This is because, due to what happened in the past, many people know the people of Celestia as ruthless monsters who brought nothing but pain and food to Inferia.

The protagonist of our story, Reid Hershel, and his friend Farah Oersted are from this land and a village called Rasheans. In the introduction of the game, we see these two characters talking on top of a watch tower around their village, when suddenly a strange object falls from the sky towards them. After arriving at the crash site, they find a girl named Meredy next to a strange ship. Meredy speaks in an unintelligible language, and as you progress through the story, you will find out that she came from Celestia to Inferia to stop an event called "The Grand Fall" with their help.

Here, Reid and his friends face a huge challenge not only to save their world of Inferia, but also Celestia. Now the fate of Eternia is in their hands and in this way, the ideas, beliefs and even the mechanism of the world they knew will be challenged.

The general narrative of Tales of Eternia is one of the common narratives of Jrpg titles in its era; A story about saving the world and telling a memorable adventure. Of course, despite the clichéd generalities, the game still displays the dimensions of the game world in an interesting way and portrays the philosophical problems of each in contrast with our adventure. Meanwhile, the characters of Tales of Eternia are perhaps the highlight of its overall narrative. Reid, Farah, Meredy, and Keele all symbolize certain people and beliefs that are challenged throughout the story.

The friction between these characters and their overall communication is believable and engaging, so you always enjoy the company of this group during the narrative. This remastered version also introduces brand new English voice acting! The new voice actors have really given a new spirit to this work and its characters, and at the same time, they have also improved the overall presentation of the game. While the voice acting of the original work was relatively acceptable by the standards of the 90s and early 2000s, it still seemed one-dimensional and superficial.

The new voice actors clearly fix this problem and bring out the personality of each character in their voice and the way they speak. Now, during the conversations, you are faced with many ups and downs in the dialogues, which helps to catch them more. This QOL is perhaps one of the best improvements this remaster has received.

Republishing a classic work in a logical way

The general narrative of Tales of Eternia is one of the common narratives of Jrpg titles in its era; A story about saving the world and telling a memorable adventure.

In the field of gameplay and combat system, the effect of the passage of years is not so felt on Tales of Eternia. At its time, it offered an action-packed combat system that was never seen before. This system is called "Aggressive Linear Motion" or ALM, and as the name suggests, it relies on an aggressive and linear approach. During battles, you will be able to move in a two-dimensional screen next to your party.

Each character has their own unique abilities, weapons, and type of combat, and as usual with Tales, it's possible to customize their approach to combat scenarios. By accessing the "Formation" menu, the player has the ability to customize his party formation, and in the "Strategy" section, he can customize the offensive/defensive approaches of each character.

In the role of Reid, by increasing your level, you will have access to various special moves that you can assign to different combination buttons and use them according to the needs of the combat scenario. You will also have the ability to buy from different stores in the game by entering different cities or villages. A wide variety of different weapons and items are available for your party characters so you can constantly customize and make them more powerful.

Since Tales of Eternia is considered one of the classic and more basic titles of the franchise, it certainly has a simpler combat system, but nevertheless, after all these years, it is still a fun and highly interactive system that now works even better under the influence of a wide range of QOLs.

One of these is the ability to enable/disable the preservation of party composition during combat. This feature allows the party to remain stationary and maintain its makeup, or to dynamically move along with Reid on the 2D battle screen. Another thing is the "High Speed" mode, which is included in this remaster, and as the name suggests, it increases the speed of the fighting process.

These highlights, along with a wide range of other options and settings, are made available to you in the Boost Function menu provided in this game in the form of QOL. Personally, I've always said for these classics that the ability to disable random combat is one of the most critical QOLs. Now Tales of Eternia remaster, in addition to this possibility, also allows you to reduce them so that you can reduce the number of random fights instead of completely disabling them, so that the constant process of fighting and increasing the level will not be disturbed!

This title is the first repost of a Jrpg that I've personally seen such a feature in, and it greatly contributes to the overall experience. Other things such as increasing Damage in battles, XP and money received and such examples are also embedded in this game.

But it's not the only combat system in the game that has received multiple QOLs; Another addition to this remaster is the addition of badges for objectives and missions. Now the main and side quests are all displayed using the same badge in the Overworld and inside different areas of the game, making the exploration process clearer.

The majority of classic JRPGs rely on dialogue and the player's precision to find clues to their next destination. Personally, I always enjoyed this approach because it made the exploration process an unexpected adventure that could sometimes lead you to secret areas, dungeons, or special areas along the way.

But of course, this approach may not be to the taste of modern audiences, and maybe even some old players are looking to re-experience the game away from the time-consuming exploration process. Therefore, the addition of these badges helps to directly follow the main path of the game and reach the main goals.

Of course, exploration and world building are still an important part of this experience. During your travels and adventures, you will enter numerous areas, cities, and villages that are filled with various NPCs. Talking to the people of that area can provide various information about the game world, the current state of its different dimensions, or even the specific beliefs of its people. In addition, sometimes even these NPCs can give you information about game mechanics or special tricks that are useful.

Overall, Tales of Eternia Remaster is one of the best examples of re-releases of classic RPG titles in the modern era, at least in terms of systematic improvements and QOLs. These multiple settings give extremely high flexibility to this experience and help both old players and new audiences to personalize the game experience as they like.

Passing this section, it is not bad to talk a little about the appearance of this 25-year-old work, which still looks great. The artistic approach of Tales of Eternia is still beautiful and eye-catching after many years of its release, and even today we see many works that try to recreate this style of pixel art. The characters of the game also have dynamic animations that help the presentation of the game a lot.

Besides that, the game's pre-rendered backgrounds still look attractive and detailed. From the noisy capital to the green and peaceful forests of Bazi, they all create their own special mood and create a good environmental variety. In this context, this remaster introduces a dedicated graphic mode, which, if you are honest, does not feel much different between it and the original graphic mode.

Personally, during the experience, I switched between these two options several times in different environments, but I didn't notice any noticeable changes other than improving the "Sharpness" of the image, which is a bit disappointing. In the past, works such as the Ace Attorney Investigations collection presented a completely new artistic approach and graphic option in their re-release, which was extremely exciting. Tales of Eternia, however, does not necessarily follow such an approach, and its remastered graphic mode is not very noticeable.

Of course, as I said, luckily the game's original art approach is still very eye-catching and can carry the burden of this department. In the field of game music and sound processing, we are facing exactly the same approach. Remastered sounds and soundtracks also have a dedicated option to change the original and remastered modes, which, of course, makes their distinction more noticeable. It should be noted that both of these settings can be changed during the game and the changes will be applied instantly.

In the meantime, another thing that could have undergone more changes is the user interface and the general UI of the game. The game's user interface, while the launcher works, still looks a bit outdated and too beginner-friendly. In this regard, it would not be bad if their menus and general style underwent more changes.

Of course, the situation of this work in this field is not as bad as titles like Dragon Quest remakes, but I personally think it could benefit from some targeted improvements in the user interface. For example, dialog boxes are sometimes so big that they cover some of the characters inside the card. Optimizing the font of dialogues and solving problems like this could definitely improve the overall performance of the game's user interface.

This game is based on the code sent by the publisher (Bandai Namco) and tested on PS5

Tales of Eternia Remastered is the best remaster that Bandai Namco has released for this franchise to date. Inferia is a vibrant and engaging world, the game's characters are memorable and lovable, and ALM's combat system continues to be fun and engaging. Along with these, numerous improvements to the quality of the game experience for better personalization, along with brand new English voice acting, make this classic a very accessible experience for old fans and new audiences alike.