Further Info: "Tales of Legendia" (It used to be called "Project MelFes") was released for the PS2 on August 25th, 2005 in Japan, selling 397,000 copies; and on February 7th, 2006 in America. Curing items, spells/skills can be used outside or inside of battle. In the menu, you can set the battle strategy and formation for your party, check the status for a character, and customize menu colors, sounds, buttons, battle targeting and voices. Saving is allowed on "Save Points" throughout dungeons, cities, and houses; and on the World Map. Story Info: The game starts out with two of our heroes, Senel Coolidge and Shirley Fennes, on a boat that ends up getting in some danger. After a bit, Shirley begins to mysteriously glow, and the reason why unknown to either of them. The two eventually end up on a mass of land known as the "Legacy", and Shirley is kidnapped. A character named Will Raynerd expains to Senel that ancient civilizations were able to control the movement of the Legacy with a hidden power, avilable only to a select few. Evidently, Shirley somehow holds this power. Since the Legacy had been mysteriously moving again lately, Shirley is no doubt highly sought-after. When Will and Senel finally catch up to Shirley, they find out they are not the only ones after her...
Characters:
- Senel Coolidge, voiced by Kenichi Suzumura in Japan, and Jim Walker in America
- Shirley Fennes, voiced by Ryo Hirohashi in Japan, and Sandy Fox and Carrie Savage in America
- Will Raynerd, voiced by Susumu Chiba in Japan, and Cam Clarke in America
- Chloe Valens, voiced by Masumi Asano in Japan, and Heather Halley in America
- Norma Biatty, voiced by Kaori Mizuhashi in Japan, and Tara Strong in America
- Moses Sandor, voiced by Kazuya Nakai in Japan, and Shiloh Strong in America
- Jay, voiced by Ryoko Shiraishi in Japan, and Steve Staley in America
- Grune, voiced by Ayako Kawasumi in Japan, and Lara Jill Miller in America
Skill/Spell System: Every character has skills/spells, known as "Artes" in this game. Curing spells can be used outside of battle, as well as in battle. Characters learn new artes by mastering an arte, and leveling up. With a character that is set on "S. Auto" or "Manual" for battle mode (I will say "Senel" here, because Senel is the default main character for battle), one configures 6 artes to be used with buttons. The first four artes can be set to be used in conjunction with a combination of a D-Pad direction button/Left Control Stick and the arte button. i.e., one arte is performed by pressing the arte button by itself, another arte can be done by pressing the up button/tilting Left Control Stick up+arte button, another with down button/tilting Left Control Stick down+arte button, and another with left or right/tilting Left Control Stick left or right+arte button. The fifth and sixth artes can be set to be used in conjunction with L2 and R2. These two artes used can be linked to another character and their arte in order to prompt them to use the arte, as well. Throughout the game, you can learn new artes by "Mastering" the arte. This means an arte must be used 50 times--and you can check arte usage in the artes menu. There are also different levels of artes, and artes that can be linked (described more below). 
Battle System Info: The battle system in Tales of Legendia is called the "Crossover Linear Motion Battle System" or "X-LMBS". This is the first "Tales of..." console game in the series in a while that is not multi-player--it is single-player only (although one can switch out the default main character--Senel--with any other character at any time, both in battle or dungeon/town/world map). Throwing is a big part of the battle system in this game. Enemies throughout the game are grouped into different sizes, and while certain battle artes are simply normal attacking artes, some artes are used to throw enemies for more damage--or just for fun. Also, artes are grouped into different levels, and can be linked and combined to form new artes. Another unique battle element to Tales of Legendia is the fact that actualy people were choreographed and the captured results used as the battle movements within the game. Finally, Tales of Legendia also boasts what is called "Climax Mode". When the climax gauge at the bottom of the battle screen fills up, player presses L1 to activate climax mode. The battle freezes, except for the player's characters get to use a powerful move. The advantage to climax mode is that it ends battles quickly, and provides extra "Grade" (that's right, the grade system is back) one gets at the end of a battle for using climax mode.
- When one presses the Menu button, one can pick "Artes", "Item", "Equip", "Strategy", "Formation" and "Escape".
- When choosing "Artes", one can equip artes for human players, and give the command for an AI-controlled player to use an arte or toggle its usage on or off.
- Choosing "Item" allows one to enter the item menus and use an item.
- "Equip" allows one to change characters' weapons, equipment, accessories, etc.
- Choosing "Strategy" allows one to choose out of a pre-set list of battle strategies followed by the AI.
- The "Formation" option allows one to set the order of the characters on the battlefield, and the various battle strategies and movements of AI-controlled players.
- "Escape" exits the battle.
- L2 uses shortcut-equipped skill (detailed above).
- R2 uses shortcut-equipped skill (detailed above).
- L1 triggers "Climax Mode" when Climax Gauge is full (detailed above).
- R1 allows player to switch targeted enemies, and receive much information about targeted enemy.
- D-Pad moves character.
- Left Analog Stick moves character.
- The Attack button combined with various directions allows for different regular attacks.
- The Defend button combined with various D-Pad/Left Control Stick combinations allow for various defensive maneuvers.
- The Arte button combined with various D-Pad/Left Control Stick combinations allow the player to used the desired equipped skill(s).
- Start pauses the game.
Audio/Music: Interestingly enough, Motoi Sakuraba--composer for most of the rest of the "Tales of..." series--did not do the music in this game. However, as good as Sakuraba's work is, the music in Tales of Legendia--its crispness, quality, uniqueness--is orchestral, superb, and unmatched. The Japanese voice acting is great, and the quality of the American voice acting is not as good as Tales of Symphonia or Tales of the Abyss, but not as terrible as Tales of Eternia (or "Tales of Destiny II", as it was called in America where it had the bad voice acting).
Graphics: Again, Tales of Legendia falls outside of the normal mold of the rest of the "Tales of..." series in this category as well. As stated above, the battle animation shots were taken from actual choreography of people moving, and used within the game. The graphics have more of a 3-D feel than Tales of Rebirth or Tales of Destiny 2, but not as much as Tales of Symphonia or Tales of the Abyss--it is somewhere in between. The game also throws back to earlier "Tales of..." games in the sense of using more chibi-ish sprites than the taller, slender sprites. The opening sequence is a delight, as well.
Difficulty: Tales of Legendia has a reputation for being one of the easiest games in the series. Oftentimes, spamming the attack button and being playful with artes can get one out of not only wild battles, but boss battles. As long as one keeps ones learned/equipped artes updated, relatively closely watches party formation, and strategically uses items, the game is not very difficult.
Replay: One of the major aspects of the game is a character side-quest portion. Sometimes a player must make multiple playthroughs in order to make sure one entirely completes this portion of the game.
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