Further Info: "Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology" was released for the PSP on December 21st, 2006 in Japan, selling 305,000 copies; and on July 17th, 2007 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: Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology is the first game in the "Tales of..." series that begins the game with the player creating a hero, and then going through the game with the created character as the main hero of the game. At the beginning of the game, the player immediately chooses a character gender, name, hairstyle, skin color, speech pattern, and class. The four available default classes are the Warrior, Thief, Priest, and Mage. The story starts off with a small character named "Mormo" speaking to you and informing you that you are in a world called "Terresia". The "World Tree" is a giant tree that provides "Mana" which is the life force of the world. Mormo informs you that the World Tree has birthed your main character, making you a "Descender", which is a being the World Tree creates when it needs protection in times of danger--Descenders' life mission is to protect the World Tree at all costs. In the World Tree area, your main character and Mormo happen upon two characters named Kanonno and a familiar (to the outside "Tales of..." fan, anyway) Chester Barklight. The two characters urge Mormo and your main character to head to the nearby town of "Aililly" and speak to Kratos Aurion about "Ad Libitum", which we eventually learn is a guild within the nearby town that goes on quests for the townspeople. As Kratos urges your main character to get stronger before joining the guild, our heroes learn that a "Devourer" is eating away at the mana of the world, putting eveyone in danger. Concurrently, the town's dictator, Ganser, is oppressing the townspeople. Ad Libitum is the underground guild that collects food for, and takes care of the townspeople. "Tales of..." heroes from Tales of Phantasia, Tales of Destiny, Tales of Eternia, Tales of Destiny 2, Tales of Symphonia, Tales of Rebirth, Tales of Legendia, and Tales of the Abyss are all members of the guild. Can you go on enough quests for people, earn the trust of the "Tales of..." heroes, and save the world from Ganser and the Devourer?
Characters:
- As stated above, one creates the main character used as the hero in the game at the beginning of the game.
- This game also features "Tales of..." character cameo appearances as party members from Tales of Phantasia, Tales of Destiny, Tales of Eternia, Tales of Destiny 2, Tales of Symphonia, Tales of Rebirth, Tales of Legendia, and Tales of the Abyss.
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, one configures 4 artes to be used with buttons. The 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. 
Battle System Info: The battle system in Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology is called the "Flex Range Linear Motion Battle System" or "FR-LMBS", first seen in Tales of the Abyss. The game does a remarkable job of importing the FR-LMBS from the PS2 console to the handheld PSP. One uses the D-Pad to move on a single plane (Left or Right), and the Control Stick to "Free Run" around on different planes.
- When one presses the Menu button, one can pick "Artes", "Unison Attack", "Strategy/Formation", "Equip", "Item", "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.
- When choosing "Unison Attack", one can configure attacks that can be used to perform group Unison Attacks (similar to the system in Tales of Symphonia).
- Choosing "Strategy/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."
- "Equip" allows one to change characters' weapons, equipment, accessories, etc.
- Choosing "Item" allows one to enter the item menus and use an item.
- "Escape" exits the battle.
- R allows player to switch targeted enemies, and receive much information about targeted enemy.
- D-Pad moves character.
- Left Analog Stick moves character in Free Run.
- 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: This is not one of the game's strong suits, as some of the music during the game does not add to the atmosphere, and gets a tad repetitive. However, the voice acting in the game is very well done, in both the Japanese and American versions.
Graphics: Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology has a wonderful opening anime sequence. The animation is a bit colorful and splashy, and slightly reminscent of two of the previous "Tales of the World" games, Tales of the World: Narikiri Dungeon 2, and Tales of the World: Narikiri Dungeon 3. The face chat system has returned, as opposed to the full body shot system used in Tales of Destiny 2 and Tales of Rebirth. Sometimes the town/dungeon sprites and battle sprites of "Tales of..." cameo characters do not look very authentic, but this being the first 3-D handheld game in the series, one cannot expect perfection.
Difficulty: The game is actually moderately difficult--button-mashing is not as safe of a haven as it is in some of the other games in the series like Tales of Destiny PSX and Tales of Legendia. Enemies can sometimes corner one's character, or gang up on and constantly attack one's character to create some dangerous situations.
Replay: Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology has a high replay value for many reasons. First, the "Library" system that has come to be used in most "Tales of..." games allows for story synopsis, item collection, monster collection, etc. etc. which may require a lof of time and playthroughs in order to collect everything in the library. Second, similar to other Narikiri Dungeons--particularly Tales of the World: Narikiri Dungeon 2 since this game hits heavily on a quest system again--collecting the various "Tales of..." heroes is a big part of the game, and may require different playthroughs and different speech and behavior choices in order to collect different heroes in different ways. Third, the "Craft" system offers many options for customization in may different ways. Under the Craft system, one can do Cooking, Forge (creating materials), Attire (editing weapons/armor/equipment), and Tools (creating tools). As many different types of items are required to take part in the Craft system in order to collect and create everything, multiple playthroughs might require one to take many different quests and take many different actions in order to collect all of the items necessary.
Where to buy:
