Further Info:
"Tales of Phantasia: Narikiri Dungeon" for the "GBC" ("GameBoy Color") was released on November 10th, 2000 in Japan. The same three characters are playable in and out of battle throughout the whole game. Curing items, spells, and skills can be used outside or inside of battle. In the menu, the player can set the battle strategy and formation for the player's party; check the status for a character; customize menu colors, sounds, buttons, battle targeting and voices; and the player can toggle control of "Mel" or "Dio". Saving is allowed on "Save Points" throughout dungeons, cities, and houses.
Story Info:
The story starts off with you, the player, controlling and raising up a couple of unknown twin babies who mysteriously fell to earth. However, as the game progresses, you find out there is much more about them, about yourself as the player, and about their--and the entire world's--history. (click the link at the bottom of the page for a bit more detail about story).
Characters:
Skill/Spell System:
With skills/spells, one configures three skills/spells to be used in conjunction with the "A" button and a combination of a D-Pad direction and the "A" button. i.e., one skill is performed by pressing the up button+A button, another with down button+A button, and another with left or right+A button.
Battle System Info:
"Tales of Phantasia: Narikiri Dungeon" for GBC (GameBoy Color) features a battle system called "Turn-Based LMB", meaning "Turn-Based Linear Motion Battle". The players fight on a single plane with enemies. It LOOKS like the previous "Tales" games' battle system, except it is more Turn-Based. Enemies characters, your teammate "Kururu" (who you cannot control), and your AI teammate attack with no control from you, whatsoever; so the battle does not stop when those two characters and enemies are attacking. When it is the turn of the character you DO control, battle stops, and you can attack normally, attack with a skill/spell, or block. The player can also go into the menu, or pause the game.
- When one presses the Menu button (B), one can pick "Spells/Skills", "Item", "Attack", "Strategy", "Defend", and "Run Away".
- Every character in this game has skills/spells. After choosing "Skills", pick any character, and pick the skill/spell you want the character to use. Also, you can toggle AI skill usage on and off for each skill out of battle. Only 4 spells/skills can be on for the AI character to use; you can change this however you want out of battle.
- Choosing "Attack" prompts you to choose which character you want to command to attack, followed by a prompt to attack which enemy.
- Choosing "Strategy" prompts you to set how the AI controls that character.
- Choosing "Item" prompts you to choose a character to use an item.
- "Defend" makes whichever character you choose spend their turn defending attacks.
- Lastly, choosing "Run Away" makes an attempt to escape from the battle.
Audio/Music:
Even though this is a GameBoy Color game, the music is superb! Once again, Motoi Sakuraba makes a great format of music. This game uses altered versions of some of the Tales of Phantasia songs. "Altered" meaning less detail, because, hey, it's a GameBoy Color game.
Graphics:
There is not much of a World Map in this game, and the Fasade sprites are used in the World Map. It uses color, of course, but they are a little too bright sometimes. The costume animations are brilliantly designed, though, and the Battle Sprites of both enemy and party characters are cool; but I'm sort of biased--I am a big fan of Chibi/S.D.-detailed sprites. But a true RPG or "Tales of... fan would not let graphics take away from their chances of playing a great game such as this one.
Difficulty:
This game is moderately difficult under normal circumstances in dungeons (which is where the battling in the game takes place), and the boss battles in this game are very difficult. When I completed the game, most of the time I used a strategy in which I attacked, healed, and stayed alive until the boss lost all of its TP ("Technical Points" used for special attacks), then when all the boss can do is physically attack, the battle becomes much more winnable.
Replay:
This game has a high amount of replay value. There are many quests that can be done for the various villagers and NPC's. Also, there are a large amount of different costumes for the main two characters, and a variety of forms for the third character in the game, "Kururu". Finally, the dungeons in the game are randomly-generated, so there are endless possibilities for battle.
