Tales of Eternia Remastered PC Review

Tales of Eternia Remastered brings back one of the more beloved entries in Bandai Namco’s long-running Tales franchise, giving a classic PlayStation RPG a fresh coat of paint and several quality-of-life improvements. Originally released in 2001, the game follows a familiar JRPG formula that features a great story, endearing characters, and plenty of action-packed combat. While the remaster does a good job of making the experience more accessible to modern audiences, some of its dated design choices and questionable visual changes prevent it from being the unquestionably definitive experience for the game.

 A Traditional But Engaging JRPG Story

The game follows Reid Hershel and his childhood friends, Farah Oersted and Keele Zeibel, whose lives change after encountering a mysterious girl named Meredy. Unable to understand her language, the group sets out to discover who she is and where she came from. Their journey eventually leads them to uncover the existence of two interconnected worlds, Inferia and Celestia, and a catastrophic event known as the Grand Fall that threatens to destroy them both.

Due to the game’s age, Tales of Eternia unsurprisingly has a traditional JRPG premise, but the game’s characters and their interactions do a lot to make the overall adventure engaging. Reid’s laid-back personality, Farah’s energetic attitude, and Keele’s more serious demeanour create some entertaining moments, while Meredy brings plenty of personality to the group. The game notably restores skits from the original Japanese release and fully voices them which is great for fans who’ve played the original game or new fans wanting the full experience.

However, while the voice acting is better in the remaster as it includes new recording and an updated script, it unfortunately sounds crunchy due to the questionable audio quality. While it may have been an artistic choice so it can sound as close to the original game as possible, the audio quality feels subpar for a remaster. Additionally, some voice performances in English aren’t as good as others leading to a mixed experience.

A Fun But Dated Gameplay Experience

Gameplay is where Tales of Eternia really starts to distinguish itself from other RPGs of its era. Rather than relying on traditional turn-based encounters, the game uses the Aggressive Linear Motion Battle System, which puts characters on a 2D battlefield where they can move, attack, defend, and unleash special abilities in real time. You can chain basic attacks into powerful Artes, use magic to exploit enemy weaknesses, and switch between party members to take advantage of their different abilities. Managing your positioning and knowing when to use stronger attacks is critical, especially during boss encounters.

Unfortunately, this system leads to a finicky combat experience as attacks feel incredibly floaty and miss when they clearly shouldn’t. Not being able to lock on to enemies due to its combat system is especially frustrating when compiling these issues and considering the game’s age. But while the combat takes some getting used to, gameplay remains mostly enjoyable, especially when you start unlocking more abilities and experimenting with different party combinations.

There are also plenty of traditional RPG activities to keep players occupied outside combat. Exploring towns, searching for hidden items, completing side quests, cooking recipes, fishing, and discovering new equipment all contribute to the experience. The game also features an extensive world map that connects its different locations, giving the adventure a greater sense of scale as you travel between Inferia and Celestia. However, some dungeons and puzzles can feel unnecessarily complicated, and the occasional backtracking doesn’t do much to help the pacing. 

Great QOL But A Mixed Bag Overall

Thankfully, the remaster introduces several useful improvements, including destination markers, adjustable encounter rates, experience and currency boosts, quick recovery, the grade shop that allows several items from the start, full controller support, and a high-speed option for automated battles. All of these make gameplay immensely more engaging and less tedious than booting up the original game and are good reasons to purchase the remaster, warts and all.

Visually, the remaster is a mixed bag. While the updated graphics and effects makes the game look cleaner on modern displays, some of the changes are not really impressive. Character sprites retain much of their original appearance, while certain backgrounds and cutscenes have been upscaled in ways that can make them look noticeably worse than the original artwork. Fortunately, players can switch between the remastered and original graphics, which somewhat mitigates the disappointment. The soundtrack also remains one of the game’s highlights, and being able to switch between original and updated sound effects is a nice touch.

Unfortunately, not every aspect of the original experience has made the transition. The removal of local multiplayer is incredibly disappointing, considering that cooperative battles were one of the more enjoyable features of the original PlayStation release. Some of the controls and interactions also feel dated, and navigating certain environments can be frustrating when trying to interact with objects or characters. While the quality-of-life improvements help a lot, they don’t address all of the game’s tedious older design limitations.

Final Thoughts

All that said, Tales of Eternia Remastered is still a worthwhile return for one of the series’ classic adventures especially for series fans who don’t mind retro jank. Its characters are endearing, the story has plenty of charm and great moments, and the real-time combat is entertaining. The remaster also introduces enough useful improvements to make the experience considerably more approachable, even if some of its visual changes leave a lot to be desired.