Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology [take 1]

After a long rest from playing PSP games, finally another game made into my complete (well, sorta) list. By this I mean completing the game in general, playing from start to finish without indulging too much with the sidequests. Since this is just Take 1, I'm planning to resume playing this game for a 2nd playthrough, this time in Very Hard Mode, maximizing most of other Tales characters, as well as exploring all those magic maps. I started playing this about 2 weeks ago, and after about 50 hours of playing time, I reached the final dungeon, Gilguim and face the final boss. Not a hard one for a final boss, really.

So far I've only explored 3 jobs offered in the game - Warrior as my initial job, (just until level 16 though) then Swordsman (until level 63) and then switch to Ninja (until level 61) to the end of the game.

Story: Tales of the World on Wikipedia
The different worlds are under the danger of mana (source of energy) depletion, and this include one of the world, Gilguim, dubbed as the "Devourer" which devour others to get thier mana. The main hero is the "Descender" which was born with specific purpose to save the world from destruction. And each world has their own Descender, including Gilguim. And the hero joined a local organisation called Ad Libitum with the mission to help the people, as well as the world in danger... Interestingly we can customize our hero from gender, face, hair, skin, voice etc. Well since the hero can be a male and female, hence don't expect a romance in this game though (there's this cute loli chick named Kannono which is considered as the heroine of this game, although she is non-playable). You create a male hero, then it's normal, but if its female hero then it's going to be yuri in my game :3
This game also featured various other Tales characters, in which some of them are playable. These includes Kratos, Llyod, Genis and Raine (Symphonia), Chester and Arche (Phantasia), Stahn, Rutee, Garr, Philia and Leon (Destiny) and Luke/Tear from my favorite Abyss.

Gameplay: Just as you guess from Tales series, the kickass Real Time Flex Range Linear Motion Battle System is applied again, just like Tales of the Abyss. As usual the game featured the likes of Base/Arcane/Mystic Artes which looks similar to many previous Tales series. On top of that, it also includes a feature called "Unison" which enable the assigned party member to use their skill on enemies exclusively, and this can only be done when the overlimit gauge is full. Quite a nice feature I'd say, as a goodly coordinated Unison can easily racks up thousands of damage to the enemies. But one thing that kinda annoyed me is the fact that you can't use Mystic Artes unless you master (ie use 50 times) each and every skills for your job. Yes, it really means EVERY single skills. Meaning your Swordsman won't be able to use it until level 58 (learns Sword Rain Demon) while Ninja need to wait until level 53 (learns Quasi Seal). Well can't complain much I guess, since you can go up to level 250 anyway. But still, 90% of the normal game can be completed within level 60, so it's kinda late only to be able to use Mystic Arte at that point.

As for character/jobs: as mentioned, I've only use 3 jobs so far: Warrior, Swordsman , Fighter and Ninja. Started with Warrior, this job somehow resembled Luke in many ways, especially with the fact that it inherit many of his Artes. But then I immediately change my job to Swordsman once it is available at certain point of the game. I'd label Swordman as an uber tanker. I mean come on, with Radiant equipment and Black Onyx, he can easily reach 700+ defense and 6000+ hp. Going 1v3 against those Tales challenges is a breeze, although it still annoyed the hell out of me because they kept on stunlocking me (well only for a measly 1-5 damages each hit). Skillwise, I like Swordsman skill better than Magic Knight, since I'm myself is not fond with magic in Tales series. The drawback I find in Swordsman is that they swing their swords super slowly, I mean it is quite noticeable when we compare it with Warrior. Then I switch to Fighter, as it is a pre-requisite to gain access to Ninja (as well as beating Senel). Not a bad job, I love their friggin fast attack punches. But still, my main aim is to get to Ninja asap. So I levelled up to level 40 , beat Senel and change job to Ninja. Ninja is a unique class, to some extent. When I first use this class, I somehow find it very weak in attack and defense department. But their skills are very cool, truly ninja-like. And they have probably THE most imbalanced skill in the game - Samadhi which made your hero invulnerable to staggering. Truly an AWESOME skill. This skill alone is enough to make Ninja the best character to go 1v3 against those annoying Tales character (though, constant heal is needed).

As for levelling, it doesn't take much effort to level up, although the system they use is weird and annoying. The amount of experience provided by the monster is inversely proportional with the character highest level. Meaning, the higher level you are, the lesser experience you get from the same monster. Annoying, isn't it? The first time visiting Foot of World Tree, the monster there can give from 45-90 experience, but when you return at level 40+, they give only 1 exp. Yes, 1 EXP. But still, as I said, levelling isn't that hard. Set your character in auto mode, go watch some football matches while your hand controlling the psp (to switch battle) and you can get several levels from a decent dungeon. Going and return from uni, playing this game in the bus and you get a couple more levels. Spending around 30 minutes each night before going to bed and you get several more levels :3

So as I stated before, I might continue playing this game once my exam is over (3 weeks from now). This time, I'm planning to play on hard mode, as well as exploring the magic dungeon. Good thing is, EVERYTHING from previous playthrough is carried over to the next one, including character levels, quests etc. The not-so-good thing is that there's no Grade Shop (AFAIK), which I really hope they do @.@

*all images credit to gamefaqs