I proudly present to you my Tales Of Phantasia
walkthrough and faq. This faq was created by someone who
has very little knowledge of the Japanese language except
for a little katakana, so if the translations aren't exact,
oh well. Also, while most of this faq is from stuff I wrote
down while playing through the game a second time, a little
is purely from memory (mostly the beginning and end). As far
as I know, there is no other ToP english faq on the
internet, so enjoy!
If you have anything to add to this faq, or have a
correction to make about it, email me at
johnsonr@compuserve.com Your contribution will be noted.
This faq is divided into two parts. One, the
walkthrough, and two, the optional stuff that I've
discovered so far. The walkthrough itself is divided into
three sections: the present, past, and future. I may or may
not update this faq with more information should I get any
of it.
I. The Walkthrough
The Present
Town of Totus:
This is where you start your game. All you have to do
here is leave the village, you'll see an old man leave also.
If you want, you can explore, because this is the last time
you'll see Totus in this state.
After you leave town, walk south to the mystic forest.
Mystic Forest:
The goal here is for Cless (that's you!) and
Chester (archer), to hunt for food. You'll chase a boar
around, you can also find a life potion, I think. Anyway,
the forest is pretty small, so hopefully you'll find your
way to the tree at the end. After the scene, the boar'll
run in and you'll fight your first boss! Whopee!
Boss: Boar(?) HP: ??? (It's not that much). This guy is
pretty easy. Just keep attacking, and don't let up.
There's some mini-boars that come in with him, that will
usually run away early in the fight.
After you kill the boss, you'll have to run back to town.
Totus, destroyed:
Everyone in the village has been slaughtered. After a
little exploring, you'll find your mom and dad. Chester
will leave you here. There's a sword upstairs in the
training center, but don't take it yet, otherwise you'll
shortly lose it. Head north to the mountain pass.
Mountain Pass:
You can either pull the statue out of the way and go
the long way through the pass, with a few measly treasures,
or go the short way with none. You meet an insane amount of
enemies here, by the way.
After the pass, head north to Euclid.
Euclid:
The goal here is to talk to the old couple in one of
the houses on the left side, who are related to Cless in
some way. You'll eventually get captured and thrown in
jail.
Escape from jail:
You'll get most of your equipment taken away, which is
why you didn't want to take that sword from Totus. After a
short time in the cell, you'll hear a voice, so search the
hole in the wall to get free. You'll get a sword a will be
able to open up the locks now. In one of the cells is Mint,
your next party member. After she joins, head for the exit
in the lower right-hand corner of the area.
Sewers:
The game's first real dungeon. It's not that big, but
there is a lot of ways to go, so it can seem intimidating at
first. This is very you'll first encounter the save spot.
At the end, you'll have to fight a boss.
Boss: (Don't know his name) HP: ??? This guy is somewhat of
a challenge, you'll probably want to build your levels
first. Get rid of the slugs first, and make sure Mint heals
whenever needed.
Once you leave, Cless will get knocked out by a slug, and
you'll wake up in some guys house.
House:
After all the talking, Chester rejoins and it's time to
go to the next dungeon, which is a cave east of the house.
Cave:
The first section is really just one big room, with an
optional skeleton miniboss guarding a chest and the exit to
the next part in the upper-right. You'll enter a much
bigger place, looking more like an underground palace than a
cave. There are a few little puzzles in here. The first
one involves the statue near the save spot, which, when
searched, will attack you. After it's killed, the statue
can be pushed (or pulled) onto a switch in the same area to
hold open a door which leads to the main door's key. After
unlocking the main door (located earlier in the dungeon, in
the middle of the long hallway that has the rooms with the
zombies in them), you'll enter an area with lava flowing
beneath you. After taking the floating platforms around,
you'll see your amulet fall. If you chase after it, it will
fall off the screen. There's a switch that can be stepped
on which will make Cless float, you can use this when you go
downstairs after the amulet to float over the spikes.
Boss: Two of the stone guys HP: ??? Not that tough. Just
concentrate on one, then the other.
After the boss, you'll see Dhaos get revived, and a lot of
talking will occur. You'll eventually get warped back in
time, just Cless and Mint.
The Past
This is the longest (as far as number of areas to
complete) part of the game. When you first arrive, walk
north to the Totus of the past.
Totus:
In here you'll talk to the mayor of the town, and then,
it's time to journey north. Go through the mountain pass
again, then you'll be at Euclid.
Euclid:
In here, you must talk to Klarth and have him join.
Once he joins, the next step is to go to the Sylph's
mountain north east of Euclid.
Sylph's Mountain:
There's a man you can talk to in the hut right before
the mountain. Also, before you enter the mountain, go to
the town just north, and buy a pickaxe and rope from one of
the stores. You'll need them to progress in the mountain.
In the mountain, there are a few things you need to keep in
mind. One, the pickaxes and ropes will automatically use
themselves if you press A in the right place (such as rocks
to break, or holes to climb down). Also, the Sylphs you see
floating around blowing you every which way can only be
gotten rid of by going behind them and attacking. Finally,
there are certain areas where you must push rocks over
little pits to stop poisonous gas. In the red tinted
"basement" area, there's a very powerful enemy which will
attack you. For this guy, its best just to run away, which
is done by holding either the L or R buttons until you get
away (hold L if you're on the left edge of the screen, R if
you're on the right). After pushing all the rocks over all
the pits, go outside and search the big tree on the edge of
the cliff to get the Sylph caller spell for Klarth. Then go
to the tree south of Totus.
Tree:
Mint will try to cure the tree, but it won't work. By
the way, I am writing this part of the guide from memory, so
I can't remember exactly when you go back to the tree, but I
believe it's after the Sylphs.
After the tree, head to Euclid.
Euclid:
Okay, it's time to enter the most boring part of the
game. In Euclid, there is a blue-haired man in one of the
shops, and there's a pink-haired girl under a tree. You
must go back and forth talking to them until they both leave
town, then go east over the bridge then north until you
reach the next town, which should be in ruins.
Destructed Town:
If you have completed the Sylph's mountain, and managed
to get the couple to leave Euclid, this place should be
blown up. But I'm writing this part of the guide from
memory, so all this might not be 100 percent accurate. If
it's not blown up, or if you haven't done the mountain yet,
you can talk to the couple here. Once it's blown up,
though, there's only one person who can be talked to, a girl
who will join as an NPC. Then go north to the next town.
Benetuia (spelling?):
In this town, if you have satisfactorily done all the
earlier events, the couple should be in here somewhere. As
you talk to them, they will change their position throughout
town. After a certain point, you can stop doing this, it
will eventually become optional, but I'm not sure exactly
when that is. If fact, you might even be able to knock the
couple all the way back to Euclid! Eventually, though,
you'll be able to take one of the boats to an island, which
has a castle on it.
Demitel's Castle:
This is a strange dungeon, with not very many enemies,
yet a few puzzles. In one of the left-hand rooms (the one
without the save spot) a key to one of the right-hand rooms
can be found in the upper-left dresser. In the room with
the tree, keep talking to it until you fight it. After you
kill it, sunlight will be able to shine into the room with
the three crystals. In that room, open the middle curtain
so the light will shine fully in, then position the crystals
so that the one on the left is pointing down, and the other
two are pointing up. This will open up the passage leading
to the boss.
Boss: Demitel HP: 2700 (hurray, I finally have the bosses'
HPs!) This boss can be difficult, mainly because he has an
ass-kickin' spell and because there are other guys with
him (usual for bosses in this game). If he is constantly
attacked, no matter how small the damage, he won't be able
to get his spell off, which is important. After the battle,
Arche will join.
Spells for Arche:
Now that you've got Arche, you can get some cool spells
for her by going back to old locations. In the port town
Benetuia, the person in the house left of the fountain will
sell the Storm and the Lightning spells to Arche. If you go
back to Euclid, you can search the bookshelves for Arche's
Ice Tornado. And if you go all the way back to Totus, you
can chat with the mayor for the Eruption spell. Now, back
to the quest. Go back to Benetuia and go to the far-right
ship.
Going to the Mainland:
After all the events on the boat, Cless will have to
engage in a one-on-one battle with a demon.
Boss: Meia HP: 2400 Just constantly attack, and heal if
necessary. It doesn't get any simpler than that.
After the boss goes down, you'll arrive at Alvanista.
Alvanista:
Sleep at the inn to get the events rolling. You'll
sneak into the castle during the night. Once inside, you'll
have to sneak past the guards (not too difficult), the head
for the far right room to fight a boss.
Boss: Syamil HP: 3400 She is tough. It's best just to
attack with spells because if you get up close, she'll do
her spin attack which wipes out your party members real
quick. After the fight, and all the talking, the castle is
yours to explore!
Alvanista Castle:
In the "magic room" as I call it, you can buy the
Thunderblade and Tractorbean spells for Arche.
As your party will find out, it's now time to go collect
summon spells. There are three dungeons available to be
done in any order: Nome's Dungeon, Undine's Dungeon, and
Ifrit's Dungeon.
Undine's Dungeon:
This dungeon can be reached by first going back to
Benetuia (take a boat from Alvanista), going to the far left
boat in that town (the one you took to get to Demitel's
island), and chosing the second choice: Undine's dungeon.
The dungeon itself is a little tricky. You'll have to drain
water in one part, then drain water in another part, and so
on. Not too difficult, though.
Boss: Undine HP: 6450 This boss isn't too difficult,
there's no specific strategy, just stay away from water
magic. You will then get the call spell Undine.
Ifrit's Dungeon:
The place is located if you travel southeast of
Alvanista to a little port, and take the boat across to a
desert. Ifrit's dungeon is in this desert. The main thing
of importance in here is the Sorsala Ring, which lets you
shoot sparks out. This will let you hit switches you can't
reach, and light up torches. After you find it in a
chest (remember, you must equip it before it works) shoot the
switch across the lava which opens a door leading to the
dungeon's key.
Boss: Ifrit HP: 5500 Not too hard, he doesn't even come
with any flunkies. Once he's killed, you'll get the call
spell Ifrit for Klarth, and Arche's spell Firewall.
Nome's Dungeon:
This place is found east of Totus. Shortly into the
cave, a locked door will block your progress. Enter the
combination 3124 to proceed. On the cave's second screen,
talk to the little guy and answer yes. Let him follow
you (walk slowly) but avoid his buddies along the way (they're
almost impossible to kill). Eventually, you'll reach four
little guys, then the one that was following you will run
away with them. At the end of the cave, there will be some
more little guys blocking some doors, but hit the alarm the
right of the save spot to clear them out.
Boss: Nome HP: 3400 These guys can either be a piece of
cake or a pain in the ass, depending on your luck. The
problem is, they only stay stationary for a short time (which
is when you attack) before they fly into the air and do
their missile attack. You can spot their shadows on the
ground, when all the shadows are moving towards on location,
you know they're going to be vulnerable for a second as soon
as they reappear. After they bite the dust, you'll get
Klarth's Nome call spell and Arche's Stonewall.
Now, all Klarth will have all four elemental call
spells (Sylph for wind, Undine for water, Ifrit for fire, and
Nome for earth). Head for the Morlia Gallery, east of
Alvanista. If the guard won't let you in, go back to
Alvanista and talk to everybody (sorry, I'm not sure exactly
who).
Morlia Gallery:
Time for the mother of all dungeons (so far). This
place is ten floors deep, and has loads of min-
puzzles (Actually, near the end of the game, you can come
back here and go even deeper, but more on that in the
optional section of the walkthrough). Here are some hints
to help you get through:
- Search the unlit candle twice to find a lever.
- In the room with two switches and a woman, stand on
one and wait for her to stand on the other to get a
Rune Bottle.
- The switch puzzle can easily be solved by trial and
error, but if you're too lazy to do it yourself,
it's up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right
(the old Konami code!).
- Don't forget to push and pull statues!
- Don't forget about the Sorsala Ring, you're gonna need
it (for switches and candles)!
- Not all candles can be lit, some have switches.
Once you reach the end of this monstrous place, you'll have
to make Klarth put a summoned monster on one of four
pedestals. The order is: Up: Ifrit, Left: Undine, Right:
Sylph, Down: Nome. Afterward, go to the monolith to fight
Akusuil.
Boss: Akusuil HP: 7500 This guy can be vicious. When he
does his ball attack, try to pull off a magic spell to
cancel it. Upon his defeat, he'll reward Klarth with call
spell Akusuil. Once that's been taken care of, head back to
Alvanista to begin the second most boring part of this game.
Alvanista:
Go back to the magic room in the castle and talk to the
red-haired person (named Runeglom, I think). She (he?) will
give you a letter. Go west of Alvanista to a house. After
you talk to the lady, you'll have to head to Olive village.
Olive Village:
This place is located right next to Ifrit's cave. A
man should speak to you when you enter the cave. After
that, you must visit the three oasis' listed in the desert,
and talk to each person there. You should automatically be
shove back into Olive village then, and you'll talk to the
man again. Then go talk to the inn keeper.
The Ouest for the One-Eyed Desert Beasts:
The innkeeper at Olive wants you to fight the one-eyed
monsters you meet randomly in the desert and get five of the
items they occasionaly drop. After you get all of the
items, go back and talk to the innkeeper. You'll rest and
in the morning, you'll talk to Edward. After the scene,
head back to Alvanista Castle.
Alvanista Castle:
Talk to Runeglom in the magic area. She should take
you outside the castle. She'll tell you to go the place
called Yumir (south of Alvanista) where the elves live. But
if you go there, a guard will kick you out.
*Note: Okay, here's the deal. Both myself and a friend have
played through this game twice, and have not gotten stuck
here. But two other people I know have. They did
eventually get themselves unstuck by going to every location
and talking to everybody, so if you do get stuck here, do
that. If you have any info on what to do here, email me.
Once the guard kicks you out, go back to Runeglom and
you'll get the Emblem you need to be able to get into Yumir.
Yumir:
If you're still with me here, congratulations. I know
exactly what to do for the rest of the game. Sorry for any
inconvenience I may have caused. This location is small (at
least this section), but the enemies are hard. You won't
have Arche for this part (she leaves once you chat with
Runeglom for the second time), and they can stone you. If
can make it through here (not too hard), you'll reach the
Elves' Village.
Elves' Village:
Not much to do here. There's a locked door in the
lower right corner, but I have no idea how to open it. Talk
to Brambard (the blue-haired elf) at the north end of town.
He'll join as an NPC, then go up into the forest.
Treant's Forest:
A big maze, keep to the right in order to get through.
At the scene at the end, leave, and when you get back to
town, get Arche back in your party. Return to the
desert (where Olive village is) and go north of it to reach
the music tower.
Music Tower:
For each floor in here, a certain music must be played
in order to get through. You can get the names of the tunes
from the sound test.
2nd Floor: "Dark Cave" (the one that's already playing)
3rd Floor: "Arche"
4th Floor: "Mystic Forest"
5th Floor: "Dark Cave"
6th Floor: "Open Fire"
At the end you'll get the Ray spell for Arche and the call
spell Luna for Klarth. Once you're out of the place, head
north to Mid Galds.
Mid Galds:
If you tried to enter the castle before, you would've
been blocked, but now the guards will let you enter. After
many, many talking scenes, you will go to war against the
armies of Dhaos! The first battleground is the snowfield.
Snowfield:
It will start out grassy and green, but trust me, there
will be snow pretty soon. What you must do is run through
the snow field, either fighting or avoiding the enemies. It
will eventually become night, and you can camp out, then the
next day will begin. The exit (and the boss) is in the
upper-right corner of the place.
Boss: Isyurand HP: 5000 One of the rare "all by himself"
bosses. Not too hard to take out. After this, you'll be
back in Mid Galds.
Mid Galds:
After talking to the king, he'll pay you 10,000 gold,
but then winged demons will start approaching the castle.
Eventually Cless and Arche will team up with the flying
horse Pegasus to take them on.
Battle in the Sky:
There are four normal battles, then a boss. The boss
is Isyurand again, but remember, you only have two party
members, and this time he comes with henchmen. The only
advice I can give is to heal like mad (Mint isn't here, so
you'll have to waste those precious items), and if you want
to attack those little guys, do a jumping attack from far
away, because you normally can't hit them from close range
because they're so close to the "ground", and you're high
atop a horse. Once this is over with, you'll get the
Indegunation spell for Arche. Also, Cless will be
unequipped, so don't forget to equip him. Now it's time to
go through the snowfield to get to the castle of Dhaos
himself.
Castle of Dhaos:
This is one of the game's more massive dungeons,
therefore, I have gone a little more in-depth on this one.
You can find Arche's spell Firestorm early on. The code to
the four switches is: Up, Down, Right, Left, Down, Up. Once
you reach the dining room, Cless and Arche will have to step
on four switches simultaneously. It's really a pain in the
ass, but one trick to remember is that if you step on a
switch a second early, it won't count, but if you step on it
a second late, they'll usually give it to you. After a
while of progressing through this dungeon, you'll have to
leave someone on a switch in order to proceed. It doesn't
matter who you leave on the switch now, because you'll
eventually come back through the door you opened with this
switch and get your party member back, but this will play an
important role later. Anyway, after you leave whoever on
the switch (I left Klarth), you'll have to go through a few
more floors, then fight a miniboss.
Miniboss: Evil Lord HP: 10,500 Not too hard, it's just a
tougher version of Demitel.
After killing him, you'll get the mirror which let's you
warp in and out of the mirrors throughout the castle. Also,
on the floor the miniboss was on is a door that can only be
opened by 4 people, yet you only have three, because you
left someone on that switch in order to get to this place.
But now, you can go back and pick up whoever you left on the
switch, because you now need to backtrack to earlier parts
of the dungeon to look for mirrors to warp from.
Mirrors: The rule here is that you can only warp into
mirrors that have a skeleton reflection in them, and you
must battle an Evil Lord before you can use that mirror to
warp. One of the mirrors has Arche's spell Distortion, a
low-effect rate death spell. Another one has a slew of
treasures. The third one is the most important. It
contains two statues that can be searched for a mental ring,
also there is a little switch puzzle, the solution being Up,
Down, Left, Right, Down, Up. After you solve this puzzle,
you'll get the key to the castle.
Now, with the key in hand, head to where you had to
leave a party member on a switch. Make sure to choose
Arche. Now, head upstairs, and use the key to open the
locked door on the right. In the next room, Arche will fly
up, out of the pit, and rejoin you. Now, head back to the
door in which you needed four people to open. Of course,
now it can be opened. First, there will be another Evil
Lord miniboss, but he can be easily dispatched. Dhaos,
however, is another story.
Boss: Dhaos HP: 49,900 He comes with two Evil Lords, and
if you keep them alive, all he can do really is walk around
in the back row. If the Evil Lords die, however, he'll turn
vicious. Another thing to know, he is VERY weak against
Indegunation. If you do happen to kill the Evil Lords, the
best strategy would be to make sure that you've turned off
all of Arche's spells except for Indegunation, and have her
at maximum casting rate, while Cless runs up to Dhaos to
keep him busy and make sure he can't get off any of his
spells.
After Dhaos:
First go back to the tree from the beginning of the
game (south of Totus). Mint will try to cure the tree again,
but to no avail. Then go back to the port town Benetuia,
and go to the left-hand boat. There will now be a third
choice, but you can't take it yet. Also, you can now sleep
at an inn to see a Mint flashback. Now, where you're head
is the Unicorn's Forest, which can be reached by exiting the
snowfield to the left.
Watch out, because the snowfield has "fake" exits, which
lead nowhere.
Unicorn's Forest:
Once in the forest, it'll just be Mint and Arche.
Wander around (you can collect mushrooms if you want), until
you find the Unicorn. This place isn't that big, and since
there's no enemies here, this place is a piece of cake.
Anyway, upon finding the Unicorn, Arche will run away, and
Cless and Klarth will have to find the Unicorn, then with
Mint now rejoined (but Arche temporarily gone) you'll have to
take on three Evil Lords. Piece of cake. Afterwards,
you'll revive the tree. Once that's done, go back to
Benetuia, and now you can choose the third choice from the
boat, which will take you to the Abyss of Thor.
Abyss of Thor:
In the house on the upper left, some cards can be
found. Use them to open up the locked door above the save
spot. Once in the actual dungeon, there's a row of locked
doors on the top, and a row of chests on the bottom. One
chest will randomly contain a key, which will randomly open
one door along the top. In one of the doors is Arche's
spell Cold Breath. The room with the save spot contains an
easy miniboss (a bunch of robots). After killing them, head
north to the big head. After all the talking, you'll time
warp back to the present, to take on Dhaos back when you
first saw him getting revived (remember back then? It was
like, what, 2 hours into the game or something?).
Boss: Dhaos HP: 16,000/65,000 Don't ask why he starts out
with the majority of his HP is taken away, just be glad it
is. The best idea here is to get rid of him as quickly as
possible, have Cless keep him busy while Mint constantly
heals, and Arche and Klarth pull off their best
spells (warning: Indegunation doesn't do anywhere NEAR the
damage it used to, but it's still effective).
Once this sucker's dead, there will lots of talking and
stuff (don't worry, you haven't beaten the game yet), then
Cless and party (now with Chester, who is still on whatever
level he was when you lost him)will blast off towards the
future!
The Future
You will be warped (I think) 50 years into the future. Totus
will have been rebuilt, except now it's called Migerl
Village, named after Cless' father. And don't forget,
Chester is officially back in the party for the rest of the
game (the only problem is that he kinda sucks. He can get
powerful though, but with no magic, well, it's time to keep
him out of the party most of the time). You start off in
Migerl Village.
Migerl Village:
You can buy a sword technique for Cless from the
trainer in the upper-left house for 20,000 gold. Also,
outside one of the shops is a woman who will sell you a
large bag for 30,000 gold (it lets you carry 20,000 units of
food). Once you're done with this place, go north through
the mountain pass as usual to reach Euclid.
Euclid:
One new thing you might notice in here is the coliseum,
but you won't be able to win it now. I'll discuss it later
in the optional section. Go to the castle and talk to the
king. He'll give you 80,000 gold. Next, head north the
Benetuia, and talk to Harrison (the black-haired guy who
warped you to this time period) on the boats. He'll take
you back to Euclid and show you the metal birds, still under
construction. After this scene, head to Volt's cave,
located west from Totus, then going south around the
mountains and back east.
Volt's Cave:
Have the Sorsala Ring equipped here, as you'll need it
to operate the electrical machines. Also, there are walls
that you can walk through (only two, I believe). At the end
of the cave, you must light up the far right machine, and
while the electricity is still running, shoot the middle
machine, then quickly shoot the left machine to go in the
door.
Boss: Volt HP: 28,000 Anything electric will cure him.
The call spell Akusuil is extremely effective. Once he's
beaten, Klarth will get the call spell Volt (Klarth's version
of Indegunation). Once he's toast, go back to Euclid.
Euclid:
You can now pick up the birds, they're yours! Wow!
Tales of Phantasia's first (and only) vehicle!
The place you want to fly in Alvanista caslte.
Alvanista Castle:
Harrison will greet you at the gate. After all the
talking, you now have two dungeons open to you: the fire
tower, and the ice cave.
Ice Cave:
First go to the town of Freeze (the town of the snow
island where it's daylight). In here, you can buy a sword
technique in the inn for 33,000 gold. If you've talked to
Harrison at Alvanista (the previous step), you can get into
the temple at the north end of town.
Once inside the cave, things get a little tricky. Here's a
(semi-)step-by-step walkthrough of the Ice Cave.
1. Shoot the switch in the beginning with the Sorsala Ring
to unfreeze it so it can pushed. Once pushed, it will
open a door to the right.
2. In the next room, light up all the torches to proceed.
3. When you get to the statue, shoot it with the Ring to
unfreeze it and push it in front of the big hole, then
light the torches to proceed.
4. The maze section isn't really that hard, one thing to
remember is that you can find the Tidal Wave spell for
Arche if you (from the entrance of the maze) go one screen
down, then all the way to the left.
5. In the section after the maze, push the switch on the
wall once to make the water appear in a different
section, then find the yellow switch on the floor to step
on the freeze the water. Also, there's a switch which
can be pushed elsewhere which seems to just close a door,
I think you also need to push this. Once that's done, go
back to the original wall switch, push it, you'll here
some water rising, then freezing, if you exit at the
upper-right of the screen you will find a frozen "lake"
to walk over to get to the save spot, and then the boss.
Boss: FangBeast HP: 30,000 You're probably not going to be
able to beat this guy when you first get in here. Fire is
practically the only thing that will do damage to him unless
your levels are really high, so it would help to first have
the fire sword and the Exploder spell from the fire tower.
Upon his defeat you'll get an ice sword.
Fire Tower:
When you first enter, the main door is locked. To the
left and right are passages going up with switches at the
top. Hit them both to enter the main door. Go up a few
floors and at the end, you'll receive the Exploder spell for
Arche. Then go back downstairs and head right to fight a
stairway up to proceed on. At this point, every few
seconds, the screen will flash red, meaning everyone in your
party just lost about 1,000 HP. Also, unlike other video
games, you CAN die from this if you go below zero HP. (Once,
I had just ran away from battle with only Klarth left and he
had 27 HP. Before I could go to the status screen however,
the screen flashed red, and I was dead). This is one tricky
dungeon. The combination of tough enemies and the constant
draining of life can make this possibly the most grueling
dungeon in the game. There's also a few switch puzzles.
One thing to know is that in order to open the doors where
the guard statues are, you must push or pull the guard
statues off of the checkered floor they're originally
standing on. Also, near the end, you must kill four easy
minibosses in order to proceed.
Boss: Flamebelk HP: 45,700 Another tough, tough, boss. It
would be best to have the Tidal Wave spell and ice sword
from the Ice Cave, but if you don't just make sure that you
turn off ALL of the fire spells you have (in fact, you should
have done that as soon as you entered this place). Upon her
defeat, you will receive a fire sword.
After the two dungeons:
Well, now you have two swords, one for fire, and one
for ice. One thing to do (I'm not sure whether or not it's
optional), is to go back to the tree at the beginning of the
game (south of what is now called Migerl Village, the town in
which you arrived in this time period), for a cut scene
involving Dhaos. Once you're done with this, the next step
in the game is to go back to the Treant's forest (back where
the elves live).
Elves' Village:
As usual, Arche can't come in here, but this time,
you'll have Chester to take her place! Whoopee! Anyway,
you have to proceed through the forest exactly as you did
before (remember, keep to your right), until you reach the
monolith at the end. This time, though, there's a boss.
Boss: Origin HP: ??? To be honest, I'm doing this part of
the guide (the forest over again, that is) purely from
memory. So I don't remember how to beat this boss, but I
remember that it's not that hard. Afterwards, you will get
the call spell Origin for Klarth, and the only dungeon left
is the end dungeon.
Head for the snow island where it is constantly nighttime
overhead. You must go to the town located there (I forget
it's name).
Nighttime Snow Town:
If you sleep at the inn, there will be a long cut scene
as you characters prepare to go to the end dungeon. But
that's not all you need to do in this town. A soldier in
one of the buildings will give you a golden leaf. This item
is key for the end dungeon. After that, go to the cave
north of this town to enter the end dungeon.
The Final Dungeon:
Okay, this place is TOUGH. As soon as you enter,
you'll be attacked by a boss.
Boss: DarkEye (I think. It's either DarkEye, or RoamEye, or
something like that) HP: ??? This guy is a pain in the ass!
One of my friends playing through the game actually quit up
because of this guy. The main strategy here is to stay away
from him (hard, because he teleports around) and blast him
with magic spells. Have Cless try to get away from the
party (don't have him just walk around, or else the party
will follow him), so that if he teleports into the middle of
your party, at least Cless will be spared and you'll have
some time to do some reviving. You might have to do some
serious level building here.
Anyway, once he buys the farm, you'll be able to
actually get into the dungeon. I believe there is a hidden
wall you must walk through early on. Pretty soon, you'll
come to a pentagram in the middle of a walk way. If you
step in it, all of your characters will get teleported away
to the jail section where you must rescue them. The trick
is, whoever is wearing that golden leaf won't get teleported
away. Of course, since you can only control Cless, give it
to him. So, now, if you try to step on the teleporter now,
everyone BUT Cless will leave. Now, Cless must explore this
part of the dungeon, looking for treasures which contain
more golden leaves. The only problem is, in order to get a
golden leaf, you must fight ninjas, who aren't that easy (but
they're not overly difficult either, like DarkEye). So
there are two strategies to adopt here. One is to go get
all four golden leaves with just Cless in one fell
swoop (what I did). The other, more conservative
strategy (probably smarter), is to get one golden leaf, then
go back to the jails and get your characters back, give to
new leaf to whoever you like most, then fight the next ninja
minboss with Cless plus the new member, then once you get
your third gold leaf, go back, get another character, fight
another ninja miniboss with three characters, and so on.
But that can be boring. Well, once you have a golden leaf
for all of your characters (including Chester, or whoever is
out of your party) you can pass the pentagram, and get to a
locked door, which can only be opened by the power of five
people (what a coincidence).
Now prepare to enter the main, and longest, section of
the dungeon. It's not that hard from here on out (as far as
puzzles are concerned), so here is some general advice:
1. Remember, you're going to have to push some switches.
2. There are a few more bosses in the "Eye" catagory in
which you must fight, including fighting two weak ones at
once.
3. There is a section in which you must walk through a lot
of walls, which can be a pain in the ass.
4. You can find Arche's spell Meteor Storm in here
somewhere, but I can't remember where exactly.
Remember, I'm writing this end dungeon section all from
memory (sorry, but the end dungeon's puzzles aren't THAT
hard), so if I left out anything, you can email me (I
remember things easily once they're brought up), or you can
do what I did, and figure them out on your own. Anyway, the
crown jewel of this massive dungeon has to be the boss at
the end, yes, the king of all the Tales of Phantasia pain in
the ass bosses, Dhaos again (but harder, and with two forms.
Yikes!)
Boss (1st Form): Dhaos HP: 56,000 This is one of the
fastest and most intense fights in the game. You'll have
keep Cless constantly moving and attacking in order to
prevent him from doing his devasting special attacks, and
Mint will have to constantly heal Cless every time he gets
turned to stone by a sword swing (it'll happen a lot).
Basically, just put everyone to the maximum casting rate.
One trick is to corner him then do have Cless stand right
next to him and pull off some mean sword
techniques (especially the ones that do a lot of rapid mini-
hits), to keep him at bay. The only problem with this is
that most of the time, once he's in the corner, the game
will counteract you being cheap by making Dhaos constantly
regain life (although in my opinion, in this game, being
cheap is just fighting fair). He doesn't always do this,
but it happens most of the time. Once he's dead, though,
the real terror begins...
Boss (2nd Form): FezarDhaos (the head) HP: 64,765
Dhaos' Arm HP: 40,765
Okay, this is the boss that made ME quit up
on the game (for a few months, until I came back and whooped
his ass!). This boss is control-tossing frustrating.
First, he has two body parts, the weaker of the two (his arm)
can shoot fire balls which, if you're unlucky, can juggle
you around for a while. The other pain in the ass thing is
that whenever Dhaos feels like it, he can turn the screen
dark, making him invulnerable for however long he
chooses (but he can't attack during this time either. Well,
usually not). So, the best idea here is to NOT put your
characters on maximum casting rate, rather, put it low, and
as soon as this bastard is vulnerable, let him have it with
spells, AND the very best of Cless' sword techniques. Now,
there is a semi-cheap way to kill this guy. Remember how
earlier I said that his arm can shoot fireballs out which
can juggle your characters around? Well, there's a small
chance of Cless being juggled BEHIND the arm, and if that
happens, you can just keep hacking away at the arm `till it
croaks (of course, you can only hack while the screen isn't
dark, but you know what I mean). One other tough thing
about this one hell of a boss. Once you've taken out
approximately half of the head's life, he'll start
constantly nailing you with some mean spells. If you
actually CAN beat him (without using GameShark codes or any
crap like that), give yourself a pat on the back. This guy
is one of the hardest video game end bosses of all time. So
sit back and enjoy the ending. And if you want a real
challenge, you can try to beat this boss with Chester in
your party (for your information, I did that as well).
II. Optional Stuff
This part is also divided into three parts. One is actual
tasks you can accomplish and magic spells you can find, the
next part is just miscellaneous odds and ends, and finally,
the last part is unsolved mysteries. So here we go!
The Real Fun Optional Stuff:
Crazy Hidden Spells:
Two of Arche's spells can be gained by going back into
old dungeons. If you back into Undine's Cave (you'll have to
fly here now), and go to the end of the place, you can find
the Ice Ball spell.
If you go back into Demitel's castle (you'll also have
to fly here now), you can get the Death Cloud spell.
If you go back to Thor (now located northeast of
Benetuia), the time machine place, you can now open a locked
door to gaze at a video monitor or something with four
choices. The first three are just dumb jokes, but the
fourth probably contains important information (too bad I can
only read katakana). Anyway, if you waltz all the way back
to the large head at the end of the dungeon, and pick the
third choice, you can get the kick-ass call spell Asga for
Klarth.
Another call spell for Klarth, Syadou, can be found in
the cave south of the nighttime snowy town. Only problem
is, sometimes the guy isn't in the cave. I'm not sure what
needs to be done to make him appear, but if you're lucky,
he'll be there.
The Hidden Town:
Yes, Tales has a hidden town. To find it, simply enter
the Treant's forest, except this time, keep to your left,
until you reach a little ninja boy, who will take you to the
town. You will get a cool sword (the Murasame), and see an
interesting little scene. Also, in the woods around the
town, a spell can be found for Arche (don't remember which
one, though).
The Coliseum:
Ah, another "fun" part of Tales. The object of the
coliseum is simple: fight until you're dead. Here's the
deal. There are eight enemies, then a boss. At first,
there will be a fixed set of enemies, but after you've won
it a few times, the enemies will be random. The boss,
however, is always the same. It's a big green dragon that
can put invincible balls in front of him, and if you touch
them, you'll usually die a few seconds (you can, however, get
some equipment or something that will make those balls HEAL
you instead. Too bad I can't remember what). Another fun
part of this coliseum is that if you've been to the hidden
ninja town first, after you kill the set of eight enemies,
instead of fighting the green dragon, you'll fight two
ninjas. It really doesn't matter whether you win or lose (as
far as I know). I have no idea what you get from fighting
these guys. If anyone does, or know if it makes a
difference whether you win or lose, email me please! I'll
be forever grateful. Anyway, if you kill the green dragon
and beat the coliseum, you'll get various prizes, ranging
from things that permanently upgrade your HP or TP, to semi-
rare items like the S-Flag, which is a stronger life potion.
The Bonus Dungeon:
Okay, read on... only if you dare... Tales of
Phantasia has the most insane, frustrating bonus dungeon in
any game ever!!!!! (not counting Lufia 2's ancient cave)
Are you still with me? All right then. This place is
located in the Morlia Gallery (remember me saying something
back then about there being more to that place). If you go
down to about floor nine or ten, you'll see a big group of
people camped out down here. Apparently, in the future,
more of the cave has been discovered (or something like
that). If you try to enter, you'll see something
shatter (actually, that "something" is all of your Holy
Bottles, you know, the potions that make you meet less
enemies. Those bastards!). Well, all I can really say is
that you will be in for one hell of a time. I mentioned
earlier that the fire tower was the most grueling end
dungeon in the game, and that the last dungeon is the
hardest. Well, this place is far more grueling and harder
than either of the two by far!!
First, the enemies. Each enemy is nearly a boss in
itself. There are new versions of FangBeast, countless
other bosses, and even insanely hard versions of the stupid
little boar boss from the beginning of the game. The
weirdest (and most insane) enemy of all is a tiny little weed
on the ground that just moves forward, kills any character
instantly on contact (except for Arche, who is too high for
him), and is, as far as I know, invincible. If you see this
guy, RUN!! Even worse in this dungeon is that fact that
there's no save spot until the very end!
Well, here's as much advice as I can give you. Okay,
you start on floor 11, I think (it's really a continuation of
the Morlia Gallery). On floor 15, you can find a room with
some poison gas clouds in it. If you push some rocks over
the holes, a green lizard will come out, who is actually a
caller spell for Klarth, Cameleon (it's a death spell, just
like all the other spells you can find in this dungeon.
Hmm, do I sense a recurring theme here?). On floor 16 is a
small (and easy) puzzle, and the only teleport out of this
hell-hole. If you think you've been through a lot of the
dungeon so far, that part was just a warm-up. From floor 17
or 18 on, it will be dark, with only a circle of light
around you. On floor 18, if you exit off to the left, you
can find a death spell for Arche (what, is this like her
third death spell so far?). I can't remember it's name.
You CAN find the exits on these floors, trust me, they are
there, and it's nothing strange like pulling switches or
anything, they're just very hard to find. By the way, at
the end of floor 19 you'll find the Bahamut's Tail, a kick-
ass axe for Cless, which, right now, is the best weapon in
the game.
Once you reach floor 20, the dungeon changes again.
Floor 20 is a huge inter-locking grid, with a ton of
treasures, except that occasionally there are rocks blocking
your way in certain parts of the grid. Also, the lights are
flashing on and off. I for a while thought that this was
the last floor of the dungeon, until I eventually (after
searching this floor many times), found a small opening on
the bottom somewhere. This led to a room with a whole bunch
of statues, that if you got close to them pushed you away.
They were positioned in such a way that made me think that
it was impossible to beat this without some sort of weird
item I didn't have, until I found a way through. What you
got to do is, you have to go left in the beginning, then
down, then go right to go through the middle, then down
again so you hit the bottom wall, then left to the exit.
The next few floors are pretty simple, but you're near
the end, so it would be a shame to get killed by an enemy
now. Well, eventually you'll reach a save spot, and then
you'll jump up and down and scream in the air and save your
game. You probably just can't wait to see what vile
creature could possibly be the boss of this place, until you
find out it's the stupid green dragon from the coliseum.
This guy was a challenge for Cless all alone, but now you
have your whole party, and I might add that this guy is far
easier than almost all of the enemies in this place. Well,
once he's dead you can bask in the rewards of this place,
the most prominent being
1. The kick-ass Excalabur Sword for Cless, a weapon far
superior to even the godly Bahamut's Tail.
2. The best spell in the game for Arche, a spread death
spell (which is only effective on normal enemies, and if
you have made it this far, normal enemies are now a piece
of cake).
3. Last but most definitely not least, this cool little orb
which will allow you to put the enemy encounter rate on
three settings, for as long as you wish: normal, less,
and more. Very awesome.
Miscellaneous Odds and Ends:
The Super Famicom Controller:
On a hidden island due south of Olive Village, you can
buy a Super Famicom controller for 5 million bucks. This is
purely a novelty item. All it does is effectively have all
of the sword techniques equipped at once, and instead of
pushing B or up and B to use them, you enter button
combinations (much like the Blitz attack from FF6/3). The
only problem is, it's very hard, and in the long run, not
very effective. Still nice to know about, though.
Unmarked Islands and Landing Spots:
Throughout the world, there are many fields and islands
you can land your birds at, which, upon doing so, turn into
little min-areas, like a beach screen, or a forest screen,
etc. While these at first appear just to be for the hell of
it and are empty, there's a catch. I'm not sure how to
activate this, but after you accomplish SOMETHING (don't know
what), these areas become filled with treasure chests filled
with good items. Some of my friends have NEVER gotten
these treasures to appear, others (like myself) have. You
can find rare items (like the aforementioned S-Flag), some of
the best equipment available for some characters, and even
some really odd items. The one item I have on my mind is
the Drum Set, which lets you actually make your own music!
Euclid's Singing Puppy:
This here is one of my favorites. In the town of
Euclid, in the house in the upper-right corner, is a boy and
his dog. If you talk to the boy, then as soon as the music
starts playing, let the controller sit with the boy's text
box on the screen, the dog will sing his own version of
Tales of Phantasia's theme song! Instead of hearing words,
you hear similarly-sounding barks! It's great! Well,
enjoy.
Unsolved Mysteries:
For me, this game has many unsolved mysteries. The most
important one to me is that I am actually MISSING a caller
spell for Klarth. It's on the bottom row, in the middle
between Origin and Cameleon. Tales of Phantasia's guide
booklet lists six of the game's caller spells, one of them
being something called "Gremlin Lair". The other five
caller spells are ones I've already obtained, but where the
hell is this one? It's been driving me crazy ever since I
got Cameleon and found out that Origin wasn't the last spell
on the list. If anyone knows where this is, PLEASE email
me!
Also, I'm wondering if anything can be done with the horse
statue in the basement of the fire tower. There's GOT to be
a way to have another fight on that horse. I'm sure of it!
Okay, in the town of Freeze, some guy (even though even never
did this before, and I have no idea what set it off) gave me
a special item, the second to the last. He also gave me
directions to find something, I think. If anyone knows what
this is about, or how to find the last special item, please
tell me! I'll be grateful!
Another thing I'd like to know (if any of you out there could
bestow upon me your golden knowledge), how to get unstuck at
some of the earlier stuck points I mentioned (like how to get
the emblem to get into Yumir).
One last thing. During the whole scenario in which Mid
Galds in going to war against Dhaos, there's a scene in
which Edward warps away from this big six (or eight)-armed
monster who was holding a child hostage. Is there any way
to fight this beast? There's a big artwork of Cless and
friends fighting him pictured in the guide manual (this
artwork also is seen if you let Tales' opening run through
in the beginning). This seems like an important character,
but you only get to see him for a moment. Maybe if you
fight him, you can get Edward to join? (He IS listed in the
guide manual as one of this game's characters). Again, if
anyone has any information on this at all, please email me!
PLEASE!
Well, that's about it. My email address again is
johnsonr@compuserve.com, so if there are any mistakes you
find in here, or if you can help me with MY problems, please
email me! I will definitely credit you for your help in the
next update of this faq (if I ever do get anymore info on
this game).
