Tales of Eternia Remastered Review: A Classic, Finally Made Comfortable

Tales of Eternia has always been the Tales game people mention with a sigh. It came out in Japan in 2000, reached North America a year later under the confusing name Tales of Destiny II, and Europe did not get it until 2006. A lot of fans simply never played it. Tales of Eternia Remastered, handled by TOSE (the studio behind Tales of Graces f Remastered), fixes that. It launched on 16 October on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Switch, Switch 2 and PC, and costs €29.99 on Steam.

What it is

A classic 2D JRPG about two worlds, Inferia and Celestia, hanging face to face in the sky and heading for a collision called the Grand Fall. Reid Hershel, a stubborn country boy, gets dragged into it along with his friend Farah, the scholar Keele and Meredy, a girl from Celestia who cannot speak his language at first. The setup is very 2000, but the cast has more chemistry than you expect, and the skits remain the series' secret weapon.

How it plays

Combat is the real-time, side-on Tales system: you control one character, string together artes, and let the AI handle the rest of the party. It is fast, loud and a little chaotic, and it still feels great - especially once Craymels, the elemental spirits that power your casters, start opening up. The sprite work, now cleaned up while keeping the original 2D design, looks lovely on a big screen, and you can flip between remastered and original graphics and sound effects at any time.

What the remaster adds

This is where it earns its price. Destination markers, autosave, skippable and pausable scenes, a high-speed mode for auto battles, Battle Retry and Quick Recovery all strip out the friction that made old JRPGs a chore. Boost options let you adjust experience gain and encounter frequency, so you can grind less or skip random fights entirely. Veterans get Extreme difficulty from the start, New Game+ and a new Unknown difficulty after the credits. There is also a skit player and a music player for the completionists.

The lows

The remaster cannot fix the structure. The opening hours are slow, the dungeons lean on old-school puzzles that drag, and the story takes a while to become interesting. AI party members still make baffling choices in tougher fights. And visually this is a polish job, not a rebuild - if you expect a modern-looking JRPG, this is not it.

Who it's for

Anyone who missed Eternia the first time, fans of Tales of Graces f Remastered and players who like their JRPGs classic but convenient. With encounter and EXP boosts, it is also an easy recommendation for people with less time. At €29.99 the price is fair for a 40-hour-plus adventure.

Verdict

Tales of Eternia Remastered does exactly what a remaster should: it respects the original and removes the pain. The bones are dated, but the battles and the cast still shine.

Score: 8/10

Image: Evan-Amos / Public domain, source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PlayStation-SCPH-1000-with-Controller.jpg