North America's very first "Tales of..." game is a lesser known classic!
Graphics? If you like SNES-esque 2D graphics at its best, ToD is simply a keeper. If not, you might be initially turned off by this game. Then again, if graphics matter most to you then you might be more interested in a prettier, but shallow and uninspired games that only take a few or so hours to finish. It's no question that the developers who worked on this game emphasized more on what is skin deep. Bad strategy to lure the 3Dphiles at the time (who were astonished by abything 3D) but for RPG old-schoolers of the SNES era, most of them would see how good this game can be. And the anime intro of this game is really cool.
The BGM music is a-ok... not as memorable as that offered by, lets say, final fantasy or wild arms, but it's still pretty nice since it matches the game well enough. There are a few fast tunes that would stay in your head (well, for me anyway). As for the voices, they retained the japanese voices instead of handing it to amateurish dubbers of that era... GOOD MOVE! The japanese voices are awesome (although it may annoy some who doesn't have trained ears for words that don't sound english), with some famous seiyuu voicing out the character's battle voices. A definite treat for anime fans!
The story may turn on some, turn off others, but overall, the characters are the driving plot of this game and once you get a liking of any of the characters here, you would enjoy the story immensely. I have to say the dialogue is pretty well-scripted, as well as translated impeccably (that's a positive word, folks), with a few funny and witty dialogue and in-jokes. This converts a seemingly tried-and-true RPG elements into something very light and enjoyable feel on a slightly cliched but well-written story.
This is the game that started me on the tales series, and what a series it is! And I find it ironic that certain game sites rated this game low whereas the people who actually played this game thouroughly see the game in high regards.
By the way, I've played all sorts of great games before in my friend's place before, and when I finally bought my own playstation, ths is the first game I bought (after trying it out in a friend's place). Even though I have the money to do so, I haven't bought another game for months. I just plain love this game!