Tales of Phantasia is a terrible game.

 I just cannot get over how terrible the battle system is. Mages do more damage while taking away the player's action. So what's the point of playing Cless?
There's no need for the Formation option because monsters attack you on both sides more often than not. If they don't, it's probably a back attack, and you have a mage on the front line. Yes, you can flip everyone with a few presses of the L1 button, but that's a lot of in-and-outs there, too.
AI is utter trash. How many times are you gonna cast a fire spell on a monster we know is weak to wind? More time wasted!

The characters and story seem fine. In fact, I felt like the plot was about to start tonight. Arche began to question why Dhaos was starting this war. And it's a good question to ask. If Dhaos can attack some no named hamlet, why wouldn't he do that to Midgar? But, the get that answer, we need to go across a war zone. We have five days to march across the Valhalla Plains, fighting an entire army of repetitive mobs who are just tough enough to be annoying. There's no plot during all this, and is entirely combat. But the battle system is the worst in the genre.

I can't do it anymore, and I'm not going forward. Morrison did some time travel shenanigans, so there are probably going to be some time travel paradoxes and questions that'll unwind any cool story points, so I'm done. I hate the Tales of series.