Tales of Phantasia

The game begins as four heroes are locked in battle with a powerful sorcerer king named Dhaos. Before he can be defeated, Dhaos uses his magic to travel several years into the future, where he is immediately met by one of the four warriors' descendants and three companions, who seal him away with two magic pendants. Twelve years later, two young men named Cress and Chester return to their village to find it razed to the ground by a dark knight named Mars, whose army kills many of its inhabitants including Cress's parents and Chester's sister. While Chester stays behind to bury them, Cress leaves to meet his uncle Olson for help, who reveals that he is being forced to work for Mars before stealing his father's pendant and locking him in jail. Quickly escaping with the help of a dying woman in a nearby cell, he meets another prisoner, a young priestess named Mint, who reveals that the woman was her mother before the two leave through the dungeon's aqueducts.

After rendezvousing with Chester, the party meets Trinicus D. Morrison, one of the four heroes who sealed Dhaos away years ago, who reveals that their parents were once his comrades and is shocked to discover that Cress and Mint's pendants were stolen. Following him to a nearby mausoleum, the group encounters Mars just as he uses the pendants to break the seal on Dhaos's tomb, setting him free. As Mars is killed by the dark sorcerer after asking for his power, Trinicus laments that no force in this time can possibly stop Dhaos, and uses his magic to send Cress and Mint back through time to seek out a means to do so while Chester stays behind to cover their escape. The two arrive one hundred years in the past to a time before Dhaos was initially sealed, where the villain is currently waging a war with his demon armies against the human kingdoms. Learning that only magic can harm him, they seek the aid of a young mage named Arche Klein, and summoner named Claus F. Lester, who accompany them to Dhaos's castle. After a fierce showdown, Dhaos escapes once again, and the party makes their way to an ancient city called Thor that houses a functional time machine to return to the future.

Translated box back:
The first fantasy role playing game from Namco, featuring Kosuke Fujishima as the character designer.
Beautiful graphics, and voice acting, fully using all of the 48 mega. And a completely new battle system – Linear Motion Battle, a real battle system in the same spirit as action games. The story of grand love and courage is awaiting you.

Versions:

PlayStation - added an animated opening sequence produced by Japanese studio Production I.G., re-drawn character sprites and backgrounds, a 3D-rendered world map, and re-recorded character audio to better accommodate the compact disc format. Animated Skits and a modified version of the battle system resembling that used in Destiny, were added. Suzu Fubayashi, a non-playable supporting character in the original release, was also made playable as an optional party member.

Game Boy Advance - Based on both preceding versions of the game, and included the Super Famicom release's original opening and two-dimensional world map, and the PlayStation remake's character voices, reduced enemy encounter rate and gameplay tweaks.

PlayStation Portable - Contains all the previous features of the PlayStation and Game Boy Advance versions as well as voice-overs for all story text, the ability to walk in eight directions instead of four on map screens, and a new "Grade Shop" function seen in later games in the series.

iOS - Removes some save points and relys heavily on an in-app purchase system.

Individual credits:
Kosuke Fujishima: Character design