The latest in a long running series of Tales of This That and the Other Thingia role-playing games (RPGs), Tales of Legendia is notable on two counts: One, it marks the first time the series has appeared on the PS2 in North America (exclusively at that, oddly, though it's a follow up to 2004's Tales of Symphonia, which was exclusive to GameCube), and two, it's pretty good; fresh yet familiar.

Sure, it's riddle with clichés and seems to tell the same story of angst-addled adolescents/aspiring heroes embarking on an epic quest to save the world and rescue the girl that all other RPGs also seem to tell - mostly imparted via incessantly force-fed text boxes that seem to sum total more prose than War and Peace except of exactly inverse quality -, but that can be a good thing in many cases and certainly is here; classic, iconic, a meat & potatoes RPG with loads of gravvy.

Too, it's got style to spare, great Anime visuals, explosively fantastical animations and a way cool combat systems that takes the conventional, turn-based, blow-trading and spell-tossing skirmishes and turns them into veritable feasts of unmitigated smackdown.

It's also decidedly accessible to newcomers, easy to pick up, play and excel, though long-time fans of the series may consider combat too basic because of it.

Still, a long-playing, fervently artistic, solid-stock RPG no matter how you slice your meat or mash your potatoes.