How many versions of Tales of Phantasia are there?

Tales of Phantasia is the most re-sold game in the series. The original Super Famicom release of December 15, 1995 was a technical flex, a 48-megabit cartridge with a fully sung opening theme, at a time when cartridge RPGs did neither. Every later version descends from one of two branches, and knowing which branch a box belongs to is the collector's first skill in this series.

The remake branch starts on PlayStation (December 23, 1998), which rebuilt the game with redrawn graphics, a reworked battle system and new content. The Game Boy Advance version (Japan August 1, 2003) follows this branch, and it is the GBA port, released in North America on March 6, 2006, that gave the West its first official Phantasia, eleven years after the original. A short-lived iOS release followed in 2014.

The voice branch is the PSP line. Tales of Phantasia: Full Voice Edition (September 7, 2006) took the remake and recorded full voice acting for its story scenes, changing the game's subtitle to 'Legendary RPG, Embellished With Voices'. The fullest Phantasia is the one bundled with Tales of Phantasia: Narikiri Dungeon X (August 5, 2010), where the remake appears as Tales of Phantasia X, also called the Cross Edition, with further additions.

Guide coverage follows the branches. Japan published strategy books for the Super Famicom, PlayStation and PSP versions, each documenting its own content. The North American GBA release received no official English guide at all, one of several places where the English shelf simply stops.