At first the moments in game make you cry, but then they make you laugh. Here they are:
- DeJap's SFC Fan Translation has its moments of comedy, particularly the sea trip to Alvanista
with its famous Spiced-Up Subtitles like, "I bet Arche fucks like a tiger", Arche passing out and fantasizing about having sex with Cress, or Arche telling Mint that "[she's] got the biggest tits [she's] ever seen!" The last two actually do happen in official translations, it's just not as explicit.- The Hot Springs Episode in general is a stand-out amongst the others in the series for one reason: Arche breaks convention and peeps on the males this time around.
- In the Japanese versions of the game, Mint earns the Boing-chan title (basically named after the comical sound effect of breasts bouncing) from one sidequest. In Phantasia's prequel, Tales of Symphonia, the character who can earn the same title is... Sheena. 'Nuff said.
- In the PSX Fan Translation, after first encountering Sylph at Lone Valley:Claus: Ah... the spirits are being hurt by miasma!
Cress: They're being hurt by your asthma? I thought it wasn't contagious!
Mint turns and silently stares at him for several seconds - While the Absolute Zero PSX translation does a good job, the Phantasian Productions version goes for a Woolseyism approach. Case in point, this line from Claus if the player enters Harmel when they're supposed to be helping Sylph:Claus: I see Sylph's request is so important that we're going in the completely wrong direction. The enthusiasm is truly admirable, but unless we turn around, we're not going to the Forest of Spirits.
- There's a few skits based around a rather complicated "defeat Dhaos" Incredibly Lame Pun from Cress (the joke being that the Japanese word for "defeat", "taosu", and how Dhaos' name is said in Japanese ("daosu") sound extremely similar and in writing are separated by all of a single chon marker). It's worth it for the way the fan translations try to engage in some Woolseyism on a line that even the greatest of translators would bang their head against.Original: Boku wa zettai wa taosu Daosu!
Absolute Zero: I will repeat Dhaos! Dhaos.
Phantasian Productions: I will douse Dhaos! - When trying to encounter the unicorn, Arche runs off elsewhere at one end of the forest. From there, she can either avoid the fight vs. the three evil lords that ensue, or you can pick her up; both versions have everyone wonder what she was doing there. Turns out, due to the unicorn being fabled to meet with "maidens of pure heart", Arche frustratingly mentions that she might've done some "things" with a prior boyfriend of hers, then quickly denies it. Claus in the meanwhile is just chuckling to himself.
- When exploring Volt's cave and you first find Suzu in trouble (stuck to a high-voltage current of electricity), the party spontaneously and unanimously decide that it's Cress's job to help out random little girls. And he ends up getting shocked trying to help her get out. Later in the same dungeon, you find Suzu surrounded by ninjas, and the party decides that it's Cress to the rescue again, at which point you have to, as Cress, fight two ninjas simultaneously.
- In Narikiri Dungeon X, a possible "failure" version of Suzu's Jiraiya summon can activate where she instead ends up in a frog costume...and throws a bunch of highly-damaging fire around while flailing about in a blind panic.
- The fact that Pluto can be easily pinned down and beaten by Cress' basic Demon Fang arte despite being a Superboss from Hell.
- At one point, you're on a ship. The group meets up with a random travelling swordswoman, who then proceeds to suggest everyone gets drunk together. This leads to her and your group's summoner- Klarth- drunk and talking about politics and how there's a spy in the area you're headed to. While this is going on, Arche, who is a witch and completely lusting for the main character, Cless, has passed out from drinking. She interrupts the swordswoman and Klarth's talks with random yelling-in-sleep moments about a rather explicit dream. Then, the morning after that, a monster is on the ship. The healer is seasick, and Klarth and Arche are both hungover, leaving Cless to fight alone.
- Cress' original bug-eyed damage sprite from the SNES Phantasia. Its almost worth letting him get hit for that expression alone.
- When the party goes to confront Dhaos for the final time, the localisation has him say "Do I look like a tree-hugger to you?".
