I was talking to the guy at my gaming store about the SNES version and he said that it wasn't released in NA. Even if it was, they would likely charge 90-110$ for it.

Phantasia is really good, but it's also really old school.
For coolness points, it's a distant prequel to Symphonia, and there are a lot of little nods to Phantasia in Symphonia because of this including place, character names, historical references, etc.

not "officially," if you get my drift >.>;

symphonia is the prequel, phantasia happened thousands of years after it.

ToP got one of the worst batle system of any RPG ever developped. It's start alright but as you go farther in the game and gain more member they end up taking about half the screen, which is a real hinderance since you can't move past them, the one in the back basicly don't attack at all unless specificly told to and even then they may not have anykind of worthwhile long range attack, even the archer can't seem to fire farther then his nose. In the end you end up killing the enemies with the character you control while the other stand there like mentally deficient zombie and get in the way.

It's sad that it's easier to kill enemies when you whole party is dead than alive, since that way you can at least move past there heavely mutilated dead bodies(ok, unconscious body but can't a guy dream?).

It may be a classic in some way but it doesn't mean it's any good. In the same vein of classic Star Ocean is head and shoulder above it.

The story is alright though.

use Cless as a tank, Mint a a healer in the second spot, summoner at third, and magic caster at 4th with range nukes, archer sucks in general even if improved in the remakes.

Yeah, that's what I mean to say :p. It's been too long since I've busted out my Tales lore.

Though on a side note I found DotNW kind of shitty, really disappointing since Symphonia is one of my favorite games ever.

If you like old school games, you should try it and get the GBA port.
though i would recommend the PSP Japanese one.