Tales of Phantasia : Nintendo is the culprit

I make no bones about the fact that I'm a Nintendo fanboy. They've made some boneheaded moves before, but by and large they seem to know what they're doing, and they really are the only ones pioneering anything in the industry. Sony's most innovative contribution so far has been the eye-toy, but that was what, 8 or 10 years after Nintendo releaced the Game Boy Camera?

In my quest for who to place the blame on for the horrific desecration of Tales of Phantasia I contacted my favorite import game store, National Console Support to ask if the Japanese GBA release of ToP was this horrible. Here's the response I received:

Hi Samson, yes we were also disappointed by the changes in the USA version but we confirm that the Japanese Tales of Phantasia includes the opening score from the Super Famicom version.

Regards,

NCS, Inc

That coupled with this response that I received from Namco:

Thank you for contacting Namco Bandai's Customer Support Department.

Please contact Nintendo as they are the publishers of Tales of Phantasia.

Please feel free to contact us again in the future as the need arises.

And here's what I received from Nintendo:

Message(#6851-000490-2968\4902968)

Hello and thank you for contacting Nintendo,

I was sorry to hear that you don't like Tales of Fantasia. Your
feedback is important to us and I will be sure to forward your comments to
the appropriate departments here at Nintendo for review.

And while e-mail is a great resource for contacting companies about
most consumer service related issues, it is not the best method for
providing assistance in matters similar to what you described. In order to
be of further assistance to you, we would like to speak with you
directly. At your earliest convenience, please contact our Consumer Service
Department by calling 1-800-255-3700. Our representatives are available
between 6:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. Pacific Time, seven days a week.

When calling our Consumer Service number, you can bypass the recorded
information by pressing "0" on your touch-tone phone. This will connect
you to the next available representative.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Nintendo of America Inc.

Sharon Matheny

So as recommended, I called the Nintendo Customer Service line and requested my refund. The young man who answered was very pleasant and understand but explained that Nintendo would not be refunding my money and that a recall was not at all likely. He recommended that I voice my frustration on Nintendo's forums.

Well, there you have it folks. My ToP story. I'm sure you're sick of it if you've been reading it, but it really ticks me off and I just can't let it go.