Tales of Symphonia is the latest installment in the Tales series. While the Tales series has never broken the barrier into the mainstream audience, this installment definitely stands to change that. Namco did a wonderful job on this game and the presentation is absolutely wonderful. Symphonia is not related to the other games in the series by story so previous experience is not required.
The biggest attraction to Symphonia is the gameplay. This game shares many things with traditional RPGs such as exploration and experience system. But this game plays nothing like other RPGs. The most unique feature of the game is the linear battle system. The battles are fast and furious and look very complicated but really aren't. There are four characters in battle, one of which is controlled by the first player and the other three are controlled by the AI. You can set the AI for the other characters and command them to take certain actions based on your choice. Your friends can join in on the battles too, each taking control of one of the four characters on the battle field. The controlled character can around the field, guard, jump, back-step, attack, use items, etc. The fields are fully 3D, but your character only moves two dimensionally. How you move around the field is based on that enemy you lock on to (which you can change on the fly). Attacking is done via single buttons, the C-stick, or a combination of the joystick and a button. Regular and/or Tech attacks can be combined to do combos, which do more damage. The other characters come into play as well as their combos can be combined with your own to complete as many as 100+ hit combos. Tech (or magic for some characters) attacks are learned based on how you use the Tech skills you already know. Once you use certain Tech skills a certain number of times, your character will learn a new one. But previously learned Techs will sometimes have to be 'forgotten' (deleted) in order to learn other certain Techs. Unison Attacks are a special team attack which you have to build up a gauge in order to use. After the gauge is full, each member of your team will unleash a Tech skill (which you assign) on some unlucky foe. As complex as battles may seem, they are really not complicated. The in game tutorials only go knee deep and there are many things that you will have to learn yourself. The battles are also graded depending your performance… The better you do, the more Grade points you get to spend on character upgrades. Characters develop by experience but how they develop depends on a few things. 'Titles' (earned by events or automatically) effect how your character's stats will increase. Characters can also be highly customized by EX Spheres, which affect your characters in various ways. There are no random battles. Instead, you see the enemy on the field before engaging into battle. Most of the time, battles can be easily avoided and once an area is cleared, it'll stay that way until you leave that area. Those two things combined make exploration very enjoyable. Each dungeon/level has a puzzle of some sort. They're not complicated but some of the later ones are time consuming and tedious. When not in a dungeon, you'll be in towns or the over world map. While the story is linear, the game itself is actually very open. You are free to explore most of the towns and areas in the world map at your will. Symphonia also has a very high replay value. The main quest takes about 40 hours, but all the extras can easily take another 40 hours. After completing the game, you have the option to start a new game with special upgrades depending how you spend your grade points after completing the game. And most people will definitely put some serious play time into this game because this is one of the best RPG experiences with a sky high fun factor level.
In the visual department the game offers up some excellent eye-candy. The graphics are an absolute wonder to behold. The art is astounding, everything is designed very well. The cel-shading looks nice and seems to fit the game well. The characters all look great and feature very good designs. The special effects are excellent. The animation is very smooth with some minor slowdown during heavy effects scenes. There are many nice little touches (moving hair, weapon changes in battle, different costumes) in the game. The over world is a bit plain but it does it's purpose just fine. The real time cut-scenes are fine but the game definitely could've use more of the breathtaking animated and CG cut-scenes though. The only real complaint about the graphics would have to be that the game isn't compatible with progressive scan, which is only a minor flaw.
The audio department is the feature of Symphonia that I would consider weak, but it's still only very minor issues. The stereo quality is great and works well. The sync is usually perfect but misses or is absent in some rare cases. The voice acting is excellent and the characters have really fitting voices, which only amplifies their personalities. The music is very nice and fitting. The intro track is very moving. The soundtrack definitely could've use some more tracks though. And the absence of surround sound is somewhat disappointing.
The story starts out very similar to the one in FFX. Colette (our heroine) is the 'Chosen' who must complete the journey of salvation to rejuvenate the world before its supply of Mana is depleted. Lloyd, Colette's friend and the hero, who is not allowed to join decides to follow her anyway. On his journey, Lloyd and company will learn the value of human life and that every action has a consequence. The story may sound simple but it's very engrossing, if a little bit clichéd at times. There are many bits which you will easily predict, but right away the game will shock and surprise you. The characters are some of the best characters in any story and they develop so well. It's nice to see a hero and heroine who make the wrong choices and then work their way to correct them. The skits, which are optional conversations between in game characters, are actually neat because they provide show the inner thoughts of the characters to the player. The story successfully moves the player from one emotion to another flawlessly.
Final words: One of the best RPGs ever and definitely the best on the GameCube. A must have title!
Create an Account
Member Login
