Tales of Symphonia

released on Oct 10, 2013

An expanded game of Tales of Symphonia

An HD remaster of the Playstation 2 version of Tales of Symphonia that comes with extra content. It is also bundled in the Tales of Symphonia Chronicles collection for the Playstation 3. Over 80 hours of gameplay in this epic, emotionally charged storyline. Experience the fierce, action-packed battle system. Combine hundreds of special attacks and magic spells. In a dying world, legend has it that a Chosen One will one day rise from amongst the people and the land will be reborn. The line between good and evil blurs in this epic adventure where the fate of two interlocked worlds hangs in the balance.


Released on

Genres

RPG


More Info on IGDB


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Played for half an hour and unfortunately didn't warm to the game at all. The art style isn't for me and the story made me think of FFX and I had the feeling that Tales of Symphonia had copied it.... that's probably nonsense but somehow these two reasons were enough for me to turn it off again. I'd like to give the game another chance someday though.

I started this game 6 months ago after I beat Tales of Vesperia. I got burned out about halfway (25 hours) through though. However, I didn't want to abandon the game forever, and really wanted to see it through to the end, so I did. My end game clock was about 45 hours. It still stands that this is the least favorite of the Tales games I have beaten, but having only beaten 4 (this being the 4th), it has some tough competition (Abyss, Vesperia, and Graces f being the others).

Originally being designed for the Gamecube, it has graphics that suit its time. 2003 was still fairly early in the Gamecube's life cycle. The actual environments look rather nice and comparable to other RPG's on the system, and the monsters also look really great. The overworld has always looked really bland end empty to me though. However, that's a small complaint.

The battle system is one of the bits I have the most qualms with. This was the last Tales game before they truly took the leap to a fully 3D battle system, and the middle-ground it occupies makes some battles very frustrating. The free-running mechanic wasn't implemented until Tales of the Abyss. However, the battle arenas are still in 3D, and monsters and your companions can occupy and maneuver 3-dimensionally. What's really aggrivating is trying to dodge spells that have very clear effect radius, when you, the player, can only move toward and away from your target. This limited movement really hampers the combat engine, and was a constant obstacle to trying harder difficulties. The combos you can make and the way you can combo techs together is otherwise fairly run of the mill for the series. I never really understood the "Unity Attack" system. It seemed a fairly odd stop-gap between a simply activatable overlimit system. Otherwise, you just never know when you're going to overlimit, so it's very difficult to plan fights around. Regardless, it's a fun brawling engine, and whacking things about is still tough and satisfying, even though it's not the more highly technical work in later games like Legendia or Graces.

I also didn't really care for the skill system. You find skill gems as items throughout the game, and you can consume one to set it to a character. Each character can have 4 gems set to them, and of the 5 levels of gems, each one has 4 (usually passive) skills to pick from, and can be reset at any time. Also, certain combos of skills can activate certain other hidden passives for even extra effects. However, the amount of these skill gems being limited in the game made me very cautious to experiment with them. Ultimately, I just gave up on trying to find any nuance in that system, and just went with what seemed arbitrarily good at the time. This being the earliest Tales game I've played, I can't really comment too much on the innovation of this system, but it's definitely the skill system I've liked the least out of the Tales games I've played, so take that for what you will.

The main attraction for me in Tales games, though, is the story, and this game delivers well, though this is probably one of the Tales game stories I've had the biggest issues with during the course of the game. Every Tales game has some sort of theme pervading the story, and in this game it's "Sacrifice." What sacrifices are acceptable, and how do we as people deal with the thoughts that we or ones we care about might have to sacrifice themselves for the greater good? The voice acting is usual Namco Bandai quality though: It's a surprisingly good showing by an English voice cast for the period. My detailed thoughts are very spoilery though, so into a spoiler box they go.

Note: I went for the Kratos-included ending, so my opinions on the endgame might be slightly different than others who didn't.

The game has a bit of a lull in the middle. After the original revelations that exspheres are people, the pilgrimage for world restoration story-line just wasn't too interesting. However, the twist that the Desians and Crucius are the same really gets it going again. I also really really liked some parts of the end-game, but had some noticeable gripes with other parts. When its revealed that Kratos is Lloyd's father, and Lloyd starts to have a breakdown, only to have Collette console him with the same virtues of acceptance of one's self in spite of one's background, that was such a powerful moment and one of the highlights of their relationships (It even made me tear up a little).

In my personal opinion, times like this, when Lloyd and Collette are going through her transformation and sicknesses, and his conflicts of personality and identity, are the highlights of the game. The relationship between Kratos and Lloyd comes in at a close second. This is also the Tales game that I think does the best job (of those that I've played) of humanizing its villain. You really see Mythos' motives by the end, and even pity him (something I think Graces tried to do, but that attempt at a similar formula felt far more rushed).

Things I liked far less, however had to do with the game's main other theme of "discrimination." It was a very interesting plotpoint, but the way characters would face it often felt narratively inefficient and hamfisted. Genis' monologues about his feelings on it, as well as Mythos', are often a bit to hard-hitting and unnuanced to really feel natural. Additionally, the game has a fantastic buildup at the end, when everyone is slowly sacrificing themselves to make sure Lloyd lives to save Collette. But then the game just totally throws away that good will by having a large set of very direct and to-the-point conflicts in Walgaia of everyone very somewhat preachingly facing their biggest personal conflicts.


Story is a very subjective thing in all media, but I'd give this game a rating of "mixed bag." It's really good, but not great.

Verdict: A very good ARPG for its time: Recommended. It's a little hard to really give one of my more traditional "verdicts" on the series given that I'm essentially playing them in no particular order and therefore have no grasp of the progression of the series on a technical level. However, though this seems to be one of the most popular ones, I still wouldn't say it's a fantastic entry point to the series, nor would I call it the "best" one. It's one of the best Gamecube RPG's I've played (my 2nd favorite under Paper Mario), but I'd still probably say that Vesperia or Abyss would be a better first entry in the Tales series specifically.

Presea Best Girl. Also wish it has Free Run, otherwise, this would have been a masterpiece.

Muito bom, divertido, tempo passa que tu nem percebe.

Ponto mais positivo é a party, faz um bom tempo que não vejo uma party que exala o quanto se importa um com o outro. Até os personagens que entram depois conseguem criar um vinculo muito grande com o resto do grupo e com quem tá jogando.

Combate é muito gostoso, a progressão instiga, dungeons desafiadoras... Enfim, é um Tales of que recomendo a todos que queiram conhecer a franquia, representa bem demais a série.

Gameplay: Great
Story: Great. I liked it more than Arise.
Controls: Great
Graphics: Great for its time
Length: Great
Characters: Amazing

Best Girl: Sheena!

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