Technically a replay.

But i'ma play Devil's Advocate one more time.

Symphonia 2 is actually pretty fucking good. And it's not for the combat really it's very uh...it's got issues but it's not terrible. Accelerate is a dumb ass skill and making the Echo Tracer effectively ends combat for the rest of the game but it makes comboing loads more fun so i'ma let it slide, aight?

Yeah the Courage line is dumb and cheesy as fuck but let's not act like Symphonia 1 wasn't the dumbest, cheesiest, blandest shit ever written. At least when Symphonia 2 hammers a really dumb slogan for themeing into your head, it actually fucking works. When Symphonia 1 tries to explore anything it either does it poorly or doesn't give it enough attention so it ends up as wasted potential.

Emil and Marta are easily the best written couple in the franchise. And it coincides with Symphonia 2's theming of having courage because they are both cowards to some effect. Emil is a coward in the most literal sense. Scared of his own shadow. Marta is afraid of facing the crimes of the Vanguard and her father so opts to use collecting Centurions Cores as a thinly veiled excuse to keep putting what needs to be done on the backburner. And through their relationship they grow as people and obtain the courage needed to do what must be done for both of their sakes, and the world's.

This game also effectively challenges the ending of Symphonia 1 alongside challenging the new protagonists at every turn. Maybe restoring the world to its natural state wasn't a net positive for everyone after all? Maybe there was some unforeseen consequences that would later come back to bite you in the ass? Maybe your deluded self-righteousness made the lives of others worse? Symphonia 2 tackles all of this so well I am baffled that this fanbase abhors this game as much as they do. Am I saying the writing is perfect? Fuck no. But when it hits IT HITS.

Symphonia 1's party is bland as fuck and written bland as fuck for the entirety of its run time with weirdly placed voice acting/voice direction throughout the game. Symphonia 2 walks in with voice acting in almost every cutscene and suddenly these characters have character and I LIKE THEM. Yeah it sucks like almost everyone from the original game got replaced (except for Kratos who has like 12 speaking lines total) but the new VA's still do a banger job. I actually kinda like Zelos now when I couldn't stand his ass in the original. Symphonia 2 really makes me care about almost everyone in the cast and it does it so effortlessly.

Emil is so original as a protagonist for this franchise and he's such a hard over-correction from Lloyd but he still WORKS. They also somehow made amnesia, one of the laziest and usually one of the most poorly written writing tropes ever WORK. They make a cowardly protagonist WORK. Emil sits firmly at my number 2 spot behind Ludger in favorite Tales protag list if someone were to ask me how I rank these characters. I love watching his journey as a character unfold. They could have easily written something intensely pandering and made Emil just like Lloyd, a generic goodie two shoes hero who always does the right thing because it's the right thing, but they didn't and I'm so glad that they went with what they went with.

You ain't gonna sit here.
And tell me.
That a game where I play as one of the most original protags in this franchise where I have the option to make a party member out of the GOAT of GOAT's optional boss the SWORD DANCER and we get to whoop ass together.
is ass.

This game is raw as fuck.

This fanbase fucking sucks.