This game...well, it exists. It's a very lackluster, broken mess of a game with a story just as nonsensical and still baffles me that this is a sequel to one of the best RPGs.

This game reeks of being a cash grab, wanting to ride ToS's success while it was big because a lot of the game is lazy. Example: they hired a new artists for new character concept art but all the old characters have their old art from the first game so when there are skits it's jarring. A lot of music is reused from ToS 1 and if remixed it's barely a different sound or feel idk

There's so much, too much that went wrong here lol Just know the story is a joke, the voice acting was very medicore and while it starts the conversation of interesting themes and plot points after ToS they fumble with it so badly. Contrived af but the only hilight is Zelos is best boi. Only character who has some sense from the previous game.

Emil's voice is also hit or miss--very high pitched and at times grating. His character also leaves a lot to be desired. Not because he's shy and perceived as weak but how it's written. Very surface level and the conclusion to who he is feels cheap. This game did not give af lol

The gameplay is almost as bad as the story, locked to broken motion controls. Due to the limitations of the wii over world exploration was scrapped for menu travel. The game leaned in hard into the Wii's unique controls and didn't implement them well.

A positive: The new art is nice. Uhh, the battle music was catchy. I can pretend it doesn't exist.

I know this game was remastered as a bundle with ToS so not sure if they fixed anything but the initial release was a shit show.

I must confess that I have FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out for anyone who's missing out on what that means) in the worst way -- even if something is rated poorly, I'll keep giving it more chances with whatever justifications I can because I want to experience any potential good aspects of said game.

My first time playing this was on the Wii, and I got to the point where I met Tenebrae and just noped out because Emil's voice acting was so terrible that I just couldn't deal with Shinji 2.0. Tried it again on an emulator years later and dropped at roughly the same spot. Got it in the Tales of Symphonia Collection on the PS3 and gave it yet another go, only to drop AGAIN at the same spot.

Undeterred by my own warnings to myself, I set off a fourth time these last few days, determined to just play it in short bursts -- the idea was that if I don't spend more than a few minutes listening to Emil, I can't get frustrated enough to quit and maybe after a time, he becomes an enjoyable character and I find I really dig the game! People like games that I don't, so it's entirely possible that I can like a game that people don't if I persist (spoiler: although this can happen, this isn't one of those)!

Quick note: I know I could change the audio to Japanese on Chronicles, but I like playing games in English audio if the option is available. Sue me.

I will say that I'm fine with the voice acting from everyone else in the game and actively enjoy the voice acting from Tenebrae.

The decision to make the overworld map into just a list of points instead of a place to explore is a mixed bag for me -- I don't have to worry about any camera issues that are a product of their time like in the case of the first Symphonia game, but I do miss the option to wander a world and see the world design unfold before me.

The beginning of the game really is atrocious -- in the first hour, you're treated to about eight flashbacks that are from literally the scene before in most cases, some of the most cringeworthy voice acting ever from Emil, and the powerhouse statement of "Marta has left the party." more times than you could ever ask for.

With the limited knowledge I have of the game thus far (about three hours), I can say that Emil probably would have been more enjoyable to me as an annoying party member you gain later that eventually blossoms into a likable character. Having him as the protagonist just puts me off.

I like the idea of monster acquisition and leveling them up as party members, but the limited time I spent with them was just underwhelming as a whole.

One of the worst culprits (and this may just be exclusive to the PS3 Chronicles version) is that entering battles takes about six seconds from the point where you contact an enemy. That's just enough time for you to wonder if your PS3 froze, and that's also a minute of staring blankly at a screen every ten encounters. I've had multiple minutes of staring at a screen blankly and wondering if the PS3 froze, so that's more than a bit of an annoyance and I have no intention of finding out if it becomes HOURS of staring.

The best thing I can say about this is that the skits were a lot of fun. I'm determined to not go back to this game again because I don't think I can cultivate enough fun from it to justify the things that bother me, but I will say that it's not the worst thing in the world.

Out of the three entries in the tales of franchise I've played as of writing this, I can confidently say that this was definitely the one I had the most enjoyment out of. Not my favorite, but extremely close. I had known about this games existence before I had even started the first game and was excited to see how the game itself compared to the opening I had watched a handful of times before and I was pretty satisfied to see it lived up to my expectations. While there were things I didn't like/expect, some examples being the combat system and the lack of original party members, the story and characters themselves more than made up for that. Watching both the relationship between Emil and Marta develop further as the game went on, as well as seeing them dealing with their own issues was one of the most satisfying character arcs I've ever seen in fiction. Seeing how the three main characters interacted with the original games party members was nice as well, and actually made me start caring about characters from the first game that I didn't particularly like. The story, despite being pretty short was very entertaining and always managed to keep me wondering what would happen next, even if some of it was pretty predictable.

Overall, 4/5 stars. Pretty solid game. Do I love it? Yes. Will I ever play it again? Hell no.

I really don't like this game, and the fact that it's a sequel to a far greater game makes it even less enjoyable.

Everything bad in Tales Of Symphonia condensed into this very game. Add a cheap monster-collecter, watered-down fight mechanics that don't feel as tight, replace the overworld with a point-and-click map, and bring back every old character as temporary NPCs that really don't contribute anything to this incredibly shlocky story. Bad bad bad all around.

At least the character models look prettier I guess.

A weak follow-up that has some merits. TOS 1 is among my favorite games of all time and this isn't a great follow-up. It does try and continue some of the story, but the focus is entirely on the new characters. The new leads are alright, I like their lovey dovey relationship.

They added a new mechanic: collect monsters and train them to fight on your behalf. You can tell the entire game was built around this idea. Sadly, I hate it. The monsters aren't that helpful, and figuring out how to capture them took me my entire first play through.

The story is far too short and simple. You can play through most of it ln like ten hours. The over map is a real step down from the first, but its tolerable. There's a whole lot of side quest/tasks that you can use to fill time, but they all kinda suck. you can just rush through them and fight the final bosses. But then you get the final one of those quests, and there's just this dramatic up tilt in difficulty. That and the uber dungeon were the only things I didn't complete in this.

It has its moments, the leads are good. I like seeing the OG cast and getting to see what they've been doing. The Combat is as good the original, if you aren't using the monster. The story is interesting enough. Its a poor sequel, but its not a terrible game.

Worth a look if you like Tales games, but really not one to own.

I fucking love this game. Should I be ashamed to admit I had a crush on Marta? Unrequited ofc she has a partner who can switch from a twink to a vulgar slimbo in a jiffy and that's pretty handy! Both of them also have a cool fighting style and I'll always have a soft spot for them.

You have other party members who...dont have much of an arc but it's fine to be able to say a character has already reached what they want and set out to do. Don't need no extra baggage. Plus the digimons we capture are clearly more important who are we kidding?