This review contains spoilers
"RPG that resonates with you", this is the central theme upon which Tales of Symphonia was marketed, following its release in 2003. And as shall be enunciated in this review, I shall explain just why this special gem of an rpg resonated with me.
Tales of Symphonia is a 2003 jrpg developed by Namco Tales Studio and published by Namco and it quickly became one of my absolute favorites, not just for the series but the genre as well.
Before I dive into this, it must be stated that I have no nostalgia for this game and as such there shall be no bias; the only Tales game I really have nostalgia for being Vesperia and even that was a demo I played back when I was in high school if memory serves right. The version I am playing is the remaster on xbox, it's the most convenient version for me and I have never been bothered by games being 30 fps or 60 fps.
Tales of Symphonia is that special kind of game wherein you just love it so much that you simultaneously want to hurry through to see that story unfold and the character interactions in the skits while also slowing it down to take in the music, environments, combat and all the sidequests.
The story of Tales of Symphonia is initially that the world is dying as the world is running out of mana and the goddess Martel is asleep. The only way to save the world is for an individual known as The Chosen, who this go around is Colette, and her friends and teacher, Lloyd, Genis and Raine. Who must go around the world of Sylvarant and unleash the seals and ascend the Tower of Salvation, which will turn Colette into an angel and awaken the goddess Martel. However along the way they discover a dark secret that threatens everything they know.
While there were multiple characters in Symphonia that I fell head over heels for, it was the main characters of Lloyd and Colette that I truly enjoyed the most. With these characters being Lloyd and Colette.
As far as Lloyd goes, I loved how despite being a naive simple minded individual, he was not one to give up and had a strong sense of ideals. And like Rena Lanford, he was adopted, but had a strong connection with his parents, and well for me, this kinda situation is pretty relatable barring a few details. At times throughout the story, mainly when Lloyd felt intense anger and hate, frustration towards the Desians, I could empathize with Lloyd, despite sensing what felt like a great darkness in him bubbling beneath the surface.
For Colette, well a lot of it has to do with how incredibly precious she is. And just how wholesome her and Lloyds friendship is, and how pure her love for him is.
As far as negatives for Tales of Symphonia go there are a few, in this masterpiece. The music, while pretty good overall, largely feels a bit generic and overly similar to Star Ocean 1 and 2, which yes i'm aware, do share much dna as they have the same composer, Matoi Sakuraba, and both companies formed from Telenet Japan.
The gameplay is something I'd consider in the same vein as the music, being very similar to the first 2 Star Oceans but kind of being less fun, at least at first, at some point. Probably the halfway point. It does pick up for me, at least given my playstyle. Probably boils down to Lloyd having no defense really and loving to get hit, in any case the combat is less tedious than Berseria so that's a plus.
My final 2 critiques are of how you can activate events early, and the overworld camera. On one hand it's cool how it's open ended, on the other it can negatively impact you like it did for me in Star Ocean 2 on ps1.
This final point mainly applies to the overworld camera before you unlock the ability to ride Noishe and get the Rheairds. As there's no real way to move it so there's time where you'll be blindsided or cannot take in the beautiful environments.
And so in summary, Tales of Symphonia is a very special game that resonated with me, much like the characteristic theme promised; and I would give it a 9/10. And by the end of it in Tales of Symphonia I had put in 72 hours 18 minutes, completed 20 sidequests, and had 1388 combat encounters.
The next games in my Tales journey assuming I don't try and finish Berseria or Vesperia will be either:
Destiny (ps1)
Eternia (ps1)
Phantasia (gba)
Legendia (ps2)
In no particularly decided order yet though.
Tales of Symphonia is a 2003 jrpg developed by Namco Tales Studio and published by Namco and it quickly became one of my absolute favorites, not just for the series but the genre as well.
Before I dive into this, it must be stated that I have no nostalgia for this game and as such there shall be no bias; the only Tales game I really have nostalgia for being Vesperia and even that was a demo I played back when I was in high school if memory serves right. The version I am playing is the remaster on xbox, it's the most convenient version for me and I have never been bothered by games being 30 fps or 60 fps.
Tales of Symphonia is that special kind of game wherein you just love it so much that you simultaneously want to hurry through to see that story unfold and the character interactions in the skits while also slowing it down to take in the music, environments, combat and all the sidequests.
The story of Tales of Symphonia is initially that the world is dying as the world is running out of mana and the goddess Martel is asleep. The only way to save the world is for an individual known as The Chosen, who this go around is Colette, and her friends and teacher, Lloyd, Genis and Raine. Who must go around the world of Sylvarant and unleash the seals and ascend the Tower of Salvation, which will turn Colette into an angel and awaken the goddess Martel. However along the way they discover a dark secret that threatens everything they know.
While there were multiple characters in Symphonia that I fell head over heels for, it was the main characters of Lloyd and Colette that I truly enjoyed the most. With these characters being Lloyd and Colette.
As far as Lloyd goes, I loved how despite being a naive simple minded individual, he was not one to give up and had a strong sense of ideals. And like Rena Lanford, he was adopted, but had a strong connection with his parents, and well for me, this kinda situation is pretty relatable barring a few details. At times throughout the story, mainly when Lloyd felt intense anger and hate, frustration towards the Desians, I could empathize with Lloyd, despite sensing what felt like a great darkness in him bubbling beneath the surface.
For Colette, well a lot of it has to do with how incredibly precious she is. And just how wholesome her and Lloyds friendship is, and how pure her love for him is.
As far as negatives for Tales of Symphonia go there are a few, in this masterpiece. The music, while pretty good overall, largely feels a bit generic and overly similar to Star Ocean 1 and 2, which yes i'm aware, do share much dna as they have the same composer, Matoi Sakuraba, and both companies formed from Telenet Japan.
The gameplay is something I'd consider in the same vein as the music, being very similar to the first 2 Star Oceans but kind of being less fun, at least at first, at some point. Probably the halfway point. It does pick up for me, at least given my playstyle. Probably boils down to Lloyd having no defense really and loving to get hit, in any case the combat is less tedious than Berseria so that's a plus.
My final 2 critiques are of how you can activate events early, and the overworld camera. On one hand it's cool how it's open ended, on the other it can negatively impact you like it did for me in Star Ocean 2 on ps1.
This final point mainly applies to the overworld camera before you unlock the ability to ride Noishe and get the Rheairds. As there's no real way to move it so there's time where you'll be blindsided or cannot take in the beautiful environments.
And so in summary, Tales of Symphonia is a very special game that resonated with me, much like the characteristic theme promised; and I would give it a 9/10. And by the end of it in Tales of Symphonia I had put in 72 hours 18 minutes, completed 20 sidequests, and had 1388 combat encounters.
The next games in my Tales journey assuming I don't try and finish Berseria or Vesperia will be either:
Destiny (ps1)
Eternia (ps1)
Phantasia (gba)
Legendia (ps2)
In no particularly decided order yet though.