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Tales of Symphonia By: Namco       Average Rating: 4.5     Total Reviews: 193 More Information Very engaging and Fast Paced!     On: 2008-11-14 When I first purchased this game a few years back, it was my very first "Tales of..." game and I immediately fell in love with it. Its fast-paced game play with battles and the rest of the game play are quite enjoyable and the plot is very unique and interesting due to the games numerous twists. The music itself is captivating, the artwork and cell-shading/anime cutscenes are to die for and the epileptic moves such as spell casting Indignant Judgment and Lloyds Falcons Crest are just remarkable evolutions from the former tales games such as Phantasia and Destiny. Really amazing     On: 2008-10-12 When I first played this game I was skeptical as Id just finished and liked Baten Kaitos so much; I suppose I had a bias against it even. I enjoyed it tremendously, and even was surprised at how long the game was (good thing!) Im repurchasing after I got a new Wii earlier this year and the sequel is coming out soon. Another play-through is definitely warranted. The first successful game in the Tales series     On: 2008-08-21 Gameplay: 4/5 ToS has a real time battle system. Youre limited to four moves that you can set yourself and you can assign moves to the C stick so that you can use anytime during battle. The controls in battle take a little time to get used to, but once youre okay with it they become second nature to you. Replay: 5/5 Once you beat Mithos you can play the game all over again! Things get easier after the first time through. You can use all the grade you obtained in your adventure to buy features for your second game. The best thing on there is the 10x EXP. It costs 3000 grade so I dont think youll have it for the second game. You can also choose to keep titles, relationships, money, and even have up to 30 items in your inventory. I highly reccomend kepping your money and having 30 items. Multiplayer: 3/5 I really hate to give it a rating like this. Personally I like single player better. The game was designed for single player but you can have four people playing at once. The bad thing is that its only in battle. Since Ive only played with one other person I have no idea what 4 player is like. Graphics: 5/5 Graphics ROCK! These are some pretty good graphics. There is some cel-shading in there, but its not like Wind Waker. I think its a combination of cel-shading and LoZ graphics. The characters and world are cel-shaded and the background is like LoZ graphics. Sound: 5/5 Sound is just....just....its so awesome I cant think of the word! The music both inside and outside of battle is really great. One of my favourite songs on there is titled Full Force. Character voices are good. There is some language on there. Dont worry its all mild. They dont say f*** every 5 seconds. lol The only bad part is when Zelos says SOB in Sybak. Other than that its all good. Overall: 4/5 Overall this is an awesome game. There are some parts where it gets pretty emotional. The most emotional part is in Exire. Story has a good ending. With all the sidequests you wont be able to do them all in one game. Nearly Makes up for the lack of Gamecube RPGs     On: 2008-08-13 Back in 2004, when Nintendo was for the most part a joke, this was one of the few games Gamecube owners could point to when teased for owning one. Like most JRPGs the story and characters are entirely cliche, but the world is such a fun one to explore that one can overlook the plot twists that are easily spotted hours before theyre revealed and go with it. Its also one of the very few rpgs that have co-op and to my knowledge its the only one to allow for 4 players, something which all action rpgs really should have. The game also has lots of fun minigames and sidequests which are different from the standard find-the-item types, such as one where a character becomes a waitress to get extra gald, a character who is a famous ladies man who is able to get free items from talking to female NPCs, or the cooking part of the game, where you search the world for a chef in order to get recipes, which allow you to make different foods at the end of each battle and heal the party by eating them instead of just using a potion or heal spell. Between the price being under $[...], gamecubes being available for $[...] and being playable on the Wii, you really have no excuse for not trying this game. best RPG for the GameCube     On: 2008-08-07 If you are new to the "Tales" series, this game is a great place to start. With colorful graphics and innovative battle system, this game and series stands out in a crowd. The only real problem I can see is if you are used to typical turn-based RPGs, this games battle system may take some getting used to. But other than that, its a thoroughly enjoyable experience. If you care about storylines the stay away from this review     On: 2008-07-20 OH my God shoot me in the head for buying this game where do i start. Im an old RPG fan every since Final Fantasy X hell ive played them all. well i was looking for just one more good RPG ya know. I thought this one could "take me back a few years". No NO NO it didnt do htat at all now let me tell ya why in 5 easy reasons. 1. The storyling is a rip off of Final Fantasy X I mean its almost the same thing. its about this girl who has to sacrife herselft to save the planet but then she and her rag tag party are double crossed about some fool wearing a night grown. Look if you guys have played Final Fantasy Z or even FFIX since it kind of rips off that storyline too becuse of the 2 planet crap, then dont buy this game. the only twist is that Kratos turns out to be Loyds dad.......... woooooooooooooops looks like a spolied it for ya. 2. All the characters execpt one "Kratos" are really reallying annoying. the 2nd main character "the girl that has to save the plantet" might be one of the if not the most annoying game characters ive seen in my life. 3. Graphics are not that good. Look ive got nothing against cell shaded i mean ill be the first to tell ya that when the wind waker came out i loved it but this game is just half baking it. its like there kind of doing ot then again there kind of not. its like looking at a saterday moring anime carton on fox kids channel. 4. Ive got nothing aginst reading the text in games i mean FF1-9 was all about that. what i dont like is how they "the characters" talk at the same time. I guess i can let that slide thought ive seen a lot of games do this now like star ocean 3 5. look just dont buy this game youve got to trust me it has its moments like whne ..... ok i dont know but there is one good thing about this game taht saves it almost. the figthing system is pretty cool and easy you are in a 2D background but you can move around the combos are easy to use and your team mates really do help out in the fight in this game so thats pretty cool. ok Im done The Gamer that LOVES Tales of Series     On: 2008-05-05 I have some words to say...first off I am thirteen, my friends older some younger some the same age, and we all ABSOLUTELY LOVE TALES OF SYMPHONIA (ToS for short). Its a great rpg, with lots of magic, sword fighting, shielding, elemental defense, healing spells, elemental offense, many items, a great money system (this game uses gald, not gold, gald), hundreds of unique awesome weapons some elemental some magic some regularly killer lethal and some just fun (like a broom!!), and lots and lots of different armor and clothing (not to mention amulets and jewels etc.). The battle system is really interactive, and its NOT TURN BASED, up to four players can play, so you can have a great time battle by yourself with computers helping you, or with friends pwning the monsters that get in your way. For a Gamecube game, the graphics are pretty good, the fighting absolutely fun and suspenseful, the storyline quite unique and different while still being superior, and then the characters mostly all awesome, while some can get on your nerves in a funny way. So I would rate this game a 10/10, as well as Tales of the Abyss and all the other Tales of games out there (except for Radiant Mythology, that was a pure disappointment), did I mention there are 3 ways of transportation to get around these 2 HUGE maps? Yeah, the story is long, fun, and there are many small optional mini games and side quests (some side quests long and fun), and then theres the main storyline you follow once you get bored wandering around the two worlds meeting people etc. Overall Review: Graphics: 9/10 (really good for an old GC game, actually not that old) Music: 8/10 Battle system: 10/10 Story Line: 10/10 Characters: 9/10 Side Quests: 9/10 Armor and Weaponry: 10/10 Magic/special attacks/unison attacks/ basic hits: 10/10 single player: 10/10 multi player: 8/10 Its a good game, if you like or want a game with fighting, sword banging, magic, technique, non turn based battles, realistic fighting, enjoyable music and graphics, elemental spells, wandering ability (you dont have to go to the next spot in the story line immediately, you go when you feel like it), and amazing characters etc., THEN WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR GET THIS GAME!! P.S. I also forgot to mention you can get TITLES which switch around your stats a bit without leveling up, and some titles change your costume so you can look different when you walking and in battles, and in cutscenes (swimsuits, disco/fun outfits etc.), yup, pretty awesome. Good Combat, Blah Everything Else     On: 2008-04-28 Tales of Symphonia nails the combat system. Its addictive, original and well-animated. Unfortunately, the puzzles, characters and plot are cliched and unmemorable. Pity because its such a beautifully animated game. Characters talk too much (every thirty seconds youll be dragged into a conversation, even in the overworld). I dont need to hear about every characters favorite color while Im trying to save the world? Save the world? These characters are too busy finding dragons for a little boy, cooking for restaurants and just generally mucking about to make you think that theyre really focused on their goal. The battle system is nice, but only fans of vapid Japanese anime need apply. beyond awesome game!!!     On: 2008-04-21 I have the gamecube in the household. and my brother wanted tales of symphonia for christmas and told me i would like it. i got my mom to get at target for $20 for christmas. i wasnt too interested but decided to play since it is partly mine. THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST GAMES YOU WILL EVER PLAY!!!!!!!!! i recently replayed for the 4th time and ended up staying up to 3:30 am, which i dont do. i love the battle system, and the story line is amazing. and i love the music. one of the best rpgs i have ever played One of the Best RPG Games Ever!     On: 2008-04-09 This game twists and turns you through an adventure that will sometimes shock you. You start off as a reckless young boy with his friends sets off on a journey to save all mana and when you think you know whats right then it takes a couple of turns and completly changes your mind. I played this game for a while but turned it down when I couldnt get past a part because there was a lot of talking and just got bored. Then I picked it up again and adored it! This game is worth the money! It took me forever to beat it and was sad when I did. If you dont like hard battles, great adventures, and a quest greater than to save your world than I suggest you dont buy this. Long live Tales of Symphonia! Epic game with a marvelous story!     On: 2008-03-17 When I saw this game at blockbuster, it looked fun so I tried it...OH MY GODDNESS! Though the game is long, you really get into it and like all the characters you meet and fight with. The animated graphics are fun, but I wish there more real anime like scenes, since theres only a few. Each character doesnt act like another, so thats a plus. But oh yeah, this game is LONG and can be difficult. If youre impatient, buy the guide also, even if you want to get extra stuff. Also, the story is as epic as the Zelda games! You play as Lloyd, a somewhat dim-witted but emotional and brave character; you help protect the next Chosen, Collette. Other awesome characters come along, and you can learn awesome magic attacks and do group attacks that really help. It does take a little while to develop strategies when fighting, but it really grows on ya once you get more attacks and weapons. Now I found out theyre making another for the Wii, so thatll be sweet! Its not too late; grab a gamecube and buy this game (and guide) and get lost in Symphonia, you wont regret it! Tales of...Star Ocean?     On: 2008-03-01 Some of the Tales of...titles seem to generate comparisons to the Star Ocean series. While the two are completely different games, I, too, began to see similarities...and then the similarities grew as I progressed through this title. Graphics Cell shaded. The locales are quite nice, but some of them do appear rather flat and stale at times. The graphics during battle run very smoothly and are quite nice. The detail of the characters and monsters are quite nice. Gameplay You will love the combat engine. There are a few mini games scattered throughout the game that are quite easy to pick up and play. Also, navigation isnt too difficult; though, being on foot for almost the entire game on the world map can become quite tedious. The game has a short learning curve. You can easily compare it to Star Ocean. Story When is picks up, it gets good; however, when it slows down, its really slow. Even some of the main missions seem out of place as at times they do very little as regards to progression in the story. At times, the story does drag...The story, for the most part is solid, but not all that original. The story itself is somewhat predictable. Characters Entertaining, but not a bunch I would opt to travel around the world with. Some characters personalities are a little dry while some of the others are just plain annoying. Some of the characters are almost one-dimensional as there isnt much to their personality--story wise, there really is only one character who goes through a massive change. Overall There are some sidequests...and they take you way out of your way to complete them. It would have been one thing if your character had a faster means of transportation across the world map. With the amount of random encounters, its bound to annoy anyone who just wants to get the mission done. The story has a very light-hearted sort of feel; while not necessarily geared towards kids, the plot and progress may turn some players off as they may see it as somewhat immature. The game is good, but similar to Star Ocean in many aspects. The Good: -Short Learning Curve -Enjoyable Cast of Characters (some) -Nice Graphics -Fun Combat Engine The Bad: -Considered an "inferior" Star Ocean -Some parts of the game drag -Appears to be geared towards kids -Music is repetitive and forgettable The Ugly: -The character portraits during dialogue It Will Appeal to Some (namely huge Tales fans), but Definitely Not Everyone     On: 2008-03-01 Some of the Tales of...titles seem to generate comparisons to the Star Ocean series. While the two are completely different games, I, too, began to see similarities...and then the similarities grew as I progressed through this title. Graphics Cell shaded. The locales are quite nice, but some of them do appear rather flat and stale at times. The graphics during battle run very smoothly and are quite nice. The detail of the characters and monsters are quite nice. Gameplay You will love the combat engine. There are a few mini games scattered throughout the game that are quite easy to pick up and play. Also, navigation isnt too difficult; though, being on foot for almost the entire game on the world map can become quite tedious. The game has a short learning curve. You can easily compare it to Star Ocean. Story When is picks up, it gets good; however, when it slows down, its really slow. Even some of the main missions seem out of place as at times they do very little as regards to progression in the story. At times, the story does drag...The story, for the most part is solid, but not all that original. The story itself is somewhat predictable. Characters Entertaining, but not a bunch I would opt to travel around the world with. Some characters personalities are a little dry while some of the others are just plain annoying. Some of the characters are almost one-dimensional as there isnt much to their personality--story wise, there really is only one character who goes through a massive change. Overall There are some sidequests...and they take you way out of your way to complete them. It would have been one thing if your character had a faster means of transportation across the world map. With the amount of random encounters, its bound to annoy anyone who just wants to get the mission done. The story has a very light-hearted sort of feel; while not necessarily geared towards kids, the plot and progress may turn some players off as they may see it as somewhat immature. The game is good, but similar to Star Ocean in many aspects. The Good: -Short Learning Curve -Enjoyable Cast of Characters (some) -Nice Graphics -Fun Combat Engine The Bad: -Considered an "inferior" Star Ocean -Some parts of the game drag -Appears to be geared towards kids -Music is repetitive and forgettable The Ugly: -The character portraits during dialogue ---------------------------UPDATE--------------------------------------- The game is good in its own merits; however, if youre anything like me, you still wont find this game as appealing as other role-playing games out there. Being one of the few GOOD Gamecube role-playing games out there, I see it not ranking as high among others. My BIGGEST personal issue (which may apply to some others and may have to do with your style of RPGs) was its poor pacing. The game fleshes out a story I have come to like; however, there are breaks in the game where the story doesnt pick up for hours. Ive logged a good 20 hours into the game and have just come across a shocking turn of events in the game; unfortunately, Im back to running from town to town running through a series of events that are detracting from the MAIN and FAR MORE INTERESTING story. I could get past running through the same labyrinths/dungeons/Ranches twice--once to progress the story, the second time to obtain a summon (pertaining to the dungeons/labyrinths), but the world map isnt the most pleasant to stroll through as random encounters are far too often (the onscreen enemies often come out of nowhere and attack you slowing down the progress). The worst part of exploring the labyrinths and dungeons would be the respawning enemies patrolling its floor. Some of the dungeons puzzles the game could have done without...its as if they threw them in last minute. The overall objective of some of treks through these locations could have done away with some of the redundant puzzles (since there are so many enemy encounters) and the ring used to solve puzzles was more of a nuisance. Its a tough call with this game as I introduced myself to this series when I purchased my gamecube a little while back. It starts off good, it progresses well for a little while, it gets better, then it begins to drag. It picks up the pace very well with a very, very interesting plot twist or turn of events, then it drags again. You solve some puzzles--some pointless and some clever, you go through a series of events that are seemingly out of place, and so forth. The most disheartening part of the game (to me) was trekking the world map as I wanted to immediately jump back into the story. Newcomers MAY or MAY NOT enjoy this game, long time fans; however, will love this game. +Pros: +The story is great +Battle system -Cons: -Pacing is very poor and the progression of story is spaced out because of side-events, obtaining summons, and random characters -Characters are fairly uninteresting (or annoying (Colette) -Revisiting the same areas twice can be a drag -No vehicle...scaling the world map can be a pain for the first...15 hours ??: -Graphic style may or may not appeal to everybody -Some may or may not be turned off by the character interactions Best Gamecube RPG!     On: 2008-02-25 This is probably your best option for RPGs on the Gamecube. Fire Emblem doesnt count as it is more turn based strategy game and not a real RPG game like Tales (you dont travel in Fire Emblem, since it is Chapter based). The Tales series are known for the "real time" battle system, where you get to control the battle hands on instead of choosing what you want your character to do (though you will most of your characters to manage on their own). The game is huge and will take a while for any seasoned RPG gamer or first time RPG player to finish. The main draw for the game is obviously for the great story. Any game that tells a good story is usually a very good RPG, of course thats just part of it. The battle system is another key factor in any RPG and Tales doesnt disappoint as it is easy to execute but at the same time there are interesting perks such as the combo system. One main draw to the series is how there is no random battles. You get to see the enemy on the screen and you get to choose if you want to engage in battle or avoid it (though the enemies will tend to pursue you to engage in battle you can normally avoid a lot of battles if you dont wish to fight). I can go on longer about this game but I will end by saying that this game definitely deserves a purchase seeing how it is budget priced and if you own a GC or a Wii you will be owning one of the best RPGs for both systems (at least for now). A trully unforgetable, fun RPG     On: 2007-12-27 Tales of Symphonia is truly the best RPG I have ever played. Its not a short game either. It advertises 80 hours of game play, and unless you are absolutely a pro at it, it will take you at least 90-94. It has a pretty decent story line too. I 100% think that if you havent played it before, to buy it and play it. Dont waste money renting it, just buy it. This is a great game if you like to build up characters!     On: 2007-12-19 It is one of a kind as it is a real time battle rpg rather than a timebased one like in the Final Fantasy games. Has an interesting story and can be played with a friend or even 3. I recommend this to any and all gamecube owners. Lots of good gameplay and very enjyable. Have fun once you get it! This is a great game if you like to build up characters!     On: 2007-12-18 It is one of a kind as it is a real time battle rpg rather than a timebased one like in the Final Fantasy games. Has an interesting story and can be played with a friend or even 3. I recommend this to any and all gamecube owners. Lots of good gameplay and very enjyable. Have fun once you get it! Tales of Symphonia Reveiw     On: 2007-12-06 "The angels bore the Chosen One, who would travel to the Tower of Salvation, and save the world!" This edict is the basis for the game and is known as the Legend of Mithos. Tales of Symphonia (T.o.S.) is an enormous story full of adventure, misfortune, tragedy, and even betrayal!T.o.S. can have up to four players,and T.o.S. also promises over thirty hours of game play. Since its for Gamecube and Ps2 only, this game has to be the best massive multiplayer role playing game(m.m.r.p.g.), and is definitely worth the money. Bryce C. :) Epic story, great cell-shaded graphics, maybe the best RPG on the Gamecube     On: 2007-11-28 Ive always been a fan of RPGs. Im saying this up front. If you have never enjoyed an RPG, then you probably wont like Tales of Symphonia. Also, as is pretty much standard for RPGs, if you dont have many, many hours to invest in this game, it probably isnt a good purchase. That being said, Tales of Symphonia is an amazing game that I thoroughly enjoyed. First, the combat system is different than any other RPG Ive ever played. Its done in real time and you actually physically control a character, using standard attacks and skills at will. You control the other characters in your party by using pre-assigned hotkeys or by going through a menu and individually selecting what you want them to do. This gives the combat an almost fighting game feel. It also makes player skill and important factor in success. As you get better at the combat system youll find yourself taking down harder enemies very easily toward the latter part of the game. But seeing as it took me over one hundred hours to complete the game the first time, itll be a while before you start destroying everything around you. But those hundred plus hours were completely amazing. The graphics look very nice, and the game is voice acted pretty well. The story is complicated and has several major twists, so I wont tell you anything about it. Suffice it to say this is a fantasy RPG complete with elves...and angels. Yeah, I know. Angels. Trust me, it makes sense after playing. Which is something that I definitely recommend. I got several play-throughs out of this game and you probably will too. Bottom Line: If you like RPGs, and have plenty of spare time, then this is the game for you. The combat system, graphics, voice acting, and story combine to make this one of the best games the Gamecube has to offer. FANTASTIC     On: 2007-10-15 THIS GAME IS GREAT YOU CAN EVEN INVITE FRIENDS OR FAMILY TO HELP WITH FIGHTS OR PLAY BY YOURSELF One awesome game     On: 2007-06-29 For all of those reviews that are one and two stars, I guess thats your own personal opinion. I read this two star review, and some of the things werent completely true about it. The beginning can be a little slow (depending on your taste) but if you keep playing, the game becomes amazing. The graphics are ok, personally, I liked them, but I can understand why some may think theyre childish. Gameplay was very cool. I enjoyed the RPG and real-time fighting style. I am a huge fan of RPGs, and the real-time fighting was a really cool experience. My favorite part though, unlike many of those one star reviews, was the story. In the beginning, it sounds nice and simple. As you move on, its a little more complicated. Eventually, it becomes really twisted and upside-down, which I really thought was awesome. At times, I forgot about the gameplay and just focused on the story. Everytime you think you figured it out, it suddenly changes on you. Anyway, overall, the graphics were alright (depending on what you like), gameplay was very impressive, and the story was definetly NOT predictable (for those of you who "guessed 95% of it"). I personally loved this game, but it may not be everyones type, but I dont think at all that this is something any gamer would hate. Id rate this a nice 7 outta 5 stars!! a pretty symphonia     On: 2007-06-02 tales of symphonia is a great example of the new free roaming RPG style. the music and voiceovers are well done and the cutscenes and anime style animation look good on the Cube/Wii. the actual battle system is not completely free-roaming as you can only move forward and backward but the control allow for lots of combinations. the actual story is interesting and charcters are well designed. the only downsides are the AI on both sides are sluggish and the strategies offered for the characters you do not control are pretty uninspired. overall this is an excellent game for any RPG fan. Tales of Symphonia... Yes it is THAT fun. by: Anonymous    On: 2007-05-12 I bought this game in August of 06, and boy was I impressed. I bought it because of the Gamecubes very limted array of RPGS. I have to admit that my exspectations were pretty high for this game, seeing as it got as much praise as it did, but now lets talk about the game. I guess the first thing Ill start off with ...the battle system, and what a system it is. Instead of the very frustrating (to me any way) run around and get a random encounter, you have a choice if you want to get in a battle or not. When you move around you see little black shaped monsters on the field, Run into those monsters and you start a battle, heres the twist. You move your character around in a 3D battle field, attacking with just your normal A button attack or attacking with various special moves called Techs. Sounds simple and it is once you get used to it, but its hard to talk about all the aspects in a review. Later Techs you learn can be in one big combo called a Unison Attack. In a Unison attack four Techs are used all at once without giving your enemy any time to attack, very useful. The place where the game really shines is its wonderful characters. I wont name all of them due to spoilers, but here are a few. The main "hero" in the game is Lloyd Irving who uses twin swords to attack. He is good natured but sometimes his good actions get him into trouble. As the game progresses though he matures A LOT and becomes, a good leader. Another character is Collete Brunel, a longtime friend of Lloyd. She is the chosen of Mana who is supposed to restore the worlds mana by releasing the seals, and at the end of her journey, become an angel. Shes a sweet character, and she always thinking of others (sometimes too much.) The third character in the game is Genis Sage, a very smart boy, and best friend of Lloyd. He is the games main magic user, and becomes quite strong. He usually sticks close to Lloyd, as it seems he is the only one who understands the reason Genis can be timid... The fourth character is a somewhat mysterious mercenary, Kratos Aurion. Not much is known about Kratos...at first, though you soon see he plays a very large role throughout the journey. The fifth and final character I will talk about is Raine Sage, who is the older sister of Genis Sage. Raine is a teacher of Iselia (the town you start out in,) and is the teach of Lloyd, Genis, and Collete, and what a job she does at it. Often throughout the game she will stop to babble about various ruins, and studies and such... but in all a very good, and sometimes comical character. Well thats it for the characters Ill just end this review by giving the ages of the characters in the game... that I talked about that is. Lloyd Irving 17 Collete Brunel 16 Genis Sage 12 Kratos Aurion 28 Raine Sage 23 Bottom line, if you are a fan of RPGS and only have a gamecube... This is the game to get, its the BEST one you can get. If you could give or take a RPG... buy it anyway. My exspectations were very high and they were met. Amazon does not have it in stock anymore (why I dont know) but a good place to check would be ebay. Last comment... BUY THE GAME! An Excellent Game for the Gamecube     On: 2007-04-07 Tales of Symphonia, comes out for the Gamecube and WHAM! What a HIT. Graphics: Great Graphics, what can you expect from a Japanese game? Good looking character designs, good looking world. Simple 3D models but excellent use of textures. Gameplay: Excellent, though I have tried the Tales of Destiny and Tales of Destiny 2 battle sequence, Tales of Symphonia still keeps its tradition, except the battle is in 3D. You love the battle sequence because it is very engaging. Story: Absolutely Great! I have been waiting for so long for a game to hold my interest and this is the one of them, a lot of plot twist coming at you! Overall: The game may have its weak points but it strengths compliments it. If you are a gamer looking for a good rpg with a great story and gameplay. Give it a try you wont regret. My Favorite RPG! by: Anonymous    On: 2007-03-12 I bought this game because my freind had ordered it and because it is one of the only role playing games on GCN. When I learned it was multiplayer it was a must have. The begining story was extreemly repetitive (like Zelda) but got much better later on. Until you figure out that Colettes dad will heal you the Tempel was impossible! Also it is really hard to figure out how to get multiplayer to work, because I bought it used and didnt get the guide. I finally found out (on the internet) that you have to go to the Techniqe menu (how stupid is that!) and switch each caracter you want your friends to play off of Auto mode. And then once we got it working you keep gaining and losing characters so it is not always multiplayer! But after the first part of the game that stops happening and the game gets much more enjoyable. The controls are fairly easy and I especially like the way you can have the computer block and jump for younger players (like my 6 year old sister!). Over all this is a great game, the only good RPG for GCN and one of the few multiplayer RGP titles you will find on any system! I havent finished it yet and I look forward to many more hours of adventures with Loyd, Colette and espesialy Genis, my favorite character. A Shining Gem In The Shallow Gene Pool Of The GameCube     On: 2007-03-07 Tales of Symphonia (ToS) is an excellent game for anyone who is bored to death from the tedium of turn-based RPGs. Real time combat is a breath of fresh air that has you looking forward to the next fight. ToS also did away with random encounters, which is something the genre needs to be rid of anyways. The game does an excellent job of enticing you to level up. You continue to learn new and useful spells and skills that dazzle. Though it doesnt have the strongest beginning, once the plot starts rolling, it doesnt stop until the last cutscene. It gets to a point to where its quite hard to actually follow the story, and all you can rely on is emotions such as, "Hey, I cant remember why, but I dont like that guy." The promised animated cutscenes are bogus, as if I remember correctly you get about two. Sure those two are nice...but it promised a lot. This game also leaves many unanswered questions. There are numerous times that youre on the brink of getting to do something, or are promised something, but you are never allowed to. This is due in large to the fact that a lot of this game ties into the other "Tales of" games made by Namco, but still a little disclosure would be nice. Anyways, this is an excellent game no matter how you look at it and is a gem not just for GameCube owners but for video game players in general. Guruguru     On: 2007-01-24 Its a very fun game, I enjoy playing each segment Im looking for Animated Magna ToS? Best so far...     On: 2007-01-17 This was the first Tales game I played. And so far, its the best. The gameplay is NOT hack-and-slash, thank god, and the plot has a bit of depth to it that keeps you interested. ToS gives you a lot of freedom, from traveling in the huge world map and how you respond to your allies. Theres definitely humor thatll make you smile (I dunno about actually "laughing") in there and you actually hear the voices often, unlike Tales of Legendia. The graphics arent gorgeous Final Fantasy style, as youre usually chibi style (the cut scenes are pretty cool though), but youll live. A proper gamer should know graphics arent everything. The actual lenght of the game is long but not as long as Tales of Legendia (if you add the charater quests and all that). Replay value is very high and I seriously recommend this game for the gamecube. One of the only good RPGs in the gamecube, actually. Pros: -lenghty -beautiful music -challenging bosses -good plot -great gameplay -high replay value Cons: -can sometimes become tedious and irritating -puzzles can be too easy to solve -graphics arent that great The pros outnumber the cons as you can see. My only dissapointment is that it wasnt released to the US in the PS2 version. I really wanted in with all the new cutscenes etc. My favorite characters are probably Luke, Genus, and Sheena. Theyre the funniest and I find them rather likeable. Collete, on the other hand, rather irritates me with her sugary sweet personality (makes everyone else feel like demons, honestly), and her too clumsy nature. I feel like Im ranting, so Ill end this review now. Just make sure to buy this game, kay? You wont regret it. Loads of fun but consider all of the ineffective cliches!     On: 2007-01-17 They sacrificed much of the quality of the game for the sake of making it fun. The sad thing is, they didnt have to! They couldve done both if they had just put a little more effort into it! While drooling over the fun combat system and the neat cell-shaded graphics (and these do grow on you) I still wasnt able to stop myself from detecting dozens of places in storyline and character development that could have been so much better if they had just highlighted it a little bit! It still would have been cliched but at least it would have been the good kind - the kind that fulfills all of the requirements a good story needs. Instead, we get this sort of there sort of not thing we all hate to love and love to hate. The bottom line: The storyline, while passable most of the time and enjoyable some of the time, lapses at too many points (sadly this is a spoiler free review or else I would give you an example). The characters, while entertaining and sometimes heartwarming, dont have much in the way of intriuging your mind (plus they sometimes become rather flat, although a few of the voice actors really come through, especially Raines). Also: The laws of logic catch up on you and force you to consider: "Why are my enemies just standing there after being told by their bosses to seize my party while my main characters talk about what their going to do next?" You can start up the rationalization processes "Its just a fantasy game" but that wont always work and besides: People like to have their skepticism suspended when they are trying to enjoy a fictional story. They dont want to rationalize it has holes because it is "just" a game. This defeats part of the original purpose of the game! That said, I really liked this game (especially you Raine) and think anybody who likes RPGs will find something to enjoy out of it (probably the gameplay). I myself was able to get into the plot enough to find the story enjoyable, but it is no masterpiece like FF6 and such. PROS: Good gameplay. Good graphics (if you are predjuiced against cell-shaded - like I said, it usually grows on you) Passable, sometimes good, storyline Passable, sometimes good, characters Pretty good synthesized music (Mithoss Theme = Catchy) CONS: Lackluster storyline at many points Lackluster characters at a good many points Lack of orchestrated music arguably makes it less climatic Plot falls apart in some instances and is very roughly patched back together Tales of Symphonia     On: 2007-01-10 The game is alot of fun. Will keep you on hours to play. Challenging but that is what i like. This. Game. Rocks. by: Anonymous    On: 2006-09-23 This is singlehandedly the best game I have ever played. Play this game only if you have plenty free time (it can take 30-48 hours). The plot is exelent with plenty of twists and turns. Also, the characters are customizable, with plenty of different attacks. The battle system is great. I highly reccomend! How about a review from someone who's not a fanboy? by: darshman    On: 2006-09-13 There was a time when I loved rpgs. Starting with Final Fantasy III for SNES as my main introduction to the genre, I began to go through each release after that like a drug addict. Games that had actual plots other than "do this and you win", leveling up characters how you want, hidden areas with special items or weapons, alternate endings for some, and more, I really loved the genre. Then, Final Fantasy 7 came out, and began what continues to be the popular standard for the genre- typical cliché, predictable sub-par rpgs. Once FF7 came out, rpgs were released like they were nothing. Do I have to mention Legend of Mana? How about Silver? Or what about Sudeki? Squaresoft has really lost it in recent years, and I began to lose interest in rpgs. When I got my GameCube, I knew that Nintendo was pretty much screwed when it came to the genre as well, having what, 3-4? Tales of Symphonia though, was regarded as -the- rpg to play if you had the system. So I bought it without much hesitation, and gave it a shot. Then, I lost interest after a few hours, left it for dead, then gave it another shot some months later. Repeat that process until earlier this year, when I just plain quit caring about it in general and sold it. ToS continues the trend of easily predictable rpgs with no redeeming qualities what so ever, aside from the novelty of having a fun combat system. Yeah, its great not having turn-based fights for a change, but do you really want to just focus on combat in whats otherwise a genre thats supposed to focus on story and character development? Namco and Nintendo sure wanted you to think so, as ToS sprouted countless fanboys that cant seem to look past the combat and character designs. Im happy to let you know that this review will contain no bias that typical rpg-fanboys give. ToS begins with the would-be hero, Lloyd, waking up (surprise surprise) from a nap in school. He fell asleep while his hot teacher, Raine, talks about a "Chosen" and how theyre sent to save the world from complete destruction from what sounds like a completely random and silly event regarding a tree and angels that decide to destroy the world if certain procedures are not followed. Lloyds friend, Colette, just so happens to be the Chosen, and embarks on a journey to save the world, which isnt really in much jeopardy from the looks of things. They run into some trouble from an army who have their own ambitions for world domination, and use helpless townsfolk as guinea pigs for their tests, turning them into hideous creatures that destroy everything in sight. Of course, being your average hero, Lloyd cant take this and makes it his duty to put an end to this army while saving the world with Colette. More or less, take Final Fantasy Xs plot, make it even more linear, and thats what Tales of Symphonia is. Colette would be Yuna, and Lloyd and the others are Yunas guardians. They visit various temples/towers in the world, while at the same time learning of a corrupt religion that has everyone fooled. Sound familiar? But ToS decides to take a few turns in the plot, and has numerous double-crossing by both characters in the party, and side characters. Theres also a very stupid plot device regarding dwarves and elves, and them being enemies, but its not really a big deal. Raine and her brother, Genis (god, if you could just change one letter there...) are half-elves, but theres no point in saying anything about it, since it doesnt give them any benefits over non-elf characters. One of Colettes guardians is Kratos, a well-known legendary knight *cough Auron cough*, who gets quiet whenever Lloyd mentions never knowing his real father. Gee, I wonder what that could mean. He only gives a hint about it in the first 20 minutes of the game when you first meet him. Later, you meet your standard female ninja character who can summon spirits, standard brawler male character with some manners for the heck of it, an alternate to Kratos in the form of a ladies man but still a legend, and an emotionless little girl who can swing axes like theyre feathers, who later becomes herself thanks to the power of friendship. Hey, it sounds like 30+ other games right there! What ToS lacks in characters and plot, and thats A LOT of lacking mind you, it somewhat makes up for in the combat system. You can control your characters, and actually allow other people to play the 3 others in your party. You can attack freely, using skills with the flick of the C-stick and melee attacks with the A button, while being able to block and dodge easily. Its pretty cool, and good to see that its not real-time disguised as turn-based like some other modern rpgs have. One of the fun parts about this is that you can create combos that rank in the 6 digits if youre really good. Though the game came out several years ago, many people are still outdoing each other when it comes to combo counts. It gets crazy. But this is really the only good thing I can say about the game. Everything else is just a waste. The wannabe "innovative" Cook skill allows you to create meals to heal the entire party after fights while the experience count racks up, or from the status screen as well. It costs a lot to create meals, as you need various types of food for each one, and really isnt worth it when you can just use healing magic or rest at an inn and get the same effect for even less money. But, I guess theres some fun in finding the chef who gives you these recipes, who is hidden in each town. The back of the games box leads you to believe that there are many animated cut scenes done in "anime" style, but in reality, there are maybe 3, including the opening movie montage. ToS is on two discs, but most of the game...about 70% is the first disc. If it werent for Nintendo choosing mini-discs for the GCs format, it could easily fit on one dvd instead, as the game isnt graphic-heavy. One more thing regarding the plot- you can ignore most of it, and it wont matter: characters verbally say the meaningful plot points, but youre just given text to read when its something minor, or just a clue for where to go next. Hint- when you hear the GC loading a new track or something, pay attention to the dialogue...if you think itll get interesting, which it doesnt. Ever. Really, I found myself predicting the lines and being 95% accurate. This game is for rpg-newbies at most, and even then, there are much better games to start out with. Add in some forced, obligatory puzzles in each temple [some that force you to restart the whole thing if you screw up once at any point], and youve got yet another generic rpg. Visually, its nothing special, but gets some things right. Characters are given a nice cel-shaded look, but are VERY blurry when you get a close-up shot of them. I dont understand why this made it through production- its that annoying. You can see it in any pictures of close-ups of the characters faces. Check it out and see what I mean. The backgrounds and everything else tend to look decent to pretty, depending on the place. The world map however, is just a joke, reminiscent of a PSone rpgs like FF7. Wait no, it sometimes looks like the Mode-7 stuff from the SNES days. Hoo boy. As for the soundtrack, there are some good themes, but most of it is unmemorable. Aside from the map theme, which youll hear a lot, I cant recall any from memory this very moment. But a lot of tracks are used frequently, like the "sad" music, or the "angry" music. After playing the game for 5 hours or so, youll begin to know when each one will be used during the cut scenes/story parts. The voice acting though, is a mixed bag. Theres some good talent here, but theyre not used properly. The voice of Lloyd is the same guy who plays Robin on Teen Titans, and it really sounds like hes reading right off the script rather than expressing each line. Kratos actor doesnt seem to know what range is, Genis only knows happy and WAAAAAAAGE!!, and the others are tolerable. Except for stupid Colette. God I hate that character. Nearly every line she says is an apology for nothing. If you absolutely NEED an rpg for the GC, I guess ToS is worth a purchase, as long as its for under ten bucks. Anything over that is robbery. Besides, you could give others like Paper Mario and Baten Kaitos a shot, which are both better than this thing could ever be. But keep in mind that this wont be anything special unless you lie to yourself and keep waiting for something cool to happen, never getting said thing, and not being able to admit that ToS wasnt good at all. ToS Shall Expel You Of Your Flaws!     On: 2006-09-11 This is the game that will make you regret not buying a GameCube (Unless you live in Japan where there is also a PS2 version.) This game has a deep storyline, but isnt afraid to inject moments of side-splitting humor. It starts out rather slow (Chosen one Collette goes out to ressurect the world with the help of friends Lloyd(the main character) and Genis, and the mysterious swordsman Kratos. But, about a third of the way into the story, the plot thickens with betrayal, a second world, and a much more involved plan on the part of the antagonists. Gameplay is mostly standard RPG flair (dungeons filled with puzzles, city exploration, shops and inns) except for the battles. Turn-based they are not. ToS employs a real-time battle system similar to an action game. You can take control of any one of 8 characters (there are 9 playable, but you must choose between two of them). As many as four party members fight at once, any number of them can be controlled by a player. Simple button-mashing will defeat most "grunt" enemies, but against bosses you will want to use advanced battle techniques. The battle system allows you to link together attacks (sometimes from CPU-controlled allies) to rack up large combos and tons of damage. Random battles can be avoided to some degree since overworld monsters appear as black blobs (this is one of the weaknesses of the graphics, though). Some pursue you though and are near-impossible to avoid. The story can be further stretched out by embarking on sidequests that further explain the backstory of the characters. It should be noted that the games toughest boss is part of a sidequest and not the final boss. Aside from the aforementioned black blobs that represent enemy parties, the graphics are stunning. Beautifully designed backgrounds go perfectly with the wonderful cel-shaded anime inspired character desgins of Kousuke Fujishima (In fact, this game was indirectly responsible for getting me hooked on the Ah My Goddess anime series, another Fujishima work). It all adds up to a beautiful game that truly stands out. The anime cutscents are well done, but a bit too few and far between. The sound is also worthy of note. The voice actors do an excellent job and the music is usually set well to the mood and environment of the current setting. Tales Of Symphonia is an excellent game, especially considering the GameCubes limited library. Since its now a Players Choice Game with a lower price, its a definite must-buy game. insanely awesome by: Anonymous    On: 2006-08-06 ok what i liked about this game was the fact that you can switch which character you can play as in the game field and in the battle sequences(which were designed the way most people i know lOVE) the story-line was hard to get into at first,but the further i got in the game the deeper everything became, it was as if each character had a dark seacret(which they did.)there were so many twists that it was uncanny i once thought i beat the game but it turned out i was only half-way in it but wen i did beat it i found out that if u start a new game it can add more to it,dont know what i mean?well beat the game when you buy it to find out! WARNING:THIS GAME SCRATCHES EASILY IF YOU PLAY IT TO MUCH!!! Cool game by: Anonymous    On: 2006-08-04 Though Im not into anime, I did think this game was pretty cool. Its kind of slow in the begining, and its hard to get used to controls, but further in the game it gets a little easier. The whole fight system is pretty cool too cause you wont know what kind of monsters youll be fighting. The story lines kind of confusing cause what ever you do, it could effect your game play. The creatures are pretty cool, and the bosses are fun. Further in the game you get all sorts of cool weapons and magic to fight with. If you like action and great story lines I suggest you get this along with baten kaitos. Snap! Case in point, this game owns my heart     On: 2006-07-31 So yeah it starts as slow as any game ever could, in fact the first two hours are unbearable! It only picks up after you join Colette, then, damn son your life is owned. Ive never been so obessed with a game in my life. Im spending hours just fighting bad dudes and trying to find new EX compounds (I got it so I couldnt get status ailments, that is sick!). I mean the story gets better at first I rolled my eyes and sighed, then as I played well I just couldnt wait to find out whats next. The game has laughs, Raine is hot, freakin Sheena is a fox and Collette, naw not my thing. But anyways, I havent beaten it yet, but its intriguing, the characters have more depth than I expected (it seemed more like a Saturday morning cartoon when I started it) there were laughs and some of the puzzle are kinda fun (some are aggravating, like that stupid wind temple riddle, argh!) like the when you get to shrink yourself with the Wizard ring and fight giant rats, awesome. Combos are great, earning titles, getting famous and paid, yeah this game has go it. The only complaint I have is that the bosses are sometimes damn hard! It took me forever to beat the Sylphs and it makes me feel like such an inferior being using 20 life potions in one boss battle (INFERIOR BIENG!). Plus it sucks that Sheena can only summon when she is over her limit! Oh man you just gotta pick this bad boy up! Ive played the lamest and Ive played the best, ya know junior! I"m junior, biatch! LOVE THIS GAME!     On: 2006-07-30 I LOVE THIS GAME!!! Tales of Symphonia is the best game i have ever played, and i have played a lot of games. if you like video games at all you will love Tales of Symphonia! its a little sad at times but is a lot of fun. its really funny. this is a must have for any video game fan!!! One of the best games ever     On: 2006-06-27 This game is great. It is fun, interesting, long, and challenging. On the world map you can go where you want when you want. There are a lot side quests which makes it even better. The plot is interesting and full of twists. The battles are real-time battles almost like Super Smash Bros. The battles are multiplayer so you can have your friends battle with you. There are no random battles. The battles are started by running into an enemy on the world map or in a dungeon like in Paper Mario 2. I really like the battles because they are different then most RPGs. There are eight characters. You can use four in a battle at once. Each character has a background which you learn about as the game moves on. You get the characters over the course of the game. I like the characters because each one is different and interesting. This is a really fun game and I suggest that you get it. Tales of Symphonia is Awsome! by: Anonymous    On: 2006-06-02 Tales of Symphonia is Awsome! I have it and I like it alot. The battles can be a little boring though. But I like the charachters and the secret techs. But theres alittle bit of saying the D and B word. Easily one of the finest games ever     On: 2006-05-29 Combining truly shocking degrees of innovation, quality, and fun, an accurate paean to this game could go on for pages and pages. Suffice it to say its safely one of the five best video games ever made in any measure, whether accoladed for being ahead of its time, well-executed and extra-special in all the fine details, most playable, most fun, or most memorable. The multiplayer aspect is a very significant part of the games profound enjoyability and yumminess. Tales of Symphonia is simply a must-have, a killer app whether youre oldschool like me or newschool like my friend- we enjoyed it so much together. Probably best of all is the potential for recurring jokes, undefined scandal (why is there so much tension between Sheena and Zelos? heh heh heh), and the biggest aspect of an epic journey that every other video game (and even traditional RPG) misses completely: the experience of travelling together, sharing their lives, and the contribution of each well-developed character to the experience of the others. I also liked the music a lot more than other reviewers apparently. Theres probably no better single game to own. Im amazed this wasnt a Silicon Knights project. Still don't know what Symphonia means, but this game rocks!     On: 2006-03-18 I rented this game once with a friend without even knowing what it was, and was surprised that we kept going back to rent it every time we were together until I finally got it for Christmas, a week or two later. This game is awesome (or at least to me it is)! I didnt expect it to be as good as it was when I took it off the shelf. It has great, fast paced gameplay, an engaging storyline with lots of secrets (though some people dont like the storyline), and amusing, believable characters! As mentioned, some people dont like the storyline in Tales of Symphonia, this is mainly because it has some cheesy moments... Personally, I just found these moments and lines amusing. The storyline does have lots of emotion and depth though, and I was always kept on the edge of my seat because of all the hidden secrets. The story does of one issue though - pacing. The story moves very slowly, and it takes forever before anything is revealed. In the beginning the plot seems pretty typical, Collete the Chosen has to awaken all the elemental seals in the land of Sylvarant to bring regeneration to the world. But as you progress it gets a lot more complicated than that (you are only going after the seals for about a little less than half the game)! And you realize that nothing is as it seems. The characters are great, they are a little more like "normal" people than most RPG heroes, and they all have flaws and good points. There are 9 playable characters in this game (though ultimately you can only have 8 in your party, your group depends on story events), I will now introduce them, be aware that theres some MILD SPOILERS, but I tried to introduce them with the least amount of spoilers possible. Lloyd is the main protagonist - he accompanies Collete on her journey of regeneration, and is also trying to avenge his mothers death and the terrible accident he is partially responsible for in his home town of Iselia. He isnt particularly bright, and can be a little rash, but always tries to do the right thing. Genis is one of Lloyds best friends, also from Iselia. He is a whiz kid, and an elven magic user. Hes a little head strong. Collete is the Chosen, who must release the seals. She is clumsy, gentle, and well, immature, but has a strong sense of responsibility and is very caring. There is also Kratos, who is a mysterious mercenary hired to protect Collete - but it seems he made be hiding something (or lots of things...). Raines the elven school teacher in Iselia, and Genis older sister. She has an interest in archeology, and is good at healing magic. Sheena is an assassin hired to kill Collete the Chosen, though her motives for this are unknown at the beginning. Sheena truly cares about people, but takes guff from no one! She is also trained in the art of Summoning. Zelos is cocky and flirtatious (putting it lightly...), but there might be more to him than that... He is a Chosen, like Collete. Presea has a lack of emotion because of an experiment conducted on her. She struggles to find herself again. Regal is kinda the odd one out (hes my least favorite character, anyway), he is a convict that is surprising aristocratic for being one, cant say much else without spoilers. The gameplay has basic RPG elements (talking to people, navigating world maps, solving puzzles in dungeons, etc.), with a fun real-time battle system. The battles always feel crisp, and you can play as any one of the characters I just mentioned. You can pick 3 others to accompany you into battle. You can attack normally, do powerful techs and magic, and unison attacks. You can also set strategies for the computer controlled character in battle to follow, or order them to do certain techs. Some characters are good at melee fighting, some are healers (Raine mainly), and some are mages (Genis mainly). Up to four players can take control of the characters in battle, so your friends can fight along with you! You gain experience, gald, and grade (or lose grade) when you complete a battle. Gald is the currency, and you can also buy certain things with grade (including cool bonuses if you play the game a second time), and you level up with exp. The game also has a title system (where you unlock and chose "titles" to change certain stats, sometimes costumes change too), and a cooking system (used for healing). And also has the element of "affection", where you answer questions as Lloyd to either get your fellow party members to like or dislike you - this slightly effects the story. The game is challenging without being overly frustrating (though if you really spend time leveling up it becomes pretty easy, and the final boss is disappointing). It also has tons of fun side-quests to do BEFORE beating the game (one annoying thing is after you beat the game you must restart, do all side-quests first!). Whew! This is probably my longest review ever... Well, time for a pros and cons summary: PROS: Fun and frantic battle system Likable characters with lots of personality Plot has lots of secrets About right amount of challenge throughout most of the game Lots of side-quests, and you can buy bonuses 2nd time round Multiple paths through the story Good multi-player in battles CONS: Plot has bad pacing Has some cheesy moments Can be a little hard to figure where to go next sometimes Final boss is WAY to easy Dont have a chance to do side-quests after finishing, before restarting OVERALL: I love this game - personally its one of my very favorites! It may not be for everybody, but I think a lot of people would really like it. I recommend at least renting it (baring in mind the beginning is rather slow). Better RPGs Have Come and Gone... Just Not on the Overlooked GameCube...     On: 2006-03-08 The quick summary of Symphonia is that youll play the role of Lloyd Irving, a teenaged boy with a cloudy past, who stumbles (along with several friends, naturally) into the adventure of a lifetime, culminating in the rescue of not one, but two endangered worlds. It seems that Lloyds lifelong friend, Colette, is at the center of a once-every-generation pilgrimage that leads to the mysterious salvation of the world, and that everyone but Lloyd realizes that this journey will not end well for Colette. Basically, its the plot of Final Fantasy X with more of a homogenized, Saturday morning cartoon flair, and less hideous flying monsters named "Sin." I had a really hard time enjoying the progression of the story, as not only was the writing a bit suspect and the characters largely unlikable, but the pacing was jerky and off-putting. After a handful of hours of treading water and building toward an ongoing climax, just as things would begin to get interesting, the story would slam on the brakes and go right back to treading water again. If the writing was feeling particularly exotic, maybe youd gain or lose a party member in the process. Perhaps most accountable for the slow death of the story was the inclusion of far, far too much unnecessary dialog, without any sort of payoff to validate its existence. This is a game that would have benefitted tremendously had it been basically halved in length. The plot isnt without its intricacies and shining moments, but theyre so few and far between that they lose a lot of their impact amid the tedious, back and forth discussions and repeatedly dull, fetch-and-return styled missions. Conversations almost always go on well beyond the point of good reason, even in key situations. Its understandable to have a silly, one-sided conversation with an unimportant character on the outskirts of a city somewhere... such dialog is the bread and butter of RPGs as a whole. Where such meanderings are less acceptable and more damaging, however, are in the key scenes after crucial battles or big plot twists. About two thirds of the conversations in Symphonia are delivered via written text, while the more important chats are spoken by a cast of voice actors... its a fairly good way to indicate to the player that they need to pay special attention to whats going on, because whats being discussed is going to affect the way the game plays out from that point forward. Yet even these spoken scenes are usually marred by poor writing and unnecessary asides that only serve to elongate the experience. I spent fifty two hours shoveling through about twenty hours worth of really interesting material. Assuming you can look past the majority of the story, however, the actual practice of playing the game is an extremely enjoyable ride, with plenty of innovation to go alongside the more universally applied elements. All fights occur in real-time, and more resemble a limited Final Fight-style beat-em-up than a standard, turn-based RPG. Youre limited to four party members in the field at one time, and will be routinely facing off with as many as six enemies at once. At first glance, the system looks to be nothing more than button mashing and a little luck, but as you become more familiar with your special attacks, working in conjunction with your teammates and shifting your strategy to fit each battle, the actual depth and flexibility of the system becomes much more evident. To tell the truth, I was far from a fan of this battle system until roughly the ten hour mark, when that tiny switch flicked in the back of my brain and I finally understood the intricacies of a fight in the world of Symphonia. The in-game instructions arent exactly helpful in explaining the full potential of its own mechanics, which leaves you to sort things out on your own... and actually, I preferred it that way. Its much more rewarding when you develop a particularly successful strategy and apply it than it would have been, had you merely followed instructions and begun to paint by number. The controller setup works well with the way the battle system functions, and never gets in the way, even when things are at their most frenzied. Successfully using the GameCubes controller is usually just a matter of how effectively the "A" button is mapped, since its basically the sole point of focus on the hardware, with every other button and even the analog stick playing a secondary role. Fortunately, Symphonia handles the button in question admirably. In a battle, its your driving force, working in conjunction with the direction you happen to be pressing on the analog stick to begin one of your basic attacks. While enduring one of the games lengthy speaking segments, it both increases the speed at which the text appears and acknowledges that youve finished reading that passage and are now physically and emotionally prepared to enjoy the next sentence fragment. Its the only button you absolutely, positively have to have. The rest of the buttons are laid out, basically, declining in button size as they also decline in order of importance. The "B" button activates both your special attacks and your magic, depending on the type of character youre controlling. The "Y" button brings up whichever menu is appropriate at the moment, the trigger buttons momentarily pause the action while you choose a primary target, and the tiny "Z" button initiates incidental conversations at seemingly random points around the map. Because if theres one thing this game needed, it was more incidental conversation. One area in which the controls run into a snag is in the world map, where roaming around the land can quickly become a headache-inducing experience. The camera angles chosen for this view are typically an overhead perspective, following the player from behind and perhaps zoomed in just a little bit too close for comfort. Should the camera nudge anything above ground level, such as a cliff or small building, however, itll shift to a godawful view, directly over your party. Itll also kindly zoom in beyond the point of any comprehension, so that youre basically seeing your lead characters scalp and a few feet in either direction around him. Naturally, this makes navigating the map extremely difficult, and usually requires some maneuvering to get back into something resembling a workable view. Inside dungeons and during battle, no such issues are evident. The visuals are one area in which this title really excels. Although most characters are rendered via cel shading, which is a technique Im starting to see overused more and more, they never look forced or unnatural. Set against the beautiful, painterly appearance of the entirety of the games backdrops and surrounding textures, the shading gives the impression of a big budget, animated motion picture. Its a truly lovely combination, and gives the title a style and look all its own. The character designs are provided by Kosuke Fukishima, well known for his work with the "Oh My Goddess!" and "Youre Under Arrest" animated series, and is truly a shining point for the title. The world is filled with a unique visual flair, which is both represented and enhanced by the characters appearances and their choice in clothing (aside from Lloyd, who wears a jacket that he may as well have lifted from Vash the Stampede himself). The enemies are universally outstanding, and rarely fall to the RPG trend of merely recoloring a design and unleashing it as an entirely different villain. My only real complaint lies with the notable lack of cutscenes during dramatic moments, and thats more a personal preference than anything else. From start to finish, there are three animated cutscenes in this title, and none run for longer than a minute and a half. That makes the giant shot of just such a scene right on the back of the case a bit misleading, and there were surely some moments that would have benefitted tremendously from a little additional visual flair. Instead, 99% of the game is live-rendered, and while this is an example of one of the GameCubes better looking titles, I really wouldve preferred to see a little bit more than cel shaded polygons after a big fight from time to time. The audio has its ups and its downs, honestly. Some of the voice acting is really top notch, such as the brooding, secretive speech of Kratos and the unintentionally snooty tone of Raine, but for every character with a quality voice, there exist two or three that are absolutely wretched. Most of the summon monsters have irritating voices, and the leading duo of Lloyd and Colette are so super-nice and cheery, I want to take after them with a rusty butcher knife and a bag of salt. The music, as well, goes beyond the point of no return with the inspiration gathered from colorful nature of the graphics, and is almost entirely forgettable. If I werent such a stickler for listening to every last moment of spoken dialog in a game, Id have more than likely played this from start to finish with the television muted and my iPod providing the audio input. Simply, if youre a GameCube owner and youre jonesin for an RPG, this will fill your need adequately. The battle system is outstanding, if youve got the patience to figure it out via trial and error, and the visuals are worth a look or two, because they use the Cubes hardware fairly well. If youre also the owner of a PS2 and / or an Xbox, Ive got to say there are far better titles out there in the genre. The story stinks, the characters need some serious work, and there is a LOT. OF. NEEDLESS. CONVERSATION. Id call the entire package above average, but its not really anything Im going to recommend my friends go out of their way to try out. Better RPGs Have Come and Gone... Just Not on the Overlooked GameCube...     On: 2006-03-07 The quick summary of Symphonia is that youll play the role of Lloyd Irving, a teenaged boy with a cloudy past, who stumbles (along with several friends, naturally) into the adventure of a lifetime, culminating in the rescue of not one, but two endangered worlds. It seems that Lloyds lifelong friend, Colette, is at the center of a once-every-generation pilgrimage that leads to the mysterious salvation of the world, and that everyone but Lloyd realizes that this journey will not end well for Colette. Basically, its the plot of Final Fantasy X with more of a homogenized, Saturday morning cartoon flair, and less hideous flying monsters named "Sin." I had a really hard time enjoying the progression of the story, as not only was the writing a bit suspect and the characters largely unlikable, but the pacing was jerky and off-putting. After a handful of hours of treading water and building toward an ongoing climax, just as things would begin to get interesting, the story would slam on the brakes and go right back to treading water again. If the writing was feeling particularly exotic, maybe youd gain or lose a party member in the process. Perhaps most accountable for the slow death of the story was the inclusion of far, far too much unnecessary dialog, without any sort of payoff to validate its existence. This is a game that would have benefitted tremendously had it been basically halved in length. The plot isnt without its intricacies and shining moments, but theyre so few and far between that they lose a lot of their impact amid the tedious, back and forth discussions and repeatedly dull, fetch-and-return styled missions. Conversations almost always go on well beyond the point of good reason, even in key situations. Its understandable to have a silly, one-sided conversation with an unimportant character on the outskirts of a city somewhere... such dialog is the bread and butter of RPGs as a whole. Where such meanderings are less acceptable and more damaging, however, are in the key scenes after crucial battles or big plot twists. About two thirds of the conversations in Symphonia are delivered via written text, while the more important chats are spoken by a cast of voice actors... its a fairly good way to indicate to the player that they need to pay special attention to whats going on, because whats being discussed is going to affect the way the game plays out from that point forward. Yet even these spoken scenes are usually marred by poor writing and unnecessary asides that only serve to elongate the experience. I spent fifty two hours shoveling through about twenty hours worth of really interesting material. Assuming you can look past the majority of the story, however, the actual practice of playing the game is an extremely enjoyable ride, with plenty of innovation to go alongside the more universally applied elements. All fights occur in real-time, and more resemble a limited Final Fight-style beat-em-up than a standard, turn-based RPG. Youre limited to four party members in the field at one time, and will be routinely facing off with as many as six enemies at once. At first glance, the system looks to be nothing more than button mashing and a little luck, but as you become more familiar with your special attacks, working in conjunction with your teammates and shifting your strategy to fit each battle, the actual depth and flexibility of the system becomes much more evident. To tell the truth, I was far from a fan of this battle system until roughly the ten hour mark, when that tiny switch flicked in the back of my brain and I finally understood the intricacies of a fight in the world of Symphonia. The in-game instructions arent exactly helpful in explaining the full potential of its own mechanics, which leaves you to sort things out on your own... and actually, I preferred it that way. Its much more rewarding when you develop a particularly successful strategy and apply it than it would have been, had you merely followed instructions and begun to paint by number. The controller setup works well with the way the battle system functions, and never gets in the way, even when things are at their most frenzied. Successfully using the GameCubes controller is usually just a matter of how effectively the "A" button is mapped, since its basically the sole point of focus on the hardware, with every other button and even the analog stick playing a secondary role. Fortunately, Symphonia handles the button in question admirably. In a battle, its your driving force, working in conjunction with the direction you happen to be pressing on the analog stick to begin one of your basic attacks. While enduring one of the games lengthy speaking segments, it both increases the speed at which the text appears and acknowledges that youve finished reading that passage and are now physically and emotionally prepared to enjoy the next sentence fragment. Its the only button you absolutely, positively have to have. The rest of the buttons are laid out, basically, declining in button size as they also decline in order of importance. The "B" button activates both your special attacks and your magic, depending on the type of character youre controlling. The "Y" button brings up whichever menu is appropriate at the moment, the trigger buttons momentarily pause the action while you choose a primary target, and the tiny "Z" button initiates incidental conversations at seemingly random points around the map. Because if theres one thing this game needed, it was more incidental conversation. One area in which the controls run into a snag is in the world map, where roaming around the land can quickly become a headache-inducing experience. The camera angles chosen for this view are typically an overhead perspective, following the player from behind and perhaps zoomed in just a little bit too close for comfort. Should the camera nudge anything above ground level, such as a cliff or small building, however, itll shift to a godawful view, directly over your party. Itll also kindly zoom in beyond the point of any comprehension, so that youre basically seeing your lead characters scalp and a few feet in either direction around him. Naturally, this makes navigating the map extremely difficult, and usually requires some maneuvering to get back into something resembling a workable view. Inside dungeons and during battle, no such issues are evident. The visuals are one area in which this title really excels. Although most characters are rendered via cel shading, which is a technique Im starting to see overused more and more, they never look forced or unnatural. Set against the beautiful, painterly appearance of the entirety of the games backdrops and surrounding textures, the shading gives the impression of a big budget, animated motion picture. Its a truly lovely combination, and gives the title a style and look all its own. The character designs are provided by Kosuke Fukishima, well known for his work with the "Oh My Goddess!" and "Youre Under Arrest" animated series, and is truly a shining point for the title. The world is filled with a unique visual flair, which is both represented and enhanced by the characters appearances and their choice in clothing (aside from Lloyd, who wears a jacket that he may as well have lifted from Vash the Stampede himself). The enemies are universally outstanding, and rarely fall to the RPG trend of merely recoloring a design and unleashing it as an entirely different villain. My only real complaint lies with the notable lack of cutscenes during dramatic moments, and thats more a personal preference than anything else. From start to finish, there are three animated cutscenes in this title, and none run for longer than a minute and a half. That makes the giant shot of just such a scene right on the back of the case a bit misleading, and there were surely some moments that would have benefitted tremendously from a little additional visual flair. Instead, 99% of the game is live-rendered, and while this is an example of one of the GameCubes better looking titles, I really wouldve preferred to see a little bit more than cel shaded polygons after a big fight from time to time. The audio has its ups and its downs, honestly. Some of the voice acting is really top notch, such as the brooding, secretive speech of Kratos and the unintentionally snooty tone of Raine, but for every character with a quality voice, there exist two or three that are absolutely wretched. Most of the summon monsters have irritating voices, and the leading duo of Lloyd and Colette are so super-nice and cheery, I want to take after them with a rusty butcher knife and a bag of salt. The music, as well, goes beyond the point of no return with the inspiration gathered from colorful nature of the graphics, and is almost entirely forgettable. If I werent such a stickler for listening to every last moment of spoken dialog in a game, Id have more than likely played this from start to finish with the television muted and my iPod providing the audio input. Simply, if youre a GameCube owner and youre jonesin for an RPG, this will fill your need adequately. The battle system is outstanding, if youve got the patience to figure it out via trial and error, and the visuals are worth a look or two, because they use the Cubes hardware fairly well. If youre also the owner of a PS2 and / or an Xbox, Ive got to say there are far better titles out there in the genre. The story stinks, the characters need some serious work, and there is a LOT. OF. NEEDLESS. CONVERSATION. Id call the entire package above average, but its not really anything Im going to recommend my friends go out of their way to try out. Shutup Lloyd... by: Anonymous    On: 2006-03-01 This was an okay game but the characters talk WAY too long. Its like "let us play the frickin game already!" I think the battles look awful. They could have done so much better. When I bought it a few months ago, I played it for a few hours, and havent picked it up since. Sould have game of the year award! by: Anonymous    On: 2006-02-24 Best game ever. Great gameplay and graphics. But the storyline is the best ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A hidden story     On: 2006-02-19 I wasnt quite sure whether to pick up Tales of Symphonia or not, because I hadnt heard much about it. It isnt one of those famous games like Final Fantasy, but I swear it is definitly my 2nd favorite GCN game, just simply for the fact that multiplayer is confusing to set up. Most players try this game out and think its boring and it just makes me wish the introduction was shorter. They never even get 1/5 the way through it. If you want a good story, an extremely strategic real-time battle system, and BELIEVABLE characters, this is the game for you... I just described the perfect RPG! The second half of the game is the great part. Im not the general fan of console RPGs, but this blew me away. You dont have to do everything in the exact order, and when I completed the game I only had 80 some percent. There was tons more I could accomplish! Its like the game never ends! If I had to chose 1 out of all of the 30 GCN games I have, it would be with no doubt Tales of Symphonia. The whole story could be put into a full length movie, and when I finished the game I didnt want it to end. There are some neat features at the end where you can make it faster to accomplish if you decide to play the whole game again. Make sure you have a fairly large memory cards to make lots of files to save at different sections of the game to go back and play those certain parts. This game could be a novel, a game, or even a film! Memories from this game make me so happy. I especially love the theme song to Hima. I hope you try this out! The beginning makes you think its a very short story, and it makes you feel like you dont want to play it anymore. Trust me, once you get past that stretch at the beginning, you wont want to take your hands of the game. If you stop in the middle and say "That was a crappy game" and leave it to collect dust, then you dont have any patience. If you finish the game, then theres no doubt that you love this game. Im just trying to get through that this IS a GREAT game if you give it time. GRAPHICS: Cel-shading=Original, SOUND: The songs bring back good memories STORYLINE: Amazing, outstanding, BEST STORY IVE EVER HEARD, Tons of twists in the plot, lots of hard-core trust and respect. GAMEPLAY: 4 player in real-time with SSBM style set up (without all the jumping) The only con is that you can only do 1 player when walking on the field and dungeons. 4 player is only allowed in engagements with an enemy. OVERALL: 5/5 Overall, I say namco did an excellent job on ToS. From what I hear Baten Kaitos is more fun for people that like action rather than a storyline, and Tales of Symphonia is more fun for people that like storyline AND action. Its filled with emotion and reminds me of the chimera episode on Full Metal Alchemist. One last con is that there should be speaking parts on the scripts where you press Z and you see little conversations between everyone, but that would take up TONS more memory space on game, and it would delay the release from the Japanese version (which has the voice parts). Final Words: If you let a friend borrow it, tell them to play it until half way. Then they will love it. Beautiful Game     On: 2006-02-09 This game is probobly the most beautiful game I have ever played. I have nothing bad at all to say about it. The graphics are AMAZING. The storyline is easy to understand, but it constantly suprises you. The gameplay is SUPERB. Rheards rule. The real-time battles are amazing. The box says there is 80 hous of gameplay. It took my over 50 and the shortest that I know is 48:07. Plot 6/5 Fighting 11/5 ANIMATION 300/5 Any RPG fan would LOVE THIS GAME Too many stars? Oh HELL no.... by: Anonymous    On: 2006-01-28 To put it bluntly, this is the best game ever made. I mean it. Especially if your tired of all those sucky games that have started coming out. First off the graphics on this game is incredible. Especially the characters, beautifully drawn by Mr.Kosuke Fujishima himself! The story line is incredible. And there are two discs!! TWO!!! DISCS!!!! Ah...sorry bout that. But trust me, this game is awesome. Hell, its beyond awesome.... ....SO BUY IT!!!! what fun!     On: 2006-01-27 I ADORE THIS GAME!!!! Of course when I first played it it took me hours to understand since Im not that great at gameplaying...the second time (since with your GRADE you can make things a little bit easier) was a breeze and for people who say it isnt 80 hours I BET they didnt do any of the side quests. Like the wonderchef, the devils arms, everyones strongest weapons, reaching level 100 or meltokio colisseum. I personally love this game. But might I say I despised the characters at first but if you carefully watch all of the conversations theyre all pretty cool-except colette..she sucks no matter what. She says "Im sorry" basically every time she speaks. Even when Lloyd tells her to stop apologizing...she still does it! GAHHHHH!!!! Lloyd is the easiest with skills. I find him easy to fight with. And presea is really strong...wow. At first she is basically nothing, she has no emotions or thought but shes really interesting..especially when you get her costume (I bet you guys didnt get all their titles either). With her "relation" to Regal I didnt really like him either. But since I play Lloyd and I had all the combo conversations to get their relationships up, hes very fatherly to Lloyd and cares about the group. Genis is in love with Preasea and i dont care what you say hes nearly as bad as colette. UGH! But his sister Raine is an exceptional character since she slaps genis I do get enjoyment out of that ^_^. And SHEENA! whoo I adore her. Sheena is my favorite character-she can summon spirits, make pacts, use gaurdians and depending on how you control the game she may become Lloyds girlfriend! (flanoir scene) Zelos is very umm..perverted. but he is pretty funny. His sister seles..oh man do I hate her!!! Kratos (in relation to Lloyd..his father) is a very cool character. He is one of the four seraphim but he also helps out Lloyd because hes on both sides (Kind of like Askitaka in the movie Princess Mononoke). And Im glad Mithos dies at the end cos he sucks. MUSIC: very good, I love the songs. I have the soundtrack which is lovely also might I add CHARCTER DEVELOPMENT: Lloyds kinda too good for my taste and so is Colette. Luckily Genis got on my good side when he held Lloyd back when Colette was about to sacrifice herself. Raine stays basically the same, she has many fans (Like Linar and Zelos) and is a very knowledgeable half-elf. kratos becomes a very amazing character at the end. And Sheena becomes a strong person. Zelos..it depends, he may become good or go horribly evil. Presea kinda changes but not to much. And regal who for some reason never takes those damn shackles off finally changes once you get the rheiards and you start looking for the talk scenes SCENES: the dialouge takes forever but I dont mind sometimes..sometimes COMBAT: Can be EXTREMELY difficult with some characters. I suck with the magic so I play Lloyd or Kratos(when he is a playable character) FUN: I <3 it The Best Game for the Gamecube hands down!!!     On: 2006-01-27 When Tales of Symphonia was released a year ago, it brought big changes to the world of RPGs. Tales is what is commonly referred to by gamers as a "action RPG", where instead of giving commands in a turn-based format, you actually do all the fighting yourself. That is where the similarities to standard Action RPGs end however. Tales has a long and sweeping story involving nine playable characters, each with his or her own part to play and story to unfurl. As the game opens, the main hero of the game, Lloyd Irving, is in school in the village of Iselia, with his friends Genis Sage, a child genius and magic user, and Colette Brunel, the Chosen of Mana, when a oracle is conveyed. This oracle is a signal that Colette is to be confirmed as the next Chosen of Mana, whose job is to unlock the seals in the world of Sylvarant and become a Angel thus restoring the normal flow of mana, the essence of all life, to the dying world of Sylvarant. While undergoing the confirmation trial Lloyd, Colette, and Genis encounter a strange mercenary Kratos, who joins up for some unknown reason to help protect the fledling chosen. All this happens in just the first 30 minutes of the game which promises over 80 hours of gameplay. In addition to the storyline, there are several sidequests to be undertaken during the game. One of the earliest involves having Colette name dogs in each town visited to gain a special Title which will increase the stat bonuses she receives upon leveling up. Tales of Symphonia is a wonderful game you will find yourself playing again and again, something that very few RPGs are able to give you reason to do. The in-game conversations span a whole range of topics dealing with everything from Honor and Loyalty, to how incovenient it is for a angel to deal with their wings when changing clothes. If you play RPGs and havent played Tales yet, or are looking for a good game to get started in the genre, Tales is the best RPG on the Gamecube. Plus its now selling for under $20, so it is perfect for those on a budget, so pick it up and give it a try. Youll like it. I guarantee it. what fun!     On: 2006-01-26 I ADORE THIS GAME!!!! Of course when I first played it it took me hours to understand since Im not that great at gameplaying...the second time (since with your GRADE you can make things a little bit easier) was a breeze and for people who say it isnt 80 hours I BET they didnt do any of the side quests. Like the wonderchef, the devils arms, everyones strongest weapons, reaching level 100 or meltokio colisseum. I personally love this game. But might I say I despised the characters at first but if you carefully watch all of the conversations theyre all pretty cool-except colette..she sucks no matter what. She says "Im sorry" basically every time she speaks. Even when Lloyd tells her to stop apologizing...she still does it! GAHHHHH!!!! Lloyd is the easiest with skills. I find him easy to fight with. And presea is really strong...wow. At first she is basically nothing, she has no emotions or thought but shes really interesting..especially when you get her costume (I bet you guys didnt get all their titles either). With her "relation" to Regal I didnt really like him either. But since I play Lloyd and I had all the combo conversations to get their relationships up, hes very fatherly to Lloyd and cares about the group. Genis is in love with Preasea and i dont care what you say hes nearly as bad as colette. UGH! But his sister Raine is an exceptional character since she slaps genis I do get enjoyment out of that ^_^. And SHEENA! whoo I adore her. Sheena is my favorite character-she can summon spirits, make pacts, use gaurdians and depending on how you control the game she may become Lloyds girlfriend! (flanoir scene) Zelos is very umm..perverted. but he is pretty funny. His sister seles..oh man do I hate her!!! Kratos (in relation to Lloyd..his father) is a very cool character. He is one of the four seraphim but he also helps out Lloyd because hes on both sides (Kind of like Askitaka in the movie Princess Mononoke). And Im glad Mithos dies at the end cos he sucks. MUSIC: very good, I love the songs. I have the soundtrack which is lovely also might I add CHARCTER DEVELOPMENT: Lloyds kinda too good for my taste and so is Colette. Luckily Genis got on my good side when he held Lloyd back when Colette was about to sacrifice herself. Raine stays basically the same, she has many fans (Like Linar and Zelos) and is a very knowledgeable half-elf. kratos becomes a very amazing character at the end. And Sheena becomes a strong person. Zelos..it depends, he may become good or go horribly evil. Presea kinda changes but not to much. And regal who for some reason never takes those damn shackles off finally changes once you get the rheiards and you start looking for the talk scenes SCENES: the dialouge takes forever but I dont mind sometimes..sometimes COMBAT: Can be EXTREMELY difficult with some characters. I suck with the magic so I play Lloyd or Kratos(when he is a playable character) FUN: I <3 it What a Game!!     On: 2006-01-07 Tales of Symphonia is an exceptional RPG game. Ive been a fan for this genre for as long as I can remember. Through college and now medical school, Ive become quite selective about the games I play because of my limited amount of free time. In my opinion, Tales of Symphonia can easily rival any of the best hits in the Final Fantasy series. Behind the cartoon-like/anime styled graphics is 80 hours of pure fun and entertainment. Given the character designs and art works in general in the game, I really didnt expect much from Symphonia initially. But as the story unravels, I find the storyline enthralling and very well thought-out. The twists and turns are surprising most of the time yet very plausible. Character development is an area where I think Symphonia really outdoes the Final Fantasy (FF) series. Unlike the often simple-minded and happy-go-lucky paper-thin characters in FF, the full cast of symphonia shows great depth individually and growth over the course of the game. They acknowledge and deal with many themes, such as love and hatred, gain and loss, courage and cowardice, loyalty and betrayal, hope and regret, companionship and loneliness, selfishness and sacrifice in a very mature way. Each main characters personality stands out and leaves quite an impression. For instance, Kratos is rational, composed, willful and cold-blooded. Yet deep down he has a heroically conscientious side. Sheena is an honorable, strong-willed and independent ninja. But underneath it all, she is gentle and vulnerable and yearns for friendship. Regal lives in the sorrow and despair of his past. What happened? And who is he? The carefully crafted subtleties in each of characters personality and their motivations unveil gradually through the main storyline and the skits so well that all of them seem to come to life and become likable individuals. Character development in Symphonia definitely adds more layers to the game overall. Despite of the realness of its characters and the storylines seriousness, the game handles itself very lightheartedly. Theres rarely any dull moment during the gameplay. The dialogues are funny and interesting. Some witty lines really cracked me up. The background music very nicely enhances of the mood and ambience. 8 main characters all have their own thematic music that matches them very well. The quality of voice acting is quite good. I think Kratos voiceover was especially fitting for a tired hero who has seen it all and done it all. The battle system is one of the most sophisticated I have seen. With 4 party members on the field, the player can control any one of them one at a time. The A.I. is more than satisfying. You can customize just about anything for a character, from targeting enemy, position on the battle field and attacking strategy to job titles, special moves, style of fighting (strong or technical), elemental attributes, the unique combo attack and unison attack systems and EX Gem boosts and EX skills. The battling system steers this game more towards an action RPG (think of Legend of Zelda). This makes levels less relevant and your ability to strategize and control your character effectively more important. When you become an expert in battle, you can defeat bosses at a much higher level than you are! The performance in battle is also graded! What?! Yes, you are graded based on how well you fight. Grades are EXTREMELY valuable. Youll need them big time when you start new game+ after you beat the game once. The game also features 8 variations on its ending depending on the choices you make in the game and a ton of side quests and mini games. Even if you are completely oblivious to everything that makes this game unique, it is still more fun and entertaining than you expect (it certainly took me by surprise!). I had a blast with this game. If you choose to play it, I hope youll enjoy it as much as I did. (And chances are, you will, trust me.) How all RPGs should play     On: 2006-01-04 I picked this one up at its launch day to send Namco a clear message, I want these type of games on GameCube. I just started playing it a few months ago, though. I was relieved to hear that the game was a moderate success, but much to my dismay the next Tales game will be a PS2 title, but there is a GBA and a DS Tales on the way as well, which will be nice. The story revolves around a young human named Lloyd Irving who was raised by a dwarf in a village where his best friend and his teacher are both elves (Though we later discover they are half elves). The town he is growing up in is in the world of Sylverant, a world in decline, and highly oppressed by a race of half elves called Desians. Every so often the Chosen of Mana arises to regenerate the world and restore its Mana supply. The previous chosen was killed, and now, Lloyds close friend Colette has been called to serve as the Chosen. Lloyd and his (half)elf friend Genis join her in her quest part to protect her, and part because a spat with the local Desians cause the village mayor to banish the two. At first the story may seem a little clichéd, and at points when the Church of Martel (which eerily resembles Catholicism) is revealed to be the bad guy then one can raise concerns that there may have a bit of an anti-religious tone, but there is, thankfully, a plot twist at the end which nullifies anything which may come of as such, and the game never addresses religion itself as being bad or harmful as some individuals out there have been of late. In general the game remains passive in its political and religious themes. The tale gets better the more you get into it, the more you learn of alternate worlds, cool summons, intricate characters with a detailed back story that is learned in the main story line without the need for excessive side quests, and a story that bests the best efforts of rival Square-Enix for the moment. The game play is where Tales really shines, as the game incorporates a linar motion active battle system which lets you combat the monsters in real time, a revolutionary step (I havent played a Tales game before) eliminating the frustration that turn based RPGs have begun to give me lately. The game also eliminates the nightmarish and sluggish random battles. Nearly every non-boss battle in the game is avoidable as the fights are represented by moving icons on the screen which can be maneuvered around. This makes progressing through the game much less headache educing than other RPGs which cant seem to let go of the archaic random battle, or worse turn based combat. The combat engine here is what Ive been waiting for, for what seems like a lifetime. The graphics do disappoint a bit. The characters are sadly inconsistent with their anime cut scenes and there is a bit of a blur effect that is supposed to create the illusion of depth, but just makes the characters look smudged. It would have been nice if the characters were drawn to be more like their anime counterparts, less "super deformed" but considering that theres only like 4 anime cut scenes in the entire game, and 2 depicting mass destruction and not featuring the characters its no where near as annoying as the inconsistencies in the artwork of FFVI. Music is kind of bland from what Im used to, and the sound effects are sorely lacking, worse yet as inconsistent as the art may have been the flow of the game is interrupted by a minimalist approach to the amount of voice over work featured in the game. Only the most critical of cut scenes feature voice-overs, sad when you consider that many competing RPGs are fully voiced. Namco really needed to take the FF X approach where all the leads were fully voiced, and only irrelevant towns folk would be text only. That would have been better. The good news is that the voice overs that do appear are pretty good, and dont disappoint. I just wanted more. Over all Tales of Symphonia is hands down one of the best RPGs Ive played of the current generation, if not one of the best games (sans disappointing graphics and sound). Its truly an epic game that takes about 50 hours to complete and should be a welcome addition to every GameCube owners library. This is the best and most addictive game ever.     On: 2005-12-22 This is my favorite game. It has everything. My favorite thing is the plot. It has more plot twists than any game Ive played and many novels Ive read. Everytime you think you understand everything thats going on they throw you another curve ball. The characters are wonderful. There are very 3 demensional and interesting. In fact based on the way you answer questions throughout the game, youll get special scenes with different characters. The gameplay is awesome too. It has things to interest everyone. For those more strategic fighters, there are all sorts of ways to control everyone on the field. All sorts of different attacks to learn and all different sorts of items to use. However, you can also get pretty far just hacking and slashing with that A button. Thats how I beat it my first play through. Although the battles were easier when I actually bothered to think. The game is also addictive, I havent found anyone who has played through it just once. The story deepens and the play gets better with every playthrough. There is always something you havent found. Plus after youve beaten the game you get a chance touse the Grade youve earned in battle to buy things for youre next playthrough. Very helpful things like higher health, all the titles youve earned, the attacks youve learned, even the ability to earn more grade per battle. If the game has any weakness its in the cut scene graphics. With the eexception of the few anime cut scenes most of them have relatively stale movements, and graphics that barely differ from normal play. This is more than made up for however by the wonderful story and impressive voice acting. These voice actors are amazing. Even with stale movements of the characters they really get the emotion across. If thats not enough for you, you can even cook and dress the characters in funny costumes. Oh, yeah its good stuff! Wow     On: 2005-12-11 Well, I wanted to get this game the day it came out bu because i have no job, it took awhile to get the money...anyways, i got it in october for 30 bucks canadian and boy oh boy i have never made a better game purchase...im about 23 hours in and still on disc one, and usually im not a huge rpger, i bought this mainly for the anime aspect and the truth is, this game is the best game ive played in a long time....so far ive laughed, been sad, and have been angry...and that is perfect for the games style as it carries emotion with great voice acting and plots....the bosses are hard if your not levelled up, and thats the only flaw imo that this game has....spending time levelling up...though where im at it doesnt take long..its just boring. lol, anyways...5 out of 5 as this is the best game ive played in years Chit-Chat-Fight!     On: 2005-12-06 The game over all is good. I find the storyline to be rather "twisted" since it has so many different turns throughout the game. Some of it was predictable and other not as much. But one thing that I can say for sure is that THERE IS A LOT OF TALKING. I played the game with 3 other people and the other 3 would fall asleep while waiting for a battle. There are times when you will have to wait for over a hour for a battle. Besides the long awaited battles the game is fun. The battlemode is rather unique and very enjoyable. The only drawback with their battlescreen is that the camera always focuses on the first player (Which will make it complicated for other players to see themselves). This is the first Co-Op RPG that Ive had the oportunity to play. If I had to go out and buy the game again I would. But just be warned of the extremly long pauses of storyline between battles. The game claims to have over 70 hours of gameplay. But I beat the game in 37 hours when quickly skipping past the majority of text. Most of your time will be waisted reading. Chit-Chat-Fight!     On: 2005-12-05 The game over all is good. I find the storyline to be rather "twisted" since it has so many different turns throughout the game. Some of it was predictable and other not as much. But one thing that I can say for sure is that THERE IS A LOT OF TALKING. I played the game with 3 other people and the other 3 would fall asleep while waiting for a battle. There are times when you will have to wait for over a hour for a battle. Besides the long awaited battles the game is fun. The battlemode is rather unique and very enjoyable. The only drawback with their battlescreen is that the camera always focuses on the first player (Which will make it complicated for other players to see themselves). This is the first Co-Op RPG that Ive had the oportunity to play. If I had to go out and buy the game again I would. But just be warned of the extremly long pauses of storyline between battles. The game claims to have over 70 hours of gameplay. But I beat the game in 37 hours when quickly skipping past the majority of text. Most of your time will be waisted reading. read below. by: Anonymous    On: 2005-12-03 OMG. OMG. OMG. WHY THE **** R U READING REVIEWS?? IF YOUVE READ 2 HERE, STOP READING!! START BUYING! BUY!! NO NO NO NO NO!! NOT A WORD!! MARCH TO THE NEAREST GAME STORE. BUY THIS GAME!! IF U DONT... I WILL PERSONALLY FIND YOU... AND WHEN I DO... MWAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA... Oops, sorry about that, a little of track. Anyways, BUY THIS GAME!!!!!! (BTW, you may think i m crazy. IM NOT CRAZY I TELL U!! IM NOOT CRAAAAAZY!!!!) the best game of 2000-2003!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! by: Anonymous    On: 2005-11-25 this game rulz 80 hours of gameage!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it may have language,violence, and suggestive themes, butits awsome!!!!!!!!!!!! get it if u a rpg fan It was just OK     On: 2005-11-23 Both of my boys gave up on this game quickly as they just didnt like the fighting style or the techniques in this game. They are both teenagers and thought the game was lame. I am playing it now, and though I know I will play it until I finish it, I am not enjoying it like I do other RPGs. I hate the skits that you have to watch of just a face moving as you read the words. You cant make them go by faster and they took the animation department back a decade. Dont bother if you are looking for a involved rpg like FF. We liked Lufia, Breath of Fire (early) Dragon Quest and many more.....This one fell flat. It was just OK     On: 2005-11-22 Both of my boys gave up on this game quickly as they just didnt like the fighting style or the techniques in this game. They are both teenagers and thought the game was lame. I am playing it now, and though I know I will play it until I finish it, I am not enjoying it like I do other RPGs. I hate the skits that you have to watch of just a face moving as you read the words. You cant make them go by faster and they took the animation department back a decade. Dont bother if you are looking for a involved rpg like FF. We liked Lufia, Breath of Fire (early) Dragon Quest and many more.....This one fell flat. Fantastic Game! by: Anonymous    On: 2005-11-22 With a wide selection of spells and attacks this game certainly is good, but just how good? Well at least 80 hours of gameplay ONLY if you skip all the quests and mini games. Also the game can end in different ways according to how you act. Dont be fooled by the questionable graphics and world map travelling this game is great. GREATEST GAME EVER MADE! PERIOD!     On: 2005-11-20 The hater suck. This is THE best game ever. Its even better than Final Fantasy 7 and Chrono Trigger. If you hate this, then you should be shunned. Everyone I know loves this game! I wont go into the whole pros and cons deal, since the only con I can think of is the fact that none of the glorious anime scenes shown before the title scene ever appear in the game. Besides that, everything about this game is great! The environments are colorful and awesome! The characters are lovable(except the ones who turn out to be evil). And Sheena is probably the hottest video game character ever. This is better than any other game, especially Baten Kaitos! UGH! Did anyone like that? Can I have a show of habds, please? Anyway, get this or be shot. Were watching you... WOW!!! AMAZING!!! by: Anonymous    On: 2005-11-17 Im absolutely speecheless. This game took my breath away. I dont even want to know how long in total ive played it, but ive beaten it at least 5 times buy now and i still cant stop! Other peoples reviews covered the game really well, so Ive decided to describe some of the main characters to you. ***WARNING!!! MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS!!!*** Lloyd Irving Weapon:Twin Blades Origin:Iselia Lloyd is a couragous and adventures youth who is extremely caring and protective of his friends. Hes the main hero in the story. He can take things for granted at times, and tends not to use his head very often, although his friend Genius makes up for that. He hates to see people suffering, and dreams of a world where descrimination does not exist, and everyone lives a comfortable life. Lloyd was raised by a dwarf after his parents where killed. He has feelings for Collette, though hes shy about admitting it. Collette Brunnei Weapon:Chakerums Origin:Iselia Collette is one of Lloyds besst friends and classmates. She can tend to be clumsy at times, and a bit air headed, but she has a heart of gold. She will always help ease a suffering persons pain, and will do anything to complete her mission as the chosen, and save the world, even if it means giving up her life! Collette tries to see the good in everything, and her optomistic mood helps keep the group together, and prevents fights from breaking out. Raine Sage(My Favorite) Weapon:Staff Origin:Heimdalle She is the proffessor in Lloyds school, although shes not that much older, and is admired by many males. She has a love for ruins and basically anything she can study about. Raine is Genius older sister, and can sometimes be harsh towards him when hes being careless, but this is just her way of showing her affection. Whenever Lloyd of Genuis does something she doesnt find suitable, she smacks them!(a little discipline never hurt anyone) Although shes a half-elf, she tells everyone shes a pure blooded elf (Half elves are greatly discriminated against, especially in Tethealla). She serves as the groups healer. Anyone who thinks Raine and Kratos should tottaly be with eachother forever, say i ;) Genius Sage(2nd favorite) Weapon:Kendama Origin:Heimdalle Genius is highly intelligent for his age, and has been Lloyds best friend for a while. Genius never really plays a major role on the story line, and is mainly just there for comical purposes. Genius develops a total crush on Presea as soon as he sees her,and has a hard time even speaking complete sentances in front of her, usually making a fool of himself. For a kid his age, he doesnt complain very much, and is usually cheerful, unless mocking Lloyd. Genius is a powerful magician, destroying enemies with all sorts of different elemental attacks. Sheena (Crazy Japanese name) Weapon:Magic infused cards Origin:Mizohu Sheenas also one of the