GameCube
Tales of Symphonia
| Graphics: Sound: Gameplay: Overall: |
3.05 3.05 3.13 3.11 |
| Votes: | 79 |
| Reviews: | 1 |
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| Reviewer: Comrade Nixon | Date: Jun 18, 2023 |
| One of the few true RPGs on the GameCube, it is also certainly the greatest offering in terms of scope and execution. The story is intriguing with some great twists and the characters are all well-developed, both personally and interpersonally, as the story progresses. Much of the game is wonderfully voice acted, though for those of you who grew 90s some of the voices will be familiar and that may take you out of the game (thanks to Scott Melville using the same voice for all of his roles). I whole-heartedly recommend this game to any RPG fan.
Graphics: 9 The cell-shading holds up extremely well today. All of the environments have their own charm and mood and look great. I only take off a point for the overworld map, specifically for the unimpressive and ill-suited generic enemy models. Sound: 8 The soundtrack does everything it needs to and more. It does suffer from the RPG trope of having a single "battle song" and a "boss song." But all of the locations have their own tracks that evokes what the graphics convey. Gameplay: 9 Combat is engaged by touching an enemy model, which takes you to a fixed-perspective 3D-ish combat screen. Combat is active (not turn-based) and you input commands of a select character while the others act autonomously based on their AI (you can give them commands manually as well). It plays a lot like Super Smash Bros with RPG menus. This means that combat is skill based as well as tactical. Brute force will only get you through part of the game. You have to be able to execute combos and unison attacks effectively in many tough fights. There are a few difficulty spikes and boss fights are nearly always extremely challenging. Overall: 9 You can easily sink 50 hours into the game's main story and over 100 into everything the game has to offer, making Tales of Symphonia a rare RPG gem on the GameCube. There are a lot of interesting mechanics, such as cooking, that give the game a unique feel. The story and themes of the game -racism, slavery, death, and religion- are mature, and the writing and dialogue reflects this. The execution of these themes is extremely good and there is a tangible pay-off; by the end of the game, you will care about the characters and the world of the game. in other words: I am not a crook! The game is good I say, give it a shot! |
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