GameCube
Tales of Symphonia
| Graphics: Sound: Gameplay: Overall: |
6.86 7.22 7.30 7.30 |
| Votes: | 81 |
| Reviews: | 1 |
Rate this game
Review this game
| Reviewer: Marinebeast | Date: Jun 17, 2023 |
| I was introduced to this gem when I found it for $14 new at Costco. I was already pretty into RPGs, having played a lot of Fire Emblem, and I heard friends talking about this one, so I figured I'd give it a try.
This is easily one of, if not the most amazing RPG on GameCube. The story and worldbuilding is incredible, the battling is simple but very satisfying, and there's quite a lot of replayability. The writing and voice acting really bring the characters and world to life, and the music is no slouch either. I've played this on all difficulties for a total of about 10 times through the 40+ hour story. Graphics: 8 Stylized and cel-shaded, but full of love and detail. It might be offputting to play this game after you're used to photo-realistic visuals in modern games, but the world and models are all very cohesive. A lot of the world's details have a hand-drawn or hand-painted feel to them. The villages are cozy and nearly every area is very visually-distinct, including the many dungeons you'll visit. Monsters range from mundane to fanciful to bordering body horror, but they never manage to stray from fitting in with the world. The main characters themselves are all very visually-unique and have a lot of charm, even if they don't always have visual proportions to match the personalities and profiles they have. Sound: 9 The soundtrack is rarely intrusive, fits situations and scenes well, and has some really memorable pieces like Fighting of the Spirit and Mithos / It Can Waver and Fight. It really helps hammer home the atmosphere of a mysterious forest, or a magical temple to an ancient spirit, or some place so commonplace as a sewer. The voice acting is one point where this game shines beautifully. The voice cast is very talented and all do a wonderful job to add extra dimensions to their characters throughout the many hurdles, challenges and tragedies of the story. Gameplay: 9 The combat is something like the Super Smash Bros games, but on a flat horizontal plane: you do normal attacks with A, and then combo them into special attacks, or "Techs", with B or B+direction. It's simple and easy to pick up, but as you progress through the game, you'll find enemies that are particularly hard to stunlock, or might teleport around the field as you approach them, or might combine magic into a physical attack in order to break your defenses. The 9 playable characters all do things pretty differently: two characters are pure mages, two characters have only melee attacks, a few know both magic and melee, one can summon powerful spirits in certain conditions, and so on. There's a lot of reward for experimenting in battle with different team compositions and attacks, and you definitely feel a sense of progression over the story as you learn new attacks, get new gear, and make new allies. Even the lowest difficulty can be a bit rough depending on the circumstances, but as you get better, you'll find new challenges in higher difficulties, including Mania mode which gives new behaviors and skills to certain foes. The rest of the game is spent either on the overworld map (where you walk/boat/fly between different locations, and deal with monsters + treasure chests on land), or in the minimaps for each area, city, dungeon and so on. Dungeons have all sorts of gimmicks and quirks, often focusing on manipulating your environment in various ways. There's a few tedious points where block puzzles might be used a bit too much, or a dungeon's gimmick might get downright annoying (the temple of darkness, for one), but it feels varied but cohesive as a whole. The game is pretty big with a LOT to explore, but you'll rarely ever get truly lost. Overall: 9 I'd definitely put this one up there with the other RPG greats like Final Fantasy VII and Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance. It has a deep and complicated story with a lot of thought put into it, gameplay that's easy to approach but doesn't get boring, some really great music and voice acting, and overall pleasing visuals. Glitches are almost non-existent, and when they do happen, they're pretty much always nonintrusive. It's not a particularly difficult game, but there's plenty of challenge waiting for people who specifically WANT that kind of thing. The only real weakness is that it's a game that you really want to enjoy with friends. The AI in battle is functional, and knows how to do its job for each character, but can sometimes be a bit useless even when you can specifically define strategies for everyone in your party. It's a lot more fun with even just one buddy joining you in combat. Definitely play it. You won't regret it. |
|