I mentioned in my Skies of Arcadia: Legends review that I had a number of favorite RPGs for the Gamecube. Tales of Symphonia was one of them, and what interested me so much in the Tales series in general. I figured it would be a good memory trip for not only those that got the Chronicles port for the PS3 but are also excited for Tales of Hearts R that just came out for the PS Vita.

Now the story: a girl named Colette has been born and raised with the duty as “The Chosen”. This means she has to travel the world, unlock a series of seals, and become an angel. In doing so, it fulfills a prophecy first heard in the prologue, and the world will be saved. The main hero is her childhood friend Lloyd who tries to accompany her, but is left behind because of how dangerous the journey is. He follows her though, due to a series of bad decisions that leaves him exiled from his home village. Of course, this also means he’s wanted for messing with the Desians, the typical bad guy organization.

Nah Lloyd; it’s just the graphics back then.

However, as Lloyd goes further in the Quest for Regeneration, he sees that not everything is what it seems. The Desians are evil, but not without reason. The seals hold more to them than just plot points for Colette’s angel transformations. And there’s a very good reason why the world hasn’t been “saved” in the last 4000 years.

Storywise, Tales of Symphonia plays great homage to the typical fantasy quest against evil and slowly but surely turns it on its head. The game can be divided into three main parts: the supposed quest to save the world, the discovery of a new world, and fighting to protect both worlds. Also, for those interested in folklore, Tales of Symphonia is the prequel to the first game of the series, Tales of Phantasmia.

The battle system is probably the best hook though; never before had I played a game that made me WANT to go directly in random encounters. That’s because Tales games aren’t turn based, but action where you control how far they move and run and can spam combos seamlessly. It feels like real fighting instead of just standing still and taking a hit. It makes the gameplay seem so fast and engaging that it makes fighting fun. It also helps that the enemies are walking sprites on dungeons and world maps so you can choose if you want to fight or run before it starts.

Sometimes swords with magic make the best “bug zappers”.

I can only speak of the Gamecube version of Tales of Symphonia, so I’m not completely sure of all the added content for the PS3 port. However, there’re still quite a number of side-quests to do. Like a tournament in Meltokio where you can fight monsters for money and prizes, or a secret boss or two you can fight for special rewards and bragging rights.

This skeleton you see right in the beginning of the opening? He’s one of them.

Tales of Symphonia has introduced me to a great series that keeps the genre of JRPG alive with some well thought out twists. Personally I think that Namco has lost its touch regarding the later games, and had flat out refused to localize a good number of them (namely those for DS, PSP and Wii). But you can never go wrong with Tales of Symphonia.

Personally though, I disliked the sequel, Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World. I never even finished it because it was basically Pokemon with two weak main characters and the old heroes sort of turned into bland bystanders.

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