Tales of Symphonia

Tales of Symphonia is an action, adventure, Japanese role-playing game created by Namco Tales Studio and published by Namco for the Nintendo GameCube in 2003 in Japan, and in 2004 in North America and Europe. A PlayStation 2 version was released only in Japan on September 22, 2004. An updated version called Tales of Symphonia: Chronicles was released later for the PlayStation 3 in 2013. A port for Microsoft Windows was developed by Other Ocean Interactive and released worldwide in 2016.

Plot
In the land of Sylvarant, a group of Half-Elves called Desians are stealing Mana, the world's life force, causing society to crumble. The only way to avoid a catastrophe is by awakening the goddess Martel, who will restore the passages feeding Mana to the world. To do so, the Chosen of Regeneration must undertake a pilgrimage through the Spirit Shrines that dot the land and pass a trial, culminating in Martel's awakening at the Tower of Salvation. Colette Brunel, the current Chosen of Regeneration, receives the call to begin the journey and departs from her hometown of Iselia, accompanied by her teacher Raine Sage and a mercenary called Kratos Aurion. However, in the meantime, her friends Lloyd Irving and Genis Sage caused an incident, which results in the town being destroyed by the Desians. The two are exiled, and head south, linking up with Colette's group and undertaking the Journey together.

Why It Resonates With You

 * 1) The story is often considered to be the best of the Tales series, and with good reason. Not only is it full of interesting characters with distinct, relatable and recognizable personalities, but it's also full of shocking twists and turns to keep the player interested.
 * 2) The story is also very dark, more so than other RPGs released at the time, yet it doesn't fall in the trap of making it too dark, to the point where it comes off as trying too hard to be dark just for the sake of it - there are still many funny lines and moments throughout the whole game.
 * 3) Excellent English voice acting (especially Scott Menville as Lloyd and Cam Clarke as Kratos). The PS3 and PC versions also provide an option to switch to Japanese voices.
 * 4) The game is rendered in full 3D, unlike previous installments, both in and out of battle. In battle, the arena is comprised of infinite lines of varying angles, which the player will switch between at some points during fights (for example, by switching target or being knocked down).
 * 5) The battle system provides more combo opportunities than ever, thanks to the stronger hardware provided by sixth-generation consoles. Unlike the previous games, every action you take occurs in real time, though the player can pause the action at any point to direct the party members, creating a hybrid gameplay style. Each successful hit raises the enemy's Hitstun value, which must be kept inside a certain range to keep a combo going on. Some of the player's skills and Techs are influenced by this or twist the formula around, allowing for many elaborate and flashy combos.
 * 6) Starting from Act 2, you unlock the ability to explore the world of Tethe'alla, which essentially doubles the amount of places you can explore. You can also travel between Sylvarant and Tethe'alla after a certain point in the game, which increases the number of things you can do throughout the game world.
 * 7) Each party member can unlock up to 4 EX Skills by using EX Gems found throughout the game world, which apply useful effects, from simple stat bonuses to more elaborate effects (like moving faster in towns and dungeons or increasing the effects of cooking). If you have the correct skills equipped at the same time, you can unlock Combined EX Skills, which provide unique effects and provide many opportunities for customization.
 * 8) EX Skills can come in two types: S-Type, which focuses on brute force, and T-Type, which focuses on more elaborate combos. Depending on the EX Skills equipped by a character, they will be pushed either towards an S-Type or a T-Type build, which affects the Techs they will learn.
 * 9) The player has access to a wide variety of skills, called Techs or Artes, which come in three levels and can be stacked together to form combos with Artes of a higher level (i.e.: a Lv. 1 Tech can combo with a Lv. 2 Tech, which can combo with a Lv. 3 Tech). High level Techs can be learned by fulfilling certain conditions, and change depending on the character's build (either S-Type or T-Type), allowing the player to mix and match them to create their own personal build.
 * 10) The animated opening cutscene was amazing for the time and still looks very good (almost reminiscent of an anime) today.
 * 11) There are plenty of sidequests to play, which are hidden and incentivize you to explore. Near the end of the game, you can actually go back to complete the ones that you couldn't complete earlier, and if you wish to see everything in the game, there is a New Game + feature to help you.
 * 12) In battle, you are graded based on your performance with Grade Points. These points increase by doing well (by carrying out long combos, not taking damage, or not using items) and decrease by performing poorly. At the end of the game, you can use your Grade to purchase bonuses for a New Game + run, incentivizing you to play the game as best as you can.
 * 13) The game's progression is semi-linear, meaning that there are different routes you can embark on, depending on your choices throughout the game, and influence story progression. For instance, you can clear all Spirit Shrines in Sylvarant before even heading to Palmacosta, by simply heading north from Izoold instead of taking the boat to start the Aifread sidequest and heading to Palmacosta. You can also do the Spirit Shrines in the order you want after destroying the Palmacosta human ranch, by collecting the statue from Thoda Falls and obtaining the Book of Regeneration.
 * 14) Both Sylvarant and Tethe'alla, the two explorable worlds, have their own distinct designs and features. For example, Sylvarant is a more traditional fantasy world primarily based on Medieval Europe, whereas Tethe'alla is technologically advanced and is based on modern Japan.
 * 15) Act 2 and onward is completely open: you can do the Spirit Shrines and the main story in basically the order you want (something the main characters also admit)
 * 16) Each character has their own battle style. Lloyd is a fast and hard-hitting attacker, Kratos and Zelos are slower but can also use some magic, Genis can damage enemies from afar with his magic but is extremely fragile, Colette can use her chakrams and angelic powers to hit hard, but her attacks are slow, Raine is a healer that mostly uses support Techs to help the party with some offensive magic to aid characters in trouble, Regal focuses on fast air attacks, Presea's attacks are very powerful but also very slow and leave her open to enemy retaliation, and Sheena shines the most when her health is low, as she can use the Summon Spirits to provide bonuses to the party.
 * 17) In battle, your attack will fill a Unison Gauge, which, when full, allows you to launch a Unison Attack: a combined attack where each party members uses a Tech in succession. If you use the right Techs in the right order, you can launch a Compound Special Attack, where the users of each tech team up to deal heavy damage to the enemy.
 * 18) If you preordered Tales of Zestiria, you also obtained this game for free. The game was also released on Steam later.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) The original PC version's controls are very bad. Thankfully, if you are playing the game on Steam, you can use a controller to fix the issue or use mods.
 * 2) Each character has a Mystic Arte, a very powerful attack that can be used only when they are in danger. Problem is, Mystic Artes are far too hard to activate to justify using them (it's possible to get through the game while never using them; the only exception to this is Sheena, since her Mystic Artes are actually the Summon Spirits that she uses in battle, which are activated by simply going in Over Limit mode).
 * 3) The sidequests are not marked or explained in any way, requiring you to use a guide to find them all, unless you constantly go back to talk with every NPC in the game, which can be annoying. As stated above, thankfully, it's possible to redo any missed sidequest upon reaching the last area before the final boss.
 * 4) The game has no post-game, which can be problematic if you aim to do all the sidequests.
 * 5) Unlike later games, in this game, you can't view what affects your Grade, which is also calculated in a different way from subsequent entries in the series, resulting in it being lower than the average (it's very difficult to achieve a Grade superior to 2.x even in boss battles). For this reason, going to this game from later titles (like Abyss or Vesperia) can be quite jarring, as you can't know what you did wrong and why your Grade is so low.
 * 6) The game actually has multiple endings based on the character who has the highest affection with Lloyd, however, the game never explains how the affection mechanic works and what can influence it.
 * 7) * One of the biggest offenders of this problem is keeping Zelos as a party member after the second visit to Flanoir: in this scene, the player will have to pick one between the characters with the highest affection scores (if there are; otherwise, the game will go with the character with the highest affection with Lloyd), which will increase the affection with the character picked and reduce it with the others. If the player picks Kratos, then Zelos will leave the party shortly after (replaced by Kratos) and will be fought near the end of the game. The only way to know if he's going to leave or not comes immediately after this scene, as depending on the player's choice, Lloyd will either say "I want to trust you" (Zelos will leave) or "I trust you" (Zelos will remain).
 * 8) ** Adding salt to the wound, the only way to learn Zelos' backstory is to keep him in your party, which is also the only way to get some of his Titles (and also the achievement/trophy obtain by unlocking all his titles in the PS3 and Steam versions) and get Kratos back in the party.

Reception
Tales of Symphonia received very positive reception from critics. On Metacritic, the game has a critic score of 86/100, while the user score is a 9/10.

The game has sold around 1.8 million copies, making it the best selling Tales game to date.

Videos
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