Tales of Symphonia

[pastelspectre]

Has anyone played this game? I absolutely love it. Hardly ever play it anymore, but I still love it. I just love the game and my fav character is Colette, so clumsy and cute ahaha.
The plot is amazing. I love the gameplay. I LOVE IT!<3

 

[Azure Revolver]

Hell yes. It's my #1 favorite game for crying out loud. The sequel was a disgrace though.

 

[Captain Fabio]

One of my all time favourite games ever.
I am going to replay it again!​

​

 

[pastelspectre]

Glad to see fans here. Who are your favorite characters?

 

[Azure Revolver]

Zelos Wilder. No explanation needed.

 

[pastelspectre]

I also like Genis, I think he's really cute.

 

[Jeremy]

Tales of Symphonia is one of my favorite RPGs! My favorite character is Prof. Raine, she was just awesome. X3 I think I should reply the game, after I beat Abyss, sweeties. XD

 

[pastelspectre]

I got as far as the seal of water and the boss.

 

[Azure Revolver]

Wait, so you never beat the game?

 

[pastelspectre]

No. I haven't beaten the game.

 

[Azure Revolver]

Ah, I see. You might want to ask people to avoid spoilers because the story is much better if you don't know what's going to happen in the story.

 

[Cherrim]

I love Symphonia and its characters but I find it unplayable now that I've played Abyss and Vesperia. No free run & horrible multiplayer camera just kills the battle system for me, haha. :(

Back when it was my favourite game, my favourite character was Kratos but now it's Lloyd. n_n;

 

[Azure Revolver]

I love Symphonia and its characters but I find it unplayable now that I've played Abyss and Vesperia. No free run & horrible multiplayer camera just kills the battle system for me, haha. :(

Back when it was my favourite game, my favourite character was Kratos but now it's Lloyd. n_n;

I actually find the battle camera easily bearable and it didn't bother me despite having little control over it as it never hindered my vision or fighting ability considerably.

There's no free run in ToS, yes, but it's sequel does. You DO NOT want to get it though, the game is horrible. It's like Namco picked up ToS, chewed it up, spit it out, and crapped on it before shipping it out as a game. I hated it. Both of the main characters are annoying and have annoying voices, and the old characters are never permanent and leave very often. You have no control over them either, they are always CPU controlled, you can't change their equipment, etc. etc. So many downgrades, even to the story. What a big F U to the face.

But yeah, they multiplayer camera is annoying. It doesn't even adjust to fit both characters on the screen and you can't see **** if you're off the screen.

 

[Eucliffe]

When I first decided to try a Tales game I wanted Symphonia so much. I eventually found it used and began loving it.

But as time went by, I've discovered it isn't as great as people make it out to be. It isn't as overrated as FFVII, but it's still pretty overrated if you ask me. The characters, music, and plot are probably the best things in the game itself. And it doesn't help that it got a sequel, one that sort of tears its rep apart.

I honestly haven't played too many Tales of games since most are Japan-only and the rest PS-exclusive. But, to be honest, I prefer Phantasia over Symphonia. I just like the cast, music, and plot better, ya know? Those are probably the things I consider most when playing games, so graphics, the battle system (unless really crappy, and believe me, there are worse ones than ones where you have to wait while a summon/strong magic attack is used), sidequests, etc. don't really matter as much.

 

[Azure Revolver]

When I first decided to try a Tales game I wanted Symphonia so much. I eventually found it used and began loving it.

But as time went by, I've discovered it isn't as great as people make it out to be. It isn't as overrated as FFVII, but it's still pretty overrated if you ask me. The characters, music, and plot are probably the best things in the game itself. And it doesn't help that it got a sequel, one that sort of tears its rep apart.

I honestly haven't played too many Tales of games since most are Japan-only and the rest PS-exclusive. But, to be honest, I prefer Phantasia over Symphonia. I just like the cast, music, and plot better, ya know? Those are probably the things I consider most when playing games, so graphics, the battle system (unless really crappy, and believe me, there are worse ones than ones where you have to wait while a summon/strong magic attack is used), sidequests, etc. don't really matter as much.

Uh, you do realize that everyone knows that? Almost all the praise goes towards the story, the music, and the characters, not the gameplay. The gameplay is quite fun and functional, but it isn't exactly innovative, amazing, or as great an aspect and thing as the previously mentioned.

 

[alisaie]

Oh hey a Symphonia thread. <3

Tales of Symphonia is by far my favorite video game out there. The characters are amazing, the storyline is something that is not only great, but can really teach a lot about things that you can apply to real life, and the music is simply love. Though there was a time in which I thought Abyss was better, but after replaying Symphonia after playing Abyss, I realize that the story and characters are much more enjoyable in Symphonia than in Abyss.

To be honest, I don't think a sequel should allow someone's love for Symphonia to go down. Don't like the sequel? Good for you, but don't let it allow it to change your opinion on the original.

But on another note, I cosplayed Mithos at a convention last weekend. Hoping to cosplay him again at another convention someday, and I eagerly wait for the next episode of the OVA, in which will be Mithosific. You can probably tell that my favorite character is Mithos, but other than a few (Remiel, Kvar, and Rodyle to be exact) I pretty much love the whole cast.

 

[Cherrim]

I actually find the battle camera easily bearable and it didn't bother me despite having little control over it as it never hindered my vision or fighting ability considerably.

There's no free run in ToS, yes, but it's sequel does. You DO NOT want to get it though, the game is horrible. It's like Namco picked up ToS, chewed it up, spit it out, and crapped on it before shipping it out as a game. I hated it. Both of the main characters are annoying and have annoying voices, and the old characters are never permanent and leave very often. You have no control over them either, they are always CPU controlled, you can't change their equipment, etc. etc. So many downgrades, even to the story. What a big F U to the face.

But yeah, they multiplayer camera is annoying. It doesn't even adjust to fit both characters on the screen and you can't see **** if you're off the screen.

I got the sequel and yeah it sucked. The only reason I played it through to the end was for the skits between the original characters. :P Even if most of the voices had to change, it was still worth it to see their interactions. I just wish it were more friendly to said older characters. I had to be first player when I played (my brother refused xD) and if you want to play as a ToS1 character, you have to switch them in during battle every time. And they didn't level up so there was no reason to use them over Emil, Marta and your monsters. Ugh! I also hated the Wii controls. :/ I'm sure they could have mapped them to the GCN controller and offered a choice.

Anyway, yeah my issue with original Symphonia is its multiplayer camera. I play my Tales games with friends or my brother and Symphonia was mostly no different. I think it's supposedly fixed up a little bit in the PS2 version but not only are loading times ABYSMAL in that version, but back when I tried to play it last I couldn't deal with the Japanese voices, haha. (I suppose now I probably could considering I've gotten used to the anime's voice acting.)

Another issue I have with it is that I think there were too many characters and the plot suffered a bit because of it. :< They were all great characters but it focused too much on the Iselia group and most of the Tethe'alla characters got shafted because of it and seemed less important which is just unfortunate. Don't get me wrong, I still love the game but over the years I've come to realize it wasn't as utterly amazing as I originally thought it was. xD; But I'll always adore it for getting me into the Tales series.

 

[pastelspectre]

I have never played the sequel. I do wish to though, I mean I'm 13, so...I don't really care how a person judges a game. XD

 

[Cherrim]

I think you should get it if you want to. It's a considered a bad game by dieheard fans of the original game but if you love Symphonia, there's enough carry over from before if, like me, you just have to see where your favourite character ends up after Symphonia's endgame.

 

[Azure Revolver]

I think you should get it if you want to. It's a considered a bad game by dieheard fans of the original game but if you love Symphonia, there's enough carry over from before if, like me, you just have to see where your favourite character ends up after Symphonia's endgame.

It IS a horrible game. The only redeeming factor is seeing my favorite characters again. Including Robin Irving, except he isn't anymore because the VAs changed.

Let me list the pros and cons...

Pros:
-Nostalgia Factor
-See the aftermath of the last story
-Have more ToS to play.

Cons:
-No open world travel. Excluded completely.
-Universal control is only for 2 characters, and whatever pokem--er, I mean, monsters you capture. All the old characters you can not control, don't level, are unable to switch equipment, etc.
-Characters are annoying and forgettable. I completely forgot the protagonist's names, but I remember all of the old cast's names fine.
-Story has been knocked down multiple notches. It is nothing compared to the glory that is the original ToS's story.
-The game is short. Short as hell. It's about 1/4 the length of the first one, likely less.
-Clunky controls.
-Different VAs
-And more...

Yeah, you decide.