The game opens in a classroom, were you meet 4 of the main characters that you use throughout the game. The one you will be playing most often is Lloyd -a great fighter - best to use in the game, but not the brightest crayon in the box. To put it lightly, he's kind of dumb due to the inability to pay attention in school. There is also Genis, the smartest in his class, and one of the best mages I have used in an RPG (and my favorite character). You can use Raine, the teacher, and one of the most useful characters during battle due to her unbelievable healing ability, and Collete, the Chosen. What is the Chosen? Well, she is the child of an Angel named Remiel, whom you also meet but shall never play as.

Collete, being the Chosen of Mana, it destined to rejuvenate the world from all evil. As a group, with more who join you along the way - 5 more to be exact - you must travel to The Tower of Salvation for Collete to do her duty and stop evil. There are other places you must stop and other things you must do during your journey, such as making your way through the Temple of Fire & Water, facing bosses at the end of each, and unlocking seals for the world rejuvenation to even take place.

The controls are fairly easy, considering the game is a lot of running around. The only time the controls are different is when you are in a battle, and still they are very easy. The A is to attack, B to block, Y to access options such as using items or commanding one of your teammates to do a certain attack or heal. It's all very straightforward.

The character design in this game is great - rather anime- but it fits the story and is a little more in-depth. The background animation is great, though as you travel throughout the world and along the maps, it does seem to look the same a lot of the time. The music can be a little annoying at times - it's rather repetitive and sounds somewhat childish. It would have been a nice addition to allow you to turn to the music off, but sadly, you can't.

The voiceovers area little cheesy at times, and the "Skits" would have been better if you could have skipped them - a "Skit" being pictures of the people talking to each other, you can't move, you can't do anything - but they aren't too long either, so you don't have to endure too much. Don't worry though; you become so wrapped up in the game play and story, that the skits don't really bother you.

Battling monsters is very fun. If you are controlling Lloyd (though you can have it so you control another) your other members move freely and do as they please in the fight. You can tell them to do otherwise, such as directing Genis to do a certain spell or Raine to heal, but it's nice not to have to control them. Only 4 can be used in a battle, even if you have all the characters, so choose wisely. The best part is, even if all characters aren't used in a fight, all of them, even the ones you don't use, get experience from every fight.

The difficulty seems to change at different times. In my experience, the first actual boss I fought at the Temple of Fire was harder than the next 2 bosses at the Temple of Water and the Windmaster. A little advice though, as you reach different towns, be sure to upgrade or buy new weapons because as you move on, they are definitely needed. You'll find yourself sometimes not even following the story and just leveling your characters until you feel it is time to continue.

Overall, this game is very fun and very addicting. I found it hard to turn of my Gamecube, I was so sucked into the story and the battles so much time goes by, stuff happens, and it turns out, you have missed something important…such as work…like me. For those looking for the perfect RPG to pick up and spend a good portion of their life playing, but have a hell of a lot of fun doing it, you'll find it in Tales of Symphonia.