The Gamecube, although a very good system, and sometimes underrated in my opinion, has always been lacking in the realm of the role-playing game. The system has had one or two good ones but that has been it. Although I can get my RPG fix on another system, for those with only the 'Cube this has been a great disappointment. Namco decided to give a few to the system, and Tales is a really good place to get started.
Tales' story starts out with your main characters, Lloyd, Genis, and Collet as they try to save their world, Sylverant, by having Collet - who is the chosen - go on a journey of regeneration to restore mana to their dying world. That's the basic premise, but like any good RPG you will encounter other characters with side stories, and run into several plot twists along the way. As far as stories go, Tales' story is a pretty good one. Some of the plot twists are surprising but towards the latter part of the game they become predictable, and although they have some good voice actors doing voice over, some of the dialogue is a little rough. I am not sure if this was due to translation, but at certain points it just seems a little off. Even so, with what I describe above as lukewarm, the story kept me engaged through the end.
One of the first things I noticed when I started the game was the art style used to animate the characters. Tales uses a cel-shaded animation style for the characters while they are in battle or in a dungeon; there are also some anime styled movies throughout a couple parts of the game. I quite enjoyed the visual styling of the game. It is very detailed and clean looking.
The second thing that really caught my attention was the battle system, and this in my opinion is what really stands out about this game. Tales uses a linear battle system, which basically means that you have control over one of your characters in battle. This adds to the fun of the battles as they seem more frantic and exciting than some RPGs. It forced me to more quickly think about what I wanted to do and also added excitement to the battle. The other characters in your group that are controlled by the AI can also be given patterns to follow; you can make your weaker characters take a more defensive posture or tell characters with healing abilities to heal after 50% or some other predefined settings. I tended to control the main character of Lloyd in battles but you can switch to whomever you prefer. The fact that battles also happen in real time with no pausing, forces you to make decisions more quickly and to learn when to take defensive postures and when to attack. It might feel a little strange during the first couple of battles, but I really feel that after that it really makes the game quite a bit more enjoyable than if they had gone with a standard turn based system.
When you wrap up the whole package Tales of Symphonia is a very good RPG, it is definitely not without its flaws, but it is a great game overall. It took me somewhere in the range of 42-45 hours to complete and it seemed to be just about the right time frame, I didn't feel the story had dragged too long or ended prematurely. This is a great game for the Gamecube, or for any system for that matter.
I have been playing games since I can remember, it is my favorite pastime, right up there with my love of music, and just like music my tastes in gaming are diverse, there are no genres I don't play although I tend to favor RPG's and adventure/platformers. I love to read and love a great story which is why I believe I like games so much, they are truly interactive stories.
