Tales of Symphonia

This game is for the:
GameCube
Playstation 2? (I heard it was, but I have yet to verify)

Graphics - The graphics were interesting. But, in a good way. The game's graphics are, more or less, anime-based. The actual character designs are pretty good, although can be a little heavily outlined at times. The background graphics are very good for this game, but, a few areas can be a little hard to see, but it's not a siginifcant problem. The intro movie, when you start up the system, is pretty cool to watch. It shows all the playable characters drawn in anime, but you won't see any of those scenes in the game itself. Only two, maybe three, movies, I think, are actually anime, but they are pretty awesome. also, during the skits (conversations between the characters that are sometimes activated by the Z Button), they can be hard to read.

Graphics Rating
9.6/10

Sound/Music - The music is pretty nice, although sometime repetitive. However, the victory phrases can be annoying, especially when you've heard it over and over again. And, the voice acting could be a little better on a few characters (namely Colette, whom's voice I think doesn't suit her character). But, otherwise, it's good.

Sound/Music Rating
9.8/10

Controls - The controls, really, aren't that difficult. You assign combo moves to certain controller functions (Up+B, C stick Up, and etc). Also, four players can play the game, each person controlling a different character. And that's pretty cool. Also, it's easy during battle once you get used to it.

Controls Rating
10/10

Gameplay - The plot of this game is very interesting, and has some very good twists and turn of events, such as- errr, never mind! (just a joke). The camera in the world map can be very annoying, due to the fact it spins around you rather quickly, and you can't control it. Either that, or you can have the camera face North. Those are your options. So, because of that camera, it brings this score down some. The places you can go are pretty intriguing. The battle system is well done, and some of the techs are cool. Really, I don't have much to say. This rating would have been a 10, if not for that darn camera. The reason I added the camera here, is because of the lack of control of it disqualifies it, I feel, to be a part of the control section.

Gameplay Rating
9.6/10

Replay Value - The replay value is okay. You can try to get more things, and improve yourself, or try it on a high difficultcy. But, once you beat it, you know everything about the plot and, really, it does kind of take some of the magic away. How unfortunate.

Replay Value Rating
9.6/10

Overall - Overall, I loved this game! I would highly recommend it, especially if your an RPG fan. It is good! It's a very beautiful game. Congratulations and thank you to Namco, for this game!

Overall Rating
9.6/10


Reviewed by
Darkness Wolf