Get Tales of Symphonia - Gamecube

Description

Two worlds exist, unaware of each other. Mana, or life force, is shared by both worlds and while one world thrives, the other suffers. Lloyd Irving lives on Sylvarant, a dying world where nothing is as it seems - a fact he hasn't yet realized. With a strong set of justice, incredible bravery, and a particular loyalty to his friends, he joins them in a very important quest: a journey to save their world. Lloyd's close friend, Colette Brunel, is the Chosen One, destined to save the dying world as a descendant of the Mana bloodline. At the age of 16, the weight of the world hangs on her shoulders. Genis Sage, the village intellectual, is a talented magician with a personality to die - or kill - for. Most likely, you'll grow to love him. Together, they set on this dangerous journey together - to unlock the seals of the world and bring the balance back to their dying town on Sylvarant. In a dying village on Sylvarant, legend has it that a Chosen One will one day appear from amongst the people and the land will be reborn. Enter a world of beautiful cel-shaded graphics and high-quality Anime cut scenes by renowned artist Kosuke Fujishima. Command real time battles in a unique 3D battle system that gives you full control over the characters. Execute and combine hundreds of special attacks and magic spells. The line between good and evil blurs in this immersive, emotionally charged epic adventure where the fate of two interlocked worlds hangs in the balance. Real Time 3D Battle System: One of the fiercest, most action packed battle systems ever created with hundreds of special attacks, spells, and combos. An Epic Adventure: Over 80 hours of gameplay in this epic, emotionally charged storyline. A 3D Masterpiece: Beautiful cel-shaded characters by renowned artist Kosuke Fujishima, author of manga and anime version of Oh! My Goddess. Adaptable Characters: Fully customizable character growth system to suit your fighting style Ð where the storyline changes based on the charactersÕ relationships. Unprecedented Variety: Dozens of mini-games and side quests.

Features

• Fierce, action-packed battle system with hundreds of special attacks, spells, and combos
• Fully customizable character growth system -- change your fighting style and alter the storyline according to the characters' relationships
• Multiplayer fighting action - Up to 4 players can control one party member each during combat
• Unprecedented number of great minigames and side quests

Customer Reviews

Excellent game
Michael Clarkson

After much waiting, wailing, and gnashing of teeth from its owners, the GameCube finally got its own RPG. And what an RPG it got!GAMEPLAY: SUPERBThis game is absurdly fun to play. Control in both the overworld, dungeons, and battle is effortless, with the controller utilized to good effect in almost every instance. Item use and character development are easy to control. However, if you want, you can get very particular about your character's growth thanks to the 'title' system. The Strike/Technical divide, which is poorly explained by the manual and the game, also allows for a more general way of controlling your character's growth. The application of EX gems and their associated skills allows still finer control of your character's abilities. But again, you can play the game very well and have a lot of fun without getting too deeply into any of this.The real-time battle system will be a bit confusing to those used to the more standard turn-based gameplay of other console RPGs. The learning curve is pretty shallow, however, and the inability to directly control the other members of your party is not as much a handicap as you might think. The AI is reasonably intelligent (though the characters sometimes position themselves oddly or run around for no apparent reason), and if necessary the player can command them to use particular skills using either controller shortcuts or the battle menu.The learning curve for controlling a given character, as I said, is very shallow... you can learn to control Lloyd, Kratos, Zelos, and Sheena in only one or two battles. Regal, Presea, and Collette require a bit more work (or at least they did for me), and Genis and Raine will be hardest (mainly because they're useless as melee fighters, and everyone else is either primarily melee or at least useful for it). Carefully assigning your battle skills to your controller and preparing unison attacks will allow you to create combos and special attacks that look awesome, but it's just as fun to assign a few stock skills and wail away on your opponents.Again, battle strategy is as deep as you want it to be. The game sets defaults which are reasonably useful, but if you desire it, you can adjust strategies to fit your own approach to battle. Also, you have the ability to adjust individual strategies in battle through the menu, or switch the whole group to an alternate strategy through D-pad shortcuts. As with other aspects of the game, battle strategy is scalable to your level of interest and expertise.I have not tried multiplayer, but I have seen complaints that the tendency of the camera to zoom in on Player 1 in battle detracts from the experience. Multiplayer for this sort of game is an iffy prospect anyway, and the AI is sufficiently competent that you don't NEED your pals to pick up controllers, so I don't view this as a weakness.The gameplay unites RPG strategy with good old-fashioned button-mashing fun, and that makes for a great experience, IMHO.STORY: SUPERBWith the caveat 'for a game', as always. Despite some cheesy lines (and I mean REALLY cheesy), the story of the game is nicely plotted, and most of the characters behave believably. The twists in the story are both interesting and plausible, and the game makes effective use of foreshadowing without being ridiculously heavy-handed about it. The only problem is that you have to devote some time to the game before the plot picks up; the first part of the game makes it seem like it's going to be the standard 'beat the dungeons and save the world' story that's been standard on consoles since the first Legend of Zelda game.GRAPHICS: EXCELLENTCel-shading. Some love it on general principle, some hate it on general principle. If you belong to either category, I can't help you. However, if you like a game that just looks good, then you won't go wrong with this one. The overworld graphics are rather bland (and the black-blob monsters in the overworld are atrocious), but everything else is very nice. The choice to use blurring as a method of introducing perspective was a mistake, but this is the only complaint I can level against the cutscenes and town areas. The character designs are pretty standard (slender build + narrow chin + absurd hair) for anime, except for Regal. Monster designs, however, are generally good, and the appearance of the special moves in battle is good overall and fantastic in a few cases. As long as you're not a cel-hater, this game will be lots of fun to look at.AUDIO: EXCELLENTMost of the voice acting is good (the post-battle exclamations particularly so). However, the guy playing Kratos sounds like he has a head cold, which makes his delivery fairly weak. The music is passable; not really inspiring (until the end credits, which inexplicably have much better music than most of the game), but not distracting. A few places have really catchy tunes associated with them, however (Katz Village), and generally the music is at least nice to listen to. The main weakness, however, is the z-skits, which should have had voiceover (and apparently did in the Japanese version). A few lines here and there are over-emoted, but generally voiceover quality is high.REPLAYABILITY: EXCELLENTAn abundance of side-quests and mini-games (although these tend to be of little interest to me), the Grade system, and the ability to reshape the story in several places makes this game a lot of fun to play multiple times. Winning it once might take 60-80 hours, but in all likelihood you'll want to win it at least twice, and maybe more times than that.OVERALL: SUPERB (92%)Hours of excellent gameplay and an engaging story are paired with eye-pleasing graphics and surprisingly good voice acting. If you have a Gamecube, this is an excellent choice. Hopefully Namco will be releasing future 'Tales' series games over here as well. Read more ›

Final Fantasy? Who needs that now that we have this on GC!
F. Khan

I have edited this review after finishing the game. (...)A long time ago, the tree of mana whithered away because of a ferocious war that raged across the lands. A hero gave his life to save the tree. This so grieved the goddess of mana that she left for the heavens asking her angels to awaken her for if she slept the world would whither away like the tree. Thus the angels job became to guide the "chosen one" to the heavens so that she/he may awaken the goddess and regenerate the world. Now A young girl named Colette the Chosen One, has recieved her calling and she must journey to regenerate the world. Her Best friends Lloyd (the main Character of the game), and Genis decided to go with her to protect her.The plot starts off feeling eerily similar to Secret of Mana. Not only that it seems like a cheesier version of that to begin with. But as you delve deeper into Lloyd & Colette's journey it starts to come into its own. This game has depth. It deals with issues of politics, religion, discrimination, & friendship. There are many twists and turns all supported by a brilliant & complex cast of characters. Further every so often you have the option of following conversations between your characters as they journey which help add more depth to their characters.Now on to the graphics & sound. The visuals are gorgeous. The Colors are bright, and the locations are lush. The animation is smooth, and after some major events you are treated to a hand drawn anime cut scene. The sound is pretty good too. Characters taunt and chatter as they battle. You can also hear them recite incantations as they cast spells. The music is nice but I felt the game lacked that one memorable piece that every single final fantasy (FF) game seems to have. My major complaint with the sound is the voice acting is pretty cheesy. It has its strong moments but for most parts I think it could have been done a lot better.The Battle System is awsome. You can see enemies on the overworld map, or in dungeons. They will chase after you but you can avoid them 85% of the time. Once you do fight, it's a lot of fun. You can move around the field, choose a target and execute attacks. Its almost like SOM except cooler. You can jump to avoid attacks, or block if you wish. Further you have techs (magic attacks & skills) that you can execute, and you can unleash combined attacks on enemies using your party for super damage. And lets not forget combos! You can string together techs to hit the enemies a huge number of times. My highest is 72 hit combo but if you link your party's attacks properly you could go higher. Your party members do a pretty good job of fighting along with you, and even using techs (spells) to heal you etc. You can customize their behaviour using a myriad of options to set AI priorities for each of your team members.Ok some negative things now. I think one thing that this game really lacks is that its missing that one great event, like the opera house in ff6, or the ballroom dance in ff8 that really made those game memorable (atleast for me). I wish there was that one great scene that I could go back to my GC, reload the game and watch over and over again. Regardless the game is still amazing and memorable as a whole if not for one event. I would highly recommend this game. It is a lot of fun. (...) Stop reading and start buying! Read more ›

Finally a good RPG for the Cube
Meggie

A salesman recommended this game to me. I've been waiting forever for a good RPG for the Cube, he said it was a great game. Boy was he right.Storyline:5/5OK, so at first the storyline seems really clichéd and predictable. Just wait. The plot has so many twists and turns; I found myself shocked more than once, jeez, you sure don't expect half of the things that happen.Graphics:4.5/5Everything is so smooth. So, the characters aren't breathtaking during the cutscenes (their movements seem strange sometimes), but the landscapes are nice and so are the battle scenes. The few anime cutscenes during the game are simply BEAUTIFUL.Music:5/5I personally adore the music in this game. I found myself pausing the game just to listen to it many times, and saving as many of the midis for the game as possible. ^__^Sound Effects:4.5/5The sound effects are usually just as amazing as everything else. I just sometimes found the voice acting strange (but VERY rarely)Characters:5/5O__O I LOVED the characters (especially Kratos, so what if he's a bit clichéd). Such variety, such cool costumes ^__^Replay Value:5/5Once you've finished the game, a harder mode becomes unlocked and you can use your GRADE (sort of like experience points, but not) to start a new game with certain extras.Overall (not average)5/5This is a definite must buy for the Cube. The game had me completely enravelled, it was definetly one of the best games I have ever played (and I've played a lot). I almost garantee that you'll like it ^__^