Again, I know it sucks to nitpick a 10 year old game about graphics, but the game really shows its age and that is something shouldn’t get a free pass and that should be mentioned. The world map itself really shows it’s age as well, with details of the landscape and towns being very subpar. I know this game is old, but it just blew my mind to see how ugly this part of the game turned out in the HD product. The world map’s radar has really seen better days, looking extremely ancient and blocky. There are options out there to unlock more of the map without traveling all over, as you can pay the Katz Exploration Team to do map-making, show unvisited areas, missed items, and monsters. Some of them won’t give you a chance though, as they will dart out rather fast toward you. As you travel throughout the map, you will see your enemies as you get closer, allowing you to avoid them whenever need be. Actually, I should say lack of speed, as the movement seems almost at a snail’s pace. This can seem rather daunting at times, and is especially true in the speed at which your character moves across the field. When you are not in combat or reading through the story, you will spend a majority of your time exploring the world map. It is very beneficial for you to pay close attention to new titles and pick what suits your characters the best. Titles can be earned through cutscenes or after battles and will alter attributes of your characters, improving things like health points or Defense. Outside of the combat and strategy, there are also weapons and armor that you must find or save up money for as well as titles. This keeps you from having those “I hate this stupid AI” moments that can sometimes become frequent in video games. To make battles easier, you have the ability to set the strategy of your computer controlled friends, telling them whether to sit back and heal, go all out on attack, or use long range spells. You can also fill up the Unison guage through multiple hits and unleash a Unison Attack, where all four players attack in a row by pressing the corresponding buttons on screen for each one. Again, if you have played any of the recent Tales games, this shouldn’t be anything new for you and you should be able to pick up Symphonia in no time. These skills are a must in harder battles and use TP, which can then be regained through potions or hitting the opponents. Players will also have the ability to use EX skills, with four being assigned at a given time. It can certainly feel a bit like a button masher at times, however, the addition of the analog stick to select a different type of attack adds enough variety and is needed for different kinds of monsters. It is real time, so you are moving around freely from monster to monster and repeatedly pressing the attack button in coordination with a direction on the analog stick. It is a action-based combat system, where you control your player on a battlefield with the help of three others. He has his moments, but overall is shown a very mature approach to his development and really none of the characters get annoying.įor fans of the series, there aren’t a lot of surprises in the game, as what they did 10 years ago is still holding mostly true to this day. In fact, I would argue that Lloyd is one of the better characters in the entire series and is a nice break from main’s like Luke fon Fabre of Tales of the Abyss. While the story doesn’t deviate much from the usual JRPG cliches, it is rather nice to see a cast of characters not overshadowed by a whiney, pre-teen main character. Thankfully, your friends, along with help from your teach Raine, a mercenary named Kratos (not the dude ghostly Spartan dude), and many more will help you along the way. The journey isn’t an easy one, as you face plenty of tough opposition along the way. Collete has been named the chosen one and as such, you set out on a journey to revive the mana in the world and defeat the evil Desians. Tales of Symphonia places you in the shoes of Lloyd Irving, a hot-headed kid who always seems to be getting into trouble, and his friends Collete and Genis. Now released on the PS3 along with Dawn of the New World, a Nintendo Wii release from 2009 that I also adore-but do these games stand the test of time, and can one of my favorite RPGs still shine brightly today? Originally released over 10 years ago for the Gamecube, this was my first experience with the Tales series and has long been one of my favorite RPGs. It has been a long time coming to finally get a chance to play Tales of Symphonia for a PlayStation console outside of Japan.
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