Tales of Symphonia (2003)
4.13 from 1160 ratings
3788 members have it in their collection · 104 playing now · 1580 backlogged · 567 wish listed
How long? Main story 52h · with extras 49h (from 14 logged playthroughs)
Details
- Developers
- Namco Tales Studio
- Publishers
- Bandai Namco Holdings, Namco, Nintendo
- Genres
- Puzzle, Role-playing (RPG)
- Themes
- Action, Fantasy
- Franchises
- Tales of
- Series
- Tales, Tales of Symphonia
- Event
- Nintendo E3 2004 Press Conference
- Steam
- View on Steam
Release dates
- Aug 29, 2003 (Japan) Nintendo GameCube
- Jul 13, 2004 (North_America) Nintendo GameCube
- Nov 19, 2004 (Europe) Nintendo GameCube
- Nov 23, 2004 (Australia) Nintendo GameCube
Also available on
- Tales of Symphonia (2004) · PS2
- Tales of Symphonia (2013) · PC, PS3
- Tales of Symphonia Remastered (2023) · NSW, PS4, XONE, XSX
- Tales of Symphonia Remastered: Chosen Edition (2023) · NSW, PS4, XONE
Featured in lists
Rating distribution
5 stars
480
4 stars
421
3 stars
189
2 stars
59
1 star
9
Community All Reviews Statuses
Review whitegamerinc 5/5 · Sep 30, 2015
One of the best JRPGs I have ever played
During the time of Gamecube, there really weren't that many JRPGs for gamers to ravish over. Final Fantasy, and others were flourishing over at Sony. When Tales of Symphonia came out, it was an incredible gift to the Gamecube library. That in part, made Symphonia such a success. The story begins as you play as Lloyd Irving, a 17 year …
During the time of Gamecube, there really weren't that many JRPGs for gamers to ravish over. Final Fantasy, and others were flourishing over at Sony. When Tales of Symphonia came out, it was an incredible gift to the Gamecube library. That in part, made Symphonia such a success. The story begins as you play as Lloyd Irving, a 17 year old dual swordsman trained by his adoptive father, Dirk. If you are a fan of JRPGs that is a pretty typical scenario. If you were like me when you first picked up the game I had no idea what a JRPG was. This game introduced me into the fantastical crazy genre that is JRPGs, and I must be thankful for that.
Anyways, Lloyd is the main character truly, although the quest doesn't revolve around Lloyd straight from the get go like in most RPGs. In the beginning you are in the land of Sylvarant, which is a poor land, with the flow of Mana (life energy) slowly draining from it making the land even worse. To reverse this process, there is a ritual where the "Chosen" goes to holy places and defeats the elemental guardians and performs a rite to bring back the flow of Mana and bring a time of prosperity. The story is very intriguing, with emphasis placed on your party and the relationships you have with them. Having better relationships with certain characters can impact optional quests, cutscenes, and dialogue in the game. Quite impressive for a game from 2003!
The combat is pretty traditional for a Tales game, you bump into a monster on the overworld, and go to a seperate battle screen. You yell your awesome moves and spells, you can even combine certain attacks to make dual, triple, or party attacks that are uber powerful after getting a certain meter unlocked a little ways into the game. You can switch up and be different members of the party that fight (only 4 at a time) if you feel like being someone else other than Lloyd, but I found myself not enjoying other character's moves as much as Lloyd's.
All in all, if you need a JRPG to play and somehow HAVEN'T played Symphonia, there are more ways now than ever to play it. There is the original gamecube version, which is a bit dated, the PS2 version which has more enemies for combat, more side quests among other things and the PS3 version which contains ps2 Symphonia and its sequel Dawn of the New World (Which, do yourself a favor and don't even touch).
