Tales of Symphonia (2003)

So before going into my retrospective playthrough of every Tales game if you had asked me which was my favorite I would have said Symphonia. It was the first I played, a grand journey I took with my siblings and one that I've always looked back on fondly. I was hoping that with such a huge gap of time and more experience not just in Tales games but in RPGs in general maybe I'd have a new take. But after 30 minutes of playing I was convinced of 3 things:

1. Nostalgia's a hell of a drug
2. There was never really any hope to approach this unbiased and that's okay
3. Tales of Symphonia is still my favorite Tales game

And here now 50 hours later at the end of the journey I'm still convinced of all three of those points. Everything is just so incredible, yes as an improvement over previous entries but even years later. The combat is much more varied, most of the cast is fun to play, and you can really mix and match your party in nearly any combination. The music is perfect, the world varied but cohesive, and the side quests and costumes super fun to search for and unlock. And the characters. Oh sweet lord the characters. As individuals the cast of the Persona games, and a few other RPGs may have more depth or better designs but as a single unit there is no RPG party I love more than these goofs. They all just bounce off each other so well, and really feel like they genuinely get along and care about each other. I could gush for another few hours about how well it adapts to 3d, how great the hidden affection system is, why the VAs kick ass but I'll just stop by saying 12/10 its gonna be really hard to top this one.

I found this on Thriftbooks last weekend (actually in stock!) and it came in today!

It's about the size of a strategy guide but not very thick. Mostly has these character profiles, a few other character pages, pictures of all of the summons, and then several of the sprites pages. But I'm still super stoked to have found something like this for one of my fav games from my favorite series!

How is Presea only 53lbs?!

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).