I had trouble getting into Tales of Symphonia at first. It was a little slow moving and it picked up the speed really quick. There’s a ton of depth to the game, a lot of sidequests, great memorable characters. The battle system, sound, graphics, world map are all excellent. I can't think of a good enough complaint to really mention here.

note: I haven't played Tales of Symphonia for almost a year, so I might be forgetting stuff in my review or getting stuff mixed up, hopefully I remember the important stuff.


----------Battle System----------
There's not a huge departure from the previous Tales of Destiny games for the PS1. Actually almost all the moves are the same, or at least very similar. While the battles look like its in 3D, you're still fighting in a straight like in you were in Tales of Destiny. You can pick which enemy to attack and you'll be 100% focused on him, while attacking in a straight line. You'll only control one character during battle (mostly Lloyd) but you can switch it up if you want, or you can tell the other characters what spells to use. I think I had flashbacks while playing this. I have no problem with the recycled battle system, since I loved Tales of Destiny. That game freshened up RPGs for me back when it came out, I'm glad they're not trying to be different and sway away from what made them good in the first place (*cough*finalfantasy*cough*).

You will only have 4 people during a battle, but you can switch your formation once you get enough characters in. Characters will join and leave your party at will, so don't get to attached with some of them. As the game progresses your characters will receive different Titles, these titles will often boost stats.

You can equip character specific weapons, armor, accessories and Ex-gems. Ex-gems are like stat boosters, you can level up your Ex-Gems by talking to a member of Katz in just about any town by giving them Grade. You gain Grade after battles, but not much of it, so spend it wisely.

You gain new abilities by using your spells and attacks in battles. If you use Tempest 100 times, then you'll gain a new / better version of it and so on.

You can see your enemies before they attack you in the field and dungeons. The enemies you see on the field don't represent what you'll end up fighting. What you see on the fields are black faceless monsters that have no real meaning to them. In the Dungeons you'll run into soilders or robots, but usually they're faceless enemies too.


----------Characters / Story----------
I loved both the story and the characters. Lloyd is a young, ignorant kid that wants the best for the world, Colette is the sweet angel that's sent on a mission to save the world. Genis is a young student, half elf and best friend of Lloyd. Raine is a teacher and big sister of Genis. Kratos is a hired bodyguard sent out to help Colette complete her mission. Sheena is ninja on a deadly mission to stop Colette. Presea is a strong mindless zombie chick controlled by her exsphere. Zelos is a total ladies man and Regal is a former prisoner that only fights with his feet. Not the most original line up, but this game tells a story better than most games out there today.

The story takes MANY many twists, so I'll try not to spoil them, but it touches on racism, slavery, religion, and some parts of the game reminds me of the Holocaust. This game has so much heart to it that you actually care that the characters help all the people that’s in danger. You actually feel bad for the towns people and anyone effected by the bad guys.


----------Graphics----------
The graphics are a mix of cel-shade, CGI and anime. The character graphics and towns are amazing. The mouths move when they talk, their faces are full of emotion, the colors are bright and vibrant. There's alot of spikey haired heroes in the game, but it's not to overboard. All the towns look different, the townsfolk are different looking as well. The enemies look really good, but the only problem is the dungeons look a little generic. None of the dungeons look alike (like in Evolution Worlds, Okage, etc) but they're just a little bland at times. There's a few anime cutscenes in the game, but not enough.



----------Sound----------
All the main characters are voiced over. All the voices fit the characters perfectly, although I have heard most of these voice actors before in previous games and cartoons shows. Your characters will have battle cries when you use their special moves. When you fight bosses they'll often talk to your during battle. The music is really good and rememberable aswell.


----------World Map----------
There's two worlds in Tales of Symphonia, and they're both pretty big. When you exit a town, you are shown walking across the world in the fields. Here you can find new towns, dungeons, secrets, treasures and skits. This is very similar to any of the early Final Fantasy games. You will eventually get an airship for transportation later in the game to fly to your destination. I love RPGs with this style of world maps.

There's a ton of towns in the game, some of them might be small, but its more towns than most games deliver. In each town you'll find shops, Inns, and alot of people to chat with to gather info.


----------Time to Complete Game (first run through, save after final boss)----------
47:02

After the game, you get a New Game Plus and you can start over with some of your old stats. I think I missed a few sidequests, so far this is the only RPG I've played this gen that I want to play again.