Back when this game came out, it rapidly became a Board 8 sensation thanks to the hype machine formerly known as Heroic Mario (although he would probably prefer to vehemently deny these claims nowadays!), and I decided to buy in myself because we sometimes had similar tastes, depending on what his flavor of the week was. Regardless, I had never played a Tales game before (and I haven’t played one since, what with the only other one I’ve been interested in only being available on a console I don’t own), and I figured I could use a new RPG experience, so I went for it.
Needless to say, as you can see by its high ranking on this list, I really enjoyed Tales of Symphonia. The battle system is really fun. People keep telling me that later Tales games have even better ones, but I can’t say because I haven’t played them! Anyway, Lloyd is a lot of fun to play as with all of his crazy sword moves and linkable attacks. After all, two swords equals twice the power, right? I also enjoy using Presea from time to time because her specials are fun to use, even if she is a bit on the slow side. I generally don’t like using slow characters, but I make an exception for her. Symphonia has some fun boss fights, too, particularly storyline related ones like against anyone from Cruxis. A lot of times it was just satisfying to give the guy what he deserved, as was the case with Rodyle.
Now let’s get into the…”touchy” aspect of Tales of Symphonia, which would be its story and characters. Personally, I love the game’s cast as a whole. For one thing, they have good chemistry together, which makes stuff like Skits so much fun. A lot of them have me rolling because they’re really funny, but then again, I’m easily entertained, so yeah. I know Genis and Colette are often considered to be terrible characters and their annoyance is compounded by the fact that they’re around from the very beginning of the game, but I found them to be more tolerable the last time I played. They occasionally have their moments in skits when they can be enjoyable, even if they are irritating when they’re on their own. Anyway, other than those two, Symphonia’s cast is entertaining, and they have interesting backstories for the most part, especially someone like Zelos. The game can be a bit heavy-handed when it comes to some of the drama at times, but it’s not too bad. But personally, I do enjoy Zelos’s flirtatiousness, Presea’s unintentional ownages, Raine’s craziness, and Lloyd’s…whatever he’s got goin’ on. Put it all together, and it’s a fun group.
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