And while you can clearly see the Japanese/anime influence on Tales of Symphonia (such as ‘hey I’m going to do this five second summon animation and shoot out a really slow fireball, just stand still until it hits you’ ‘sure thing dude’), I do like the storyline. One of the things I like about the game is its affection system, and depending on who your top rated partner is at the time, you can get brand new dialogue for certain scenes with that character that you would never get otherwise. I enjoy the scenes designed just for that character at Flanoir and Heimdall. They’re usually interesting scenes where the other character divulges a lot of personal information about themselves to Lloyd. Just about anything that happens in the Tower of Salvation is good stuff, too. That’s when the game’s story really picks up, during your first visit there. Symphonia moves along pretty slowly through the first part of the game up to that point, but it gets really good from that point on.
I will say though as a negative that this game has some terrible dungeons, but for the most part, they’re only bad the first time when you have no idea what to do. Stuff like the Temple of Darkness is fairly straightforward once you know what you’re doing, but Latheon Gorge sucks no matter how many times you do it (That’s the one where you have to use the bubbles and the flowers, if you can’t remember exactly which one I’m talking about). That one can go rot. Well, I’d hate to end this writeup on a sour note, so I’ll finish up by saying I really like Symphonia’s soundtrack, but Board 8 seems to hate it for some reason, particularly the battle themes. It’s got some good stuff there though.
And since no Tales of Symphonia discussion is complete without a character inequality:
Presea > Zelos > Lloyd > Kratos > Sheena > Raine > Regal > Genis > Colette
Bonus Question: What is your favorite Tales game?
--
http://img.imgcake.com/leonpngpe.png
http://img.imgcake.com/squalloweenpngem.png