Remember Tales? No, probably not. The Tales game series has always been second to many of the other RPG's like Final Fantasy and Phantasy Star. It hasn't had a tremendous success outside of Japan. But Nintendo and Namco plan to change that by bringing the classic Tales of Symphonia over from Japan. Is it the Gamecube's best RPG yet?
The story picks up with aspiring hero Lloyd Irving, a lazy schoolchild who wishes to participate in a ritual where a “Chosen One” is taken to fulfill their destiny as the Regenerator of the World, in this case the land of Sylvarant. The Chosen, in fact, is Lloyd's clumsy classmate, Colette Brunel. She is guarded by Lloyd's bookish and mage teacher Raine Sage and mysterious mercenary Kratos Aurion.
Upon hearing of him not able to join the adventure, Lloyd explores the local hideout of the Desians with his friend Genis, who also happens to be Raine's younger brother. The Desians use humans in horrific ways to Lloyd and the others, but only when someone gets killed does Lloyd possess the courage to help Colette on his own. The real challenge, though, is explaining the story in this review.
You see, Tales of Symphonia's story goes off on so many tangents and so many plot twists that explaining the story any further would spoil something. Regardless, it's when the long (and I mean LONG) story is complete that you realize that the original story makes sense and is a triumphant mark in the RPG world.
The characters are developed brilliantly. Lloyd is your typical wanna-be hero, but early on he is denied the power of going on the journey. Genis is the kid brother of Raine but always seems to know what's right. Colette is a regular klutz and really doesn't understand what she's actually doing. I could go on, but identifying each character would take up far too much precious time.
On the whole, the game doesn't just approach the cookie-cutter “save the world” theme. Romance, human existence, and all the other important themes you'd find in a best-selling novel come into the story. Characters change over time. Relationships form. The characters themselves become more important than the task at hand, which changes just as much as the characters do. Tales of Symphonia takes every chance to be different, but never under appreciates its core values for a good, well-thought-out story. It's a unique, thought-inducing, theme-creating journey that will no doubt be treasured in the future of gaming, and entertainment as a whole.
What has been the crown jewel of the classic Tales legacy is the constant innovation in the battle system. The classic turn-based, number-crunching battle system is not present in Tales of Symphonia. Every battle takes place in full real time, following the Linear Motion Battle system, as Namco eloquently calls it.
Upon entering a battle, the controlled character moves on a linear axis with the targeted enemy, similar to that of a 2-D fighting game. Pressing the A button lets the player attack with basic attacks like sword slashes, and pressing B lets a player execute a special attack, a more powerful melee attack or magic and the like, where Technical Points (TP) are spent. Simple guards can be executed with the X button, with better guards earned later on.
Though the entire concept seems simple to the point of ridicule, the combat requires well-timed attacks and strategic uses of items and skills in game. When the battle gets pretty tough, pressing the Y button brings up a simple menu to change techniques, use items, or designate how a character approaches battle. Changing targets can be used with the R button, which also stops the battle till the player begins it again.
What's really interesting about the battle system is when multiple enemies appear and the player is forced to quickly decide how to approach the situation. The fact that up to four players can battle as a team (with the leader using the camera) doesn't hurt at all.
Outside of battle (and sometimes in), there's plenty of stuff to do in order to become a better hero. The Y button opens the classic RPG pause screen, where characters can increase skills with better weapons, heal using items, or decide which strategy to approach in battle. One inclusion is EX Gems, magical stones that can increase stats, emphasize a specific battle style, or the like. The game does well in approaching the classic trends of how each character battles. One's better with melee, another with healing, another with magic.
It's a pretty standard fare. A major way that the game changes the gameplay is the use of Strike and Technical. Depending on how you use EX Gems, the characters will learn different types of techniques, a matter that comes useful in planning how each character battles. Strategies are set as how a character's role in battle.
