Tales of Symphonia

A perilous quest for adventure and survival.

JP release: 29th August 2003
NA release: 13th July 2004
EU release: 19th November 2004
Developer: Namco
Publisher: Namco
NGC Magazine Score: 84%
Mods Used: Widescreen Code

Tales of Symphonia was a significant game for the GameCube, as it was a big, exclusive (initially) JRPG, a genre that the N64 fell short on, especially in terms of localised titles. Luckily, Tales of Symphonia hit the mark and got a ton of great critic reviews. It tells the story of Lloyd Irving, a mysterious boy that helps his friend, Collete, who has been chosen to go on a quest to pray to sacred shrines and rejuvenate the world, accompanied by his friend, teacher and a mercenary. Of course, things get much, much more complicated than that.

One part of JRPGs that I usually don’t get along with is the combat, and all this time I’ve just assumed that this game was a typical turn based combat affair, and I was very wrong. You have full control of Lloyd (or another character in your party if you choose) while the other three characters help out. You can choose between a few options for control, with the main two being Manual or Semi-Auto. Semi-Auto is great for beginners as it means your main attacks won’t miss (as your character will automatically move), but you’ll struggle later on in the game, as Manual gives you greater control over jumping, which is vital for dodging, and aiming some special attacks, so it’s definitely worth getting used to it. If you can get other people to join you, you can have others control the other three characters (although you’ll need people who don’t mind waiting around between battles).

There’s still a ton of depth to it like a traditional JRPG, such as elemental types, status effects, items and multiple kinds of special attacks. It does a good job at introducing parts slowly so you’re not too overwhelmed (although an early dungeon has a mimic treasure chest that will almost certainly kill you if you try to open it). One other notable thing about the combat is that you can’t see the enemy HP unless you use an item called a Magic Lens, which I found made me act a bit more defensive than I usually would. Overall, I really enjoyed the combat in Tales of Symphonia.

As you’ll be on a globetrotting adventure, there will be a lot of places to visit. Villages and dungeons are played in a sort of isometric view, and the art style makes the game look incredibly vibrant and pretty, all with interesting characters to talk to. As you explore, you’ll also get some additional dialogue with members of your party when the Z button pops up, which is always nice too see (although these aren’t voice acted and you can’t control the speed of the text). There’s plenty of interesting places and people.

Dungeons are a bit of a mixed bag. They have a great sense of scaled and the puzzles within them are definitely good – most involve a magic ring which gets a new ability in each dungeon, some more interesting than others, but the puzzles are stretched across vast parts of the dungeon. If you used a guide, there would be a vast amount of walking backwards and forwards, and if you don’t, there will be a whole lot more. Even once you defeat a dungeon, you’ll have to trek the entire way back outside.

The amount of back and forth in the game is probably its biggest weakness. It’s an extremely long time, and I felt like a lot of the time was spent just darting back and forth. There’s one dungeon in particular where you have to keep getting objects to pass gnomes. These objects are not in the dungeon, so you’ll have to go on a mission to get them, return then find out what the next one was. There are also some dungeons that you’ll need to visit again later on and they’re not reset with new puzzles, you just have to walk all the way through them to fight a boss (thankfully, you don’t have to walk back out for most of these). There’s even an optional skit where Lloyd complains that the developers didn’t provide the option to skip these.

Of course, if you want an RPG that will last you an extremely long time, then this is probably all a good thing. It took me a good while to complete Tales of Symphonia and there’s still a large amount of side quests that I didn’t encounter. You do get better and better transport options throughout the game, but I really longed for a full on quick travel (one of the travel options already means avoiding all enemies). Despite this flaw (for me), there’s still a ton to love about the game and I am tempted to check out the sequel to see more, as I enjoyed the world and characters a lot.

Great

The only thing that really got on our nerves is the rubbish dialogue. There are times when it’s pretty appalling and it does kind of spoil the magic a little – likewise, the plot can be pretty clichéd and RPG veterans will find it tiresome in places. Still, there’s no arguing that Tales of Symphonia is a high-quality RPG, and exactly the kind of thing GameCube’s been in need of for ages.
Geraint Evans, NGC Magazine #100

Remake or remaster?

It got a HD version on PS3 and a more recent remaster which, after an abysmal launch state, seems to be more acceptable after some patches, although still has some graphical and framerate issues that weren’t present in the original.

Official Ways to get the game

The remaster is available on PC, PlayStation, Xbox and Switch.