The Gamecube finally gets some RPG love....

... in the form of Tales of Symphonia. The game is visually stunning, one of the best looking Gamecube titles that I have see so far. It uses what I guess could be called a stereotypical storyline about saving the world, that does get somewhat boring, but fits the game very well. The battle system is a refreshing change from the usual turn-based and Active Time Battle styles most RPG’s use. The battle system is a good mix of strategy and action by letting you directly control the characters.

The point of this whole thing was to ask if anybody else has played Tales or plans on getting it soon. If any body knows any sites about the game, I would greatly appreciate it.

To anyone that has played it: what do you think so far, good or bad?

And yes I do know about the GC other RPGs ,but most of those are ports from other consoles.

[AceBandage]

You forgot Skies of Arcadia Legends...

But I want Tales of Symphonia..
I might get it tomorrow...

[Atma]

I got it yesterday and played a bit of it, and so far, I'm not crazy about it.

The first thing that I noticed about it was the story line. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seemed to talk most of the elements DIRECTLY from Secret of Mana (ooo, a giant tree that gives off mana huh? and what's that? it was destroyed in a war? isn't that just something?) and Final Fantasy X (Weeee, we're going on a journey to temporarily protect the world and keep the peace! Weee!). Not to mention other little tidbits that come up (Such as being banned from the first town you go to, and also, when you die, the game says "And they were never heard from again.") Aside from that, the story seems rather poor. "Oh look, bad guys." "Err, they do bad stuff." "Uh, let's go beat them." It uses every RPG cliche and guideline in the book. And the love interest between Lloyed and Colette is both completely obvious and ultra-cheezy. Yeah, so far, I'm not impressed.

"Well, okay, but what about the battle system? That must be good, right?" you ask. Well, not really. The battles themselves are fun and new but there're too choatic to know what's going on most of the time. I can only concentrate on my health and stats, because I don't have time to look over at the other character's. I also would have liked it if the game took a little more incentive to explain the battles and the controls, rather than giving you a few battles hopeing that you'd "get used to it." It may be because I haven't gotten the hang of it yet, and I certainly hope so.

The way the game lets you customize your characters is odd at best and certainly doesn't reach the level of, say, Secret of Mana. And I don't really see the point of changing the settings either, seeing how they all operate on the characters "thought patterns".

And to top things off, I just got to a seemingly invincible boss that just come out of nowhere. I lost within seconds and quite frankly, I don't know what to do. All the battles in said dungeon were going rather smoothly until I reached that abomination. I could level up, but levels come at a slow rate. Skills, however, don't.

So that's my first take on the game. Hope it gets better or it grows on me, because I don't usually spend $50 on a game that first comes out and I don't want it to be wasted.

[Raiden]

Skies of Arcadia Legends is an upgraded version of the Dreamcast game. I still love that game, though.

I've never even heard of Tales, but that's probably because I don't own a Gamecube...

[KefkaTaran]

I've heard a lot of good stuff about Tales of Symphonia. Namely that it's pretty good! I plan to pick it up eventually. I'd be more disappointed by GCN's lack of good RPGs, but I have my PS2 for those.

[Omega]

i jst got the game as well but for the life of me i cant figure out how to have multipule people play

Atma, whats the name of the invincible boss?

Also does any one know where to get red stay in Tethe'alla?
Or know any guides that tell you?

[Atma]

Actually, I beat him a long time ago. Nothing a little leveling up wouldn't fix. It was the boss in the Fire Shrine. What can I say, he overwhelmed me.

Now I just blew up the ranch and am now over the peak thingy. Time to do more exploring, it seems.

[Dac]

the tales series continues AND IT GOES TO GAMECUBE..oh the humanity..i enjoyed all the previous games.

[The Mystical One]

Originally Posted by O_mega

i jst got the game as well but for the life of me i cant figure out how to have multipule people play

To have multiple people play, you must set the control scheme in battle mode to something other than AUTO for the second, third, etc characters.