n Tales of Symphonia, a group of villagers is under attack from the half-elf Desians, a cruel band of militants who keep a miserable "human ranch" up in the hills. After an initial encounter, meant to free an old woman who was being whipped, a young man (Lloyd) and his younger friend (Genis) wind up on the wrong end of the Desian's blades.
Meanwhile, their school-age friend Colette has been called for her duty: She is the Chosen One, meant to save their race, win the favor of the Goddess and regenerate the world. Throughout Symphonia, a small crew will fight to outrun the Desians and collect the clues Colette needs to see her through her sacred journey.
Tales of Symphonia has all the classic RPG elements: Players can toggle among all the members of the party, arming each one with special weapons (including customized items, made with special ingredients such as White Silver or Beast's Hide). Characters chat up townspeople for advice, for mini-games and for extra, otherwise hidden items.
Battles are real-time, not turn-based, and take place often as you explore the map. As a player, you select your main character (most often Lloyd), and head into four-on-four fights with swords swinging. If characters take critical hits during the game, the X button leads to a menu where you can use "apple gel" or other items to regain some hit points. If the worst happens, you can administer a potion to revive a dead cohort.
Like many of these kinds of games, Symphonia has familiar subplots. Lloyd, for example, lost his mother and birth father at an early age. (He was raised by a caring dwarf instead.) As is the case with everyone since Luke Skywalker, Lloyd is out to avenge his family's misfortune and find out the truth.
Strong real-time RPG fighting
Despite the big-eyed-child characters on the cover, Tales of Symphonia is a complex RPG, a game that borrows the look of Dark Cloud and plot points from Final Fantasy (especially Crystal Chronicles) but combines them in an entirely new and interesting way. (Obviously, cel-shaded Symphonia owes a lot to anime, from the character design to the short skits that run when players hit the Z button.)
One warning before we get to the good stuff: The plot can be tedious to unravel. If Symphonia were a script, it would contain page after page of complex exposition and awkward explanation. When explaining an "exosphere," Lloyd says, "There's nothing I can do without the inhibitor ore that acts as a mount!?" If you can put up with hours of this kind of prattle, you'll do fine with Symphonia.
But aside from that one criticism, Symphonia is an incredible game. Its settings, from the village to the desert to the port towns along each side of the sea, are charming and distinct. The battles range from simple snake fights to bite-your-nails boss fights, where players must constantly administer potions to keep the crew alive.
The game strikes a nice balance in many ways. While it's too talk-heavy in sections, Symphonia also provides players with nice shopping alleys (good for arming the characters before their next trek), a fair number of save points (mostly in inns, once everyone is rested and their health meters topped off) and unique environments, accessible through the large-scale world map.
Personally, I find the whole "Chosen One"/spiritual quest thing really goofy, but it's never so overwhelming that I lose interest. I still want to know what's at the next point and how the crew's quest will end. With expert game mechanics, great visuals, good battles and the power of all these elements combined, Symphonia ranks as an up-and-coming classic RPG.
For the record, I'm not a big fan of this anime-influenced style, but Symphonia hooked me and didn't let go.
— Jennifer
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