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Tales of Symphonia

Started by Dracos, July 27, 2004, 08:37:43 PM

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Dracos

I'm going to be somewhat trite this review as it is the mood currently striking me.

Tales of Symphonia is the latest in the Tales series by Namco (Otherwise known as: That Pacman company, One of those old foggies, and That Company that totally hates us).  It is the game that I bought a GameCube for.  I am admittingly biased having purchased every game they've released here in this series and pirated most of the rest.  And you know, it was worth it.  This game is very good and it's a pity for those who don't own a GC that Namco won't be bringing over it's playstation 2 version of it.  Of course, that's why namco has it's title as That Company That Totally Hates Us.  In other news, Tales of Phantasia, still not released in the US on any system in existence.  JOY!

Rambling around, the game has spiffy graphics.  Cel shaded and animated, they generally flow smoothly through the game and look nice.  For that, I give them a thumbs up.  At the same time, they should've done better.  The pre-title bit has this absolutely beautiful hand drawn animation that was a delight to see....  and they have only one more occassion of it in the course of the game.  The game could've used some more beautiful drawings like that in it.  It would've beefed up some of the scenework that was admittingly weak within the 3d models.  That's my overly critical perspective.  Nothing that really detracts so much as the visuals could've been more powerful than they were.

The game's music is kinda above average, if not particularly special.  A lot of folks complained about the OST and I guess I don't have as fine an ear as I found in context of the game it was nice.  The occassional oldstyle tune fit in delightfully and overall the music fit the game without any real glaring contrasts or moments of silent ambiance.  The voice acting, notably, was excellent.  Good stuff and leagues beyond their earlier ones.

The gameplay can rightfully be separated into three parts:
A)The battle system: It rocked your house, came over, raped all your friends, and then sat around smoking your best cuban cigars while asking you 'was it as good for you?'  It kicked that much ass.  I was pleased.  That said, it deserved even more in game detailing of the various mechanics of it than it got (it's very deep and some of the stuff is almost ridiculously obscure) and it definitely could've had online support.  When I look at this battle system and imagine the potential fun of sitting down with four of my friends across the world each with their own screen playing this, I shake my head that it wasn't included.  A real shame, even if the direct multiplayer kicks ass.

B)The dungeons which were usually well designed if none too inspired puzzles.  They at no point particularly stalled me with interest at the puzzle at hand.  They also really sadistically overused the sorcerer ring (Every last dungeon had it's own sorcerer ring changer).  Not too bad, but nothing too great.

C)The world map and various mechanics: The world map was slow.  Yes, this perhaps bettered the exploration experience but dammit, by my second time through I would've appreciated some mechanism sometime during the game that sped up my motion on the overworld.  Even with the airships it took way too long to travel around the place and the lack of any warp spells really was felt.  On top of this, a good deal of the stuff lacked enough in game detailing.  Nothing that would prevent you from finishing the game but for some you had to be pretty psychic to realize what they were wanted done for some titles.  Certain minigames being exercises in tedium for others.  And, a huge 'winnar' with me: Shutting off all of the sidequests between the beginning of the last level until you've crossed the very end of it and are standing before the last boss.

This I found to be a minor issue running throughout the game.  The direct route through was pretty clear, but some stuff was obscure to unrealistic levels.  Training events that only occurred if you went through a certain path in a certain order sleeping in the right inns in town?  Not too bad.  Mystical attacks that required you to use a certain elemental blade and an attack 200 times with it?  "UUuuh..."   Really, no matter how obscure, there should've been some in game hints.  And I don't feel they did enough of this.  This doesn't so much detract from the game (Most folks won't notice it at all, and only completionists will have an issue) as give me the sensation that they could've done a better job with that.

The story...I've saved for last.  In some parts, it was good.  Very enjoyable.  In others, it was painfully weak.  The usage of the racism card in the writing as a major issue hurt the game.  The writers obviously didn't know what they were writing and I doubt having it translated helped.  The setting was almost rendered unbelievable at points because of how much work they did shoving the racism card in the player's face.  Definitely the weakest aspect of the game, even if it wasn't terrible by RPG standards.

Either way, the story is ignorable and has a hefty dose of great gameplay to help it go down.  A good game overall and well worth playing.

Dracos
Well, Goodbye.

Olvelsper

Adding a bit to this since I barely finished Symphonia (yeah, yeah, bite me):

The whole discrimination angle being played wouldn't of been nearly so bad if it hadn't suddenly been jammed right down your throat when you went to the other side, as it were. It went from being a happy fun time adventure that paralleled FFX (but with a supremely more fun battle system), to DRAHMA LAND.

"Wah! Wah! Everyone hates half elves!" Coming out of the mouths of the little half elves in my group when we got to the other planet, WHEN THEY HAD BEEN HANGING OUT WITH FRIENDLY HUMANS ALL THE TIME.

Geeze, that's just...*shakes his head*

If the discrimination card was played in this game, they should've made the humans the oppressed, seriously. All they ever showed in game was how much half elves and elves hated humans (although it was more subtle with the elves). The half elves hate got to the point of nazi-ism more than once.

And they elves were the victims in all this. *snorts* Roight.
http://www.fanfiction.net/u/2589971/Ol%27Velsper : Then we will write in the shade.