Games – Tales of Symphonia

My current gaming obsession, about the best RPG for the Gamecube I’ve played so far. One of the few as well. It’s an anime focused, cell shaded number with a lovely look to it. There are enough character details, added to some great voice acting to help bring the characters to life. I’m already attached to the main crew of goodie goodies and snarling at the bad guys thirty hours into the game(said to have 80 hours of gameplay, though I might have it done in 50-60, depends).

The story as it stands is pretty good. Starts with the main hewro(every RPG has one), Lloyd Irving, a young man who has little knowledge of his past. Raised by his adopted father, Dirk the Dwarf, he’s friends with Genis, a young elf boy and Collette, a human girl who is the Chosen, destined to save their world of Silverant by taking the journey of world regeneration when the time is right.

The time comes amid attack by the Desian, half-elves who see humans and others as inferior beings, herding them into ranches for their own sinister uses. Things get complex as a mercenary named Kratos shows up and events pull him, the Chosen Collette, Lloyd, Genis and Raine(school teacher in their small village of Isalia and Genis’s much older sister) on the journey of world regeneration.

As they travel and unlock the elemental seals, we find out that Lloyds allies are not at all who they say they are, nor is the journey itself all that they’d imagined at the start.

Suffice it to say, as I stand amid the story at thirty hours in, it’s getting strange. Mysteries have been revealed, yet I’m still not exactly sure what is up or what my intrepid little band will be able to do to save their world.. and another that reveals itself along the way. I’m determined to find out, however.

Story aside, ToS has a nice, interesting combat system. In it, you take active participation in the battles, controlling one of the characters(or more if you have up to four friends) while the others run on autopilot, guided by a nicely detailed set of parameters that determine who they attack and how. Of course, you can command them amid the conflict through a menu system if you need them to do something specific.

In combat, you can use the one you actively control to attack with regular stikes and Techs which range from spells to flashy sword techniques that can rain multiple strikes and knock down enemies. You lock on to one enemy at a time(lock able to be shifted on the fly), centering the view such that you can move back and forth to attack that enemy. You can run, jump, attack, dodge backward and block as well as execute your Techs and use items, in a focused effort to damage the opposition and take as little as you can in return. With the ability to inflect status effects occasionally, stagger, stun and knock down enemies with some Techs, the battles can be intense. Especially against the formidable bosses.

As you battle, if you use a certain Tech enough and gain a high enough elvel, you can spontaneously learn a new, more powerful version of the Tech. You can also equip a myriad of items to power up your characters, some bought, some customized from old items and new materials and others won out of battle or found in chests. There are also Ex Gems that you can attach to characters, allowing them to learn Ex Skills, that help in small ways, or Compound Ex Skills when a certain set of simple Ex Skills are set for a certain character.

There are also puzzles and a host of mini games and side quests, beefing out this game into something that will, obviously, keep you busy for quite some time, even when you’re not traveling through the main story, gathering experience and witnessing the delightful cut scenes, laughing at the humor and feeling the emotion as these characters evolve through a deep tale.

On the overall, I’d recommend this to anyone who has a GC and has been itching for a good RPG for the system. Your prayers have been answered in spades.