The world's name is Sylverant. Hmm.
| Platform | Presentation |
Controls |
Variety |
Audio |
Depth |
Value & Fun | OVERALL |
| GameCube | 9.00 |
8.50 |
9.50 |
9.80 |
8.00 |
9.00 | 8.96 |
| Presentation |
9.00 |
|
High quality cel-shading and a constantly high frame rate make for a very nice looking game. The animations aren't all that varied or animated though, and there's still some problems with close-ups of characters often seen with cel-shading. Overall Tales looks great.
|
| Controls |
8.50 |
|
The controls take some adjustment, and even then it takes a significant amount of time before you're fully functional in battle. While you can target any enemy, you target one-at-a-time and are stuck on a 2D rail towards and away from that enemy. This causes some frustration due to the fact that the enemies are on a 3D plane and attack from the sides and you can't block that. How you counter this is through proper instruction to your party, good timing on attacks, and unique use of special moves.
|
| Variety |
9.50 |
|
Tales of Symphonia is so varied that you just aren't going to see everything it has to offer on one run through the game. In fact, you'ore likely not going to come close to the alledged 80 hours of gameplay. I actually finished Tales of Symphonia and its "80 hours of gameplay" in 41 hours, and Baten Kaitos and its "60 hours of gameplay" in 46. Hard to figure. Regardless of that, there are a tons of items, and the cooking system makes for a unique way to heal your characters. There are many playable characters as well, and with your 8 party roster full, and choosing the 4 that go into battle with you, that's 70 different combinations of characters you can choose from. On top of that, you can choose to control any character you want in battle, and friends can take control of the other characters. And you can't forget the enemies--you fight a person in a penguin suit, I think that's all that needs to be said.
|
| Audio |
9.80 |
|
The voice-acting is really what catches one's ear in Tales of Symphonia. Absolutely top-notch as seasoned pros such as Tara Strong join the cast. The music is just as well done, and there are a few particularly catchy tunes to be found (such as my favourite, Hima). The only slight knock I have against the sound is that the voice-acting has occasional spots where it seems like it should be there, yet it isn't.
|
| Depth |
8.00 |
|
The way things play out in Tales of Symphonia is rather strange, in that the depth of the game is actually comprimised somewhat by the story's complexity. While you have many characters to choose from to take direct control over, the main character, Lloyd, is the only one that you always have in your party (besides when your party splits in 2 groups, but you can avoid battles then anyway). This is counting from the point a character joins you team; that character will at somepoint be unavailable to you. Also, the difficulty also staggers the depth, as usually you want to force some advanced techniques on the user to succeed. However, I never really felt the need to assign spells to the C-Stick or use elemental attacks to attack an enemy's weakness because my constant, yet somewhat skilled and carefully executed, onslaught along with some healing items and healing AI controlled teammates prove successful.
|
| Value & Fun |
9.00 |
|
The length isn't really what the box says, but that's not to say 40 hours isn't a lot of gameplay. I don't base my rating in replay value on that alone, though, since as I said, Baten Kaitos was longer for me and I rated it lower in the same category. It's what you missed, the bonuses you get from starting from a completed file, the different characters you can control, and the different party arrangements to try. Not to mention that, if you're anything like me, didn't learn a lot of the intricacies until you were too far into the game to experiment.
|
| Overall |
8.96 |
|
The story was very unique and often times funny--maybe too much for the serious subject matter--although cliched occasionally. I enjoyed the story, but it wasn't particularly special compared to the way I felt about Baten Kaitos' story, but Tales of Symphonia as a game is excellent. Balance out the elements a bit and refine the battle system and Namco could be on its way to a perfect game here, but as it stands, Tales still has its flaws, but there's no reason to miss out on a memorable experience.
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Posted by Ellyoda Thu, 25 Aug 2005 00:00:00
