Tales of Symphonia was one of the first and only good RPGs for the Nintendo Gamecube. I was attracted to this game because it was 1) an RPG for the Gamecube (and we all know how rare those are), 2) had adorable anime characters, and 3) because it features a real-time battle system.
To start with the battle system, I was absolutely overjoyed that it wasn’t another turn-based strategy game. I have nothing against Final Fantasy, but it’s rather frustrating when you can’t block attacks or move the healer
out of the line of fire. And plus, in a real battle, you don’t stand there and wait your turn before moving and attacking. A good free-for-all is always fun. The only complaint I have here is that in multiplayer mode, the camera focuses on Player One.
So, if Players 2,3, and 4 are too far away, you’ll just have to mash buttons and hope that you’re hitting something. Another thing I really liked about this battle system was the intelligent AI.
So, if you’re Player 2 and you’re
somewhere off the screen getting your butt kicked by a monster you can’t even see, the CPUs will actually cast healing magic when you need them to. There’s nothing I hate more than a healer that just stands in the background doing absolutely nothing.
Tales of Symphonia is certainly a game that values gameplay over graphics. The characters are anime-inspired and look like a bunch of five-year olds.
That, and some of the dialogue (as well as the whole story line) is cliché¬ but in my opinion it’s done well ...
I used to play this game, it was really cool. This basically sums up my whole childhood and wow The nostalgia I have gotten from seeing this is insane. I love to play games like this, but nobody knows how to make good games anymore, it’s pretty dumb that most companies make games for the money, these were the only developers I actually could connect to.