*As I write this Tales of Symphonia Remaster was just announced for various platforms... 2 weeks after I beat it (in the form of Chronicles)... omg...*
Current mood: I- who- what is happening? Wha- why am I level 47 holy sh-
Tales of Symphonia is one of the most beloved titles in the Tales series lineup, first released for the Gamecube, PS2, then for its 10th anniversary, bundled with its sequel Dawn of the New World as Tales of Symphonia Chronicles on the PS3.
I got the PS3 version babeyyyy we're going back to our polygonal roots!
(sorry that this is a mobile game art instead of the actual box art or something bc this is literally the only one with all the playable characters that don't feature the sequel characters)
The 5th main installment of the franchise, Tales of Symphonia is known as the "RPG that resonates with you" (it's characteristic genre). I can't tell you why it's called so because I have no idea what it means. Moving on!
When was the last time we played 'guess that character'? Our idiot hero Llyod is center stage, clad in a impossibly cool red outfit. The heroine, implied love interest but not white magician girl (throws chakrams in your face) Colette, who is incredibly clumsy but also incredibly lucky girl voiced by none other than Mizuki Nana! Brother and sister caster combo, Genis and Raine, black and white mage respectively (if you don't know which is which, Genis the black mage wields a... kendama); Sheena your local ninja slash summoner; the mighty Zelos, the face of TalesFes, his passion for women as fiery as his hair; Regal the resident old man character (he is only 33) who refuses to uncuff his hands and fights with his legs instead; and lastly the fun sized tank Presea, the obligatory 'child who is physically stronger than the adults combined' character (and she's not half as slow). The guest character is mysterious Kratos, whose attire will raise some questions (not that any of the guy's attire not raise questions especially Regals' but I'm going off on a tangent here).
Honestly I don't remember a single thing about the plot up to a certain point because the last time I played was in 2017! And that's not saying anything about my 2-year break before that at around level 30. If there wasn't a synopsis feature I would have lost my way. I came back at level 47, two-thirds into the Tethe'alla arc waiting to fight Celcius with no recollection of the battle mechanics, the EX skills system or where I should be going next... if past me didn't save right outside the dungeon I probably wouldn't have known to go in there to progress the plot...
The game deals with a lot of fantastic racism, because we have humans, elves and dwarves, and wouldn't you know it, there's half-elves too! There's bloody racism everywhere because they are neither here nor there. Humans hate/fear them because they live longer lives; elves despise them because elves are just pieces of racist shits in any media apparently. It also doesn't help that there are these game-equivalent internment camps known as human ranches that half-elves use to manufacture battle equipment... overall, nasty stuff.
So to make a long story short, Lloyd, Colette and Genis grew up together, with Llyod raised by a dwarf in the outskirts of the village Iselia and Colette and Genis (alongside Raine) living in the village. Colette is the Chosen, a person who is, as the title suggests, chosen to ascend the heavens as an angel and deliver Slyvarant from its declining state. Thus is this day that the Chosen of Sylvarant embarks on her journey of regeneration, joined by Llyod and Genis (who were exiled from the village) as well as Raine (because the sibling duo were outed as half-elves and not pure-bred elves).
They meet a clumsy ninja, Sheena, who was supposed to assassinate the Chosen of Slyvarant. She fails miserably tho. She joins the party later for reasons I could not remember. They visit the Temples of Martel and Colette gets her first transformation: a pair of angel wings! As the party continues their journey, what seemed like an exciting pilgrimage turned out to be something mildly disturbing. So comes the meme-able cutscene in Symphonia:
Colette is losing her humanity as she releases the seals, but she is willing to sacrifice herself to bring about the prosperity of Slyvarant. At one point she loses her emotions altogether, with Lloyd also fucking losing it because of course the bad half-elves are behind this whole chosen-becomes-an-angel-and-regenerates-world plot as well. Thankfully Colette manages to snap out of it and they somehow zap to the other side of the world: Tethe'alla.
Tethe'alla also has a Chosen of its own in the form of Zelos, the skirt-chaser noble whose rank is second only to the king of the land. They run around a bit, gather new allies in Regal and Presea, as well the aforementioned Sheena. Many revelations were had, some of it came from Kratos (revealed to be a high-ranking angel who has this back-and-forth traitor thing going on with the party), some from a bad half-elf Yuan. Everything points to germinating the Great Seed, uniting Sylvarant and Tethe'alla, breaking the cycle and ensuring the world does not want for mana.
Unfortunately things don't go as planned, Colette gets kidnapped like at least 3 times during the course of the game, Sheena becomes the summoner of the spirits but the seed does not germinate, Zelos backstabs late in the arc but pulls a "Sike!" right before the dungeon ends. The details are lost on me but I'm pretty sure the 'angels' are actually all half-elves (except for Kratos who is human), and the 'heavens' is the elves' original planet Derris-Kharlan, which you can actually visit and is in space. Yeah. The two worlds each have a tower to this 'heaven', which was used by the Chosen to 'ascend'. This Chosen will be used by the big bad of the game, Mithos, the legendary hero, as a vessel for his not-quite-dead sister Martel. Because the mana has to be shared between the two worlds, one would be in decline while the other prospers, until the Chosen fulfils their role and the mana flow reverses. And who was the one that cleaved the world into two? Mithos himself. No idea why he would do that.
Also Kratos, as mentioned before, is an angel and also Lloyd's biological dad. Which makes their interactions all the more bittersweet.
In the end, Mithos is defeated, the seed germinated and there is promise of a better tomorrow... but the ending is a huge deus ex machina and I literally laughed my ass off at the absurdity of it all.
This was one of the more recognizable titles because someone keeps asking for Llyod in Smash. It hasn't happened yet.
The title of the game comes from the word symphony, which means:
1: consonance of sounds
2a: RITORNELLO sense 1
b: SINFONIA sense 1
c(1): a usually long and complex sonata for symphony orchestra
(2): a musical composition (as for organ) resembling such a symphony in complexity or variety
3: consonance or harmony of color (as in a painting)
4a: SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
b: a symphony orchestra concert
5: something that in its harmonious complexity or variety suggests a symphonic composition
It's all about music but somewhere in there you can see no.5 is the most likely definition. Harmony. Agreement or concord, if you're going archaic. Apparently Bamco also said this:
"According to Bamco, it's because the mana flow of the planets is "like the rising and falling of a symphony" or something."
by GameFAQs user DarkZV2Beta. So, music it is I guess!
As for the characteristic genre... eeeeehhh even GameFAQs can't help me with this one because I can't find a single thing about it. To resonate with someone... like, sympathize? I don't... I don't get it. Llyod gives out a lot of motivational speeches to a lot of people during the course of the game, and that's one of the points but not the point. From what I remember he doesn't do anything other than not being racist like the rest of the world. That counts for something I think.
Gameplay: this game is the furthest back in the franchise I've gone! The presentation is definitely simpler (the low res models, goldfish mouths, game menus etc.) and the battles aren't as complex as the newer titles, nevertheless, there are still things to learn, from EX skills to unison attacks and mystic artes. The AI is not great, but it's not too terrible either, considering it gets the job done most of the time. Casters will still run up to enemies and cast spells right under their asses to get interrupted but at least it doesn't waste MP on mindless casts (ahem). And with the right setup I managed to make Raine and Genis so OP that they never run out of MP, thanks to the two accessory slots in this game... it's fun overall.
Story: like I mentioned, the story is lost on me since there's a 5 year gap between playthroughs and I only remember the core story beats and nothing else. Maybe if I did another playthrough without too-long breaks in between I could appreciate the story better. Even though I forgot a lot of story points, it doesn't make the ending any less bittersweet.
Soundtrack: it's Sakuraba, but this is one of the older games so I can't say it's bland... some of the battle tracks slap hard (music to beat up angels to) and considering the era it was released it has good variety.
Overall rating: I give it a 7/10 but I believe the rating would be higher if I didn't take a break and paid attention. It's not my first Tales game (it is one of my latest in fact) so there's no nostalgia attached to it, which is good because I can give it a fair rating. May revisit this game at a later date, hopefully without long breaks...
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