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Rating: 
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I bought this game in August of 06, and boy was I impressed. I bought it because of the Gamecube's very limted array of RPGS. I have to admit that my exspectations were pretty high for this game, seeing as it got as much praise as it did, but now lets talk about the game. I guess the first thing I'll start off with ...the battle system, and what a system it is. Instead of the very frustrating (to me any way) run around and get a random encounter, you have a choice if you want to get in a battle or not. When you move around you see little black shaped monsters on the field, Run into those monsters and you start a battle, here's the twist. You move your character around in a 3D battle field, attacking with just your normal A button attack or attacking with various special moves called Techs. Sounds simple and it is once you get used to it, but its hard to talk about all the aspects in a review. Later Techs you learn can be in one big combo called a Unison Attack. In a Unison attack four Techs are used all at once without giving your enemy any time to attack, very useful.
The place where the game really shines is its wonderful characters. I won't name all of them due to spoilers, but here are a few. The main "hero" in the game is Lloyd Irving who uses twin swords to attack. He is good natured but sometimes his good actions get him into trouble. As the game progresses though he matures A LOT and becomes, a good leader. Another character is Collete Brunel, a longtime friend of Lloyd. She is the chosen of Mana who is supposed to restore the world's mana by releasing the seals, and at the end of her journey, become an angel. She's a sweet character, and she always thinking of others (sometimes too much.) The third character in the game is Genis Sage, a very smart boy, and best friend of Lloyd. He is the game's main magic user, and becomes quite strong. He usually sticks close to Lloyd, as it seems he is the only one who understands the reason Genis can be timid... The fourth character is a somewhat mysterious mercenary, Kratos Aurion. Not much is known about Kratos...at first, though you soon see he plays a very large role throughout the journey. The fifth and final character I will talk about is Raine Sage, who is the older sister of Genis Sage. Raine is a teacher of Iselia (the town you start out in,) and is the teach of Lloyd, Genis, and Collete, and what a job she does at it. Often throughout the game she will stop to babble about various ruins, and studies and such... but in all a very good, and sometimes comical character.
Well thats it for the characters I'll just end this review by giving the ages of the characters in the game... that I talked about that is.
Lloyd Irving 17
Collete Brunel 16
Genis Sage 12
Kratos Aurion 28
Raine Sage 23
Bottom line, if you are a fan of RPGS and only have a gamecube... This is the game to get, its the BEST one you can get. If you could give or take a RPG... buy it anyway. My exspectations were very high and they were met. Amazon does not have it in stock anymore (why I don't know) but a good place to check would be ebay. Last comment... BUY THE GAME!
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I bought this game because my freind had ordered it and because it is one of the only role playing games on GCN. When I learned it was multiplayer it was a must have.
The begining story was extreemly repetitive (like Zelda) but got much better later on. Until you figure out that Colette's dad will heal you the Tempel was impossible!
Also it is really hard to figure out how to get multiplayer to work, because I bought it used and didn't get the guide. I finally found out (on the internet) that you have to go to the Techniqe menu (how stupid is that!) and switch each caracter you want your friends to play off of Auto mode. And then once we got it working you keep gaining and losing characters so it is not always multiplayer! But after the first part of the game that stops happening and the game gets much more enjoyable.
The controls are fairly easy and I especially like the way you can have the computer block and jump for younger players (like my 6 year old sister!).
Over all this is a great game, the only good RPG for GCN and one of the few multiplayer RGP titles you will find on any system! I haven't finished it yet and I look forward to many more hours of adventures with Loyd, Colette and espesialy Genis, my favorite character.
Rating: 
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Tales of Symphonia (ToS) is an excellent game for anyone who is bored to death from the tedium of turn-based RPGs. Real time combat is a breath of fresh air that has you looking forward to the next fight. ToS also did away with random encounters, which is something the genre needs to be rid of anyways. The game does an excellent job of enticing you to level up. You continue to learn new and useful spells and skills that dazzle. Though it doesn't have the strongest beginning, once the plot starts rolling, it doesn't stop until the last cutscene. It gets to a point to where it's quite hard to actually follow the story, and all you can rely on is emotions such as, "Hey, I can't remember why, but I don't like that guy." The promised animated cutscenes are bogus, as if I remember correctly you get about two. Sure those two are nice...but it promised a lot. This game also leaves many unanswered questions. There are numerous times that you're on the brink of getting to do something, or are promised something, but you are never allowed to. This is due in large to the fact that a lot of this game ties into the other "Tales of" games made by Namco, but still a little disclosure would be nice. Anyways, this is an excellent game no matter how you look at it and is a gem not just for GameCube owners but for video game players in general.
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It's a very fun game, I enjoy playing each segment I'm looking for Animated Magna
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They sacrificed much of the quality of the game for the sake of making it fun. The sad thing is, they didn't have to! They could've done both if they had just put a little more effort into it! While drooling over the fun combat system and the neat cell-shaded graphics (and these do grow on you) I still wasn't able to stop myself from detecting dozens of places in storyline and character development that could have been so much better if they had just highlighted it a little bit! It still would have been cliched but at least it would have been the good kind - the kind that fulfills all of the requirements a good story needs. Instead, we get this sort of there sort of not thing we all hate to love and love to hate.
The bottom line: The storyline, while passable most of the time and enjoyable some of the time, lapses at too many points (sadly this is a spoiler free review or else I would give you an example). The characters, while entertaining and sometimes heartwarming, don't have much in the way of intriuging your mind (plus they sometimes become rather flat, although a few of the voice actors really come through, especially Raine's). Also: The laws of logic catch up on you and force you to consider: "Why are my enemies just standing there after being told by their bosses to seize my party while my main characters talk about what their going to do next?" You can start up the rationalization processes "It's just a fantasy game" but that won't always work and besides: People like to have their skepticism suspended when they are trying to enjoy a fictional story. They don't want to rationalize it has holes because it is "just" a game. This defeats part of the original purpose of the game!
That said, I really liked this game (especially you Raine) and think anybody who likes RPGs will find something to enjoy out of it (probably the gameplay). I myself was able to get into the plot enough to find the story enjoyable, but it is no masterpiece like FF6 and such.
PROS:
Good gameplay.
Good graphics (if you are predjuiced against cell-shaded - like I said, it usually grows on you)
Passable, sometimes good, storyline
Passable, sometimes good, characters
Pretty good synthesized music (Mithos's Theme = Catchy)
CONS:
Lackluster storyline at many points
Lackluster characters at a good many points
Lack of orchestrated music arguably makes it less climatic
Plot falls apart in some instances and is very roughly patched back together
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