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Rating: 
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This was the first Tales game I played. And so far, it's the best. The gameplay is NOT hack-and-slash, thank god, and the plot has a bit of depth to it that keeps you interested.
ToS gives you a lot of freedom, from traveling in the huge world map and how you respond to your allies. There's definitely humor that'll make you smile (I dunno about actually "laughing") in there and you actually hear the voices often, unlike Tales of Legendia.
The graphics aren't gorgeous Final Fantasy style, as you're usually chibi style (the cut scenes are pretty cool though), but you'll live. A proper gamer should know graphics aren't everything.
The actual lenght of the game is long but not as long as Tales of Legendia (if you add the charater quests and all that). Replay value is very high and I seriously recommend this game for the gamecube. One of the only good RPGs in the gamecube, actually.
Pros:
-lenghty
-beautiful music
-challenging bosses
-good plot
-great gameplay
-high replay value
Cons:
-can sometimes become tedious and irritating
-puzzles can be too easy to solve
-graphics aren't that great
The pros outnumber the cons as you can see. My only dissapointment is that it wasn't released to the US in the PS2 version. I really wanted in with all the new cutscenes etc. My favorite characters are probably Luke, Genus, and Sheena. They're the funniest and I find them rather likeable. Collete, on the other hand, rather irritates me with her sugary sweet personality (makes everyone else feel like demons, honestly), and her too clumsy nature. I feel like I'm ranting, so I'll end this review now. Just make sure to buy this game, 'kay? You won't regret it.
Rating: 
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The game is alot of fun. Will keep you on hours to play. Challenging but that is what i like.
Rating: -
This is singlehandedly the best game I have ever played. Play this game only if you have plenty free time (it can take 30-48 hours). The plot is exelent with plenty of twists and turns. Also, the characters are customizable, with plenty of different attacks. The battle system is great. I highly reccomend!
Rating: 
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There was a time when I loved rpgs. Starting with Final Fantasy III for SNES as my main introduction to the genre, I began to go through each release after that like a drug addict. Games that had actual plots other than "do this and you win", leveling up characters how you want, hidden areas with special items or weapons, alternate endings for some, and more, I really loved the genre. Then, Final Fantasy 7 came out, and began what continues to be the popular standard for the genre- typical cliché, predictable sub-par rpgs. Once FF7 came out, rpgs were released like they were nothing. Do I have to mention Legend of Mana? How about Silver? Or what about Sudeki? Squaresoft has really lost it in recent years, and I began to lose interest in rpgs. When I got my GameCube, I knew that Nintendo was pretty much screwed when it came to the genre as well, having what, 3-4? Tales of Symphonia though, was regarded as -the- rpg to play if you had the system. So I bought it without much hesitation, and gave it a shot. Then, I lost interest after a few hours, left it for dead, then gave it another shot some months later. Repeat that process until earlier this year, when I just plain quit caring about it in general and sold it. ToS continues the trend of easily predictable rpgs with no redeeming qualities what so ever, aside from the novelty of having a fun combat system. Yeah, it's great not having turn-based fights for a change, but do you really want to just focus on combat in what's otherwise a genre that's supposed to focus on story and character development? Namco and Nintendo sure wanted you to think so, as ToS sprouted countless fanboys that can't seem to look past the combat and character designs. I'm happy to let you know that this review will contain no bias that typical rpg-fanboys give.
ToS begins with the would-be hero, Lloyd, waking up (surprise surprise) from a nap in school. He fell asleep while his hot teacher, Raine, talks about a "Chosen" and how they're sent to save the world from complete destruction from what sounds like a completely random and silly event regarding a tree and angels that decide to destroy the world if certain procedures are not followed. Lloyd's friend, Colette, just so happens to be the Chosen, and embarks on a journey to save the world, which isn't really in much jeopardy from the looks of things. They run into some trouble from an army who have their own ambitions for world domination, and use helpless townsfolk as guinea pigs for their tests, turning them into hideous creatures that destroy everything in sight. Of course, being your average hero, Lloyd can't take this and makes it his duty to put an end to this army while saving the world with Colette. More or less, take Final Fantasy X's plot, make it even more linear, and that's what Tales of Symphonia is. Colette would be Yuna, and Lloyd and the others are Yuna's guardians. They visit various temples/towers in the world, while at the same time learning of a corrupt religion that has everyone fooled. Sound familiar? But ToS decides to take a few turns in the plot, and has numerous double-crossing by both characters in the party, and side characters. There's also a very stupid plot device regarding dwarves and elves, and them being enemies, but it's not really a big deal. Raine and her brother, Genis (god, if you could just change one letter there...) are half-elves, but there's no point in saying anything about it, since it doesn't give them any benefits over non-elf characters. One of Colette's guardians is Kratos, a well-known legendary knight *cough Auron cough*, who gets quiet whenever Lloyd mentions never knowing his real father. Gee, I wonder what that could mean. He only gives a hint about it in the first 20 minutes of the game when you first meet him. Later, you meet your standard female ninja character who can summon spirits, standard brawler male character with some manners for the heck of it, an alternate to Kratos in the form of a ladies man but still a legend, and an emotionless little girl who can swing axes like they're feathers, who later becomes herself thanks to the power of friendship. Hey, it sounds like 30+ other games right there!
What ToS lacks in characters and plot, and that's A LOT of lacking mind you, it somewhat makes up for in the combat system. You can control your characters, and actually allow other people to play the 3 others in your party. You can attack freely, using skills with the flick of the C-stick and melee attacks with the A button, while being able to block and dodge easily. It's pretty cool, and good to see that it's not real-time disguised as turn-based like some other modern rpgs have. One of the fun parts about this is that you can create combos that rank in the 6 digits if you're really good. Though the game came out several years ago, many people are still outdoing each other when it comes to combo counts. It gets crazy. But this is really the only good thing I can say about the game. Everything else is just a waste. The wannabe "innovative" Cook skill allows you to create meals to heal the entire party after fights while the experience count racks up, or from the status screen as well. It costs a lot to create meals, as you need various types of food for each one, and really isn't worth it when you can just use healing magic or rest at an inn and get the same effect for even less money. But, I guess there's some fun in finding the chef who gives you these recipes, who is hidden in each town. The back of the game's box leads you to believe that there are many animated cut scenes done in "anime" style, but in reality, there are maybe 3, including the opening movie montage. ToS is on two discs, but most of the game...about 70% is the first disc. If it weren't for Nintendo choosing mini-discs for the GC's format, it could easily fit on one dvd instead, as the game isn't graphic-heavy. One more thing regarding the plot- you can ignore most of it, and it won't matter: characters verbally say the meaningful plot points, but you're just given text to read when it's something minor, or just a clue for where to go next. Hint- when you hear the GC loading a new track or something, pay attention to the dialogue...if you think it'll get interesting, which it doesn't. Ever. Really, I found myself predicting the lines and being 95% accurate. This game is for rpg-newbies at most, and even then, there are much better games to start out with. Add in some forced, obligatory puzzles in each temple [some that force you to restart the whole thing if you screw up once at any point], and you've got yet another generic rpg.
Visually, it's nothing special, but gets some things right. Characters are given a nice cel-shaded look, but are VERY blurry when you get a close-up shot of them. I don't understand why this made it through production- it's that annoying. You can see it in any pictures of close-ups of the characters' faces. Check it out and see what I mean. The backgrounds and everything else tend to look decent to pretty, depending on the place. The world map however, is just a joke, reminiscent of a PSone rpg's like FF7. Wait no, it sometimes looks like the Mode-7 stuff from the SNES days. Hoo boy. As for the soundtrack, there are some good themes, but most of it is unmemorable. Aside from the map theme, which you'll hear a lot, I can't recall any from memory this very moment. But a lot of tracks are used frequently, like the "sad" music, or the "angry" music. After playing the game for 5 hours or so, you'll begin to know when each one will be used during the cut scenes/story parts. The voice acting though, is a mixed bag. There's some good talent here, but they're not used properly. The voice of Lloyd is the same guy who plays Robin on Teen Titans, and it really sounds like he's reading right off the script rather than expressing each line. Kratos' actor doesn't seem to know what range is, Genis only knows happy and WAAAAAAAGE!!, and the others are tolerable. Except for stupid Colette. God I hate that character. Nearly every line she says is an apology for nothing.
If you absolutely NEED an rpg for the GC, I guess ToS is worth a purchase, as long as it's for under ten bucks. Anything over that is robbery. Besides, you could give others like Paper Mario and Baten Kaitos a shot, which are both better than this thing could ever be. But keep in mind that this won't be anything special unless you lie to yourself and keep waiting for something cool to happen, never getting said thing, and not being able to admit that ToS wasn't good at all.
Rating: -
This is the game that will make you regret not buying a GameCube (Unless you live in Japan where there is also a PS2 version.) This game has a deep storyline, but isn't afraid to inject moments of side-splitting humor. It starts out rather slow (Chosen one Collette goes out to ressurect the world with the help of friends Lloyd(the main character) and Genis, and the mysterious swordsman Kratos. But, about a third of the way into the story, the plot thickens with betrayal, a second world, and a much more involved plan on the part of the antagonists.
Gameplay is mostly standard RPG flair (dungeons filled with puzzles, city exploration, shops and inns) except for the battles. Turn-based they are not. ToS employs a real-time battle system similar to an action game. You can take control of any one of 8 characters (there are 9 playable, but you must choose between two of them). As many as four party members fight at once, any number of them can be controlled by a player. Simple button-mashing will defeat most "grunt" enemies, but against bosses you will want to use advanced battle techniques. The battle system allows you to link together attacks (sometimes from CPU-controlled allies) to rack up large combos and tons of damage. Random battles can be avoided to some degree since overworld monsters appear as black blobs (this is one of the weaknesses of the graphics, though). Some pursue you though and are near-impossible to avoid.
The story can be further stretched out by embarking on sidequests that further explain the backstory of the characters. It should be noted that the game's toughest boss is part of a sidequest and not the final boss.
Aside from the aforementioned black blobs that represent enemy parties, the graphics are stunning. Beautifully designed backgrounds go perfectly with the wonderful cel-shaded anime inspired character desgins of Kousuke Fujishima (In fact, this game was indirectly responsible for getting me hooked on the Ah My Goddess anime series, another Fujishima work). It all adds up to a beautiful game that truly stands out. The anime cutscents are well done, but a bit too few and far between. The sound is also worthy of note. The voice actors do an excellent job and the music is usually set well to the mood and environment of the current setting.
Tales Of Symphonia is an excellent game, especially considering the GameCube's limited library. Since it's now a Player's Choice Game with a lower price, it's a definite must-buy game.
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