The very first JRPG(Japanese Role Playing Game) I ever got down to playing and the one the got me more into gaming and shot my love for video games itself was called Tales of Smyphonia was from a series of games that included the prefix 'Tales of' in any 'Tales' game they made. One of the most famous developers of our time called Namco now partnered with Bandai, and they're now named Bandai Namco. They're known for making really innovative games and up to this day still make big games that people play but don't know is being developed by them. Funny enough this happens a lot with every industry and should be no less for the gaming industry. People are ignorant, and all we can do is inform them.



Title screen of Tales of Symphonia



The game was originally made for the Nintendo Gamecube back in 2003 in Japan and then 2004 globally in English. I got the game around 2008 around the same time that I got my Gamecube, this was around my tenth birthday! It was really the best gift I ever got for sure, because I still play Gamecube games to this day. I fucking love them. I think the Gamecube controller is the best controller ever made, but that's my own opinion.

It has since been ported to Steam and been remastered in HD for both the PS3 and Steam except that the PS3 version included both the parts and Steam only has the first one. I played this game in 2008 and this game is still being talked about and it will be for generations to come, I'm sure.

The publishers introduced a sequel to the game in 2008, the year I played the first game for the first time and I didn't end up playing the sequel until after 2011 because I had no Wii to play it on! The sequel released for the Nintendo Wii.

GAMEPLAY

The game is set in an imaginary world filled with inspiration of elements from Norse mythology. I have to say, this is one of the most beautiful games I have ever played, ever. There are certain elements to follow in an RPG(Role Playing Game). You have certain set of guidelines to follow as you play the game. You follow a set storyline as a protagonist or sometimes an antagonist, following and growing and playing through a set story.

One of the most badass scenes in the game, it is at the very beginning of the game.

Has a very unique 2D battle system with the characters having different set of skills and positions, mage, healer, melee, swordsman, all of that really nice jazz, and the characters are so orgasmic, oops. You fight different kinds of mobs along the way and some insane boss battles, you will not see the end of it, oh my god.

The result screen of a battle.

An ongoing battle scene.

Throughout the storyline consists of different dungeons and names that you will recognize like Asgard, Yggdrasil, The World Tree, all mentions from Norse mythology. In these dungeons there are puzzles that you have to get through, and I want to explain to you guys the sheer amount of work put into this game to make the puzzles so hard for you to cross, they will always keep you on your feet. Thinking about this game gives me the shivers, and oh the goosebumps. YOU HAVE TO PLAY IT.

The inside of the first dungeon in the game, The Iselia Temple.

The inside of one of the hardest dungeons in the game, The Remote Island Ranch.

Another one from The Remote Island ranch where you have to turn on all the lights without stepping on the same one twice.

I don't think this game has been mentioned and brought out as much as it should have been or still should be. Porting it to different systems does give it a vast library of people to get in touch with the game and has grown since it's release for sure, but I'm wondering why a lot of people still have no idea about this oh so beautiful game that should be discovered and played at least once in your lifetime if you want to stay true to your gamer vows. I don't know if I treat gaming like a religion or a cult offering to bring people together.

Colette and Sheena meeting the Unicorn at a lake.

VOICE ACTING

I have no words to express this. This part of the game has always struck me real hard. The voice acting is so exceptional for a game which was localized in 2004, the English voice actors of that time were superb and if you don't try this game out you're definitely missing out some real good English voice actors of our time that you will have noticed from other better games, all of them I would say, did an exceptional job at it.

Lloyd and the rest of the party in the city of Flanoir.

BGM(BACKGROUND MUSIC)

Definitely the best part of the game. Paying way too much attention to this game at all times and at different points in time has made me realize the trip that this game has taken me through my whole life and the music was one of the biggest parts of it, I would end up humming to the tune of a lot of BGMs in this game and it has never left my head.

This was the first era of the 6th gen home consoles so the JRPGs made in this era were definitely the best to this day. I loved playing most of the games from the Tales series that I have come across and I'd say they weren't all equally as good because Symphonia to me was exceptional, everything about it was.

SIDE QUESTS

Tales of Symphonia comes with the inclusion of a couple dozen side quests for you to complete before beating the final boss. A side quest is pretty much what you would do to stray away from the storyline to discover many different locations, bosses, costumes, interactions and more of that if you still don't want to leave the game alone by the time you know you have to fight the last boss, the ending of a game is always the saddest part, isn't it?

The party in the city of Meltokio in Tethe'alla.

A lot of the sidequests in this game were elaborate to the extent that you would take hours and hours to finish even just one of them, so the developers really put all their thought into making this game as beautiful as they could before they could make tonnes of average ones, but this one was mesmerizing to the soul, and that's all that matters.

Hi Zelos, love me.

CHARACTER MODELS

A special mention to the character models in the game being on point. The character models were on fleek along with the costumes designed for the characters. Obtaining more and more costumes through sidequests was also part of the fun that the game had to offer while searching and doing stuff in order to obtain costumes for your characters to customize them as cute as you want.





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