Taste-Test: Tales of Symphonia

While at E3, one of the first games I wanted to check out was Tales of Symphonia. Since I had previously previewed the game, I was very excited to get my hands on it for the first time and see what all the hype was about for one of the first RPG’s exclusive to the Cube.

Upon playing through the first few levels of the game, I was highly impressed with the graphical quality. The game truly looks like you are playing an anime. All of the characters are cel-shaded, giving them that anime character look, and all of the cutscenes (a medley of which can be seen before the game begins) are done in anime style. The characters’ facial features are amazingly well done, shifting from happy to sad, worried, or frightened easily, and overall play a large role in creating the anime environment. In fact, anime buffs will be interested to know that the character designs and cutscenes were produced by Kosuke Fujishima, who previously worked on such animes as “Sakura Wars”, “You're Under Arrest!”, and “Ah! My Goddess!”.

The gameplay is also very impressive, and not the usual RPG fare. There are no random battles in the game – instead, you can see where enemies are running around, a la Paper Mario. However, they are difficult to avoid – should you want to avoid them. Keeping in trend with RPGs, battle victories bring the members of your party experience and level gain, as well as new items and other rewards. However, upon entering these battles, players will find a surprise - battle in Tales of Symphonia is not turn-based, but real-time, where characters play as Lloyd (the main character) and attack monsters in a style deriving from 2D beat-em-up games. In the early stages of the game, Lloyd must attack monsters using various combos (and his twin swords, of course), which are executed using a combination of the A button and the Control Stick. The X button is used to defend, which players will be making a lot of use of if they want to keep their hit points safe. The most interesting part of battle is that while Lloyd is fighting, Collet and Genis (the other two members of the party) will be assisting, using various magic techniques. A single player cannot control these two characters directly, but using the D-pad, can change their attack strategy from a defensive to an aggressive one and vice versa. The ultimate result of these choices is that the more damage you have them do, the more damage they will take. However, if more players want to join into the action, they can control Collet and Genis by utilizing other controllers, making this into a multiplayer RPG.

Sound-wise, this game is a treat. The soundtrack is orchestral and epic, exactly what you would expect from a Namco game. All the background music and effects sound as if they were ripped directly from an anime, and really increase the sense of atmosphere to the various worlds and towns. The voice acting is well done, with Namco signing on some leading English voice actors to give a soul to the various characters. Veteran watchers of Cartoon Network will be familiar with many of the voices in Symphonia – case in point: Lloyd’s VA is Scott Menville, who most recently is the voice of Robin on “Teen Titans”.

Overall, I was extremely pleased with this game, as it looks to be an RPG that even non-RPG fans will enjoy. Spectacular graphics, enriched gameplay, and a great soundtrack combine to make this game a must buy. You can rest assured I’ll be picking this one up, so look for my review of it to come.

Eric Jones