Tales of Symphona was one of the best JRPG's of the 4th generation of game consoles but is this port as good as it's Gamecube counterpart?
As of right now no it isn't, but it may still be worth your time.
PROS
-Active Combat Battle System
-Fun & Unique Characters
-Vast open world to explore
-Very good story & dialog
-Multiple Endings
-80+ hours of content
CONS
-30FPS LockTales of Symphona was one of the best JRPG's of the 4th generation of game consoles but is this port as good as it's Gamecube counterpart?
As of right now no it isn't, but it may still be worth your time.
PROS
-Active Combat Battle System
-Fun & Unique Characters
-Vast open world to explore
-Very good story & dialog
-Multiple Endings
-80+ hours of content
CONS
-30FPS Lock
-Delay in menus for Win7 Machines
-Intro Song is baaaad (mod available)
-Poor Texture Quality
-DRM is hidden in the game (WHY!?)
STORY
I'll keep it brief & spoiler free. You play as Lloyd, a young warrior who's bad at school. One day, you & your friends are in school as usual when a bright flash of light happens outside! It's the signal that the chosen one, Collette, is ready to partake in her trials. And then you set out on your adventure to bring Collette to the seals around the globe & awaken her as the Chosen One! Eventually you learn being the chosen isn't what it seems & has a dark twist of fate.
GAMEPLAY
The gameplay is simple but also involves some strategy. You move around the overworld as you would in any other JRPG while random encounters spawn in the world around you. You can try to avoid them or run into one to start a battle. Battles are fought on 2.5D plains where you control the main character (or later on the character of your choosing) & combine joystick movements with button combinations to do combos as well as blocking attacks. You can also press the menu button & cast specific spells or use items. Combining certain techniques & spells will unleash a super move that deals extra damage & usually has some sort of short cutscene attatched. The real strategy comes from figuring out all the comboes & super techs & using them accordingly. There are also block puzzles scattered throughout the dungeons that are usually required to progress. Of course, there are also recovery items that restore health & magic points as well as equipment upgrades & all the stuff you would normally find in any RPG.
GRAPHICS
The graphics are pretty poor, but still look relatively nice considering the games age. Obviously, due to the cell shaded art style. Still, the textures are pretty poor all things considered. This isn't an HD port, it's just a port. Even so, you'd think they could have made it look a little nicer. Everything is really pixelated.
The game is also locked to 720p resolution. You can change the settings to go higher but it just upscales 720p to whatever you put it at. The game honestly looks better at the default resolution because of this. There's also a lack of graphics customization outside of the resolution which isn't very good either.
TECHNICAL ISSUES
The game runs at a locked 30FPS which is also a pretty big deal if you've played it running at 60 on the gamecube or other versions. The active combat system feels like it was designed specifically for 60fps so you may have problems playing the game on higher difficulties.
If you're running on a Win7 machine you will probably experience some menu lag when trying to save or change the config settings. A good 20-30 seconds of delay. The devs have stated they are working on a fix for this issue. Hopefully it will be settled soon.
AUDIO
The audio is actually one of the things that have been improved. All the soundtracks & dialog are not compressed like the gamecube counterpart. I haven't played the game on PS2/PS3 so I can't really compare that one. It all sounds pretty good overall. Excluding the J-Pop intro song, which just ruined the overall experience for me in the beginning. Luckily someone released a mod that fixes it & replaces the music with the one from the gamecube.
The dialog is still as good as I remember it. Being slightly cheesy & heartwarming while at times having that serious undertone for the moments that require it. Voice acting in general is done very well. I recommend playing this game with English voice overs just because the protagonist's voice actor is the same person who voices Robin from Teen Titans which was one of my favorite cartoons at the time this game came out. All of the western voice actors sound great, imo.
After looking into the game more & trying to use game capture software to record some play sessions I was having some issues & I went to find out why on the good old interwebs. This game has some heavy DRM hidden inside of it. UNACCEPTABLE! This game is over a decade old & does not need any DRM hidden in it!
OVERALL
I was really disappointed at first with the intro song debacle & the fact that I run a Win7 machine & the game will constantly have delays on Win7 while loading certain menu screens. The devs have stated they are working to fix this issue, though. The game itself remains intact, albeit at 30fps which is another large issue. The gamecube version ran at a smooth 60fps so this feels like a downgrade & you can really feel the difference during combat & cutscenes. I can only recommend the game to people who have yet to actually play Tales of Symphona & who want to try it or for those who really just want to own the game again on PC. As of right now, you should just wait for a patch & hope some of the issues are fixed especially if you're running on Win7.… Expand
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