Tales of Symphonia Remastered

If you’re a JRPG fan either looking to return to Symphonia or experience the story for the first time, Tales of Symphonia Remastered is a great way to do it. It might get a couple of strikes for being an “imperfect” experience, but it’s still a quality one.

A challenging but immersive game that it always ways - feeling more rewarding the more you invest in its unique combat system and story with larger-than-life characters.

Tales of Symphonia returns to the market with a rather lazy remastered. The combat system has aged badly and the polygonal models deserve more, but it still remains one of the most exciting chapters of the Tales of franchise ever.

Close to two decades later, Tales of Symphonia Remastered is a reminder of how neatly crafted the original GameCube and PS2 title was. Barring a few rough edges, this is still a great action RPG, full of charm and character. The only real downside is that the remaster itself leaves a lot to be desired.

If you overcome rough presentation, low-res cut-scenes and a bit clunky interface, you can expect very solid plot, excellent characters, party banter, interesting world and intense boss fights. Still, this title is not fully fulfilling remaster promise and many fans expected a bit more.

Tales of Symphonia Remastered tries to bring all the experience lived by the players in the past. However, the dated work fails to deliver what it promises and ends up serving only as an average game, without the true brilliance that the franchise has.

Tales of Symphonia Remastered shows exactly why it's a classic game: a fine story with plenty of heart and consequence. Gameplay even lets you make it as simple or involved as you wish. Navigation is a terrible chore, though, and the remastered efforts feel too much like a basic port to be anything else.

While on the one hand we understand and appreciate Bandai Namco's decision to bring Tales of Symphonia to as many platforms as possible, in order to allow new generations to (re)discover one of the most important chapters of the franchise, on the other hand we strongly believe that such a lazy remastering is not the most effective (nor the most respectful) method to re-propose a great classic of the past and celebrate its twentieth anniversary. Except for the Switch version, which for its part can leverage portability, if you have a PlayStation 3 or in any case a gaming PC there is not a single reason why you could prefer the new remastered to the package entitled Tales of Symphonia Chronicles, which in addition to the base game also included its direct sequel. In short, this second remasterd is indicated only to anyone who does not have the aforementioned platforms and to those who wish to use them in handheld.

A missed opportunity for an emblematic title of the RPG genre. A pointless remaster that leaves the original in a bad place.