Tales of Symphonia Remastered

Tales of Symphonia Remastered remains the legendary Japanese role-playing game it was from the beginning. Thus, it is an outstanding work with an edition that hardly brings anything new to the table except its availability on modern consoles. If you have not been able to play this game so far, this is a good opportunity to do so, but if you have already done it and remember it well, there are not too many reasons to return once again to the adventure.

Tales of Symphonia is still one of the biggest highlights in the series with a fantastic assortment of characters, some simple but enjoyable combat and great story to keep players invested throughout. What hurts is that this remastered version has glaring issues that need to be fixed. It’s far from making it impossible to recommend, in fact we still absolutely would for those who haven’t ever played it before, but without autosave and with multiple recorded crashes experienced, it’s hard to tell people to run out and pick it up immediately without proper patches to work out the bigger issues here. With fixes to address the problems, Tales of Symphonia Remastered could easily be considered another fantastic port on modern systems that we hope to continue to see more of from Bandai Namco.

A mediocre remastering job, but one that serves to rescue an exceptional game, with the addition of a multiplayer mode and portability that allows it to be played more comfortably than ever.

Tales of Symphonia Remastered is a product that was only made to comply, so compared to remasters of other franchises, it falls far, far behind. On the other hand, if there are new users who want to play it for the first time, it is an accessible option today. Although for the asking price, perhaps it would be best to wait for a discount.

Tales of Symphonia is a classic action JRPG that's as enjoyable as it's ever been as long as you can sit through the load times and weren't expecting the sequel to be in this package. It's a fan favourite for a reason and I'm thoroughly enjoying playing through it for a 3rd time.

Tales of Symphonia Remastered does what it set out to do—allow a classic JRPG to be playable on modern hardware. However, even then, this remaster falls short.

Tales of Symphonia Remastered is a solid, albeit dated trip down memory lane.

If you love JRPGs, you owe it to yourself to play Tales of Symphonia, and Tales of Symphonia Remastered is an easy way to do that. I’d even recommend this game to fans of retro gaming in general. I really wish I could recommend it to everyone. Unfortunately, the slightly clunky design and aged graphics make it hard for me to do that.

To be fair, anyone who loved the original should love this one, too - but it may not win over any newcomers because of how outdated everything feels. Tales of Symphonia Remastered brings a great JRPG to modern hardware, and that’s certainly a cause for celebration. Unfortunately, it never feels like this remaster really rises to the occasion.

A lazy and minimal improvement over the latest release of one of one the most beloved Tales in the popular JRPG franchise.

Tales of Symphonia Remastered is not the best version of the GameCube original, but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad experience. The story still holds up, combat is still exciting, and the characters are some of the best in the series, but all these systems take getting used to compared to newer games. Worst of all is the Switch version, which brings several new technical issues to the game, includes short but repetitive loading screens after you do almost anything outside of menus. It may be a deal breaker for some, but for others it might be a small price to pay to play an RPG classic on modern consoles.

The most famous of the Tales of installments is back in the form of Tales of Symphonia Remastered, a remaster that seeks to commemorate 20 years since its release but fails to do it justice.

Tales of Symphonia is still a good game and it’s great that it’s available on more platforms, but also deserves a better remaster.

Tales of Symphonia was a fantastic JRPG back in the GameCube days, however the remaster leaves a few things to be desired. If you’ve already saved Sylvarant in the past, perhaps that’s where you should leave it, but new fans should find some enjoyment.

I think those looking for a great RPG will find one in Tales of Symphonia. However, for those looking to play it via Tales of Symphonia Remastered, I just cannot recommend it in its current state on Nintendo Switch. For fans of the original, or Tales fans in general, this “remaster” will likely be a stack of disappointment, from framerate inadequacies to performance issues to audiovisual hiccups. Newcomers may find value in this “remaster” on PS4 or Xbox because the original Tales of Symphonia has heart, and Tales of Symphonia Remastered is its most readily available version. However, it is the unfortunate truth that they will still be playing a compromised version. This “remaster” does not cut it by modern standards, especially when it looks worse, sounds worse, and plays worse than a game 20 years its senior.

This remaster of a classic game does not pay tribute to the original game. The game is very archaic visually and it has a hard time convincing.

Tales of Symphonia Remastered is still a great action JRPG and an important one in establishing the now long-running series, but there are better ways to experience it than this.

Tales of Symphonia deserves to be available to the widest audience, yet the lack of attention or care demonstrated here is troubling. Remastered feels like a cheap and lazy port, and that alone makes this version disappointing, despite the strengths of the game itself. Why should gamers reward these tactics when there are remasters of PSP games and more recently, other GameCube games, that are truly modernized? There was an opportunity here to release the definitive version of Symphonia on modern consoles for fans and first-timers. Instead, Bandai Namco has doled out an inferior port of a decade old re-release at double the price it is sold elsewhere. If the math doesn’t add up to you either, don’t worry: the PC version is still available.

Tales of Symphonia is a brilliant action JRPG that set a precedent for the genre. Even all these years later, its engrossing storytelling, vast array of side activities, character interaction, and layers of combative options all coalesce to make it a must-experience adventure. Yet, as a remaster, this specific release fails to hit the mark, ultimately providing a lackluster and disappointing resurgence that could have been so much more.

Though the story is compelling, the character building is satisfying, and there’s lots of content to experience, Bandai Namco’s near-nonexistent efforts to scrub out the rough edges of this 20-ish year old game definitely hold it back from greatness. Things like the stiff combat, dated visuals, and awkward writing limit the appeal here, which makes this remaster feel like a missed opportunity. It’s easier to recommend this to those who have nostalgia for the original and want to relive those memories, but it's tough to say whether newcomers should pick it up. This is far from the best action RPG on the Switch, and it’s arguably not even the best Tales game on the Switch. We’d give this one a light recommendation as its positives do outweigh its negatives, but with the caveat that you should probably wait for a deep sale or buy it used. There are much better RPGs to play on the Switch today, and this one doesn’t quite deserve a spot near the top of your list.

Tales of Symphonia Remastered brings back one of the finest JRPGs ever made and for anyone who has no other way of experiencing the original, this could be an interesting choice. Unfortunately this remaster suffers from too many issues compared to the original, artistic and technical, and the result is a rather frustrating experience that should undergo a revision towards correcting its main flaws, as Tales of Symphonia deserves a much better contemporary treatment.

At worst, it’s a broken mess. It runs poorly, it’s missing a ton of features, and it’s the ugliest version of the game. What sort of remaster is uglier than the original? I can only recommend this version if, like me, you want to replay Tales of Symphonia on a handheld and you don’t own a Steam Deck. If this is not you, avoid this – at least until a promised patch fixes the game.

Apparently, Bandai Namco Entertainment is working on a fix, but, as of writing this, we have no idea when this will be coming out. I had considered waiting for the patch and reviewing it after the fact, but the best-case scenario of this patch would be reporting on a simple, solid version of a classic game that deserves better. This could have been a way to right the missteps of the previous remaster, but that’s not what we got. Tales of Symphonia is not my favorite game in this series, but I’m worried about what it would mean if this is the new standard for Tales of remasters going forward. I hope this is fixed soon because the game underneath this is quite good.

Tales of Symphonia Remastered is still a captivating JRPG that's--unfortunately--a bit tough to recommend today given some of its dated exploration mechanics and rough presentation. A few modern conveniences could have gone a long way like auto-saving and quest tracking, but its emotional story regularly subverts expectations and explores the gray areas in what may seem like a straightforward adventure. All told, it's a thin remaster that doesn't shine a very flattering light on one of my favorite JRPGs.