» Tales of Symphonia

[Rommel Zhar]

I hope you GCN-RPG'ers are as excitied as I am for this new RPG coming to the 'Cube!

I mean, with real-time battle controls, and multiplayer capabilities!!
Since I suck at describing games, here is an IGN review:

With the progress of time gaming has evolved from a nerdish hobby to one of the favorite past-times of our society. Now, even though most of the creative process is done from a financial desire to make money, companies like silicon knights are moving into trying to get games to be acknowledged as a full fledged form of art. Their own games certainly hold some merit to that point of view, but the way tales of symphonia fits that description is unprecedented, even though it is probably originally intended more as a money making tool than true art.

The true merit of this game comes not from the greatness of all it's components, but the combinition of it, as would be expected from a work of art. If I were to make a comparison with mathematics, it would be as if they found a way to secretly make all the component ratings to be multiplied by eachother before division instead of the usual summing used in calculating the average. This makes it so that the component's grades need not be so high for a perfect score. But, despite what you would expect from the context of the previous sentence, they are.

This does not mean however, that all components are perfectly executed. There are some graphical flaws in the game which are noticable if you pay attention to graphics only. Some of the texturework of outside enviroments quite blurry, the map looks kinda shallow, some motionwork could be improved upon and in some occasions regions of blurryness occur on screen. Beyond that, the fact that the musical score is done by midis might detract from the overall quality of the game.

However, the previously mentioned are the only faults I could discover in the game. For the rest everything about this game is good. From the beautifull cell-shaded graphics which mimic a perfect anime feel, and the moving soundtrack which accompanies all events, to the high quality humour used in the game as comic relief from the highly ethical tainted themes which are presented in a way as to fascinate and impress beyond your wildest dreams. And that is only the tip of the iceberg.

Everything i've talked about uptil now has been about the presentation of the game. however, being a game, people also expect to be entertained. At this the game also succeeds. For even if you were to grow tired of the lucious enviroments, captivating storyline, and all the other good things about the game's presentation, you still would have the insurance of being able to fall back on the great gameplay. The game features zelda like puzzles as you traverse the various dungueons in the game in search of the multitude of items necessary in your quest. These are perfectly added to by a adrenaline-pumping battle system which basicly plays as would a fighting game but with the tactics involved used in general RPGs.

All these components combined would already make this one of the best games out there, but to call it art would be going overboard. the asset of this game that really propels it into the field of true art is the storyline. I've hinted towards it's greatness in my earlier paragraphs, but would like to go a bit deeper into that now. It starts out in the way of any RPG. But, instead of being a collection of occurances which present an excuse for having many fights, it is a collection of occurances which bring over a number of messages which would fit well in a filosophical coursebook.(but also provide room for fighting) Various themes such as racism, betrayal, sin and punishment are delt with. Then there's the fact that there are apparently references to japanese literature, though these will be lost on most people.

The complexity of the storyline, the fact that there's many ways to progress through the game which all put a bit of pressure on a different side-theme, these two alone would give this game a great replay-value. to this is added by the incredulous amount of gatherable items, recepies, status's, special moves and the provided new game+, harder difficulty, and various other bonusus you can experience when playing the game multiple times. I've already gotten 250 hrs out of this game and still have a couple of things to see.

Well, i think you get the point. this game is everything you could want in a game. a great experience for anybody. although i guess you could enjoy the game less if you are different from me, i find it hard to imagine that a person could exist who finds nothing enjoyable in this game. True art.
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These were the scores generated:

(all scores are a 10/10 base)


10 Presentation
With clear menus, character dialogue pointers, great storyline, graphics, sound and everything fitting together perfectly it would be an emberrasement to the used grading system not to appoint a 10.

8.0 Graphics
Though quite beautifull in general, the lacking quality of non-artificial enviroment textures, map graphics, outside battle motions and a code error in the cel-shading prevent a perfect score by far.

9.0 Sound
The music succeeds in delivering a moving experience, and the sound effects are on par. Not to mention the great voice-acting in the game. Sadly, all music tracks are done with midi's. hence only a 9.

10 Gameplay
Dungeons with well thought out riddles, a battle system that grabs you and doesn't let go, and a couple of minigames to boot. This game provides some of the best gameplay we'll see in years

10 Lasting Appeal
Not only is the game a enormeous undertaking itself, but it provides with countless options and things to do to warrant many replays. Another perfect score.
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9.0 OVERALL
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I'd say that's pretty darn good!
Now.. onto some screencaps:










I can't wait for this game!!

(Sorry for my ridculously long post)

[Luigi]

This games look awesome too. I really want it, I've never played an RPG that's Real-Time before. It looks like an anime while you play too. :P

[Super Genius]

I hope it comes out in Britain, if it doesn't, does anyone know a good virus to blackmail Nintendo into getting it realesed in Britain? Sorry, bad joke.

This post has been edited by Super Genius on Jul 2 2004, 11:18 AM