Tales of Symphonia ... wow

[KimB]

Well, on an itch last Saturday, I decided to go out and buy a new game. Looked up some reviews and decided to give Tales of Symphonia a swirl.

And I just have to say, I am very impressed. Hell, I'm enjoying this game more than I enjoyed the old-school Final Fantasy games (I haven't played any of the PS2-only ones recently). It's got a lot of intrigue, the combat is fun, and it's long (I'm 35 hours into it now, and I think I'm nearing the end....probably another 10 hours).

Anyway, if any of you out there have a GameCube and are RPG fans, buy Tales of Symphonia. Now.

For those of you who would like to see sort of a prequel to this game (in as much as Final Fantasy 6 was a prequel to Final Fantasy 7), check out Tales of Phantasia, which was an RPG released only in Japan for the SNES (translated versions are available....). I think I liked Tales of Phantasia more than I liked Final Fantasy 6, by the way.

 

[Wunderchu]

cool

 

[Blade]

Are you sure that Tales of Phantasia is the prequel?

I mean, there were also Tales of Destiny 1 and 2.. I'm not sure how Namco worked it out.

I beat the game in 50 hours. It was good, although it went through some agonizing stretches.

 

[cthellis42]

Are you sure that Tales of Phantasia is the prequel?

He said "in as much as FF6 is a prequel to FF7" which mainly means that style of RPG released chronologically before the other by the same developer. The characters don't have to connect, the worlds don't have to be at all the same, the story stylings can be different...

It seems he's pointing to the same sort of loose connections.

 

[CeiserSöze]

Are you sure that Tales of Phantasia is the prequel?

Story-wise Tales of Symphonia takes place before Tales of Phantasia (and probably a loooooong time before). Apart from the obvious similarities (same guardian spirits, similar towns etc.), there is, at the very least, one clear hint at the end of ToS.

Afaik, the other Tales of...-games have no connection to ToP/ToS on the level of the story. They just offer very similar gameplay.

 

[Li Mu Bai]

Best rpg. I've played in quite a long time. It will be over 300k in NA next month & deserves much more imo.

 

[Evil_Cloud]

Mmm, should pick this up soon then, along with Paper Mario 2, Pikmin 2 & Metroid Prime 2...

 

[Blade]

I can vouch for the first two, Evil_Cloud. Both very good.

Metroid Prime 2 is good but I haven't finished it yet.

It might be too early to say it (50% completion) but it's not as good as the first.. but close in many aspects.

 

[Goldni]

Blade not it's not as good as the first Prime..but they cleaned up the textures and the art it amazing. You're still early. *Minor Spoiler* Wait til you get the light suit..it let's you go everywhere in the dark world..it alone raised the game up a 1/4 point in my rating.

 

[Kain]

Finally a good rpg for Gamecube . Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Really let me down . I havent finishted the game thx to being recruited in the army , but now that im back home i can continue where i left of

 

[cthellis42]

Well that's a much better reason that _I_ ever have for not finishing a game.

 

[Farid]

The best "Tales of" for me is Tales of Eternia (Tales of Destiny 2 in the US).
It's still the only one of the serie (except the ToP, maybe), for me, that, almost, perfectly encapsulated this "let's go on an adventure" feeling.

You know, this feeling of being part of a big, cheesy drama-less, adventure that used to be in a lot of JRPGs (Thanks to the success of games like Dragon Quest), and that almost all the recent JRPG seem to lack (Thanks to the international success of Final Fantasy).

That's why I'm looking forward to Dragon Warrior 8 more than I look forward to FFXII, BTW.

I'm not saying that FF-like games, and their bigger-than-life stories can't be good, or anything.
No, I'm just saying that it's sad we don't see more games like Grandia (the first one), Skies of Arcadia, Lunar, Hanjuku Hero, etc... Just because publishers want, more than anything, emulate FF success (And, the saddest part of the story is that we all know that a console RPG without FF on the cover will bomb/sale modestly whatever the game is, anyway).

Anyway, I'm digressing too much from the initial topic.

 

[Bohdy]

I haven't played Symphonia yet, but I am a huge fan of Tales of Phantasia on the SNES. IMHO it's right up there with the likes of Chrono Trigger (maybe *just* below) as one of the the best RPG's on the SNES (and by extension, ever!).

So I second Chalnoth's suggestion to check it out. The "translation" has some amusing dialog, also.

Note: I liked it a hell of a lot more than any 2D FF's.

 

[Pete]

I think I liked Tales of Phantasia more than I liked Final Fantasy 6, by the way.

That's a bold statement.

 

[KimB]

That's a bold statement.

Yes, considering FF6 was my favorite Final Fantasy game. But I do have to add that I do currently feel that FF6 has much more replay value, but the story of Tales of Phantasia is what really drew me in (similarly with Tales of Symphonia....but it's also got a number of cool features that could really add to replay value....).

 

[London Geezer]

I think I liked Tales of Phantasia more than I liked Final Fantasy 6, by the way.

That's a bold statement.

Nope, a bold statement would look like this.

 

[Kalin]

...(I'm 35 hours into it now, and I think I'm nearing the end....probably another 10 hours)...

You're in for a surprise then

I liked this game alot, I even started replaying it, even after it took me reaaally long time to finish it first time (Blade is not a human, to finish it in 50hrs), and the story and many details look quite different after you know what's really happening.

 

[KimB]

Well, actually, I was pretty close. Finished in 43 hours, 27 minutes.

 

[Kalin]

Ah, that makes me the worst ToS player around here I guess.. Still it was lots of fun for me, so I guess I don't have to complain about it taking me much longer 8)

 

[KimB]

Well, I suppose it depends upon how much you try to do. For the most part, I pretty much just went straight through the game, not engaging in many side quests. I've started a new game where I'm going to try to get pretty much everything....but that'll probably take months, as I won't play it often and stuff.