Tales of Symphonia Review

Once again, Steam has swooped in to provide a way for me to experience classic games I missed out on years ago. The downside to these re-releases is that some of the mechanics definitely feel dated. For instance, the real-time battle system of Symphonia, while way more engaging than your usual turn-based fare, veers on the clunkier side. It takes several hours to get used to and good at it. Unfortunately, the first several hours of battling also comprise some of the harder boss fights. It isn’t until your party gets a competent healer that battles start to feel even remotely fair. I came close to giving up many times, because over-relying on healing items seemed like an inefficient strategy going into a 40-hour long RPG.

But then the character, Raine, learns some kickass healing spells, and all’s right in the world again. Well, in Tales of Symphonia, nothing’s really right in the world. This is one of those RPGs where the story’s constantly blowing up with twists and double-crosses. It’s weird, because the first third of the game focuses on how important Colette is, but she becomes a total non-character after a while. Symphonia suffers from too many characters who stop serving a purpose early on and then become dead weight. I was actually getting annoyed by the game continually setting up what felt like an ending only to introduce more characters and more towns and more dungeons. Symphonia certainly wears out its welcome, but I still had fun with it for the most part.

Reviewer

Clark
I love gaming so much, I wrote a book about it.

Published by

Clark

I love gaming so much, I wrote a book about it.