Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Offline)
Although he never had the popularity of Final Fantasy oh dragon quest franchises, the Tales series earned a good reputation as the “other” classic JRPG series that still maintained decent quality for quite some time. In 2004, Namco (still without Bandai) was only on the fifth iteration of the Tales series, which made the bold transition to full 3D with the release of Tales of Symphonia on GameCube. Sporting an appealing visual style and with enough content to last hundreds of hours, there was a lot to love about this release when options were much scarcer for big RPGs on Nintendo consoles. Based on the 2013 PS3 re-release, which in turn uses the PS2 Japan exclusive version as its base, Tales of Symphonia Remastered has now brought the classic experience to modern hardware, and while it’s still a delightful adventure, it definitely shows its age .
The story takes place in the land of Sylvarant, which is experiencing a minor ecological crisis. A critical mana shortage caused by the lingering effects of a war thousands of years ago means that the world itself is dying and time is running out for its inhabitants. The only hope is for Regeneration to take place, in which a person dubbed “The Chosen One” opens various seals across the land to awaken the Goddess and bring all things back to life. You play as Lloyd, a good friend of the current chosen one, Colette. Lloyd is the headstrong son of a dwarf blacksmith, and after inadvertently causing a terrible tragedy in his village, Lloyd sets out with his best friend Genis to accompany and protect his friend Colette on her journey to fulfill her chosen duties and save the world. world of destruction
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Connected)
Tales of Symphonia tells a pretty compelling story, at least in broad strokes. What initially seems like a mundane exercise in tired tropes soon gives way to a much more interesting adventure that features some shocking twists. Granted, many of these twists are telegraphed ahead of time, but we were still impressed with the narrative ambition on display. The downside to all of this, however, is that the writing itself is quite stiff and often unintentionally hilarious. Some of these scenes cover a ridiculous range of emotions in just a minute or two, and the dialogue rarely feels natural – it’s the epitome of a “video game storyline”. In some ways, the heavy interchanges certainly add to Tales of Symphonia’s charm, while in others, they soften it. Needless to say, the uneven writing prevents the overall story from reaching its full potential. Still, it’s a great ride throughout, and we’d say the story is, overall, the strong point of Tales of Symphonia.
The game follows typical JRPG conventions of exploring a large world map, visiting towns, and exploring nearby dungeons to advance the plot. It’s nothing I’ve seen before, but we think the pacing here is good for pushing you through the content before something starts to linger longer than expected. Dungeons are the culmination of the overall gameplay loop, reminiscent of Golden Sun with the use of puzzles before reaching the boss at the end. None of this goes much beyond lighting torches or pushing blocks that have already been killed, but they do help break up monster battles and give you a bit more difficulty reaching certain chests. Additionally, each dungeon introduces a new idea or trick, helping to differentiate them and creating a more concrete sense of progression as you progress.
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Offline)
Combat in Tales of Symphonia is action-based and has many similarities to 3D fighters like Tekken. Your character is always locked to an enemy and is limited to a 2D plane where you can run towards or away from the enemy in a straight line, while attacks are designed to be chained together in short combos based on directional inputs combined with buttons. Once you’ve built up a good collection of abilities (called Arts) for your characters, the combo system really starts to work, but by today’s standards, battles feel awfully stiff. Compared to games like Ys VIII or Kingdom Hearts II, which feature similar hack ‘n’ slash combat, Tales of Symphonia seems to be a few steps behind.
For example, it can be irritating trying to dodge multiple enemies’ attacks because you can only move in two directions, while their attacks can attack you from multiple angles. Meanwhile, you can’t cancel your own attack animations once you cast them, which encourages you to slow down and be selective with timing and ability use, but the overall fast pace of fights causes you to fight reactively and recklessly. Keep in mind that Tales of Symphonia was the first 3D release in the series, and while subsequent games have improved on the cons and reiterated the highlights here, it unfortunately hasn’t aged very well in this entry. the fight is bono once you get used to it, but it still seems wrong.
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Offline)
Character progression is handled by an interesting team system that determines stat and skill growth. Completing objectives, completing side quests, and reaching certain milestones will unlock titles that help or hinder the growth of specific stats as your character progresses. The title Drifting Swordsman, for example, gives a slight boost to your HP growth and a slightly bigger boost to your growth in both Strength and Defense. Details like in-game numbers are not given to you, online guides show that there is a good strategy behind the titles; Obtaining the title itself is not only often difficult, but which ones you equip and how long you keep them equipped will greatly affect a character’s build over time.
For skills, the most important element to building your party is the EX Gem system, which affects the type of arts characters can learn with passive skills. You earn EX Gems by defeating bosses and exploring more dungeons, and each will grant you small buffs in things like Accuracy or Strength. Each character can have up to four equipped, and depending on the combination of gems you use, you’ll gain unique effects such as the ability to shield yourself in the air or automatically recover from status effects. We appreciate the emphasis here on experimentation, because there is a group of different abilities that you can discover by trying out different combinations.
Visually, Tales of Symphonia Remastered doesn’t do much to noticeably improve on the visuals of the original release. The original shaded look is minimized here, and while everything has been brought up to HD resolution, it looks like a bit more work could have been done to give this older version a facelift. Chunky character models and blurry, muddy textures look pretty dated now. And while the anime style works well enough here, there’s a distinct lack of creativity in the design of the environment, which relies heavily on familiar settings like “dry desert ruins” and “quiet seaside town.” without much unique visual flair. .
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Offline)
We think it goes without saying that the porting job itself looks pretty sloppy. While the original GameCube version ran at 60 fps without issue, this version is capped at 30 fps, and we noticed instances in dungeons and combat where it seemed to drop to 20 or less. Combine that with the fact that Tales of Symphonia Remastered doesn’t come with the sequel, Dawn of the New World, which shipped with Tales of Symphonia Chronicles on PS3 back in 2013 and it’s hard to see the value proposition here. In some respects, this new port is therefore inferior both to the original version there the remaster that came out ten years ago. This includes the additional content (additional costumes, arts, etc.) from the 2013 version as well as some minor quality of life updates, such as the ability to skip some scenes, but it doesn’t appear to have been done enough to seize the opportunity to bring this feedback to the new material.
conclusion
Granted, we’re a little mixed on Tales of Symphonia Remastered. While the story is compelling, the character build satisfying, and there’s plenty of content to discover, Bandai Namco’s almost non-existent efforts to clean up the rough edges of this 20-year-old game definitely hold it back from greatness. Things like fierce combat, dated visuals, and clunky writing limit the appeal here, making this remaster feel like a missed opportunity. It’s easier to recommend it to those who are nostalgic for the original and want to relive those memories, but it’s hard to say whether newcomers should pick it up. It’s far from the best action RPG on Switch, and arguably not even the best Tales game on Switch. We would give it a slight recommendation as its positives. TO DO They outweigh its cons, but with the caveat that you should probably wait for a deep sale or buy it used. There are far better RPGs to play on the Switch today, and this one doesn’t deserve a spot at the top of your list.