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Tales of Symphonia

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    Tales of Symphonia

    US GC.
    First impressions are very good indeed. Plays a lot like Skies of Arcadia or Grandia II although initially I think Grandia II's battle system is still the better. Battles play out in real time, you control only one character. A for standard attack and B for skill attack. You can also block incoming attacks with X.
    You have the option for AI controlled battles, semi-automatic and completely manual. I have chosen semi-automatic.

    The few battles I've done so far have been quite frenetic to say the least which indicates future battles may border on twitch gaming.

    Graphically ToS is similar in style to SoA with cel-shaded 3d characters and landscapes. The style is not as good as FF Chronicles IMO.

    Sound is good and voiceovers are better than average. I recognise Liquid Snake in there.

    The storyline appears pretty standard at the moment but I'm hoping for better things later on.

    Game comes on two discs. Works OK with Freeloader 1.06b on my PAL machine. Dont know if the second disc will work when required though, but I have a Q ready if it doesn't.
    Last edited by Ian(not Ian); 17-07-2004, 10:38.

    #2
    I have this on order and it should be arriving soon...

    I'm glad it's good, been looking forward to it for ages. It's possible to play multiplayer, but I think it only works in the battles - just plug in an extra controller and they take over the AI.
    In single player I think it is possible to switch characters in the battles too, but bringing up the menu and pressing Z.

    Does the story seem alright so far?

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      #3
      I'm eagerly awaiting my copy from VG+, hoping it still might arrive in todays post.

      Thanks for the impressions, it does sound superb, and if its anyhting like either Skies or Grandia II then i'm bound to love it. I was half hoping it might be better than both, but seeing as Skies is my favourite ever game I guess that is a little hopeful...

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        #4
        Pete.
        The storyline, though pretty generic to start, does offer up promise of better things to come. It involves the eventual climbing of a tower to heaven. The tower itself looks mighty impressive, but is far, far, away at this moment in time.

        One interesting snippet is the ability to 'cook' your own food which can be eaten to top up HP. I have a fair number of ingredients at the moment but only the option to make a sandwich, unfortunately I dont yet have the most important ingredient - bread!

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          #5
          How does the battle system compare with previous installments in the series?

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            #6
            Originally posted by PeteJ
            In single player I think it is possible to switch characters in the battles too, but bringing up the menu and pressing Z.
            Yep, that's right. Although the game doesn't seem to actually tell you that anywhere (at least not in the first few hours). I had to (*gasp*) read the manual.

            My copy turned up yesterday, and I've played maybe three hours so far. Seems really good, although the combat's a bit simplistic at the moment. I'm guessing that'll improve as I get more abilities.

            Story is fairly standard stuff right now, but there are hints of more interesting things to come. The anime FMV intro is really nice.

            Graphically it's pretty nice. The backgrounds are really lovely in places; they have a great hand-painted kind of look to them. The characters are nicely designed, but the cartooney black outlines seem to pull them out of the scene a little bit to me. There's a fair bit of depth blurring going on, which actually works really nicely.

            I found it a little tough at first. It seems to drop you into the game without much explanation and very few healing items, and I actually died a couple of times in the first dungeon. Could just be that I'm crap, though. Now I've bought some more items and worked out how to "cook" sandwiches to heal myself, it's much easier going.

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              #7
              Man reading this makes me want it even more, though now i've kind of excepted that my copy isnt turning up today... Dam!

              How do the dungeons work?

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                #8
                Originally posted by lilman
                How do the dungeons work?
                They're sort of like Chrono Cross or Lunar. You see the monsters running around, and if you hit them it'll go to battle mode. No FF-style random encounters.

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                  #9
                  Cheers for the first impressions chaps. I was hoping to get some play in over the weekend but sadly my copy hasn't turned up

                  How is the music btw? Fairly decent?

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                    #10
                    Gossi the Dog.
                    Cant comment on that as I haven't played a Symphonia game before..OK, slap me.
                    This may help though.
                    Battles are initiated by running into, or colliding with the monster on the screen. These collisions can be avoided by running around the monster.
                    Once in the battle, which is totally in realtime you control your character as you would in the world map. You can freely move around enemies.

                    Enemies can be targetted with R. The most enemies I've seen in a single battle is five so far. It's important to keep an eye party members who may be taking hits and protect them by targetting the enemy in question and attacking it instead of the one you were concentrating on.

                    Pressing Y mid-battle brings up a menu for using items, changing team tactics, switching controllable characters etc. The battle is paused in this mode.

                    You can freely switch characters realtime by pressing Z as PeteJ says.

                    Your character can learn special attacks which are assigned to B.
                    Standard attack with A
                    Block (useful) with X

                    There is mention of combos, but I have yet to pull one off.

                    All characters can be knocked out. Lose your last character and it's back to your last save point. I can vouch for that.

                    Lilman.
                    Dungeons are very much like SoA with chests in areas which, if you want you can work out a way to get to.

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                      #11
                      Here are the impressions I just posted up on rllmuk...

                      ----------------
                      First impressions... it's OK so far, although I've only played an hour.

                      The graphics are standard issue really, but the character models are nice. Overall it has a very charming look to it, although it's nothing overly ambitious.

                      You get stuck into combat pretty much right away, and it's similar to Grandia 2 in the way that you can avoid combact by avoiding the 'blob' that indicats an enemy. It's an OK system, although I don't know why they can't render smaller versions of the enemies so you know what you're facing, instead of a couple of generic 'blobs' on screen. It has a familiar world map, inventory screen etc, no surprises there really.

                      The actualy combat is slightly different to other RPG's, and I'm not sure if I like it. Basically, although you can alter their strategy, the other members of your party are AI controlled, so you're pretty much in your own. You control your guy in real time, with basic attack and block buttons, and you can alter your target of attack by holding down the R button and moving left and right on the control stick. It's very easy to pick up, although not as satisfiying as the system used in Grandia 2 for example.

                      The voice acting is OK, and the storyline is standard RPG fare with tales of woe, prophets, oracles, crystals, heaven sent angels... what you'd expect really, although as with the graphics, it is quite charming.

                      So to sum up the first hour of play.. .it's OK, although I do have reservations as to the combat.

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                        #12
                        mine arrived this morning, no biggie there BUT no prog scan support??

                        I feel for a major gamcube release this shouldn't happen won't spoil the enjoyment but still annoying none the less

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                          #13
                          Played for just over an hour (just got to the Ranch), and after the initial feeling of being completely overwhelmed, I'm enjoying this a lot. The graphics are so colourful and well stylised that you just cannot help but see what is around the next corner; everything looks hand painted, which is really nice.

                          The combat engine is very difficult to get to grips with, at least getting to the point where you are not just hammering the A button. I think I'm starting to use it properly now - can order the AI to do specific things if I need them too (such as heal a party member). I've also set it up so the weaker characters stay back and use magic and then come foward when they run out of magic points (which you regain from causing damage).

                          After about twenty minutes you reach a surprisingly tough fight, which I almost lost. Three of my four characters died - including my guy - but I just left the strongest character to fight on his own. The AI seems to be quite smart, and just watching him take out this boss was nice to see - he blocked, use magic and stayed back when needed. He won the fight for me, but only just. This game ain't going to be easy!

                          The world map reminds me a lot of Final Fantasy 7, however I'm finding it slightly difficult to follow the map. I thought I was going to where it wanted me too, but I was actually miles off. Probably my fault entirely, but it was annoying having Lloyd (the main character) tell me that he didn't want to go a particular way, especially as he brought up the messege whenever I tried to move!

                          Music isn't anything special, but it isn't offensive to the ears. Voice acting is fine in my opinion; can be initially annoying, but you get used to it within a few minutes. The narrator at the beginning was cool, felt very epic.

                          Excellent presentation throughout - lovely menu background and the animation that plays before the menu is superb, a real hint that great things are to come.

                          So far, so good

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                            #14
                            I'm 11 hours through it, and I can say it's the best game of the year till now, even better then 4 swords.
                            The combat system is silly at first, and difficult in the the sense that you just use the A button and the X Button, but eventually the B Button and tech attacks are going to be the the most important thing in battles, and that's when they turn cool 8), with you trying to find new combos, so the enemys can't hit you. And there are lot of tech attacks.
                            The story is quite similar to FFX till now, simple, but thankfully the characters are more likeable.

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                              #15
                              Got mine this morning and I'm quite enjoying it. It feels quite epic with all this talk of angels and stairways to heaven in the opening scenes, the graphic style works well I feel.

                              The combat is strange at 1st but it's good one you've got your head around how to control other characters tactics. What I've changed it so that pushing up makes you jump rather than having to press block and up to jump, this has made it easier for me to jump over attacks as well as getting over and behind the enemy to attack them.
                              I still only have basic attacks but looking at the menus and instruction book it's alluding to the fact that the 'B' button attacks are going to be more complex, as are the potential for SF2 style button combinations to pull of more impressive moves.

                              The other neat idea is the Harvest Moon/ Paper Mario style recipe preperations. You only start off with basic culinary skills that increase as your level increases, I can see the search for all the recepies an interesting diversion from the main action.

                              The other thing that has intrigued me is the really cheesy cut scenes that are activated are certain points by the Z button. They don't really do much to further the story but it adds a nice little personal touch to the characters.

                              Fun so far, it has me interested.

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