An up-beat emmersive game!

User Rating: 9.1 | Tales of Symphonia GC
Tales Of Symphonia is one of the few RPG's available to Gamecube owners. Luckily for those who have a GC and are also RPG fans TOS is a great game. The story follows three friends Lloyd, Genis and Colette who are sent on a mission to save their world from effectively 'dying' and also to decimate the evil Disean Forces along the way. Of course being an RPG this whole plot is thrown upside down and span out to a much bigger scale within the 20 hours of starting. The plot is fantastic and if the action doesn't keep you going then the plot will.

TOS is a beautifully designed and the characters and environments are very nice to look at, however the world map is considerably less detailed, but it doesn't matter. Sounds are also good and the whole game is filled with a bouncy and cheerful soundtrack. Battles also sound nice but hearing Lloyd say 'Cross Slash' for the 1000th time may annoy some. The voices are also ok but some may have preferred subs instead.

Now lets get to the meat of the game, the gameplay. TOS is really a great game to play. The battles are easy to get to grips with and in the later stages of the game they allow you to rack up some awesome combos. Basically there are slashes and thrusts but on the side you can apply special attacks to the C-Stick. You can also develop your characters, by using specific techniques you can determine which ones you'll gain next, for example if your use a Thrust attack and an Uppercut attack most of the time, its half likely you gain a Thrusting Uppercut attack next. Also the game allows you to play as any on the compatriots you meet along the way in your travels adding diversity to the action. There isn't much in the form of platforming however there are some hefty puzzles to deal with throughout the game that'll have you scratching your head for a while. A well as the main quest there are loads and loads of side quests to complete in the game adding more hours to the game. There are probably over 60 in all if you do the whole shebang.

Its a great game and one of the best RPG's around, If you have a GC you should check it out even if you don't like RPG's because you never know.