Looking for a good RPG from last generation? Don't want to throw away your gamecube yet? Tales of Symphonia is the game.
Tales of Symphonia takes place in the dying world of Sylverant where to save the world and bring back the Mana, the Chosen must go to all the temples with her teenage friends as you play from the perspective of a young male protagonist, blah blah blah. Okay, sounds pretty cliche right? Well that's the first 10 hours. Know how long this game will last you? About 60. The 50 hours after that is comprised of about 20 plot twists and more character development than nearly any other RPG I've seen. Anyway, on to that later, now about the gameplay.
Unlike other RPG's, *cough*FinalFantasy*cough* the gameplay is all in real time so it's up to you to decide the outcome of the battle, not just random chance. You do the attacking. You do the dodging. You do the spell casting. The gameplay is relatively easy (if you're playing Normal mode), and since all enemies appear on the map, you don't have to worry about those stupid random encounters (HATE THOSE).
One thing that also sets Tales of Symphonia away from your regular cookie cutter RPG's is the amazing character development. You meet a LOT of characters, whose goals, ambitions, and even their stance on "good" and "evil" change throughout the game. Also, there's a light dating-sim approach as throughout the game, there are optional skit points and manditory points that require you to choose what the main character (Lloyd) will say, which will affect your relationship with other characters, affect the outcome of certain story points, and even affect the survival of a certain character (not revealing anything, play the game if you want to find out). These skits range from rather amusing to very serious and give you a lot of insight on the characters which really make them grow on you and feel for them. I believe if an RPG can do that, it's got to be at least a pretty good RPG.
The music in the game is all rather good and the various themes give it an epic feeling, still, certain songs are used far too often while other good songs aren't used enough, and sound effects are a bit iffy.
The graphics are of the cell shaded kind, and are very beautiful in the world Tales of Symphonia is set in. Also, with the addition of a few animated cutscenes help break it up a bit.
Also, once you beat the game, you can replay the game with some added bonuses depending on all the GRADE you accumulated throughout the game, (GRADE=points from battle depending on your "efficiency") which adds to the replay value and since there are quite a few different outcomes in the game, one would have to play the game 2 or 3 times to discover everything.
Overall, Tales of Symphonia is a masterpiece. It is a great game, has beautiful style, memorable characters, and overall will last you a long long time. So like I said before, if you feel like breathing some life back into your Gamecube (or PS2 if you speak Japanese), then Tales of Symphonia is THE game to get.