2nd best RPG for GCN after Paper Mario 2
User Rating: 8 | Tales of Symphonia GC
Tales of Symphonia (ToS) is an excellent game for anyone who is bored to death from the tedium of turn-based RPGs. Real time combat is a breath of fresh air that has you looking forward to the next fight. ToS also did away with random encounters, which is something the genre needs to be rid of anyways. The game does an excellent job of enticing you to level up. You continue to learn new and useful spells and skills that dazzle. Though it doesn't have the strongest beginning, once the plot starts rolling, it doesn't stop until the last cutscene. It gets to a point to where it's quite hard to actually follow the story, and all you can rely on is emotions such as, "Hey, I can't remember why, but I don't like that guy." The promised animated cutscenes are bogus, as if I remember correctly you get about two. Sure those two are nice...but it promised a lot. This game also leaves many unanswered questions. There are numerous times that you're on the brink of getting to do something, or are promised something, but you are never allowed to. This is due in large to the fact that a lot of this game ties into the other "Tales of" games made by Namco, but still a little disclosure would be nice. Anyways, this is an excellent game no matter how you look at it and is a gem not just for GameCube owners but for video game players in general. 
