Coming from a non-RPG fan, this game kept me entertained for nearly forty hours, but it wasn't amazing.
User Rating: 7.5 | Tales of Symphonia GC
Japanese role playing games are not my favorite genre, in fact I have never finished one until now with Tales of Symphonia – so this review is unique in the fact that it is coming from someone who is not particularly smitten with RPGs. That said, Tales of Symphonia was a solid, engaging game with a mediocre story that did a good job of entertaining for almost forty hours. As is the typical role playing set up – this game starts out by banding together a bunch of characters who meet somewhat inexplicably to partake on the most important quest that the world has ever seen. However, as it progresses there are enough twists and turns to keep it interesting, and even inspired at points. Unfortunately, it is not immune from the many cliches and cheesy dialogue of the genre. The story is certainly good enough to keep a player engaged for the entire time they play, but not good enough to make them want to see it over and over again. The best part of this game was the battling, which I would have never thought that I would say about a Japanese RPG. It is fast paced, requires some skill, and there is enough variety to keep it from getting old. The style reminds me of classic beat 'em ups in that the player characters and enemies face off in 2-d planes of engagement, and the combo system is surprisingly deep. I found myself actually enjoying “leveling” because it meant that I could get in more battles. The game play falls short a little when it comes to puzzles though. The majority of the puzzles involve a device called the sorcerers ring, and it changes function depending on the dungeon that the player is in. This means that puzzles are all solved by pushing blocks and “activating” certain parts of the level with the sorcerers ring. This doesn't mean that the puzzles aren't challenging – in fact many can be quite difficult to pass, but they are annoying in their difficulty, and most come down to being patient. The graphics are two-faced. In battles the characters and monsters are well animated and lively, and the spell and battle technique effects are beautiful. However, when roaming around towns and dungeons, the graphics seem stiff and non interactive. The characters only have a few poses at their disposal for cut scenes, and in a game of this length, they started to get old. Sound effects were excellent for the most part in battles, and added to the liveliness and action. Sound was used poorly and weakly throughout the rest of the game however, and added to the stiffness of the environments. The music was extremely repetitive, but also fairly benign and didn't offend all that much, which is no small feat considering how many hours that it needed to fill – as a drawback however, none of the music was terribly memorable. The voice acting was superb, and rivaled many of the cartoons that are on the air now. Lines were all delivered well and with proper inflections, and there were no actual mistakes that I noticed. This is a game that sustained my interest primarily though its battle system, although the story did drive interest as well. For anyone that loves old beat 'em up type games and wants to try out a Japanese RPG that they might like, Tales of Symphonia is a pretty good bet. 
