Not only the best GCN RPG, but ranks with FFX and Dragon Quest VIII as one of the best RPGs of this generation.
Tales of Symphonia tells a basic RPG story, that at first almost looks too basic. In the world of Sylvarant, the human race labors to scratch out a meager existence in a war-ravaged landscape, under the oppresive rule of the half-elven Desians, who use humans as guinea pigs in cruel biological experiments at "human ranches." Colette, an angel girl, is on a mission to rid Sylvarant of the Desian menace by completing a pilgrimage to the Tower of Salvation. As Lloyd, a young knight-in-training and Colette's childhood friend, you accompany Colette on her pilgrimage, along with Genis, a young elven magician, and Kratos, a rather sinister "hired sword." Things are not quite that simple, however and Colette's pilgrimage and the events that follow make the exploits of Tidus, Yuna, and company look like summer vacation (with no disrespect intended to the excellent Final Fantasy X), as the denizens of a parallel world want to stop the pilgrimage before their world is sacrificed to restore Sylvarant. It's a basic RPG tale to be sure - but it's the way that Namco tells its Tale that makes it compelling. After all, The Legend of Zelda has a "save the princess" theme that has captivated gamers for generations, and will do so long after the countless petty street thugs of this generation of games has been relegated to the used bargain bins at GameStop. The plot touches on many issues that continue to trouble the world in real life, such as racial prejudice, nationalism, and scientific ethics, using an allegorical fantasy setting.
Part of what makes this game's world(s) so enjoyable is the graphical presentation. Namco made use of cel-shaded graphics for this entry, to great effect - this game would simply not have looked this good with conventional CG. The characters are beautifully designed by Kosuke Fujishima (Oh My Goddess!), and while they lack the detail and facial expressions of FFX, they nevertheless have their own personalities, and are very-well animated. It's always funny to watch Colette trip over her own feet (which always has surprising and hilarious results), and the swordplay is convincing. I love the monster designs in this game, especially in the later areas. The environments are beautifully designed, too. The camera is static, much like FFX, rather than the dynamic camera of The Wind Waker. The only soft spot in the graphics is the overworld, which has a much lower level of detail than the towns, castles, and dungeons.
Soundwise, the best thing about the game is voice acting. I'm not a big fan of most of the voice acting in video games, and feel that the money the game designers are spending in hiring grade-B movie stars is wasted money better spent on actual gameplay. Instead, Namco hired professional voice-over actors from popular American cartoons and localized Japanese animes with much better results than GTA. The actors really get into their parts, for the most part, and even the more overdone voice-acting is entertaining. The voice-over stars in ToS include Cam Clarke (Liquid Snake) as Kratos, Tara Strong (Rikku) as Presea, an adult woman who was forced into genetic experiments that left her permanently as a young girl, Jennifer Hale (Dr. Naomi Hunter) as kunoichi Sheena, and James Arnold Taylor (Tidus) as the villain, Yggdrasill. Each of these actors is perfectly cast in their respective Roles. Motoi Sakuraba (composer of the scores for many games from Nintendo and S-E subsidiary tri-Ace) brings his famous mix of grand opera and rock-and-roll to the game, and many of his best compositions are reminiscent of the classic Nobuo Uematsu themes from FF4 and FF6.
As far as gameplay, Tales uses the action-based battle system the series is noted for, only adapted to 3-D for the first time. You control one of the characters in battle (you can switch the character you control during battle) and the AI handles the rest. Although the field is in 3-D your character fights in a 2-D plane in line with his/her current target; however, when you change targets, the 2-D plane changes in 3-D space. The action is fast-paced and furious, with numerous twitch-motion special attacks - this is, after all, a company best-known for its fighting games. Frankly, the action in ToS is more exhilarating than most dedicated action games nowadays. Battles are often chaotic, but aren't battles in real life nothing but chaos and confusion? The game has a number of standard block-pushing puzzles, but it also has puzzles where you must alternate between being normal-sized an micro-sized, and where you must call different animals to progress, to name just a couple. The ring of sorcery in the game has different effects depending on the dungeon you are in.
In conclusion, Tales of Symphonia finally puts this cult Japanese series on the US map with Final Fantasy-style production values. It is a game worthy of a legacy company like Namco. It is the best RPG on GameCube, which unlike the N64 does have a good RPG library. ToS is far superior to any of the Xbox's meager offerings. And on the PS2, it's only competition in my book is FFX. Simply put, I love this game.