NOTE: The images used in this article are promotional pieces from the developer.
The world of Sylvarant is steadily loosing mana - the energy source used for magic casting and the foundation of life itself. Only the "Chosen One", a servant of the Goddess Martel, can start the regeneration of the world by breaking five seals. Colette Brunel (the current Chosen One) with her friend Lloyd Irving and their companions, set out on a journey to heal the world of Sylvarant only to discover that the nature of the world's ills is more complicated than they were led to believe.
The cast wasn't spectacular, but they were very likable, empathetic, and refreshingly earnest and noble. I especially appreciated the innocent, heartwarming moments. The player gets to know Lloyd and his companions better through special conversations called "Skits". To my surprise, they were dead silent and very static. It may be unfair to compare such an old title against newer ones in the franchise, but Symphonia's silent skits were jarring and unpleasant to someone who is more accustomed to the dynamic, voiced skits of newer Tales games. Anyone who played Symphonia back when it initially released probably wont mind, but for a newcomer to Symphonia, like myself, it was very off putting.
Most of the characters don't tread new ground and many of Symphonia's plot elements were pretty standard-fare. It touches on some heavy subjects like slavery and racism, and there were plenty of plot twists, surprise villains, and revelations that kept Symphonia's story from getting stale. I could predict where some of the story was headed, but other plot elements were hard to follow, like the exsphere and key crest thing. There is also a lot of going back and forth between places the player has already visited, not to mention the dungeon puzzles which were occasionally tedious; I almost stopped playing because of the Temple of Darkness puzzle and Welgaia was a nightmare to navigate.
While traveling from town to town or to the next dungeon, the player will cross open, empty fields in an overworld. A reoccurring problem for me with many of the latest entries in the Tales franchise are the overly confusing and maze-like dungeon designs. Thankfully, Symphonia is free from this problem. I loved the surprisingly small size of the dungeons. They served their purpose and never overstayed their welcome. The towns always had an impressive amount of detail that is absent from the overworld map, which is just a flat sea of green and a few raised mounds to represent mountains. The wandering enemies that populate the fields appear as odd looking, dark blobs that either chase after Lloyd or sit and watch him pass by. They can usually be avoided, but on more than one occasion I wound up in an unwanted battle because an enemy suddenly materialized where I was standing or the camera (which you have limited control over) decided that the ground was a more important view than whatever was in front of me. Riding on Noishe gets the camera to pull back a bit more, but only slightly.
Battles take place within an enclosed arena in real-time. During combat the player can switch between weapons or choose to flee if need be. Combat consists of switching between blocking with the square button and attacking with either the X button for melee attacks, or the circle button for special tech attacks. Pressing circle alone or in conjunction with an analog stick direction will trigger one of multiple mapped tech attacks. The team's number of successful strikes gradually fill a meter that triggers unison attacks when maxed out. This gives each ally the opportunity to use a special offensive attack within a time limit without consuming any TP.
Tales of Symphonia is an old game; the dated look was one of the biggest hurdles I had to overcome before I could fully enjoy the adventure. The sprites, textures and menus were all very retro. The character models were blocky with oversized hands, walked stiffly, and had painted-on faces. Navigation could have used some improvement as well. More than once I had to look up where I was suppose to go next, or which random NPCs I had to talk to in order to progress. The breaking of seals and the forming of pacts became so routine by the latter half of the game that I started to loose interest.
That doesn't mean its a bad game though. The combat system is simple but solid, and the narrative is always driven forward by character motivations and circumstances. The story always picked up whenever it started to drag and by the game's end I felt as if I had been through quite the satisfying adventure. I likley wont be forgetting the cast anytime soon and may even play Symphonia again some time in the future. Perhaps if I felt nostalgia from having played it back in the day, I would've liked it more than I do. As it stands, Tales of Symphonia is a solid experience despite my nitpicking, and the handful of anime cutscenes were absolutely stunning to boot! Anyone looking to get into the Tales franchise might want to start with a different title though.
First posted to videogamegeek.com
- Tales of Hearts R Review: Half-Hearted
- Tales of Vesperia Review: When Whales Fly
- Tales of Xillia Review: An Excellent Entry Point Into The Tales Franchise
- Tales of Xillia 2 Review: The Hands of Time
- Tales of Zestiria Review: Some Fine Lipstick On That Pig
- Tales of Berseria Review: If There Is Evil In This World...
No comments:
Post a Comment