This game rawks.

I'm on my 3rd playthrough of it ^^

ToS can suck my toes. I'll post the review I've gotten flamed for so many times. Damn ToS!!! :hopping:







Published: 2004 by Namco
Developer: Namco, Tales Studio
Genre: RPG
Players: 1-4
Memory Card: 3 Blocks per File
Rated: T for Teen




Introduction:

Tales of Symphonia is the next game in the Tales series, which was created back on the Super Famicom in 1994 by Namco with the excellent game Tales of Phantasia. It since then has risen to the status of 3rd most popular RPG series in Japan (behind Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest) and has gathered many, many fans. The series has generally had the same battle system for most of its games (the Tales of the World series is a little different than the normal Tales series). It consists of you running on a 2d plain to defeat your enemies. You can only move left and right. The stories are usually not very complex, but somehow engaging. With great characters, usually great music, and addicting game-play, the Tales series has become very well-known for delivering the goods to its’ fans. But, now comes Tales of Symphonia. Will it continue this tradition (Only one game in the Tales series was bad before this, and that was Tales of Destiny) of having good games? Will it appeal to the Tales fangirls/boys? Well, it does continue the tradition of appealing to the Tales fangirls/boys, but it does not continue the tradition of having good games. This game is terrible. Everything from the overly clichéd story, to the terrible dialogue, to the character development. This game definitely does not continue the Tales tradition of delivering good games. Why? Well, I shall tell you if you are willing to listen.











Boxart: C

The box art is pretty good. The title is nicely presented and is very well designed. The colors are very vibrant and beautiful, and they stand out very clearly. The characters are represented well, and the cover alone will make you eager to play this game if you hadn’t already played it. Well, the cover is great anyways. The back cover is terribly designed. Standing out the most are obviously the terrible designed versions of Lloyd and Kratos. Geez, they look terrible and they should not even be anywhere on the game case at all. Aska is the other one that stands out the most. He looks great, but he just doesn’t feel right where he is. Then there is Raine, whom you can faintly see in the background of the back cover. She definitely should not be there. It is one of the reasons why this category is getting a low score. She does not fit in at all. The floating city looks great, and fits in with Aska. The screenshots are nicely framed, and very well positioned. Too bad Namco completely screwed the back cover up with the terrible versions of Lloyd and Kratos. Overall, however, the boxart is nicely laid out and the title and the colors are beautiful. The back cover is what makes it unattractive. But, it is still good despite the numerous flaws in its’ design.









Graphics: B-

The graphics are beautiful. The cel-shading fits the mood of this game perfectly and I wouldn’t take it any other way. The towns are great, and have a very crisp and clean detail to them. The overworld map, however, is poorly designed and is very choppy at times (the trees, and the evil black blobs come to mind). Most of the dungeons are very boring and bland (pretty much all of them are). They sport no vibrant colors, no finesse, and nothing that makes them attractive. They are not fun to look at, which is a bad thing when you are staring at them for hours on end when playing this game.

The characters however, are very well designed. Despite them looking a bit kiddy at times, they are still fun to look at. But some of the characters are just terribly designed. Raine and Genis are almost unbearable to even look at. But some of the characters are nicely designed (Lloyd) and are fun to even watch in battle because some of their animations look pretty cool. The people you meet along your journey sport some detail, but most of them are either just people with boring clothes and boring hair, or just people that are too weird to even look at. There is even a character that looks like Jesus (the king of Meltokio).

The monsters are decently designed and have no originality to them at all. Most of them are just bland copies of others but with different color and higher stats. Monsters such as the Sword Dancer (pretty much a skeleton version of Gilgamesh) are pretty cool looking, but most of the monsters (such as the angels are the end) look stupid and uninspired. The animations of the monsters are also very poorly done. Very boring monster design.

The anime cut scenes are great….if you just look at a still picture of one. They are nicely drawn and the clear pictures and nicely textured characters and environments look excellent. However, the animations are absolutely god awful. The animations are choppy, and are very embarrassing to watch. Just watching Lloyd swing his sword at the end of the intro was terrible enough to give someone a few chuckles. But other than the poor quality of the animations for the anime cut scenes, they are pretty good with the vibrant colors and crisp drawings.

Overall, the graphics are pretty good. Despite numerous flaws in some of the animations for the characters, monsters, and anime cut scenes, the environments, anime drawings, and characters are very well designed. The poor monster designs were disappointing, and so were the terrible animations of the anime cut scenes. But, despite those flaws, the graphics are pretty darn good with the excellent use of the cel-shading technique.









Storyline: F



"Once upon a time there existed a giant tree that was the source of all mana. A war, however, caused this tree to wither away, and a hero's life was sacrificed in order to take its place. Grieving over the loss, the goddess disappeared unto the heavens. The goddess left the angels with the edict: "You must wake me, for if I should sleep, the world shall be destroyed." The angels bore the Chosen One, who headed towards the tower that reached up unto the heavens. And that marked the beginning of the regeneration of the world." – Intro to Tales of Symphonia



You start out as a boy, named Lloyd Irving. You are woken up during school by your professor Raine, who throws an eraser at you to wake you up. Wait a minute? An RPG where the beginning consists of your character being woken up? Well, be warned, there are many more clichés to come. You stand there as you listen to the Professor speak of the legendary chosen one, who is suppose to regenerate the world by going on a journey to unlock seals when the world is running low on mana. This is when you first see Genis, who you can automatically tell from the beginning is annoying and snobby. He shows off a bit, and then you see a really bright light. The time has come for the chosen one to travel to the temple near Iselia to begin her journey of regeneration. This is where you meet Colette, the chosen one of regeneration. You then go to the temple and find an old man collapsing in front of your own eyes. People had attacked there, for some reason unknown. They call themselves the “Desians.” So as you run to the entrance of the temple with Genis and Colette, you find yourselves confronted by these Desians who are going to now attack you. After fighting two Desian soldiers, and after nearly falling in battle with a fat Desian, Kratos appears and helps you. Together you defeat that fat Desian and Lloyd, Colette and crew go into the temple. They find themselves at the center of the temple, where Colette meets Remiel. Remiel is supposedly Colette’s father. Remiel tells Colette about the journey of the regeneration of the world….bla bla bla…they go on a journey to unlock the seals!

Bla, bla, bla…..We have all heard this story before. This is about the 1 millionth time we have heard this story. But there is actually something original about this story….When was the last time you played a game as clichéd as this? Well, this is pretty much the king of clichés. Nothing in the story is original, or very well organized. The story is so clichéd that you can predict everything in the story, even at the beginning of the game. Later on in the story, they throw some of the most useless plot twists ever at you. Half of the time they don’t even need to be in the story at all and it wouldn’t make any difference. The plot twists are bad, and very badly placed. They happen at the worst times, usually in a very stupid place. The plot twists are predictable and most of them are just stupid.

The story itself is very disorganized and very badly told. You are pretty much just going to random places trying to figure out what to do. Sure, that adds some freedom to the game, but with a story like this you will want to know where to go so you can get the terrible game over with. And the dialogue….geez, the dialogue and the writing is absolutely terrible….It is as if they hired a two year old to write this dialogue. The dialogue has some of the worst and most clichéd and annoying lines ever. Lines such as “I will never give up!” Lines so unbearably annoying and corny sounding that you will just want to punch the person for saying it. They also just repeat the same sayings over and over and over again. The writing is just so basic and so bad that it just makes the story worse….if the game had good writing and dialogue, then the score could have been risen a bit. But nope…the writing and dialogue is atrocious.

Along with the original scenes of bad voice acting, there are skits. Skits help progress the stories and such even farther. They do a good job of progressing the stories a characters, but the skits are so boring and sometimes too long. Most of the time you won’t even bother looking at the skits. They are pretty much a waste of time. They have no voice acting, and you are basically just sitting there read while there is no noise going on with exception to the lowered music in the background. The skits are good with helping develop the characters and story, but they are so boring.

Overall, the story is terrible. The story is very clichéd and very unoriginal. The dialogue is terrible, and so is the writing. The skits progress the story and characters well, but do not provide any entertainment to the game. Everything about the plot twists and story is unorganized and ever so annoying. There is nothing good about anything that has to do with this story. This is the second worst part about the game.








Gameplay: F



The gameplay is fun…for the first hour. But then reality sets in. After an hour or two of completely hacking n’ slashing your way through your enemies, you will most likely get bored. The battle system is real-time, and as I explained in my introduction, you fight on a 2d plain. You can jump, guard, attack, use techs, and use magic. Simple enough, right? Well, yeah, except you will be using a total of one button on the controller…The A button. That’s right, you only need an analog stick and the A button to beat this game. The battle system is pure hack n’ slash. The game-play offers nothing new to the genre or any genre for that matter. You have your usual Techs and Spells and stuff like that. Nothing new.

The game has something called Ex Skills. These are pretty much just standard gem things you equip to your character to make the character learn skills and such. Pretty standard stuff. Only one of the skills you will actually need at all throughout the game. Other than that, you could probably go through the entire game without even using the Ex gems and skills. They are pretty useless. They give some good skills, but only people who like the game would actually care to use them.

The game also has S-Type and T-Type tech skills. One side increases depending on which one you use more. The more you are like an S-Type character, the more that S-Type level increases. S and T skills refer to your proficiency as either a "Strike" character or a "Tech" character. With an S-Type character, your single blows will be more powerful, while as a T-Type character your Techs will be more powerful. This is perhaps one of the most pointless things ever created in the history of RPGs. There is no need whatsoever of this whole “S-Type, T-Type” system unless you are trying to learn different moves (which is annoying). This whole thing is pointless.

The side quests….Ah, the side quests. How can I say this? They are pretty much pointless as well. Some of them are actually worth doing if you like the game, but most of the side quests are annoying little quests to help someone out. There are some really long side quests where you do not get any reward for helping the person out. Unless you count the person thanking you as a reward. Some side quests do offer some nice rewards however, such as the Devil’s Arms side quest. But that side quest does not make up for the lack of rewards with most of the side quests.

The game also has a multiplayer. Just plug the controller into a certain slot and then change that character to manual. It is that easy. What isn’t easy is trying to see where you are going when the camera only pays attention to only the first player. You are stuck out of the camera’s view and you cannot see a dang thing. But it doesn’t matter really, since you just mash A and you are almost guaranteed a victory.

Then there are the puzzles. The puzzles are not good at all. Most of them just consist of pushing blocks. None of them are hard, and none of them are fun. Most of them seem to be there for an annoyance. The puzzles are terrible.
Overall, the game-play is just so terrible. The only good thing about the game-play is the fact that the game is fun for the first couple of hours. After those first few hours, the game becomes repetitive, annoying, and you have to force yourself to try and have fun. Much of the game’s game-play consists of pointless things such as the “S-Type and T-Type” system, and the Ex Gems/Skills system. The side quests are severely lacking as well. The multiplayer is awful, and the puzzles are not fun at all. The game-play is terrible.

Controls: D-



The controls are simple enough to understand:



Analog Stick - Move player controlled character/Item selection
D-Pad - Select strategic orders
A Button – Attack
B Button - Perform a magic or technique
C-Stick - Magic and technique shortcut
X Button - Guard/Cancel magic technique
Y Button - Open Battle Menu
Z Button - Initiate Unison Attack
L Button - Delay magic or technique
R Button - Change target (hold to select a target)
Start – Pause


The controls are pretty simple. The only problem is that they feel really stiff and unresponsive. It will really interrupt game-play because you are trying to jump, but the unresponsive controls will make it so that there is a bit of a delay before you jump. Same with the attack and guard buttons. Your attack animations are not interruptable, so once you get into an animation you cannot get out of it until you are finish it. That is fine, but when there is a one second delay before you actually are able to guard again, it gets a little frustrating. Especially when you are about to die and the guard button does not respond until the enemy attacks you. Every button is pretty much like this. Perhaps the most annoying thing about these controls is the whole healing system. Half of the time I have no idea who my healing spell is aiming towards so I sometimes end up healing the wrong person. The controls are bad, unresponsive, and you can tell that Namco didn’t really worry about making the controls good. Awful controls.






Difficulty: F

This is perhaps the easiest RPG of this generation. The game takes no skill at all, and it is pure repetitiveness. The game is so easy that you could probably just go through the game just with the A button and the analog stick. There are 3 different difficulties (Normal, Hard, and Mania), and none of them offer any challenge in the game. The so-called “Hardest Badguy in the game” turned out to be very easy (time consuming but very easy) and boring. The last bad-guy could literally be beaten in around 10 seconds if you strengthen your characters enough. The enemy AI is very stupid, and they will just stand there as you chop away at their bodies. More than enough of the characters have healing abilities, so they will heal whenever they can. So that makes it even easier. There is not one challenging thing in this game.

The puzzles are very easy and poorly designed as well. They mainly consist of pushing blocks around and you can easily tell that most of the puzzles are the same. None of them are challenging, nor are they designed well. It is as if a two year old designed them. There are an occasional challenging maze here and there, but in the end it is all very easy.

This game is pathetically easy, and that is no exaggeration. The only way to make this game challenging for you is if you do different challenges (but you have to force yourselves to do that). No one wants to force themselves to make a game harder.







Characters: D




Lloyd Irving



Gender: Male
Age: 17
Height: 5'8"
Weight: 128 lbs
Class: Swordsman
Race: Human
Hair: Spiky Brown
Build: Average
Weapon: Two single-edged swords



Lloyd Irving is the main hero in this game. Lloyd is your typical main hero cliché. He is a stuck up teenager who is easily insulted when he does something stupid, or is told what to do. He swears to protect Colette at all costs. He was found by that thing Noishe when he was a little child. He since then has been raised by his Step-Father Dward, Dirk. He grows up learning the ways of the dwarf and he becomes a pretty good blacksmith.

Lloyd is pretty annoying, and is very cocky. Cocky to the point where you get frustrated with his stupidity. He is pretty much useless throughout the entire story, and he is just there to be in battle pretty much. If he wasn’t in the game at all you would barely know the difference, other than the fact that there would barely be any swearing and not as many stupid lines. Lloyd Irving is a bad main hero, and he doesn’t deserve to be one. His development is terrible. He never changes throughout the story, and when he learns more and more things about himself, he swears some more and then starts acting stupid again. He has pretty much the same reaction to every situations….


Colette Brunel


Gender: Female
Age: 16
Height: 5'2"
Weight: 97 lbs
Class: Chosen
Race: Human
Hair: Blonde Long Hair
Build: Slender
Weapon: Chakram



Colette is the chosen one of Regeneration. Colette is your typical female heroine cliché. She is the main focus of the story. She has to go on a quest to restore the mana back to the world. She is very clumsy and care free. Not to mention stupid. She is very devoted to the task that has been given to her. She is always willing to sacrifice herself to help her friends, even if she dies in the process.

Colette is lame…very lame….One of the most annoying characters created this side of Genis. She does the same things over and over again which leads you to believe that Namco put her in there to pointlessly annoy you. She doesn’t develop at all throughout the story, so she pretty much stays her same stupid self throughout the entire game…


Genis Sage


Gender: Male
Age: 12
Height: 4'8"
Weight: 64 lbs
Class: Mage
Race: Elf
Hair: Silver
Build: Slender
Weapon: Kendama



This annoying little munchkin is Lloyd Irving’s best friend. He is very intelligent (his name is Genius in the Japanese Version), and he loves to study. He is very talented in the art of magic. He is stuck up and looks down upon almost everyone as if they are nothing. He is very rude to people, and he deserves a huge slap in the face.

Genis is the most useless character in the game….Not only does he not really have anything to do with the storyline, he is also the most annoying character of all-time. He is rude to everyone which leads you to hate his guts. He is even useless in battle. He actually is developed pretty decently as you progress through the storyline and he is pretty much the best developed character in the game.



Raine Sage


Gender: Female
Age: 23
Height: 5'5"
Weight: 108 lbs
Class: Mage
Race: Elf
Hair: Silver
Build: Average
Weapon: Staff



Raine Sage is Genis’ older sister. She is also the professor at the school of Iselia. She also teaches Colette and Lloyd as well. She is a master in the arts of healing, and she is obsessed with archaeology. She is usually cool and calm, but when she sees something that interests her, she will certainly become noticed. She usually lets her obsessions take the best of her. Her main job is to protect Colette as Colette tries to regenerate the world.

Raine is a decent character. When she isn’t obsessing over archaeology she can be a good character. But when her obsessions take over, she gets annoying and fast. Her development isn’t very good, and she pretty much stays the same throughout the entire game. If they developed her a bit more, then she would have been a pretty good character.


Kratos Aurion


Gender: Male
Age: 28
Height: 6'1"
Weight: 172 lbs
Class: Mage/Swordsman
Race: Human
Hair: Dark Brown
Build: Average
Weapon: Double/edged sword



Kratos is one of the guardians chosen to protect Colette on her quest to regenerate the world. He is a mercenary. Kratos is always trying to make Lloyd improve on his swordsmanship skills. He is the usual “Silent and mysterious” character we have seen in so many other RPGs before.

Kratos is a pretty bad character. Not because of his personality, but mainly because of the types of things he says. His lines are so corny, and so bad that it completely ruins this already extremely clichéd character. He can be overly cocky sometimes, which leads to some annoying scenes. His development is alright, but he certainly could use a lot more of it.



Sheena Fujibayashi


Gender: Female
Age: 19
Height: 5'5"
Weight: 106 lbs
Class: Summoner
Race: Human
Hair: Black
Build: Voluptuous
Weapon: Cards infused with magical energy



Sheena is the assassin that is sent from Tethe’alla to assassinate Colette so she cannot regenerate the world. Why is she doing this? Well, you will find out later on in the story. Sheena really hates men it seems…Or she just hates Zelos, but it seems like she hates all men. She has a mean kind of attitude towards men, but a nice and caring one towards other women.

Sheena is an alright character. Her constant yelling can get really annoying at times, and she is pretty useless in battle (since she can only summon during her Over Limit, and her other moves besides summons are too slow). Her development doesn’t really change throughout the game, but she does kind of grow to like Zelos a little bit more.




Zelos Wilder


Gender: Male
Age: 22
Height: 5'10"
Weight: 150 lbs
Class: Mage/Swordsman
Race: Human
Hair: Red
Build: Average
Weapon: Double-edged sword



Zelos is the chosen on of Tethe’alla. His job and his charm tends to make him the ladies man. He can be really egotistical at times because a lot of the ladies love him. He pretty much devotes his life to women. He rarely takes things seriously, and he definitely doesn’t take his job as the chosen one seriously.,

Zelos is a terrible character. He is pretty reliable in battle, but that doesn’t make up for his stupid personality and how perverted he is. Half of the time he is just trying to hit on Sheena and is trying to get a gander at her goods. He is perverted, and even though he is a video game character, he is still disgusting mainly because of how he treats women. He treats them like tools.





Regal Bryant


Gender: Male
Age: 33
Height: 6'2"
Weight: 187 lbs
Class: Fighter
Race: Human
Hair: Blue
Build: Large, fairly muscular
Weapon: Greaves



Regal is a prisoner for some reason which is unknown (it does tell you later on). You can tell that he is very ashamed of what he has done, mainly because he refuses to take his cuffs off. He fights with his legs, and his legs only. He never smiles, and when he talks he sounds very intelligent. But he is very quiet, so you do not hear him that much.

Regal is a great character. His development is great and his personality is good as well. Too bad he isn’t very good in combat. He isn’t a nuisance and he never bothers you, mainly because he isn’t cocky (most of the characters in this game are). Regal is probably the best character in this game.



Presea Combatir


Gender: Female
Age: Looks around 12
Height: 4'6"
Weight: 53 lbs
Class: Axwoman
Race: Human
Hair: Pink
Build: Typical child's build, but slightly small for her age
Weapon: Ax



Presea cuts wood for her sick father. She is very small and yet she somehow is able to carry that gigantic axe around. Presea is very quiet and she doesn’t have a personality (there is a reason for that). She seems very depressed at times, but she can also be happy at others. But due to her severe lack of emotion it is hard to tell.

Presea is a pretty good character. It is interesting to find out why she is the way she is. She is probably the most interesting character in the game, and she is developed pretty nicely. She isn’t good in battle, but she is a good character outside of battle.



Overall, the characters are not very good. Most of them are very poorly developed (such as Lloyd, Colette, Raine, Kratos, and Sheena), but there are some exceptions to the poorly developed characters (like Genis, Regal, and Presea). But being well developed doesn’t keep Genis from being the most annoying character of all-time. Other than Regal and Presea, the characters are absolutely horrible.



Music/Sound: F

The music is really, really bad. It is composed by the ever so popular Motoi Sakuraba. His previous work on Valkyrie Profile and Star Ocean: The Second Story proved that he can be an excellent composer at times. However, most of his work is very inconsistent. Games such as Golden Sun and Star Ocean: Till the End of Time may have some excellent tracks hidden in the game, but the soundtracks are certainly up and down. Sakuraba’s consistency is another problem with Tales of Symphonia. However, instead of having around 10 great songs and 50 decent ones like most of his soundtracks, he has 2 great songs and 100 terrible songs. Yes, there are around 100 songs in this game, and most of them are terrible. Not only is the composition terrible, but the quality of them makes them sound 10 years old. This game will literally make you turn down the volume all the way with songs like the Desian theme or the Meltokio theme. There are two good songs in the entire game…Dry Trail and Fighting of the Spirit. Fighting of the Spirit is just a remake of a song created by Sakuraba in Tales of Phantasia. Dry Trail, despite the poor quality, is a very nice and peaceful song that is worth a few listens. But overall, the terrible composition and the terrible quality of these songs severely hurt this soundtrack.

The sound itself is really bad as well. The quality of it is just as bad as the music. Simple slices and dices during battle sound very bad, and so do the spells and the techs. Any out of battle noise that is used is bad as well (such as the Desian whips). But what hurts this the most is the voice acting. It is very, very bad. Despite having a couple of good voices (Presea and Regal), the voice acting is close to unbearable. The sound quality of it is awful, and the acting itself is dull and uninspired. Voices such as Lloyd, Colette, and Genis are very overacted and corny. Kratos is perhaps the King of Corny with almost all of the lines he says. The voice acting is very bad. All of it is overacted and it sounds awful.



Overall: D-

This game is really, really bad. Despite the game having some good points (such as the Boxart and the graphics), it isn’t enough to help the game. The storyline is extremely clichéd, unorganized, and not very well planned out. The plot twists are terrible, and some of which are pretty pointless. The game-play is fun for the first couple of hours, but after those first couple of hours, the game becomes repetitive and annoying. It has pointless things such as the Ex Gems and the T-Type/S-Type system, and you could literally go through the game not even caring about pressing any other button except A and using the analog stick. Not only is the game-play bad, but the controls are terrible and unresponsive. The difficulty is extremely easy and boasts no challenge whatsoever. The characters are not good at all, but there are two characters that deserve to be recognized (Presea and Regal), but other than those two the characters are rather forgettable. The worst part about the game is the Music/Sound. The music is of poor quality and it is very badly composed. The sound is terrible with poor quality and terrible voice acting.

This game may be worth trying if you are newer to the genre and are looking for an easy game that isn’t complex, and is easy to get into. But if you are looking for a game with a deep storyline and battle system, then this is one of the last games you should buy. However, the game is now $20, so if you have nothing else to spend your money on then it may be worth the $20, or at least a rental.



Overview:


Boxart: C
Graphics: B-
Storyline: F
Game-play: F
Controls: D-
Difficulty: F
Characters: D
Music/Sound: F

Overall: D-

Lmao, Genis owns you all.

It had flaws...but I liked it. Though...I had FFX nostalgia. Summoning and a religious plot twist.

For someone who dislikes the game, you really put a lot of time into typing that review....

And the music owns.

Nice enough the fisrt time round, though less than no replay ability.
And it goes too quick; Sylvarant took me a full 6 hours to do on my first playthrough.
And Valter is right, the charecters are very steryotipical:

Lloyd-classic stupid 14/17 year old who must save the world (Think Andy from Advance Wars, but saying damnn)

Genis-Classic stupid mascot

Raine-Classic bossy woman

Kratos-Classic Silent Roinn ( we've fallen victim to that here, too)

Presea-Classic silent psycho

Regal-Classic condemmed atoning for his sins

Zelos-classic womaniser

Colette-classic dippy woman

And Shena is the only one who isn't a major steryotype. (She has large breasts? impossible!)

I did it to express my extreme hatred for that game....

I liked the game, but I only bought it because it showed awesome anime cutscenes. BULLSHIT!

I loved the game. I thought the plot was actually really good. I can always tell a good plot if it makes me cry. Which it did. At the weirdest parts.

O.o;; Ya'll obvously havn't played REAL RPGs if you think ToS is good.....
Really people. C'mon. ... ... ... ... ... ... You make me sick, ToS lovers....

Characters in reality of use by me and most of my friends... not all suck in battle or else why would there be battle... (me and my friends have tested every character before I put this argument up)

Lloyd: True to almost the whole point... besides he is the strongest character not much point in having him...

Colette: Very very good in battle (saying you can use her) she is one of my favorite to fight as and one of my favorite spell wise... She does develop in skills if you use her... she can't do much besides fight and spells/skills... also she gets a combo skill... somthing Mithos has too...

Genis: Not the most useless... Lloyd is... one of the best in battle... If you got S mode he can get the two best spells in the game which are combinations...

Raine: She gets healing... not much to say about her... (not neccesary but useful until Regal gets "grand healer" or Zelos gets "Healing stream/wind")

Kratos: Kratos is almost pointless... he helps in the beggining of the game... after that he sucks...

Sheena: Italics are lies!... She deals the most damage in combos and has the fastest attacks I've ever seen... learn to use her... summoning is not the good either.

Zelos: He is pointless... gets me items ^.^ but not anything to use in battle... He is pointless perverted and he sucks all in one... I don't care much for him either... all true...

Regal: Best character ever... He is the best in battle he can deal the most damage in a single hit in the game. He is the best character in the game because he is so well balanced and so well used in battle... Sorry but the fighting he gets is good.

Presea: She is good in battle... once she gets skills. She's like Colette let her learn to fight a bit and she can kick @$$...

Overall characters: There are only four or five I like overall... Sheena, Raine, Regal, Presea, and Colette... Colette is a great person for buffs and spells but her attacks suck without the skills to support them. Raine is manditory when you get her so I can't say she's pointless... Regal takes over Raine and Lloyd for me when I get him. Presea takes over Zelos or whoever my close range combat is because she can take damage like no other. Sheena is good a close combat combo/damage dealing and has her summoning, she also makes it possible for elemental damage... she is good despite what you say.

Not true. Very, not true.

¬_¬

"Gentle winds gather before me and transform into blades of air! CYCLONE!"
- Genis

I think that's how it goes. o.o

Wow, I can't believe you memorized them. =cough=

Duh! I bought it for myself, the games means alot to me.
I glitched genis s and t skills. XD
I sinned. =\

Tales of Symphonia is lovely! I like it a lot, and I've been playing it almost nonstop since I got it.

If you would stop comparing ToS to other games and focus on this game alone, then it really is a gem. Allow yourself to be sucked into the storyline, and remember that patience is a virtue.

I like all the characters except for Zelos. -_-+ He reminds me of someone who really pisses me off *cough*hack*wheeze*. It's not a bad game... I cried at some parts too. >_<

I actually enjoyed the music a lot.. *is attempting to track down the OST* >_>

Statically it is... he deals the most damage in one hit... Lloyd deals the most in a combo Regal deals most in a single hit and Genis is the strongest spell caster... I dunno it's my opinion though that he's the best...

Cursed weapons, anyone?

Yep.
Cursed were awesome. I hacked and slashed for hours to get those up.

I never used the cursed. I got em REALLY powerful on one file and was like "Well this is bullshit" and used the other weapons. My team though was normally Lloyd, Zelos/Kratos, Regal, and Raine.

I use:

Lloyd
Genis
Sheena
Raine/Zelos/Kratos

Lloyd and Sheena are physical, Raine and Genis are magical, Raine is healing, as is Zelos and Kratos, who can also go physical as well.

LIGHTSPEAR!

SUPER LIGHTSPEAR!

Indignation Judgement!

I like the game. I think that it has a good story and that Mithos is the biggest jerk ever, going and seeming like a nice person in the beginning <_< . The only sucky part for me is trying to find a new U. attack. I like Prism Star.

I don't use unison attacks. I just attack.

POW BLADE!

Indignant Judgement, Luis.

Indignat Judgement.

Indignation Judgement is pretty stupid.

My bad.

And you're shouting out random attack names.. why? o_O

Everything is dandy, but some of the side quests are annoying. I can hardly beat that Meltokio Collesseum... perhaps I should level ^^;;

I can't believe no one uses Presea. She's awesome! I use her as the player controlled character sometimes when I'm bored of Lloyd. May be a bit slow, but I'm used to it. Though... I rarely use Regal or Sheena anymore. The others, I switch in and out randomly.

I can't handle using magic users such as Genis and Raine. They just stand in the back. I like to use Lloyd or Regal, any character that gets up there and beats the crap out of the enemy.

Back when I played it I loved the game. I think its a really great game and people who havent played it should play it. Its seriously pretty awesome, to me anyways. I'd use quite a bit of reasoning against that review, I dont feel like typing up alot though. :(

My team:

Presea
Sheena
Regal
Colette

Reason:

Regal and Presea together = Ultimate U. Attack
Colette and anyone = so so U. attacks...

Sheena I usally have use her seals to charge up and damage any thing I fight...

Regal I control and I use arial flight (air combo almost non stop... need... more... mana...) and I never get hit cause I'm in da air...

Colette I set her to use grand charriot s. tara ball and item theft for items.

Presea I don't set to any special spells because I have her mainly to take damage and deal it in short periods of time.

Presea is the best to use in the colloseum because she gets her little stat bonus for being alone.

<_<
Just... Let this thread die so I won't be angry later on.
As for the random attack names....
(A) -> (A) -> (A) :D Thats good. Or Demon Fang. Your choice.