Oh my, it's finally happened a company has come around and decided that playing Skies of Arcadia Legends, the only role playing game worth consideration on the GameCube till now, was an unhealthy obsession. Namco has brought disgruntled role playing game fans the equivalent of a winning lotto ticket, sans the financial benefits, with Tales of Symphonia, a game that could help to reestablish the genre on the GameCube.

Battling isn't your standard fare in Tales of Symphonia. Instead of swapping blow for blow against the enemy until you triumph or fail, you're only in actual control of one of your party members. You take your selected combatant, target an enemy and unleash your attacks on the foe, all while your other party members go about their scripted actions; that is, unless you assign them specific tasks. If you're going into a huge boss battle, making sure to adjust these is crucial to the success of your troupe.

Engaging enemies wouldn't be as cool if not for the gorgeous visuals present in the game. The world is extremely vivacious and full of the colors of the rainbow, making the fact you're playing this game for long spans of time much more pleasurable. While the characters look stunning and have been known to take the breath away from more than a person or two, it's a shame to see the overall effect hindered by the lack of follow through to the overworld map and a few of the enemies. It's not a major issue, but a tad disappointing at times.

The story is what you'd expect from a standard role playing game. Oh my, the world is in danger and only some young and helpless girl holds the power to prevent our world from utter annihilation. We must assemble a group of teenage warriors who have nothing better to do so that they may serve as stewards of mankind's last hope, etcetera, etcetera. While it's not a bad story, it's by no means original, and the lack of sidequests make the linear feel of the game far to present at times.

Of course, Tales of Symphonia isn't perfect. One of the major oversights is the lack of a Japanese audio track. As much as we enjoy listening to the decent, but rather bland voice acting of the American cast of characters, it seems like a slight when other games have been able to do it. Nippon Ichi's US distributors have made sure to give this treatment to Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, La Pucelle Tactics, and Phantom Brave, so the fact that Namco couldn't include the original Japanese vocal track due to space limitations is somewhat disappointing.

Speaking of puzzles, there's the other issue we have with Tales of Symphonia. Often we found ourselves speeding through these supposed brain teasers with ease. People less experienced with games from this genre might find them a little more challenging, but we have our doubts.

Tales of Symphonia, while not doing much to push the boundaries of the genre, finds solace and success within the confines of its textbook presentation. Yes, we've seen similar plots and the characters are archetypal. While these might have been red flags for another title, causing us to decry the use of standard conventions as a poor excuse for lack of innovation, the difference here is that Tales of Symphonia is a beautifully crafted game that doesn't use these as a crutch.

Instead, the game manages to combine these with a fast paced battle system and a gorgeous world. It's enough to make us embrace Tales of Symphonia and forget we've played similar games multiple times before, and that is the real beauty of this game.

Our Final ScoreGood

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