Welcome To VGCPlays Tales Of Symphonia!

Hi there guys! So, me and a few other people on VGC have been talking about doing a run through of a game and, that game funnily enough, just so happens to be Tales of Symphonia. The GameCube classic/masterpiece turn PS3 title with a sequel like Marmite, it's a highly approachable and engaging game which still holds up today. If you feel like jumping in and taking part, then feel free to do so! The more the merrier, and anyone familiar with this thread will have a bit of an idea what to expect (though, with more frequent updates I promise!). 

So in short we're going to be playing through the game at roughly the same time and posting our thoughts on it; to those who love it, loathe it and those who have never played it before. That should hopefully provide a little bit of diversity. So right now, the following people will be providing updates on the game as they go through it (but there's always room for more). Check it out!

Updates

Conegamer

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5&6]

b00moscone

[1] [2]

Platina

[0] [1] [2] [3] [4]

Aramdomgamer

[1] [2] [3]

Cloudman

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]

Leadified

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It's going to just be a quick update from me today. So we're taking this riiiiiiight from the top, and it definitely starts in traditional JRPG style. History of the world, check. Mythical creature in need of help, check. Bad guys, check. School, check. So far we're heavy on the generic scale and that can be expected to continue (maybe I should do a "Tropes Tally" or something of that ilk), not that it's a bad thing ofcourse. Something goes down, some shining light it seems. Not sure what it is so let's get off our asses and take a look. Namely, you, your best friend, and your other friend who is also the chosen one...

Obligatory tutorial on how to fight and, a note for those people who have never played a Tales game before. The fighting style is definitely...unique. You can have a whole heap of input or none at all, and it's very dynamic and, in fairness, not explained all too well. However it's simple enough to get in to and a really neat feature is that you can have 4 player coop too! Preferably not for 24 hours...might be a story for later. 

A short walk takes us to the tower and stuff has gone down, and we get into a fight when Kratos, a wandering mercenary, saves us. Very kind of him and, as you'd expect, he fills the "Cold cool aloof mysterious guy" role just fine. A little further in we see a simple puzzle, we have to kill an enemy to turn them into a block and push them through various holes. It's not going to win any prizes for its difficulty, I suppose Papyrus might be proud of it but that's not saying much. Our reward for this is a ring which helps us with more puzzles and stunning enemies, exciting right?

We take this ring to the main room which gives us access to the light, turns out one of the characters really IS the Chosen One and is also a fallen angel. Time to save the world and get her wings, literally! After leaving on our epic quest and a short spanking (yes, really) by the teacher later, we arrive back home. Unsurprisingly people are cagey about a kid with a wooden sword doing the world saving deed so he's been relegated to food duties in the forest. A couple stops to learn how to cook and other errands with your very "interesting" looking dog and, we're good. 

And this seems like a reasonable place to stop. An hour in, so far there's been nothing overly interesting but I know the story picks up soon enough. And it's a good setting of foundations for now, too. A good platform to build off of as we go on from here!

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So, yeah. If you have any advice or whatever then let us know and we'll make the required changes. Aside from that I look forward to hearing from you all soon!

Well, after being bothered by a certain person for months on end, and after some resistance from me in favour from other games admittedly, I’ve finally got Tales of Symphonia in my hands! With all the good things I’ve heard of the game, I’m excited to see what the game has to offer, and I’ve just come out from Xenoblade Chronicles, so my standards have been set high! Just for your information, the version I will be playing is the PS3 version, and this is my first Tales Of game. So without further delay, let’s get on with the game! :D

It seems the game starts out with our protagonist Lloyd and a few other notable characters in a classroom, and I must say, these people are pretty nonchalant about this ‘Chosen’ who will save the world from inevitable destruction being right next to them, I mean, if it were mean, I’d probably make a bigger deal out of it.

Anyways, during their class it is also found out that today is the day the ‘Chosen’ ( Named Colette and is a friend of Lloyd ) be sent out on her journey to save the world, simply put at least, and again, people acting pretty chill because of it. Anyways, after a few events it is found out that a nearby country is attacking their village, despite having a non-aggression treaty, and are headed to a chapel, the place Colette needs to go to receive a certain item.

On our way to the chapel, we have our obligatory tutorial on the battle system, and I have to say, although it’s simple, but its easy to understand and use. I just hope it becomes a bit expanded as the game progresses, but I don’t have too many moves at this point so its understandable :P

So, as we arrive at the chapel, we come in contact with the people who invade our village, and during this, we meet a mercenary called Kratos, who helps us in driving away these invaders, and I gotta say, this guy is pretty sleek, and he seems like the kind of guy who would have an interesting backstory, so it will be nice to uncover it. Anyways, he joins the party, after saying he will protect Colette for a price, with him being a mercenary and all.

So, we enter the chapel and come to the understanding that we have to get a ring to break this barrier to that item Colette needs, so after a simply little puzzle to obtain that item, we proceed to the upper levels of the chapel, where we meet an angel, who is Colette’s real father, and I know I sound like a broken record at this point, but people do not seem too bothered about all this stuff happening, is this all just me? Ah well, maybe that’s just how it was back then :P

So yeah, Colette obtains this item and is set to leave to break these seals scattered the following day. Naturally, Lloyd and their other friend, Genis want to go along with her, however, Kratos warns the two that this endeavour will be far more difficult than what it was in the chapel, and he tells them to scram. Gotta say, quite harsh for people who solidly held their own in the chapel, and I doubt you wouldn’t have even got through without us! > : (

ahem anyways, Lloyd meets up with his dog on the way back to his house, which is where I pretty much ended off the playthrough. At this point, I feel I haven’t really scratched the surface of this game gameplay and story wise, and what I’ve played was pretty much fairly basic stuff. It’ll be nice to see how the game will expand from this point, but yeah, I don’t think the reason people rave about this game is in this part of it :P

So is Tales of Symphonia time, this would be my eight replay of this game, my favorite RPG of all time and one of the best games I have ever played. I’ll be playing with the Gamecube version by the way.

So anyways let’s get started, right after that beautiful opening (the orchestral suite is so good) and followed by the nice opening narration, our journey begins in the town of Iselia at a school, is all fine until the oracle light shines from a Temple that tells us that the Chosen one is ready to start her journey of world regeneration, in this case being Collete Brunel, friend to our protagonist Lloyd Irving, the professor, Raine,  goes to investigate the light on the Temple, this is when a nice mechanic of the game opens to us, basically we get the choice of going there by ourselves or wait in the classroom, while it won’t change much of the progress in the story, it does change the affection levels of the characters towards Lloyd depending on your choices, in this case I decided to go there because “It’s research”, our best friend Genis Sage and Collete also want to go, so they join our party, another nice thing about this game are the skits, either informative or funny interactions between the characters.

Going outside introduces us to the battle system, simple yet effective, I like stuff like being able to change the positions and strategies of the CPU characters depending on the situation, when reaching the temple we see that Desians are attacking the temple, an organization that wants to stop the world regeneration from happening, after defeating a couple of them and being greeted by the always cool mercenary Kratos Aurion, which takes on the job of protecting the Chosen, we follow him and Collete into the temple because Lloyd is really stubborn .

 After a small puzzle involving blocks, we get the sorceress ring, an item that let us stun enemies and the like, and also let us open the seal in the temple, there we find Remiel an angel that grants Collete the Cruxis Crystal, and send us on our journey of world regeneration, unlocking the seals of the land and our final destination the Tower of Salvation, but Kratos and Collete family won’t let Lloyd and Genis go on the journey, oh well. Is time to go back home, going outside town we find Noishe, Lloyd’s dog, kawaii Noishe, and so we go to our next location, Iselia Forest.  

P.S. You will thank my bothering later b00m, so shush.

Tagging!

I don't really have the time to play it again without falling behind everyone, but I'd like to read all your thoughts as you go through it again/for the first time. One of the only JRPGS I've played 3+ times, and easily my favorite of the Tales of games I've played (Symphonia, Abyss, DotNW, Phantasia, and Xillia).

Hope you enjoy it, Cloud, Cone, Twi, Plat, and Fellow Boom.

Wow there's like an infestation of Booms on VGC. How did this get by for so long without being noticed???

Something must be done :/

We work in shifts. I'm American Boom and he's U.K. Boom. VGC needs at least one Boom at any given time.

Though it seems like the current group of Booms don't post that often. I think it's high time for a 3rd Boom.

[Preview]

Well, I’m sort of a veteran at this game… I mean, I beat my 6th run in order to play along with you guys :p

Last run, I used 1/2 exp grade shop in order to get a title for Lloyd, but this time, I’ll stick with 2x exp because I really want to get a specific title..

Well, actually, that brings me to my current objective for this run!
- Get Colette Dog Title
- Get Sheena Treasure Title (hopefully)
- Max cooking for Genis/Zelos

What does double exp have to do anything with the above mentioned titles? Well, my 2nd goal is a real pain to get because I would have to grind for experience to get all of the chests in order to get the title. Given I will be playing along side with other people, I don’t want to fall behind in my attempt to get that title

Though I have recently beat the game, it has been some time since I started (stopped at this really annoying dungeon :/ ) so it will be a great refresher to play it all over again!

[Next]

I played this on Gamecube, pretty sure I still have that copy sitting in a closet.

Frankly, I finished it and did not like it much. Tales of Vesperia and Abyss were fantastic though.

Oh man I'd be keen to replay this one but this time of year is terrible for a time sink like this one. Will definitely get around to it soon

In fairness we're planning to go reasonably slowly so there's no need to panic if you can't invest several hours a day in it! 

Also Platina you're just crazy.