User Reviews (1 - 11 of 193)

Show these reviews first:

Highest Rated
Lowest Rated Newest
Oldest Most Helpful
Least Helpful

Not worth the $$$

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 4 / 30
Date: September 03, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Wow, was I disappointed in this game! After reading all the positive reviews I was certain this is what i was looking for. Not in the least. RPG fan since the beginning (Commodore 64 - Ultima Series / Nintendo - Zelda / Baldur's Gate), this did not amount to them in the least. Too much dialog that you can't skip through... I was only into 20 minutes and I knew this was going to be a waste! I gave a few days, and it will never see the power button again. You have to listen to this mindless / pointless dribble as this animated children characters talk about nothing... it goes on and on! Then you have to go follow the quest as 'it' unravels. Sure you can go to different places, but you have to follow the story to a tee. Not for me! This will be enjoyed by today's youth, but as a seasoned rpg who is used to developed / indepth thought processes (Ultima / Myst), this is just too childish. Shame on the reviews to date. I should never have tossed my commodore. Good luck in your choosing!!!

ugly

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 34
Date: August 23, 2004
Author: Amazon User

if your a hardcore fan of console rpgs you will be very dissapointed with this game. i mean the battles from this game is too hard, im having a hard time beating the first boss, the graphics are stale and bland, and the character models sucks. so if you want a great console rpg game wait for star ocean till the end of time to come out and move 1000 miles away from this game.

Look For Something Better

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 30
Date: August 30, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I thought this game was gonna rock since im a huge fan of console rpgs. As it turned out im very depressed. The games graphics sucks, the gameplay is not that fun, and boring characters. So if you want a superb console rpg better than this go get Star Ocean Till The End Of Time and leave this game in the trash with the opasums.

tales of symphonia

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 39
Date: December 24, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This game is bad. the game play is horrible, and you cant figure out how to activate co-op mode. If you plan on buying this game, DON'T!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is not worth your time and money. Get a game like phantasy star online.Now, that, is a good rpg. tales is rated T for teen. Also, look into the game series of Zelda, by Nintendo.

Same old story all over again

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 33
Date: February 12, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I couldn't wait for Tales of Symphonia to come out, I was expecting a game better than Tales of Destiny. But from the moment I turned it on, I knew this was a game that I'd never be touching again. First off, it's 2005. ANYTHING that begins with a cute little story about "The Tree of Mana" is doomed from the beginning, especially if "The Tree of Mana" is mentioned within the first minute of playing. I figured that was forgivable, so I continued. After being forced to read an extremely lame and boring cliche piece, I start a battle. I figured that since the story was obviously going to stink, that atleast the battles would be good. However, what are the first enemies I see? Bee, wolf, and RABBIT. It is the year 2005, and someone has the nerve to make bees an enemy in an RPG? BEES were the very first enemy in an RPG ever! Even Square stopped using your everyday cliche animals as enemies years ago! After that, I cut the game off and called a friend to sell it to him, for 25% less than what I bought it for. That's how dissapointed I was. Fighting bees and talking about "The Tree of Mana" (how tubular) would make a great game for the NES in 1985, but not in this day in age. Namco didn't even try to break the cliches. As for the story, I'm sorry but if it contains "The Tree of Mana" then it stinks. They might as well have included that the whole world is just a computer program too. Horrible. Atleast the graphics are good.

How about a review from someone who's not a fanboy?

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 18 / 43
Date: September 13, 2006
Author: Amazon User

There was a time when I loved rpgs. Starting with Final Fantasy III for SNES as my main introduction to the genre, I began to go through each release after that like a drug addict. Games that had actual plots other than "do this and you win", leveling up characters how you want, hidden areas with special items or weapons, alternate endings for some, and more, I really loved the genre. Then, Final Fantasy 7 came out, and began what continues to be the popular standard for the genre- typical cliché, predictable sub-par rpgs. Once FF7 came out, rpgs were released like they were nothing. Do I have to mention Legend of Mana? How about Silver? Or what about Sudeki? Squaresoft has really lost it in recent years, and I began to lose interest in rpgs. When I got my GameCube, I knew that Nintendo was pretty much screwed when it came to the genre as well, having what, 3-4? Tales of Symphonia though, was regarded as -the- rpg to play if you had the system. So I bought it without much hesitation, and gave it a shot. Then, I lost interest after a few hours, left it for dead, then gave it another shot some months later. Repeat that process until earlier this year, when I just plain quit caring about it in general and sold it. ToS continues the trend of easily predictable rpgs with no redeeming qualities what so ever, aside from the novelty of having a fun combat system. Yeah, it's great not having turn-based fights for a change, but do you really want to just focus on combat in what's otherwise a genre that's supposed to focus on story and character development? Namco and Nintendo sure wanted you to think so, as ToS sprouted countless fanboys that can't seem to look past the combat and character designs. I'm happy to let you know that this review will contain no bias that typical rpg-fanboys give.

ToS begins with the would-be hero, Lloyd, waking up (surprise surprise) from a nap in school. He fell asleep while his hot teacher, Raine, talks about a "Chosen" and how they're sent to save the world from complete destruction from what sounds like a completely random and silly event regarding a tree and angels that decide to destroy the world if certain procedures are not followed. Lloyd's friend, Colette, just so happens to be the Chosen, and embarks on a journey to save the world, which isn't really in much jeopardy from the looks of things. They run into some trouble from an army who have their own ambitions for world domination, and use helpless townsfolk as guinea pigs for their tests, turning them into hideous creatures that destroy everything in sight. Of course, being your average hero, Lloyd can't take this and makes it his duty to put an end to this army while saving the world with Colette. More or less, take Final Fantasy X's plot, make it even more linear, and that's what Tales of Symphonia is. Colette would be Yuna, and Lloyd and the others are Yuna's guardians. They visit various temples/towers in the world, while at the same time learning of a corrupt religion that has everyone fooled. Sound familiar? But ToS decides to take a few turns in the plot, and has numerous double-crossing by both characters in the party, and side characters. There's also a very stupid plot device regarding dwarves and elves, and them being enemies, but it's not really a big deal. Raine and her brother, Genis (god, if you could just change one letter there...) are half-elves, but there's no point in saying anything about it, since it doesn't give them any benefits over non-elf characters. One of Colette's guardians is Kratos, a well-known legendary knight *cough Auron cough*, who gets quiet whenever Lloyd mentions never knowing his real father. Gee, I wonder what that could mean. He only gives a hint about it in the first 20 minutes of the game when you first meet him. Later, you meet your standard female ninja character who can summon spirits, standard brawler male character with some manners for the heck of it, an alternate to Kratos in the form of a ladies man but still a legend, and an emotionless little girl who can swing axes like they're feathers, who later becomes herself thanks to the power of friendship. Hey, it sounds like 30+ other games right there!

What ToS lacks in characters and plot, and that's A LOT of lacking mind you, it somewhat makes up for in the combat system. You can control your characters, and actually allow other people to play the 3 others in your party. You can attack freely, using skills with the flick of the C-stick and melee attacks with the A button, while being able to block and dodge easily. It's pretty cool, and good to see that it's not real-time disguised as turn-based like some other modern rpgs have. One of the fun parts about this is that you can create combos that rank in the 6 digits if you're really good. Though the game came out several years ago, many people are still outdoing each other when it comes to combo counts. It gets crazy. But this is really the only good thing I can say about the game. Everything else is just a waste. The wannabe "innovative" Cook skill allows you to create meals to heal the entire party after fights while the experience count racks up, or from the status screen as well. It costs a lot to create meals, as you need various types of food for each one, and really isn't worth it when you can just use healing magic or rest at an inn and get the same effect for even less money. But, I guess there's some fun in finding the chef who gives you these recipes, who is hidden in each town. The back of the game's box leads you to believe that there are many animated cut scenes done in "anime" style, but in reality, there are maybe 3, including the opening movie montage. ToS is on two discs, but most of the game...about 70% is the first disc. If it weren't for Nintendo choosing mini-discs for the GC's format, it could easily fit on one dvd instead, as the game isn't graphic-heavy. One more thing regarding the plot- you can ignore most of it, and it won't matter: characters verbally say the meaningful plot points, but you're just given text to read when it's something minor, or just a clue for where to go next. Hint- when you hear the GC loading a new track or something, pay attention to the dialogue...if you think it'll get interesting, which it doesn't. Ever. Really, I found myself predicting the lines and being 95% accurate. This game is for rpg-newbies at most, and even then, there are much better games to start out with. Add in some forced, obligatory puzzles in each temple [some that force you to restart the whole thing if you screw up once at any point], and you've got yet another generic rpg.

Visually, it's nothing special, but gets some things right. Characters are given a nice cel-shaded look, but are VERY blurry when you get a close-up shot of them. I don't understand why this made it through production- it's that annoying. You can see it in any pictures of close-ups of the characters' faces. Check it out and see what I mean. The backgrounds and everything else tend to look decent to pretty, depending on the place. The world map however, is just a joke, reminiscent of a PSone rpg's like FF7. Wait no, it sometimes looks like the Mode-7 stuff from the SNES days. Hoo boy. As for the soundtrack, there are some good themes, but most of it is unmemorable. Aside from the map theme, which you'll hear a lot, I can't recall any from memory this very moment. But a lot of tracks are used frequently, like the "sad" music, or the "angry" music. After playing the game for 5 hours or so, you'll begin to know when each one will be used during the cut scenes/story parts. The voice acting though, is a mixed bag. There's some good talent here, but they're not used properly. The voice of Lloyd is the same guy who plays Robin on Teen Titans, and it really sounds like he's reading right off the script rather than expressing each line. Kratos' actor doesn't seem to know what range is, Genis only knows happy and WAAAAAAAGE!!, and the others are tolerable. Except for stupid Colette. God I hate that character. Nearly every line she says is an apology for nothing.

If you absolutely NEED an rpg for the GC, I guess ToS is worth a purchase, as long as it's for under ten bucks. Anything over that is robbery. Besides, you could give others like Paper Mario and Baten Kaitos a shot, which are both better than this thing could ever be. But keep in mind that this won't be anything special unless you lie to yourself and keep waiting for something cool to happen, never getting said thing, and not being able to admit that ToS wasn't good at all.

Shutup Lloyd...

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 1 / 18
Date: March 01, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This was an okay game but the characters talk WAY too long. It's like "let us play the frickin' game already!" I think the battles look awful. They could have done so much better. When I bought it a few months ago, I played it for a few hours, and haven't picked it up since.

If you care about storylines the stay away from this review

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 2
Date: July 20, 2008
Author: Amazon User

OH my God shoot me in the head for buying this game where do i start. I'm an old RPG fan every since Final Fantasy X hell i've played them all. well i was looking for just one more good RPG ya know. I thought this one could "take me back a few years". No NO NO it didn't do htat at all now let me tell ya why in 5 easy reasons.

1. The storyling is a rip off of Final Fantasy X I mean it's almost the same thing. it's about this girl who has to sacrife herselft to save the planet but then she and her rag tag party are double crossed about some fool wearing a night grown. Look if you guys have played Final Fantasy Z or even FFIX since it kind of rips off that storyline too becuse of the 2 planet crap, then don't buy this game. the only twist is that Kratos turns out to be Loyd's dad.......... woooooooooooooops looks like a spolied it for ya.

2. All the characters execpt one "Kratos" are really reallying annoying. the 2nd main character "the girl that has to save the plantet" might be one of the if not the most annoying game characters i've seen in my life.

3. Graphics are not that good. Look i've got nothing against cell shaded i mean i'll be the first to tell ya that when the wind waker came out i loved it but this game is just half baking it. it's like there kind of doing ot then again there kind of not. it's like looking at a saterday moring anime carton on fox kids channel.

4. I've got nothing aginst reading the text in games i mean FF1-9 was all about that. what i don't like is how they "the characters" talk at the same time. I guess i can let that slide thought i've seen a lot of games do this now like star ocean 3

5. look just don't buy this game you've got to trust me it has it's moments like whne ..... ok i don't know but there is one good thing about this game taht saves it almost. the figthing system is pretty cool and easy you are in a 2D background but you can move around the combos are easy to use and your team mates really do help out in the fight in this game so thats pretty cool. ok I'm done

The First RPG for the Gamecube

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 15
Date: August 16, 2004
Author: Amazon User

(Skies of Arcadia and Evolution Worlds don't count!)

Story: 2/5 ToS has that story that RPG fans have heard over and over again... Someone must save the world, a few friends come with her, more people come, etc. If you've played Final Fantasy X before, you'll realize that Tales of Symphonia shamelessly rips its storyline from that game.

Characters: 3/5 Again with the RPG stereotypes. You have the cocky teenaged guy who wants to help everyone. The girl that has to save the world from destruction. A mysterious mercenary. Two elven magicians. Although, once you travel to the land of Tethe'alla, there are the far more interesting characters of Sheena, Zelos, Presea, and Regal.

Graphics: 4/5 The cel-shading looks very good, but the fact that NAMCO removed almost all of the anime-style cut-scenes on the first disc takes away from the experience, as cel-shading can only have so much emotion. Although, once you finally DO get to the cut-scenes(ALL TWO OF THEM!), you will be pleased.

Sound: 3.5/5 The musical scores are done very nicely, although, the majority of the music you'll hear are the world map theme, battle theme, and "pre-boss battle" theme. The rest is masked by attrotious voice actors pathetically performing their lines. The voices hardly sound natural at all, and on the rare occasion that they do, it'll most likely be a short line. Since the GCN discs have such little space, there was no room for the original Japanese Language track, unfortunately.

Gameplay: 4/5 The battles control nicely, and the computer characters' AI actually isn't bad. You can change certain aspecs of how each character battles (frontlines, long-range magic, do nothing at all, etc.), and can choose what moves you want them to use or not use, even during battle. However, battles even with bosses tend to be a bit too easy, and button mashing will usually occur.

the best game of 2000-2003!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 13
Date: November 25, 2005
Author: Amazon User

this game rulz 80 hours of gameage!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it may have language,violence, and suggestive themes, butits awsome!!!!!!!!!!!! get it if u a rpg fan

Review Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next 

Actions