Tales of symphonia is actually better than I pictured it.....
The game is about a chosen name colette and she is chosen to go on a world regeneration. She and her friends are to help her unlock seals so the door way to the tower of salvation is open. Even though she is not the main character, she played a big roll in the game. A boy name Lloyd is actualy the main character. And he and his friend Genis, teacher Raine, and a mecernary name kratos will help colette reach her goal. On the way, they will meet a few more characters, three to be exact. The story have so many twist and turns that I don't want to spoil it by going further in the plot. But the game takes place in a continent known as sylvarant. To describe each charatcter can be whether harsh. Lloyd seem to have education problems, Genis is a a very smart brat, Colette is a goody two shoes that is way to soft hearted, Raine is cold hearted and to smart for her own good, and kratos seem to be the coolest guy in the game. I'm not going to describe the other character's, so you have to find out when you get your own copy. But you may like the other characters as well.
The game has these things called ex-gems that will help you in battle. They will either give you help slowly, help you earn more money from enemy's, and help you in many other ways also. The battle system is real time and is very fun also..........well once you get the hang of it. Lloyd is easy to use and is best for beginners while Genis is a magic user. The professer Raine is the healer of the party while Kratos is universal meaning he does it all which is healing, casting spells, and and swordmanship. The monsters is now seeable so you have to choice of battling your enemy's, but you may still want to keep your levels up because the bosses will need time and strengh to beat. In battle, you can have up to four of your allies on screen. This makes the battle much simpler and more exciting seeing that the game moves at a nice pace during battle. They gave you an multiplayer option but it is not the best thing to do seeing that the camera in the battle is only fixated on player one. So you can see yourself, but the others player can't see themselves. When battling, you can use combos but only in a certain order. It must go from level one attack to level two, then level three afterwards. But you can also use unison attack to increase how much combos you give. And when using the unison attack, you can trigger special moves when you two characters attacking skill together. You must set attacks to default button and you can also use the C-Stick. So you can customize ways you want you attacks order to come in. X is guard and pressing down and x will have you do guardian which will halve magic attacks if you are about to get it by one. As you progress, you will recieve classes depending on what character. By changing classes, it will change the way your character level up. By putting it on a certain level, it determines what stat with go up faster then the others. The weapons come in all shapes and sizes. You can customize weapons so they can be special so selling your weapons may be a bad thing unless you have multiple of the. And they can also use some of the elements too. You have your armor also which will help you and also some come in elemwnt resistance too. And you have your secondary armor which will help you from getting poison and other ailments the may befalll you. The allies when controlled by a computer is well train and won't disappoint. You can set them to do all-out meaning disregard everything and attack without healing anyone. You have guard meaning the will keep their distance from the enemy and also saving the people who have to lowest health. You have reserve meaning they will reserve their TP which is the Skill power. Or you can customize them how you see fit.
Gameplay: The controls are not bad at all, just needs time to get use too, especially when you will be recieving more advice and other things in the game. But once you get use to learning the controls, it will be a thing of the past.
Graphics: In my opinion, the graphics looks well did. Even though it is cel shaded, it still have a real life theme to it. Overall, the graphics are luc=sh and colorful.
Sound: The voice acting is also done well. It was did with such emotion that this game deserve a acadamy award. The music fits the game nicely also.
Value: I played the game at least five times now. And it still has value to it. There is a ton of things to unlock so you will be playing it alot.
Overall: I love this game to death. It is a great game that did not get that much of recognition. But if you have a gamecube and is looking for a great RPG tales of symphonia is the way to go......