Tales Of Symphonia Remastered Is EXACTLY What I Feared... | Review

Tales Of Symphonia is, without a doubt, one of the most important entries in history of its series. It has seen one remaster on PlayStation 3 and Steam, but now it's available across PlayStation, Xbox, and Switch. As launch approached, pessimism increased as Bandai confirmed very little additions, 30 FPS, and very little else was to be included in this $40 package. After playing for a couple of days, I'm here to give my thoughts on if it's worth your top dollar.
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#TalesOfSymphonia #PlayStation #JRPG

[@Polarjeff29]

Please cover Baten Kaitos. It's one of those games that's such a hidden gem. Story wise, it's amazing. Tales of Symphonia is what led me to Baten Kaitos and I've been dreaming for this remaster. Just give it a try, you'll enjoy the story.

[@Lukja08]

Don't recommend the remastered version though.

[@Vulpas]

I've never heard someone dislike multidisc games, you usually know you're getting an epic game, either great graphics or a long story.

[@YouTubeCensors]

Hardly, it just meant it had a bunch of FMVs back in the day. Quality wasn't guaranteed.

[@ThomastheDankEngine8900]

On PS1 it was understandable but multidisc games on GameCube and Xbox 360 were just lazy and because the companies didn’t wanna spend extra money on superior storage medium due to either paranoia of piracy or just greed.

[@Vulpas]

@@KZbinCensors Games with a ton of FMVs tended to be higher budget. Tons of Square games mainly. Then there was Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil 4, and Resident Evil 0, Lost Odyssey, Blue Dragon, etc, etc. If you can point out a bunch of bad games that'd be interesting, I can't think of many.

[@SpeechGamer]

​@@KZbinCensors I have to agree with the person above me, I'm not aware of many titles that had multiple discs that were bad. It was generally seen that if games had cinematic cutscenes, that was a really big deal and said a lot about the quality of the games because that concept was ahead of its time back when those games debuted.

[@hteekay]

Because most of them are hardly "epic" but rather such a drag to play (I'm referring to long gameplay time)

[@Koby411]

I don't get why they keep "remastering" this one and leaving off the sequel since PS3. So many other titles in the series needs ports or "remasters" such as Abyss.

[@ShadowWalker-ng1it]

from what I know the sequel is mostly seen as bad

[@KudaGeatsune3821]

@ShadowWalker2205 the only good thing it has is Bosch Also where are my Xilia & Graces Remasters? Those need the attention more than symphonia does

[@nickwick35]

@@KudaGeatsune3821 tales of hearts r needs the most attention

[@KudaGeatsune3821]

@@nickwick35 I played the PSP port Still one of my favorite Tales

[@DotHacker99]

@@KudaGeatsune3821 ikr Graces F has probably the best battle system in the series and I never really got around to playing Xillia. It'd be a slam dunk $60 to port over Graces F, xillia 1 & 2 in one for consoles. Hell i'd even pay 40 each

[@Sjono]

4:56 “This was the big Trails game” Excuse me? 5:04 “Oh this is a different Trails game” Omg he said it again!

[@Rex13013]

Lmao ikr? I was so confused for a second, he has another franchise in mind I see...

[@Momoirokagami]

Don't mind him he's having the same issues with Ls and Rs that Japan has.

[@JuicemanGravy]

Seeing 2 discs in your game is the most exciting thing. I was even more excited when I realized that it has two.

[@Lucrei.]

Maybe one day they'll release an ACCURATE port of the GameCube version running at its original 60fps... until that time... original/emulation it is!

[@TheNathanNAPALM]

When I got an RPG and it was only 1 disc, I would wonder if it could really be that great. I remember getting Tales of Symphonia, opening it up, seeing 2 discs and thinking, “awesome, a real RPG baby”

[@JakeMatthews-OnLo]

I never expected them to voice the skits, that would probably require them to completely redub the game or have them contact most of the VA they hired originally and some are really on higher caliber than J-RPG not just Lloyd’s, Sheena’s, Presea being high demand VA’s others like Zelos would be hard to find and the rest of the cast are veterans who probably have more profitable opportunities and probably couldn’t cram in the hours needed to record those skits.

[@mrbubbles6468]

Thing is, they were high demand VA’s even back in the day. Which was probably why Skits were never voiced to begin with.

[@Raharu95]

Zelos' VA doesn't even do voice overs anymore either. Symphonia is kinda screwed in this regard

[@bigdaddy5864]

You cannot honestly convince me you expected them to get the entire main cast of the game back to do voiceovers for all of the skits. Come on man, lol. You are spot on with about everything else, but I do not expect retro remasters to go back and add voice acting retroactively.

[@kristylewellen6606]

Considering how badly the remake of vesperia was I don't blame them either....

[@StewNWT]

dude you could get anyone to do the voice overs. Why did they voice the japanese but the not the english? They did a piss poor job with this remaster

[@DotHacker99]

@@kristylewellen6606 That's a new one. What's bad about Vesperia remaster? I played it and it seemed 100% fine

[@DotHacker99]

@@StewNWT it's a 19yr old port calm down

[@StewNWT]

@@DotHacker99 it's not a 19 year old port. It's a present day port of a 19 year old game that they are calling a remaster, and expecting people to pay $40 for, when it looks and plays better on the gamecube

[@jadenyoung5297]

A lot of the older JRPGs that had extra skits where you could view them by pushing a button when you see it pop up on the bottom corner of the screen didn’t get voiced for the western versions of their games. It probably was because on the American side of things, they didn’t want to have to spend more money to pay the VAs to do them. But I also think it had to do with being a game from Japan coming out in the early 2000’s. I think this was still a time when anime was just starting to become more mainstream to a western audience. And a lot of times the English releases of games and anime would either get really censored to where the script fit more toward a western audience,visuals would get changed or cut out, they would just cut corners on things, and I believe it wasn’t until Tales of Vesperia coming out on the Xbox 360 then became the start of the Western releases for future Tales Of games to also include voiced skits in English as well. I think all of the Japanese versions of Tales Of games that have skits always had them voiced. Like Tales of the Abyss, originally on the PlayStation 2 and rereleased or remastered for the Nintendo 3DS, doesn’t have their skits voiced in English either because the original that came out for the west didn’t have that. I think basically every Tales game that made it to the west that came out before Vesperia, never got their skits voiced in English. Even though I would love for the remastered Symphonia to have its skits voiced in English, realistically if they were going to do that, they would have to get different VAs to do them because getting all of the original cast back and trying to get them or even newer VAs to voice the party in skits, would sound dramatically different from the rest of the game. Those are just my thoughts anyway. Try looking up older Tales Of titles that got western releases before Vesperia came out and watch the skits. See if any of them did, or didn’t get English voice overs.

[@shimauta1941]

@Jaden Young - We got English dubbing for the skits in Tales of Legendia, but that seemingly came at the cost of no English dubbing for the entirety of the 2nd half of the game (the Character Quests). Also the 3DS port of Tales of the Abyss probably lacks voiced skits for the same reason that some scenes that were voiced for the PS2 original are not voiced in the 3DS port; Limitations due to the capacity differences between the PS2 and the 3DS. To provide an easy example of a scene that was voiced in the PS2 version but not the 3DS version: Van's tutorial of combat to Luke. Ironically it does fix the lag issues in the desert region of the world and the general lag caused by the miasma no matter where you traveled in the PS2 version for the 3DS port which was a nice quality of life change for all the back and forth you have to do in this one. IMHO that left the 3DS port's only shortcoming as the inability to do the glitch where you can take the disc out of the PS2, close the tray and then travel to areas you're not meant to reach early and buy powerful equipment and the like for yourself to use early plus grind on monsters that give better exp.

[@Connor3474]

Not sure if you knew this Matty but if you have the Japanese voices on then the skits will be voiced. For some reason they are only voiced when Japanese is on.

[@wolffster25]

That’s because this version is based on the unreleased PS2 version. The original game in both regions on GameCube skits were not voiced. When they made the PS2 version they went through and voiced all the skits in Japanese we never got this version in the West until the PS3. What’s funny is that the Mystic Artes are all voiced in English so they could afford to voice about 20 lines but not all the skits, priorities. GameCube version is still the best version because I cannot stand this game running in 30 especially in combat. Still has a great story though. Edit: It’s sad when Tales of Vesperia on switch performs better 30fps in field and 60fps in combat. At least it’s very close to what I played on the XBOX 360.

[@Riitje]

@@wolffster25 If they still have the same voices as the PS3 release you'll notice the English Mystic Arts aren't even done by the original voice actors. I remember some of them not even sounding remotely alike too.

[@wolffster25]

@@Riitje Wouldn’t surprise me we are talking about the same company that didn’t even bother to ask Troy Baker if he wanted to play Yuri Lowell again. They just called up Grant George and called it a day.

[@zennitio9569]

Because JP > US voice acting

[@BenWyldeZX]

The weirdest thing is still, that the OG Gamecube version ran at 60fps (at least in combat) if I recall correctly, all remasters/re-releases were unfortunately based on the PS2 version which was locked to 30fps and built upon that.

[@Walamonga1313]

It's not weird, it's lazy as hell

[@andr0zzsenpai]

​@@Walamonga1313 have you seen the game unlocked to 60 fps? it completely breaks all the animations, there is a video showing it if you are curious, and I'm pretty sure they lost the assets of the GC version a long time ago lmao

[@Particle_Ghost]

@@andr0zzsenpai Correct, and it's not the kind of game where people need to really be giving a shit about it lacking 60fps. What I want is an auto text advance, but they didn't add it to Vesperia either.

[@lolcat]

​@@Particle_Ghostyes it is being an action rpg and all..

[@Particle_Ghost]

@@lolcat Then go play the precious GameCube version.

[@ericparker8753]

Keep up the videos man! I am really enjoying all of your content.

[@sylviadelaney245]

The goal of a remaster should be improving on the original in a meaningful way. This remaster fails at doing so on every level and the thing is it was an extremely easy game for them to remaster. Taking the 10th anniversary Chronicles version as the blueprint what they should've done to make the 20th anniversary remaster worth purchasing is: -Rework the scene in the Martel Temple when you first meet Remiel to include the lines from the GameCube version that were cut out for the PS2 version which every port since has been based off of. -Fix the typos in the speech bubbles across the game (especially looking at the famous typo from when you go to find out about the Zircon shipment in the Lezareno Company and Sheena trades Corrine's Bell for the documents setting up the duel between her and Kuchinawa for later). -Fix the scene on the rooftop terrace of the Lezareno Company where the truth about what happened to Alicia is revealed. -Improve overworld textures and character models. -Improve the audio mixing. -Provide both meaningful and meaningless but otherwise nice to have content exclusive to this latest release of the game. -For meaningless the easy and quick answer is exclusive costumes in the form of DLC. -For meaningful there is only one true area where they could've added content and that is in fact providing English Language voiced skits for the first time. -For the record going into the game's battle system code to do something like change battles to running at 60fps or to add new artes for the characters to learn would be far more costly and time consuming and might break existing things within the battle system's code. Thus while such improvements could be meaningful they would also not be cost effective to either the developers or the publishers of the game. The fact that they also left off Dawn of A New World is another thing working against the remaster being worthwhile. Though that was already a thing that they botched when they ported the Chronicles version to PC. It's really flipping sad that 20 years later the best deal is still the GameCube version if you only care about the first game and the 10th anniversary Chronicles version if you want the cherry on top that is also getting the two years later sequel (for posterity's sake if nothing else if you happen to be one of the sequel's haters). I do wonder how well or how poorly this version will sell in the long run. The only thing working in its favor that I can think of is people not having easy access to a PS3 for the Chronicles version or not having a PC that can smoothly run that version of the game.

[@Momoirokagami]

This is more well put than the majority of the reviews I've read about the remaster. Nice Sylvia.

[@Hushoo]

I think the litmus test with ToS is how it compares with the existing Steam version and emulated options. Modern smartphones are able to emulate both GameCube and PlayStation versions of ToS whereas the Steam version makes fan made mods more accessible and portable with the steam deck handheld. Bandai Namco's decision to release the game to make it accessible to younger generations is all smoke and mirrors. Not only are the improvements minimal, the downgrade in load times, gameplay, crashes (!), shows a lack of care in optimizing the game to better leverage modern hardware. The price tag is just the icing on the cake.

[@WesDoesGames]

Great to see your thoughts on the Remaster 👍

[@AstralFrost]

Thank you for your thoughts, Matty. You're a treasure to this community. And I hope you cover Baten Kaitos! Can't wait to finally play those and glad I didn't pay a fortune for them on Gamecube! Hopefully the ports are good.

[@mrbubbles6468]

Ports will likely be fine. Problem is the game has a lot of jank inherently tied to it’s systems that won’t go away.

[@karlmueller1980]

Sadly, there was a missed opportunity with tales of Symphonia on the switch and PlayStation 4 versions of this game. This game should be celebrated like you said and give new and old customers the game in its best interpretation. Now I’m definitely definitely not selling my PS3 version of this game

[@ddom99]

Hey Matty, I’m a huge fan and have been binging your content this week. I was wondering, would you ever want to cover the gauntlet series? Legends and dark legacy are my favorite

[@swenedog007]

Love this game. My personal favorite “tales of” game just wish the camera was better for coop.

[@gamingdevil800]

Well it's definitely a disappointment in terms of effort, if you have a PC you can get the game for a quarter of the price. They could've at least bundled the sequel/spin off game with it to make somewhat worth $40

[@Kennosuke88]

Ye I'd say the pc version looks even better then this remaster too. It just looks off. & they definitely ripped off fans by not adding the sequel.

[@Connor3474]

Its a pretty lazy port imo, especially since we don't even get the bonus Tales costumes from the other games like we did in Chronicles.

[@googlewolly]

@@Kennosuke88 than*

[@DotHacker99]

I generally agree it'd be worth more value with the sequel but Bamco probably figured with it being so unpopular it'd be wasted effort. I'm not gonna miss it

[@DotHacker99]

@@Connor3474 This and ToS from Tos Chronicles are the exact same version based off the PS2 one

[@Sjono]

When you see Sega selling Persona 3 & 4 for $20 each and $39.50 for a bundle of both, it just makes this bundle look all the more worse

[@m.m.2341]

You mean this "non-bundle" because Dawn of the New World is not even in it :D

[@onilao]

Played the original with my brother all the way through so this game has great memories! pity they did not put much effort in this remaster but...still an awesome game ^^

[@AlexCaste]

I think it's funny that growing up several years later can really affect the way you look at games. I remember playing the original PS1 in middle school and seeing games that were multiple discs and thinking, "Wow! There are 2 (or 3 or 4) discs?! I can't believe the game is so big it can't all fit on one CD!" Meanwhile, Matty thinks it was kinda janky that it wasn't all on one disc. LOL

[@Christopher-md7tf]

"the game is so big" More like: Gamecube discs are so small

[@acedamace]

​@Christopher the OP is clearly not talking about game cube here.

[@israelchavez6975]

I really wished Bandai Namco just combined the GC version & the PS2 version into this remaster, since it has been ported 3 times now, & changed the coloring to Purple to signify of what the best of both platforms had to offer are on here 😢 Really wanted it to be in 60fps fr

[@DotHacker99]

I wish they'd port over the gamecube version but then people would complain about not having all the added content from the PS2/PS3 version.

[@standingintherain6519]

Theres so many frame dips I had to turn it off

[@petrisordumitru5013]

Why does it look so dark in the switch version? It's like the contrast is turned down to 2 lol

[@shimauta1941]

14:08 - So they really botched the reveal of the Renegades by renaming the first batch of their stooges Renegade Soldiers instead of just leaving them as Foot Soldiers? I'm facepalming so hard. I have no words.

[@rickydargence5948]

If Time travel exists, first thing I'm doing is prevent the PS2 version from ever happening.

[@gmoney0987]

Many a “trails” was said on accident. Haha. I loved this game as a kid. These retro reviews are great

[@derekderekison3241]

I remember playing this game on GameCube for the first time loving it and feeling disappointed because I knew the game was almost over..... then the game told me to insert disc 2 and I realized I was only halfway there!!!!!

[@B1gF00tHunt3r]

I'd love to see you do a Dark Cloud 1 and 2 video, maybe split them into 2 videos!

[@mookiestewart3776]

yeah i wasn't expecting something special I just haven't played the game for years so I'm glad i can get it on my modern console now to replay it. Im buying tonight when i get home from work

[@oOPrettywinxOo]

The funny thing is, the Japanese audio has voiced skits. Always had it even in the OG GameCube game. They just were cheap in the localization.

[@ZFighter14]

Thanks to you, I just went ahead & bought Symphonia Chronicles on PS3 for under $30 🙌🏼

[@Golgottha]

Good review Matt. I am still conflicted. I want to buy it b/c I, too, didnt finish it originally for the gamecube. I sold it :( . Now I have the chance to go back and replay it....but this port looks a little off.

[@JJKMagic]

Definitely check out Baten Kaitos, one of the best JRPGs out there which has sadly been reduced to a hidden gem in the last 20 years despite several petitions to bring this IP back to life. Also since you mentioned Arise as well, I actually can't play Arise without heavy Baten Kaitos flashbacks since they happen to have the same composer and dang, the OST is only one of many reasons Baten Kaitos is so amazing^^

[@ultraxfo5664]

Tales of arise was my first tales game. I’ll have to try out the others eventually

[@kacklina]

I need some love for Xillia the game has some of the most complex characters in the series, the party is, in my opinion, the one that feels the most as a family to, or at last I would rather have a remaster of tales games that never came to the west. I love Symphonia it got me into the series. I think Zelos is a larger-than-life character, but Bandai Namco needs to stop acting as if it is the only tales of games that matter outside of the newest in the line, destined to be forgotten with the next game in the series (you will see it will be like that with Arise, even when was more popular than other tales games...not better in my opinion, just more popular because people wanted more anime looking RPGs after Persona 5). Symphonia is the Ace Attorney trilogy of the series, forever and ever bringing the same thing in whatever console. My favorite game in the series is Abyss, but as we had the 3DS remaster Im ok with the lack of attention. I would love it if they actually did a main game from Tales of Crestoria, wish had some of the best characters and stories in the series trapped in a crappy mobile game...I can't believe I am this angry just about Bandai Namco releasing this game. In another topic, yes, Baten Kaitos was a very fun game...

[@barcster2003]

Would be great for xillia 1 and 2 but I have no faith after this.

[@kacklina]

@@barcster2003 is never going to happen, I know it to.

[@morriganrenfield8240]

Why would two discs turn you off? That just means it’s big! ;)

[@popatsot1]

Did you switch from a ps4 cover to a switch cover?

[@gamingcrusade3842]

I'm just happy this is finally on the Switch, I'm not too bummed by the "sequel" being left out as its not that great. Vesparia and Symphonia are some of my favorite jrpg titles.

[@guitarrapperman21]

Yeah… despite the technical issues I think I’ll still enjoy the game

[@SSBBcore]

I think it is hard to get all the voice actors together so many years later to add the voice lines to the skits... especially if some of them were young the their voices could have changed too. What I don't like is graphical features are missing, example the screen cracking and breaking like glass before a battle is now instead a white screen!! like huh?? Is this a remaster??

[@zachtwilightwindwaker596]

That makes sense. It has been nearly 20 years. Old👴...

[@Namingway248]

yeah it felt weird how much time he spent complaining that new world wasn't included (which is not even good and kind of retcons tons of lore set up from the original) that could've been spent talking about cut dialogue, ruined battle transitions, and how the background goes totally black in menus now, which isn't how it used to work.

[@haisex3]

Matty I heard the switch version is less vibrant. Is that true in your case?

[@soldierofkazus]

Regarding Arise's similarities to Symphonia, I've noticed there seems to be a common plot in the Tales games that I like to call: "You know what, no, fuck you *unsaves your world*".

[@RoydGriffin]

I kinda understand that they couldnt have new voice overs, since after 20 years I imagine it being hard to get all the voice actors back AND have them sound the same

[@Kaze91]

Hell yeah, make a full Symphonia remake with arise level resolution(not neccesarily the same gritty look.) and Arise style combat and maybe add a new post game dungeon for fun. that would be a dream come true. Also they should have just ported Tales of the Abyss if they were gonna do a halfass remaster because its still locked to a rough 3ds version and the original ps2 version. If you havent played Tales of the Abyss, id highly suggest. Its my second favorite tales game behind Symphonia.

[@adrianoedmu]

I would wanted a remake of tales of phantasia

[@relentlessgrowth4149]

Yes! I liked Berseria combat more than Arise... But if the story and the content are there, I can take any combat system they've used.

[@Rex13013]

I wasn't a big fan of Arise's combat tbh nor Berseria/ Zestiria since lately other party members haven'tbeen as fun to use or are needlessly completely especially mages, and excecuting mystic arts. I just want them to go back to more fluid combat like in Vesperia, Graces, Xillia or even Hearts R, mostly the latter 3. I just don't understand why Symphonia again, I love Symphonia dont get me wrong, it was my first Tales game one of the reasons why the Tales series is my favorite video game franchise but there still games we haven't gotten like Innocence R, and a lot that could use a remaster/port like Abyss, Xillia and Graces or remake like Phantasia or Destiny

[@Momoirokagami]

That would completely take the charm of Symphonia away. No thanks.

[@calvinmatthews1527]

What really bothers me is all the advertising they did for this game even though Bamco knows full-well the actual effort they put into it was the bare minimum. It's the 20th anniversary for one of their most important games and THIS how they celebrate? Are they trying to ruin they're reputation?

[@Momoirokagami]

Well if they're to be believed they already were considering shelving the Tales series if Arise didn't do well. The fact that it did do well gives them a bit of a conundrum. Ruining their own reputation with this would be a sound step forward if they were looking to milk the series as much as they could before shelving it, not so much if they decide to keep it going after the success of Arise.

[@arcadema]

​@@MomoirokagamiI was aware Namco was planning on shelving the series in the west for a while, due to its lack of footing over here. But I had no clue they were planning on doing it general. That's crazy.

[@Riitje]

I love this game and also had a chance to review it. I passed on it because life got in the way but would have done so otherwise. Honestly... Maybe that's for the best. I may not have been so merciful.

[@Namingway248]

symphonia on its like fourth re-release meanwhile tales of destiny director's cut still out here getting robbed of its time to shine

[@xShinigamiRyukuux]

It's really disappointing that they would charge $40 for this, when for the exact same price you could get the same experience with the sequel 10 years ago. What did Square do when they lost the source code to KH1 and 2? They remade it practically from scratch for the HD release, which paid off later, cuz the PS4 pro release was able to run at 4K60. I realize it's always been about profits, but publishers have been more cashgrabby than ever when it comes to rereleases in the last few years.

[@drowningin]

Wait why is it 30fps, and not 60fps?! Thats not a remaster, that's a downgrade wtf. Now I regret ordering it. I thought I at the very least would of just got an accurate port and been satisfied, but A DOWN GRADE!? GRRRR I'ma look into suing for false advertising

[@DotHacker99]

Namco Bandai is being deceptive calling it a remaster cause it's not. It's just a port of the PS2 version which came out 19yrs ago. I could be wrong on this but I bet most of the people complaining about this being 30 vs 60FPS can't even tell the difference. $40 IS a steep price for a $40 port but at least it's on modern consoles and it's one of if not the best Tales game. For anyone looking for an entry into the Tales series who likes JRPG's i'd say it's totally worth it.

[@standingintherain6519]

This would have sold millions if it had been 60 fps stable

[@Momoirokagami]

Highly unlikely considering the original game didn't even sell two million copies (in fact across both the GameCube and the PS2 version it only sold 1.6 million). The PS3 Chronicles release and the PC version don't even total 500 thousand copies sold which paints a bleak picture for this remaster. Also getting a battle to last more than four minutes in this is extremely hard. In fact the longest you can get is seven and a half minutes if you take the initiative to handicap yourself (against the first phase of the final boss) so the game can't really take advantage of 60fps in a meaningful way.

[@jerry_bambino7686]

I think it is not so easy to get the voices from 20 years ago (game is from 2003). The voices of the cast probably don't sound the same anymore.

[@mrbubbles6468]

Some do. Some don’t. The problem might be getting back the protag VA. Dawn of the New World recast ToS’s protag, tand it just hasn’t sounded right since. And people complained when they recast Yuri in Vesperia for the new content.

[@shimauta1941]

@Jerry Bambino They don't actually have to get the same VAs though. Soundalikes would work just fine and would make the port worth actually purchasing considering it adds nothing we didn't get from the 10th anniversary port for PS3 and the PC port of that port less than two years later. I mean this remaster still wouldn't have been the best option, but at least it would've stood out from the rest of the available versions of the game for North America and Europe by having English voiced skits.

[@shimauta1941]

@@mrbubbles6468 It's likely that Scott Menville would oblige if they were any more willing to approach him to do it than they were to approach Troy Baker for Yuri in the case of Vesperia Definitive Edition. But honestly they had options at their disposal to ask a collective of the VAs from Symphonia and the ones from Dawn of A New World or to just hire cheap soundalikes. They just didn't care to make any kind of effort at all.

[@mrbubbles6468]

@@shimauta1941 Again. Recasting would get people moaning. And paying the cost would make the the game more expensive and people don’t want that. As seen with Vesperia.

[@shimauta1941]

@@mrbubbles6468 If using two different voices for some of the characters in Vesperia Definitive were the only problem the game would be a masterpiece. The issues there extend so far beyond the voice acting not being consistent. For example the audio mixing is atrocious. In Symphonia's case because it would only be the skits that got new voice acting by different people (or again a compromise of asking the VAs who had previously done Symphonia and Dawn of a New World if they'd be interested and ending up casting a mixture of those rather than cheap soundalikes) they wouldn't run into the same sort of issue. And it's not like its any different from playing the game in English and then having to switch to Japanese for voiced skits if you want the experience of hearing them voice acted. That already takes you from the OG English cast to the OG Japanese cast which is pretty disorienting on its own. At least if they had hired anyone at all to finally voice the skits in English you'd finally have the option of playing through the whole game in a single language rather than switching between two. Also I sincerely have to ask what exactly do you think was expensive about the production of this port (the Remaster (more like Demaster) of a port (PS3/PC) of a port (PS2) at all?

[@RodgersReads]

Interesting, I LOVE Tales of Symphonia so I am biased, but my hubby was watching me play and commented saying the in-game visuals looked better than when he watched me play it on PS3. The cut-scenes however are slightly jarring because they now look worse in some respects than the in-game footage but ah well. Still so much fun playing this game again and getting all the items so when I inevitably replay it in 10 years I will have a nice save file ready to spend the GRADE to NG+ ish it.

[@xeartnexus3020]

Digimon survive is dope. You'll fall in love with the characters and the story was surprisingly good for a digimon game. If you've played fatal frame, it's kind of like fatal frame lite with digimon in world and tone.

[@metaldiceman]

6:42 Baten Kaitos such an awesome and epic game. So unique, nothing like it before or after. Also among the most gorgeous on the system.

[@stanleech666]

i never gave this series a chance bc my uncle gave me one called “Romancing SaGa: Minstrel Song” and became obsessed with it lol.

[@ThomastheDankEngine8900]

There’s a remake of that coming out soon isn’t there?

[@Raphtor13]

Tales of Symphonia was a masterpiece on Gamecube and it was also 60 fps there and all the other versions are inferior.

[@patkelley8293]

Playing the PS3 HD version of Tales of Symphonia right now. I have put this off too long. Just finished Tales of Xillia which was great. Still have Tales of Abyss to finish on last battle. Tales of Arise I will have to start over.

[@GodoMatrix]

This and Tales of Phantasia GBA were my first Tales game and yeah good time in Gamecube. I also got it later in PS3 and I appreciate that version because of both game, super greedy that they decide to make a "remaster" and cut the sequel, the same happened with the Metroid Prime game.

[@mammothmunch4632]

You know when I hear most people talk about this game it seems like the only thing they mention is that there's a few graphical errors or the frame rate isn't 60. The game is performing just as fine as it needs to in my case, but I am playing on PS5 so maybe that's why. The thing I'm mad about is that the sequel is not included. How exactly do they get off charging the same price they charged for a remaster that had both this game and the sequel 10 years ago? It baffles me that more people aren't complaining about that rather than frame rate. It is literally inexcusable that they are charging the same price for half the content. I would have gladly spent 50 or 60 dollars for a compilation of them both, but them leaving the sequel behind and charging the same price they charged for both really rubs me the wrong way.

[@twopeaksnorth8184]

All I need is a remaje or proper remaster of Tales of the Abyss. My number one game :) but ToS got me into the series. I still think the Gamecube version with 60 fps in battles is much better. That being said the ps3 and "remaster" look pretty great!

[@PkmnTrainerKatie]

Well damn, that's a bit of a letdown. 😔 I'll more than likely still pick it up for Switch for portability sake, but the fact they did the bare minimum and called it a "remaster" is saddening. Hopefully, they'll patch this one and learn from their mistakes if they decide to remaster Tales of the Abyss, for example. (That 3DS port, while much appreciated at the time, was REALLY hard to look at-) Hell, I'll gladly take some of the PS3 games, too. Great review! Seeing you flip through the GameCube Symphonia manual was such a nostalgia trip for me~ 🥺

[@IsraelAvina]

nah seeing the 2 disc in a box was freaking awesome as a kid, blew my mind with how large the game was gonna be!

[@e102gamma2002]

The lack of voiced skits sadly has been around for a while. Yet the JP dub version has them all voiced FYI. The fact it’s currently on Steam for less than $10 which is essentially the same product makes me hesitate. Also no fancy CE like Chronicles which had figures, music and a tie-in novel.

[@m.m.2341]

Well then people could play with the Japanese dub, if they want the voices so badly. But then they would lose out on quite some in-battle banter, if they don't understand Japanese.

[@Momoirokagami]

@@m.m.2341 They actually wouldn't. They added subtitles for in battle conversations and the victory fanfare on the post battle screen starting with the PS3 Chronicles version which both the PC port and this remaster are based off of. That still doesn't stop it from being a problem that the skits remain unvoiced in English. This makes the third port of the game where if you want to experience the skits with voice acting you have to switch over to Japanese language. If they dubbed them (whether they got the original voice actors or not) that would eliminate the layer of having to experience the skits in a completely different language. And it's also extremely tedious to have to manually swap from English to Japanese just for the sake of experiencing the skits with voice acting. Which admittedly I don't know if one of the "improvements" for the remaster was some kind of auto swap to Japanese when you press the button to view a skit. It would certainly fit the role of a quality of life change.

[@capcom_crossover]

The air combos in Dawn of the New world were dope A.f 💯

[@redstratus97]

Wow. I was different. The double disc thing made me want to play it more.

[@allanamaya540]

Is it better on PS4 or is the same as switch?

[@camara1194]

i personally loved it. It’s my favorite game. I loved it as a kid with GC, and then i loved playing the remastered

[@Ellesdy1]

What are we all rebounding from here I want to be part of the group too!!

[@Jmerithew87]

Definitely cover Baten Kaitos, it’s awesome

[@Usernamehear]

They should just call it a rerelease instead of remaster. But at least it’s a great game regardless of how much work they put into it extra. But if they do this again in another 10 years it better get the FF7 remake treatment or something.

[@ben_sisko2149]

Why do most people dislike Zestiria? XD I think the story is pretty interesting.

[@rocksavage8778]

Story yeah but the equipment system is abysmal

[@lildan169]

Idk, to me I understood it would just be a port. It doesn't excuse the performance issues like slowdowns and crashes on the Switch (which I assume will be patched), but overall they stated they just wanted it available on modern hardware. And since games are usually between $60-$70 USD, a $40 game with as much content as Symphonia is more than worth it to me. Especially being able to play on the go.

[@Sahri81]

Yeah it was a whole step back for me cuz I was used to ToA’s battle system and I did play the original on the gc. The struggle was real 😂

[@Gillder]

Honestly, the first thing I looked up when I saw the trailer was if they were adding voice acting to the skits. I honestly wouldn't mind if the characters sounded a bit different, I would have bought it instantly.

[@ambrose9522]

Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean is the best jrpg on gamecube, bar none. Cannot wait for the remaster.

[@gothjoeevil]

Baten is an awesome game from what I remember very awesome style been dreaming of replaying for 15 years

[@joeypeat]

More-so the PS3 version as Steam at least goes up to 4k last I checked. If it wasn't for the Steelbook "Chosen Edition" I probably would have either passed or just waited for it to fall to $20, but God knows I'm not finding no steelbook for that price if I wait that long lol! Of course, I'm a bit disappointed it isn't at least 60 fps, but beggars can't be choosers. I picked up both Tales of Symphonia Chronicles AND a PAL version that included Tales of Graces f for $30 and $10 respectively on PS3 (it's not even available on Amazon for those prices anymore) and it just feels like the exact same version here has been ported, minus all the extra stuff - for the same price. I loved Symphonia on Gamecube, like most others, it's what got me into the series altogether, but this "Port" (Not Remaster) falls a little short with me, but STILL I got it ordered nonetheless. I hope the low overall scores doesn't impact any future remasters.

[@vladislavgritsenko3636]

I hope Bandai Namco understands that this was a mistake,making a remaster for Symphonia was a mistake. With Vesperia it worked,cause the game aged good enough(it looks better than Berseria imho😂) I pray to all Gods,when the time comes,and it will come sooner or later,they must,they MUST do a remake for the Abyss. It deserves it,and if you didn't play it Matty,you'll be blown away

[@andr0zzsenpai]

This "remaster" is weird... you can get this for 5 bucks on sales on steam, and the Switch version has been butchered... Also, I like Zestiria, I wish more people could see it in a positive light. And yes! Try Baten Kaitos, is really unique, I preffer the sequel/prequel myself, but yes :)

[@rain1676]

Blame your fate

[@brandonpritchard6696]

The DLC practices for arise killed it for me. I liked learning and playing Rinwell but when i saw skills and artes were tied to dlc outfits i put it down.

[@DREAMSQU33ZE]

Some of my favorite games of all time were 2+ discs.

[@akechi771]

the only thing im confused on is, isnt this the same game on the pc? On steam its 20 dollars but its always on sale and havent it been on steam for a while, why did it take so long to go to other platforms

[@drowningin]

I have it on PC, and this has to look better. I'm only seeing this version through KZbin, but it already looks better to me. The older PC version looks pretty ugly. I haven't seen side by side comparisons though going by year old memory

[@mechadeka]

@@drowningin You think these terrible upscaled textures they ran through Topaz without adjusting any of the settings look better??

[@edwardmajewski434]

Hopefully Tales of Phantasia gets a remaster as well. Or at least a port of one of the remakes we never got.

[@ProductionsFromBeyon]

The only Tales of game I played was the Vesperia remake. I’ll probs pick up and play Symphonia cuzz I never had it back in the day.

[@TonoG90]

Pretty sure this will eventually be on the switch store at 50-75% off so I'll pick it up then.

[@thisjustin8828]

Omg you got me I never finished it either I went to play Vesperia as my first Tales of instead

[@zachtwilightwindwaker596]

Good thing I got the PC version instead. I had issues opening the game but with a few tweaks I got the game working. I can play it in Japanese, I can mod it to be 4K if I wanted, but I can't do anything about the frame rate. Are they seriously unable to fix that? I don't recall paying $40 for this. I might have gotten it for half the price. I remember getting this on the GameCube because the box art looked great. The graphics do look better than the original. I didn't get Dawn of a New world with my game either. It's not that big of a loss since the sequel was not as good. The double disk thing wasn't a big issue for me. Most GameCube games I have only had one disk. I have played Baiten Kaitos Origins. The story was good but I hate the battle card mechanic. I can deal with 30 FPS. It's tolerable but it could be better. I always go for performance mode over visuals. I can play Shadow of the Colossus without the game struggling to keep up. The original game was so sluggish. I forgot that Dawn of a New World used normal 3D models instead of cell-shading. I do have one cutscene ingrained in my mind because of so many failed attempts. I wish I could skip cutscenes. 15:50 You do realize they would have to get the actors to voice the lines again which would be difficult to do now considering how old the game is (old 👴...). Not everybody in Symphonia reprised their roles in the sequel.

[@joevader10]

It seems a better way to play and enjoy Symphonia is to grab the PC version and install a few community fixes/ini edits for a smooth experience. 30 FPS for a game that originally ran at 60 is just... Gross.

[@thatssoderek2188]

Loved Symphonia first time on the Gamecube all those years ago. I tried it again later on on the PS3 I think but I just couldnt get into it. it felt too antiquated and clunky. And now I just finished playing Arise and had a great time as its pretty much very accessible. Now im worried will I ever be able to get into the older games again. Zestiria is available on PSplus as well soI might give that a try and wait for a nice discount for Symphonia

[@longlostlord]

i suddenly feel like playing tales of arise

[@servancastillo986]

the two disk thing was a really really weird decision on your part back then XD. i beat Symphonia 3 times when it first came out. like idk if i have beaten a long rpg that many times since.

[@montefisto]

three minutes into a review on the Remastered version, and we are reading the back of the GameCube box in its entirety... What am I even watching? Well, at least you have your giant face on the thumbnail, so I guess your meta is strong?

[@osc-oldschoolclips5204]

Lmao

[@Rex13013]

Lol

[@Lukja08]

It's because the remastered is shit.

[@montefisto]

@@Lukja08 ? And? What does that have to do with milking time for the algorithm by reading a box for a different game?

[@Lukja08]

@@montefisto It's the same game.

[@CruxisAngel954]

I’m disappointed that symphonia to this day has never had a good port. The extra content doesn’t make up for how awful the game plays on everything that’s not a GameCube or dolphin on pc

[@Momoirokagami]

As a proud owner of both the GameCube and PS3 version I have to say the 60fps is kind of overrated. Battles play out smoothly in both versions even if I dislike how some characters were nerfed for the PS2 port that the PS3 version (plus every other since then) has been based off of. Battles also don't last long enough nor are they complex enough due to the limited battle system of Symphonia for the 60fps to feel like it adds anything. The unison attack feature only adds so much depth and it is extremely hard to get a battle in Symphonia to last longer than four minutes. Even the likes of bonus bosses like the Sword Dancer and Abyssion are felled within five minutes on Hard and Mania difficulty. Phase 1 Final Boss takes around 7 minutes thirty seconds if you don't strip him of his armor by defeating the Judged, the Fugitive, and the Neglected before you go to fight him, but the fact that you have to take the initiative to handicap yourself to get a battle longer than five minutes is pathetic. Thus while it is nice to have the 60fps of the original version it isn't as much of a deal breaker as people make it out to be.

[@TurnEternal]

Binged DotNW when it came out and really enjoyed it. Is it better than the original? Of course not, but I dislike calling it a spinoff when it's a direct sequel and bridges some of the gaps between Symphonia and Phantasia. Sadly, I don't see it happening with this being $40. Especially with DotNW not even coming to Steam, it's obvious they know the original is the one that will sell by itself.

[@Cloke100]

Yeah despite the flack DotNW gets my friends and I loved it, it bridging lore between Phantasia and Symphona was always appreciated.

[@tinyguy9398]

Is it just me, or does this guy keep on calling them Trails games off and on throughout his review? I imagine it’s accidental. That, or I’m severely sleep deprived right now and am hallucinating, lol!

[@ichigo9171]

Really wish they would actually do anything with tales that isn’t symph. It’s the damn Skyrim of the series at this point while half the series is still stranded on ps2 or even older or worse hardware, or better yet not even in english yet.

[@MegaMagicalMegan]

Not only are the skits lacking voice work, to stay true to the original ENG release, but the special effects (like the backgrounds blurring and staying behind the skit presentation) are broken for the Switch release which means a plain black screen and even less charm