Tales of Symphonia | The Best RPG on the GameCube? (Retrospective)

[@Mikebtheawsome]

This game changed my life. Grew up with an abusive mother and grandmother (my mom lied about my father being abusive toward me when it was actually her that was abusive so he wasn't allowed to see me). They raised me to basically hate everything that wasn't what we were, so I was racist and homophobic among other things. But after a series of events that lead to the courts realizing it was actually my mother who abused me. So the father ended up getting custody of me finally. One day he was buying me a gamecube for my birthday and he asked one of the workers what his favorite game was he gave my dad Tales of Symphonia. When I first played it on my birthday I was instantly hooked on the combat system it blew my 12 year old mind. Through playing it I learned much needed lessons, it made me realize that I had issues so I asked my dad if i could go to therapy which he put me in right away. Even if another game come out that I like better then Tales of Symphonia , it will always have a special place in my heart.

[@dannyhartwig7595]

well Windwaker first then Skies of Arcadia Legend and then Tales in my opinion.

[@dobadobadooo]

This is easily one of my favorite games of all time, and I might even go so far as to outright call it my favorite period. The story, artstyle, music, characters, lore, gameplay... this game absolutely nails every single one of them. I'm not saying it's perfect (nothing is), but whatever flaws the game has in no way subtract from what an overall amazing experience it is every time I play through it.

[@GamingBroductions]

Definitely feel you there, its flaws are relatively minor and vastly outweighed by the huge amount of things the game does right. It’s always hard for me to pick absolute favorites, but it is my favorite in the Tales of series and probably a top 5 all time JRPG for me. It’s just so damn memorable.

[@flintose927]

I agree with you 100% this game was a masterpiece imo. Instantly makes me think of my 2 friends who are no longer here that's how memorable it is to me!

[@celestialarmor695]

Lol you think tales is a good game your bar is super low😂

[@dobadobadooo]

​@@celestialarmor695 Oh no, celestialarmor695 doesn't like my favorite game, whatever shall I do?

[@y.cyferfreemoney]

Agreed. I’ve completed it like 20 times and still play it every now & then to see how fast I can beat it.

[@Rorshacked]

This is he only game I felt truly addicted to playing and couldn’t put down until I finished it. Favorite of all time, hands down

[@codycoco3058]

Wow I'm honestly super impressed with the art style. It's ageless and really really good. Like a pleasure to look at

[@timchard]

The editing on this video is fire! Nice work. I completely I forgot I had played this game in 2004 until I saw this video. Thanks for the nostalgia hit!

[@GamingBroductions]

Thanks man! No problem, appreciate you watching

[@Aelrandir]

To this day Symphonia remains not only one of my favorite RPGs, but just one of my favorite games ever. Back in high school I became absolutely obsessed with this game and beat pretty much once a week for a month or two. I'm fairly certain I still have my GCN memory cards with all those save files on them too. It's been years since I've been back to the game at this point, but I was reading a manga version of the game the other day. I really wish they would release this on Switch, and finally do an actual proper definitive version that has all the content, doesn't look washed out with slight art style adjustments, and actually plays in 60fps. I know they'll never put that much effort into doing a proper job like that, but I can dream. Nothing will ever make me accept DotNW as its "sequel" though. That doesn't exist as far as I'm concerned.

[@metaldiceman]

14:51 I love how he says "you still have Noishe, who allows for much quicker navigation than going on foot alone" while demonstrating that you move at basically the _exact_ same speed. lol

[@SkippytWalrus]

While true, he doesn't mention that the enemies now stop in their tracks and only move when you do, which does provide quicker navigation through avoiding combat.

[@MistyKathrine]

Symphonia is the only Tales game I actually truly liked.

[@TianZhaoHeavenlyFortune]

ToS was my very first Tales game and was the gateway drug for me into this series, love how I'm seeing more and more KZbinrs talking about the Tales series. It's such an underrated JRPG series and thus deserves more love, so kudos to you for doing this video! Love it!

[@GamingBroductions]

It is great to see the Tales series getting a little more recognition these days, still very underrated like you mentioned but I think we’re on the right track at least as Arise seemed to garner some more attention compared to some of the more recent entries. Thanks for watching and glad to hear you enjoyed it!

[@soulflame5635]

Got it for first time on pc steam - > edited ini file - > changed fps from 30 to 60 -- XD too fast -> 50 is good. Changed quality of textures and outlines a bit - looks almost as good as ps4 ver. I really like world is same as in Phantasia.

[@hotellamma9587]

Love the vid - Sheena is actually OP when you learn how to guard cancel, you can stun lock with her doing that 😂

[@WhatAboutZoidberg]

Great video, been wanting to play this again and finally fully finish it. This was just the hook I needed to replay it. Symphonia is also the game that hooked me into the Tales of series, so it's pretty special to me as well.

[@robertquigley8119]

Love tales of S, I've such great memories of playing it with a friend, we swapped overworked control after every dungeon and played all the battles multiplayer. I remember getting the secret weapons early which levelled up the more you use them and we killed the shadow temple boss in literally less than 5 seconds 😂😂

[@neunix9443]

I dont know why but symphonia was boring to me and i dropped it after 20 hours. I can get why people like it tho.

[@Lukja08]

I'll save you 30 minutes. Yes.

[@chrisj320ac3]

This is my #1 JRPG. Second is Kingdom Hearts 2.

[@SkippytWalrus]

2 years later.... This game is so special to me, it was my first tales game and it's story is perfect if your just jumping into the tales series for the first time. It has elements that you'll find in many tales games before and after, it's combat leaping to 3D is limiting but it's a beautiful framework to go forward or backward in the series history from this point, It's got great characters, a story with a sturdy backbone and difficult questions to ask, interesting spectacular combat, especially for the time, this game is honestly a BRAVE masterpiece. But in any case, this game honestly feels at home on the GC. It really sucks, as it's later releases and ports have extra content, and I'm not hung up on just the 60 fps in battle. There are cutscene slow downs, enviormental effects laughably overdrawn, slowdown in towns and cities that I do not find in the NGC release, not to mention the dialogue cut-off issues. It honestly breaks my heart, after trying to play the steam version for so long that I'm breezing through an emulated version on GC and having a far better time, in and out of combat and story. (p.s. I haven't made it there yet, and I may be full of copium, but Shadow Temple I remember having a frustrating time with, but I don't remember GC Shadow temple being so bad. Maybe the escort puzzle works better on the og release? Guess I'll find out soon.)

[@RafaOnCrack]

Nice video bro, hope you get more views, I like the way you talk about this games, only few people talk about JRPG's (me included, but I do it in spanish) and it's nice to see someone who also like this genre of videogames

[@GamingBroductions]

Thanks bro! Your channel seems really cool too, unfortunately I don’t understand Spanish lol but I can tell your quality is great and I love to see more passionate people making content over JRPGs. Like you mentioned there’s not too many of us out there

[@301larussomusic]

I had 5 brothers so that was one of the games we played.

[@GamingBroductions]

Sounds like some good ass memories

[@matthewphu4637]

i got 3 brothers so 4 player coop was always perfect. Not to mention my cousins who were also into it and were also the ones who introduced us to the series with this title.

[@au_au]

My favorite Tales of series' game!

[@nintendonchill]

My favorite RPG on GC was Baten Kaitos. It held my attention all the way to the end.

[@GamingBroductions]

Baten Kaitos is an amazing game as well, we also released a retrospective over it awhile back. Btw I’ve listened to a lot of your mixes in the past, really good stuff!

[@nightmarishcompositions4536]

The first jrpg I ever played along with Final Fantasy X. Been my favorite genre ever since!

[@LOREWITHBLAZER]

Tales of symphonia was my first tales of game

[@patriot639]

I loved Tales of Symphonia, and I think it was the most replayed game I ever had played. In particular there was one very event that really stuck with me. There's a boss battle which is near impossible to win on a first play through. It's meant to be. You're meant to lose, but you can win and on a new game plus you're far more likely to win, and that changes the game. I loved things like that.

[@kdemographic8109]

Brings back some grand memories. Thanks for this!

[@GamingBroductions]

No problem! Glad to hear it did so

[@cyanrazorCel]

9:07 Technically it's right BEFORE the boat in Izoold, not after.

[@spongebob7541]

It's not the best RPG on gamecube... It's the best video game of all time From France, great video my friend ❤

[@S_Hyde]

Lloyd's theme remains one of my favorite tracks, specially the ocarina version.

[@bazla123]

I finished this game for the first time a few days ago, and can honnestly say it's my favourite tales of game so far.

[@zeroSephiroth1]

Thank you for this great Video. Tales of Symphonia was my first game of this series and it will forever have a special place in my heart. A truly Masterpiece

[@PsychomachineryEBM]

Lol it was like Gamecube got 2 or 3 good RPG in its whole library anyway.

[@rpgt.g.3340]

This video deserves way more attention, Fantastic job on the video. Tales of Symphonia absolutely deserves the love.

[@Evilriku13]

As much as I like this video and what you cover, I wish you had talked about the "spoilers" that you were already showing off in terms of video footage to make this retrospective more complete!

[@qrowthebird7496]

Tales of Symphonia is my third game in the series the other two being Berseria & Arise. Having beaten the game recently I have to say the journey way so memorable, the cast of characters so enjoyable and the chemistry between them being great. Along with the ost being fantastic enjoyed it through the game

[@fieryrebirth]

Yeah, after playing the games after enjoying this, Abyss, and Vesperia, and failing to keep up the interest with the later games, I think the games peaked with Vesperia.

[@ramiro1989]

One of my favorite RPG’s ever. I played it when it first came out on Gamecube and got stuck somewhere in the 2nd disc in a dungeon and forgot about it. After 5 or 6 years I came back to it and turns out the only reason I got stuck was because of a door I never saw. In about a week I finished the game and I was so glad I did it. For me, the things that stood out were the art style, the battle systen and the conversations between characters. It was such a different experience comming from the Final Fantasy series on SNES and PS1.

[@MayonnaiseOreo]

I really wanted to love this game when I played it a couple years ago but I hit a point with one or two dungeons left where I just didn't care anymore. The combat was way too clunky and imprecise for battles to not feel like a slog at times and the story dragged for long portions. The game was just okay but went on too long for its own good. I kept waiting for the story to hit that "wow this is crazy!" moment that everyone talked about but it never came. I think this one is way overhyped or at least super dated. Edit: And I forgot to mention how poor the soundtrack is. It's overly repetitive and had maybe one or two songs that were remotely memorable. The game felt like Tales of Generic. I know I'm hating a bit but I put 60 hours into this game and it never felt worth it.

[@isaacfaith9369]

Sad to see Namco neglect this game. Gamecube version is the best…It’s like they’re salty of its success. Also worth noting imo, easily the best Tales game out there. Music characters and setting, it’s all there.

[@Gu3ssWhatsN3XT]

First tales game I ever played and loved it but I also can’t lie, I have it on steam now and while I still love the story, art and characters, man I hate that the game never had the free running option during battles like they added in later games. Can’t tell you how many times a boss would have me pinned at the edge of the screen and I couldn’t get out or attack

[@thepaper888]

Got the dual pack with symphonia 1+2 on ps3.

[@yamsgarden]

Still hope to this day that someday they give it a true remaster with beautiful graphics :3

[@ThunderblightGanon14]

The huge bummer for me is that they replaced the rename gem with a lemon gel. However in the remastered version for the switch I searched about this and it said the item is still in the game somewhere, even though I found the lemon gel where the rename gem should be. Do you thing the rename gem is somewhere else in the game?

[@doubleozer0]

Dang i had this and i played it but i dont rememeber any of it ,weird

[@KeziaTv]

You keep mentioning your age...so I dare to ask. How old are you? Because you sound very young.

[@GamingBroductions]

I’m 32. I’ve never had the deepest voice lol

[@kates5183]

I have such nostalgia for this game. For me, one of the first things that comes to mind is the title Colette gets if you pet all of the dogs in the world! I can't imagine a modern JRPG ever putting in something like that. Been playing Tales of Arise and it is truly wonderful, but the side quests feel stripped of that charm the older games have.

[@GamingBroductions]

That is a nice little addition! Great example of some lighthearted fun they didn’t need to add but did anyway. On a less cute/innocent note I think there’s also a title you can get for Zelos by talking to every girl in the game 😅 Now that I’m finally finished with Symphonia I’ll be diving into Arise this week and will be curious to see how they handle sidequests and whatnot

[@cnkclark]

Skies of Arcadia: Legends is the best RPG on the GameCube, but Symphonia is great too.

[@GamingBroductions]

I definitely respect that opinion, in our top 10 Gamecube RPGs video we had both as the top 2. I go back and forth between which one I like better

[@cnkclark]

@@GamingBroductions That is a fair struggle.

[@jayparks3417]

Already pre-ordered the remaster for switch

[@joshforbesguitar1866]

awesome vid! a small correction though. If you take the boat to palmacosta, you can no longer take the hard path. Gotta choose the hard path right after ossa trail.

[@Wolfedge75]

I’ve played several Tales games (Destiny DC, Legendia, Abyss, Vesperia, Hearts & Zestiria) but Symphonia was the only one I’ve kept coming back to for multiple playthroughs. It wasn’t my first Tales game (that goes to Hearts, of all things), but it was my first ENGLISH one and I loved it.

[@junocrespo1774]

This is my favorite game of all time

[@marcolaitano9626]

Before palmacosta you could take another path, I played it so many times as i wanted all my characters to max stats...basically 17 times so i got to see some new stuff every now and then!!! But man the first time was amazing!! I think I played it for more than 400 hours!!

[@ifrit1937]

Symphonia has been my favorite Tales game/Game of all time for the past 15+ years since first playing it in around 2004 or 2005 with only Arise recently being in contention for both titles (still can'd decide which i want more after 3 months of beating Arise...is mainly coming down to a battle between gameplay (Arise) and story (Symphonia)). When it comes to the series it may not excel at anything over the others besides the story (story is the best in the series imo, at least as far as the localized games go...maybe some of the JP only games/Desitny DC (better version of Destiny) would be better but language barrier is an issue there) however when it comes to all of the game's aspects Symphonia is easily the most solid entry in every category unlike the other games that will excel in one aspect but then are very weak in another whether it be story, side quests, sub systems, music, combat, etc. Ya the combat has aged nowadays but, at least for me, can still be easy to get back into and for its time it was easily one of the better action jrpg combat systems from the mid 2000s (of course my opinion). Ironically while most people blast the PS3/PC (i played PS3 version again when it came out, played on GC first though with about 15+ runs lol...my most re-played game ever) my favorite character to play, Regal, felt like his combos connected better in the PS3 version for some weird reason (no real logic behind it either...he just felt better on PS3 than on GC for some inexplicable reason...maybe something to do how the game handles aerial combat?). As for why the story is the best imo it's simple: they give logical reasons for each story development/how the stories connect better than any other Tales game to date imo. After Symphonia it'd be Berseria and then Abyss and then Arise and Xilia that are about on par and all the characters are done well (though imo Berseria and Abyss did all characters from npcs to playable characters to villains the best in the series). And while the game has many very cheesy moments it uses said cheese well imo and becomes a part of the story's charm. And ya like you said Symphonia's dungeons are more or less the best in the series as well when it comes to puzzles (dungeon layout some later games look better aesthetically, especially Arise, but Symphonia does puzzles the best....in fact the lack of puzzles from Xillia to now has been a major disappointment for me...really wish Namco would bring them back or if not puzzles than something like Ys/Tokyo Xanadu style traps and platforming if they're not gonna focus on puzzles). Biggest and only real weakness Symphonia has, imo, is the AI, especially (suicide) Raine's, could get really stupid at times (granted worst still goes to Arise though). Symphonia would easily be one Tales game i would love to see get a full on remake like Trials of Mana where the world, dungeons, and story are re-created almost 1 to 1 with the only changes being to story, voicing skits/almost all cutscenes, better camera, better AI (at least Berseria level or better yet Hearts R level...just no BS Arise party AI customization), free run (honestly the one thing about the combat it feels like it really needs), and maybe add in a few more side quests. Hell best case scenario imo would be the addition of a prequel storyline focused on Mithos, Kratos, Yuan, and Martel (hell they could easily make a whole game on it if they wanted to) that lasts about 20 to 30 or so hours (think Xenoblade 2 Torna dlc, long enough to give all details needed but not too long either to drag on). Granted if they wind up trying to fuck the game over i'd rather not take a remake of course, would rather remember the game fondly as is in that case...not to mention the biggest issue i can see occurring is trying to get the VAs back, like Vesperia last/current gen ports they might not even try for the Union VAs and it will feel weird not hearing Robin whenever Lloyd's talking in the actual plot of Symphonia 1 (Dawn, Radiant Mythology, and Soulcalibur Legends i could handle a bit as they weren't particularly great games anyway but with the OG Symphonia's plot it will hurt to replace him) Overall Symphonia is a 9.6/10 game for me (pretty much the highest score i've ever rated a game and closest i ever got to a 10/10 score which i refuse to give as i will only give said score to an absolutely perfect game that likely will never exist).

[@SuperLlama42]

Symphonia was probably the third JRPG I played all the way through (FF7 and Skies of Arcadia Legends being the first two,) and while it has the FF7 problem of the character models not aging particularly well it's still one of my favorite JRPGs. It's also hilarious later on when you find out that basically everything you learn in the first few hours is a complete lie.

[@jzblue345]

As soon as I beat my first playthrough I missed many side quests. I immediately had to do another playthrough on hard and its kicking my ass big-time. The sword dancer battle was considerably harder but I still came out on top.

[@Malhonn]

I finally played Tales of Symphonia after years of sitting on my steam account, even though my first Tales game is Dawn of the new world back on the Wii, and i was pleasantly surprised on how good of a game it is, and i mostly agree with everything you said on the video, except for new game plus since i haven't tried yet, i gonna give a rest until i played it again, one thing that i didn't know was how they put a cap of 30fps on the Pc version which might explain why the overworld exploration movement speed is so slow, even with Noish. I also had the same first impression of thinking this game would be your generic jrpg at the first hours of game but then it gets subverted, also the writing overall is pretty good, not amazing, but good. Edit: Also i think this game would benefit a lot from a remake to fix the battle system, update some game mechanics to be more flesh out like the EX gem system, and the graphics while not dated, could use a high res update. And i played the game on japanese voices when i discovered that some skits weren't voice acted. Also not related to ToS directly, i realized how much of a downgrade Dawn of the new world was compared to the original.

[@DodgeThisBam]

I still adore this game and I've played it SO MANY times. I've even played it all the way from start to finish with a friend over a couple of months. And I'm currently replaying it right now with a fresh run on HARD with no Gels or Deaths just to see if it's possible and it's been a wild ride let me tell you! I have the boss fights here if anybody is interested: kzbin.info/aero/PLkDjVuYIv4HEhSY2xO2X2IcPRiTQ2FNVv

[@briancoy7297]

I liked this game but Skies of Arcadia Legends is my favorite Gamecube game of all time, even though it didn't originate there(possibly also my favorite game ever)

[@JacobLasher]

My favorite game of all time. Holds such a special place in my heart. Amazing video. Thanks for making it!

[@robertdeffenbaugh9004]

This game will become more relevant in February when the remastered gets released. I’m glad it’s being released on the Nintendo Switch because JRPGs are best on handhelds.

[@smokeyjail4394]

Greetings from the future. I come bearing bad news...

[@robertdeffenbaugh9004]

@@smokeyjail4394 It’s still way more relevant now.

[@newbiesama]

I would lvoe to see the prequal to this game..where we follow the war 2000 years ago and mithos

[@spicydeath82]

this was my first tales game. bought it on the gamecube back in the day. i enjoyed it as far as i made it. i was a few years out of highschool at that point working in a cabinet shop.

[@guanda80]

Great game. The first Tales that i finished. Good memories from Game Cube days

[@poderx]

Did you used the Ps2 theme instead of the Game cube one at the beginning? Damn!

[@robertflappie7310]

I think I still favor this one a small bit above Baten Kaitos. Best stories ever.

[@newbiesama]

FIghting the spirit is my fav OST of all time!

[@joshakins4923]

Can't wait for the remaster in a couple months!

[@nicolasp9660]

my first Tales of, and in love with all of them since

[@newbiesama]

After all these years ToS is still my nr1 game of all time

[@CrizzX]

Spoil the game for me!!

[@sergejbjakow5891]

One of my all time favs!

[@guardianrandy]

It still makes me sad they never voiced the skits in English for the HD collection on PS3. I ended up playing through with Japanese voices just so the skits wouldn't be silent.

[@GamingBroductions]

Yeah that would have been nice for sure. I wish there was an option to have the English voices during the story/cutscenes and have the Japanese voices for the skits. Best of both worlds

[@noisepollution4473]

Replying to an extremely old comment here, but I also wish they could've voiced the skits in later releases. Unfortunately the voice cast for this game was absolutely stacked with well-known and talented voiceover performers, and getting all of them back on the same project would be a huge task. Huge enough, apparently, that they didn't even get many of the original voice actors to reprise their roles in the sequel. Which definitely hurts the sequel quite a lot.

[@Abysslover91]

@@noisepollution4473 if I recall only Colette and kratos actors returned in dawn if the new world

[@CrocvsGator]

Alright, I have an original gamecube copy I got from a yardsale a few years ago, and a wii, but I haven't had time to play it. I don't know many spoilers, but is it true to get the full experience you have to play through multiple times?

[@GamingBroductions]

Not at all. There are some costumes you can only get on certain playthroughs along with some very minor differences in a few scenes based on your affection rating but these alone wouldn’t warrant multiple playthroughs IMO. The biggest thing is probably the option to recruit an extra character near the end that changes the last 5 or so hours of the game and is technically the non-canonical path, but you could always just create another save before that part to experience both endings if you wanted. Since you’ll be playing the Gamecube version, recruiting this extra character is always a possibility for you no matter what your affection ratings look like so you don’t have to worry about messing this up (just make sure you look up how to do so when reaching Flanoir if you do decide to)

[@CrocvsGator]

@@GamingBroductions Thanks! Gotta say, that eases a lot off my mind. I'm fine with last second ending choices in something relatively short, such as Bastion for example. But in a long form RPG I get nervous. Also why games like the Witcher series and Disco Elysium kinda terrify me, making a choice with long term consequences every quest or do kinda terrifies me.

[@GamingBroductions]

@@CrocvsGator No problem. Definitely feel you there, sometimes when there’s so much extra missable side content it can be pretty overwhelming and intimidate me from playing the game

[@McHumaty]

Baten Kaitos...

[@FelixS.]

Baten Kaitos Origins, Paper Mario 2

[@mage1over137]

The GameCube is the ultimate gaming machine as it is the only system capable of running Tales of Symphonia at 60 fps. A truly amazing piece of hardware.

[@MaI2Me]

Not the PAL GameCube unfortunately 😐

[@adalEun]

You didnt appreciate the deepness of Presea's story? Her and Regal have a horrifying backstory together