These are predominantly text or voiced in-game conversations, short “skits” featuring animated character portraits, and infrequent flashy cutscenes. Secondly, the storytelling moments are frequent enough to keep you on track and there’s a handy synopsis if you get sidetracked. However, Tales of Symphonia has three things going for it that many JRPGs from that time do not: Firstly, the entire cast is likeable and rarely annoying, even if they’re all common archetypes. In classic JRPG fashion, nothing is that simple and the group of mostly under-age warriors have to fulfill prophecies, travel between parallel worlds, suffer betrayals and redemption arcs, go up against almost every other faction, and ultimately find a magical McGuffin that can save both worlds.Īs wild as that might sound, there are few genuine surprises for JRPG veterans. The world of Sylverant requires a “Chosen of Regeneration” to go on a world-spanning journey, overcome many trials to prove themselves, ascend the “Tower of Salvation”, and awaken a slumbering god to defeat the half-elf Desians and restore the flow of mana – something that has been thwarted by evil forces for the last 800 years. On the upside, the narrative is dense, convoluted, and compelling – if predictable. If nothing else, it serves as an awkward reminder of very different times. For its part, Tales of Symphonia has cartoonish, squeaky-voiced characters hurling racial insults (think dwarf, elf, human, and “half breeds”) soldiers burning down settlements while using terms you’d associate with genocide “ranches” with human slaves, death quotas, and implied forced reproduction fanatical religions willing to sacrifice children and the frequent physical abuse of minors for comedic purposes. Returning to Tales of Symphonia constantly reminded me of how many JRPGs from the 1990s and 2000s followed the same basic quest structure, tackled similar themes, and did a staggeringly awful job handling heavy topics. Personally, Tales of Symphonia Remastered‘s biggest problem is that it was released during a dominant period for JRPGs and all too often looks, sounds, and plays like any number of other JRPGs from circa. With the GameCube source code seemingly lost, this remaster is based on that PS2 port (and the subsequent PS3 port) and saddled with the same framerate limitation – something I honestly didn’t find too significant given the real-time take on JRPG combat is still perfectly responsive. Purists are quick to point out that Tales of Symphonia was a visually striking and fluid 60fps GameCube title before the 30fps PlayStation 2 emerged – a port brought with it bug fixes, new combat moves, tougher bosses, and new story scenes. Tales of Symphonia Remastered has the unenviable status of being a port, of a port, of a divisive port.
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