Well, here it is, my long-awaited review of the game that I previously previewed and gave my first impression on from E3. So now, time for the million-dollar question - what do I think of one of the first RPG's exclusive to the GameCube?

In a word: awesome.

Hell yeah, beyotch!

Tales of Symphonia is, quite simply, an incredible game. Although some may be turned away from it due to a dislike for RPG's, fans of the genre will find nearly nothing to hate here. Tales of Symphonia is one of the best adventure games to come out this year, and is completely deserving of the surprising level of success it has attained.

This is the story of Lloyd, a young swordsman living just outside of the village of Iselia on the planet Sylvarant. Sylvarant is a dying world - quickly losing its supply of Mana, the energy that supports life. Colette, Lloyd's sort-of girlfriend, is in training to be the chosen of Mana, who must complete the regeneration of the world to bring Mana back to Sylvarant, and become an angel. Together with Genis, a young mage, his older schoolteacher sister Raine, and Kratos, the mysterious mercenary, Lloyd and Collete go on a journey to regenerate the world and battle the evil forces of the Desians…at least, that's how the storyline starts out. Tales of Symphonia is filled with more twists than a Twizzler, and although most RPG veterans will see them coming a mile away, that doesn't make them any bit less shocking when they occur.

In all, the story addresses many ethical issues, such as discrimination, class struggles, and the right to live. The story is one of determination and grit, and the desire to overcome all - just like practically every other RPG. It isn't bad, but it is riddled with clichés. Taking elements from Norse mythology, science fiction, and the standard little bit of Tolkien is fine, but it isn't something that we haven't seen before, especially from Square. The use of a magical female and her clan of protectors was used as recently as Final Fantasy X. The characters also seem to be derived from the "Big Book of RPG Stereotypes" - the young cocky swordsman, the older/wiser/stoic mercenary, and Colette, who nearly fits the bill of the RPG stereotype known as the "Mary Sue" (a female character who is dumb as a brick, klutzy as hell, a weak fighter, and completely dependant on the main character). That said, we do get some interesting characters, like Presea, a little girl with pink hair who happens to brandish an enormous axe. Or Regal, a fighting character and escaped convict who, with his hands bound by cuffs, fights only with his feet. These interesting additions make for a unique experience, and even though the other characters are cut-outs, you still gain a sense of attraction to them and their story, which is exactly what an RPG is supposed to evoke. What also makes this game unique is the way the game responds to every aspect of the characters in the story. An example of this is the skit system - at times, an indicator will appear to initiate a skit between characters to get their impressions on certain aspects and parts of the story. In all, this system should give story-hungry RPG fans what they are looking for, and those that could care less will be happy to know that nearly all of them are optional.

With all those moves combined, I don't think the enemy is getting up after.

One of the most important parts of the game is the relationships the other characters have with the main character, Lloyd. Throughout the game, there are several opportunities to increase or decrease your relationships with other characters, which can have a major effect on how the game is played, and even the ending itself. What is unique about this is this is the first time such a feature was put into a game of this genre, and it adds a new, unique dimension to the gameplay.

Graphics-wise, this is one of the best looking games to be released for the Cube all year. Everything is cel-shaded, which it really adds to the game's anime feel - as I said, it can feel like you're actually in an anime. Brought to life by anime and Tales veteran Kosuke Fujishima, the characters suffer from the same cliché drawbacks as the rest of the game, and don't look like the exploding visions of color and life one sees from a Square-Enix Final Fantasy title. They also tend to have an animated super-deformed style, similar to a previous Namco RPG, Xenosaga - however, these things are not necessarily bad, just measures of taste. If you can get beyond that, though, the characters look great, and although they tend not to show a lot of emotion when they speak, their movements are fluid and well-executed. May of the monsters and enemies players will fight look very cool, but sometimes can be a tad silly, and a bit overdone, since some stronger monsters are just recolors or retools of previous ones.

One of the best parts of the game is the incredibly vast overworld, which looks absolutely incredible. Although it is a tad underdetailed, it truly gives the impression of being and traveling within an enormous place - there are literally tons and tons of places to go. Fortunately, gamers easily overwhelmed by things like this will be happy to know that there are vehicles that can be attained within the game to make travel much easier, especially in the second world, where things are more disjointed. The towns and villages players will travel through look much better on the detail side, and all of them look vast, varied, and unique. The cutscenes look great too - mostly CGI with some anime occasionally thrown in, but there isn't a lot of them, which can be a good thing or a bad thing depending what kind of gamer you are.

Magic Spinning Loose Change!

However, the best part of this game is by far, the gameplay. Tales of Symphonia - like all of the previous Tales games - makes use of a unique real-time battle system, as opposed to the usual turn-based strategic borefests of the Final Fantasy games. When a battle begins, players can play as Lloyd (or any of the other characters in the party) and battle, utilizing the A-button in conjunction with the control stick to attack from different areas and angles (even from the air), while X defends. Don't think that players will just be able to button mash their way to victory - players will also need to make use of various magic attacks and techniques, all which can be executed with the B button. Although this may seem like a daunting venture to go into alone, players will not often be put in that situation, as the helpful party members will be assisting, taking on the other enemies with their own personal fighting styles. However, they are completely uncontrollable - sort of. One of the best parts of the game in my opinion is the many different levels of control to support everyone's tastes within the battle system. The game is extremely customizable, with total control over the thought processes of the AI-controlled characters - you can set them so they use magic attacks or heal at a certain point, attack certain opponents, use only special techniques, and so forth. If you'd rather just leave them on the default settings, the AI is good enough so that you won't worry about characters using uber-powerful spells against weak enemies or healing when all characters have full health. Also, if you'd rather play in a style similar to a turn-based RPG, simply make all of the characters under Automatic control, so players will give out orders instead of directly fight. However, the best part is that up to 3 players can join in the battles in multiplayer mode - although I didn't try this, one would think this would be a lot of fun. The score was done by veteran composers Takeshi Arai, Motoi Sakuraba, and Shinji Tamura, who all did a great job at creating a sweeping, epic orchestral score - the only problem with it being that the amount of songs are a bit repetitive, so it isn't uncommon to hear songs several times in a row. However, where the game truly shines is in the voice acting - always a hit or miss with most games. Namco made sure to be right on the ball with Tales of Symphonia, as they obtained the services of such veteran voice actors as Scott Menville (Robin in Teen Titans), Jennifer Hale (Alexandra Roivas in Eternal Darkness), Cam Clarke (Liquid Snake in Metal Gear Solid 2, as well as He-Man in Masters of the Universe), and Tara Strong (Rikku in Final Fantasy X and X-2, as well as Bubbles in The Powerpuff Girls). The fact that Namco got such veterans shows that they truly made an effort in localizing the game, and all involved do a great job. My only qualm is that since the game seems to be translated directly from the Japanese, some lines can sound a bit awkward, and sometimes the actors tend to emphasize the wrong words - but overall, everything is done really well. For those that can't stand dub voice actors (or voice acting in general), there is thankfully an option to turn it off, not to mention the fact that voice acting is reserved for the major scenes only.

In all, what more can I say about this game? This is the best RPG available for the GameCube, and one of the best pure adventures to come out so far this year. The artistic graphics, excellent soundtrack and voice acting, and most of all, the distinctive and fun gameplay make Tales of Symphonia one of the best RPGs I've ever played, and one of the few I can truly consider "fun". I had a blast playing this game, and it is good to see so many are doing the same. This game is well worth the price of admission if you enjoy RPGs, and even those that don't should give it a look.