Lightning Tiger Blade!
I just beat Tales of Symphonia for the second time. I think TOS is possibly the best RPG I've every played (and I've played Chrono Trigger).
For one thing, the battle system is much more involved than selecting moves and hoping they work, as in your typical RPG. You learn new moves depending on your character's EX skills, making your gameplay the second time around almost entirely different from the first. There's a feel of a more combined effort in the battle since it's in real time, instead of one person issuing everyone's orders in turns. Unison attacks was my favorite improvement from Tales of Phantasia's battle system, from which TOS's is based on. One day, I'd really like to try playing with other people. I'd even let someone else be Lloyd, as my best character is Presea. When I play alone however, computer controlled Lloyd is as lame as Regal.
I also love the story, and how much you learn as you play through the game. At the beginning, all you know is the old legend about awaking the "goddess" Martel which will "regenerate" the world. But once you play about four hours of the game, you know that's not all there is to it! From the moment Remial the angel reveals that Colette isn't his daughter, the story takes quite a turn. The evil Desian organization is actually in cahoots with the Cruxus, appearing in the declining world. Wait, there are actually two worlds? What the heck? How could a human actually split one world into two? This journey just became a lot more than you bargained for!
Lastly is the moral of the story. Well, not so much a moral as a recurring theme. As in Phantasia, but on a much larger scale, half-elves are treated like scum. The poor treatment of half-elves is brought up constantly, as it is the very reason why Mithos the hero became a fallen hero. This is another reason why I like Symphonia, as well as Phantasia; the bad guy actually has a valid reason for doing what they do. Dhaos of Phantasia was trying to stop the foolish world from using the mana cannon and depleting the world's mana. He truely cared about Yggdrasill (the tree of mana; it's the tree that was born in the end of Symphonia) and would do anything to stop the idiot humans, even attack them. Mithos Yggdrasill of Symphonia was a half-elf and understandably pissed at humans and elves for hating him and his sister Martel. Martel's dying wish was to create a world without discrimination. Unfortunately, Mithos twisted this wish into "let's turn everyone into lifeless beings, devoid of feeling, and therefore would not be able to discriminate." Good intentions, bad execution.
So I'm starting over the game for a third time. I earned enough grade this time around to get the experience x10 powerup. That's another thing I like, changing the game at the beginning by purchasing add-ons. One costly powerup is to keep the special attacks you learned, though I think that would make the game a little too easy, especially at the beginning. Then again, you'd barely have enough TP to use even one attack at the beginning, wouldn't you?
For one thing, the battle system is much more involved than selecting moves and hoping they work, as in your typical RPG. You learn new moves depending on your character's EX skills, making your gameplay the second time around almost entirely different from the first. There's a feel of a more combined effort in the battle since it's in real time, instead of one person issuing everyone's orders in turns. Unison attacks was my favorite improvement from Tales of Phantasia's battle system, from which TOS's is based on. One day, I'd really like to try playing with other people. I'd even let someone else be Lloyd, as my best character is Presea. When I play alone however, computer controlled Lloyd is as lame as Regal.
I also love the story, and how much you learn as you play through the game. At the beginning, all you know is the old legend about awaking the "goddess" Martel which will "regenerate" the world. But once you play about four hours of the game, you know that's not all there is to it! From the moment Remial the angel reveals that Colette isn't his daughter, the story takes quite a turn. The evil Desian organization is actually in cahoots with the Cruxus, appearing in the declining world. Wait, there are actually two worlds? What the heck? How could a human actually split one world into two? This journey just became a lot more than you bargained for!
Lastly is the moral of the story. Well, not so much a moral as a recurring theme. As in Phantasia, but on a much larger scale, half-elves are treated like scum. The poor treatment of half-elves is brought up constantly, as it is the very reason why Mithos the hero became a fallen hero. This is another reason why I like Symphonia, as well as Phantasia; the bad guy actually has a valid reason for doing what they do. Dhaos of Phantasia was trying to stop the foolish world from using the mana cannon and depleting the world's mana. He truely cared about Yggdrasill (the tree of mana; it's the tree that was born in the end of Symphonia) and would do anything to stop the idiot humans, even attack them. Mithos Yggdrasill of Symphonia was a half-elf and understandably pissed at humans and elves for hating him and his sister Martel. Martel's dying wish was to create a world without discrimination. Unfortunately, Mithos twisted this wish into "let's turn everyone into lifeless beings, devoid of feeling, and therefore would not be able to discriminate." Good intentions, bad execution.
So I'm starting over the game for a third time. I earned enough grade this time around to get the experience x10 powerup. That's another thing I like, changing the game at the beginning by purchasing add-ons. One costly powerup is to keep the special attacks you learned, though I think that would make the game a little too easy, especially at the beginning. Then again, you'd barely have enough TP to use even one attack at the beginning, wouldn't you?