VesperiaBack when I restarted What Goes Here I mentioned something about doing game reviews. Recently a comment made by the lovely hea777 made me reconsider my priorities and I figured, ehh, why not? So without any further ado, my first ‘review’:

One of my favorite games on the Gamecube is Tales of Symphonia. Back in the day the only RPGs I was familiar with were Pokémon and Lufia. Needless to say my knowledge about them was lacking at best. Until one day, a very clear day I might add, I saw the light. Sitting there in the store shelf was Tales of Symphonia. Now, back then I wasn’t really into Anime, but having watched both Dragonball Z and Pokémon, the anime styled boxart peaked my interest. The game was priced at 50 Euros, which was quite steep for a 15 year old student to pay, but with the few funds I had earned stocking shelves like a lifeless robot, I left the shop with a game that would change my views on RPGs forever.

As you may or may not have noticed, Symphonia was – and still is - one of my favorite games for the Gamecube. While the game wasn’t perfect, it had a pretty good balance between action typed RPGs and traditional RPGs. The one thing that really made me love it was the combat system. Unlike Pokémon and Final Fantasy where you have to wait in an unrealistic manner – it’s like waiting to get your hamburger at Burger King -, Tales of Symphonia offers an interactive and fast-paced combat system. Rest assured that when selecting skills or items the game will briefly pause gameplay, so that you can select it at your own pace. The story, while riddled with clichés manages to stay interesting somehow. This is quite a feat considering the game spans two discs combining a total of 40 hours of solid gameplay.

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