Weekly Suspension For This Week Only
I’m doing something different this
week than the regular rundown, which will be back to normal next week. It’ll be
taking up both this week and next hopefully. Been kind of a slow news week, so
I am using the Weekly Rundown to run a review of and promote a game. And not
just a review which I am doing, but also a kind of promotion for the game, and
the anime version of it. The title of the game you wonder that has me so
infatuated to use that term to its best here I believe, is this.
THE
TALES OF SYMPHONIA
First off to make a few things here
clear. This is one of my favorite games,
along with Skies of Arcadia: Legends, and Beyond Good and Evil. The anime came
from the game itself. Not the other way around. The game has an IGN rating of
8.5 as well. The game is listed as an RPG, and it isn’t bad as one either, as
there are a few different scenarios created by your choices. Since I don’t
really know which to start with first, I will first say this. I got this game
for like 3 bucks at the used video game store we use to have here about 10
miles away about 2 weeks after the games release date here. I hadn’t even heard
of it, which is nothing new as I play a lot of multi-player games for
competitions here at home. Mario party, Mario kart, golf, battle, San Francisco
Rush, Burnout 2 Point of Impact, etc. Most RPG games I played were 1-2 player
at best. This one is up to 4 players, all the way through it. It was released
for the Nintendo GameCube originally. I put the game in and played for around
45 minutes or so to learn how the game worked as I usually do and ten start
over after learning the controls of it. Folks, I played this game for 52 hours
straight. Yeah, I hit the bathroom, and refilled my mug and that was it.
Outside of that, I was playing the game. It isn’t the animation of it, as it is
at best a 2.5d game. But the story and the characters grabbed me, and wouldn’t
let me go. It’s a 2 disk game on the GameCube, and after my nap I got up and
played another 36 hours straight in order to finish it. And then I immediately
started it over again. And now on to the actual review of the game itself.
You are basically supposed to run Lloyd
when running alone. He is the main character and it is just easier to do so. You
start off in school, sound asleep standing up holding two buckets of water in
your hands. Yeah, you’re one of those students. Anyway, to make this quick and
simple about what is happening is this. You are friends with one known as
Collette, She is the chosen to regenerate the world. You are an orphan that was
raised by a dwarf when he found you in your dying mother’s arms. The exsphere
on your hand gives you great abilities, but was also the reason that your
father killed your mother, after it turned her into a monster. And you father
is a member of the group that is going to kill the chosen, that is at war with
another group called the Renegades that also want to kill the chosen, and you
see where this is going right. You don’t know your dad, you want to protect
your friend, which your heart there also gets you banished form the village, while
at the same time being best friends with a half elf, that are the Desians that that
killed your mother, and use the chosen. And the Renegade leader, and dad, and
others are all angles that can basically kick your behind in a heartbeat. So
you get involved in the quest of the chosen to save Sylvarant, which also ends
up in a quest to save a second world called Tethealla that sent an assassin
through the dimensional barrier to kill the chosen of Sylvarant to ensure the
flow of mana to their world so that it would not go into decline as Sylvarant
is now as it’s mana flows to Tethealla. If the chosen makes it, then the mana
flow reverses, and Sylvarant will flourish, as Tethealla wanes as it loses its
life force.
All
this sound confusing yet? Play the bloody game and you will see what I mean by
all this, as I have explained it only half, and without revealing too much
either. And now as to the anime. PLAY THE BLOODY GAME FIRST. Seriously people,
go out, but a GameCube, and buy the game, and play it before you watch the
anime. The game in this case is like the book compared to the movie. The game
has so much more info, and in fact thought he story line is the same, the game
does it does much better as you get so much more information about everything.
Now, why am I bringing up a game
that was released for the GameCube back in 2004, well, that’s easy. It’s being
re-released in HD for the PS3. Let’s be honest, there is only so much your can
do with it in the case of the animation unless you bloody well start over at
the beginning. Apparently it will be bundling both Tales of Symphonia and its
sequel, (which is just bad) in the same game system. Either way, go play the
original game, or at least watch the anime version of it. It is not dubbed, it
is only subtitled so far, and I despise subtitles to the point of blowing up
the entire planet. And I have watched it twice now, and now watching it a third
time writing this up. Now that is with subtitles only, and I am still recommending
it. And I’m the guy who reacts to subtitles like I would to someone telling me
the Earth is flat and only 6000 years old. Same reaction, but in this case, it
is Tales Of Symphonia, and Lloyd, Colette, Genis, Raine, Sheena, Regal, Kratos,
etc. And you run alone up to four characters at once int he game. And you can
set what they do as well. I set Raine to healing, and use Lloyd, Genis, and ??????, to go into battle with. And just so you know, if you cried when Giant
Robot apparently dies, then this will rip your fracking heart out of you at one
point. It did me, and I’m not ashamed to admit it. I then went on the hunt to kill everything,
go back and kill it again if possible, and make sure I never lose another fight
again. Yeah folks, it actually brought
tears to my eyes during a boss fight, and the anime of course is no better for
me there now. Seriously, there is a
point in that game and everyone I know who has played it agrees, that that is
the first one. And then there is another as you end up going alone that will
rip you heart to the point that you don’t care if you win or lose. You just
want to hurt that %*%@$^%^%%#^%.
to Sylvarant and
Tethealla to fight again.
It’s a great game, one that I
personally rate a 10 or higher, and the anime is actually
pretty good as
well. So go play the game, or watch the anime, and learn how to live your life.
Yeah, it’s one
of those as well folks. And I am now going to go watch episode 3 again, as I
set
up my GameCube
to play that game again for about the 15th time. And yeah, there are
secrets
I haven’t mentioned
here of course. Go find your own bloody special blades that work for you.
Luck all, enjoy,
and see you in Symphonia.
Here is a link to the game opening.
And here is the link to episode 1.
