The Masterman's blog

Hey everyone, I decided to start up a review site online for movies, game, and that's probably it. Thought it'd be a cool idea to start with the blog on Neoseeker. So here's my first game review, Tales of Symphonia for the Nintendo Gamecube!

Symphonia is unique in many ways. Very lovable characters and a storyline that really makes you want to keep playing. I'll start off with a quick backstory taken pretty much from the game (Not sure if it's exact since I'm reciting this from memory.
"Once upon a time, there existed a giant tree that was the source of mana. A war however, caused the tree to wither away, and a heroes life was sacrificed in order to take it's place. Grieving over the loss, the Goddess dissapeared unto the heavens. She left the angels with this edict, 'You must wake me. For if I should sleep, the world will be destroyed.' The angels bore the Chosen One, who headed to the tower that reached up unto the heavens. And that, marked the regeneration of the world."

Now if nothing else, it has a kick ass opening musical scene and then this to just get you pumped. The story starts out with the main protagonist, Lloyd Irving, standing in a classroom hearing about the history of the world. Sleeping. Sleeping while standing holding water buckets. You can tell this guy is going to be awesome! After the history part of the game, a bright light flashes from up in the mountains. It's the signal for the Chosen One, Lloyd's best friend Colette Brunel. A bunch of stuff happens and the little town of Iselia that they live in gets destroyed. Lloyd starts on a path of redemption of sorts and travels around with Colette releasing the seals. Along their journey, they meet lots of awesome individuals. Some of them join your party. These people along with Lloyd and Colette are Genis Sage, a young spell caster half elf. Raine Sage, his older sister that is skilled in healing artes. Kratos Aurion, one of my favorite characters in the game that makes you think he's just a mercenary. Sheena Fujibayashi, a ninja from another world. Zelos Wilder, that other world's Chosen One (Yes there's two.) Presea Combatir, a young girl at the appearance of about 14-16 that works as a wood cutter. And Regal Bryant, an escaped convict that was sent to murder the Chosen One(s).

Most of the party members are pretty awesome. I never really liked Raine or Presea's whole story, but that's just me. The antagonists of the game are also rather incredible. In fact, you'll fight up to 4 out of 9 of your party members by the end of the game. You just can't trust anyone these days. Other antagonists also actually include a lot of angels that are trying to basically rule the world. Now come on, which other game can you think of that has the angels as the bad and corrupted guys? None that I can think of.

Now that you know a lot of the backstory, I can give you my full honest review. This is one of the best games that I have played in my entire life! Granted that I am only 15 years old, but I've played a lot of the classics. Some people might not pick up this game just because of the cover art. It's Japanese. Get over it. This is a truly incredible game. Also "Don't choose a book by it's cover." Yeah remember that while you are picking out video games to play. Anyway, since this game has awesome characters, an incredible storyline, and even walking around on the world map is fun. (You get to ride a giant dog thing!) I'd probably give this game....
A 9 out of 10. I'm usually a harsh critic, but this game deserves that rating. Don't forget to check out the Tales wiki on Neoseeker (along with the rest of the wikis) and feel free to contribute all you know about well... anything!