Tales of Symphonia
It’s rare that a game with seemingly bad graphics has a storyline so compelling that you barely notice. Not since Final Fantasy VII back in 1998 has a game even come close.
FFVII fans remember the horrible polygonic stylings of Cloud Strife. None-the-less, most RPG fans, when asked “What’s your favorite game?” will reply “FFVII”. The game had an amazing storyline that sucked you in from the beginning. You thought about that game day and night until it was beaten. Then you had a small amount of sadness in your heart that it was over.
Back to Tales… This game is quite possibly on par with FFVII, which is no easy task. The fact that it’s not a Square Enix game makes it even more surprising.
At any rate, I’ve been playing Tales of Symphonia for 8+ hours a sitting. For 7 years, I’ve longed for a game to match that experience of FFVII. FFX was good, but somehow not the same. Everyone thought FFVIII was a disappointment.
Tales is a nearly perfect experience. You start out with one simple mission… regenerate (save) the world. Twenty five hours deep, you find that mission has evolved into something you couldn’t possibly imagine.
I’m done rambling. Buy this game now if you like RPGs. It’s fucking brilliant.
I’m going to play now. I’ll prolly be sitting there until 3pm… but that’s the excellence of games like this. Time is meaningless while you’re playing.