Tales of Symphonia Remastered Evaluation (PS4)

Nonetheless some of the extremely regarded instalments in Namco’s long-running sequence, Tales of Symphonia could possibly be thought of a basic. Certainly, it is simple neglect that the sport’s nearly 20 years previous — and Tales of Symphonia Remastered exhibits that the journey really holds up surprisingly properly.

The storytelling’s a bit ragged, and a few gameplay parts — like traversing the world map — have aged poorly, however the principle characters stay a enjoyable bunch, the journey itself is all the time entertaining, and the fight system is stable.

The plot is all concerning the ‘Chosen’ — a, er, chosen one that should embark on a pilgrimage to avoid wasting the world. On this case, the Chosen is a lady named Collette, who simply so occurs to be the childhood good friend of protagonist Lloyd — a reckless younger man who stumbles into the position of Collette’s guardian as she units off on her quest. Whereas the overarching story has its cliches, Lloyd and the gang carry the narrative. They are a actually endearing group, and there is nice chemistry between them due to some sharp and infrequently comedic writing.

In fact, your get together members are additionally key to fight. Symphonia arguably laid the foundations for Tales titles going ahead, with its emphasis on combos, fast motion, and various combating types. By immediately’s requirements, it is a comparatively fundamental system — and the controls are maybe a bit stiff — however battering monsters remains to be satisfying. There is a actually gratifying circulate to fights as you study to accurately time your assaults, pinning your foes in place with the assistance of your AI-controlled allies.

Given simply how properly Symphonia has aged as a complete, it is a disgrace that this remaster feels so barebones. Except for an apparent decision bump, the visible enhancements are fairly negligible, with muddy environmental textures and backgrounds betraying an artwork type that also pops. Even the menus look like barely enhanced as textual content, icons, and character portraits can stay fairly blurry. What’s extra, the sport’s capped at a disappointing 30 frames-per-second, and the frequent load screens may be only a contact too lengthy — even while you’re taking part in on PS5 by backwards compatibility.

Near 20 years later, Tales of Symphonia Remastered is a reminder of how neatly crafted the unique GameCube and PS2 title was. Barring a number of tough edges, that is nonetheless an excellent motion RPG, stuffed with attraction and character. The one actual draw back is that the remaster itself leaves rather a lot to be desired.