Tales of Symphonia Text Review and Story Breakdown: Introduction

With the PS3 re-release of this classic RPG on its way in just a couple days, I figured I’d post my satirical review of the story while it’s relevant! One or two updates per week until I’m done with them.

As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, I wrote this script a few years back when replaying Tales of Symphonia, meaning to turn it into a lengthy video review. My heart wasn’t in it when I tried recording, though, because I’m not versed in the language of cinema and video.

That said, no reason to let it go to waste. I may not love making video reviews, but I do love Tales of Symphonia. You’ll just have to use your imagination and memory at some points where clips would have been. =P

My script is incredibly long because the game is incredibly long, so here are the tl;dr takeaways if you want to read something specific:

Part 1: Beginning – Magnius at Palmacosta

  • 1-1: Colette is written unbelievably inconsistently from the first five minutes
  • 1-2: Lloyd gets verbal smackdowns all the time early on and has a chip on his shoulder
  • 1-3: Tales of Symphonia starts a lot like Secret of Mana; also, dat Dragon Quest VII hero design
  • 1-4: Lloyd “stop apologizing, you dork!” Irving actually apologizes more than Colette
  • 1-5: What’s so weird about wings? Foreshadowing?
  • 1-6: The first big heroic deed in Palmacosta raises the classical problem of evil, which secretly raises the classical Münchhausen Trilemma and Cartesian doubt and Humean skepticism and many other things; the game dismisses this pretty quickly, but I don’t

Part 2: Saving Palmacosta – Defeating Kvar

  • 2-7: Lots of standing around during Magnius’ monologue when taking action would have helped
  • 2-8: Lloyd “you’re not allowed to apologize any more” Irving has still apologized more than Colette by the time of the second scene (is this just a translation thing?); also, Noishe is a Pokémon
  • 2-9: Raine “Sage” and “Genius” “Sage” can’t interpret the Book of Regeneration correctly but Colette can
  • 2-10: There is no part 2-10
  • 2-11: Dwarven Vow #11 is secretly the game’s most brilliant foreshadowing; also, turning into an angel seems like a positive
  • 2-12: Only Colette and Sheena are called clumsy but actually the whole party is; in fact, Lloyd even goofs up getting revenge on the guy who killed his mother

Part 3: Post-Kvar Fallout – Tower of Salvation Preparation

  • 3-13: The party is 100% sure that the angel transformation is bad and can be reversed, but neither is necessarily true
  • 3-14: Sheena needs an outfit change if she wants people to assume she’s pure and the Tower of Mana could theoretically have been skipped
  • 3-15: Turning into an angel finally seems negative when Colette loses her voice; meanwhile, Lloyd doesn’t understand that food is important
  • 3-16: Lloyd and Colette aren’t yet shown as heroes, but that makes them heroes all the more
  • 3-17: Colette and death in fiction in general hinge on character appreciation

Part 4: Tower of Salvation – Meltokio Sewers

  • 4-18: Dracula’s got the score on Colette and the entire plot up to this point
  • 4-19: Seven irrefutable proofs that Noishe must be a Pokémon (and the Renegades are bigger bunglers than Team Rocket)
  • 4-20: Girls with red hair are stellar, guys who wear pink are awesome, and Zelos is amazing; also, hints of Lloyd+Sheena (deredere), Colette+Zelos (tsundere), and Genis+Presea (ordinary crush)
  • 4-21: I can’t believe it’s not midi-chlorians and speciesism!
  • 4-22: Zelos is instantly as clumsy as everyone else except Presea and even Symphonia can’t save sewers

Part 5: Meltokio – Rescuing Colette

  • 5-23: Colette/Zelos OTP yo (no, really, they’re eerily parallel characters and honest only with each other)
  • 5-24: Sheena hates fun, Lloyd is tired of human nature, and Presea and Regal are thematically redundant story-wise
  • 5-25: Sheena’s character moves forward in Mizuho, but Rodyle sets up an amazing tee ball for Colette’s character and then nothing happens with it; also, those terrible Regal lines

Dreamblazers Devlog: Week of February 17, 2014

Last week’s achievements

* Fixed some issues with stat growth
* Set up character classes, stat growth, and starting equipment for Celty and Leaf
* Preliminarily finalized HP and EP regeneration rates
* Got gameplay functional and flavor text written for status effects: Last Stand, Asleep, Berserk, Bound – Arms/Legs/Full, Burning, Crystallized, Disoriented, Fatigued, Frozen, Oiled, Paralyzed, Sealed, Stunned, Watered, and one effect that’s too spoiler-y to mention here (note: not all of these effects may make it into the final game)
* Wrote flavor text for status effects: Confused, Flustered, Frozen, Poisoned, Spasming, Tempted, Tranquilized (these are not functional)
* Set up character classes and stat growth for Tango, Evelyn, Lucky, Telia, Cecille, Flute, Relany, Jig, Sakura, Astrid, Jelia, Kelly, Besarre, Jun, Ardis, Lash, Saga, and Spring

Current focus

I might not get much accomplished this week, actually, but if I do it’s gameplay as always. If art drafts come in, I’ll take care of those.

Weekly goals

See comments.

Comments

My need for a new computer is too apparent now; as one example, today I had to restart twice just so I could open any Internet browser. Last week I also had to redo about seventy minutes that were lost when I crashed Unity—and there was another time when I crashed my computer five seconds after making a backup in Unity. I spent the whole restart cycle praying I hadn’t lost anything and, as it turns out, I didn’t! Hey, I do believe prayer pans out, but all the same I believe it’s time to get some technology on my side too. =P So I’m looking into that and the transition from one computer to a new one is never as simple as I’d like it to be.

In addition, while I’ve thrown out all pretensions of ever creating a 140-minute video review of Tales of Symphonia because Dreamblazers is my focus, I figured I’d at least post the script since it’s already written—it only needs a little cleanup to make it sensible in a blog format. The PS3 re-release comes out in less than ten days now and this is my second favorite single-player RPG and a huge influence for me, so I wanted to do a little something for the tenth anniversary. =)

All that said, can’t imagine a week where I don’t get anything done on the game design front, so I’m sure I’ll have something here for the next devlog post.

Dreamblazers Devlog: Week of February 10, 2014

Last week’s achievements

* Art feedback round 1 sent for Autumn, Hikaru, Kylie
* Created structure for fashion style structure
* Finalized equipment stats and wrote flavor text for: Ribboned Hat, Swimline Single, Turmoil Tunic (?)**, Adamanvine Armlet, Sidelopped Skirt (?)**, Star Sneakers, Customized Coat, Kittyara, Swimline Split, Synergy Mail, Alternating Armwear, Songwoven Skirt, Silent Sandals, Mystery Manacle, Randomizing Polish
* Know how to set up all passive abilities involving changing stats, preventing status effects, or inflicting status effects
* Preliminarily finalized damage formula
* Set up stat growth formula (I’d already Excelled out what it was before last week, just hadn’t implemented)
* Wrote area flavor text for: Natsuki Crater Forest, Impini Mountain Base, Impedi Wooded Base, Winny Spring, Deltaru Tri-Port, Seaside Slime Cove, Den of Kobolds and the Unicorn, Unknown Village, Miharu Capital Palace, Boomerang Sanctuary, Forbidden Peak, Secret Sylvan Stage, Mermaids’ Getaway, Spring Lake Valley, Spring Lake Deep Glade, The Royal Tail Fin

**These are parts of the names

Current focus

If any more character design drafts come in, I’m very likely to pounce on them so that my artist Flora and I can “parallel process” since we do different things. Other than that, nailing battles will consume me for the foreseeable future.

Weekly goals

* Push ahead toward the current long-term goal of ironing out the basic balance of battles: how many attacks to end average battle, how many hits can squishy vs. tanky vs. squishy-but-regenerating playable characters survive, how much damage will status effects do, etc.
* In the here and now, that means finalizing various formulas and the relative strength of different techniques and magic
* Send art feedback for at least half of any next rounds of characters if they come in
* Might need to look into buying a new computer…

Comments

Last week was my first time trying out the magic of written goals. I overdelivered on art feedback and far overdelivered on flavor text, but only half-delivered on passive abilities and overestimated how much I could do in a week with battle balance. Not a problem, though! Because of what I decided to focus on, I did set up a few battle necessities, like stat growth and initial equipment. It also had a natural segue into implementing the first half of the style system since I was already setting up equipment.

And, anyway, I’d always intended to aim higher than I believe I can achieve, then adjust along the way. In this case, I know I can set higher expectations than before for what I can do with text and feedback, but with the battles it’s more of a long-term goal with several checkpoints. Definitely not gonna go all Twilight Sparkle here and create a checklist of things I need to create a checklist, though!

Dreamblazers Devlog: Week of February 3, 2014

Last week’s achievements

* Character profile and direction sent to Flora for Astrid, Autumn, Hikaru, Kylie
* Art feedback round 3 sent for Celty

Current focus

Gameplay, gameplay, gameplay.
And art and flavor text as I have time or desire.

Weekly goals

* Iron out basic balance of battles: how many attacks to end average battle, how many hits can squishy vs. tanky vs. squishy-but-regenerating playable characters survive, how much damage do status effects do, etc.
* Get at least ten passive battle abilities functioning properly
* Send art feedback for at least two characters out of Autumn, Hikaru, and Kylie
* Write descriptions for ten or more equipment pieces

Comments

Over 1000 hours in Pokémon X and Y is a clear sign that I value battles in an RPG. It’s no different for my own Dreamblazers! Even though exploration is right there in the title and is absolutely crucial, I still believe that if I can’t get battles right, nothing else matters. Not to me, anyway. =)

23 Things Secret of Mana and Tales of Symphonia Share In Common

As noticed by someone who’s played each at least half a dozen times! I’d rank Tales of Symphonia easily in my top ten games of all-time and a lot of that came from how familiar it felt. I truly wonder how much I would have enjoyed it if I hadn’t played Secret of Mana over a decade earlier.

Major spoilers for both games, obviously!

 

  1. They’re action RPGs.

    2.  

  2. They’re noted for great soundtracks.

    3.  

  3. At least three-player co-op! Now there’s an RPG rarity.

    4.  

  4. Both games have a way to break boss battles with stunlock by exploiting quirks of magic animations. In Secret of Mana you can begin casting a second attack spell before the first spell’s animation ends; in Tales of Symphonia you can cancel a casting animation to reset your combo, giving most magic users near-infinite combos. (Tip: It’s easier to get the timing down for Colette and Sheeena than for Kratos, Zelos, or Regal. Raine can technically pull it off too, but it’s much, much tougher.)

    5.  

    4 down, 19 to go. And most are infinitely more interesting than the first 4!