Customer Ratings & Reviews

Tales of Symphonia is an excellent game, but the "remastered" version is actually an inferior port of the original. It's still worth buying if you can't get the old release, but try to get it at a discount.

One of the most memorable JRPs I played when I was younger. Fond memories of couch co-op working to maximize combos in battle.

Great game tons of nostalgia of the GameCube days with modern polish

Is t the ideal version of the game since it’s based off the ps3 version but still an amazing story and gameplay.

Good game with me. I don’t trust another review. I bought it and play. It’s really good game.

(No spoilers, reviewed on 2/22/23 before any patches have been released) Honest and fair review: First off, the game itself is absolutely phenomenal. It's a Remaster (not a remake) of the PlayStation 2 version released only in Japan, which has more content than the original Gamecube version. This game is always regarded as being one of the best in the Tales series, and after 20 years the story still holds up. The story starts out a tad generic, however it gets far more interesting as you're playing and completely sucks you in and subverts all expectations during what you think the end goal is. Just note that as the original game IS 20 years old, some animations in various cutscenes do look dated. If you can get over this, it's a game that you should absolutely play, even if you don't care for other games in the Tales series. On to the "bad" side of things: I haven't gotten all too far in as it's quite a large game. I've also been playing this exclusively in handheld mode both on an original Switch and Switch lite systems, so perhaps there are more issues in docked mode than I have seen. 1. Starting a battle: the screen is supposed to "shatter" during the transition from overworld to battle; for whatever reason the screen just turns white and the battle starts with no shatter effect. It can look a bit off-putting if you're used to how it originally looked. It's ugly, but it does not impact gameplay. 2. Lag and framerate issues: I've only seen this in two areas, which were near the very beginning of the game. There is a town and some ruins that you visit called "Triet" and "Triet Ruins" where the game can slow down a bit. Luckily, Triet only lags in a single spot near an oasis, where the camera becomes more forward-facing. It's a small area and isn't much of an issue. In Triet Ruins, however, there is an entire large room where the game can run at just over half-speed. It's not choppy, but it's definitely apparent. It doesn't carry over to battles, at least. I haven't noticed any other areas where there might be lag, but there's most likely more examples I haven't seen yet. Also, it's not too related but this version, along the other re-releases, are running at 30fps. This is because it's a remaster of the PS2 version which had more content, but was on the less powerful system compared to the Gamecube (which ran at 60fps). The original game's source code was supposedly lost, so they're unfortunately unable to make it 60fps. 3. Lack of transparency effects: In any previous release of the game, overworld menus used to have gradient, translucent backgrounds. This version doesn't have that and just has a black background. It even carries over to the skits where characters have interactions with one-another, where instead of the character portraits appearing in the overworld it's just on a black screen. 4. Load times: Load times are nowhere near atrocious, but they're still far longer compared to the original Gamecube release. That version used to load the overworld near-instantly, while this one takes 5-10 seconds. Again, not long, but noticeable. 5. Brightness: I've heard a ton of people say that the brightness is an issue. As I've played only in portable mode, I haven't noticed this as I tend to adjust the system's brightness on a whim to my own liking. Again, I'm not saying it's not a problem, but I just haven't noticed it. Overall, while there are some apparent issues, they mostly do not impact gameplay at all. The story is great and the gameplay still holds up after nearly 20 years. If you want a portable version of the game and the issues I listed above don't seem like they'd bother you, I completely recommend this version. If you're considering getting this game but are unsure if you want to risk the issues it *does* have, still consider picking it up during a sale.

Now this one stings to review because Tales of symphonia is my absolute favorite game ever. So the switch version does have some problems like occasional freezing but there was a patch that helped with this. It is playable and I recommend this game but I recommend it on playstation 4 version more. Either way it's a must get JRPG, it's a classic and the story, characters, and world building are all brilliant!

This was onenof my favorite games on the gamecuve growing up. I had to get it when they remade it for the switch. The story is excellent. I would wait until they patch the game. There were a few bugs when it first came out.

It's a pretty fun time for the most part never tried the series but would recommend it a lot

a classic comes to the switch. graphics, music, gameplay is there. audio is great as ever. highly recommended if you already played the original back on the gamecube.

Haven't had the chance to play much yet but I've been excited for a way to play a classic game. There's a discount from the normal price of Switch games too.

Even though it has its own issues and isn't the gamecube port but instead the PS3 port which isnt as good, it's still a great game with a fantastic story. Perfect game to play on the handheld as well.

Great game with a good story and memorable characters. wish it has better fps. and there are some bug issues. A fun battle system.

Dope remake pretty bad on the switch have it also on the ps5 plays a whole lot better

I immediately pre-ordered this as soon as I was able to: I played it on the GameCube almost 20 years ago and it was, and is, my favourite game in the 'Tales' series. It's much better looking now and very vibrant/colourful, albeit running to 30 fps as opposed to the 60 fps on the GameCube (why, Nintendo?) which creates some issues with cut scenes that are a bit 'rough'. But the game play doesn't seem to be affected. Definitely recommended, especially for fans of JRPGs.

Very fast delivery and great condition. Great rpg from game cube era

Tales of Symphonia remaster at a great price for Gamecube nostalgia! Definitely a game to pick up for a tales of Collector.

This review is probably a little blinded by nostalgia. I love this game. I saw a bunch of reviews tearing into this one saying it wasn't running great etc. I don't feel like I saw any of that during my playthrough. While the game itself does show it's age in 2023 I still loved replaying through it on modern consoles

This is a painful situation. There is one positive here: This is still Tales of Symphonia on a handheld. That's it. This version is one of the worst versions of one of the best games of all time. The problem is in the messy way it came to exist. The original Tales of Symphonia released on the Nintendo Gamecube and featured high quality textures and ran at 60 frames per second. Sometime later, Namco ported the game to PS2 in Japan. They had to dramatically reduce the texture quality and drop the frame rate to 30fps to get the ga e running on the PS2, but they added a bit of content to make up for it. The problem is that this PS2 version is at the heart of the buggy HD version that released on PS3 and PC several years ago, and THAT PS3/PC version is what this "remaster" is derived from, ON All PLATFORMS. Even the Xbox and Playstation versions are stuck with the same performance problems as the Switch, but the Switch version just has more problems. The 30fps PS2 version has had its blurry textures upscaled and the HD models have been retouched, but many graphical effects have been entirely broken. The battle transitions originally had a shattering glass effect. The Remaster broke this sonbd that they patched the switch version to just a black screen. The Xbox and Playstation versions have had the glass break effect repaired using brute force, that that just shows how messed up the source code is for this game at this point in time. The 2001 Gamecube ran the screen shatter effect at 60 frames per second no problem. The Switch had to have the effect removed, NOT because it couldn't do the effect, But because the code was so messed up that it didn't work correctly anymore and Bandai Namco couldn't cover it up with more patchwork. If this was a direct version of the Gamecube game with the exact same enhancement as Super Mario Sunshine and Pikmin 1+2, this could have been the best version of Tales of Symphonia. Unfortunately, the versions keep getting worse and worse.

This isn’t the best version of this game but if it’s your only option it will be just fine. If you have a way to play on a GameCube I would go with that. Overall still a fun game and great story! Not a bad pick up when on sale.