Tales of Symphonia is a game that is very special to me. I would even go as far as to say that it is my favorite game on the Gamecube. When I was growing up, I mostly played Gamecube and Wii games. ut before you say that nostalgia is why I like this game, my counterpoint is that I did not play this game until 2016. I was 15 at the time and I saw this game for sale at my local used video game store. The name was familiar to me but I actually knew nothing about it other than the fact that it a really good RPG whose main character was someone people wanted in Smash. In fact, I was expecting it to be a turn-based game. My only previous experience with the series was that I had played Project X Zone and that game features characters from the franchise. It was actually a nice surprise to find out that Symphonia had an action RPGesque battle system. One of my small issues with turn-based games is that they are far too numbers based and player skill can't change the outcome of an encounter too drastically. You are either strong enough to fight the enemy, or not. In Tales of games, especially the later ones that have perfect dodge mechanics, it is possible to defeat an opponent you probably shouldn't be able to on paper by playing skillfully. This doesn't mean I hate turn-based games though, Chrono Trigger, Persona, Dragon Quest, they're all amazing games that I love as well.
Tales of Symphonia may not be my favorite game in the franchise but it is definitely top 5. The reason I decided to talk about this game, in particular, is that it introduced me to what I consider to be my favorite game series. If I did not play this game I would have never played Xillia 2, Vesperia, or Berseria, my respective top 3 in the series.
