When I first purchased this game a few years back, it was my very first "Tales of..." game and I immediately fell in love with it. Its fast-paced game play with battles and the rest of the game play are quite enjoyable and the plot is very unique and interesting due to the game's numerous 'twists'.

The music itself is captivating, the artwork and cell-shading/anime cutscenes are to die for and the epileptic moves such as spell casting Indignant Judgment and Lloyd's Falcon's Crest are just remarkable evolutions from the former tales games such as Phantasia and Destiny.

When I first played this game I was skeptical as I'd just finished and liked Baten Kaitos so much; I suppose I had a bias against it even. I enjoyed it tremendously, and even was surprised at how long the game was (good thing!)

I'm repurchasing after I got a new Wii earlier this year and the sequel is coming out soon. Another play-through is definitely warranted.

Gameplay: 4/5

ToS has a real time battle system. You're limited to four moves that you can set yourself and you can assign moves to the C stick so that you can use anytime during battle. The controls in battle take a little time to get used to, but once you're okay with it they become second nature to you.



Replay: 5/5

Once you beat Mithos you can play the game all over again! Things get easier after the first time through. You can use all the grade you obtained in your adventure to buy features for your second game. The best thing on there is the 10x EXP. It costs 3000 grade so I don't think you'll have it for the second game. You can also choose to keep titles, relationships, money, and even have up to 30 items in your inventory. I highly reccomend kepping your money and having 30 items.



Multiplayer: 3/5

I really hate to give it a rating like this. Personally I like single player better. The game was designed for single player but you can have four people playing at once. The bad thing is that it's only in battle. Since I've only played with one other person I have no idea what 4 player is like.



Graphics: 5/5

Graphics ROCK! These are some pretty good graphics. There is some cel-shading in there, but it's not like Wind Waker. I think it's a combination of cel-shading and LoZ graphics. The characters and world are cel-shaded and the background is like LoZ graphics.



Sound: 5/5

Sound is just....just....it's so awesome I can't think of the word! The music both inside and outside of battle is really great. One of my favourite songs on there is titled Full Force. Character voices are good. There is some language on there. Don't worry it's all mild. They don't say f*** every 5 seconds. lol The only bad part is when Zelos says SOB in Sybak. Other than that it's all good.



Overall: 4/5

Overall this is an awesome game. There are some parts where it gets pretty emotional. The most emotional part is in Exire. Story has a good ending. With all the sidequests you won't be able to do them all in one game.

Back in 2004, when Nintendo was for the most part a joke, this was one of the few games Gamecube owners could point to when teased for owning one. Like most JRPG's the story and characters are entirely cliche, but the world is such a fun one to explore that one can overlook the plot twists that are easily spotted hours before they're revealed and go with it. It's also one of the very few rpg's that have co-op and to my knowledge its the only one to allow for 4 players, something which all action rpg's really should have. The game also has lots of fun minigames and sidequests which are different from the standard find-the-item types, such as one where a character becomes a waitress to get extra gald, a character who is a famous ladies man who is able to get free items from talking to female NPC's, or the cooking part of the game, where you search the world for a chef in order to get recipes, which allow you to make different foods at the end of each battle and heal the party by eating them instead of just using a potion or heal spell. Between the price being under $[...], gamecubes being available for $[...] and being playable on the Wii, you really have no excuse for not trying this game.

If you are new to the "Tales" series, this game is a great place to start. With colorful graphics and innovative battle system, this game and series stands out in a crowd. The only real problem I can see is if you are used to typical turn-based RPGs, this game's battle system may take some getting used to. But other than that, it's a thoroughly enjoyable experience.