Tales of Symphonia Remastered - Nintendo Switch

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

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.

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.

(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.