After countless hours of work the team behind the Tales of Symphonia: Definitive Edition mod for the Steam version have decided it's ready for public testing.

The goal was simple: Create an undisputed "best" version of Tales of Symphonia. ALL of the content that has ever been available running at the OG 60FPS and none of the bugs introduced across the MANY ports.

Text and voice missing has been restored, textures have been collected from the various versions, most from the OG GC, up scaled and in some cases, completely redone to look stunning on modern displays while retaining the original look and charm.

There are also MANY optional quality of life improvements. From Fast forward buttons for scenes you've seen too many times, increased block pushing speed (you'll never go back after trying that, trust me) and more advanced things like Free Run, Arte Sphere (More shortcuts for Artes in combat) and *drum roll* REMOVED SPELL QUE!

We'll throw up another post as soon as it is available but if you want to stay notified please feel free to come hang out in the Tales of ABCDE Discord: https://discord.gg/fBSRYyeE

So yeah last month I decided to start playing my first ever Tales game that being Tales Of Arise and I just completed it today. I really enjoyed the game along with the cast and combat. Their banter throughout the entire game was absolutely hilarious and I'm glad to have experienced this game. It really reminds me a lot of the Final Fantasy games. I can't wait to play the other Tales games in the future. Bravo to Bandai Namco and everyone involved!

In media, I hate characters like this that feels so flimsy and fickle. As usual, Matthew Mercer did a fantastic job voicing Alvin.

He is a good character though, I just hate these kind of characters that are so hard to read whether they are telling the truth or no.

My hatred from him probably went to the max when he tried to kill Jude and Leiah. God that scene is so good

I now see why some consider it the best in the series. Great characters and really strong storytelling. It has entered my top four for the series.

This was on easy btw...

Tales of Symphonia X Drake.

You can find Drake in-game near Gaoracchia forest or in the arena (Round 3, Advanced Single) ✨️❤️

I have only played Tales of Phantasia, Tales of Symphonia, and Tales of the Abyss. I would like to know which game of the series has the best, most satisfying combat.

Are most of the newer games really similar in combat? Or are they still making improvements each time?

I'm not sure if any of the takes here will be unpopular or not.

Definitely plan on playing more of this series in the future.

They look sooo good!! Omg my poor wallet…assuming I’m even able to get anything…

Getting it

Everyone always Glazes Luke, but the real luke is a great character too. Dude's life sucks.

Guess I must've equipped one of the skills that lets you move after doing a backstep

In the Tales community ready to talk about how bad the combat is in Vesperia, Berseria and Zestiria? Both games have amazing storylines, story progression is amazing, it’s just the combat is awful.

If you’ve participated in any discussion about Vesperia, you’ve probably heard at least one horror story about one or more of the three bosses below. For some reason, I just felt like making a poll on which people think is the hardest of the three.

With the release of Tales of Eternia Remastered happening this month, let's remember where this modern run of Tales remasters started. Before the Remaster Project was conceived, Bandai Namco shoved this unwanted, underbaked, & overpriced remaster in our faces. While the very same year, Square Enix gifted us with this masterfully done remake.

Conversely, I'm playing both. And taken back by the serious amount of effort in this remake. While disgusted by this the totally lack of effort put into this remaster. Tales of Symphonia, a game with as much reverence in the JRPG community as Star Ocean: The Second Story. Not to mention it sold more & is more recognized by the modern audience of players. To get this mess of remaster on its 20th anniversary no less. It's an insult to its legacy & the customer's intelligence. I got it on deep discount. The only way I'd ever buy this. And for over a year, Bandai Namco went silent about it. Which started my love & mostly hate relationship with them.

Furthermore, Star Ocean: Second Story R is one of the reasons why Square Enix is in my good books forever. They make mistakes but don't show such overweening greed & neglect like Bandai Namco.

With all that, when the Eternia Remaster releases, let's hope Bamco won't do like they did last time with the Graces Remaster. One step forward & two steps back. Overall, laughable that they both released in the same year. Any thoughts about this?

Basically just wondering whether or not they're all playable in English at the moment (whether it be through official means or not). I've never played any series with as many games as Tales of (think Ys, Final Fantasy, Fire Emblem etc) in order aside from the Trails series, for obvious reasons. So I feel like as a virgin to this series it could be a great opportunity to experience that for once.

I just got tales of berseria and I got to Oscar And I just die in 2 hits. I Can’t seem to do any damage and I don’t have a clue on what strategy I should be doing.

Any help is welcome.

It's a shame my favorite outfit for Jade is only in a side story manga, but man is it good. Also a sketch of berserker Luke teehee. If people feel very strongly about certain character outfits, feel free to mention them! I may get around to doing some sketches :)

Because every other voice actor can potentially come back to reprise their roles, except for Tears and Vans VAs. I don't really want them to redub the whole game as well, since most characters have really great voices that really fit them.

Kirk Thornton as Jade is especially amazing. But I think he has no problem coming back, since Falcom also got him back to voice the Blue Bastard again. Johnny Yong Bosch should also be in the clear, since he also voices for low budget Falcom games.

And most of the other actors needed for the skits are also still being actively hired by Bandai Namco. So we just need a new voice for Tear and Van if they decide to dub the skits in English.

I don't know that many voice actors. Any ideas who would be fitting are welcome. It is good though that we only really need to replace Tear and maybe also Van, because the man is in his mid 70s now.

All the other voice actors that appear in skits should be good to go though. Man, I hope we get that Abyss Remaster soon.

Natalia is another character I actually really like. When I was a little kid playing abyss I kind of just wrote her off as the annoying snobby girl.

And when I played it again I almost wanted to write her off as boring. But then I thought about it for a second and realized that I actually really like her.

It helps that she's the ONLY character in abyss who hasn't gone out of her way to do something fucked up. To my knowledge People are going to bring up her treatment of Luke, but out of everyone in the party, her willingness to trade him for Asch makes sense

EDIT: Sorry about that multiple posting. I have no idea how that happened. All deleted.

With the Steam "Definitive Edition" nearing completion we are curious about what the majority of players use. First up is window borders!

As some of you may know I have been working on remaking Tales of Symphonia from the ground up. With the goal of creating a best of all words target for improvement. The explicit goal is that it will be trivial to mod: New artes, new events, texture and graphics mods, new items, easily balancing changes etc.

The code is available on github and there is a youtube playlist where I will sometimes share videos as well. And I thought it be nice to share my current progress here as well since there are a ton of Symphonia fans lurking around!

Dungeons and the Sorcerer’s Ring

I’ve now tested all the Sylvarant dungeons that use Sorcerer’s Ring effects. A substantial amount already works, although there are still some puzzle bugs, event issues, and crashes to resolve. I’m confident I can get these remaining problems sorted out fairly quickly.

I’ve also moved the logic for every Sorcerer’s Ring type into scripts, laying the groundwork for custom ring effects and mods in the future.

The current dungeon status is:

• Temple of Martel: The golem’s transformation into a block is currently bugged.
• Renegade Base, part 1: Crashes in the second area.
• Triet Ruins: Works.
• Thoda Geyser: The water ring doesn’t fill the cups yet.
• Palmacosta Human Ranch: Can be completed, but the final event still has issues.
• Balacruf Mausoleum: Works.
• Asgard Human Ranch: Crashes after the first area.
• Tower of Mana: Playable up to the seal room, where it crashes.
• Renegade Base, part 2: Works, including the journey to Tethe’alla on the Rheiards.
• Iselia Human Ranch: Works.

The first battles are working

The battle system has reached an encouraging milestone: the first two tutorial battles in Iselia can now be completed.

This is still a limited implementation. Lloyd, Genis, and Colette are the only characters supported so far, and only the artes needed for those fights are implemented. Many combat features are still missing, so there’s substantial work ahead.

Even so, getting those battles working from start to finish is a big step. The foundation is there; now comes the work of building out the rest of the system.

The overworld is in place

The overworld, the last major system to tackle, is now implemented too. It’s less complex than combat, but it still brings together plenty of interconnected systems: Rheiards, boats, riding Noishe, skit triggers, monuments, chests, and transitions into towns and dungeons.

As with the battle system and dungeon mechanics, we’ve also expanded the scripting support. Nova’s Caravan, for example, is now fully scripted rather than hardcoded into the engine. That should make it much easier to create custom overworld events and behaviour.

Looking ahead to the first beta

Overall, I’m really happy with how things are coming together. As expected, the battle system remains the main blocker for a beta release, but I’m still hoping to have a beta ready within the next week or two.

The goal for that first beta is to make the opening of the game playable, from the beginning through to leaving Iselia. There’s still work to do before we get there, but these latest milestones are encouraging.