These are my thoughts and opinions about Tales of Symphonia, which I just finished. I also talk about Tales of Hearts and a little about Zestiria. There will be spoilers in this post.

I've been hearing a lot of good things about Symphonia as I played and I know that many on Twitter hold it as their favorite, though for me, Hearts is still my #1 and Zestiria my #2.

Symphonia's age shows, but I won't fault it for it. The most obvious part is the combat. The 3D that plays like 2D feels limited in movement. The graphics are old, but they're still cute.

The characters are likeable, but none of them stand out especially. They all have they're good traits, Kratos is cool, Lloyd is heroic, Colette is sweet, and so on. It's hard to pick a favorite, since I don't have a favorite at the same level as Kunzite from Hearts and Zavied from Zestiria, but if I were to pick one, I'll go with Kratos. Regal is my 2nd fav, he has the best fanservice in Symphonia but is a bit too gloomy at times, so cool Kratos wins. My fav female character is Colette. My main team was Raine, Genis, Regal or Lloyd and Kratos or Zelos (because he has a similar figthing style to Kratos which I missed when he left the team.)

The plot is all over the place with hastily patched up holes, with some left wide open. The script could have used some polish. The concept is not the issue, it's the execution. Though I don't like the emphasis on nature, that's a cliche I've learned to overlook, even Final Fantasy VII kind of has it and I still love it. At times the plot of Symphonia felt like an odd mesh of various similar scripts instead of a consistent one.

While Zestiria wins in terms of graphics, Hearts still wins overall. I enjoyed Symphonia, though I enjoyed Zestiria more and Hearts a lot more. I do love Zavied, but unlike the cast of Symphonia and Hearts, I don't find all the characters in Zestiria to be likeable, though I do like most of them.

Comparing the scenes, I had about the same amount of interest in Zestiria and Symphonia, not too much. In Hearts I enjoyed all the extra scenes and looked forward to them. The dynamic of the characters in Hearts felt more amusing and the only scenes that came close were the Edna scenes on Zestiria.

I also thought the overall plot of Hearts was much more interesting than the others, with the concept of going into people's hearts and defeating monsters to make them feel better. My only complaint was a certain detail with the ending that I'm going to spoil now.

I wish Kunzite and Lithia could have stayed with everyone else instead of having to sleep until well after their deaths. The deaths of Chalcedony's friends were tragic, but appreciated in a bittersweet way. For Kun and Lit it wasn't dramatic enough for it to be appreciated, it was just disappointing. Though I do like Lithia, I would have preferred that she died than slept, it would feel more dramatic and given her character some closure instead of feeling like she and Kunzite are being thrown away for the sake of the Sleeping Beauty theme, which wasn't all that present anyway. Or better yet, let her be healed (preferably with an explanation that makes some sense, I and doesn't come out of nowhere like Kunzite's healing coma abilities) and let her stay with Hisui.

This is my personal ranking for all the Tales games I've played so far:

1 Hearts
2 Zestiria
3 Symphonia
4 Destiny
5 World

Overall, Symphonia is a good game and I'm happy to have finally played it, it's just that Hearts and Zestiria are better.