for the Playstation 3 is one in a long line of HD re-releases that have been taking place these last few months. Square Enix has re-released at least two different collections (Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy X) and now Bandai Namco has stepped up to the plate with this collection.For those people not familiar with the series, Tales of Symphonia was one of the first games that brought the "Tales" series into the foreground of J-RPG notoriety. These days the series is most well known for Tales of Vesperia, released exclusively for the X-Box 360 here in the United States. Many of the games only receive one release overseas, excepting Tales of the Abyss which recently received a port onto the Nintendo 3DS, even in North America. That isn't to say that there aren't ports for the other games. In fact, most games in the series are released for at least two systems. However these often don't make it over to the North American market.
The original Tales of Symphonia was released in North America in 2004, one of few RPGs that made it to the Nintendo Gamecube. The year after the series' original release a Playstation 2 port was released in Japan with extended features. However this port never made its way overseas and so these features were never released to North American audiences. However this HD release is based upon the Playstation 2 version, giving foreign audiences the opportunity to enjoy these upgrades (much as the Kingdom Hearts 1.5 ReMix collection allowed foreign audiences to enjoy Final Mix for the first time).
A fair deal of the changes involved with the Playstation 2 version of Tales of Symphonia are costume changes (a set of clothes from the snow city of Flanoir and character-specific costumes) there are some important changes that newer fans will recognize. The biggest change to the game proper is the inclusion of "Mystic Arts," specific skills that are only usable during certain conditions. While Lloyd had a secret move in the original game it was the only of its kind in the game. People who have played the sequel, Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World will likely remember these if they ever included the original game characters in their party. These Mystic Arts will now be usable in the original game.
The sequel will also be released together with the original game, meaning that those fans of the original that hadn't had the opportunity to play its sequel can now buy it together with the series proper. Thankfully there wasn't much need for the motion controls in the original release of Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World so moving systems over to the Playstation 3 shouldn't be much of a problem.
All in all I would suggest this game for fans of the Bandai Namco's "Tales" series. Anyone who appreciates a solid RPG should give this game a try as well, especially considering the price. The game releases this February and is a must for fans of the series.
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