Next month, Tales of Symphonia returns to a Nintendo console when Tales of Symphonia Remastered launches on Switch (and other platforms) on 17th February. Ahead of that date, Bandai Namco and Nintendo have shared a gameplay trailer to bring newcomers up to speed on what to expect, and get long-time fans excited to dive back into a GameCube classic.
The new trailer will be familiar to those who've played the original on GameCube back in 2003. There are snippets of gameplay — from exploring towns to delving into dungeons (and yes, RPG fans, there's a sewer dungeon in there). But the big focus of the trailer is, understandably, the game's action combat.
The combat is called the Multi-Line Linear Motion Battle System — which may sound intimidating from that name — puts characters in a 3D environment (a series first for Tales in 2003) and allows them to run towards and away from an enemy, or change their target in order to move in a different direction, towards a different enemy. But the game's unique mechanic is the Unison Attack, which allows you and another party member to unleash a devastating attack.
Setting Artes — this game's version of skills — and optimising equipment are vital, but you'll also be able to use items in battle and cook recipes to give your team bonuses and heal them up after combat. This is the game where you can mess up making a sandwich. How? We're not sure!
We're hoping that Symphonia will be the next game in a long line of Tales remasters — but Bandai Namco hasn't promised to return to other games in the series yet, and has simply said "we await your suggestions".