Tales of Symphonia is likely one of the finest entries within the long-running Tales JRPG collection, and one of many extra distinctive video games within the Nintendo GameCube’s in any other case short-lived and uneven library. Naturally, previous followers and newcomers alike have been pumped to see the cult basic get a remaster for the Change. What a disgrace, then, that the latest remaster is a subpar port at finest, main writer Bandai Namco to apologize and promise an upcoming patch.
“We now have confirmed that there’s a drawback with gameplay on this product model that’s at the moment on sale,” reads a tough translation of a tweet thread labeled “Apology and Data.” “We’re at the moment investigating a repair.” Bandai Namco doesn’t go into element about which issues it’s speaking about or when the primary replace may arrive. Kotaku has reached out for remark.
The acknowledgement comes per week after Tales of Symphonia Remastered got here out on each Change and PS4. The lovable and colourful role-playing sport duties you with fulfilling an historic prophecy and combating again the evil overtaking a dying world—normal JRPG fare elevated by likable characters and a enjoyable hybrid fight system.
Followers have been already in an uproar over the truth that the brand new model could be capped at 30FPS quite than run at 60FPS like the unique GameCube model, however hands-on time confirmed different shortcomings as nicely, from lengthy load instances to some textures breaking beneath the brand new HD upscaling. Plenty of gamers have been sharing their frustrations on-line, even going as far as to match footage straight towards older HD variations obtainable on PS3 and Steam:
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I’ve spent just a few hours with the Change model over the previous week and whereas I’m having fun with taking part in it total, the technical shortcomings and lack of recent quality-of-life options depart a nasty style, particularly for a $40 port of an almost 20-year-old sport. The colours are vivid and the decision is sharp, however the longer load instances between random encounters actually do begin to drag and the shortage of any auto-save function is an actual head scratcher. As RPG Web site factors out in its evaluation, even small issues are lacking like fades between scenes that now jarringly reduce to black, or the blurred background when navigating the pause menu.
We’ve seen this earlier than with 2022’s remaster of Chrono Cross. Whereas the sport included new quality-of-life options like unlocking fast-forward proper from the beginning and letting you scale down the issue, the HD impact was hit-or-miss and the framerate truly carried out worse than within the authentic PS1 model. It wasn’t till just this week that the sport lastly acquired an replace trying to enhance its efficiency, focusing on a ceiling of 60 FPS.
Hopefully, it doesn’t take as lengthy for Tales of Symphonia Remastered to get patched, although I’m not optimistic it received’t nonetheless find yourself feeling like a significant missed alternative. If you happen to’ve been ready many years to get again to Lloyd and firm’s struggle towards the Desians to convey peace and stability again to the land of Sylverant, I can say it hasn’t misplaced its attraction. I simply want it had been transported by means of time with extra care and fanfare.