Released by Namco in 2004, Tales of Symphonia is the prequel to Tales of Phantasia and the first Tales game to feature 3-D battles. These Tales focus on Lloyd Irving and his friends, a band of (mostly) teenagers whose naive idealism and status as heroes may be enough to save not just one, but TWO worlds! The game was heralded by many and considered by most to be the best RPG on the Gamecube... because there are no others.
Best Multiplayer time: 7:48 by Michael 'Flip' Dix, Marcus 'Player 2' Dix, Mark 'Peebs97' Peebles, and Tyler 'ukm101' McDaniel on 2008-08-08, done in 70 segments.
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Michael Dix's comments:
First, though, it's important that you know which runners play as which characters to avoid confusion.
:::Segment 1::: (2 battles)
Iselia to Martel Temple.
I go into the Customize Menu and set the text speed to 0, change the window color to black, and switch the controls so that 'R' is guard. This makes spell cancelling and guarding in general much easier. Past that, this segment is real simple, just the introduction. I grab the Klutz title for Colette because it gets her an early boost on HP and Attack and she needs all she can get. I cut through part of the Memory Circle so I can get that little introduction out of the way and then 2 no damage battles.
:::Segment 2::: (5 battles)
Martel Temple to Iselia.
The first "Desian" battle goes smoothly. Vidarr catches me from over his head with his hammer, this rarely ever happens. The rest of the Vidarr battle was very impressive, however. It's quite difficult to navigate the hallways inside quickly without entering a battle. All three Golem battles went smoothly, the only catch was the one getting hung up on the corner while chasing me. Having the worm chase me in the hallway was pretty stressful this far into the segment.
:::Segment 3::: (0 battles)
Iselia to Iselia Human Ranch.
Just running, the enemies in the forest like to wait right around the corner and jump you, luckily they didn't this time. I don't think you can do it much faster... Not much to say about this one.
:::Segment 4::: (1 battle)
Iselia Human Ranch, Dirk's house, Iselia.
The 1V2 battle is really obnoxious because Lloyd has to learn Sonic Thrust (Shame he didnt learn in the 3rd Golem battle) and these two like to gang up on you. Luckily this time the Sonic Thrust separated them and gave me a break.
The cat in the forest next to the chest gets me nearly every time... this time I successfully fake him out.
I leave Colette's house before the game has finished loading the scene outside and this is the result. No time is lost due to this strange glitch.
:::Segment 5::: (1 battle)
Exbelua to Triet Desert.
Marcus and I are pretty proud of this one... As far as I've seen, nobody has implemented this strategy on the Exbelua battle and it cuts the time down dramatically. Nice touch having Genis reduced to 1 HP right before the game auto-heals you too!
Note: Marcus plays as Genis in segments 5 & 6.
:::Segment 6::: (1 battle)
Triet to Sylvarant Base.
Pretty nice segment here. Run into town and buy weapons for Lloyd and Colette, visit the fortune teller and fight the desians. Then bust out of the cell, grab the chest and save.
:::Segment 7 ::: (3 battles)
Sylvarant Base, Triet, to Triet Ruins.
The worst part of this segment was getting the first battle to cooperate, and then praying for a 1v1 memory gem battle. The Botta battle was pretty impressive too. After the battle I make a shopping trip, primarily to get some Holy Bottles.
:::Segment 8::: (2 battles)
Triet Ruins to Ossa Trail.
The first battle is ridiculously fast. The dungeon itself is pretty linear, the only difficulty arising from dodging enemies on the fly. I give Lloyd and Kratos new weapons and Raine a new title.
The Boss is pretty straightforward. Lloyd and Colette take the subordinates while Kratos distracts the big guy. Raine heals. Because I waited so long to initiate the Holy Bottle, I get nearly all the way to Ossa Trail before it runs out.
:::Segment 9::: (1 battle)
Ossa Trail to Izoold.
Pretty quick segment here.
The Sheena battle is rough because she and the guardian knock you down so much. You see where the terrible camera system puts me in a vertical plane with the guardian and I'm trying to figure out whether left or right will move me where I want to go. Tyler does an amazing job of spell cancelling Sheena and keeping her from attacking.
:::Segment 10::: (0 battles)
Izoold, Palmacosta.
INVENTORY TIME! - Palmacosta version
I buy a rapier, then 2 Beast Fangs, then Black Silver, then White Silver, then I customize weaponry for Lloyd, Colette, and Kratos, then I sell most of what I have, and buy armor for Lloyd, Kratos, and Colette. I also pick up some Holy Bottles at the end.
:::Segment 11 ::: (1 battle)
Hakonesia Peak, Palmacosta, House of Salvation, to Palmacosta Ranch.
Lots of running around here. I pick up our first Lv. 2 EX gem, obviously for Lloyd's Personal skill: faster movement inside dungeons.
The battle at the end is a joke.
:::Segment 12::: (1 battle)
This is the first half of the Eastern Ranch.
Pretty smooth, really nice battle. The only hang-up is me getting caught on the side of the invisible block I'm supposed to push forward.
:::Segment 13::: (3 battles)
This is the last half of the Eastern Ranch: the warp puzzle and Magnius.
All the battles go well. Magnius went down nicely. Equip new Warrior Symbol and save outside Thoda Geyser.
:::Segment 14::: (1 battle)
This is the beginning of the water seal up to the boss. The puzzle isn't difficult but it gets a little hairy navigating around the enemies without Sheena's Personal skill. We fight one memory gem battle.
:::Segment 15::: (1 battle)
The Water Seal Boss: Probably the 4th hardest in the entire run.
We finally got a smooth battle with good magic guards, no deaths, and not too many knock downs.
:::Segment 16::: (1 battle)
Palmacosta to Asgard
Really nice no damage Kilia battle here, the rest is all running around.
I'm not even kidding; Mark taught himself how to spell cancel during this segment.
:::Segment 17::: (0 battles)
INVENTORY TIME! - Asgard version.
I customize weapons for Lloyd, Colette, and Kratos, spend all of my grade on Beast Fangs, and buy equipment for Lloyd, Raine, and Kratos.
:::Segment 18::: (1 battle)
Asgard, to Balucruf Mausoleum.
The Wind Guardian battle.
Not much to say, just a matter of restarting until you successfully pummel this guy to death.
:::Segment 19::: (2 battles)
Fantastic Segment!
Both boss battles go excellently, especially the Sheena battle (epic ending!). We're very proud of this one.
:::Segment 20::: (1 battle)
Luin, Asgard Ranch, to Luin.
Not a whole lot of substance to this segment. Lots of running, Sheena joins, one easy battle, and that's it!
:::Segment 21::: (0 battles)
Running segment.
Luin,Hima,Ranch
:::Segment 22::: (6 battles)
Asgard Ranch.
This segment was a pain...
6 battles AND a retarded Sorcerer's Ring puzzle.
I did poorly on the targets but the battles were good. This one was a nightmare to get done.
Note that in group 2, I played as Raine, Marcus played as Sheena, and Tyler played as Genis.
:::Segment 23::: (1 battle)
The dreaded Kvar battle... goes excellently!
We stray from the standard formula of taking Kratos and Raine and use 3 melee fighters instead. Since Kvar typically will leave you alone as long as you leave him alone, everybody gets to kill their own subordinate before we tackle Kvar.
If you're wondering why we stop rushing at Kvar, it's because we were anticipating another Spark Wave and were giving ourselves enough room to run out of it.
I'd say this is the 5th hardest boss in the run.
:::Segment 24::: (0 battles)
Running segment.
Lake Umacy, Hakonesia Peak, Thoda Geyser
:::Segment 25::: (1 battle)
Undine gets thrashed.
If you ever wonder why somebody seems to stop attacking randomly, it's usually an attempt to stop the hit counter and reduce the number of knock downs per battle, since enemies receive brief invincibility after being knocked down.
:::Segment 26::: (0 battles)
Running segment.
Thoda Geyser, Lake Umacy, Hima, Luin, Tower of Mana
:::Segment 27::: (1 battle)
Iubaris.
The battle is good, the only catch is that Raine learns Photon every time, and heals him. Oh well, some things you just can't help. Aside from that, the battle was really smooth.
:::Segment 28::: (0 battles)
INVENTORY TIME! - Hima version
I strip Kratos of his equipment, give Raine and Colette their newest titles, fill up on Holy Bottles and save before the Tower of Salvation.
:::Segment 29::: (3 battles)
The Tower of Salvation - Remiel, Kratos, and Yggdrasil.
Remiel goes down without a hitch, losing to Kratos is faster than beating Kratos, and Yggdrasill kills us quickly.
:::Segment 30::: (0 battles)
Running segment.
Sylvarant Base, Fooji Mountains, Meltokio, Grand Tethe'alla Bridge, Sybak
:::Segment 31::: (1 battle)
Grand Tethe'alla Bridge, Fooji Mountains
Battle against some Papal Knights.
Mark makes a much better Raine than he does a Colette, as you can see.
:::Segment 32::: (1 battle)
Pronyma battle. Nothing to report, the battle goes very smoothly. Back down the mountain and save outside of Meltokio.
:::Segment 33::: (1 battle)
The sewers... I hate the sewers.
That's all I have to say.
:::Segment 34::: (2 battles)
The forest, Regal battle, Mizuho, Ozette, and Altessa.
I hate the light puzzle in the forest. The most reliable way I found to open up the pathways is to shoot the light nearly parallel to the gate, which is why I line myself up so awkwardly.
:::Segment 35::: (1 battle)
The Toize Valley Mines.
There's lots of timing involved with the elevator here. One time it looks like I could have made it, but trust me, I couldn't have. I give the Gnomelette the Mizuho potion so I can enter the Temple of Earth later.
:::Segment 36::: (1 battle)
Ozette, Mizuho, to Temple of Lightning.
The Papal Knights battle isn't particularly difficult.
:::Segment 37::: (1 battle)
Temple of Lightning
This was by far the most difficult temple to speedrun. There's so many run killers here it's unreal.
Volt was also the most difficult boss up to this point. I'd say the 3rd most difficult overall.
:::Segment 38::: (0 battles)
I hate the EC, I'm terrible at navigating it. That's why this little trip got its own segment, because I didn't want to have to redo it before every segment 39 attempt.
:::Segment 39::: (3 battles)
Tethe'alla Base. The door before Yuan and Botta won't unlock unless you physically collect the passwords, so playing ahead and collecting them isn't an option.
:::Segment 40::: (1 battle)
Here it is, the dreaded Yuan/Botta battle. (2nd most difficult, if you're keeping track)
Honestly, it wasn't nearly as hard as in our practice run. Since Tyler had learned how to spell cancel this time around, the battle was less a matter of survival and more focus could be put into actual speed. Marcus distracts Yuan while Tyler and I trash Botta, with Unison help from Mark. One Botta is down, the fight is basically over.
:::Segment 41::: (0 battles)
INVENTORY TIME! - Altamira
I sell all excess weapsos/armor/accessories, and buy as many Holy Bottles as I can, along with weapons and armor for nearly all my characters.
:::Segment 42::: (1 battle)
Rodyle's Dragons. (Most difficult boss for a multiplayer run.)
This is really more about luck than anything else. At our levels, any one of us can be taken out in a matter of seconds. There were plenty of restarts until we got a battle with both no deaths and a good time. The camera screws all of us up when it spins around, but we got back on track.
:::Segment 43::: (3 battles)
Altessa's House, Temple of Earth
I have to get the curry recipe to get through the Temple of Earth. The only real substance to this segment is the 3 battles guiding the Gnomelette. If I don't turn Sheena's Personal skill off, then I can't enter the battles. All 3 battles go splendidly.
:::Segment 44::: (1 battle)
Gnome.
This is a rare case where we can effectively utilize Raine's Photon to pick up Gnome and keep him from counter-attacking nearly the whole battle.
:::Segment 45::: (2 battles)
We need 3 Penguinist Quills, so we settle for 2 battles instead of trying to steal 3 in one battle. The way I see it, changing Colette in, switching her techs, taking a longer battle waiting for her to fish for a successful Item Thief, and switching Sheena back in probably takes about the same amount of time. Either way, we wound up with more EXP this way.
:::Segment 46::: (1 battle)
Temple of Ice.
The temple itself is very linear. Looking back, I probably should've grabbed the Ice Coffin for Zelos to use during the Efreet battle, but I found a better solution later. The Celsius battle is only tricky because it's difficult to keep all of us on the screen with as much as Celsius and the Fenrir like to move around.
:::Segment 47::: (1 battle)
Altamira, Otherworldly Gate, Palmacosta, to Palmacosta Human Ranch.
Only one battle, against Papal Knights. I learned from last time and let Mark play as Presea, and he did much better.
:::Segment 48::: (0 battles)
Remote Island Human Ranch
All the menu navigation has to be at the end ::shudder::
:::Segment 49::: (2 battles)
Rodyle, Palmacosta, Altessa's house.
Rodyle hits hard, Over Limits a lot, and is generally hard to stagger, so this battle was mainly about restarting until he cooperated. The dragon battle afterwards can be tricky, but we do well this time around.
:::Segment 50::: (1 battle)
Temple of Darkness, Meltokio
I find the fastest way to win the coliseum battle is to attack to two stronger enemies and hope to catch the mage enemy in the crossfire. This time it works out perfectly.
:::Segment 51::: (0 battles)
Temple of Darkness, part 1
I swear the creators of this game designed this temple for the sole purpose of making the player hate life.
It's that frustrating. Regardless, this is the best route. I turn off some lights ahead of time to keep the Shadow blobs from becoming inactive while following me, while I leave others on to keep the Shadow blobs from following me.
:::Segment 52::: (1 battle)
Shadow.
Not hard, he just likes to pick on Raine.
:::Segment 53::: (0 battles)
Running Segment.
Altamira, to Triet Ruins
:::Segment 54::: (1 battle)
Efreet.
There were so many face-explosions while attempting this one.
:::Segment 55::: (1 battle)
Sylph.
Our strategy of dividing the three bosses works beautifully. This battle wasn't nearly as difficult as we anticipated.
:::Segment 56::: (0 battles)
Running segment.
Nova's Caravan, Linkite Tree.
:::Segment 57::: (1 battle)
Luna/Aska.
We knew Sheena was going to OL during this battle, and luckily this time her Volt summon hit both Luna and Aska. As long as nobody gets status'd, the battle runs fairly smoothly. Lots of scene afterwards.
:::Segment 58::: (2 battles)
Iselia Human Ranch.
The Forcystus battle was tricky to plan. Forcystus is very difficult to stagger by anyone solo, so we planned on having Marcus and Tyler attack Forcystus while I take out both subordinates as quickly as possible. Marcus bails out for a little bit to subdue the second subordinate while I finish off the first. Once the battle is narrowed down to just Forcystus, it begins to take care of itself.
:::Segment 59::: (0 battles)
Iselia, Dirk's house, Altessa's house, Sybak, Meltokio.
The best part of this segment is the glitch I activate around 4 minutes in by leaving Colette's house before the game is finished loading the outside area. It's very similar to Segment 4 except I have to run outside with the weird camera angle.
:::Segment 60::: (0 battles)
Ymir Forest, Heimdall.
Very little to say, this segment and the next are all memorization.
Fun Fact: This run has 85 battles, and 42 of them are boss battles.
:::Segment 61::: (0 battles)
Latheon Gorge.
Like I said, all memorization here.
Fun Fact: The combined time of all of our battles is ~61 minutes
:::Segment 62::: (1 battle)
Plantix, Altamira, Sybak, SE Abbey.
We play Mark as Presea and do a four player melee on Plantix. The result is beautiful.
:::Segment 63::: (3 battles)
Tower of Salvation, Welgaia, Altessa's house.
I switch Regal into the 5th position during my menu navigating so that he'll be my onscreen character later. He's my favorite character, so I made the quick switch since he doesn't get to participate in any battles.
Losing to Kratos is obviously faster.
The Yggdrasill fight is on a timer, so it's purely a matter of survival.
:::Segment 64::: (0 battles)
Flanoir sequence +
INVENTORY TIME!--Flanoir
I buy weapons and armor for Lloyd, Raine, Zelos and Presea
:::Segment 65::: (4 battles)
Tower of Salvation.
The battles here are easy, but the maze is particularly annoying. Also, with Colette gone, our Holy Bottle times are horrible. The worst part is traveling down the spiral staircase, the game just loves to stick you to the wall there.
:::Segment 66::: (2 battles)
Pronyma, Yggdrasill.
Both of these battles are particularly difficult. Pronyma is more difficult because her subordinates inflict status randomly. Simply a matter of restarting until nobody gets nailed with a bad status effect.
:::Segment 67::: (2 battles)
Kratos, Origin.
The Kratos battle is more luck based than skill based at such low levels. If he decides to not get stunned and grab you out of your combo and kill you then there's nothing you can do about it. This battle went well except for so much guarding on my Rising Falcons; which is the reason why I have to hit him with a couple simple combos to finish him off.
In comparison, the Origin battle is really quite easy. The only possible run killer is if Sheena or Raine get hit by Rameesh without full health. Not an issue here.
:::Segment 68::: (0 battles)
Running Segment.
Dirk's house, Tower of Salvation, Derris Kharlan, Welgaia, Mithos' Castle
:::Segment 69::: (1 battle)
We completely destroy the Dark Dragon. We wanted to keep resarting until we got under 9 seconds and to our surprise we got one under 8!
:::Segment 70::: (2 battles)
Mithos, Ultimate Yggdrasill, ending.
Both battles run smoothly. The only trick is to interrupt Mithos' Retribution attack with our Unison attack. Ultimate Yggdrasill is one huge target and very easy to kill.
The credits run on forever, so don't watch them unless you really want to.
Marcus Dix's comments:
Mark Peebles's comments:
I wasn't even in the 4 of the first 6 segments because I was deemed to fight/heal with Raine because I am a horrible fighter which will later be confirmed in segment 31 where I attempted to fight with Colette. Many times though I saved the other 3 characters when they were at one HP, I guess you could call me the most important person in the game. I would consider myself the MVP at the end of that epic run.
My favorite character in the game would have to be Sheena because, well obvious reasons of course, she is the "largest" character in the game along with the most "suitable" for me. It would be better off in the game if Sheena just ran around with no clothes on so you wouldn't have to imagine what's under that dress at 2 in the morning when you have nothing else to do, all though I sure as hell tried.
The best segment we did would have to be when we fought the Dark Dragon (Segment 69) and we beat him in 7:98. We ended up doing that segment without the game clock changing. We won that because of my Beast move after being told not to do it.
Quotes during the run:
"Oh my god he just exploded your fucking head." - Tyler
"Marcus, would you put down that Game boy and turn your controller on." "Ummm... My controller wasn't on, we have to restart." "Good fucking job." Michael / Marcus
"Genis isn't a girl?" "WOW!!" Mark / Everyone (Segment 66)
"If you were to rape one of the characters who would it be?" "Genis."-Marcus / Mark
This run was fun because the whole time I had no idea what was going on, mainly because I was playing Halo 2 with Tyler the whole time. This run took entirely too much time although we did get it to finish under 8 hours.
Tyler McDaniel's comments:
Lots of fun battles, because that's pretty much all I knew what I was doing on. Lots of frustration from Michael being so demanding and not wanting deaths or items used in battle. Umm...Lots of restarts...yeah. Even segment 2 had some trouble with all the fighting we had to do, and of course, I'd be the one to fuck it up near the end on the golem things. Pretty much any segment with a boss or a battle, which is about 85-90% of the run, had multiple restarts to try to get perfection. The most we had to do a segment was probably on the water seal because of how quickly spread could kill any of us. The running segments always seemed to go by really fast because they didn't normally take many tries, Michael was pretty godly at them. So during pretty much any running segment, Mark (Raine) and I would play a lot of halo 2 because we didn't care at all about the storyline. All we know that it's about a tree and angels are bad.
We literally thought that our practice run was amazing in 9:10 after the credits and everything, and that only took us 2 weeks to do! This was one of the most time consuming things that I've ever done without earning something for it. Pretty much I get a title of being "one of those insane people who ran ToS". There seems to be a lot of complaining about using computer characters for this game, so...my suggestion...get some friends?
If, for some crazy reason *cough* boring running *cough*, you don't watch the whole run, there are certain segments that are must see. These include segments 5, 9 (Sheena gets raped by Colette =D), 13, 16 (No damage from Kilia), 19 (Double boss battle, both get destroyed), 23, ALL the summon spirit segments (25, 37, 44, 46, 52, 54, 55, 57), 32, 34 (Regal gets slaughtered), 40, 49 (Presea godliness finally comes out), 62!!!!, 66 (Holy shit is all I can say), 67 (Gotta give Michael props for something, right?), 69 is the shit, and finally segment 70 to conclude (nerdy word for me) our no death run! Yeah, I have no idea why I just took an hour to actually think of what I was going to type. Stupid Marcus forcing me into doing what he wants. Oh well. =D Enjoy the boss raping and the umm...godly running?