So, I was very kindly gifted Tales of Symphonia Chronicles for the PS3, for Christmas. Always lovely to recieve awesome gifts from an awesome family. =)

Proof of Christmas Day gaming!
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So, I am approximately 10 hours in, alas there has been a bit of time spent fighting and trying to get my head around the combat schema. Still don't quite understand it. It's like a transitional system between traditional and action rpg. I must admit though, I am finding it a bit of a dirge to play through. The game seems really well made, for the genre, and from what I have read, the characters are really well developed. Why am I not seeing this? So far, and I haven't come across a plethora of different characters yet, but all I am seeing are cliches from anime and standard archetypes. It all seems very sacchrine, ganbatte!! and all that nonsense that tends to crop up even when someone is trying to kill you.

"She tried to kill you!"
"I know...but I bet she isn't a bad person. I hope we can be friends".

Where is the dissonance? Is the majority of the game like this? At the moment, it feels a little bit like Symphonia in C Major. A bit of a bland, passive experience with not much depth to it - with the exception of its apparent length.