It has a unique battle system that becomes awesome once you get into it. Battles can take a while, but I still had lots of fun. The world itself is extremely inventive, and the 6 characters get a fair bit of development.

The overall plot has you running around collecting special crystals cards and it's nothing to jump up and down about, but there's enough original aspects of the plot to keep you going until the end. Once it was over, I looked back on the game and was fairly satisfied with the story in the end.

The voice acting in it is terrible, and although the pre-rendered backgrounds are completely gorgeous it also means the camera is static and stays in one plays during all cutscenes. But that's not really a big deal...You can turn the voice acting off and the backgrounds are so pretty you'll get over the other stuff.

Overall, it's pretty damn good in my book. Don't let the "card" thing fool you. It's just a representation of their attacks and it's no Yu-gi-oh or something.

The music is awesome too 8D

Edit: And roto is right, Tales of Symphonia > Baten Kaitos