was tales of symphonia an underrated game??
well in my personal opinion this is my favorite game ever...
why? 5 main reasons
story - many plot twists, from CD one trough CD 2 always plot twists and the story is not confusing at all
gameplay- a very weird combination of fighting games with RPG's though the mix is very good, and the character customization system is complicated at the beginning though once you get it you'll see that there are many way's for character development (either T or S characters, you got the exphere gems also you can change the AI of some characters to make them support/long-rage/close combat fighters etc etc) though it might not have the same flavor of job system as FF games but is still a very solid way to develop characters, also the dungeons offer some difficulty and very well created puzzles. boss battles are just hack and slash/heal all you can in normal difficulty but in mania mode you might wanna try to evade or block more often and try to create an strategy to beat the boss
lenght- the main story of the game without using a guide is about 64 hours and that's without the multiple sidequests that the game features (wich are not really repetitive)
replay value- this game has 2 different endings... tough there are some thing that might differ depending of the way you make develop the relationships between the main character and other ones (lloyd irving being the main character) also there are parts of the game that are non-linear (the quest for the summon spirits) and the dungeons offer some difficulty and very well created puzzles
co-op- maybe the main reason i played this game about 6 or 7 times already... i played this game first by myself... then with my girlfriend and her cousins, then with my sister and my cousins, then with some friends, then i moved to another city made more friends and played yet again and right now i'm playing with my big sister and her boyfriend. (in other words: this game + 3 more playes + a gaming party = UP ALL NIGHT) and the best thing is that they don't have to be hardcore gamers or RPG fans, this is the only RPG that my family was willing to play (but yet again the game is quite hard don't understimate it)
the only flaws i find in this game well is the camera during 4 players battles but that can be easily solved by using the semi-auto system (wich allows you to get you directly to your enemy when you press A) or you can use a long-ranged character get to the edge of the stage and that will make the camera zoom out so every player can see what they're doing. also the other issue (and probably the biggest one) is voice acting... in 2 british words UTTERLY GHASTLY (did i spelled it right??) but you can turn it off everytime you want (though i never did it because the people i played with didn't liked to read a lot)
and finally my point (few that was kinda long) i think this game is really underrated here on the US (is very popular on japan) adn like fire emblem because is an JRPG but seriously that doesn't make it a bad game, in fact even non-rpg players would enjoy it, give it a chance and it won't dissapoint you (plus the game should cost about 12$ right now). feel free to post your opinion