Tales of Symphonia

Tales of Symphonia
Developer(s)	Namco Tales Studio
Publisher(s)	Namco Bandai Games
Series	Tales
Platform(s)	GameCube
Release date(s)	JP August 29, 2003 NA July 13, 2004 EU November 19, 2004
Genre(s)	Action role-playing
Mode(s)	Single-player, Co-op (4)
Input methods	GameCube Controller
Compatibility	5 Perfect
GameIDs	GQSDAF, GQSFAF, GQSEAF, GQSPAF, GQSIAF, GTOJAF, GQSSAF
See also...	Dolphin Forum thread Open Issues Search Google Search Wikipedia

Tales of Symphonia (テイルズ オブ シンフォニア, Teiruzu obu Shinfonia) is an action role-playing-game first released for the Nintendo GameCube and later for the PlayStation 2 in Japan. It debuted in Japan on August 29, 2003, selling 953,000 copies, in Canada and the United States on July 13, 2004, and in Europe on November 19, 2004. The game received a Japanese-only PlayStation 2 release on September 22, 2004, selling 486,000 copies. It is the fifth mothership title in the Tales RPG series, and was the third game in the series to be officially released in the U.S., and the first to be released in Europe. Tales of Symphonia's characteristic genre name is To Resonate With You RPG. Tales of Symphonia takes place long before Tales of Phantasia (hence a distant prequel). The game sold 118,000 copies during its first two weeks of sales in the U.S. and went on to sell over 1.4 million copies worldwide.

A direct spin-off sequel titled Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World was released for Wii.

Problems

Double Image

The game utilizes a blur technique as a "focus effect". During normal top-down gameplay, anything in the center of the screen is clear, but the edges are distorted and duplicated. If the camera angle moves down to the character's level, the effect becomes a distance blur. This is not a problem with Dolphin - this is an actual game effect that the developers intended and is present on console. But at the higher resolutions Dolphin is capable of it can be very annoying. To improve this, enable the Tales of Symphonia GC Custom Projection Hack. The hack isn't perfect however: it merely shifts the blur off screen during normal top-down gameplay. When the camera angle changes the effect will reappear incorrectly, affecting foreground elements like the characters.

• To enable the Custom Projection Hack, right-click the game in Dolphin and click on "Properties". Check "Custom Projection Hack" and click on "Settings". Under "Presets" make sure it says "Tales of Symphonia GC". Applying it to Disc1 will also apply it to Disc2 since they share the same GameID.

Projection Hack turned off

Projection Hack turned on

Skit and Dialog Textures

When viewing a skit or when characters talk during in-game dialog, certain textures will not accurately update when the Texture Cache is set to Fast. During skits, character icons may not appear to be talking (mouths won't move). During in-game dialog, the mouth textures may not change when a character speaks. Setting the Texture Cache slider to Position 2 (Middle) resolves this issue.

D3D11 Cutscene Rendering Issue

Some cutscenes have rendering issues with the D3D11 graphics backend. Use OpenGL to solve this issue.

File:Tales of Symphonia D3D11 Cinema Bug.jpg

Cutscene in D3D11

File:Tales of Symphonia D3D11 Cinema Bug2.jpg

Proper emulation

Cannot push/pull blocks in certain situations

This only happens if you're using a keyboard to play the game. To fix it, hold down the Main Stick Modifier key while moving towards the block to get a prompt to push/pull it.

• The Main Stick Modifier key can be configured in the GCPad settings.

This only works with the Windows version of Dolphin.

Slowdown on menu screens

Depending on your system configuration, the menu screens slow down considerably when you use D3D9, especially on the Synopsis detail screen. OpenGL and D3D11 yield better performance, with the latter generally giving the best performance. See issue 6563.

Configuration

Only configuration options for the best compatibility where they deviate from defaults are listed.

Graphics

Config	Setting	Notes
Video Backend	OpenGL	Avoid cutscene rendering issue
Texture Cache Accuracy	Position 2 (Middle)	Fixes the skit and in-game dialog textures

Version Compatibility

The graph below charts the compatibility with Tales of Symphonia since Dolphin's 2.0 release, listing revisions only where a compatibility change occurred.

r4514

3.5

3.5-135

3.5-1154

Δ

5.0-21455 (current)

Δ

Δ

Δ

Δ

Δ

2.0 (r5384)

Compatibility can be assumed to align with the indicated revisions. However, compatibility may extend to prior revisions or compatibility gaps may exist within ranges indicated as compatible due to limited testing. Please update as appropriate.

Testing

This title has been tested on the environments listed below:

Template:Test EntryTemplate:Test EntryTemplate:Test EntryTemplate:Test Entry

Test Entries
Revision	OS	CPU	GPU	Result	Tester
2.0	Windows XP	AMD Athlon II X2 215 @ 3.45GHz	nVidia GeForce 7025	It took 75+ hours to complete this game. Most time at 80-100%. Some slowdowns (65-75%) in big areas and WorldMap.
r6878	Windows 7 x64	AMD Phenom II 965 @ 3.81GHz	ATI Radeon HD 4870	Mostly 60 FPS, 30 in world map, sometimes lags in battle. Lags during transitions. Music is messed up.
r7480	Linux Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx x86	Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 @ 2.2GHz	nVidia GeForce 8600 GT	All seems to work except for the BGM. It's choppy. Intro stutters as well. No lags observed.	Chocwise
3.0	Windows 7 x64	Intel Core i5-2500K @ 3.3GHz	AMD Radeon HD 6870	Game runs full speed at all times with LLE. Make sure you have LLE on Thread enabled to gain a great speed boost. The game only lags in certain menu´s.	Garteal
4.0.1	Windows 7 x64	Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 @ 3.4GHz	nVidia GeForce GTS 250	Runs perfectly. Occasional freezing which leads to Dolphin crashing. Seems to work better with the JITIL experimental recompiler, but feels a little smoother with JIT. OpenGL graphics, HLE audio.
4.0.2	Windows 7 x64	Intel Core i5 3470 @ 3.2GHz	nVidia GeForce GTS 250	Runs at a steady 60 FPS at 2.5x internal resolution, 16x AF and 16x CSAA with OpenGL and HLE. Looks absolutely beautiful.	S1dology
4.0.2	Windows 7 x64	Intel Core i7-2600k @ 3.4GHz	nVidia GeForce GTX 470	Played with 1920x1584 internal resolution and 16xQ CSAA, didn't drop under 60 FPS so far. Used the recommended settings to avoid glitches, but for some reason the start menu disappears. Sound of cutscenes stutters at certain points. Besides that the game runs great and looks a lot better than the original on gc.	Walkerlos

Gameplay Videos

Dolphin Emulator 4.0 - Tales of Symphonia (1080p HD) - Nintendo GameCube

Dolphin 4514 SVN x64 - Tales of Symphonia GC - Funcionando 40 - 60FPS