History YMMV / TalesOfSymphonia

* ViewerGenderConfusion: Be honest, did you think that figure in pink in the back of the box art was going to be a man? Not only that, but a total cassanova at that? The fact that he's way in the back and in a very androgynous pose doesn't help. Raine can also be mistaken for a very hot effeminate guy... well, until thirty seconds of playing. Later, the kid Mithos also has a quite girly design, rather similar to Colette. Granted, [[spoiler: Colette and Mithos looking similar is quite deliberate and is meant to foreshadow the game's later developments.]]

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation:Yuan. For a minor character who doesn't get a lot of screentime, the distinctions between NecessarilyEvil and WellIntentionedExtremist can blur.

** Zelos prepares a meal [[spoiler:with sleeping drugs]]. Just before serving, he grabs Lloyd from behind and hugs him tight. " 'Cause we're best friends, right? I worry about you. You must be tired." Or verrrry uncomfortable. Still, cue the {{Squee}}. Or just run with it altogether]].

** Zelos prepares a meal [[spoiler:with sleeping drugs]]. Just before serving, he grabs Lloyd from behind and hugs him tight. " 'Cause we're best friends, right? I worry about you. You must be tired." Or verrrry uncomfortable. Still, cue the {{Squee}}. Or just [[http://www.google.com/images?um=1&hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&biw=1600&bih=678&tbs=isch%3A1&sa=1&q=zelos+lloyd&btnG=Search&aq=f&aqi=&aql=f&oq=&gs_rfai= run with it altogether]].

* CompleteMonster: Even Kvar's own soldiers admit he creeps them out.

* HoYay: Zelos occasionally acts slashy towards Lloyd. In Japanese, he even refers to Lloyd with the exact same epithet he uses on all his lady loves - "[[http://pics.livejournal.com/madri/pic/003fq5xz honey]]."

* * MotiveDecay: [[spoiler:After Martel rejects Mythos, he goes from wanting to bring about (an albeit twisted and unnatural) equality to the world to wanting a world where he can live with his sister, at the cost of leaving the world to die]].

* NightmareFuel: Paying too much attention to stuff in this may cause nightmares. It's covered by cute graphics, but sometimes even that doesn't help. However, [[spoiler:after Colette loses her soul, she's downright creepy, with GlowingEyesOfDoom and a complete apathy towards anything except that which threatens her.]]

* ClicheStorm: Deliberate in the early stages, and in true Tales Of fashion, is subverted hard the rest of the game.

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Zelos is the only character in the entire Tales series (except [[TalesOfDestiny Leon]]) to place in the top 10 of every single official popularity poll NamcoBandai has done.
** Outside of Japan, at least, both Kratos and Sheena have formidable fanbases.

* GoodBadBug: Tech Glitch.

* HilariousInHindsight: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5TRN052SZ0 This]] is a video showing a rare enemy called a Gentleman. [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything Does this remind you of]] [[TheSlenderManMythos anyone?]]

* InternetBackdraft: Just try and explain why Colette or Sheena is a better match for Lloyd and see how far that gets you.

* MoralEventHorizon: Forcytus crosses it by [[spoiler:turning Marble into a monster and forcing Lloyd and Genis to kill her.]]

* MostAnnoyingSound: Desian {{Mooks}}, when defeated, shout "beaten.. by an ''INFERIOR BEING''!" This happens ''every time''.

* ShipToShipCombat: The aforementioned Colette vs. Sheena war, plus the numerous YaoiGuys ships. The various skits and ShipTease moments do ''not'' help one bit.
** Nor did the sequel, which decided to make ''any'' given pairing happen, depending on a question you ask Lloyd.

* StuffedIntoTheFridge: The only characters to be turned into monsters by the expheres are women; Marble, Clara, [[spoiler:Alicia and Anna (Lloyd's mother)]]. The only reason for this seems to be to give the heroes some CharacterDevelopment and/or a DarkAndTroubledPast.
** Correction: All but ONE character turned into a monster by exspheres are women, but then again, Rodyle is an evil JerkAss so it's ok to leave him out. (He also does it [[EmergencyTransformation voluntarily]], whereas all the others were slaves at human ranches.)
* ThatOneBoss: Sylphs, if you're trying to get them early.

* ThatOneLevel: Shadow's temple, which is basically a dungeon-long puzzle that forces you to wrangle five little NPC blobs that have the most critically stupid AI ever and can't grasp the concept of straight lines. Ymir Forest also tends to drag on.

* ViewerGenderConfusion: Be honest, did you think that figure in pink in the back of the box art was going to be a man? Not only that, but a total cassanova at that? The fact that he's way in the back and in a very androgynous pose doesn't help. Raine can also be mistaken for a very hot effeminate guy... well, until thirty seconds of playing. Later, the kid Mithos also has a quite girly design, rather similar to Colette.
** Granted, [[spoiler: Colette and Mithos looking similar is quite deliberate and is meant to foreshadow the game's later developments.]]

* NightmareFuel: Paying too much attention to stuff in this may cause nightmares. It's covered by cute graphics, but sometimes even that doesn't help. However, [[spoiler:after Colette loses her soul, she's downright creepy, with GlowingEyesOfDoom and a complete apathy towards anything except that which threatens her.]]
** The Exbelua. OH DEAR GOD, THE EXBELUA!

* CompleteMonster: The Desians, from the [[QuirkyMinibossSquad Grand Cardinals]] on top to the lowliest mooks. What puts them in YourMileageMayVary territory is the claim that persecution and genocide from humans drove them to joing the Desians and hate humanity, but the presentation is botched by not once showing us a Desian reflecting on the {{Irony}} of their situation, or expressing any hesitation or remorse in carrying out KickTheDog moments.

* StuffedIntoTheFridge: The only characters to be turned into monsters by the expheres are women; Marble, Clara, [[spoiler:Alicia and Anna (Lloyd's mother)]]. The only reason for this seeme to be to give the heroes some CharacterDevelopment and/or a DarkAndTroubledPast.

** Correction: All but ONE character turned into a monster by exspheres are women, but then again, Rodyle is an evil JerkAss so it's ok to leave him out.

* FanPreferredCouple: Quite a few examples since Lloyd can be paired off with anyone, but notably Lloyd/Sheena.

* StuffedIntoTheFridge: The only characters to be turned into monsters by the expheres are women, Marble, Clara, [[spoiler:Alicia and Anna (Lloyd's mother)]]. The only reason for this seeme to be to give the heroes some CharacterDevelopment and/or a DarkAndTroubledPast.

* StuffedIntoTheFridge: The only characters to be turned into monsters by the expheres are women, Marble, Clara, [[spoiler:Alicia and Anna (Lloyd's mother)]]. Tthe only reason for this seeme to be to give the heroes some CharacterDevelopment and/or a DarkAndTroubledPast.

** The skit "Pretty Boys Die Young," in which Lloyd and Sheena comment that Zelos seems like the type of guy who just won't die. You can see where this is going.

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Zelos is the only character in the entire Tales series (except [[TalesOfDestinty Leon]]) to place in the top 10 of every single official popularity poll NamcoBandai has done.

* StrangledByTheRedString: [[YourMileageMayVary Lloyd and Colette]]

** Also, [[DarranNorris Rodyle's]]...[[MadScientist Relation]][[CompleteMonster ship]] with [[TaraStrong Presea]] takes weird connotations given their respective voice actors' characters' relationship on FairlyOddParents.

* WallBanger: Several, all surrounding the Ymir Fruit puzzle in the Ymir Forest. Let's take a look:
** Colette, who can fly, can't fly up into the tree and grab one, so they have to knock it into the water.
** Once it's in the water, they don't want to reach in and grab it because of some unpleasant-looking fish, and sticking it with one of Lloyd's swords and lifting it out that way would apparently ruin it's medicinal properties, so they have to get some smaller fish to push it around.
** When Lloyd idly wonders how it would taste, everyone berates him for even considering the question, because they need to give it to a little boy to save his mother, so apparently this is the last Ymir Fruit in existence, because they can't go back and get another for Lloyd.
** If we accept that this is the last Ymir Fruit ever, then we accept that they're allowing a valuable medicinal resource to go extinct so that they can save ''one'' person, rather than trying to cultivate it so that in the future, hundreds or even thousands of people with the same sickness can be saved, even if this one person regrettably dies.
** If we accept that the tree most likely has more fruit because that would make more sense from a not-going-extinct standpoint, they don't return to the tree to collect some more fruit to take with them, because a fruit with medicinal properties that could cure infections, help heal wounds, or if nothing else just fight off scurvy is apparently exactly the thing you ''don't'' want to take when you're on a dangerous journey where getting injured or sick is not only likely, but could seriously derail what you're trying to accomplish.
*** Maybe the tree only grows a few fruit a year and the rest had evidently been taken already?
**** This gets thrown out the window if you mess up the puzzle. You can knock another down immediately. No matter how many times you mess up.
*** Or the more simpler reason: They don't want to go through that bullshit again.
** Why doesn't Regal use his KamehameHadoken to try to save [[spoiler:Botta and his subordinates]] instead of just [[{{Narm}} ineffectually kicking at the glass?]]
*** If he did, then the glass would shatter and potentially hurtle towards [[spoiler: Botta and pals]]. FridgeBrilliance anyone?
*** Or later on when he and either Presea or Colette are imprisoned in ''the exact same cell'' he broke out of before.

* {{Woolseyism}}: Raine and Genis were originally named ''Refill'' and ''Genius'', respectively, in the original Japanese. While the Japanese would find this [[NarmCharm incredibly funny in a good way]] (espeically since "Refill" is a healer, thus, she ''refills'' your HP), Namco's editorial team wisely realized that Westerners would find the names [[WallBanger eye-bitingly stupid]] and wisely dropped the "u" from Genis' name to preserve the joke without being too obvious, and came up with a nice equivalent for Raine without being quite as blatant as the Japanese version (that is, her English name invokes the image of a ''soothing rain'' washing away pain).