Tales of Symphonia

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Tales of Symphonia (テイルズ オブ シンフォニア ,Teiruzu obu Shinfonia) is a video game first released for the Nintendo GameCube and later for the PlayStation 2. It debuted in Japan on August 29, 2003, 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. 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 (君と響きあうRPG ,Kimi to hibiki au 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 1.2 million copies worldwide.

The game was produced by Akira Yoshizumi, a producer from Namco. One notable characteristic of the game is its art direction by Kosuke Fujishima, a renowned Japanese mangaka (comic-book artist).

In June 2007, Ufotable released an OVA in Japan based on the events of Symphonia. A spin-off titled Tales of Symphonia:Dawn of the New World for the Nintendo Wii was released in Japan on June 26, 2008 and in America on November 11, 2008 and TBA 2009 for Europe.

STORY

The game begins in the world of Sylvarant, a land that is dying due to a steady loss of mana, the energy source that is needed both for magic and to support life itself. As crops begin to wither and hardship sets in, the people turn their hopes to the Chosen, a servant and messiah of the Goddess Martel, who can reverse the ills of the world by completing the Journey of World Regeneration. In order to regenerate the world, the Chosen must travel from continent to continent, awakening the Summon Spirits that sleep at ancient shrines known as "seals." With every seal released, the Chosen comes closer and closer to becoming an angel. Once the Chosen fully transforms into an angel, the world will be regenerated.

As the game progresses, many revelations are made about World Regeneration and the hidden plots that complicate the scenario. One of the earliest revelations is that becoming an angel forces the Chosen to give up the aspects that make him or her human.With the release of the first seal, the Chosen loses the need to eat; with the second, the ability to sleep; with the third, the ability to feel physical sensations; and after releasing the fourth seal, the Chosen can no longer speak. The fifth and final seal requires the Chosen to give up his or her heart, memory, and life. When this process has been completed, the Chosen's body will become one with the goddess Martel.

The party also learns of a second world, known as Tethe'alla, which lies parallel to Sylvarant. Replenishing Sylvarant's supply of mana changes the flow of mana, thereby draining it away from Tethe'alla - much like the sand in an hourglass. The reverse also holds true. As the worlds of Sylvarant and Tethe'alla must compete for a limited amount of mana to survive, whenever one of these two worlds is regenerated, the other falls into a state of mana deprivation.

The party succeeds in releasing all the seals, and Colette becomes Martel's vessel. However, they learn that the angels that they are trying to serve have been using them. The party is betrayed by one of its own members, Kratos, who is then revealed to be an angel. The remaining party then goes to Tethe'alla to find answers, where their goal ultimately changes to saving the two worlds. In order to do this, they decide that they must sever the ties between Sylvarant and Tethe'alla to separate the worlds, thus ending the competition for mana. When they have completed breaking the seals connecting the two worlds, this causes the Great Seed, the giver of mana to the world, to go out of control. In the end, the party revives an ancient tree of ever-flowing mana, which, with the aid of the Eternal Sword, merges the two worlds once more.

Dino Crisis 3

Dino Crisis 3 (ディノクライシス3 ,Deinokuraishisu Surī) is a survival horror video game for the Xbox. It is the third and final game in the series. Like the previous iterations of the Dino Crisis series, gameplay revolves around fighting dinosaurus. The action takes place in outer space, on a space station.

Unlike the first two installments of the Dino Crisis series, the enemies in the game are not real dinosaurs. Instead they are mutations created from the DNA of some dinosaur species.

The game was originally planned for both Xbox and PlayStation 2, but the latter version was scrapped early in development.

Gameplay

The number of weapons was reduced to 2 guns with 6 ammo types (one gun and 3 ammo types per playable character), in addition to small machines called "WASPS" that help against dinosaur encounters. The game was played mostly through the character Patrick and only a small section was played as Sonya (although an unlockable mode allows you to play as Sonya only faster wearing a Waitress costume). There are also three types of body armor available.

Plot

It is the year 2548, more than 300 years since Earth lost contact with the colony ship U.N. Ozymandias, en route to a². Somehow, the ship has reappeared near Jupiter. A team called S.O.A.R. (Special Operations And Reconnaissance) is sent aboard the probe ship Seyfert to investigate. A small team is sent off on a shuttle in an attempt to board the Ozymandias, when the ship's weapons power up and launch a laser at the Seyfert, destroying the ship. The weapons then direct themselves at the shuttle and fire, slicing it in half and destroying it.

Fortunately, Patrick Tyler, Sonya Hart, commander Jacob Ranshaw, and McCoy survive the blast. They manage to make it to the Ozymandias and board the ship. Inside the ship proves to be quite derelict, though there is still power.

Patrick and Sonya soon find themselves face to face with a large Australis which kills McCoy. The Australis is in turn killed by a small colony of the eel-like Rigel, which eat the Australis alive from the inside. Game-play begins here.

As Patrick, you fight your way through parts of the ship until you reach the Bridge, where one life-sign is discovered somewhere in the ship. You are sent out to investigate. After fighting your way through the ship's storage areas, you finally meet the surviving human, a girl by the name of Caren Velázquez. After defeating a horrifying planet-like organism, Patric is forced to make a hasty retreat as the Ozymandias' MTHR - the ships control system- ejects the entire storage sector from the ship in hopes of stopping Patrick.

After finding his way through the rather confusing Shaft sector, Patrick meets Caren, and reveals that she reminds him of his sister, and that he feels the need to protect her. Patrick reaches the top of the Shaft sector, where he is attacked by a large Regulus. Luckily, Sonya and Jacob this time manage to save Caren, who was injured. Jacob is next to be rescued. Jacob then fights the Regulus head-on, sacrificing himself by detonating a grenade, destroying the room and everything in it. Patrick, Sonya, and Caren manage to escape just before the detonation. Caren soon dies, revealing that she is not, in fact, human, but is instead an android.

Unfortunately Jacob's sacrifice was in vain though, forcing you to fight the large dinosaur anyway. Upon defeating the Regulus, Patrick sees a "new" Caren running through a hatchway.

After restarting the Ships core in the Energy Sector, Patrick is forced to head back after a problem causes some parts of the ship to malfunction. After making it through the Shaft Sector in zero-gravity, Patrick then gets through the Deck Sector with malfunctioned Environmental Systems. On his way to the Hazardous Waste Storage Room, which contained an item to repair the ship, Patrick is almost crushed by a huge foot going through the ceiling. After being forced to the hanger deck after previous rooms froze the doors shut, MTHR has a surprise for him.

After another confrontation with an Australis, Caren manages to repair the ship, saving Patrick from succumbing to the broken environmental systems. Patrick then goes back to the Energy Core to restart it, but the room is severely damaged after MTHRs aquatic creature, "Miaplacidus," crashes through the wall, filling the area with water coolant.

When the fight is finished, the Creature escapes and the trio run to the MTHR sector as the core begins to go into meltdown. As the trio arrive at the sector, the MTHR and Engine sectors detach from the Front Deck, Shaft and Energy Sectors, which are destroyed by the meltdown. The Engines soon activate an emergency system and Warp jump to Earth.

Patrick tries to stop MTHRs main computer but she opens another hatch releasing Miaplacidus a second time. Upon defeating the creature, Patrick tries to stop M.T.H.R. sending the dinosaurs to Earth and fights her, eventually destroying her system, which has disastrous effects on the ship, causing it to activate the Self-destruct.

Patrick is reunited with Sonya and Caren as they try to escape the ship via an escape shuttle, but they are attacked by the "Cebalrai", an adult Rigel. Patrick is then attacked by the creature, being unable to reach his gun. Caren decides to sacrifice her self to make her self fall, along with the dinosaur from a collapsed platform. Patrick and Sonya are able to escape before the ship self-destructs. But the Cebalrai, being able to survive in vacuum, was able to get on the top of the shuttle. Then Patrick gets on top of the shuttle himself to destroy the "genetic freak", and so the final battle begins.

Midway through the battle, the Cebalrai grows a third head, and Patrick is forced to use a "Final Wasp," which weakens the creature and sends it flying into space. Upon its defeat, Patrick stands on top of the ship and says: "It's finally over! Caren ...". Then the Earth is shown on the screen where the game ends.

Note: The game events are canon, but have little connection to the first two games (Dino Crisis 3 is a new chapter to the series). The events of Dino Crisis 2 continue with the spin-off game "Dino Stalker" .

After the the game is completed in sort of difficulties there are 2 bonus/mini-games unlocked .

1. Sonya Express: The player takes control of Sonya Hart, wearing a waitres suit , and a faster jetpack. In the mini-game the player explores Ozymandias and kills as many dinosaurus as they can.
2. Wheel of tune: The mini-game that allows the player take control of Patrick Tyler , also with different costumes. The mini-game is similar to the main story, but harder, and the player must kill as many dinosaurus on Ozymandias as they can, within the time limit.

source: Wikipedia

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