Tales Of Symphonia

• There's so much stuff to do sidequest-wise that you shouldn't even bother trying to do everything. Just play through with as little FAQ help as possible and get as much enjoyment out of it. There's simply no way outside of following a step-by-step guide of getting everything, and most of the time the rewards aren't worth it. You can't even 100% the game until future playthroughs because it is impossible to get every Title for every character on your first run. So try not to worry about whether you lost the chance to do a certain sidequest.

• Don't spend Grade at the cat shops or whatever they're called. You'll pick up so many EX Spheres that you won't ever have to worry about having too few. Better to save up that Grade for choosing what you want for a New Game+.

• Don't be an ass to Zelos on your first playthrough, for one main reason which I won't spoil here. This is more of a personal preference on my part though.

• If you have a turbo controller you can grind as much grade as you want without actually being at the console later in the game. Just before you fight the final boss, get a guide and find out how to access Niflheim. Enter the dungeon and find a floor where enemies respawn. Sit your character directly on the spawn point, turn on turbo, and tape down the A button.

• Look up what combinations of EX-gems are required to grant your characters the EX-skills you want. It's rarely a good idea to equip solely level 4 gems. Also, once an EX-gem is equipped, it can't be removed (only destroyed), but by the end of the game you should be rolling in them.

• After releasing the seal at the Tower of Mana, the next step will be to head towards Hima and fly to the Tower of Salvation. DON'T GO TO HIMA. First, return to Ossa Trail (where you first fought Sheena), enter the cave, and defeat the Sword Dancer.

• Be nice to Zelos, and always keep him as your avatar with the level 2 EX-gem "personal". Talking to female NPCs will earn items based on his luck stat.

• After you fight the assassin girl, go north and across the bridge to the city in the lake. Buy two rabbit's feet, which will increase your luck and that affects Zelos' ability to get items from women he talks to.

• The stuff you can customize is usually better than what you can buy.

• Setting up unison attack combos once you can unison attacks is really important.

• Never sell weapons or armor.

• If you inherit map data, you can ride Noishe everywhere you unlocked him (this is really easy to do with the Rheards). This makes the game go a lot faster.

• Inherit Expheres lets you keep the EXGem Max from the final boss.

• Inherit Titles lets you keep costumes.

• One non-endgame related trick: You can steal from the Fake if you have an elemental weapon on Colette, OR use a T-Seal or S-Seal on her.