Symphony of the Origin Review

When I played Symphony of Eternity last year, I thought it had some good ideas but was too rough in places and wasn’t much of a looker. Symphony of the Origin, a sort of follow-up to the original but not really a sequel, addresses pretty much all the complaints I had. Of course in so doing a couple more issues have popped up.

Symphony of the Origin is another “save the world” style RPG. Although in this case the story is treated more like a mystery with overarching doom. A young soldier named Ryle finds himself in the middle of an invasion by the fiendish “Evils of the Earth-depths.” I'll comment more on that later. Totally outmatched and on the run, he accidentally awakens an autonomous golem named Denoas who inadvertently saves his life. Shortly thereafter the duo are sent out on a quest to discover Denoas’ origins and help him reach his full potential so that he may turn the tide of the war. Naturally they pick up a few stragglers along the way.

Whereas the first game sported somewhat bland visuals, Symphony of the Origin looks great. The environments are more detailed and varied. The character sprites in combat are also more detailed in addition to being animated. My other issue with the Eternity was the somewhat clunky menu system, and that’s also a lot better and user-friendly here. Players can tap on ust about anything that would make sense (characters, portraits, buttons with arrows) to select targets which makes for a significantly smoother experience. There’s also a handy “auto” button to speed through easier fights if desired.

In addition to all of that, Origin also maintains that extra level of interesting mechanics that aren’t immediately apparent. This time around players can create custom weapons from three different parts (blade, hilt, bowstring, etc) to craft their own personal ultimate weapons like a sword that allows the user to defend injured comrades and attempt to steal from an enemy with each strike or a poisonous bow. Most components also include skills that a character can master (i.e. permanently add to their repertoire) after enough use.

The only real problem with Origin, aside from comparing shop gear with equipped gear being such a massive pain, is that the localization is terrible. The spelling is okay but the actual grammar and sentence structure is enough to make anyone facepalm. I mean come on, “Evils of the Earth-depths?” Shortened to “Evils?” That’s just atrocious. And it’s only the beginning, sadly.

Despite the story being undermined by a terrible script, Symphony of the Origin is still a fun little iOS RPG. It’s got a lot of depth to its mechanics, some great looking visuals, and relatively interesting characters. Just don’t spend too much time analyzing what any of them have to say.