Tales of Symphonia/YMMV


 * Nightmare Fuel:
 * 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,
 * The Exbelua.
 * Alternate Character Interpretation:
 * Yuan. For a minor character who doesn't get a lot of screentime, the distinctions between Necessarily Evil and Well-Intentioned Extremist can blur.
 * Some people think Mithos and
 * Canon Sue: Deconstructed with Colette. She's an incredibly cute, borderline-Yamato Nadeshiko who only has everyone else's best interests at heart and gets to become an angel... who is nearly completely dead on the inside due to her responsibilities as The Chosen One and is put through a Trauma Conga Line in both worlds. Plus, that whole angel thing? Well, let's just say it's not all it's cracked up to be...
 * Cliché Storm:
 * Deliberate in the early stages, and in true Tales Of fashion, is subverted hard the rest of the game.
 * Hello, Dwarven Vows.
 * Complete Monster:
 * Even Kvar's own soldiers admit he creeps them out.
 * Rodyle is arguably the most evil character in the game.
 * Possibly Yggdrasil..
 * Die for Our Ship: Colette, by some Lloyd/Sheena fans; sometimes they don't even hate her, just "need" to bash her because she's "in the way".
 * Evil Is Sexy: Pronyma
 * Ensemble Darkhorse:
 * Zelos is the only character in the entire Tales series (except Leon) to place in the top 10 of every single official popularity poll Namco Bandai has done.
 * Outside of Japan, at least, both Kratos and Sheena have formidable fanbases. Especially Kratos.
 * Fan-Preferred Couple: Quite a few examples since Lloyd can be paired off with anyone, but notably Lloyd/Sheena and Zelos/Lloyd for the Ho Yay shippers.
 * Fashion Victim Villain:
 * Funny Aneurysm Moment
 * It's cute when Colette is drawing on Lloyd's hand in the opening cinematic, until you get to the point in the game where she does this, and learn why:
 * 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.
 * The ending becomes a lot less hopeful for people who have played Tales of Phantasia and realize that.
 * Game Breaker: Colette's Toss Hammer; Para Ball being another example.
 * Good Bad Bug:
 * Tech Glitch.
 * Also of note: For the final boss fight with, in the beginning cut-scene, the final boss will randomly not move at all. He will just stand there, talking to you, mouth not moving, arms lifeless, body totally inert.
 * As mentioned in the main article, the dragon that gives 10,000 Gald upon defeat apparently only does so because of a typo that resulted in an extra zero -- the Japan-only PlayStation 2 Updated Rerelease has it only give 1,000 Gald instead.
 * Hilarious in Hindsight:
 * This is a video showing a rare enemy called a Gentleman. Does this remind you of anyone?
 * Also, Rodyle's...Relationship with Presea takes weird connotations given their respective voice actors' characters' relationship on Fairly Oddparents.
 * Ho Yay:
 * 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 - "honey."
 * Genis cooks for him, and he totally resents it if he's not chosen to be in Lloyd's group in the times you have to split the party in two. His friendship with Mithos also has elements of adorable Toy Ship (especially when Mithos goes "Who do you like better, Lloyd or me?", which actually makes Lloyd react jealously), except... then the whole thing gets much more serious.
 * Zelos prepares a meal . 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.
 * Internet Backdraft:
 * Just try and explain why Colette or Sheena is a better match for Lloyd and see how far that gets you.
 * Also, don't bring up the Drama CDs. Just... don't.
 * Or compare this to Final Fantasy X. Doing the reverse yields the same results. Even after pointing out the many, many differences the slightest comparison will lead to Fan Wank of unimaginable levels. Even pointing out that one has heard the two games compared can lead to flaming like you would not imagine.
 * Grandia II says "hi".
 * Or bash Colette.
 * Or, similarly, bash Sheena.
 * Memetic Mutation
 * The infamous "Coffee Mind-fuck" has generated a minor meme cluster, with Lloyd being referred to as Coffee-kun on certain Image Boards, and often being portrayed as an enraged Starbucks employee who offers only two options for an order - "motherfucking hot coffee" or "motherfucking cold coffee," offering none of that "Espresso or Frappucino bullshit."
 * Kratos's apparent dislike of tomatoes (he never uses them as an additional ingredient while cooking, and is less proficient at recipes in which they're required) shows up quite a bit in fanart. Lloyd's dislike of tomatoes is also brought up in various fanworks on a regular basis,
 * Memetic Badass: The above Kamahamahadoken has become a minor case of this, with people theorizing that if he'd just use it during combat, he'd be the most powerful character in the entire game.
 * Memetic Sex Goddess:
 * Find someone who can surpass Sheena in hotness. We dare you.
 * Challenge accepted.
 * Moe: Presea
 * Moral Event Horizon:
 * Forcytus crosses it by
 * Rodyle.
 * Magnius isn't quite as bad as the above two, but deserves credit for the sheer speed at which he crosses the line. In his first appearance, right after his first line, he
 * Most Annoying Sound:
 * Desian Mooks, when defeated, shout "beaten... by an INFERIOR BEING!" This happens every time.
 * On that note, there is an enemy called a "Mandragora", which is essentially just a cute female flower spirit, but when defeated, they shout "I'm a goner"! Kind of funny, but the voice is just annoying. UH OH TIME TO FLY UH OH TIME TO FLY I'M A GONER UH OH TIME TO I'M A GONER UH OH TIME TO FLY
 * Also; "I'm sorry". Said by everyone. Ever.
 * Narm:
 * Colette learning Judgment immediately after.
 * Regal: "What is this ominous light that threatens to engulf us?!" That one is pretty much a meme.
 * Due to the slow movements and wooden animations outside of battle, many supposedly action-heavy cutscenes come of as kinda undynamic and laughable. One example would be Genis running slowly in front of someone to block a fireball that got cast over 5 seconds ago and then casually wandering off again.
 * Ron the Death Eater: Collette gets a lot of this treatment in Lloyd/Sheena fanfiction.
 * Seinfeld Is Unfunny: It's easy to have been spoiled by the later titles, even those without free-run for how radically different their battle systems were from this game.
 * Ship-to-Ship Combat: The aforementioned Colette vs. Sheena war, plus the numerous Yaoi Guys ships. The various skits and Ship Tease 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.
 * Strangled by the Red String: Lloyd and Colette, but only if you don't pay attention to the Relationship Values (Colette is the easiest to please, especially by idealistic decisions that are in character for Lloyd) and end up with her as Lloyd's "default" soul mate. Actually investing in the relationship proves to have quite the opposite effect.
 * Stoic Woobie: Regal, especially in the anime, which takes his already tragic backstory and elevates it to outright Tear Jerker status. Despite all the bad things that happen to him, however, Regal never angsts unless the issue's being pressed.
 * Stuffed Into the Fridge: Most of the characters turned into monsters by the expheres are women with the only reason seeming to be to give the heroes some Character Development and/or a Dark and Troubled Past. Rodyle's an exception, but he is an evil Jerkass who does it voluntarily, whereas all the others were slaves at human ranches, so it's OK to leave him out.
 * That One Boss:
 * Sylphs, if you're trying to get them early.
 * The dragons on the Island of Floating Dragons, since they launch powerful attacks that are difficult to dodge. Strangely enough, they don't even get boss music.
 * can also be a Wake Up Call Boss if you are under leveled. While most bosses are solo and can thus be pushed into a corner and wailed on, these two are both full blown bosses and fight together, meaning that while you're trying to corner one, the other is wailing on your healers or casting eruption everywhere.
 * That One Level:
 * 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.
 * And don't forget Volt's temple. There are winding hallways with lots of stairs, no railing, and sporadic lighting that take you back several rooms if you fall over. Of course, if you do happen to fall a few times, you get frustrated and want to get through it in a hurry, causing you to make mistakes and fall even more. Then, finally, you navigate through three of those damn hallways... and fall off a corner three inches from the exit.
 * The Ice Temple and the Tower of Salvation are no cakewalk if you don't like sliding puzzles.
 * Viewer Gender Confusion:
 * 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 casanova 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,
 * Apparently, that rainbow Kitsune with a feminine sounding voice and name (Corrine) is male. Except in the manga, unless that was a translation error or something.
 * The Woobie: Colette. There is a split opinion on her-- and that's flame bait. Presea also counts.
 * Every playable character has their moment of woobieness. Even the Big Bad counts.
 * Woolseyism: Raine and Genis were originally named Refill and Genius, respectively, in the original Japanese. While the Japanese would find this 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 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).