Well, Van I don't think was meant to be a villain with big reveals, the way that Mithos was (which made for some of the best plot twists in all of Symphonia). It was pretty clear Van was the Big Bad rather early on, and indeed the very opening scene has one of the main characters already convinced of it. I felt this was rather interesting though, in that Van and the god-generals were able to conduct their work quite openly for much of the game, given their strong positions in the world. I also liked that the game didn't pull the "actually the main villain is working for another person who gets revealed at the very end," which I was a bit worried would happen since Van's role in the story was established so early on. Even Van's second form for the final battle was a rather small change for a JRPG, which I also thought was fitting for the story. Van was an extremely close character to Luke, Tear, and Guy (and Asch too I suppose), so there was just so much to those battles with him in regards to everyone's character arcs.

Mohs was another example of "necessary evil for the greater good" type character (which I felt was handled in a fairly interesting way with Yuan in Symphonia, for a comparison). The Score promised prosperity and he felt every aspect of the Score leading up to it needed to be upheld as he interpreted it. Luke's presence was affecting the Score, so Mohs took matters into his own hands in ensuring the foretold war would actually happen. It's an interesting take on the concept of self-fulfilling prophecy, and I interpreted his character as one whose faith failed him. One of the main questions the game asks is in regards to the role of the Score--is it something that will happen no matter what, is it something that must happen no matter what, or is it something that simply can happen should the proper conditions be met? Mohs was an extreme example of what Van wanted to do away with, and it's interesting to see how Tear has to come to terms with her own shifting viewpoint of the Score over the course of the story in comparison to the both of them.

I didn't notice a lot that was so different about the overworlds in the two games, and I don't think I ever knew about Symphonia having some events possible to play in a different order. I did like the exploration involved in both games quite a bit though, and I thought the puzzles in both were pretty clever. (Though screw that convoluted level with getting the fruit in Symphonia!!)