Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World

"A worthy addition to the series, but not what you may expect..."

Alright, let's just get a few things straight before we get to the review. Because this needs to be the first thing you potential buyers read.

If you're expecting this to be like another Tales of Symphonia, you'll be disappointed. While the story, in fact, is a direct sequel to Symphonia, this game is not ToS2. It's a spin-off, which means that it's not as large as the original, (much shorter, actually) and that some things either don't have the same amount of time put into them, or they aren't there anymore. Now, that doesn't mean this is a bad game. It just means that it's different from what you remember. No biggy.

Now that we've got that out of the way, on to the review.

Story - 9/10

Alright, so this game takes place two years after the end of Symphonia. The worlds have been reunited, but everything's out of whack for some reason. Weather patterns are all screwy, and there's some bad blood between the people of Sylvarant and Tethe'alla. This has been most recently shown in the Blood Purge, an attack on Palmacosta by the Church of Martel, apparently led by Lloyd Irving. Yes, we've got another world-ending crisis on our hands, and a new adventure begins.

The basic plot is... well, pretty basic. While there are, of course, Tales series style plot twists, there's really not much special about it. At times it goes too fast, at other times it goes way too slow. Plus, it's short. Not impossibly short, but much shorter than other Tales games.

So, I imagine you're wondering why it's deserving of a 9 out of 10. The answer is simple - the plot isn't the only part of the story. The reason people say they love the story in games like Tales of Symphonia isn't for the plot - It's cliched as all get-out. It's for the characters. And this game does, in fact, deliver in that respect. Especially when it comes to the two lead characters.

Our main character, Emil Castagnier, starts out as the biggest coward in the world. Seriously, he can't say three words to a stranger in the beginning without wetting himself. Now, if that was all he was, he'd be a lame character. But he goes through serious character development, and you'll find yourself liking the kid quite a bit after a little while. But I can't say too much more about that, seeing as it doesn't really start until a bit into the game. Suffice it to say that his character becomes a lot cooler than he is at first.

He's joined by Marta Lualdi, who has now topped my list of favorite Tales heroines. (Sorry, Chloe.) Now, the female leads in these games are usually pretty similar in how they act. They follow after the main character, slowly developing feelings for him, but are too embarrassed to admit it. Marta, on the other hand, blows this wide open. Not to say that she's a flirt, or anything, but she has no problem talking about how she feels about Emil from the start. This, surprisingly, makes her a better character than I thought she would be. As her relationship with him develops, and more about her is revealed, I found myself following with bated breath.

There are other new characters that just add to the awesomeness of the cast, but I just realized I've been talking WAAAY too much about the story. Must be the author in me. Let's move on to something else.

Gameplay - 10/10

This was great. Seriously. The battle system is similar to Tales of the Abyss, as far as the mechanics go. You have Free Run from the start, which lets you go anywhere in the battle zone. The fights themselves are a lot more fast-paced than Symphonia, which makes the game challenging, and the AI is actually pretty smart. You can't customize it very much when it comes to your allies, but everyone seems somewhat smarter.

There are also a lot of new additions to make battles a lot more fun. For example, there's the addition of the elemental grid. It applies to a lot in battle. Whether you'll be able to catch monsters or not, what kind of Unison Attack you'll do, even whether or not your enemies can regenerate their health. Messing with this grid can help you out a lot, or it can screw you over.

And after that, I should probably talk about monster catching. No, this isn't Pokemon. Throughout the game, you can catch monsters in any non-event battle. While they can't be controlled, they can play a big part in your battles. Each monster (except the first one you catch) has evolution paths that you can use and exploit to get the strongest beasts on the block. Not only that, you aren't forced to keep your monsters at their last evolution. They can change back to their first state and follow a different path, keeping power-up skills and a fifth of their stats from their previous evolution. Getting the best monster team possible takes a while, but is a whole lot of fun.

Of course, you can play as the Symphonia cast. They join and leave your team at various times during the game. The only catch? Each time they join, they join at a specific level. That level doesn't change for the entire time they're with you. Unfortunate, but they make up for it by being pretty dang strong.

There are other little things added to the battle system, and various mini-games, but no worries. The game takes time to explain everything, and it's considerably easy to pick up on. Even if this is your first Tales game, you'll master it in no time.

Graphics - 8/10

Alright, those of you that already have Vesperia aren't going to like this part. The graphics aren't fantastic. It's a Wii game, what do you expect? However, that doesn't mean they're bad. They're actually pretty good. Fight scenes are pretty awesome to watch, and, best of all, the cutscenes don't have to stick to the basics of the character models.

What do I mean by that? It's simple. During normal "press A after each text bubble" scenes, each character has a few different animations they have for speaking, acting scared/embarrassed, etc. But during a lot of cutscenes, they seem to be animated almost from scratch. Someone may come attacking out of the sky, only to be blocked and hit by something not meant for use as a projectile. (Can't explain more, but it's fun to watch.) That's a huge improvement on Symphonia, to be sure. It's not great, but it's good enough.

Sound - 9/10

The music is, all in all, pretty good. You'll notice that a lot of tracks are from Symphonia, while others have been remixed, and still others are completely new. And a lot of the completely new ones are completely awesome. I really don't have much more to say about that - I listen to a lot of music, but I don't make a good critic of it. I can't explain why the music's good, just that it always seems to fit the scene.

The voice acting is pretty great. Not too many voices from the old game are back, but a lot of the replacements are pretty good sound-alikes. And the new voice actors are good as well. Emil's voice actor brings back nostalgia of Tales of the Abyss (and Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers), Marta's adds to her character's overwhelming cuteness, and other new characters I haven't mentioned yet, like Richter, have voice actors that fit their personality perfectly.

Now, there are some outliers from the overall good consensus on the music and voices. Some average tracks have been done to death, both in this game, and the last. And Lloyd's new voice takes a little getting used to. But those things are just tiny issues. Besides, it's not like Lloyd's VA is bad. Again, he's just different.

Replayability/Value - 10/10

Alright, I already mentioned that the game is short. That is true, but, like all Tales games, it's also very fun to replay, since you get new difficulty settings and the ever-awesome GRADE shop. In fact, it may even be more fun to play over, since you know it won't take you another 70 hours to get everything you want in your next playthrough. While the first playthrough may get you 25-30 hours, you'll probably spend at least twice that, probably closer to three or four times more. Well worth the $40 spent on it.

Summary -

All in all, Dawn of the New World has earned its place among the Tales games. The story will get you started, the characters will drag you in, the battle system will keep you going, and everything else melds in to pull you closer to it all. It may not be what I expected, maybe not even what most of us did, but that doesn't make it worse than previous games. In fact, I, personally, am happier with this than many other titles in the series. And, I hope others are too.

Final Totals:
Story - 9/10
Gameplay - 10/10
Graphics - 8/10
Sound - 9/10
Replayability - 10/10

SUPER FINAL AVERAGE: (factoring in those who like graphics more than gameplay and other things in an algorithm far too complicated to explain right now...) 9/10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 12/02/08

Game Release: Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World (US, 11/11/08)