Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World

"Dwarven Vow No. 15: The original is always better"

If you were to ask me what was my favorite game of all time, I'd probably answer with Tales of Symphonia. I won't go on about why-you could find those answers in my review for it if you cared enough to find out. But the bottom line is, just having the words "Tales of Symphonia" in the title gave Tales of Symphonia Dawn of the New World a tremendous burden right away for me. The first game did much more than simply provide me with a 55 hour adventure when I had some time to kill, and I knew right off the bat that a budget title sequel like DotNW designed mainly as fan service wouldn't top it. And since I'm assuming a large portion of the people who played this game also played the original, there are my words of wisdom: don't expect DotNW to surpass ToS. Instead, just appreciate it for the fun, memory-provoking game that it is.

STORY

The plot to DotNW takes place about two years after the conclusion of Tales of Symphonia. The two worlds remain reunited, but all is far from well. The Sylvaranti and Tethe'allans, the people originally from the worlds Sylvarant and Tethe'alla, are at odds with each other. This eventually leads to an attack on the town of Palmacosta, and one of the people who seems to be taking part in burning this city to the ground is none other than Lloyd Irving, the protagonist of the first game.

We're then quickly introduced to our main character, Emil, who is one of the most cowardly and spineless protagonists you've ever seen. He's living with his aunt and uncle in the town of Luin until he meets up with our female lead, Marta, who is on the run from a faction of the Sylvaranti known as the Vanguard who are bent on rebelling against the Tethe'allans and the Church of Martel. And as you may have guessed, Emil soon becomes involved in this struggle between the Sylvaranti and Tethe'allans and eventually will see how the entire newly united world is at stake.

Yup, like any other Tales game or RPG in general, you're eventually going to find yourself in a struggle to save humanity. But don't worry, because you'll have a whole slew of characters to help you out. As mentioned before, there's the female lead, Marta, who doesn't even try to keep her crush on Emil a secret. We also have Richter, who seems to know a thing or two about fighting and has a dark history shrouded in mystery. Then there's Tenebrae, a wise-cracking being known as a Centurion that bears some resemblance to a cat. There are also some new villains along the way who'll you'll find yourself battling many times over throughout the game, who generally have at least an understandable motive for standing in your way.

Of course, you'll also see plenty of the cast from Tales of Symphonia, who will also be more than willing to take some time to help Emil out on his quest to save the world. Almost every party member joins you at one point or another, and you'll also encounter some NPCs as well.

Like other Tales games, there's plenty of character development thrown in. There are plenty of times when Emil performs a complete 180 in terms of his personality, and it's easy to see him grow as the story progresses. And for characters who don't see too many personality changes, like Richter, we instead see a backstory to show at least some effort was put into making them not seem two-dimensional. Unfortunately, the characters from the first development don't develop at all, but considering they only play minor roles for the most part in this game, along with the fact they were given plenty of development in the first installment, this is pretty forgivable.

The story overall in ToS: DotNW is pretty good, although it doesn't come close to touching the epic feel of Tales of Symphonia's quest. But it gets the job done, and there are plenty of plot twists and smaller mysteries to uncover that will keep you interested enough to keep playing. And since this is a sequel to a game with a complex and deep story, there are plenty of references and throwbacks to the events of ToS. Luckily, the game treat the player as if s/he knows the plot to Tales of Symphonia by heart, so if you passed up the first game or forget something from ToS that is important to DotNW, the game is nice enough to frequently offer quick versions of the key aspects.

GAMEPLAY

At first glance, ToS: DotNW looks like it plays almost identically to how every Tales game for the passed half decade or so has played. You go to a town, talk to a few people, find out your next objective, head to a dungeon or another town to complete said objective, rinse and repeat for a few dozen hours, and you've won the game. However, there are few ways in which DotNW breaks the mold from its predecessor, and even from the whole series in general.

For starters, anyone who's played the Tales of Symphonia remembers the not-so-difficult, but time consuming puzzles that stopped you in your tracks once every forty-five minutes. The bad news: the puzzles are back in DotNW. In fact, they're more or less the exact same puzzles from the first game. The good news: these puzzles are really toned down. Even if you needed a guide to finish one of the puzzles in the ToS, you certainly won't need one to solve the puzzles in DotNW. The ones in this game are straight forward and take minimal effort to figure out and complete, so if you hated some of the more tedious dungeons in ToS, you're in for a break here.

Of course, you're still going to have to travel to those dungeons and towns. You're probably thinking you get to those places by traversing the world map. Think again! DotNW has completely done away with traveling on the world map. Now, for better or for worse, just getting to a new location requires you to leave the town or dungeon you're in, see a picture of the world map, and then just select the place you want to head to. The game will automatically take you there, saving you the work of having to walk, fly or sail there.

But the most notable change comes during the battles. Like other Tales games before it, DotNW has no random encounters, so you can avoid any fights you want to, save for the boss battles. In battle, you move around in real-time on a battlefield as you beat away at your foes. There's the typical Tales fare : you have your TP to cast special moves while keeping a close eye on your HP so you don't get KO'd . You also get a certain amount of grade at the end of a fight that is a sum based on how well you performed in battle, taking into account factors such as how quickly you defeated your enemy and how many healing items you had to use. This grade can be used to buy things at the end of the game to enhance any further playthroughs.

However, things get a little interesting when it comes to potential party members. For starters, there are only two permanent party members for the entire game: Emil and Marta. Yes, eventually characters from ToS will join up and fight alongside you, but they come at a set level that never grows or changes, no matter how many times you use them in battle. They also can't learn any new skills, so however strong they are will be as strong as they are when they pop out, no matter what.

But if you think having party members who can't improve overtime will end up causing you problems during the game's toughest foes, fear not! In addition to filling up the party member slots with characters from ToS, you can also utilize the aid of...monsters. Yup, monsters. Tales of... meets Pokemon in this installment. To catch a monster, you have to keep an eye on the bottom left corner of the screen during a battle. In the corner, you'll find a series of circles with symbols for elemental attributes. When there are enough smaller circles with elemental attributes that match the elemental attribute in the large circle, you'll have the opportunity to capture a monster at the end of a battle after you win. In order to change the elemental attributes in the circles, you have to cast artes (the term for special moves) that match that attribute. It's a little difficult to explain, but there's the best explanation I can give.

Before you ask, yes-monsters can evolve in this game. Like Emil and Marta, they also level up the more you fight with them in your party (at a much quicker pace, I might add), and the further along in the game you capture a monster, the stronger they can potentially become.

So, there you have it. The gameplay at its core is the same as every other Tales game. Exploring the dungeons is fun when you're not toughing out another annoying puzzle, and the battles are still fast paced and fun. The lack of a world map and inability to level up characters from the first game may be disappointing to some, but this is made up for with the unexpected addition of having the ability to capture monsters and use them in battle.

GRAPHICS

Like ToS, DotNW is done with cartoon-styled graphics that really fit the mood. The characters are well modeled and actually have some varieties in animation during the cutscenes, unlike the characters in ToS who only had a few poses that we saw literally hundreds of times over the course of the game. DotNW has actual cutscenes, and they look well animated and, while the models seem a little blocky at some parts, they are far from an eyesore and are overall well rendered.

The same goes for battle animations. Characters and monsters are well presented in the heat of a fight as well. The attacking animations look pretty good, and the spells-especially the ones you obtain late in the game-are really eye catching and liven up the battle without causing any sort of lag, which is always a nice feature.

Lastly, there are the towns and dungeons. These are perhaps my favorite parts when it comes to the game's visuals, because they are all detailed and very well put together. There are plenty of new environments and dungeons that look great and help you to be really immersed in the game's world, ranging from the dark areas of the elemental altars, to the graveyard-esque abyss leading into the game's final area. The towns and areas from the first game are back and have been touched up very nicely while still retaining the feel they had in the first game.

SOUND

For the sound, I'll start off with the game's music. As expected, there are lots of tracks from ToS that have been brought over into DotNW, except the songs are remixed and enhanced. Whether it's "Derris Kharlan" sounding noticeably slowed and more peaceful, or the more electric guitar centered version of "Full Force", anyone who played the first game is sure to find themselves taking a minute or two to listen to some of their favorite tunes from ToS once again.

Of course, there are plenty of new tunes as well. This ranges from new battle and dungeon themes, and some tracks, like Richter's theme, sound really good and stick well after hearing them a few times. Unfortunately, with the exception of the music in the last area and the final boss (DotNW has the best final boss theme in the series, in my opinion), the new tracks aren't as memorable as catchy as the songs from the first game, but they're not all that bad.

Now let's move on to the other main component of sound: the voice acting. For the most part, the new characters are given voices that really fit their characters, whether it's Tenebrae's sarcastic and wiseguy-like voice or the cool and commanding tone of Richter. And while the voices are generally fitting, a lot of them are annoying, like the very obnoxious Alice.

The characters returning from Tales of Symphonia also have voices, but sadly most of them have different voice actors who are inferior to the original's. The perfectly fitting voice Scott Menville provided for Lloyd in ToS has been replaced with what sounds like a nasally teenager trying to sound tough. Characters like Regal and Presea sound good enough, but come nowhere near to how fitting their voices in ToS were. And if you were one of the people who played ToS and couldn't stand Genis's voice and said, "There's no way this kid's voice could get anymore annoying!"...well, just keep thinking that. Juuuust keep thinking that.

Luckily, the conversations and dialogue are conveyed much more naturally this time around. Like in other Tales games, there are skits scattered throughout the game that pop up after certain events and accomplishments. As they were in Tales of Vesperia, this English version has voices in the skits, and the more natural sounding and well-read lines make listening to the characters interact with each other much more enjoyable.

LENGTH

If you like really long games that take dozens of hours to finish, then you'll probably be disappointed here. If you played Tales of Symphonia, it probably took you around 55 to 60 hours to finish the main story on your first playthrough. ToS: DotNW, on the other hand, will barely take you half as long. This game has a main story that could easily be beaten in 30 hours or so, which is a bit of a shame...but on the bright side, at least this means DotNW doesn't try to draw out its story for 10 or so hours and ends up taking a turn for the train wreck because of it like previous games in the series have done.

REPLAYABILITY

As with other Tales games, DotNW gives you a few reasons to play through again. There are a few quests you could go back and do if you missed them the first time, and you could always use the grade you received from battles to make the game tougher for you. There are plenty of possibilities and reasons to play it again, so DotNW fits the Tales mold here.

PROS

+ Fun battles with some innovation
+ Pretty good story
+ Good music
+ Characters sound fitting and convincing
+ Well rendered graphics and animations
+ Characters, songs and environments from ToS are well implemented
+ Gives pretty decent background information for newcomers

CONS

- A little short
- Some voices are annoying
- Not able to level up old characters
- Fights and dungeons are a little too easy

CLOSING NOTES

It's obvious this game was intended for people like me who played the first game and enjoyed it. With this being a budget title and all, this game obviously wasn't going to match some of the mothership games. Still, that doesn't mean for a second that this game isn't fun. On the contrary, it provides the same basic and fun experience that fans of the series have come to expect. Fans of the first game are rewarded with references and jokes to ToS (I must admit, it was pretty cool hearing Lloyd referred to as "Sir Bud" again by Zelos's butler), but even if you didn't play the first game or remember it too well, the game is nice enough to give you all the information you need to know in order to understand the storyline.

And despite the inability to level up characters from Tales of Symphonia, the battles in Dawn of the New World are still as fun and fast paced as ever, especially when taking into account the new ability to capture monsters and have them fight alongside you.

While the voices aren't always pleasing on the ears and the music isn't up to par with the tracks from the original for the most part, the sound still comes across fairly well and probably won't have you reaching for the remote to slam the mute button. The game looks great from an artistic standpoint, and the package overall is well executed.

Even though the storyline doesn't have as much punch to it as other entries in the series, it's still told well, which is due largely in part to the fun yet slightly annoying new cast of characters. Overall, the game isn't anything you'll probably remember and look back on years from now and still remember all that well, but it's a very good game in its own right, especially when it acts as a follow up to a hit game like Tales of Symphonia.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 05/14/09

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