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Review: Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World (Caution: Wall of Text Inside!)
Game: Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World
System: Nintendo Wii
Type: Fantasy J-RPG
Playthrough(s): Two full (‘best’ ending each time)
Total Time: 75 Hours (32 hours first run, 43 hours second run)
(TL;DR version to follow)
I like this game. It’s a good game, but it is honestly nowhere near as good as the original. When compared to the original, it falls very short of its mark, which is unfortunate, ‘cause it had such great potential. Let me diversify a bit.
The presentation of the game is great. The environment are vibrant and eye-catching, the character movements are all done with mo-cap technology, which makes very realistic and believable. The story is . . . OK, I guess. It’s nothing that hasn’t been done before, but the game executes it well enough and it’s paced well enough to stop it from getting completely boring and stodgy. There is plenty to see and do and have done to you, too.
Certain elements of the original are put back into play, such as the Katz Guild, which allows you to go on quests for loot that you won’t use ‘cause what you have is already infinitely better. The side missions return, but nowhere near the capacity that was in the original game. In the original, you would trip over side missions on the way to the bathroom in the pub, but not so much in this one. It makes for a kind of one-dimensional feel. There are several side quests available, but you either have to jump through flaming hoops made out of razor blades to get to them, or they are multi-chapter affairs that don’t grant you much in the way of sweet, sweet lootz or experience. They do help flesh out some of the story however, so if you’re down with the whole ‘knowing why people are the way they are in a video game’ thing, they’re probably for you. I did a couple, but honestly they just felt tedious. The Katz Quests have a tendency to become incredibly boring as well. They are all variations on the ‘go here and do this for some arbitrary reason’ thing, and they end up being so samey and boring that you may as well not bother. If you’re a completionist, you’ll probably want to do them as if you do certain quests from various chapters, it opens up a new dungeon which is supposed to be super hard, and one of two ‘ZOMG SUPAR HARD!!1!’ dungeons in the game.
The character interaction skits return, and are fully voiced. I’ve always liked that part of these games, as it gives a bit of insight as to what goes on while the group travels. They help flesh out the story in manageable, bite-sized chunks and are kind of fun, too. My only real gripe with them is that if you miss one, you miss it. Move your hand and press the button in the middle of one? It’s gone. Start a new section of the game before clicking the button? Gone. It sucks, and I wish there was a way to get them back.
The battle system is, in my opinion, one of the best I have ever used! It’s an amalgam of battle systems from Tales of the Abyss and Tales of Destiny, called the ‘Flex Range Element-Enhanced Linear Motion Battle System’, or ‘FR:EE-LMBS’. Expanding on the original Symphonia’s LMBS, the FR:EE-LMBS adds an Elemental Grid system to the battle. Depending on which major (the big circle on the Element Grid) and minor (the smaller circles on the Element Grid) elements fill the grid, various attacks are stronger or weaker, and enemies abilities and guarding can be affected. It can also be used for Unison Attacks when the Unison Attack gauge is at least half-full and the proper elemental requirements are met for the characters performing a Unison Attack. During battle, the characters are free-moving in a circle formation, allowing them to dodge hits and position themselves behind enemies or at an optimal attacking angle. Also returning from the original Symphonia are combos that can string both regular attacks and magical attacks (called Artes) together. Also, when the Unison Gauge is full and you perform a High Arte or Arcane Arte, you can perform a Mystic Arte, which will strike the targeted opponent for massive damage and big combo points. Mystic Artes are cool to watch, but they are more than a little flow-breaking in the grand scheme of things due to the little cut scene that plays each time you use it. You can use a Mystic Arte as many times as you want during battle as long as you have the TP to pay for it. Gone is the Tension Gauge from the first game, which is kind of sad. It added an interesting element to battles in the original.
Also interesting regarding the battles is the character chit chat. They congratulate each other over well-executed combos; chastise each other if they’re using too much Artes or items and things like that. Also, at the end of the battle there is a little scene with the characters in your party. They say a few lines each. It’s kinda neat but it gets tired after hearing the same bloody thing for the 900th time. There’s just not a lot of variation, even when there are original Symphonia characters mixed into your standard party of Emil and Marta.
At the end of a battle, you get awarded experience points, bonus points for combos that get applied to your total experience for the battle, and also GRADE. GRADE is awarded for meeting various criteria during battle, such as ending with full HP and TP, not getting hit, performing a Unison Attack, performing a Mystic Arte, not using healing items etc. GRADE can also end up negative if the outcome of the battle is legendarily poor, which rarely happens. GRADE is saved up throughout the game and used for a New Game+ to make your next play through of the game easier or harder depending on what you spend it on in the GRADE Shop. GRADE is carried over from an old clear into a New Game+, so if you cleared the game the first time with 1000 GRADE, that GRADE will then be available to you again, along with the new GRADE you acquired through your second play through to be used in your next play through.
Also during battles, when the elemental grid is aligned just right, and the moon is in synch with Venus, and if your Wii was purchased on a Tuesday, Friday, or Sunday, and if your socks match your boxer shorts (Valhalla help you if you wear briefs or go commando), the game will allow you to form a pact with one of the critters you just fought. Pacts are generally fickle things, and are quite difficult to form I’ve found save by complete accident. During battles after you defeat a critter, you’ll sometimes earn a chance to form a pact with them and have them join your party and fight with you. At the end of the battle, the pact screen will appear and if you already have a critter in your party, you can have them aid you in strengthening your pact and make it more likely to succeed. If the pact succeeds, then you get a new critter tosend into battle against its kin lovingly care for and nurture. As time passes these things gain monstrous levels and can actually become useful members of your party. They can deal big, big damage and are quite disposable. If they die, send them back to the local Katz Guild and pick another one to send to the slaughter help you for the good of mankind.
Now that I’ve gone through the reassuring platitudes, it’s time to stick the dagger in this game’s back.
The myriad of flaws in this game are more apparent due to the fact that the game is merely average. It’s very middle of the road. It reeks of low budget, cut budget, and ‘get it the hell out the door already WTF?!’. The lush, verdant world map from the original game has been replaced by a point-and-click affair on par with the Wii’s Weather Channel, but less useful as you don’t actually have to point and click anything! You just scroll through the city choices and hit the A button. A representation of your character parades across the map and gets to the destination. The dev team said they did this as a time-saving measure, but come on! Really?! What a cop out!
The game is also full of certified ‘**** moves’. Such as un-skippable cut scenes before major boss fights! On my first play through, I ended up fighting the same boss battle about four bloody times and had to sit through a three minute cut scene each time! There is no reason for it! Un-skippable the first time, sure, but not every bloody time after that! Also, the game likes to take control away from you every five bloody minutes to show you a cut scene, or a skit, or something like that. The majority of the cut scenes are in-engine affairs. In fact, the only animated sequence appears at the very start of the game.
The only two characters that can level are the main characters; Emil and Marta. While the entire cast of the original Symphonia game returns, they are for the most part completely useless. You can’t level them, you can’t update their armour or weapons, and they all have a level cap of 50 (set by chapter). By the midpoint in the game, you’re better off just using the critters you’ve formed pacts with, as they have no level cap (at least not that I found. If there is one, it may be around 100 or so) and are infinitely more useful in the heat of battle. This move is truly in bad form, and once again carries the stink of rushed development cycle. Clearly, there is going to be less development involved if you’re only developing two core characters and tack the rest on like they’re made out of construction paper and Crayola markers.
Also regarding the original cast, only two of the original voice actors return. The voice actors for Colette Brunel (Heather Hogan) and Presea Combatir (Tara Strong) return, the rest being farmed out to talent that sounds almost the same, but not quite. Like going from Coke to Pepsi (or vice versa), it’s just not the same. However, that niggle aside, the voice actors do a reasonable job for the characters, and the core characters don’t sound terribly cardboard. Notable standouts are the voice actors for Emil (Johnny Yong Bosch) and Marta (Laura Bailey). Megan Hollingshead does a great job voicing Sheena Fujibayashi, but perhaps the most notable of all the voice talent in the game is Wendee Lee as Centurion Aqua. Personally, I find her voice similar to nails on a chalkboard or a cow being fed into a chipper-shredder, but I am the minority there. I still miss Crispin Freeman as Regal, though
. The additional characters and background characters sound like absolute, gunpoint voice acting crap. Where the hell do they find these people?
Character designs are once again provided by Kosuke Fujishima, known for notable anime series like Oh! My Goddess and You’re Under Arrest!, and also for character design work on several other Tales games (Tales of Vesperia, Tales of the Abyss, and Tales of Phantasia, as well as the original Tales of Symphonia). I’ve always found his work wonderful and his character designs quite enchanting, and this game is really no different in that regard.
The Norse Mythology free idea bucket. Yahtzee first mentioned developers using old mythology (specifically Norse mythology) as a free idea bucket, and this game is truly steeped in it. If it was Norse, or sounded Norse, or may have been Norse maybe, it got thrown in here. There is a world tree (Yggdrasill) and a Ginnungagap and Niflheim and all sorts of things that sound vaguely like they’ve been scraped out of the bottom of the Norse Mythology Idea Bucket. I understand that most developers think gamers are either thick or see it as a tribute, but I honestly see it as lazy. The first game was no exception to this, either. It’s one thing to use it as a guide, but even so, you can come up with your own place names and whatnot. I’m sure there’s a translator out there that will take a word, translate it to High Elvish and then back to regular English or something. Hell, I can probably do that at http://translate.google.com! This is more of a personal complaint though, as even though it does rip it off place names word-for-word, it still works well with the flow of the game, and as far as I can tell it’s just place names and the functions of those places, and not riffing on actual mythological events (*cough* Too Human *cough*).
Despite its flaws, I actually enjoyed this game. It’s graphically pleasing, the story is pretty OK, the combat is astoundingly good, and while the sidequests aren’t terribly varied, they do offer a pleasant distraction from the main story arc, and help in small ways to flesh out the characters. Rent it if you’re not sure, buy it if you were a fan of the original or would just like an interesting, entertaining reason to actually turn your bloody Wii on.
TL;DR: OK, but not great. Rent it if you want something different, buy it if you liked the original. A pretty good reason to turn on your Wii.
Game: Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World
System: Nintendo Wii
Type: Fantasy J-RPG
Playthrough(s): Two full (‘best’ ending each time)
Total Time: 75 Hours (32 hours first run, 43 hours second run)
(TL;DR version to follow)
I like this game. It’s a good game, but it is honestly nowhere near as good as the original. When compared to the original, it falls very short of its mark, which is unfortunate, ‘cause it had such great potential. Let me diversify a bit.
The presentation of the game is great. The environment are vibrant and eye-catching, the character movements are all done with mo-cap technology, which makes very realistic and believable. The story is . . . OK, I guess. It’s nothing that hasn’t been done before, but the game executes it well enough and it’s paced well enough to stop it from getting completely boring and stodgy. There is plenty to see and do and have done to you, too.
Certain elements of the original are put back into play, such as the Katz Guild, which allows you to go on quests for loot that you won’t use ‘cause what you have is already infinitely better. The side missions return, but nowhere near the capacity that was in the original game. In the original, you would trip over side missions on the way to the bathroom in the pub, but not so much in this one. It makes for a kind of one-dimensional feel. There are several side quests available, but you either have to jump through flaming hoops made out of razor blades to get to them, or they are multi-chapter affairs that don’t grant you much in the way of sweet, sweet lootz or experience. They do help flesh out some of the story however, so if you’re down with the whole ‘knowing why people are the way they are in a video game’ thing, they’re probably for you. I did a couple, but honestly they just felt tedious. The Katz Quests have a tendency to become incredibly boring as well. They are all variations on the ‘go here and do this for some arbitrary reason’ thing, and they end up being so samey and boring that you may as well not bother. If you’re a completionist, you’ll probably want to do them as if you do certain quests from various chapters, it opens up a new dungeon which is supposed to be super hard, and one of two ‘ZOMG SUPAR HARD!!1!’ dungeons in the game.
The character interaction skits return, and are fully voiced. I’ve always liked that part of these games, as it gives a bit of insight as to what goes on while the group travels. They help flesh out the story in manageable, bite-sized chunks and are kind of fun, too. My only real gripe with them is that if you miss one, you miss it. Move your hand and press the button in the middle of one? It’s gone. Start a new section of the game before clicking the button? Gone. It sucks, and I wish there was a way to get them back.
The battle system is, in my opinion, one of the best I have ever used! It’s an amalgam of battle systems from Tales of the Abyss and Tales of Destiny, called the ‘Flex Range Element-Enhanced Linear Motion Battle System’, or ‘FR:EE-LMBS’. Expanding on the original Symphonia’s LMBS, the FR:EE-LMBS adds an Elemental Grid system to the battle. Depending on which major (the big circle on the Element Grid) and minor (the smaller circles on the Element Grid) elements fill the grid, various attacks are stronger or weaker, and enemies abilities and guarding can be affected. It can also be used for Unison Attacks when the Unison Attack gauge is at least half-full and the proper elemental requirements are met for the characters performing a Unison Attack. During battle, the characters are free-moving in a circle formation, allowing them to dodge hits and position themselves behind enemies or at an optimal attacking angle. Also returning from the original Symphonia are combos that can string both regular attacks and magical attacks (called Artes) together. Also, when the Unison Gauge is full and you perform a High Arte or Arcane Arte, you can perform a Mystic Arte, which will strike the targeted opponent for massive damage and big combo points. Mystic Artes are cool to watch, but they are more than a little flow-breaking in the grand scheme of things due to the little cut scene that plays each time you use it. You can use a Mystic Arte as many times as you want during battle as long as you have the TP to pay for it. Gone is the Tension Gauge from the first game, which is kind of sad. It added an interesting element to battles in the original.
Also interesting regarding the battles is the character chit chat. They congratulate each other over well-executed combos; chastise each other if they’re using too much Artes or items and things like that. Also, at the end of the battle there is a little scene with the characters in your party. They say a few lines each. It’s kinda neat but it gets tired after hearing the same bloody thing for the 900th time. There’s just not a lot of variation, even when there are original Symphonia characters mixed into your standard party of Emil and Marta.
At the end of a battle, you get awarded experience points, bonus points for combos that get applied to your total experience for the battle, and also GRADE. GRADE is awarded for meeting various criteria during battle, such as ending with full HP and TP, not getting hit, performing a Unison Attack, performing a Mystic Arte, not using healing items etc. GRADE can also end up negative if the outcome of the battle is legendarily poor, which rarely happens. GRADE is saved up throughout the game and used for a New Game+ to make your next play through of the game easier or harder depending on what you spend it on in the GRADE Shop. GRADE is carried over from an old clear into a New Game+, so if you cleared the game the first time with 1000 GRADE, that GRADE will then be available to you again, along with the new GRADE you acquired through your second play through to be used in your next play through.
Also during battles, when the elemental grid is aligned just right, and the moon is in synch with Venus, and if your Wii was purchased on a Tuesday, Friday, or Sunday, and if your socks match your boxer shorts (Valhalla help you if you wear briefs or go commando), the game will allow you to form a pact with one of the critters you just fought. Pacts are generally fickle things, and are quite difficult to form I’ve found save by complete accident. During battles after you defeat a critter, you’ll sometimes earn a chance to form a pact with them and have them join your party and fight with you. At the end of the battle, the pact screen will appear and if you already have a critter in your party, you can have them aid you in strengthening your pact and make it more likely to succeed. If the pact succeeds, then you get a new critter to
Now that I’ve gone through the reassuring platitudes, it’s time to stick the dagger in this game’s back.
The myriad of flaws in this game are more apparent due to the fact that the game is merely average. It’s very middle of the road. It reeks of low budget, cut budget, and ‘get it the hell out the door already WTF?!’. The lush, verdant world map from the original game has been replaced by a point-and-click affair on par with the Wii’s Weather Channel, but less useful as you don’t actually have to point and click anything! You just scroll through the city choices and hit the A button. A representation of your character parades across the map and gets to the destination. The dev team said they did this as a time-saving measure, but come on! Really?! What a cop out!
The game is also full of certified ‘**** moves’. Such as un-skippable cut scenes before major boss fights! On my first play through, I ended up fighting the same boss battle about four bloody times and had to sit through a three minute cut scene each time! There is no reason for it! Un-skippable the first time, sure, but not every bloody time after that! Also, the game likes to take control away from you every five bloody minutes to show you a cut scene, or a skit, or something like that. The majority of the cut scenes are in-engine affairs. In fact, the only animated sequence appears at the very start of the game.
The only two characters that can level are the main characters; Emil and Marta. While the entire cast of the original Symphonia game returns, they are for the most part completely useless. You can’t level them, you can’t update their armour or weapons, and they all have a level cap of 50 (set by chapter). By the midpoint in the game, you’re better off just using the critters you’ve formed pacts with, as they have no level cap (at least not that I found. If there is one, it may be around 100 or so) and are infinitely more useful in the heat of battle. This move is truly in bad form, and once again carries the stink of rushed development cycle. Clearly, there is going to be less development involved if you’re only developing two core characters and tack the rest on like they’re made out of construction paper and Crayola markers.
Also regarding the original cast, only two of the original voice actors return. The voice actors for Colette Brunel (Heather Hogan) and Presea Combatir (Tara Strong) return, the rest being farmed out to talent that sounds almost the same, but not quite. Like going from Coke to Pepsi (or vice versa), it’s just not the same. However, that niggle aside, the voice actors do a reasonable job for the characters, and the core characters don’t sound terribly cardboard. Notable standouts are the voice actors for Emil (Johnny Yong Bosch) and Marta (Laura Bailey). Megan Hollingshead does a great job voicing Sheena Fujibayashi, but perhaps the most notable of all the voice talent in the game is Wendee Lee as Centurion Aqua. Personally, I find her voice similar to nails on a chalkboard or a cow being fed into a chipper-shredder, but I am the minority there. I still miss Crispin Freeman as Regal, though
. The additional characters and background characters sound like absolute, gunpoint voice acting crap. Where the hell do they find these people?Character designs are once again provided by Kosuke Fujishima, known for notable anime series like Oh! My Goddess and You’re Under Arrest!, and also for character design work on several other Tales games (Tales of Vesperia, Tales of the Abyss, and Tales of Phantasia, as well as the original Tales of Symphonia). I’ve always found his work wonderful and his character designs quite enchanting, and this game is really no different in that regard.
The Norse Mythology free idea bucket. Yahtzee first mentioned developers using old mythology (specifically Norse mythology) as a free idea bucket, and this game is truly steeped in it. If it was Norse, or sounded Norse, or may have been Norse maybe, it got thrown in here. There is a world tree (Yggdrasill) and a Ginnungagap and Niflheim and all sorts of things that sound vaguely like they’ve been scraped out of the bottom of the Norse Mythology Idea Bucket. I understand that most developers think gamers are either thick or see it as a tribute, but I honestly see it as lazy. The first game was no exception to this, either. It’s one thing to use it as a guide, but even so, you can come up with your own place names and whatnot. I’m sure there’s a translator out there that will take a word, translate it to High Elvish and then back to regular English or something. Hell, I can probably do that at http://translate.google.com! This is more of a personal complaint though, as even though it does rip it off place names word-for-word, it still works well with the flow of the game, and as far as I can tell it’s just place names and the functions of those places, and not riffing on actual mythological events (*cough* Too Human *cough*).
Despite its flaws, I actually enjoyed this game. It’s graphically pleasing, the story is pretty OK, the combat is astoundingly good, and while the sidequests aren’t terribly varied, they do offer a pleasant distraction from the main story arc, and help in small ways to flesh out the characters. Rent it if you’re not sure, buy it if you were a fan of the original or would just like an interesting, entertaining reason to actually turn your bloody Wii on.
TL;DR: OK, but not great. Rent it if you want something different, buy it if you liked the original. A pretty good reason to turn on your Wii.
