Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World

Posted: 11/11/08

Back in 2003, arguably the most successful and popular title in the Tales franchise, Tales of Symphonia, was released for the Nintendo GameCube. As a result of its high sales and strong fan following comes Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World for the Wii. With such a pedigree to live up to, can it possibly meet expectations?

Though initially rather cliché and shallow, delving into motifs such as identity, revenge, and love, Dawn of the New World eventually hits its stride a few hours in. The driving force behind every character’s motive is tied to the mystery surrounding both Lloyd Irving, the primary hero from Tales of Symphonia, and Emil, the young protagonist of Dawn of the New World. Troubled by obscure memories and a dual-personality, Emil eventually becomes a fairly complex character.

While many of the folks from Tales of Symphonia have significant screen time, the crux of the story revolves around Emil’s relationship with a young girl named Marta. The two heroes are out to save the world from destruction by recovering eight Centurion cores to return Lord Ratatosk to full power. Lloyd is also trying to obtain the cores, fighting all who stand in his way. Meanwhile, two rival factions, the Church of Martel and the Vanguard, are escalating tensions between the people of Sylvarant and Tethe’alla.

The script is exceptionally well-written--especially during many of the optional skit sequences. There’s excellent chemistry between the characters, and numerous times their conversations are genuine enough to provide some laughs. On the other hand, the primary exposition sequences are sometimes drawn-out, and some character personalities can grate. Emil’s constant bouts of angst, indecisiveness, and his emo demeanor are an acquired taste.

Just like the first Symphonia, the main story takes too long to develop, and when it finally reaches substance, the player is bombarded with too much too quickly.

One of the staples of the Tales series, and most RPGs in general, is the daunting task of crossing a massive overworld. While the Tales series typically affords players the opportunity to explore it, Dawn of the New World opts for a static 2D map with point-and-click navigation. While this may seem like a step back, it cuts back on a majority of aimless wandering and random enemy encounters. It also amounts to a lot less exploration, so if that’s your thing, be warned.

Dawn also adheres to the traditional Tales formula of requiring players to mingle with NPCs at each new town in order to unearth hints at the next objective. The catch is that you no longer have the option to freely travel anywhere on the map. Instead, you must complete a specific sequence of events before some areas are unlocked. It makes the game much more linear.

The majority of the action has shifted to the various dungeons and landmarks, and each locale contains a plethora of puzzles. It’s nothing new to the series, but it’s elevated this time, and it’s better for it.

Numerous monsters and enemies await within each dungeon, though like previous installments, players can literally choose their battles. The amount of foes within each dungeon is reasonable. It keeps the game from becoming a grind, but then enemies respawn every time you enter an area. Boss encounters are frequent, and often unexpected, so you have to stay on your toes.

Tales games are usually huge, and Dawn of the New World is no different. You’ll get dozens of hours from it before the quest is complete.

Dawn’s battle system shares more in common with Tales of the Abyss and Tales of Vesperia than its predecessor. The most prominent difference between original and sequel is the inclusion of the now de facto free roam mechanic, allowing players to move freely around in the battle arena.

Players select four party members to go into battle, each with their unique abilities known as artes. Artes consist of magical and physical attacks, and are linked together to perform combos to deliver greater damage than a standard attack. The formula still works well, allowing gamers to chain basic and arcane artes together, as well as eventually triggering the all-powerful mystic arte. Also making the return is the unison attack, where all your allies join together in one big whallup. Special moves can also be mapped to buttons or triggered with the motion controls.

In a series first, you can capture and use monsters in battle. These creatures level up and learn new skills. They can’t use equipment and there is a limit to how many can be in your party, but they can grow to high levels and become invaluable. You can store monsters at Katz shops, but there are times when your party will be full and you’ll have to backtrack to make a deposit. Original heroes from Tales of Symphonia will also join your squad. It’s a fan pleaser, but the harsh reality is that you can’t alter their equipment or attributes--only their skill set.

As with past games in the series, you’ll have to routinely check your skill menu to apply new abilities if you expect to make progress later in the game. It’s important that the computer make smart decisions with your party members, and for the most part, the AI functions well.

Thanks to the addition of the free roaming mechanics and the ability to capture and use over 200 monsters, the gameplay is much deeper than in the original, yet not as refined as in Tales of Vesperia.

Dawn of the New World’s no technical marvel, and it looks to be built on the same engine as the original. Gone are the cel-shading and chibi character models, replaced by darker tones and saturated colors. While the characters have received a bump in detail, nearly all of the landmarks, towns and dungeons are rehashes from the original with different weather in some cases. The animation during cutscenes and battles is impressive, easily outshining anything found in the original, but the frame rate can definitely take a dive.

The game opens with an anime sequence and closes with one, but the rest of the cutscenes are done in-game. It’s just one of those things that always keep games like this from reaching the upper eschelon of the genre. It also utilizes portraits for skit sequences, and no matter how you slice it, production values weren’t the priority.

The game’s tracks are split 50-50 between remixes or enhanced versions of songs found in the original and brand new compositions. There’s far more voice work, and it’s very well done, but there’s no option for the original Japanese.

You can load save data from Tales of Symphonia to unlock special items, but it’s just a shame that the same attention to detail wasn’t paid to the rest of the game. Though the battle system is improved, an erratic difficulty, budget production values, and a poorly-paced story keep Dawn of the New World from royalty status. In some ways, it’s a worthy successor to the original, but it’s ultimately just another passable action RPG.

Reviewed on Nintendo Wii.


Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World

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