Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World Review
Dawn of the New World is the next chapter in the game, Tales of Symphonia. After Colette successfully re-merges the two worlds, peace arrives, but it doesn't last long. Two different civilizations are reunited and hate starts to brew. Different organizations start to form to try to control the world's new destiny. As the story opens up you witness the hero in the first game massacre a town, which includes the new main character's parents. Fast Forward 6 months and you find the main character, Emil, shun by most in the town he now resides in. It isn't until he meets a mysterious girl, Marta, with a glowing orb on her forehead that the true adventure begins. You will be tasked with trying to collect the Centurian eggs to try to reawaken the Lord of Monsters, and try to balance the flow of mana in the world.
Graphically this game looks slightly more polished than the first, which was on the Gamecube. Once again the optional cut scenes, called skits, will be shown with head shots of the characters involved in the scene. The enemies that you'll face look just like they did in the previous game, which isn't a bad thing, as the first game's enemies were well done. The different spells, and the looks of special attacks really stand out for this game.
The music and sounds are recycled from the first. There are a couple new entries, but the vast majority you've heard before. There are some stock phrases that you'll hear a lot during battles, but its not enough for you to want to desperately silence the characters.
The controls are about the same. You're going to use the A button to perform your attacks. You'll use the Z to block. You'll use the B button to perform your artes (special attack). There is a new type of attack involved in the game where you'll have to wait for a bar to fill up and then unleash the pain, but sometimes you'll have party members join you in the attack, and other times you'll be flying solo.
The game play is what you'd expect in Tales games. You'll see the enemies in the levels, and when you come into contact with them you'll enter battle. The battle will then be real time, and you'll have to make decisions on the go. You can change other party members strategies (which I recommend) so that you can save thier TP (or magic points, if you want to look at it that way). There is sometimes a lag that happens in combat when you are trying to make your character attack, and sometimes that can spell disaster. One of the things that was taken out of this game was the exploration factor of the game. I have to say that I hate and like this. I hate it because there's no way to have random encounters that can help boost your EXP and ultimately your level. I like it because I don't have to deal with constant random encounters if I'm going place to place. In taking away that aspect, I feel that they put more effort into the Synthesize aspect of the shop menus. You'll now be able to create your own items, or make them more powerful. The problem is that some of the ingredients needed you might only ever get a couple of times.
There is also one other new feature to this game. You'll have the chance to recruit monsters to your side, and even use some of them in combat. They'll level up with your characters, and sometimes they will evolve. The wierd thing is that in past Tales games when you cook it was for the main characters, this time around its to strengthen monsters or help them evolve. The problem with this recruit monsters, or as they call it forming a pact, is that sometimes you feel that you have the necessary requirements to cause monsters to become bound, but they don't. There are also other times where you do bind the monster, but when you try to form a pact, they run away.
If you're a Tales fan, or somone who played the first, you'll enjoy this game. There are some really slow parts to the story, and there will be times of frustration, but if you stick it out you'll find a pretty solid game. If you are the type of person who likes to skip cut scenes, especially those that you might have already seen because you're having to fight a boss for the 3rd time, well you're not going to be able to. Speaking of boss fights, here's a little hint, never think, for a second, that because you are owning all the monsters in the same area as the boss that you're going to easily win the fight the first time around. I personally had about 2 rounds per boss. This is a strong Tales game, and one that I was very happy to play. This game gets an 8.8 out of 10.
