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Tales of Symphonia hit GameCube back in 2004 and was met with solid reviews and good sales figures. Just as importantly, the game filled a huge gap in a relatively bare GameCube RPG library. Now Namco Bandai is back with a continuation of Symphonia’s storyline in Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World. Rather than simply recycle the game engine from Tales of Symphonia, however, Dawn of the New World takes a completely different gameplay approach. Although those changes may not sit well with fans of the first Symphonia, Dawn of the New World still manages to give the Wii RPG library a major shot in the arm. visuals Dawn of the New World is probably the best-looking RPG on either GameCube or Wii and is actually one of the better-looking Wii games released in 2008. The combat looks cleaner than the original Symphonia, with detailed character models and better combat venues. Characters move smoothly and spell effects look good, especially at the higher levels. Unison attacks aren’t quite as impressive as in years past, but the rest of the combat package reflects a clear upgrade. In contrast to the rather archaic presentation of cutscenes in other Nintendo console RPGs, Dawn of the New World shows a real attention to cinematic detail. The cutscenes look really great; the action is rendered in full 3D with realistic motion-capture movement. The scenes also boast some snappy cinematography, complete with a few stylish zooms and pans. Even the skits show a nice bump in presentation, with more color and life than their counterparts in the first Symphonia. Unfortunately, the game also makes some stylistic changes that may disappoint. Gone is the charming cel-shaded style of the original game, replaced instead by polygonal characters that still look good but come off as different. Also disappointing are some of the changes that have come with the evolution of the series. The visceral and satisfying camera pans that accompanied medium and high level combat spells, for example, were excised after Tales of Symphonia and were not brought back for this installment; in their place are effects that don’t seem to have the punch of their predecessor. audio The voicework in Dawn of the New World is a cut above its predecessor. Most of the dialogue and all of the skits are fully acted (in contrast to a comparatively bare voicework effort in the GameCube title that included silent skits) and the quality of the voice acting is mostly strong. With some exceptions, the dialogue feels more polished and natural feel than that of the first Symphonia. Unfortunately, purists may be disappointed by the voices behind the old cast: Collette and Kratos are reprised by their original actors, but nearly everyone else in the original cast is voiced by someone new. The replacements are generally competent, but they aren’t the same and that conspires to make this title feel a bit less like the sequel it ought to be. The music is a bigger letdown. Although famed composer Motoi Sakuraba was brought in to score the game, his efforts are mixed at best. Half of the game’s music entails remixed tunes from the first title, and those are generally decent, although not always as good as their original tunes. The brand-new music doesn’t fare as well; it’s just isn’t that catchy and mostly falls under the category of forgettable. Conspicuous in its dubiousness is the game’s main battle theme, which is passable but hardly comparable to the excellent battle themes of previous Sakuraba efforts. gameplay Those pining for a long RPG to sink into will not be disappointed. The total package, including doing most sidequests, easily runs 40-50 hours (more if you’re a sidequest junkie), and a “New Game +” option allows player to purchase extras for a second run-through. The opening few hours of the game are rather ponderous, but by about five hours the game starts to get some legs. The kid-friendly box art and monster-catching concept belies a dark and mature adventure that has more than its share of weighty moments. In fact, although our interview with Namco suggests otherwise, this is a significantly more mature game than the original Symphonia, including more profanity, sexual references, and violence. This is no kid’s game. Dawn of the New World is best understood as a spinoff sequel to Tales of Symphonia, much as Final Fantasy X-2 was to Final Fantasy X. This means that Dawn of the New World has both the advantages and liabilities incumbent in such a spinoff. For returning fans, the experience may be bittersweet because this game is a mix of both familiar characters and some substantively different gameplay. The game takes place two years after the closing credits of the original Symphonia, detailing the story of Tethe’alla and Sylverant after the reuniting of the worlds. (While playing through the first game is not required, thanks to some pretty good backstory, a player new to the series will probably find the terminology and parade of characters overwhelming.) Old, familiar venues are once again in play, albeit with some notable changes resulting from intervening events. Much like Final Fantasy IV or Baten Kaitos, the storyline is pretty linear; players will end up moving forward from town to town with little reason to go back. In some ways this feels more confining than the first Symphonia, but Dawn of the New World also removes the rather random nonlinearity in Symphonia that made some of the GameCube title’s sidequests nigh unbeatable without the help of a walkthrough. The trademark Tales real-time action combat system is back, and continues to be one of the better ones in the JRPG realm. Dawn of the New World reflects the evolution that has come from such recent entries as Tales of the Abyss and Tales of Vesperia; free-roaming on the field, for example, is now available. The unison attack system has been tweaked and now allows for special “mystic artes” on top of standard multi-character attacks. The combat is in real-time and is still as fun as ever, although larger battle areas and fewer camera shifts makes combat feel a little less wonderfully chaotic than it used to be. Still, players will find combat rewarding, even with the slightly longer load times larger Wii discs bring. As before there are no random battles to worry about. The game serves up two full-time playable protagonists: Emil and Marta. Emil is a traditional melee fighter who, more or less, occupies the niche held by Lloyd Irving in the original Tales of Symphonia. Marta occupies something of a magical swordsman niche, as she comes to wield a formidable combination of melee attacks and healing / attack spells. Expect to do some level-grinding with the pair, as the game sometimes experiences rather steep jumps in difficulty from region to region or even from one part of a dungeon to another. Emil and Marta are joined by several human characters that come and go from the party throughout the adventure. Most of these are returning players from the first Tales of Symphonia, and while they are a novelty to have in theory, in practice they are a little disappointing. Chief among complaints is the fact that these transient characters cannot be leveled up or altered; this stagnant nature, while perhaps necessary, seems to run aground to the basic idea in RPGs that characters should grow over time. More problematic is the fact that they stay at a low level even after Emil, Marta, and the party’s monsters have long passed them. While characters like Colette and Raine are nice to have in cameo installments, as a matter of course they prove to be only marginally useful in combat. Rounding out the four-person party are the aforementioned monsters. Monster capturing is a major component of the game, and those who can stomach that sort of thing will find a deep and complex gameplay mechanic. Monsters are captured by fulfilling a set of elemental requirements; at first it makes little sense but over time becomes more intuitive. The game allows for up to four monsters to be carried in the party at any one time, with any others stored with the Katz merchants who are staffed in each major city. Monsters in the party level up in combat along with Emil and Marta and can even evolve into more powerful monsters with the requisite experience. Monsters can also be fed manuscripts that give them bonus experience (useful for helping out-of-party monsters catch up with the rest of the group) or scrolls that imbue them with powerful spells. Even the traditional Tales cooking system has been completely transplanted out of combat into monster development; recipes are cooked up at the Katz station and are fed to monsters, resulting in stat changes or monster evolution. Some readers are liable to worry that this all sounds a little too Pokemon-esque. That is a valid point, as Dawn of the New World does bear some resemblance to Nintendo’s ubiquitous RPG. That said, Dawn of the New World actually does a better job of providing an authentic RPG experience than the mediocre Pokemon stadium-battlers that have released on Nintendo home consoles. Moreover, those who prefer to have specialized party members -- black mage, melee warrior, etc. -- will be pleased to know that monsters can be fed specific manuscripts that equip them with attack or healing spells (on top of the monster’s own innate abilities), so there is a great deal of flexibility with respect to the monster system. The controls in Dawn of the New World come off as being intuitive without feeling forced. IR and motion control can be optionally employed in certain situations, but they are only rarely required in order to proceed through the storyline. IR can be used to select a destination on the overworld map, while motion is used in a couple of minigames. Combat, of course, is where control schemes are truly defined, and here the game acquits itself well. Attacks are mapped to A, blocking and free-roaming is mapped to Z, and C triggers a unison attack. Special attacks (now known as artes) can be mapped to one of a dozen different shortcuts across three different distinct methods: using B plus the analog stick, using the four directions on the d-pad, or using horizontal or vertical motions on the Wii remote and nunchuck. D-pad and motion shortcuts can be mapped to the actions of other human characters; for some reason, though, monster actions cannot be mapped to shortcuts, although they can be forced from the in-game menu. Of these different shortcuts, B plus the analog stick is the easiest, although the d-pad is also useful, especially for mapping, for example, Marta’s healing artes. The waggle-based controls prove to be the least useful, illustrating the virtues of not making motion a centerpiece of the game. multiplayer In theory, Dawn of the New World allows for up to four players to fight cooperatively in battle. In practice, though, this mechanic only has limited use. The problem is that players can only control human characters; monster characters are not controllable. Since much of the game is spent with only two playable characters -- Emil and Marta -- opportunities for four-player co-op are rare. As a multiplayer experience, it's passable. The combat is certainly more fun with a partner or two (when possible); while the AI is competent, there are advantages to a skilled second player. Clearly the multiplayer component was designed as a changeup rather than the real game, though, as the camera sometimes has trouble keeping centered on multiple players simultaneously. overall Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World is a respectable spinoff of one of GameCube’s better games. Dawn of the New World boasts impressive production values and showcases the frenetic combat players have come to expect from the series. It’s also a serious departure from the original game, instituting a number of changes -- including some alterations in style and the introduction of monster-capturing -- that is sure to polarize fans of the original GameCube classic. That seems tragically ironic, as this game is clearly aimed toward those very same fans. This cannot be a recipe for good sales figures. Whatever its shortcomings, though, Dawn of the New World is clearly Wii’s best RPG to date. In a sad era of “Wii-makes” and lazy ports, Namco Bandai deserves credit for crafting one of the more polished ground-up third party offerings on the console. Better still, Dawn of the New World is anything but a casual title; this is definitely a game aimed directly at hardcore JRPGers. Those with the patience to work through the ponderous introduction will be treated with a lengthy and satisfying quest that is deep on plot and combat. If you are into that line of work and you can handle a little Pokemon with your Tales, this game is an easy recommendation.
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