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GS Review: Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World

So, I promised this awhile ago. Things got in the way and I could not get to it. And if you have not read that review yet, here is the link. It's awesome. So go do it....now.

http://www.comicvine.com/profile/god_spawn/blog/gs-review-tales-of-symphonia/86399/

Now onto the game's sequel, Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World.

Characters

I'll copy and post the original cast part here too from my other blog.

Emil Castagnier: Age 16. Emil is the main protagonist and is a very naive and timid person. I mean very. This guy is a coward at its finest....at first. Then he has his badass side where he has the king of all monsters possessing him. Emil has a slow growth over the course of the game, but comes into his own competent fighter over time. He is pretty fun to play with and is a melee type character with plenty of speed and agility. He uses a single, somewhatt large sword as his weapon and uses the standard melee attacks seen like with Lloyd. His Ratatosk finisher is also pretty awesome.

Marta Lualdi: Age 16. Marta is the lead female role and is very obsessive over Emil. She is usually a happy go lucky character, very similar to Colette from the first game, but not nearly as deep of a character, funny, or useful in combat. In short, extremely one dimensional. Marta is very problematic in fights, as her offense is piss poor and her finisher is also lackluster. She does have some solid healing spells, but is very bad on offense. Just saying.

Richter Abend: Age 21. Richter is a half elf and is very good in combat. He is very stoic, doesn't tolerate any nonsense and is probably the best new character introduced. He uses a sword and axe combo, which is awesome. He has a deep character about him and is a step above the primary two new characters and is very reminiscent of the older cast as far as depth goes. He has some solid spells and a great offense. He is playable for a time, but soon becomes the lead antagonist.

Lloyd Irving age: Previously: 17 (ToS). Currently: 19 (DotNW).

Lloyd is the main protagonist. He is a stubborn idealist with a hot head and a good heart. He has a thing for the chosen, Colette, in the canon ending of the game where she reciprocates those feelings. He uses dual swords, preferably katana esque swords. His gameplay style is a fast paced, rapid, capable combo linker that ties in with fast paced special attack followed by a heavy, powerful attack. Lloyd is the quickest character in running and attack speed in any of the ToS games with a medium attack power, a medium defense, and a high level of health. He is essential for any front line character capable of distracting multiple foes at once and with the extra hp, can take a hit and keep on dishing and with a high tp level, he has bountiful use of special attacks for a melee character.

Colette Brunel:

Age: Previously: 16 (ToS). Current: 18 (DotNW).

Colette is the love interest of the main character. She is very clumsy which provides many interesting and comical situations to the game. She is very kind and also likes dogs quite a bit. Colette is also an "angel" which adds a dynamic to her fighting style since she flies er floats. Her weapons are dual wield chakrams. Colette's a solid character if you have the patience to use her. She is kind of slow in speed and doesn't have much finesse like others do. So she kind of has a hard time linking her chains together, but the upside is she has techniques for every range on the field, from short, to mid,to the most powerful spells in the game. She is a decent speed in spell casting and with her mid-range attacks with magic powered special attacks, she is a force when used properly and shines bright on a team rather than by herself.

Genis Sage:

Age: Previously: 12 (ToS) Currently: 14 (DotNW).

Genis is a super genius half elf with a bit of an attitude but that is due to being persecuted all his life and is Lloyd's best friend. He wields kendamas. His fighting style is best suited for team use and for behind the front lines. His physical stats are terrible. He has a 2 hit max combo with no linkable specials and slow attack speed and slow running speed. He has a decent amount of health but a very high amount of TP allowing for his ace. Genis is the most powerful spellcaster in the game. He knows spells that cover all basic elements outside of darkness and light and can decimate entire fields once leveled up enough. He can easily 2-3 shot most enemies with his more powerful spells.

Raine Sage:

Age: Previously: 23 (ToS) Currently: 25 (DotNW).

Raine is Genis' older sister and is incredibly quick tempered and smart herself with a fear of water and a fetish for ruins and old historic things ensuing many shenanigans.Her weapon is a staff. She suffers from the same problems Genis does and makes up for it in spells. Her offensive spells are light based and very powerful but few unlike her brother. Her main goal is that of a healer, removing stat effects, resurrecting dead players, multiple enhancers and field wide healing spells. She is a very useful character when used right, just not one that will be best trying to get kill shots with.

Kratos Aurion:

Age: 28 (ToS) not playable in DotNW: Kratos I won't spoil too much about him. He is a mercenary and is the calm, quiet type but is a machine on the battle field.He uses a sword. His running speed is moderate, his attack speed is slower than Lloyd's but still solid and his attacks reflect his power and skill. He also knows some solid healing spells, low to mid level basic elemental magic and has a higher strength level than Lloyd with a solid defense and solid level of HP and TP but he can burn through TP fast if constant use of special attacks. He can also learn the highest level light spell given the right circumstances.

Sheena Fujibayashi:

Age: Previously: 19 (ToS) Currently: 21 (DotNW).

Sheena is a passionate and impulsive, albeit clumsy, assassin of the Igaguri clan in the game. She has a tough exterior that belies a very insecure woman due to a past mistake. She is also implied to be Zelos' canon love interest but it's the underlying subtleties that give it away. She uses cards and is a summoner. She also is one of the most powerful characters in the game for many reasons. Her attack speed is high as is her running speed maybe even being faster than Lloyd, though I am not sure. She has a solid combo ability and uses quick paced but powerful special attacks that have varying effects from blowing enemies away to reducing various stats on the opponents or stealing HP. She can also employ elemental based magics onto teammates or herself for element attacks. She is also capable of resurrection herself. And her best ability is when you get hit enough and in a short time you go into an overlimit mode which makes you invulnerable for a period and much stronger. In this state Sheena can summon any of the summon spirits you come make pacts with. These spells range are very powerful and some can solo entire fields in one shot. She is fast, has a decent attack strength, is very versatile and has a solid amount of health, defense points and TP for special attacks. Sheena is an easy replacement for Lloyd if it comes down to it and is probably my 2nd favorite character to use.

Presea Combatir:

Age: Previously: 12 (ToS) Currently: 14 (DotNW).

Presea is a pink haired girl little girl and is the strongest physical member of the team. Yes, the 12 year old sweet, pink girl is the tank and physically strongest member in the game rivaled only by Regal. She is very quiet and straightforward but somewhat shy too and is Genis' love interest. She uses massive axes as weapons, she has a high health amount, solid defense, moderate TP, very strong and surprisingly quick in all areas of speed. She isn't much for linking though and has few specials that can link. Her combos are short and can leave her wide open in mid swing if an enemy blocks but she is just a beast and can easily make up for a few hits here and there.

Zelos Wilder:

Age: Previously: 22 (ToS). Currently: 24 (DotNW).

Zelos Wilder is a guy, kind of looks like a girl but is a guy. He is also the flirtatious ladies' man of the group. With him you can talk to any woman in the game and they give you free stuff. Aside from that, Zelos is very intelligent despite acting like an idiot. He is extremely funny, despite having the most f*cked up backstory in the game, and is also implied to be Sheena's love interest. His weapons are swords and daggers, and he is very similar to Kratos being a magic swordsman. Zelos and Kratos are replaceable in the game as you only get either one but I won't spoil how or why. Zelos runs at a similar pace to Kratos and suffers from burning through TP like him but knows the same spells except the angel spell, Judgement. The difference between him and Kratos though they know the same moves is that Zelos attacks faster and more fluidly. His attacks reflect finesse and can combo easier than Kratos and his special moves tend to hit easier than Kratos' versions. (they do different versions of the same titled attacks). He has a solid strength, solid health, knows some moderate spells and is stronger than Lloyd albeit slower. You can give him or Kratos jet boots to increase their speed and they basically become better on the front lines than even Lloyd and have the spells to back up.

Regal Bryant:

Age: Previously: 33 (ToS). Currently: 35 (DotNW).

Regal, like Kratos, I won't spoil much. He is very serious, very quiet, a very good cook and can be funny when he has to but it scares the team due to his naturally stoic nature. He uses his feet to attack only using greaves as weapons. He is the only character than rival Presea in strength. He knows basic healing too and has a decent running speed and attack speed. His combo ability is kind of poor with regular attacks, but his special attacks can link for a solid combo and he has a few evasive moves and is the only one that can do that. He has a decent defense, solid health range and tp range. I don't like using that much but I've seen him used by my friends who like him and he can pretty much take out fields of 4 different enemies without getting hit. This is impressive for being a front line guy.

Summary

It's been 2 years after the end of the first game. So that blonde dude with the weird colic is Emil. He is our main protagonist of this story and he was apparently a member of a family that was destroyed in something called the great blood purge of Palmacosta because of the world and Great Kharlan Tree being unstable. So Lloyd Irving from the previous game is said to have gone batsh*t crazy and literally slaughtered an entire town and set it ablaze. This sets the tone as Emil is living with his abusive aunt and uncle. Emil meets a half elf named Richter Abend and he eventually meets a clingy girl named Marta Lualdi. Richter is very angry and eventually leaves the team and becomes the main antagonist. So it is up to Marta and Emil to stop Richter and find Lloyd, whom at this point has ventured on his own and is hunting down something called the centurion cores, which are mana stabilizers in the world. The centurions are basically spirits that control all the elements they are assigned and their cores are when they are asleep. And they all serve their master, the king of all monsters and centurions, Ratatosk. Marta becomes Ratatosk's core and Emil has an alter ego that is Ratatosk himself. Think Nine-Tailed Fox and Naruto. Emil is the very timid side, while Ratatosk comes out during battles and is able to enhance Emil physically. So it is basically up to Emil and Marta, and along with the entirety of Lloyd's friends, to uncover the truth of everything and stop the unstable new world when Lloyd rejoined Tethe'all and Sylvarant together, from falling apart.

Pros

Updated Cutscenes: The cutscenes are more animated now. The old game wasn't as updated with cutscenes and some of the motions were a bit limited. Due to the game being on Wii, we get more theatrical like cutscenes, which adds a nice flair to the game. New emotion faces add new feels to the cutscenes and the fighting scenes look more intense and are very fluid.

Updated Skits: The skits in the previous games were just in-game little chat boxes that the characters had with each other and added in game context of what everyone was feeling or just some hilarity in situations. The new game has them vocally talking now, whereas the original was just something you read. So it's a nice addition.

Updated Battle System: I absolutely love the updated battle system in this game. While the old game was very fun, it was more linear in fighting as you could really only go back, forth, or jump and you could go side to side, depending if a villain smacked you in a certain direction. You get that same style in this game, but there is a button that allows you free roam in combat now. So you can go any direction you please now and form up new strategies of attack.

Monster training: In this game, because of the lack of characters in the beginning since you only get Marta or Emil, you can capture monsters now, train them, feed them, and evolve them to help in your battles. They can even use spells so it's kind of cool. I personally didn't use the feature that much, but some people really liked it and I'll admit it helped out in a crunch. Think Pokemon.

Finishers: There was a secret feature in the original game where if Lloyd had his health low enough, eternal swordsman title used, material blade, and you had like 100 TP left, and you pressed A+B+X at the same time, you could execute a powerful move that pretty much killed anyone enemy one hit. Well, Japan re-released ToS on PS2 sometime ago and they added that finisher feature to every character, just more accessible and less situational. In this game, they brought that about and it's like an in-battle cutscene where the character just brings destruction to the battle field. So it's helpful in situations and you can use this feature instead of the unison attacks, or you can still use unison attacks.

New Characters: I actually use this for about 2 characters. While the new characters in the game added more human like bosses instead of monsters, there were only 2 I really liked. Decus and Richter. Decus was hilarious and a tough customer. Richter was a badass all the way through the game and his purpose in the game was great and I am glad he became a boss.

Bigger attack sleights: Due to the wiimote having more control options (like swinging the controllers), you can have a bigger attack sleight in the game. So any of the characters can have I think like 12-16 moves now during a fight instead of the previous 7 or 8.

Cons

Lack of field map: Due to a rush in the project, they had to scrap the world map and replaced it with a menu feature. I think it sucked personally. The big field map between towns and travel options like Noishe and the rheairds added a huge adventurous feel to the game. I don't blame the creators though for this. They had a deadline and I guess things caught up and they couldn't cut it.

Emil and Marta can only lead: This feature reaaaaaaally pissed me off. In the first game, you can pick any character you want as the head of your party even though things revolved around Lloyd. So I could exclude Lloyd in whatever fashion I pleased in that game, save for certain points. Emil or Marta must be the head of the party. It doesn't matter who, they just have to be. So that means you cannot walk around as any other character, you can't start a battle as any other character. And to actually control one of the other characters, you have to set their control option to manual, pause the game, and then press a button to switch between the characters on the field. It blew. To constantly have to do that in the game really ticked me off. I'm at least glad they kept the option to use other characters in the fights, but to have to pause, switch etc constantly to play as Lloyd or Zelos or Sheena was a pain.

Can't customize characters except for Emil and Marta: This kind of ties in with my previous con. The old characters already come with pre-set stats, levels, and weapons. You have no free reign over them anymore. You can, however, still pick their attack lists. So at least there is that much.

Can only cook for monsters: In the first game you could cook for your entire party to heal. Now you can only cook for monsters I believe. Self explanatory.

Voices: Not all the voices were bad. Johnny Young Bosch actually plays Emil and does a fantastic job at both sides of the characters from Ratatosk to Emil. And Laura Bailey did a good job as Marta. And only a handful of the old cast return like Kratos as the narrator, Tara Strong for Presea, Heather Hogan for Collete, and Raine's VA came back. Other than that, a new VA's. And with some of those new VA's, they just didn't capture the characters. Scott Menville (Teen Titans Robin), captured Lloyd perfectly in the old game. Brian Beacock takes over and doesn't do bad at all, but he just doesn't have that same feel Menville brought, their voices just don't transition over well. Zelos' new VA (Christopher Corey Smith) was ...AWFUL. I hated it. He had no swag. No suave. No inflection on the character whatsoever. He had a nasally voice, kind of high pitched, had the charisma of a cardboard box, and was flatter than a can of week old opened soda. It was just plain bad. Some of the characters just lost a lot of what made those characters just because of a simple voice change and it sucked. I adored every single original cast member that VA'd the game. But small things like changing Scott Menville to Brian Beacock lost some of inflection on Lloyd. Shiloh Strong did AMAZING as Zelos and captured the pompous ladies' man that could drop panties with a whisper and a wink to..... what I previously described. What makes it worse is the fact they didn't even contact Shiloh Strong. Namco didn't bother contacting him. I heard his new voice and was like...."WHAT DID THEY DO YOU??" And I honestly have no problem with Christopher Corey Smith. He played another role in the game as Tenebrous, a centurion, and did a deeper and intellectual voice perfect for that character. He isn't a bad VA. He was just a terrible decision for Zelos. Dave Wittenberg was decent as Regal but he was no Crispin Freeman. Oh, and Megan Hollingshead as Sheena was solid too. I can tell she really tried to emulate her inflection and speech patterns, but she couldn't replace Jennifer Hale on the character for me.

Here. I'll post this video to one, show the finishers, and two, give you a sample of the new VA's for those that played the first game.

Lack of mini adventures: The first game was based on a lot of it's freedom and sooo many side quests that the game could be played for hundreds of hours. I have about 300 hours logged into the first game because I have played through 3 times over 9 years and still haven't gotten everything. It's awesome. The first had so much to offer then we get some mini games and side quests, but not enough and nothing too engaging because of lack of character interactions and accessibility to said previous characters. Majority of the miniquests in the new one are based on Marta and Emil so like I said, just lost of accessibility.

Emil and Marta: Despite these two being the focus and their VA's did a good job on them, they just weren't good characters at all. Johnny Bosch did awesome as Emil. Emil was just waaaaay too sniveling of a character, too naive, and his growth as a character seemed too slow until the end. Laura Bailey is a fantastic VA. I love her to death as a VA and if you don't believe me of her being good, go look up her scene as Helena Harper with her sister Deborah in Resident Evil 6. Just fantastic selling on her part. Problem now is the fact that Marta is just a sh*t character. She is EXTREMELY one dimensional. Obsessed over Emil. Her battle prowess is god awful and she is more of a liability than anything. She is a good healer and all that, but in comparison to the healers and mages in the previous game, she sucked. At least the 3 worst offensive characters in the previous game could be salvaged in most cases. Raine in the previous game was a ridiculously powerful mage with the few offensive spells she had. Genis was ridiculous with his spells and control of the elements. Colette had very dangerous spells but could hold her own in a close range fight when used right thanks to her special melee attacks. And even the melee based characters had some magic, save for Lloyd and Presea. You had Sheena with a few elemental spells to attribute to weapons (and summoning in certain conditions), and Zelos and Kratos had solid healing spells along with basic to mid level elemental attack spells. Also Regal had decent healing spells too. Emil was solid to play with at least, but he wasn't anything special. If anything, Richter was the best new character in the game. Awesome gameplay, good VA, purposeful. Emil and Marta were just too one dimensional and annoying. Marta didn't even have any growth as a character and added nothing but annoyance.

In Conclusion

The overall premise of the game was good. I enjoyed the storyline. I enjoyed the updated battles. And I really liked the inclusion of the finishing moves. What got me though was the lack of freedom and use of the previous cast. The last game had it all. Great characters. Great scenes. Great VA's. Great storyline and soooo much you could do. And this sequel just cut so much out and the game felt shortened by a large margin (it was). Little things like a new VA for one or two characters can really throw you for a loop. There was just so much more they could have done with this game to make it a great game like its predecessor. What good they added was completely outweighed by the shortcomings. But if you can get past some of them, the sequel is enjoyable.

Rating 6/10

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