13 November 2008
Ferry

Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World review video (Wii)

Set two years after the events of Tales of Symphonia for the Nintendo GameCube, Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World on the Wii follows the journey of two new young heroes, Emil Castagnier and Marta Lualdi, as they seek to uncover the mystery of why their world has fallen into ruin. In their quest, their paths will cross with the original cast of Tales of Symphonia including Lloyd and Colette, as well as a summon spirit known as Ratatosk who claims to be the lord of all monsters.

Dawn of the New World introduces a new monster recruitment feature in which players can capture more than 200 unique enemies and train them to actively participate in battle. Players can then feed these monsters to make them more effective, and even evolve them into several new fearsome forms. The game also features an updated real-time battle system that lets players move freely in all directions around the battlefield, execute powerful unison attacks and take advantage of a new elemental alignment system for even more strategic depth.

With its predecessor so successful, can Dawn of the New World live up to expectations? Find out in this Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World video review.


Game features include:
* Classic Tales – Return to the world of Tales of Symphonia and discover the aftermath of the merging of the two worlds
* Over 200 unique monsters – Capture, collect, and feed monsters as they grow, gain experience and even evolve into completely new, more powerful beasts
* Enhanced for the Wii – Environments, characters and effects look better than ever
* Evolved Battle System – The Tales RPG trademark real-time battle system returns with an all-new free run system, dynamic unison attacks and a strategic elemental system
* It’s your Party – Customize the party with unlimited combinations of monsters and characters throughout the adventure
* A decade of Tales – Celebrating the Tales 10 year anniversary in North America

To quote the GT video review: “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.”

Story — 7.6
Design — 8.1
Gameplay — 8.1
Presentation — 7.8
Overall — 7.9