Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World

[D_prOdigy]

Got this on the 25th. So far I'm about 9 hours in, and just rescued the little shit at the desolate Iselia Ranch.

 

Should I feel guilty that I'm actually really enjoying it? Sure, there are some gaping flaws that weren't in the original. Cooking system is weirdly compromised, the elemental system is overly-complicated, I could care less if these characters were to take a drill to the face, the combat isn't as smooth and the story is less intelligent and more confusing.

 

However, the basic foundations this sequel was built upon are still so brilliant to me, I can't help but get just as addicted as I was with the original.

 

I don't know why, but I'm so in love with this universe.

[Paj!]

Got this for Xmas, but combined with getting 2 other Wii games to split my time with, and the fact I'm sharing the living room T.V with my entire family, I've literally just got past the battle tutorial.

 

(Which is about 40 mins in tbf!)

[daftada]

I got this for Xmas and started playing last night, two hours in, time for some reflective first impressions!

 

Is it just me or is this game a lot harder than any other Tales game?? Maybe I need to take a good look at my battle strategy, which currently mirrors Kevin Keegan's management style (attack, attack, attack and balls to defending). I really struggled to get me and my monster buddies through the first tutorial dungeon - by the end of it I'd used up all of my gels and all but one of my life bottles. I am finding the battle system to be just as addictive as before, and the monster pact elements has already got me hooked!

 

The music is a mixed-bag so far; I love listening to the familiar tunes, but some of the original music (wtf is up with the 'rest' sound bite??) is terrible. I'm a bit disappointed with the graphics too, Luin looked really awful! I thought they were going to reuse loads of the original graphics, so I was hoping for better than this.

 

On the other hand, the story is quite intruiging so far. I like the way they've turned Lloyd into the 'bad guy' and I'm really looking forward to see how that plot point develops. And I can't wait to see the other characters again!

[Paj!]

^ I died really early on into the first dungeon today, and realised I hadn't saved/there was lots of movies and talking, and when I loaded, I was still shitty Emil in his scullery maid rags. Almost cried. But then if you just skip everything they say, it goes quickly. Have to RE-DO all the capturing the elf and wolf shiz though.

 

I'm also weeping that the Sorceror's ring doesn't have a generic fire effect anymore. My favourite thing.

 

I love the abundance of skits. But sortof wish you could carry on moving while they went on.

[Guest Captain Falcon]

I love the abundance of skits. But sortof wish you could carry on moving while they went on.

 

If you could move around whilst the skits played out. because there is no overworld too randomly wander about over, you'd never get through them all.

[daftada]

Is it better to evolve a monster early on or leave it to level up a bit more? Not sure whether to let my bear evolve (he's at lvl 13).

[darksnowman]

Got Dawn of the New World for Chrimbo and cracked it open tonight.

 

I've played about an hour and a half, just saving at the Tower of Mana after emerging from the underground with Marta and Tenebrae. I'll get the bad out of the way first: Lloyd's voice. I can't take him seriously.

 

Thats the only bad thing I can think of so far. Emil is annoying but I'm expecting him to change so I'm ok to put up with his pathetic and weak attitude. I'm fine with the graphics- some backgrounds aren't great but aside from that, things look good to me so far. I think the graphical side better than the original because all this mo-cap is really impressive and shows ToS on the Cube up quite a bit. I didn't realise just how wooden the character movement was at the time!

 

What was it pedrocasilva used to always get his knickers in a twist over? Ah yeah, the lack of facial animation wasn't it. Well again, things look good to me on that front so far. I guess Tales of Graces will make me change my tune but for the time being I'm genuinely impressed by the visuals in here ToS2. After all the average (at best) press the game got, I'm quite happy with it thus far.

 

I recruited a couple of monsters so far and missed out on a spider. It was looking to be recruited but no one seemed to want to strengthen their pact with it, so I clicked on someone at random to see what would happen and the spider took a huff and sodded off. From now on I'll just hit the "don't strengthen" option methinks.

 

Like I said, I want to see what happens with Emil before branding him as a crap leading character. He's completely hated by everyone in Luin so I want to find out his backstory first before I pass judgement. I'm expecting some friendship will help him grow and value and respect himself. Hopefully he won't prove me wrong for giving him the benefit of the doubt here.

 

Marta is great.

[Hero-of-Time]

It's good to see those who got it for Christmas are enjoying the game. I need to get back on it as got sidetracked and haven't played it since which is a shame as I was really enjoying it.

 

From what I played, which was about 8-10 hours, I really don't see why alot of people hated the game. Ok it was never gonna be a REAL Symphonia 2 but so far it seems to be a solid adventure game.

[daftada]

I think people placed too high hopes on this matching ToS, I tried to go in without too many expectations and I've been pleasantly surprised. It's still a very fun game - the battle system is probably my favourite yet (could do with some slight refinements in Graces), the story is keeping me hooked (love all of the 'Marta luvs Emil' skits!), and the monster raising is really addictive.

 

If any ToS fans are still on the fence, I'd say have a look around the January sales (shopto have it for £20) and give it a go. But make sure you give it more than a few hours to warm up and get going.

 

I'm only on the third chapter but I'm already planning my second play-through!

[darksnowman]

I need to get back on it as got sidetracked and haven't played it since which is a shame as I was really enjoying it.

 

I thought you had slaughtered your way through it in a matter of days. From what I've read here and across the web the DotNW lasts about 25-30 so you are probably about a quarter or as much as a third of the way through it.

 

I think people placed too high hopes on this matching ToS, I tried to go in without too many expectations and I've been pleasantly surprised. It's still a very fun game - the battle system is probably my favourite yet (could do with some slight refinements in Graces), the story is keeping me hooked (love all of the 'Marta luvs Emil' skits!), and the monster raising is really addictive.

 

Yeah, I'm loving the free run option in battle. The controls for it seem to be spot on! The only thing that seems a bit off is the Unison Attack. It builds up really quick and it only seems like Emil is involved with it. Maybe this changes as the game goes on.

 

 

I meant to say, I used my ToS save file and started off with a selection of Gels and Manuscripts. Probably some of the more average stuff you can get seeing as I've not wracked up multiple completions like other people would have.

[D_prOdigy]

I think people placed too high hopes on this matching ToS, I tried to go in without too many expectations and I've been pleasantly surprised. It's still a very fun game - the battle system is probably my favourite yet (could do with some slight refinements in Graces), the story is keeping me hooked (love all of the 'Marta luvs Emil' skits!), and the monster raising is really addictive.

 

If any ToS fans are still on the fence, I'd say have a look around the January sales (shopto have it for £20) and give it a go. But make sure you give it more than a few hours to warm up and get going.

 

I'm only on the third chapter but I'm already planning my second play-through!

 

Indeed, I think if people listen solely to the reviewers who moaned that this is a half-baked sequel, then they're going to end up missing out on something here. Maybe it's because I'm so much of a Symphonia fan that I have more tolerance for some of the issues with the game, but I can easily enjoy this for what it is.

 

It might feel a little stripped down, but this is still a Tales game at heart. Anyone on the fence should know now that it's well worth picking up for that reason.

 

Yeah, I'm loving the free run option in battle. The controls for it seem to be spot on! The only thing that seems a bit off is the Unison Attack. It builds up really quick and it only seems like Emil is involved with it. Maybe this changes as the game goes on.

 

 

I meant to say, I used my ToS save file and started off with a selection of Gels and Manuscripts. Probably some of the more average stuff you can get seeing as I've not wracked up multiple completions like other people would have.

 

I've gotten used to the battle controls now and it feels great. Admittedly a little slower than Symphonia, but I really enjoy aerial-attacking as Emil.

 

I too used my Symphonia save file, and only got a few manuscripts. A little disappointing, as that save file had loads of play time and a good few completions on it.

 

 

Anyway, I've sunk just over 20 hours into it since Xmas day, I'm well into Chapter 5 so time for some eval.

 

I cant quite decide whether it's a good thing or not that you can only really equip/level-up Emil and Marta out of the human characters. It feels weird being so limited, but on the other hand, it's a little more streamlined knowing you only have to focus on two characters' equipment.

 

Too many skits. I could deal with them at first, but now it seems there's automatically about 4 consecutive skits to go through after every cut-scene. Maybe it's because I don't really like these characters very much (apart from Tenebrae) that it bothers me. Still, at least I can skip them.

 

I agree with what Darksnowman said earlier about the mo-cap. While I can see the change in visual style has perhaps lost a bit of the charm and colour from the more hand-drawn look of the original, on balance the sequel does flow a lot smoother and more natural as far as cut-scenes go.

 

Finally, I'm just wondering if it's just me who's finding it all incredibly easy once you get a certain way into the game. I've changed the battle difficulty to hard, but I'm still despatching enemies within four or five hits as Emil. It's not like I've gone out of my way to level-grind at any point, I just don't particularly avoid enemies because I like the battles. And right now, I'm a good twelve levels ahead of the other human characters - they all start at 31 on Chapter 5, and obviously they don't level up, whereas Emil and Marta can. Suggests to me that maybe I'm a little ahead. I just hope the difficulty ramps-up soon.

 

Oh, and mystic artes are awesome. If only I wasn't so strong so I could actually use them from time to time.

[Emerald Emblem]

The old Symphonia team can skip to a higher level at certain points just to show the recommended level at that point. Hardest fight has to be against Alice and Decus near the end. Have some strong monsters at that point is my only advice as well as try to focus on beating Alice first.

Edited January 3, 2010 by Emerald Emblem

[Paj!]

Free run is my favourite thing.

 

Just leaving Palmacosta for the ...something mountains to save some guy or something. But yeah. It may not sound it, but I like the story (what I can gather from it!).

 

Still not sure what the monsters are doing half the time. I evolved my wolf, dunno if it makes any difference in the long run, he's just weaker now, though the same element as Emil, which is... good? Dunno. Also got a Bear and an Axe Beak. No idea how one even tries to get monsters anyway, it just happened randomly for me.

 

Emil is becoming more bearable/getting more of a life.

[darksnowman]

I agree with what Darksnowman said earlier about the mo-cap. While I can see the change in visual style has perhaps lost a bit of the charm and colour from the more hand-drawn look of the original, on balance the sequel does flow a lot smoother and more natural as far as cut-scenes go.

 

Finally, I'm just wondering if it's just me who's finding it all incredibly easy once you get a certain way into the game.

 

I actually think I prefer the graphics on the whole in this one. I think ToS is a classic but I'm really liking that the characters are more properly proportioned now. I also wasn't a fan of the blurry murkiness during cutscenes in the original so I'm glad to see the back of that.

 

I'm finding the difficulty to be ok so far. Normal battles haven't been too bad but Ventus wiped us out once and cost me a few life bottles on my second attempt.

 

The mo-cap let me down badly when the first character just left my party. So wooden looking!

 

Still not sure what the monsters are doing half the time. I evolved my wolf, dunno if it makes any difference in the long run, he's just weaker now, though the same element as Emil, which is... good? Dunno. Also got a Bear and an Axe Beak. No idea how one even tries to get monsters anyway, it just happened randomly for me.

 

I'm in the same boat. I've got a one-time evolved wolf in my party and a golem. I evolved the wolf and he seemed to revert to level one. I'm not sure at all how that affected its stats but I assume it was the right thing to to.

 

 

Colette has just left us.

...on the brightside, I think I'm liking Martmart more than Colette.

 

Anyone have any bother doing the wind thing at the stone dais in Asgard? When that bird creature (garuda was it?) was up there blowing wind and you had to run up to it with Emil... man, I got caught out quite a few times there and had to retry. What makes it all the more embarrassing is that it seemed to get easier each time for noobs like me- but I still kept getting blew away, lol.

 

I've saved at Hakonesia. Its good to have Asgard restored.

 

 

Did I read that there's a skit library? I skipped one by accident when pressing some buttons to see if I could move the text forward faster.

 

I hate when they say Emil's name. I've always read it as "Emmill" but in the game they pronounce it "Emeelle." If they would have spelt it Emile then I would have been on their wavelength from the beginning.

[Paj!]

I hate when they say Emil's name. I've always read it as "Emmill" but in the game they pronounce it "Emeelle." If they would have spelt it Emile then I would have been on their wavelength from the beginning.

 

As far as I'm aware, they pronounce the name Emil correctly (or at least as I've always heard it). Although in an annoying american accent. :p

 

I'm on Chapter 6, about 20 something hours in. Emil is Level 40, Marta 39.

 

I'm enjoying it, I like the emphasis on story, the overworld (or lack thereof) no longer bothers me, it speeds things up. I've lost my chance at the best ending already (dealing with it though).

 

Just lost BADLY to

Hawk in Altamira. WTF. HE came out of nowhere being amazing. He sortof stands still, taking little damage, then does a huge attack that deals massive amounts of damage to my team. It was hopeless! Got him down to half-health, but ran out of life bottles!

 

[Guest Captain Falcon]

Did I read that there's a skit library? I skipped one by accident when pressing some buttons to see if I could move the text forward faster.

 

Unlike the first game where the Skit library was located on Katz island, this time it unlocks on the main menu when you complete the game.

[darksnowman]

As far as I'm aware, they pronounce the name Emil correctly (or at least as I've always heard it). Although in an annoying american accent. :p

 

I'm enjoying it, I like the emphasis on story, the overworld (or lack thereof) no longer bothers me, it speeds things up. I've lost my chance at the best ending already (dealing with it though).

 

Well, you win this battle of the pronunciationists... but I'll get you next time!

 

I'm over at Triet now and the world map hasn't bothered me at all. I noticed that the Martel Temple (...I can't remember its exact name ) dropped off the map once I visited it. I'm not sure if anywhere else has had the same treatment...?

 

Unlike the first game where the Skit library was located on Katz island, this time it unlocks on the main menu when you complete the game.

 

Thanks I shall check it out when the time comes.

 

I've got a fully humanoid party at the minute with Raine and Genis now on board- Emil and Marta are lvl 23 whilst Raine and Genis are lvl 17. I took the time to rattle off all of the quests yesterday and then more today when they became available. I'm worried they might be repetitive as people tell me to come help them again when they put in their next request.

 

Tenebrae has some cracking lines to say, lol.

 

Argh, there were a couple of other points I had in mind when I was playing the game but I can't recall them now.

 

 

Since I started into it last weekend, ToS2 has been keeping me off Spirit Tracks and everything else. Surely that must count for something.

[Paj!]

Hmm, towns drop off the map after you get to certain bits, which is REALLY annoying. Mainly cause I hoped that I go do side-quests after you were meant to, but apparently not. In chapter 6, I can visit most of the old dungeons (I guess for training purposes), but the towns are off-limits. (I mean the towns that you aren't really hanging around at the time)

[ShadowV7]

Next Tales OVA is out in March, then May I believe. At long last!

[Paj!]

Is the first one available in English, or at least subtitled?

[D_prOdigy]

Argh. I think I'm failing at this game.

 

... Chapter 7. Lezareno Company Building 2. Fighting Brute. I'm nowhere near strong enough. I assumed it would be another one of those battles where you're supposed to lose. But apparently not...

 

[ShadowV7]

Is the first one available in English, or at least subtitled?

 

Not in English i'm afraid, if it was i'd have those beauties. They've been released subtitled though, have been since a few days after each got released. Well worth a watch if you're a 'Tales of ' fan.

 

Really want to see the Vesperia movie.

[Emerald Emblem]

Argh. I think I'm failing at this game.

 

... Chapter 7. Lezareno Company Building 2. Fighting Brute. I'm nowhere near strong enough. I assumed it would be another one of those battles where you're supposed to lose. But apparently not...

 

As you can see, it has gotten more difficult, hasn't it? :P

 

Have you done the side quests? Make levelling up easier.

[D_prOdigy]

I had a little reshuffle of my party, brought in Raine as an extra healer on-hand, and beat him second time round after a pretty lengthy fight. Onwards towards Chapter 8!

 

And I do actually love the side-quests, both for levelling up my party and for synthesising materials. I think the synthesise system is one of my favourite parts of the game - I got hold of all the strongest weapons and armour far, far earlier than I'd have normally stumbled across them in the world.

[darksnowman]

I bumped into Lloyd at the Triet Ruins. His voice just isn't right.

 

The teasing that Raine gets over "Ruin Mode" is priceless.

 

And I do actually love the side-quests, both for levelling up my party and for synthesising materials. I think the synthesise system is one of my favourite parts of the game - I got hold of all the strongest weapons and armour far, far earlier than I'd have normally stumbled across them in the world.

 

When you say sidequests, what exactly do you mean? Are there many (any?) sidequests in DotNW? I was useless at finding any to do in the original ToS.

 

I've not synthesised anything as yet. I'm a big wimp when it comes to this sort of thing. I'm yet to have used the equivalent feature in ToS.