Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World for Wii Reviews by Gamers

There is nothing Earth shattering here.
Yes, Emil and Marta may be the most annoying, whining lead characters in video game history, but as the game goes, you notice less, and eventually forget about their spinelessness.
I was not a fan of the battle system... I'm pretty old school, and like turn-based attack sysyems... This one is pretty much an "A" basher-- Run up to your opponent, mash the "A" button until dead, move on, etc. Very little strategy involved.
There are surprisingly few "Boss" battles, and the only truly hard ones are Decus and Richter at the end.
It was fun developing monsters, but you soon realize that they are pretty much useless in battle. As you befriend more humans throughout the game, you use monsters less and less. They are a novelty at best.
By Wii RPG standards, this is a grand slam...
If you still have a PS2, this is a pretty good game at best.
I'd highly reccomend a rent, but not a buy.
Tennabrae might be the coolest third party character in RPG history! Cool English accent for a summon spirit that looks like a dog!
Also, WAY too many long, boring cut scenes and tutorials.
Not great... Not bad...
A strong 7....

This games is the sequel to Tales of Symphonia however the main characer is not of the original cast.

Story - You play as Emil. A young boy whose parents were murdered by Lloyd in Palmacosta. Due to his hatred everyone including his family despises him and treats him like a monster. He later meets Marta after she saves him from a monster. He then follows her and finds his new friend Richter attacking her. He is burst out of the room and makes a pact with Tenebrae Centurion of Darkness. He is then forced to become Marta's protector and gains an alter personality. The story is excellent and very uniqe. Although Emil's alter later gets more and more significant and is his complete opposite. 8

Gameplay - Battle is on real tine on a seperate battle field with 4 people. Battle is in real time but almost no strategy is required as it can be used on every normal enemy. Instead of a vast world map you have a area menu which makes the game slightly linear. You can also recruit monsters and there are plenty of sidequests. 8

Presentation - The graphics are average for the Wii but it has a classic vibe due to this. The music is amazing but forgettable. 7

Overall this is a wonderful game with minor flaws. I give it...... a 7.6!

I actually never played the 1st game because i could not find it so i got this one and omg it is amazing.
good things
1 emil is like the only caracter in the tales series that is like a ninja
2 awsome gameplay
3 good story
4 good caracters
bad things
nothing really

I love RPG games and this one was a hard choice for me to review. The story line is ok, the control movements are a bit different for me. I am more used to explore anywhere I want and this game limits you. It takes you right into the correct path, there is no way on going the wrong way. Easy to pass and the quest are not hard at all. Game is long. The fighting is the best part of the game.

I am for one a large Tales fan, but this is ridiculous! For those who know the Tales Series Pretty well will know that the original Tales of Symphonia created a development team from Namco known as Team Symphonia. The games that were created by Team Symphonia where all pretty good, they created the Original Symphonia, Tales of the Abyss, The PS2 Remake of Tales of Symphonia, and Tales of Vesperia for the 360. Unfortunately, they were busy with Tales of Vesperia when development began on this games. Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World was created by the Namco Tales Studio in general, no specific team. This game really suffered because of budget cuts, lack of really experienced developers, and a rush to get it out in time for the 10th North American Tales Anniversary. The game has old music, new music, and remixed music. When I heard the remixed versions of battle songs, I teared, I loved the original Symphonia and hearing it again was really moving for me. The battle system is similar and just as good, I loved the improved camera work for when more then one person is playing and the addition of free roam, previously seen in the version later then the Original Symphonia. The monster recruitment system is really fun and some of the monsters really look nice, but that's pretty much it. Although I did not come across any glitches or bugs, it was a real pain when I worked to get a monster during a battle and when it came time to recruit, they would give you another monster that was in that battle. The unision system was really bad, you could not choose what moves you wanted to do, they choose them for you, plus the new feature of the elemental grid choose who did the unision with you. Most times, you would be doing it alone. The biggest disappointment, none of the original cast members can level up normally like you and the monsters. Player one can choose them, you can only switch to them during battle, but you will get switched back after it's over. This gets 7/10.

Pros:

1: Same great gameplay style of all the "Tales" games.
2: Great story development and overall idea.
3: Interesting "Pokemon" like capture a defeated enemy and place them in your party idea. I thought this would be lame at first but they are very helpful and stronger than you.

Cons:

1: Way too linear compaired to other "Tales" games. The lack of free overhead map movement took away hidden discoveries and also made the game see guided way too much.
2: Too short. This game could have used a little more development on each character... maybe a quest for each.

This game has a lot to look forward to. It isn't perfect, but it has a lot of pluses. The combat can be customized and Marta and Emil are very lovable characters. There is a great set of story and a lot of surprise characters. I enjoyed this game and I hope you do too.

After reading the critics reviews i went into this game expecting the worst. The critics raved about it having a bad story, being to hard, etc. The problem with the critics is that they failed to understand is that this game was built from the ground up for Tales of Symphonia fans. If your not a fan of the original or you've never played it then this game is not for you.

Graphics : 7.5/10 - On par with the first game.

Story : 7.5/10 - Not as good as the first game but enough to keep you interested.

Gameplay: 10/10 - Symphonia battle system is back!!!

Difficulty: 8/10 - Its true that some boss battles in this game are a bit hard. If you fight every enemy in every dungeon at least once you will be alright. No need to go back and level up(The critics apparently aren't very good old-school RPG's anymore).

Replay Value: 7/10 - Includes a new game + with a variety of quests you weren't strong enough to complete the first time around.

Gameplay: The gameplay itself is standard if you've played the first game with some new mechanics. Expect new techs or now called "Artes" among other things. An entire monster catching and raising system similar to Pokemon, you use these monsters to aid you in battle and the combination's are quite good once you get the hang of it. Your style of fighting if you control Emil is a mixture of Zelos and Lloyd while playing Mara is like playing Colette. They add a small amount of new things and don't mess up the system. Going with the old "If it ain't broke, don't fix it".

Story: The story is a good plot, taking place two years after the events of the first game. Showing the opposite side to the spectrum where the two worlds are opposed in war once more. You play as a hated character and Lloyd is portrayed as a villain, his friends do not know why he has become this way. After meeting with a mysterious girl and her "centurion" AKA A summon spirit clone, you make a pact and most awaken teh other centurions as to awaken Lord Ratatosk Lord of All Monsters. He in himself is also a summon spirit. The story is pretty average for this games series. It relies alot on the old game to give the plot a boost. Newcomers however will see the story truly as it was meant to be from Emil's eyes where he doesn't have that knowledge from the last game. While playing this second from the original, gives you a sense of nostalgia.

Verdict: Get this game if you want a good RPG for the Wii and are a fan of the Tales of Symphonia. However do not go with the hope that it will be better than the original, it is not. It's a nice sequal as to finish the story as to say.

7.8/10
Rating: Buy It/Rent It

As a fan of the Original game i was very excited when this came out for the wii. the monster system is a bit eh.... and i could of easily done without it but after playing throught the game i wont spoil the ending but if you make the right decisions you will end up being completly sucked into the story

my favorite part of the game was the ending it was perfect!
if you like RPGs at all you Need to have this game the WII/GC has so little good RPGs (which hopefully this will change) this is a MUST BUY

AMAZING! Back in 2007 (I think) I played the first one but I wasn't really thrilled. But this one....IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE WII GAMES! It was so made for the Wii! I love the story it is full of mysterys that keeps you intrested! Emil is...well shy. But that dosen't mean he's not a good character! I just wish he would not apologize so much. (That's kind of creepy.) I wish the people in the town would not be so mean to him. Emil can't help that the little lake dried up! They treat him like a monster. But that girl (whats her name?) seems weird. She acts like she likes Emil. But I think she can't be trusted! Anyway I will keep this game A LONG TIME! Rock on!

Dawn of a New World was ok, but, compared to the first, seemed empty and short. I own it and do love it; I found myself attaching to the new characters and reconnecting with the old ones all over again. The field elemental traits and U. Attack are interesting and Mystic Artes are awesome.

There are two things I dislike the most is the point A to point B map system with no free world map. I guess that what added to the empty short feeling. But, in the original, once you got the rheairds, you were going straight to towns and temples anyway, so that is the minor one. The major one is the monster taming system, it is WAY TOO EASY to exploit and cheat with. The monster become super powered too quickly when compared to Emil and Marta, and the original cast from Symphonia doesn't level at all. That just doesn't make sense to me; you can have a level 200 monster, but the original cast can only get to 50? When your final boss is level 80, these rules make the fight stupidly easy, or stupidly difficult.

Overall, if you loved the original, and are curious about this one, try it out. It does feel slower and can take some getting into, but you won't be too disappointed.

By the way, I seen the claims that the cutscenes drag (which they do, kinda) and are unskippable. You can skip most of them by holding the A Button for a couple of seconds. I know this works on the long scenes before big battles. Just give the game a chance.

i have to say that when i played the very first tales of symphonia, i was blown away, actually lost sleep playing that game. i was really looking forward to playing the 2nd one and i wasn't completly disapointed. the story is awesome but it seems like the voice acting that helps to tell the story isn't what it was in the 1st. i haven't beat this game yet, ive been playing for 37hrs and am on chapter 7. i deffy want to pick this game up eventually. if u loved the 1st one get this game, if u never played the 1st one play it before u play the 2nd one.

the graphics are about the same. the battle system is the same. the areas are almost all the same. it is still awsome though and it is worth the play though. and if uve played the first one and loved the story, u have to play this to get the full story. so it gets an 8 out of 10. it would get more if they would have changed a few things up.

This game is decent if you like leveling up monsters and following a kind of bland storyline (might want to watch tles of symphonia episodes to actually understand who these people are)this game has few choices that will affect what hppens in the game. this will either make it extremely hard or easy in the game. Now we get onto the monsters they actually have some intersesting monsters in the game and as you train them they can evolve by feeding them things from the asgard(talk to kitty people to have them evolve your monsters) now this evoulution is very imporntant for it gets harder and creaatures get tougher (so if you have super weak monsters prepare to lose a lot) now I would rate this game a 5 and half rating out of ten. this game could be worth it, but i recommend something else.

Some sequels can pull it off as being great games, fewer as classics. A lot of the time, though, 2nd installments in a series can just be stinkers. Dawn of the New World is one of those titles. Let's start with the protagonist, Emil. He is a weak character, both in his physical nature and his personality. The only time he has any balls is when he is in battle, and that's only because he is possessed by the king of the monsters. And then there's his little girlfriend, Marta. A little too perky and annoyingly enamored with Emil, she is infused with a precious gem that is the key to awakening the lord of the monsters, Ratatosk.
For those of us who played the first installment, it is kind of fun to re-visit the locations from the previous game, as well as the characters. But the characters from the first story come and go, and seem to only be added into the story as a marketing ploy to get fans of the first game to play this one. Besides Lloyd, the rest of the characters don't seem to serve much purpose besides filling in the two protagonists into the kind of person Lloyd is.
The monster collecting system was also a waste of time, as you could play the whole game with only four monsters in your party without having to collect any more. Once you gain a new monster, you put it in your storage and forget about it.
While it was a nice attempt at a sequel, the game could have done without these two new added characters and just have continued the series with a focus on Lloyd and his adventures...or just left the series as it was WITHOUT a sequel.

Unneccessary.

The begging of the game seems to be interesting but as it progress the story line becomes confusing and I lost interest of it very quickly.

Pro: Good animation and real time combat sequences

Bad:Graphics are old dated as game cube style. Story line needs improvement

Compared to the last game, this one feels empty of substance. Voice acting is pretty bad, showing major in the front where in almost monotone, kratos gives the back story, did they keep the actor up all night to make sure he'd sound tired when doing it? the worst was hearing 'aunt flora' for the first time, sure was glad she was a minor character.

The game is nearly impossible to play on your own, unlike the last game, most of your party can only understand overly simple strategies, and will bunch up around the boss to make sure it can hit all of them at once, monsters are unplayable by players, as well as are unable to use items, plus instead of requiring a party wipe, your 'playable' characters just need to die, even if your monsters are ini good health. despite that apparently a large part of the game is to collect all the pokemon.. er monsters.. like a good trainer.. er knight.

To add to frustration, if you do decide to play with other people, ignore the 'four players' tag. you won't always have four, usually you have two. but to make matters worse they will leave the party constantly, in the first two chapters, marta will leave the party only to rejoin five seconds later dozens of times, each time requiring you to reset her to manual.

the opening has so many flashbacks it reaches ridiculous levels, there is even an instant where a character says something then walks away, and as soon as the guy is gone, the main character has a flashback about it!! about half the opening is basically flashbacks to what was just said not two minutes ago.

then to top it off, the main character is about the most annoying sissy in the world, its like they took Hinata's shyness and combined it with Roxas's appearance. then just to mess with you, when he gets his powers he has to wear a strapless dress and gets a 'lets duel' split personality like Yugi.

this game feels like a cheap cash-in, and does not seem to have much if any originality or substance.

This game is a brilliant addition to the tales series. They have reformatted the fighting system so that you may run around the map, not to mention added a hint of the wii to the game. You can now shortcut moves to your wii-mote and chuck by the direction you flail your arms. This makes it easier to pull off a wide variaty of combonations. It pulls off what most tales' fans have been waiting for and I personally eagerly await the next addition of the series.

First off, the original Tales of Symphonia was one of my favorite games ever. I'd seen critical reviews of ToS2 before I rented it, but I figured it couldn't be that bad. It was a sequel, after all.

An hour in to Dawn of the New World I realized that the critics had been right.

Where to start? The new characters in ToS2 are awful. Every one of them is shallow, and the two main characters (Emil and Marta) are annoying in almost every way it's possible to be. The returning characters from ToS have changed for the worse. Most do not fit at all with their personalities from ToS, but that hardly matters since you can barely do anything with them. All ToS characters are locked at a certain level, can't have equipment changed, can't be set to player 1, and leave the party at random times.

As you might expect from the lame characters, the story is equally boring and predictable. The boss battles are some of the most aggravating I've ever dealt with. Almost a dozen bosses are intentionally unbeatable, and the ones you can kill have absurd amounts of health. It doesn't help you have to sit through the same cutscene 6 times because of some extremely difficult bosses.

Other issues:
The exploration element was replaced with a "click to travel" system.

The dungeons are mostly the same ones you played through in ToS, only with one new room.

The optional "quests" you can take are actually only about 5 different missions that just repeat with stronger enemies.

Graphical changes resulted in hideous returning characters.

Emil whines incessantly.

Marta makes wading pools look deep.

...The list goes on.

I'm not going to lie; I couldn't finish this game. But the 24 hours I did play were enough to convince me that this game is best forgotten. Just go back to playing the other Tales games and pretend thsi didn't happen.

If you liked the origonal tales of symphonia you will like this one too. It plays out like a reely good anime with lots of funny dialog and plenty of action to keep you intarested for days.

If you're a young gamer you will probably find something to like about this game, but if you've been around a while and played your fair share of RPGs then I wouldn't suggest even renting this or any other Tales game. There isn't an ounce of original thought put into it.

Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad game, but if you've been gaming since at least the PS1 days, you've already played it several times over. The unnecessarily complicated battle system, the whiny hero and mysterious girl he falls in love with, the ear-grating voice over, it's all here.

I thought it was well done the story line was solid the controls were solid not to linear. Cut scence's were good.

But after about 45min. in I started felling like I was playing the first one It was ok though I really liked the first one and they did change things around.

The only problem I can say I had with the game is Im sorry, Im sorry, Im sorry, Im sorry it is said from start to end and you will hate that about 3min. in.

My girls (ages 12 & 14) were totally unimpressed w/ this game. Seems like it is more watching and listening to the story than actual playing.

My hubby and I played this game for about an hour before we got fed up and shipped it back. We're a huge RPG fan and were looking forward to a game that was rated over 8 on GameFly.

Cut scenes last forever and can't be skipped (or if they can be, we couldn't figure out how) and seem to pop up every few minutes... just as we finally got into running around.

I just wanted to smack the main character. My guess is that he goes through a transformation throughout the game and becomes a man, but it was awkward and frustrating to watch the dialogue.

A lot of people really liked this game, and chances are you might. But if you're looking for something that you can get into immediately that let's you do stuff right off the bat, this might not be for you.