Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World

[Dihan]

I'm really surprised that there's no thread about this, so here it is in case any one has forgotten about the game.

It was out in North America on the 11th of November.

Sadly, there is no trustworthy EU release date yet, and considering the Namco's track record with their games, it's unlikely it'll ever be released here.

Out of the 10 released "Tales of" games, only 3 have been released in Europe so far. Tales of Abyss wasn't released in Europe due to relatively mediocre sales in North America. Even though Tales of Symphonia sold well in Europe, it doesn't automatically mean that the sequel will be released here (as seen with Baten Kaitos 2).

So, has everyone forgotten about it?

[Dairun Cates]

God. I hate it when college work makes me forget about releases I care about.

[Inhuman Bot]

I wasn't really watching this.

Wait, it's out?!?! :smalleek:

Quick, to the gamestore!

As I said, I wasn't paying attenton to this game, so can anyone give me a summary of the changes from the first ToS?

[SAMAS]

It's two years after the first game, and apparently, Lloyd is getting blamed for the (second) destruction of Palmacosta.

[UltraDude]

Those Palmacostans have the worst luck... btw, nice avi Samas.

In ToS2, you have two main characters. The rest of the party is filled in either by ToS characters making guest appearances, or allied monsters, though I haven't played it to know how that works out yet T_T

[Dihan]

Apparently the returning ToS characters level through plot points instead of experience. From what I understand, all ToS characters except Kratos return at some point. He's the narrator instead.

The two new main characters are Emil and Marta. Emil is a boy who's always apologising for things that he's blamed for doing, he has very little self-confidence and he's a bit of a coward. Marta is the opposite.

Emil wields a sword and Marta wields the same type of thing that Rinoa uses in FFVIII.

[Hermit]

Didn't realise the US release was out, that's good news. Although Freeloader may have stopped working, if you've got the Wii homebrew channel installed then GeckOS can allow you to run US copies of games on a PAL console anyway. Will hunt this down after Christmas and import it, I think. Though I'd probably replay ToS first, its been too long since I've done that.

Also

the same type of thing that Rinoa uses in FFVIII.
A dog?
:p

[Dihan]

A dog?
:p

Noooo. The wrist-mounted, boomerang-like, razor-sharp, disc thing. :smalltongue:

[TheGeorgeman]

So does anyone have it yet? If so what are your general impressions? I thinking about getting it once I have the time.

[Trazoi]

I'll have to keep an eye out for a possible Australian release. I liked Tales of Symphonia for Gamecube, so I'd love the sequel. Unfortunately Australia is PAL like Europe, so I'll need to wait and see if it ever gets converted.

[Enlong]

It's two years after the first game, and apparently, Lloyd is getting blamed for the (second) destruction of Palmacosta.

I count it as the third:
First it was broken from the inside out by Desian activity, then it was wrecked for gno good reason by the Insane Tree, then it was razed by LLoyd? Yeah... Palmacosta has worse luck than Luin.

[Lord Seth]

So does anyone have it yet? If so what are your general impressions? I thinking about getting it once I have the time.Well I have it but can't open it yet because I got it as a Christmas present for my brother, heh. Still, from the gaming sites:
IGN: 6.7 (for comparison, they gave the original TOS 8.5)
GameSpot: 6.5 (for comparison, they gave the original TOS 8.8)

Those are the two I frequent most, but according to metacritic it has an average of 68, compared to the original TOS's 86.

[Dublock]

So does anyone have it yet? If so what are your general impressions? I thinking about getting it once I have the time.

I played it. I LOVED the original, so of course I don't like the 2nd one as much, but I will not say the first is better, because I don't want to be one of those fans that objects to all the changes that a new one has.

I *think* I'm at the 2nd to last battle, so I have a good idea of what happen/general impressions.

The characterization is still wonderful, not so much of the original characters, but the new ones for sure. The plot isn't as good. There isn't as many rememorable moments in my opinion. Gameplay is the same for the most part. You have to use the wii remote instead of the game cube controller. The game seems to be much shorter, I left the game on over night, so I can't give an exact time but its not as long.

I wanted to slap the new characters cause they don't know what really happen in the first game, which is realistic.

[quote=Doihaveaname?]Emil is a boy who's always apologizing for things that he's blamed for doing, he has very little self-confidence and he's a bit of a coward. Marta is the opposite. [/quote

At times he says sorry more then Colette did. Although I often viewed Lloyd as her foil, and I don't think Marta is like Lloyd that much.

I wasn't the fan of monsters as apart of the party, but thats personal taste.

for all those Kratos fans out there...(myself included) (spoiled as it gives away the ending of ToS and says my personal belief where he is during the 2nd one)

I haven't finished the game, but it appears that he stays on Darris Karalon (sp?) like he said at the end of the first one. That he needs to stay, as like a punishment. (another theory on mine based on a character in ToS 2 Although there is another character which reminds me a lot of Kratos, in a fwe ways...keeps me hopeful, but I doubt it...

[Enlong]

I've watched someone play it, and I noticed two very important things.

1) You can move in all directions, as opposed to locking onto one enemy and moving forward and back.

2) All cutscenes are voice acted, as are the ZC-Skits.

Those two sold me: two of the few problems I had with ToS, fixed.

Oh, and there's a bit of interesting role reversal, compared to the first game, from what I saw: the main character and primary swordsman is... frankly... a wimp, while the girl who bears the all-important MacGuffin is an outgoing tomboy. (Emil does turn into a bad*** in battle, though)

[Dihan]

Well I have it but can't open it yet because I got it as a Christmas present for my brother, heh. Still, from the gaming sites:
IGN: 6.7 (for comparison, they gave the original TOS 8.5)
GameSpot: 6.5 (for comparison, they gave the original TOS 8.8)

Those are the two I frequent most, but according to metacritic it has an average of 68, compared to the original TOS's 86.

If you check the reader reviews on GameFAQs, the average is 8.2.

I personally think that professional reviews can be flawed depending on whether the reviewer is a fan of the genre or not (e.g. Yahtzee). GameSpot has lost a lot of credibility in recent years and "you can't spell ignorant without IGN".

Besides, both sites have tended towards anti-Nintendo. Most gripes seem to be about the difficulty and the lack of overworld map.

I prefer to use Game Rankings - it got an average of 70% from it with 7/11 reviews being over 70%.

[Rogue 7]

Not to mention that, yes, this is very much a sequel for the fans of the original. I'm not particularly surprised. Honestly, I'm almost waiting to get my hands on Tales of Vesperia more- I think most of the people who worked on the original Symphonia worked on that one. But still, I'm a huge Symphonia fanboy so I'm going to have to play this.

The monster-hunting, though...man, the more I read about it, the more I feel like it's completely unnecessary. I'm playing a Tales game for the characters and story, not for monster hunting. If I want that, I'll play Pokemon.

Reading over the Gamespot review, I think that a few of their problems aren't going to be problems for me- more cutscenes? Awesome! Convoluted plot? It's a Tales game, what do you expect?

Plus, Johnny Young Bosh voices Emil. The guy's one of my favorite VA's, so that's a major plus.

[Dublock]

Yea..So far it was easy, no repeat...expect the boss fight I'm on, I lost twice now...:smallmad: This is the first run through, I know theres an mana mode again however.

Monster hunting is there, and is annoying. I don't see any real benefit either. Doesn't mean its not there, just means I got through most of the game by not caring :p.

There IS an overview map. You just can't explore around the map. Bothered me at first, then I accepted it as fact, then I'm grateful by the end of the game as theres familiar cities that I KNOW should be together but not :p

[Dihan]

Also, apparently all the returning characters (except for Presea and Colette) have new, cheap, non-union voice actors.

*Sigh* No more Jennifer Hale, Shiloh Strong, Crispin Freeman or Kari Wahlgren.

[Volug]

As for Shiloh, he wasn't notified that they were needing a Zelos voice actor.
He said himself he would have been glad to do it too..

[Lord Seth]

If you check the reader reviews on GameFAQs, the average is 8.2.

I personally think that professional reviews can be flawed depending on whether the reviewer is a fan of the genre or not (e.g. Yahtzee). GameSpot has lost a lot of credibility in recent years and "you can't spell ignorant without IGN".

Besides, both sites have tended towards anti-Nintendo. Most gripes seem to be about the difficulty and the lack of overworld map.

I prefer to use Game Rankings - it got an average of 70% from it with 7/11 reviews being over 70%.Even if they're anti-Nintendo, the point still remains that it's a noticeably lower score for the sequel, when *both* were on Nintendo consoles.

[Rogue 7]

Also, apparently all the returning characters (except for Presea and Colette) have new, cheap, non-union voice actors.

*Sigh* No more Jennifer Hale, Shiloh Strong, Crispin Freeman or Kari Wahlgren.

Man, that many? Damn. Scott Menville defines Lloyd for me.

[DraPrime]

As for Shiloh, he wasn't notified that they were needing a Zelos voice actor.
He said himself he would have been glad to do it too..

You know Masato, I was wondering if I'd find you on this thread. Guess I did.

But on to the actual topic, this is pretty cool. I need to get myself some money (which I have been lacking since I got GoW2 and Left 4 Dead) and buy this game. NOW.

[Ozymandias]

I just bought this a couple of days ago. Impressions:

The voices are good. Zelos isn't too much different, although Lloyd is obviously much less recognizable. Emil is really annoying at first but it gets much better very quickly. Other than that, no real complaints.

The writing is overall somewhat better than I expected. I've actually laughed at some of the dialogue, although the dramatic parts still are sort of corny. Overall, I think it's rather better than Symphonia 1 was. Also, there aren't as many core characters so the skits (which are also more numerous) help flesh them out somewhat better than the original characters were.

On the other hand:

Courage is the magic that turns dreams into reality. About five or six times in a couple of minutes. :I

Combat is similar to the first, but with a pokemon-esque monster system. I don't think it's really mandatory, though, although the plot-line monsters you recruit early seem really strong.

It's much harder than Symphonia 1, at least in the beginning. Enemies (especially bosses) do much more damage and it's difficult to stagger them. Plus, Emil hits a little slower than Lloyd did, and his Artes/Techs seem somewhat less powerful. Mobility is much better, though, because of a free-move system.

Crafting is more fun than Symphonia 1. I don't know about cooking, because I don't really use it in either.

Gripes: It's hard to see the quest level recommendations, so I was massacred the first time I tried one. Plus, they're sort of boring, and the rewards don't scale very quickly. Weapon diversity seems smaller than the original, and I don't like the aesthetics of Emil's weird cutlass thing that much.

Why do JRPGs so often include ancillary characters that are so much cooler than the main character and taunt you with it constantly? I like Emil more than the stock "hotheaded Shonen hero" but Richter is so much cooler - just like Kratos was. Or Auron. Or Citan. I guess it's to help the player watch as the character grows in strength, but that stops making sense fairly quickly, and martial abilities are rarely matched by real character development, so...

I understand the low-ish review scores, but it's really a matter of philosophy. To use a metaphor, Persona 4 will probably be about the same as Persona 3 with a different setting and characters and plot - it's still an excellent game, and will still sell, and has sold, really well, especially in Japan. Games that focus on characterization like this make it easier to make sequels that are similar to their predecessors - it's much cheaper, etc. So, minor gameplay improvements aren't the focus, but sort of a bonus added to the fact that it's another installment in the series. Western gamers usually aren't very sympathetic to that philosophy.

[BanjoTheClown]

Got it. But im gonna have to wait about 3 days more since im nowhere near my wii right now. :smallfrown: