Tales Of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World ...anyone?

It's an action based RPG. I LOVED the first one for the gamecube and since this was the sequel I absolutely had to buy it. The game is considerably shorter than its predecessor. The story line is just ok, and seems to be slowed down by too many dialogue scenes. It is poorly paced if you ask me. If you've never played the first one you could be a little lost in the beginning, as it plays on what has happened in the previous game and involves the characters from ToS. I think I beat my first play through at 42 hours. Some side quest open up on the next play through, although the dungeon is completely not worth doing as it is long, repetitive, and takes 5-6 hours. Thank god it is optional. Voice acting isn't that great, but controls are smooth and work like most games in the Tales series.

Overall, I enjoyed the game because I was a big fan of the first game. I've only played through the game twice, as the slow pace of the storyline and too many cutscenes make the replayability very low. It's definitely a good RPG to play, as long as you have the patience to deal with the dialogue and the oddly paced storyline. I would recommend getting the original Tales of Symphonia and playing it on the Wii with a gamecube controller because ToS is a lot better in my opinion.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any questions.

If you played the first one, you will be dissapointed. This story is much shorter than its predeccesor and the original characters are underleveled and cannot be customized with armor and weapons and such. The storyline is also considerably less epic than the first.

Now for the good stuff. This game is so much fun, its crazy. Its completely action based (you should check out youtube videos) and the combat is more sophisticated than ever before. The story is great; I can honestly say there was one cutscene towards the end that was so unexpected, I was shocked and hooked. Controls are solid.

This game is much shorter than Vesperia, I believe, since it took me about 30 hours to beat the story. The game is entertaining though. What surprised me the most was how funny it was. The skits, which are spoken with voice actor type cutscenes, are absolutely hilarious and well spoken. Better than Vesperia in humor, though much less.

If you are a fan of the game, you should buy it. If you have never played the Symphonia series before, you will find yourself confused at points, but not so much that the story is uncomprehendable. You should play the first game, ToS for Gamecube, if you want to know anything about Lloyd, who this games practically centers on as you hunt him down. Good rental, better purchase for fans.

I'm one of those people who's always a bit wary of sequels and spinoffs because they're rarely as good as the original. Rather than pay full-price for the game, I decided to rent it, and I have to say I'm glad I did. In my opinion, it is definitely a game worth playing, but didn't hold much replay value for me.

Story: If you haven't played the first ToS, you might miss out on some things. But having played the first one, the story in DotNW is less complex. There are a handful of twists (one pretty big one) and as you can tell from the previews, the main moral dilemma is whether Lloyd Irving, the hero from ToS is good/evil. There were a lot more dimensions to ToS, and the quest seemed to gain a whole new level every couple of dungeons. The quest in DotNW gains a new level near the end, but it didn't have the same charge as those kinds of scenes in ToS. That being said, it is a good sequel to the first, and I really enjoyed seeing where your party from ToS had wound up after 2 years, what the world/society was like, ect. If you've played ToS and want to find out what happens next, this game is pretty neat, just don't expect storytelling on the same level as ToS.

Controls (Out of Battle): The main issue I had with out-of-battle travel was that there is no overworld. There's a map and you click on a town and POOF! You're there. One of the things I loved most about ToS was the gorgeous world that you could walk through. Halfway through the game, when you finally realize you can find your way through the world without looking at the map just somehow makes you feel more integrated into the world the story takes place in. Well, that doesn't happen here. It makes the story seem rushed in places because you can go from a dungeon to the next town to the next dungeon (if you know what to do) in about 5 minutes (and most of that is cutscenes that might be entertaining or might be boring). Also, there is no time to level up outside of dungeons (which isn't too bad after the first).

Controls (In Battle): Okay, here is one thing I really did enjoy in DotNW. The battles are very fun, if you aren't too set on mastering the elemental grid system or collecting every single monster in the game. It's an action RPG, not at all turn based. The aerial attacks are easy to use, and especially helpful when there are a lot of monsters to interrupt your attack. I also liked the free-range system that lets you switch between a combat plane that lines you up with the monster you're targeting and a free-range mode where you can run literally anywhere on the battlefield. The monster system is pretty neat, although I didn't feel any need to go in-depth into it. Pretty much I captured the few the story requires of you and if I happened to catch one later, great. My fighting party almost always consisted of Emil, Marta, the various evolutions of the wolf-thing that was literally the first monster I caught, and whichever monster(s) I felt like bringing along for EXP. Sadly, the returning ToS characters usually aren't that big a help in combat. Whenever one temporarily joined the party, I would put them in my party for one battle so I could play as them, then put my monsters back in.

Difficulty: This isn't really a hard game, once you labor through the first dungeon. Honestly, the only time I died in the entire game was about an hour in. Before that, the plot takes you through 3 or so battles, then Emil becomes a Knight of Ratatosk (aka finally learns how to use a sword without looking like a moron) and you're thrown into a few battles to learn how to make pacts with monsters. Now, there's no way to go back to the save point, if I remember correctly, and it's quite a way to the next one, which spelled out three game overs because the passage was too narrow to avoid battles and I didn't have enough healing items. And then after that the battles seemed way too easy.

Length: I don't remember the actual time it took, but it was about 4.5 days, with other stuff to do in the middle so not much more than 40 hours.

Sidequests: There aren't many sidequests in the game, and most of them aren't really worth doing. One example is right before the last dungeon, when you can go around and talk to everyone from ToS (and get a cameo from my fav character from ToS...lol). The only one I thought was cute was at one point you get to "guess" (aka choose) which ToS character joined Lloyd on his quest after ToS ended, then you can go see a scene between that character and Lloyd. So if you liked a particular couple, you can get a quick kick (Sheena, Presea, and Raine had particularly interesting scenes...)

Replay Value: Not much. There are a couple extra dungeons, and a slightly longer extra scene (though not much longer than you get on your first playthrough) And if you carry over monsters, it makes the game a total joke, though that isn't necessarily a bad thing if you just want to hurry to the bonus dungeons.

I'd greatly recommend the first