TOS: Dawn of the New World -- IGN: 6.7, GT: 7.9, NP: 8.0

Played it some more, and I'm not liking it. It looks like this will be the first Tales game in awhile that I'm not going to buy...

I hate the main character with a passion, the gameplay doesn't feel as smooth as Vesperia, I don't like the Wii controls, and not a fan of monster catching. It's a goddamn shame considering how much I liked Symphonia...
 
The buttoning mapping is really weird due to limited Wii buttons. It will take some time getting use to it. You have to use use A for attack, z for artes, plus for menu, and dpad for more artes hotkey. Using sorcerer ring is really annoying. You have to hold z then use wii cursor to point at desire location then press a. I wish this game supported classic controller.
 
[quote name='Rei no Otaku']Played it some more, and I'm not liking it. It looks like this will be the first Tales game in awhile that I'm not going to buy...

I hate the main character with a passion, the gameplay doesn't feel as smooth as Vesperia, I don't like the Wii controls, and not a fan of monster catching. It's a goddamn shame considering how much I liked Symphonia...[/QUOTE]

I'll continue playing mine, but I pretty much feel the same so far.
 
[quote name='fatbeer']

Here is rewards list for loading your old Tales of Symphonia save data. You can get only one of seven random possible sets. I got the whole list through trial and error. Gald and Gel Set seem pretty useless to me.
[/QUOTE]

Does it have to be a completed save? I'm, like, 95% through the first one but haven't touched it in years. I guess I can try it and see what happens ;).
 
[quote name='Rei no Otaku']Played it some more, and I'm not liking it. It looks like this will be the first Tales game in awhile that I'm not going to buy...

I hate the main character with a passion, the gameplay doesn't feel as smooth as Vesperia, I don't like the Wii controls, and not a fan of monster catching. It's a goddamn shame considering how much I liked Symphonia...[/QUOTE]
From what I skimmed on GameFAQs the main character
does have something interesting about him. I'm guessing it's probably a mid-game plot twist.
 
[quote name='The Mana Knight']I'm going to love that. ;) My main gripe with ToV is that the main character isn't whiny and isn't young (I like those types of characters best. One reason I love Leo Stenbuck from ZoE so much).
[/QUOTE]

Somehow I'm not surprised.

Jewel Set=DO WANT... if I actually had an interest in playing this game.
 
[quote name='io']Does it have to be a completed save? I'm, like, 95% through the first one but haven't touched it in years. I guess I can try it and see what happens ;).[/QUOTE]
It has to be a completed save.
 
I've been playing it since I got the game I'm Iselia and so far I'm liking it the new voices though I liked the old VA for Loyld, but ah well also the VA who voices Renten in Eureka 7 and Lelouch in Code Geass is Emil when Emil is timid his voice sorta sounds like Renten and when he's fighting he sounds a little like Lelouch..

The monster stuff is ok I'm into poke'mon and all that stuff so I guess that's why I like it the two main characters I like yeah Emil is a bit timid, but I'll make my final judgment on the game once I complete it, but It gives me a nostalgia feeling seeing the same areas that I went to on the first TOS..
 
[quote name='Rei no Otaku']Played it some more, and I'm not liking it. It looks like this will be the first Tales game in awhile that I'm not going to buy...

I hate the main character with a passion, the gameplay doesn't feel as smooth as Vesperia, I don't like the Wii controls, and not a fan of monster catching. It's a goddamn shame considering how much I liked Symphonia...[/QUOTE]From what I believe, Team Syphonia (who made Vesperia) had zero involvement in this.

I have to wait a while on this, but I can't wait to meet the main character, since he sounds like someone I'll love (next week he'll be my sig/avatar). ;)
 
[quote name='The Mana Knight']From what I believe, Team Syphonia (who made Vesperia) had zero involvement in this.

I have to wait a while on this, but I can't wait to meet the main character, since he sounds like someone I'll love (next week he'll be my sig/avatar). ;)[/QUOTE]

That is generally my understanding, too. I read awhile back that the scenario writer is the same, but most of the development team is separate.
 
[quote name='stefonzie']My Target or Circuit City still haven't put this game on the shelves.
I'm jealous.[/QUOTE]
Don't be, you're not missing much. I'll be returning the game tomorrow, and putting the money on Last Remnant. Hopefully that game is better...
 
[quote name='Rei no Otaku']Don't be, you're not missing much. I'll be returning the game tomorrow, and putting the money on Last Remnant. Hopefully that game is better...[/QUOTE]

What a sad testimony to the game... :(
 
[quote name='Rei no Otaku']Don't be, you're not missing much. I'll be returning the game tomorrow, and putting the money on Last Remnant. Hopefully that game is better...[/QUOTE]

142UnlimitedSaga.jpg
 
[quote name='Rei no Otaku']Don't be, you're not missing much. I'll be returning the game tomorrow, and putting the money on Last Remnant. Hopefully that game is better...[/quote]
Ouch, Maybe I'll just throw this on my X-mas list after all.

[quote name='Rei no Otaku']It has to be a completed save.[/quote]
Bah, I don't think I have one. I think I only have a few New Game+ saves...
 
Put about 10 hours in so far, not too shabby. Don't love the monster collecting, since that's never been my thing, but otherwise it's been about what I was expecting. Emil gets less annoying as you go, thankfully.
 
I've only put in about 2 hours, but it's good so far. There are some things that bother me, but nothing too major yet. I don't know how I feel about the new voice for Lloyd yet, and the first half hour was pretty bad... I think they truly wanted Emil to be a character you hate at the start so there's no where for him to go but up.

The battles are fun and I'm curious as to just where this story is going, which are pretty much the two most important things for an RPG.

We'll see if I change my mind once more of the Symphonia characters start showing up, but so far this is about what I expected.
 
I'm going to get my copy this morning.

This is what I've managed to gather thus far from what I've heard:

- Linear progression (like Baten Kaitos or FF4)
- Monster collection a take-it or leave-it proposition (probably will make or break game for most)
- Not quite as long as first game but still in the 30-45 hour range, depending on who you talk to
- Combat still good but load times a bit longer
- Voice acting most or all different than first game
- Coming of age tale: Emil a pretty whiny character who will eventually (no serious surprise or spoiler here) grow up
- Those who have played Vesperia might find this a bit of a letdown

Sounds to me a lot like what Final Fantasy X-2 was for Final Fantasy X... it's a spinoff with some different conventions that may or may not stick with fans. I get the strong sense that what one makes of the monster collecting will have an enormous impact on what one thinks of the game. I also think that one's tolerance for Emil's character will also be a factor.

I will be interested to see what I make of the game when I play it. I was a big fan of ToS so I sort of have to give it the obligatory shot. I'm not a Pokemon fiend but I do have some exposure to the series, so I know what that entails; we'll see how that goes and if it works for me or not. Same for our whiny protagonist.
 
[quote name='Dead of Knight']
142UnlimitedSaga.jpg
[/QUOTE]Yeah, I'm thinking the same thing too since the same team is involved (they are usually a miss IMO).

Anyway, I'm glad to hear the completed game save thing works, since I still have mine. Definitely looking forward to using it. :D
 
I've sunk a few hours into Dawn of the New World this afternoon. Here are my thoughts:

- I can say this definitively: it has the highest production values of any RPG on either GameCube or Wii to date. Granted, it's a short list (Symphonia, Baten Kaitos, Fire Emblem, etc.), but this one is still the cream of the RPG crop in terms of graphics and sound. The graphics -- especially the cutscenes -- have a level of polish we haven't seen on RPGs on Nintendo consoles, and the voiceovers are high-quality. It's early on music, but GT nailed it -- it's a mix of old tunes and new.
- It's different than ToS. Too early to say better or worse, per say, but different. The cityscapes are similar, the combat system is similar, but it is still different. The "differentness" of it is a little bit of an adjustment -- many of us love Symphonia and this feels exactly like what it is... a spinoff. Maybe that's where some of the disappointment comes from; it takes some time to come to grips with the idea that this is not just extra content on the old Symphonia engine -- it's an entirely new game with different interfaces and conventions.
- Some voiceovers are the same as the first game, some are different. Collette and Kratos (Cam Clarke) are the same; Lloyd is different. (Lloyd's VO is the same guy who did Radiant Mythology for Lloyd.)
- As others have said... it starts slow. Very slow. It took probably two hours to even start to really start to groove into combat. This game had better be as long as I hope, because I didn't wait patiently for that long just to watch the credits roll shortly thereafter.

I'm going to hold off on final judgments until I see the game through to the end, and not before, but that's my observations early on.
 
For what it's worth, I've enjoyed it enough to put 16 hours into it this weekend. Starting to feel a lot like Symphonia-Lite. I pretty much ignore the monster-collecting aspect of it - I basically recruit by accident, then just rotate them in and out of my party as they evolve or level up significantly to keep things even, don't really have any strategy for which monsters to use when.

I really wish the depth to the skill system were intact, but that's my biggest complaint.
 
I put about 14 hours into game and I have to say the game play is pretty solid. It's your typical Tales' game with your traditional artes, unison attack, good AI set up and free movement. It seem like they remove juggling protective barrier. This can either - hurt you if your trap between multiple foes or help you against singular enemy.


I'm still not loving the monster capturing. The way you capture monster is really weird and confusing at first. But if you done it a few times, you get use to it. To left of your battle screen there are 5 little circles and 1 big circle. In order to capture a monster, you have to match 4 little circles and 1 big circle with same elemental as the battle ends. To make these circles change, you and your enemy have to cast elemental spells. Fire spells will create little red circle and water will create water circle. The big circle will change according to majority of little circles (which is 3 little circles).


Example: Having 3 green circles will cause the big circle to turn green.
Having 3 red circles will cause the big circle to turn red.


Basically, you spam the same spells over and over again to capture a monster. The type of element doesn't matter that much. You can still capture a water monster even if your spamming fire spells. The part I hate the most: all the monsters you capture will come in level 1. It not as bad as it seems. Your non-active party members can gain experience, but come on, they should of come to your party at a higher level.
 
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I've been playing it since release I'm on chapter 8 so far I'm very happy with this game I can see how some hate or not like Emil, but I think by chapter 6 he gets more better.

The monster system is ok it took a bit to get used to, but I got my team of monsters I like and the VA for the old casts are ok I liked Regal, Sheena, raine, Genis though with Loyld's voice and Zelos it took some getting used to, but they're ok..

Well I finished the game today got the bad ending first and then reloaded the save data and got the normal ending I guess I made a few bad choices during the adventure I don't know how it all works yet, but I really like the normal ending hopefully next playthrough I figure out what do to I think I need to get hit by lightning less I got hit alot during that one part..

I'm happy getting it day one purchase I'm going to start my second playthrough to get the good ending and do all the katz quests..
 
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In comparison to the original Tales of Symphonia for the Gamecube, is this dumbed down or made more casual friendly? I liked the first TOS game, but I do not want to play a dumbed down version of TOS. Just curious. I know the features of the game, but does the gameplay as a whole play and is as fun as TOS?
 
[quote name='Sir_Fragalot']In comparison to the original Tales of Symphonia for the Gamecube, is this dumbed down or made more casual friendly? I liked the first TOS game, but I do not want to play a dumbed down version of TOS. Just curious. I know the features of the game, but does the gameplay as a whole play and is as fun as TOS?[/quote]Overall, I thought it was just as enjoyable. A lot of mechanics are shallower (i.e. as far as I can tell you don't learn new artes based on your usage of earlier ones, or if you do, they don't tell you how), but the battle system is just as fun.

Bit more detailed from the GGT:
[quote name='botticus']Cons: Shorter, not nearly as deep in terms of character building (skills, cooking, artes/techs, etc), less varied progression due to limited cast members for 90% of the game.

Pros: Story is pretty comparable; better in some parts, not as good in others. Battle system is great (free roam from Abyss/Vesperia).

Obviously it's not as good as the original so the negatives outweigh the positives a bit, but I think in most cases if you enjoyed the first, you'd like this one. I left the monster collecting out of the points since it can be as integral to the game as you'd like it to be or not be (I collected a whole 18% of the possible monsters), and you probably already know if you love or hate that mechanic.[/quote]
 
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I'm about 17 hours in now and still very much enjoying this.

So far, I can't imagine anyone who liked the first Tales of Symphonia not liking this one. The battle system is still really fun, and even though I'm largely ignoring the monster capturing aspect, if you really wanted to you could spend a lot of time with that. As usual, the battles actually get more fun as you go through the game, especially once you've learned a good number of Artes and can do Mystic Artes.

And I don't know what that IGN reviewer was playing, the story on this game has been great so far. The only issue I have on that end is that I don't like the new voices for Lloyd & Zelos(the other new voices are fine).
 
If you don't play Tales games (like the IGN reviewer) or many JRPGs, the story will be... less than amazing. I don't know if my wife was making more fun of the voice acting or the dialogue/story itself, but she thought it was silly. But it's not like it's any better or worse than the majority of JRPGs.

Was I the only one bummed that the Imp you recruit first could never evolve into anything? Luckily the wolf that I recruited second turned out to be pretty awesome with his second evolution.
 
Oh I know the voice acting & story are a bit on the... unique side. Marta's high pitched voice definitely takes some getting used to. That's true of the first game though as well, and pretty much the entire Tales series for that matter. But the IGN review was claiming it was a jumbled mess, poorly translated and very confusing. And that is definitely not the case, the translation is good and I can't imagine someone having trouble following the story.


So I found out I missed at least one optional sidequest back in chapter 4 involving an extra dungeon... I'm not sure that I'll want to replay the game to go back and get that or not. I hate it when there are missable things in games, especially things like this, even though the bonus dungeon is apparently an almost exactly the same as it was in the first game.
 
It's strange that Ign claims poorly translation on this game, but when it comes to SquareEnix games of Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest series(who are one of worst offenders) they look the other way.
 
I've put in about four hours into this game so far, and so far, it's pretty good. It's not as good as ToV, but it's certainly not the dud that people are making out to be. The voice acting is fine so far, typical tales anime-style dialog. The only major complaint I have so far is the fact that, if all of the human members of your party die, it's game over. I'm not certain yet, but I had the impression that other than guest appearances, Emil and Marta are your only two permanent human characters, which means that you have to take extra care to keep them from getting caught in the same AoE attack. There were a few other quirks that basically affected the difficulty of the game (auto-guard, monsters on the map are extremely slow, etc.), but nothing major that really affected my enjoyment. So far, the skits in ToS2 are more amusing and animated than the ones in ToV, but I'll see if my opinion holds up as I progress through the game.
 
[quote name='pete5883']When was the last time a game in either of those series was "poorly translated?" The 90's?[/QUOTE]

Many of mistranslations turn out to be unintentional fan favorites like "Spoonybard" or "I, Garland, Will Knock You All Down!!". People are so forgiving if the game play or story are good. For most part, their translation is coherent enough to understand, nothing really big. The big offender is the release of Final Fantasy Tactics for ps1 in 1998. It was filled with translation errors, but yet again, the game play was so good it overshadow it. The remake, Final Fantasy Tactics: Lions of War, patch up many of translation errors.

I didn't find any serious or big translation errors in this game.
 
[quote name='fatbeer']Many of mistranslations turn out to be unintentional fan favorites like "Spoonybard" or "I, Garland, Will Knock You All Down!!". People are so forgiving if the game play or story are good. For most part, their translation is coherent enough to understand, nothing really big. The big offender is the release of Final Fantasy Tactics for ps1 in 1998. It was filled with translation errors, but yet again, the game play was so good it overshadow it. The remake, Final Fantasy Tactics: Lions of War, patch up many of translation errors.[/QUOTE]
Translation in games, as a whole, has gotten better as time goes on. There's less of an excuse nowadays for a bad translation.

So, you're complaining that the people at IGN overlooked translation errors 10 years ago, but the people working there now don't? Really?
 
[quote name='G33']The only major complaint I have so far is the fact that, if all of the human members of your party die, it's game over. I'm not certain yet, but I had the impression that other than guest appearances, Emil and Marta are your only two permanent human characters, which means that you have to take extra care to keep them from getting caught in the same AoE attack.[/quote]
Honestly, Emil and Marta are the only human characters maybe 20% of the game (if not less). I was surprised how often the old cast ended up being around given the magnitude of complaints about it.
 
Well I'm on my second playthrough just found this site which is pretty helpfull if you follow the guide you'll get the good ending.. http://ameblo.jp/koulinovesperia/

Wish I knew about that site when I first started the good ending is pretty much the same as the normal ending except there's a little more after the credits. it's on youtube most likely, but I wanted to do a second playthrough to see the extra stuff.
 
Thankfully I got the good ending. I was thinking as the credits were rolling that I would have preferred a slightly more drawn-out ending, and I ended up getting it.
 
[quote name='pete5883']Translation in games, as a whole, has gotten better as time goes on. There's less of an excuse nowadays for a bad translation.

So, you're complaining that the people at IGN overlooked translation errors 10 years ago, but the people working there now don't? Really?[/QUOTE]

Well, you specifically ask for errors for 90's.
 
I'm about 25 hours into the game... I don't think I can agree with IGN's localization complaints. The translation is pretty good.

You want a bad localization, play Opoona. (Not a bad game, but sloppy translation.)
 
Yay finally found this game at a Gamestop because Target/CC/Best Buy didn't have it. Can't wait til Christmas to play it. I'm a big fan of the first one, so I bet I will like this one just as much.
 
[quote name='joshofstl']
You want a bad localization, play Opoona. (Not a bad game, but sloppy translation.)[/QUOTE]

Hahah, no kidding. I love that game, but the translation is horrible and filled with misleading and sometimes downright wrong information in the script.
 
I'm a bit disappointed in this game. There's not a whole lot that I really like about it and I'm trying to finish it based on the fact that I liked the original Symphonia so much. A few things I found very annoying:


  • The battle radius is too small and I constantly run into edges while I'm free running and half of the time I don't even notice this until I have 3 enemies on one side of me and I try to free run away, but can't. So they just infinitely combo me until my controlling character dies and I'm forced to resurrect him.
  • Monster allies are very very annoying. Sure they gain levels fasters and evolved forms are stronger, however I find they get in the way far too much. For example, I evolved my wolf in Fenrir and one of his normal attack looks very much like the arte Tempest. He uses it a lot on enemies but most of the enemies are too small to get hit by it. Then when he actually lands while I'm in the middle of combo'ing an enemy, his landing will push me away from the enemy and I'm just swinging at air and any connecting arte likely misses.
  • This is the first in the Tales series where I felt that Manual control over your character in battle is horrible. Everything felt so unrefined and you would get hit in free run way too much and every time is a crit. Yet in semi-auto, you'll auto-guard a hell of a lot. Not to mention in Manual, enemies will be able to evade your attacks a lot more as they tend to move a lot, but this is worked around by using Semi-Auto as the game will know where to move you to attack most of the time.
  • Downed enemies are a problem because unlike other Tales games, you can't really do anything what so ever. Then when they get back up, they have a moment where they can start wailing on you even if you timed your combo to hit them the moment they got up and started moving (which wouldn't hit them).
  • Some enemies are absurdly retarded attacks. By this I mean, I've encountered a few normal monsters (and a couple bosses) where they'd perform a small AoE attack, yet most of my party was there and even if they were at full health they'd all be dead... from a single move. Outside of that, the game is too easy with like two exceptions.
  • Flying enemies suck compared to every other Tales game that I remember playing. Even my AI allies have trouble hitting them well. I suppose that's why the flying enemies are very few and the ones that appear are quite large.
  • Enemies in dungeons, before you enter battle are far too easy to avoid. Hell, some don't even chase you with the early game being the biggest offender of that. They also respawn too quickly, for example where I fight one to get a chest behind it. I'll kill it, grab the chest, and by the time I make my run back it just respawned and chances are I'll likely be in battle again with it.
  • Auto-Item is the most retarded arte ever. Thankfully it's an arte and you can disable it mid-battle, but I sure as hell didn't find out it was an arte until after the first battle I was in, which happened to be a boss battle. So my NPCs used most of my items because they're too retarded to not spam items with the arte on and then right after I get stuck in a second boss battle with next to no items.
  • I don't really like the game handles the whole consumable items things. You're pretty much forced to constantly buy stuff like Life bottles from shops because monsters don't drop it unless you say you don't want to capture a monster and he'll drop one random item for you. Then chests don't really provide much of anything outside of synthesis materials, which makes me hate it even more.
I don't really agree with saying this game has better puzzles than 'normal' Tales games either, which GameTrailers said in their review. They're very straight forward and simplistic in my opinion except for one part where I got stuck in the Temple of Earth due to the most retarded way to break a bridge even though I went over it three times before I found out how it worked the fourth time.

Also hate Emil a lot, but I think Marta is absolutely fine. The returning characters are a mixed bunch. I find Collette, Lloyd, and Regal absolutely fine. However everyone else feels... off. Sure they're all similar to their selves in the prequel, but their translation and voice acting just don't really click based on what I remember in the prequel.

Since I'm in what I believe is the final dungeon, I'll probably finish it. However I'm at a retarded boss battle with two bosses where my Emil/Marta are level 41-43 while my monsters are 70-80 or something. Wish I had a returning character to throw in my party instead of monsters seeing as how they annoy me so much.

Can't wait to get this game out of my way, but I haven't really touched it in a few days. I should really force myself to finish that final dungeon...

Ok, rant done.
 
Sorry to revive this month old thread... I recently started this game and am really getting into this whole story since I was a big fan from the first game.

Just a question... does anyone's game disc make a bunch of noise when you enter a skit scene (ones where you press the c button)? The disc starts making loud noises that it can be hard sometimes hearing what the characters have to say in the skit.

Other than that... I love the game, but I'm probably sure I am missing a lot of things. I am at the ice dungeon part! I don't quite understand why Regal is a water type either... Raine yes, but Regal?
 
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