Thankfully, a few of the handheld outings made it here but it wasn’t until last month that we finally saw the first major Tales console release since Symphonia, the fantastic Tales of Vesperia, which is arguably the best Japanese RPG you can currently find on the Xbox 360. Luckily for us, there will be yet another new Tales videogame heading to Australia in November 2009, titled Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World - a direct sequel to Tales of Symphonia.
Linear motion battle system returns once more, arguably the most entertaining JRPG battle system.
Dawn of the New World takes place roughly two years after the events of the original and is the first time a game from the main series has been given sequel treatment. A few years back Square-Enix tried something similar with Final Fantasy X by releasing Final Fantasy X-2, a game that offered fan service along with a solid RPG experience. Dawn of the New World looks to be targeted at die hard fans of Symphonia, the most popular of all Tales games.
The game will retain Symphonia’s battle system but will also include some of the new elements that were introduced in Tales of Vesperia and Tales of the Abyss, the most notable being the flexible 3D movement. The battles will still be conducted in real time with plenty of team tactics and a combo system reminiscent of an action game. The controls will be a mix of traditional button mashing and some Wii remote gestures, allowing gamers to map several special attacks in unique combinations.
Some of the interesting features worth noting include a Pokemon style monster raising aspect. Gamers will be able to collect and raise the monsters that they fight in the game. However, the most significant change has to be the removal of the field map, replaced instead with menu navigation. Other than that, gamers can expect some additional content for the PAL release.
A prettier Symphonia.
Visually the game looks nice and has the same vibrant and colourful anime quality look that the Tales games are known for. The game clearly lacks the same graphical punch of Tales of Vesperia but it is still a fine looking Nintendo Wii RPG that retains the aesthetic beauty that these games are praised for. Think of it as prettier looking Symphonia.
The soundtrack will essentially be a rearrangement of the original Symphonia soundtrack and will have some new pieces. The game will be fully voiced in English, Namco-Bandai have so far done a decent job with English voice acting in their recent games, Dawn of the New World will hopefully keep up with this recent trend.
Dawn of the New World looks to be another solid entry in the Tales series and may potentially be the killer application RPG for the Nintendo Wii just as original Symphonia was for the GameCube. The main question here is that since this is a sequel, will it appeal to those who missed out on the original?
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