symp-frontAs a huge fan of Tales of Symphonia on the GCN, I was eagerly anticipating the release of this sequel. I wasn’t expecting anything revolutionary – just more Tales and fan-service for those who enjoyed the first game – and that is pretty much what you get with DotNW.

Anyone who has not played the first game should stop reading now and go look into that. It’s easily better than this game and one of the finest RPGs of the previous generation, and there is no reason why you should even think about playing this game first. DotNW begins a couple of years after the conclusion of the previous game. The two worlds that were separated then joined in the last game are now struggling to co-exist and the hero of the previous game (Lloyd Irving) has begun massacring entire towns for unknown reasons. You play as Emil, a whiny b**** whose parents were killed at the hands of Lloyd, who then joins forces with a mysterious girl named Marta and a Centurion (a sort-of lord of monsters) named Tenebrae (a dog-shaped dark elemental thing that talks). The group travel around in search of Centurion cores in order to awaken the ruler of all monsters, Ratatosk, who can help in restoring balance to the world’s mana flow, which has been out of whack since the world regeneration in the previous game. It makes more sense when you play it…

The quest is extremely linear, and you are funnelled from key location to key location by way of the new world map. Unlike the previous game, the world map is now just a list of locations and you select which one you want to travel to, which essentially eliminates exploring. You are free to go wherever you wish in most cases, but generally if there isn’t a key plot element in your destination, you won’t be doing anything. Whether this is a bad thing or not will come down to personal taste (I don’t mind linearity like this, myself). Locations are also mainly recycled from the previous game which, while good in a nostalgic sense, seems to scream lazy game design. The Centurion cores are very conveniently located in the same dungeons as the Summon Spirits from the first game, and while the puzzles and such aren’t exactly the same, it would have been nice to explore more new locations.

Offering lollipops to giant monsters. Harmless pastime? Or dangerous?

The linear real-time battle system has always been a highlight of the Tales series, and this game is no exception. By and large, it is similar to the previous game, but new this time is monster battling. Monsters can be captured if certain conditions are met in battle, then trained/evolved (think Pokémon) and used alongside the human characters in battle. This has been done before, obviously, but it is enjoyable enough in its implementation here. In what may have been an attempt to avoid constant grinding, monsters gain experience extremely fast and soon become very powerful, completely outclassing the human characters. Characters from the previous game join your party regularly, but unfortunately their levels are set and you cannot equip them with anything, so they turn out to be rather useless. It seems like a strange design choice given the target audience, but it does force you to use your monsters, which will completely crap all over the other characters. It’s also a shame that no huge changes regarding the control you have over other characters in battle. Sure, you can order them around manually, but this is tedious and a gambit system ala FFXII would have been nice. The elements play a bigger role in combat thanks to the elemental grid, which is based on which elemental attacks have been used in battle. The elemental grid plays a role in monster capturing and unison attacks, but it seems like a superficial and unnecessary addition. Loading time between battles seems to have been elongated, which can prove frustrating. As can the arcane use of save points and inability to skip dialogue. There are numerous times where you fall in battle and have to reload (luckily, there seems to be save points before most major fights) and then hammer the A button to get through the pre-battle dialogue you already heard.

Take that, you... whatever you are!

The story is a long one (35 hours or more), and completionists will have a fair bit to do with all the different monster types available, and there are a few sidequests to be found. The story itself is quite enjoyable (if a tad confusing), the characters are generally well designed and the fully-voiced ‘skits’ (pieces of conversation between other characters that occur as you wander around) are pretty funny. With the exception of some nice animations, special effects and the odd gorgeous dungeon environment, the graphics are nearly identical to the GCN game – which seems to be the standard for the Wii, unfortunately. Characters are fully voiced, and the acting is pretty good, but music and sound effects are otherwise forgettable.

The game really feels more like an expansion pack to the original game. There aren’t too many other RPGs on the Wii, and this is certainly one of the best ones (though that is a relative thing, remember). There’s nothing new or innovative here – it’s just another chance to spend some time in this world. For fans of the first game, that’s enough.

By watchers_eye

Graphics: B

Nothing the GCN couldn’t handle, but occasionally quite pretty.

Sound: B

Characters are fully voiced with decent VA, but music and sound effects are pretty forgettable otherwise.

Gameplay: B+

Same great battle system, but nothing new here.

Overall: B

As cliché as it is to say this, it really is one for the fans. Now pray for a local release, fanboys/girls!