Unskippable: Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World

[NeutralDrow]

So.... I Read the comments. No one wondering why this is being narrated Liquid Snake?

Nope. Cam Clarke also did Kratos, from the first Tales of Symphonia.

That game might just have been the most horribly confusing and pointless thing I have ever seen in my life. Did we really need to know that a tree died, God decided that the world needed to be split in half as punishment for their poor horticultural skills, they planted a new one, then one kingdom decided to kill the other because they didn't have as nice stuff as they did, and that the victims formed their own army soon afterwards?

It's your fault for watching the sequel first.

 

[drisky]

'Course, I was also doing that because it looked much cooler than the original cast's offerings, other than Genis'

And really, it was one of the better love stories I've seen in a game. I started to warm up to Emil once he revealed that he was perfectly aware of Marta's feelings for him (immediately scoring protagonist points over Lloyd; I'm a Colette fan, what can I say?), and he was worried about the unrealistic expectation she was holding of him. It was like a breath of fresh air when he actually called her on it, and icing on the cake when they started growing closer normally.

You see though that in a way is something that bothered me. Because of Marta's obsession, she couldn't stand on her own as a character. When you take out the element of Emil she has no personality. Its a good interpersonal dynamic, but its impossible to think of her as an independent character, rather than an element for emil to evolve as a character. I just wish she had more traits than "Emil's Fangirl."

Of course my story complaints are far less significant then the game play complaints.

 

[ecoho]

Still, I'd play this game just to know what happened after the First Tales of Symphonia, wich was pure gold at the time.. still is too.

avoid at all costs man it butchers the story.

 

[NeutralDrow]

'Course, I was also doing that because it looked much cooler than the original cast's offerings, other than Genis'

And really, it was one of the better love stories I've seen in a game. I started to warm up to Emil once he revealed that he was perfectly aware of Marta's feelings for him (immediately scoring protagonist points over Lloyd; I'm a Colette fan, what can I say?), and he was worried about the unrealistic expectation she was holding of him. It was like a breath of fresh air when he actually called her on it, and icing on the cake when they started growing closer normally.

You see though that in a way is something that bothered me. Because of Marta's obsession, she couldn't stand on her own as a character. When you take out the element of Emil she has no personality. Its a good interpersonal dynamic, but its impossible to think of her as an independent character, rather than an element for emil to evolve as a character. I just wish she had more traits than "Emil's Fangirl."

For my part, I have to disagree with that. She was a willing member of the Vanguard for reasons of Tethe'allan prejudice...until her father went completely off the deep end and the Vanguard got too terroristic for her, at which point she grabbed Ratatosk's core and ran off. Before she met Emil, she had already found and awakened Tenebrae, and was directly competing with the Vanguard, Richter, and Lloyd over the other centurion cores. She has a personal hate-filled rivalry with Alice, and is a symbol of the lingering prejudice against half-elves. Not to mention her serious grudge against Colette, holding her responsible for the original Palmacosta disaster, and thus her mother's death.

I always interpreted her actions as "Emil's fangirl" as break from that, that when she's not businesslike, she likes being that bubbly, because life really hasn't treated her kindly. It made sense to me that she idealized her White Knight savior, as (Tenebrae aside) he was an unexpected positive impact on her life. Without Emil, she's bitter, resentful, and something of a frightened rabbit underneath, and I found him to be just as important for her development as vice versa (though her problems were far less existential).

In all honesty, I found her to be excellent protagonist material.

Of course my story complaints are far less significant then the game play complaints.

I think the only gameplay complaints I had were the monster recruitment (which I came around to and really started to enjoy) and the fact that most of the Mystic Artes were very underwhelming; only Devil's Hellfire, Indignation, and Radiant Roar did it for me, compared to Tales of the Abyss' flashier offerings. You?

 

[Akihiko]

Hehe, still need to play ToSotNW. Currently playing Tales of Legendia at the moment, finally, which is pretty good. I'd avoided playing it for so long because everyone was saying how terrible it was. Half the complaints thrown at it I could throw at Symphonia too which everyone seems to love, like the line battle system. Then again everyone loves to complain.

 

[ShenCS]

*creeeeeeeeeak*
"I'm dead inside."

Congratulations, we now have the single greatest Unskippable quote. That was awesome.

 

[drisky]

'Course, I was also doing that because it looked much cooler than the original cast's offerings, other than Genis'

And really, it was one of the better love stories I've seen in a game. I started to warm up to Emil once he revealed that he was perfectly aware of Marta's feelings for him (immediately scoring protagonist points over Lloyd; I'm a Colette fan, what can I say?), and he was worried about the unrealistic expectation she was holding of him. It was like a breath of fresh air when he actually called her on it, and icing on the cake when they started growing closer normally.

You see though that in a way is something that bothered me. Because of Marta's obsession, she couldn't stand on her own as a character. When you take out the element of Emil she has no personality. Its a good interpersonal dynamic, but its impossible to think of her as an independent character, rather than an element for emil to evolve as a character. I just wish she had more traits than "Emil's Fangirl."

For my part, I have to disagree with that. She was a willing member of the Vanguard for reasons of Tethe'allan prejudice...until her father went completely off the deep end and the Vanguard got too terroristic for her, at which point she grabbed Ratatosk's core and ran off. Before she met Emil, she had already found and awakened Tenebrae, and was directly competing with the Vanguard, Richter, and Lloyd over the other centurion cores. She has a personal hate-filled rivalry with Alice, and is a symbol of the lingering prejudice against half-elves. Not to mention her serious grudge against Colette, holding her responsible for the original Palmacosta disaster, and thus her mother's death.

I always interpreted her actions as "Emil's fangirl" as break from that, that when she's not businesslike, she likes being that bubbly, because life really hasn't treated her kindly. It made sense to me that she idealized her White Knight savior, as (Tenebrae aside) he was an unexpected positive impact on her life. Without Emil, she's bitter, resentful, and something of a frightened rabbit underneath, and I found him to be just as important for her development as vice versa (though her problems were far less existential).

In all honesty, I found her to be excellent protagonist material.

Of course my story complaints are far less significant then the game play complaints.

I think the only gameplay complaints I had were the monster recruitment (which I came around to and really started to enjoy) and the fact that most of the Mystic Artes were very underwhelming; only Devil's Hellfire, Indignation, and Radiant Roar did it for me, compared to Tales of the Abyss' flashier offerings. You?

Alright you make some good points about Marta outside of her relationship. So I accept those arguments.

But yeah monster requirement was a big part of what I didn't like. I like playing tales Co-op, and player one has to be Emil or Marta, the other players can't be monsters so there left with the other hero or the charters in the first game that can't level or change equipment. And the way that the monsters started back at Level one ticked me off. Then you can't walk on the world map, so you lose the exportation element and instead just keep going from place to place. So yeah, limited choices in characters to control and lack of exploration and customization. I still almost got to the end, I didn't feel like grinding to fight the final boss, so was okay just not really good for me. Of course I knew I was getting in to a cut corners cash in when I got it. Didn't really go over or under my expectations.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Oh Hell. Why did you have to remind of this? Dawn of the New World burned me good; It was the final nail in the coffin for my Wii. After this, I was convinced that nothing fun could ever come of that system (and I have to this day have been proven correct).

The first 4 hours of this game were pure torture; the laziness of the voice-acting, the shittiness of the plot (with the obvious as fuck twist)...though it got better after that.

Really, the sole reason I didn't just snap the disc over my knee after the first hour was Tenebrae. Tenebrae is the sole point of awesome in the sea of cliche badness, and he only gets better as time goes on.

My personal suffering aside, this game is perfect fodder for Unskippable.

 

[Charli]

The fuck did I just watch?!

Seriously, I have no clue at all what that game is supposed to be about.

It's a mediocre sequel to a much better game.

 

[NeutralDrow]

But yeah monster requirement was a big part of what I didn't like. I like playing tales Co-op, and player one has to be Emil or Marta, the other players can't be monsters so there left with the other hero or the charters in the first game that can't level or change equipment. And the way that the monsters started back at Level one ticked me off. Then you can't walk on the world map, so you lose the exportation element and instead just keep going from place to place. So yeah, limited choices in characters to control and lack of exploration and customization. I still almost got to the end, I didn't feel like grinding to fight the final boss, so was okay just not really good for me. Of course I knew I was getting in to a cut corners cash in when I got it. Didn't really go over or under my expectations.

Yeah, I can see those (I didn't realize I'd missed overland exploration until I started another playthrough of the original). I played solo, so it didn't affect me much, but not being able to control the monsters was a bummer, too. And while I eventually warmed to the monster recruitment, I didn't really consider it worthwhile to play the Dragon Warrior Monsters-esque evolution systems (though I've spoken with people who considered that their favorite aspect of the game). I wound up sticking with a favored pair of monsters from about the halfway mark on.

To be honest, though, I didn't really mind not being able to do much with the original cast. It's probably an odd perspective, but it felt right to me, in a way. This time, they were guest characters, and while they were dealing with some of the consequences of their actions in the previous game, Emil and Marta were the important ones and the representatives of how the world was changing (the old guard and the new, in a sense).

Heh...and I've only played three Tales games so far, but I've never had to grind in any of them. I always wind up overleveled anyway, because I love the fighting so much and I find unrelated reasons to get into a ton of fights. With the original Symphonia, I wound up powerful because I kept training everyone's cooking ability. With Abyss, I was training with Fon Slot Chambers. With this game, I kept doing the Katz miniquests for the items.

 

[The Random One]

'They're laughing behind your back, burn everthing...' a tad late for that, ain't it?

 

[loodmoney]

For about two seconds at 5:48 I was confused as to whether the howl was from the game or the voiceover. Both would have made as much sense.

Also: so...much...withering.

 

[Random Wanderer]

...I hate scenes from dubbed JRPGs. While it's entirely possible they sounded stupid even in Japanese, the folks who translate and act for them REALLY go out of their way to make them worse.

 

[EchetusXe]

Lloyd is the name they went with? Lord Sauron, Anton Chigurh, Lloyd Irving.

I mean in the name of... Lloyd.

 

[DragonFae]

With the questions at the end, here's one to add. 'Why are you voiced by Johnny Yong Bosch?'

 

[Jodan]

ha ha ha the "huh, oh" was perfect

 

[Leodiensian]

"And so was ushered in a bright new age... because everything was on fire."

"Uh, I think I prefered the previous age. The age when everything was not on fire."

 

[WorldCritic]

Even when the villain is named Lloyd it doesn't sound threatening. Awesome video as always.

 

[The Great JT]

Right now, I can't even say anything funny. I'm just too pissed off that someone made a sequel to that shit-biscut game.