quote IGN

April 15, 2008 - Namco Bandai was showing off Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World at its Editors Day event. The publisher is still being a bit guarded about the role-playing sequel, but we managed to learn several new details about what we can expect later this year.

Dawn of the New World is a spin-off from the original Tales of Symphonia, released on the GameCube in 2004. Symphonia was Namco's most successful role-playing game to date. Dawn of the New World picks up two years after the events of the first game and introduces two new main characters: Emil and Marta. A Japanese trailer was shown at Namco Bandai's event, showcasing quite a large cast of other characters -- some new and some from the previous adventure.

This will be the first Tales game to utilize motion capture. The story unfolds through a combination of in-game sequences and animated cut-scenes. The animation is great and the in-game characters move well. But the dungeon environments we saw lacked detail. Luckily, the game avoids the random battles trap and displays monsters roaming around environments for you to see. The show is running in widescreen, a feature we were a little worried wouldn't be supported.



The game is controlled with the Remote and Nunchuk. The analog stick handles your movement. The A button attacks and B performs a special attack. A and B can be used in conjunction for even more powerful attacks, such as the aerial maneuvers Emil excels at. The C button switches which character you have control of. Instead of traversing an overworld, players point to locations on the map with the Remote and are whisked away.

A monster capturing game mechanic has been added for this sequel. There are over 200 beasts in the game to find, abduct, and level-up. Some can even evolve into new species. Feeding your pets enhances their attributes. You can offer them different dishes and a thought bubble will indicate which foods they prefer.

You can recruit up to 10 party members at a time, but only four can be taken into battle. As you capture more monsters you can store them in your pen if you don't currently need them in your group.

Once you engage an enemy the game transitions to a combat scenario (after a lengthy load time) that takes place in real-time. Players can move freely about the battlefield by holding the Z button and maneuvering with the analog stick. If you happen to have a few friends lying around they can join you for four-player co-op, but only during battle. If you're going at it solo you can set shortcut commands for your party members to the different D-pad directions.

Your characters can be combined to perform unison attacks. A meter at the bottom of the screen indicates when you've stored up enough power to unleash your cooperative assault.

For each battle you win you'll be given a grade. Your rankings earn you points that can be spent during your second play through of the game to purchase powerful items. These will be useful if you want to beat the game quickly during a speed run.

Like many Japanese RPGs, the game world is ruled by elemental powers. Magic attacks and monsters are aligned to an elements (water, fire, wind…). Each battle area has its own element, as well. If you have monsters in your party of a matching element they'll receive a boost in battle. Otherwise, if the monsters' and area's aspects are opposing your pets will be handicapped.

Capturing monsters requires manipulation of a combat area's element. Bear with us here: If you land three attacks of the same element it will replace the area element. In this manner you can align the area element to that of a monster you'd like to capture. If you then defeat the baddie, and the area element matches the monster's, it may join your party. There is still no guarantee the monster will want to come along, but there is an Affection System that can be used for further convincing.

The Wii could certainly use more Japanese RPG love, and Dawn of the New World looks like it could fill that gap. It's a deep, complex game with decent visuals and engaging characters. There's still a lot to learn about the title, and we are eager students.

quote IGN

Once you engage an enemy the game transitions to a combat scenario (after a lengthy load time) that takes place in real-time. Players can move freely about the battlefield by holding the Z button and maneuvering with the analog stick. If you happen to have a few friends lying around they can join you for four-player co-op, but only during battle. If you're going at it solo you can set shortcut commands for your party members to the different D-pad directions.

quote Akira_EX

quote IGN

Once you engage an enemy the game transitions to a combat scenario (after a lengthy load time) that takes place in real-time. Players can move freely about the battlefield by holding the Z button and maneuvering with the analog stick. If you happen to have a few friends lying around they can join you for four-player co-op, but only during battle. If you're going at it solo you can set shortcut commands for your party members to the different D-pad directions.

Yes, there will be.

quote kratos2112

Overall, this is a cool find, but the monster system continues to be a turn off for me.