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JACK TRIPPER The best, of the best, of the best, SIR!! (With honors...) View all articles | Contact author

It is a shame that only Cam Clarke (Kratos), Heather Hogan (Colette) and Tara Strong (Presea) returned as voice actors from the previous game. If you played Tales of Symphonia recently, you may experience a bit of disconnect when hearing the new voice actors for returning characters. If you haven't played Tales of Symphonia recently, then it may be easier to hear all new voices with the familiar faces

One quirk that truly annoyed me were the quests that could be taken at the Katz Guild. Not the quests themselves, but the fact that if you fail, you lose that quest forever. Upon reaching chapter 2, my characters were at level seven and I really didn't feel like level grinding them up to the suggested level of 12 for the quests. I'm lazy and the Chapter 1 dungeon wasn't exactly thrilling. I did one quest and passed, so I figured the level suggestion was just that, a suggestion. Not so. I tried two other quests with both Emil and Marta at level 7 and failed them both. After each, I was taken back to the Katz Guild and informed that another group was now assigned to that quest and it was now unavailable.

I also missed cooking, which is now done exclusively at the Katz Guild and only for monsters. I remember truly enjoying having characters cook to make food that could later give an extra, needed boost in a dungeon in the earlier Tales of games. Now that it has been changed, I found myself only cooking when a monster needs to evolve.

As for monster catching, I didn't focus much on it. It often seemed like the actual joining part was more about luck and chance than actually getting characters to cast the appropriate spells to make the gauge in the bottom left corner the correct color. If a monster joined me after a battle - good. If not, no big deal. I also didn't form any kind of attachment to the monsters, like I do to actual party members. So the monsters expendable, rather than being valued party members.

Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World does have some interesting extras, if you take the time to really complete the game, or if you took the time to complete the previous game. I liked that there were three endings that could be seen, depending on what choices you have Emil make and how you handle the final battle. The two optional dungeons were a nice touch as well. I also think that Namco Bandai was smart to make cleared Tales of Symphonia GameCube save data useful, since Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World is a direct followup.

RPGs are scarce on the Wii. For that reason alone, Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World will stand out and be granted a bit more leniency in terms of story, script, characters and quality. I mean, there's Opoona, Baroque, Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon, Legend of Zelda The Twilight Princess, and if you don't mind stretching the bounds a bit, Dokapon, Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility, Paper Mario and Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn. If this game appeared on the PS2, it would likely fall between the cracks. Since its on a system that is in desperate need of RPGs, that makes it more tolerable.

In general, the people who are going to appreciate Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World the most are fans of the Tales of series, patient RPG gamers looking for a title to play on their Wii or new gamers who have never actually played an RPG before. It has its moments and some charm, but isn't as good as it could have been. If you take the time to play through it, despite its slow or frustrating parts, you'll come to appreciate it for what it is, as opposed to what it isn't.

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