Hey there everyone, how's it going? Well then, as you all know, I've recently been playing the Tales Of Symphonia Chronicles collection, which brings the first Tales Of Symphonia, and its sequel, Dawn Of The New World, to the PS3 in High Definition. I was planning on reviewing the first Symphonia after I had beaten it, but then I thought, since this is an HD collection, I'd play both games and review both at once. So then, without further ado, here we go! And don't worry, I tend to make my reviews with as few spoilers as possible!
Okay then, so in the first Tales Of Symphonia, you take on the role of Lloyd Irving, an energetic, although sometimes stubborn young man who ends up embroiled in a conflict between two worlds called Sylvarant and Tethe'alla. The story's pacing is excellent, and at first simply deals with Colette, one of the main characters, obtaining an oracle to become the Chosen, the person that will embark on a journey of world regeneration to awaken the Goddess Martel and restore the world to balance. Then it slowly escalates into a much bigger scale conflict. I won't go into details because I don't want to spoil everything, but keep in mind that nothing is as it seems in this game. Remember that! Anyways, I left you with a vague hint of what the story is about. If you want to know more, get this game!
Now then, in terms of gameplay, for anyone who's played a Tales game, the controls should feel familiar to you. While traversing the world map or while your in dungeons, you encounter enemies and then enter into battle. In battle, you have four party members at one time, and your goal in battle is obviously to defeat whatever monsters are in your path and in the end, you obtain Experience Points to level up, and you also obtain Gald, which is the games currency. You can organize your party members in any way you wish, but I'd recommend you always have a character that's able to heal you and cure your status ailments, because trust me, you'll be getting inflicted with statuses and having your life chipped away a lot, especially in boss battles!
Now then, as for how world traversal works, you go from locale to locale via a world map. You walk along until you find your destinations, and you encounter monsters along the way. Later in the game you get a much faster method of travel, so that helps. And in terms of graphics, remember, this is a remaster of a Gamecube game, but it still looks pretty good either way, and the environments look clean, and the monsters look as they should, and the characters look great! Oh, and the voice acting is pretty good too. And there's also this little object you obtain in the game called the Sorcerer's Ring. Personally, I thought I wasn't gonna use it much, but I actually ended up using this ring a lot to solve some of the games puzzles and such. It was a really useful gimmick, and I liked the fact that you had to use it often.
Okay, so now that I have that game covered, let's move on to the sequel, Dawn Of The New World. The sequel picks up two years after the events of the first game, and everything here is topsy turvy, and things look like they're getting worse instead of better. I really loved this game, because it makes you think that perhaps everything done in the first game wasn't exactly for the better. Why, you ask? Play the game yourself, and you'll find out. But you know, I really don't know why so many people hate Dawn Of The New World. I just finished it a few days ago, and I really thought that it was an excellent game, and very well done, with an intriguing story with impressive twists! Two new main characters, Emil and Marta, are the central ones of the game's plot, and new villains appear, and familiar faces return here to help you during your quest. You also get to visit many of the same locales in the first game, and some new dungeons as well. World traversal in this game is simplified, as you simply click where you want to go, and you go.
Combat in Dawn Of The New World plays out like from the first game, albeit with obvious differences, such as the ability to have monsters fight for you in battle. This reminded me of Final Fantasy XIII-2's monsters, since they could be added to your party as well. Monsters here evolve after reaching a certain level and feeding them. And in terms of voice acting, I love it in this game! I felt like I was watching an anime series, and it was awesome! And well, I have to say that Dawn Of The New World was a really great game, and I enjoyed the heck out of it! But wait, what would a Tales game be without skits!? Skits appear in both games, but the only thing that annoyed me is the fact that in the first Symphonia, the skits aren't voiced, but thankfully, in the second one, they are voiced. Skits are my favorite part of a Tales game, since skits flesh out the personalities of the characters, and end up in comical or sometimes dramatic ways.
In short, I loved both Tales games, and I urge for anyone who's a Tales fan, or for anyone who's an RPG fan in general, to get their hands on this game! Both have amazing stories, characters, combat and great entertainment value! And right now it's probably around 30 bucks, so trust me, you'll get your bang for your buck! Oh, and the first Symphonia is longer than the second one in my opinion, based on the time I took to finish each. I finished the first one at around 48 hours, and the sequel in 31 hours. So then, now that you've read this review, get the game, you won't regret it! This has been another of Shigehiko's reviews! Until next time!
Heck yes, now I've played three Tales games! I'll keep on playing more Tales games as I get my hands on them! Anyways, thanks for reading!
Hey there everyone, how's it going? Well then, as you all know, I've recently been playing the Tales Of Symphonia Chronicles collection, which brings the first Tales Of Symphonia, and its sequel, Dawn Of The New World, to the PS3 in High Definition. I was planning on reviewing the first Symphonia after I had beaten it, but then I thought, since this is an HD collection, I'd play both games and review both at once. So then, without further ado, here we go! And don't worry, I tend to make my reviews with as few spoilers as possible!
Okay then, so in the first Tales Of Symphonia, you take on the role of Lloyd Irving, an energetic, although sometimes stubborn young man who ends up embroiled in a conflict between two worlds called Sylvarant and Tethe'alla. The story's pacing is excellent, and at first simply deals with Colette, one of the main characters, obtaining an oracle to become the Chosen, the person that will embark on a journey of world regeneration to awaken the Goddess Martel and restore the world to balance. Then it slowly escalates into a much bigger scale conflict. I won't go into details because I don't want to spoil everything, but keep in mind that nothing is as it seems in this game. Remember that! Anyways, I left you with a vague hint of what the story is about. If you want to know more, get this game!
Now then, in terms of gameplay, for anyone who's played a Tales game, the controls should feel familiar to you. While traversing the world map or while your in dungeons, you encounter enemies and then enter into battle. In battle, you have four party members at one time, and your goal in battle is obviously to defeat whatever monsters are in your path and in the end, you obtain Experience Points to level up, and you also obtain Gald, which is the games currency. You can organize your party members in any way you wish, but I'd recommend you always have a character that's able to heal you and cure your status ailments, because trust me, you'll be getting inflicted with statuses and having your life chipped away a lot, especially in boss battles!
Now then, as for how world traversal works, you go from locale to locale via a world map. You walk along until you find your destinations, and you encounter monsters along the way. Later in the game you get a much faster method of travel, so that helps. And in terms of graphics, remember, this is a remaster of a Gamecube game, but it still looks pretty good either way, and the environments look clean, and the monsters look as they should, and the characters look great! Oh, and the voice acting is pretty good too. And there's also this little object you obtain in the game called the Sorcerer's Ring. Personally, I thought I wasn't gonna use it much, but I actually ended up using this ring a lot to solve some of the games puzzles and such. It was a really useful gimmick, and I liked the fact that you had to use it often.
Okay, so now that I have that game covered, let's move on to the sequel, Dawn Of The New World. The sequel picks up two years after the events of the first game, and everything here is topsy turvy, and things look like they're getting worse instead of better. I really loved this game, because it makes you think that perhaps everything done in the first game wasn't exactly for the better. Why, you ask? Play the game yourself, and you'll find out.
But you know, I really don't know why so many people hate Dawn Of The New World. I just finished it a few days ago, and I really thought that it was an excellent game, and very well done, with an intriguing story with impressive twists! Two new main characters, Emil and Marta, are the central ones of the game's plot, and new villains appear, and familiar faces return here to help you during your quest. You also get to visit many of the same locales in the first game, and some new dungeons as well. World traversal in this game is simplified, as you simply click where you want to go, and you go.
Combat in Dawn Of The New World plays out like from the first game, albeit with obvious differences, such as the ability to have monsters fight for you in battle. This reminded me of Final Fantasy XIII-2's monsters, since they could be added to your party as well. Monsters here evolve after reaching a certain level and feeding them. And in terms of voice acting, I love it in this game! I felt like I was watching an anime series, and it was awesome! And well, I have to say that Dawn Of The New World was a really great game, and I enjoyed the heck out of it! But wait, what would a Tales game be without skits!? Skits appear in both games, but the only thing that annoyed me is the fact that in the first Symphonia, the skits aren't voiced, but thankfully, in the second one, they are voiced. Skits are my favorite part of a Tales game, since skits flesh out the personalities of the characters, and end up in comical or sometimes dramatic ways.
In short, I loved both Tales games, and I urge for anyone who's a Tales fan, or for anyone who's an RPG fan in general, to get their hands on this game! Both have amazing stories, characters, combat and great entertainment value! And right now it's probably around 30 bucks, so trust me, you'll get your bang for your buck! Oh, and the first Symphonia is longer than the second one in my opinion, based on the time I took to finish each. I finished the first one at around 48 hours, and the sequel in 31 hours. So then, now that you've read this review, get the game, you won't regret it! This has been another of Shigehiko's reviews! Until next time!
Heck yes, now I've played three Tales games! I'll keep on playing more Tales games as I get my hands on them! Anyways, thanks for reading!