You've been dying to hear more about Namco's Wii RPG,
Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World for quite a while, and we've been right there waiting along with you. Set for a late 2008 release, still months away, Tales of Symphonia Wii is one of the few role-playing games on Nintendo's system, so while Square Enix spends its opening year and change on Dragon Quest Swords and Chocobo Dungeon, we've been chomping at the bit for a full RPG experience on the system. Well, we've finally got it in the IGN LA offices, and after an hour and a half of play time,
this long-time Tales fan is convinced that Dawn of the New World is just what Wii needs for Q4 of 2008.
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New world does a nice job of setting up the context of the story, re-capping everything from the first game, and putting you into a world that doesn't necessarily expect you to know everything right off the bat. Two years has passed since the last game, and the two worlds of Sylvarant and Tethe'alla are experiencing the growing pains that come with the collision of two very different societies. After some battles and conflict breaking out between the two (mainly one, known as the Purge of Blood, apparently led by Lloyd himself), your thrown into the mix as a young boy named Emil, and your quest begins from there.
We're now about an hour and half into the game, and are just now feeling like the game is truly underway. The first half hour or so is made up of about 85% scripted sequences and cinema, with very little town movement and exploration to be had.
Once we hit about an hour in, we had full control over our characters and were exploring the first of many, many dungeons and locales with Emi, and by the time we're now sitting down to write this, Emil has made the classic "right of passage" found in classic hero tales, with him donning a new look, a greater understanding of what's at stake, and a true place in the story.
Overall the storytelling has been done with much stronger voice acting already (the first game was very impressive overall, but the VO was a bit too amateurish at times), and the opening hour has been pretty powerful to say the least. We're getting a similar vibe from the story as we had during the opening chapters of the classic PSX role-playing game Wild Arms, as young Emil feels like a boy with no real attachment to anything, and an overall lack of hope, passion, or self respect. Of course as the game progresses, we can already see how his character arch could take a massive, massive 180 turn.
Functionally there are some pretty big changes when comparing the Wii sequel to the original Tales of Symphonia.
The graphics look a bit cleaner, with the game running in a full 16:9 aspect ratio (no black bars), and 480p resolution. The general art style is identical, since it's a continuation of the GameCube version, but rather than having a main overworld to explore,
you use the cursor to pull and move a world map similar to a hybrid between Tales of Phantasia for Super Famicom/GBA (the only US release), and the Wii globe found in the forecast channel.
To some returning players this may seem like a letdown, as the overworld was fun to run across and do random battles in,
but truth be told it's a welcome addition from what we've seen so far, as you'll do a lot of area-to-area travelling, and it streamlines the whole experience a bit more. We're not sure where we'll be leveling up outside of main missions just yet though.
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This new pact system is actually a huge change too, as you can not only defeat monsters and bring them along on your quest, but also level them up, and use them to gain even tougher enemies onto your side. Depending on elemental compatibility, Emil can bring other monsters into fights with him, and use their type to attract other types to join his party.(...)
In addition, the amount of VO in the game has been upped considerably, as players keep the chatter up during battles more, a larger quantity of the general dialogue in towns seems to be higher (at least from what we've played thus far), and the "skits" are again voiced.
We'll have a lot more to talk about as we continue on in our quest, but consider this to be the official kick-off of Tales coverage for IGN Wii, and the first step into the gigantic world that Namco has created.
, e digo-te uma coisa ... bastou ouvir uma vez a versão Japonesa no Youtubas para preferir a mesma, isto quando tinha visto a outra mais de 20 vezes seguramente.
foi há muito tempo atrás), nunca teve o impacto de descobrir qual era a musica original à posteriori.
