So, I was doing that quest, write a review for DOTNW, but it got cut short. I thought it was supposed to be a long review... O_o So here's the entire thing.
There are lots of great things Namco did for Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World. There are also lots of lazy things they did. But for brevity's sake, as well as my desire to see the good in (most) things, I'll point out things that Namco did well in DOTNW, things that they should carry to other games.
* The new characters. I like their more practical and yet still fun designs. Does that make sense? I like that we KNOW where Emil and Richter's swords are going. (and not in a dimensional pocket) In most designs people carry floating scabbards, which is silly. Their silouettes are unique, which is something important in character design (if you ask me).
Marta looks kind like a...girly girl, I guess, but she's aggressive and goes for what she wants. Her weapon is awesome because a) it's is unique, and b) the designer actually drew a technical diagram to show how it would work. She's got a like a reverse fanny pack that holds stuff for traveling. She's got gigantic boots because she stomps on people's faces all the time. Little things like that make a difference.
It's nice to see a girl saving the boy for once, too. <3
Also, the old characters were handled well. Since they were the heroes of the last game, they've already gone through a lot of character development from their journey and so they're more mature, more grounded. They have their flaws but they're still pretty stable and supportive figures.
* The animations. Mo-caps usually get repetitive, or too exaggerated. In 2D animation, when drawing a character, the animator draws a character's motions a little exaggerated in order to make it look real on the screen. Pixar also treats its 3D movies like this. But often in video games, character's breathing, nodding, and other passive stances are extremely fake-looking. Namco in this game handled the mo-cap well. When Marta nods, it's not super repetitive, or not apparent enough, it looks like she's...actually nodding. They should do this in later games that are in 3D environments. (Unrelated, but the new Tales mothership title looks pretty fluid, from the little I've seen...)
* The combat. The combat animations were also really, really good, they flowed well for the most part, especially that of the two main characters, Emil and Marta. The special skills (mystic artes, hiougi, etc) were also fun to look at. But anyway, the actual combat. Emil was like an aggressive, aerial-inclined classic Tales hero. Marta was extremely fun to play as, and she wasn't as awkward as Colette in melee.
* The monsters. You have to work at it, but they can be super powerful...and they're pretty fun to watch. Not to mention they were more obedient than humanoid NPCs. (cough) I think that if Namco were ever to implement something like a monster catching system in another title, it should be a sidequest.
* The texture paintings. They were extremely expressive because of (you've heard this one before) the Wii's lack of graphical capability compared to the 360 and the PS3. I know graphics aren't the most important thing in a game but I feel like I do have to point this one out. But anyway, the texture paintings helped combine the game's previous heroes with the new characters.
* In-game cut-scenes. Depends on the art direction, but I felt this game was better off without anime cutscenes, as much as we love them, and as well as the DOTNW opening was drawn. I think this because the main characters from the first game were designed by a different person, and the game's rending engine helps combine both old and new designs. Of course, like I said, it depends on the art direction: anime cutscenes were very good for TOV because of it's deliberate anime-style renders.
* The voice acting. For the most part, I thought it was good. While I kind of wish for the old ones for continuation's sake, the new ones (as well as returners) did a great job of conveying each character's personality and emotions. JYB did a good wimpy boy voice, even though I thought he was too manly for the role. Tara Platt portrayed Raine's usual calm demeanor and her psycho ruins mode well. I could go on about this but I was trying to keep this short, so. Sorry, it's so long! :(
Oh, and the C-skits were voiced. Good move on Namco's part. They're probably going to keep doing that from now on, anyhow, but yeah.
* Dialogue. I'm not talking about the plot, I'm talking about the words they used. Things like battle end quotes, sidequest conversations, and such were fun to read. It's nice to see a girl hitting on a boy so hard instead of the other way around...for once.
Okay, to wrap it up, DOTNW was fun if you ask me. Problem is, I think that some Tales series fans will see that there was a lot of stuff left out. But the gameplay (especially the combat) is still enjoyable, and the characters are loveable/hateable. Like, you actually care about them.
Here's a quick list of what Namco should have done, IMHO: included more involved skill system and strategy/orders system, more extras (maybe costumes), harder story bosses. Also, they should have either removed the level cap from guest characters at chapter 8 OR allowed players to kick them out of the party. If they are going to be level 50 forever, I'd rather have monsters killing things on Unknown mode than having Zelos running around like a headless chicken.
If you're a fan, I'd say 8.25-8.5 If not, maybe 7. Because it's still fun to play, and it was only 35 bucks!
