Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World

*might contain possible spoilers*


The "Tales of" series. I remember the good times... Phantasia, Destiny, Eternia, etc... with their latest(to ME, so screw Vesperia) being Innocence, which srlsy needs a U.S. release. After playing Innocence, even after knowing it was going to be a sequel, I still looked forward to Symphonia 2. I was hoping Symphonia 2 would have some Innocence elements to it. The first Symphonia game... I've beaten at most 10 times. I never really did the side quests, but I enjoyed it still. Decent story, decent gameplay, extremely easy... lame characters... and now I'm wondering why the hell I liked the Symphonia "series."

Symphonia on the Wii so far has me disappointed. The protagonist, Emil, has got to be as annoying as Lloyd and Colette from the first game. I hated them with a passion and Emil is making things worse. He's nothing but a pussy until a "demon lord" controls him in battle. Having to swap from a pussy little boy outside of battles to a "badass" in battles is rather annoying. And to make things ever better, he dresses like a woman. So now we get to have a tranny be the protagonist. Let's see, Emil is a giant pussy, he dresses like a woman, he's nervous around a girl that freaking loves him, and always thinks about a man he met in the beginning of the game(well, some things he said, but him nonetheless). Chapter 1 of the game is already pissing me off... that isn't a good sign.



Why keep playing? I honestly only have two reasons to torture myself with these annoying characters: the story and gameplay. The story actually has me wondering what's been going on since the first game. A problem between the two worlds' citizens, a liberation front, "Lloyd the Great," etc. I think they added too much "mystery" in the beginning of the game. There is a LOT going on with no answers. And just when you thought they were hiding enough info, the next place you visit has more. I'm only really concerned with the background involving old characters and the current status of the world. And because I'm not lame enough to just read up on it on the intarwebz, I shall play through. If anything, the gameplay will keep me sane.

The battles are MUCH better in this game than the first Symphonia. Free roam and difficulty; a nice challenge. The only game in the "Tales of" series I remember with free roam was Innocence(if Vesperia has it, good for it, don't really care), so to my knowledge they actually used an element of it. Just adding that made the gameplay better than most of the "Tales of" games I've played. And this game, even on Normal mode, is actually a challenge. I'm kinda excited about playing on Mania mode if I ever play through again(I still have a LONG ways to go). I've found it so far to be difficult enough to provide a nice challenge, but not so much as to require pointless grinding. If the battles had any flaw, it's the new Unison Attack and the ability to... capture... monsters.

The Unison Attacks... damn it to hell. Okay, it really isn't a flaw, it's more of the fact that I have NO idea how they work in this game. But at the moment I can say they suck. Hard. I've never done more damage than 2 physical attacks yet. Even when those rare chances of my TEAM GETTING IN THE UNISON ATTACK also cause damage. Yes, it's called a "Unison" Attack when nearly all the time, I see only Emil doing something for shit damage. If you're reading this from Backloggery and have the solution to my problems, leave a comment and halp me. <_<

And now, capturing monsters. I thought I stopped playing Pokemon and whatnot back in about... August or July(Platinum import doesn't really count to me). Using monsters on your team could be a "nifty" idea, it just sucks when one of them outlevels me quickly and makes me feel really weak. I caught some weak monster at a very low level with low stats and minutes later, he had double my HP AND level. A nice tank, but man... makes me feel like a pussy... oh, wait, I WAS using Emil. But seriously, adding this to the series... just seems odd. To redeem itself, I'm hoping for one thing and one thing only; I WANT A FUCKING SWORD DANCER ON MY TEAM.

My rant on Symphonia 2. In the end, I wish I had rented the game. You don't want to know what I did to get this. You really don't. <_<