Editor’s note: This review was written by Ty Christian, a 20-year-old Full Sail University student that dedicates his life to writing, designing and brainstorming ideas for games. Ever since Ty was a child, it was his dream to design a game that everyone could enjoy. Today, he still writes constantly and studies vigorously to achieve his goal. Videogames are a part of his life, and he dedicates his talent to them.

Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World continues the epic story for the struggling reborn world. The story continues from the last game, Tales of Symphonia, as Lloyd merged the two struggling worlds into one. Now that there is no mana for the world to survive off, it begins to die, slowly giving dramatic climate changes. Deserts are covered in snow as lakes dry up. Earthquakes in peaceful valleys begin to grow, and large amounts of monsters gather near villages. Emil, a 16-year-old boy, lost his parents in the fire of Palmacosta and is forced to live with his unloving aunt and uncle. Everything in his life seemed rough until one day, he heard the enticing howl of a strange monster from outside the village. It was then Emil took it upon himself to be a man and follow what would soon be the act that unfolds his destiny.

Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World is an action role-playing game. Two main characters are given for players to customize and level up through means of battle. Players may also tame wild monsters to add to their parties to increase their power. The game also supports three extra players to help in the journey to collect the Centurian Cores to revive the great demon Ratatosk to save the world from its crippling demise.

Controls are similar to the first game, giving A as the attack button and B as the special attacks. Players have a leader run around the world map and touch an enemy icon. This will initiate battle in which the players are able to attempt to conquer some of the mightiest foes. The newly added feature gives the player access to freely roam the battlefield without locking onto an enemy, giving them three-dimensional movements. Camera angle has also been fixed from the previous game by panning out, giving visual access to the entire battlefield instead of staying close to the first player.

With the new improvements to gameplay comes the downfall. Compared to the previous game, the roster of customizable characters has greatly decreased as the original heroes are no longer capable of leveling, equipping or customizing their abilities. Overall, gameplay has improved for multiplayer battles but had the potential for a greater roster of customizable characters.

I find Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World to be very fun and to have an incredible story. There are things that interrupt gameplay and drag out longer than they really should. You start the game with Emil, who can’t stop complaining about how weak he feels. Richter, a temporary playable character, tells Emil to toughen up. The several cutscenes after that will then flash back to what Richter said and repeat it over and over again. This goes on for a good few hours as you’re forced to hear the same thing. After you pass the annoying cutscenes, the game picks up pace, and Emil turns into an incredible fighter. The story is fantastic for its constant twists, psychology to who is doing what is right and the deceit of friendship. The appearance of all the original characters and their involvement with the story made me as a fan jump with joy being I could still play as the original. Even though I could play as my favorite characters from the last game, I could not customize them, and I could not play with them as first player unless changing character in the midst of battle.

While exploring through the game, there were plenty of surprises and fun things to do. The convenience of not having to travel for a long time really helped cut down on game time. You’re able to simply select where you wish to journey on the menu, and you’ll be there in a flash. Finding rare monsters to add to my team became part of my to-do list as I got to raise and evolve my monsters into something more. Puzzles within the game were extremely easy and had little challenge. Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World revisits all the old towns from its prequel. This brings memories from playing in the last game. You’re also given special items for having a save file from the last game. Though the items are not all that much useful, it’s still fun to have around.

In all honesty, I would highly recommend this game to all fans of the Tales of Symphonia series. This game would have an incomplete story without playing the first game. Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World is fun to play and is also family-oriented. It’s great to gather friends and family to sit down and play. Buying this game would no doubt be a benefit to you as it was to me. There are three endings to the game that differ depending on how you treat a special character and how the final battle is finished. Other than the annoying cutscenes in the beginning, Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World is a great game I can recommend to everybody.