Dawn of the New World may not stack up to the original, but it's a good RPG in it's own right.
The game cuts to two months later, in the town of Luin. The boy, Emil, is living with his abusive aunt and uncle, and doesn't stand up for himself when his mother gives him a verbal scolding. Emil travels to the fountain plaza were he is again attacked for not praying at the statue of Lloyd Irving. Here, we meet Richter, who comes in and saves Emil. He is looking for a young girl with a red jewel in her forehead. Emil and Richter travel into the lake bed and meet Marta, the girl previously mention. Richter then proceeds in attacking her, only to be stopped by Emil. However, Richter moves Emil by force with his Centrerion, Aqua. Depressed, Emil wonders if he can save Marta. This is when the Centrerion of Darkness, Tenebrae enters and transforms Emil into a Knight of Ratatoski, the lord of all monsters. Emil succeeds in beating back Aqua and reaching Richter, but Richter has been defeated by Lloyd, who is attacking Marta. After a brief skirmish between Lloyd and Emil, Lloyd flees with a Centrerion's egg, and Emil passes out.
That's all I'm going to say story wise. Once you reach that point, you'll be about 40-50 minutes into the game. The story is pretty unique, and is very indulging. I find myself playing for hours and hours at a time. Almost every town has returned from the first game, with similar maps and shops. Every dungeon I've visited is new, though. Many of the monsters are from Tales of the Abyss, except boss monsters. Both Emil and Marta wield unique weapons (Emil has a reverse curve hilt sword, Marta has a "Duel Spinner" which is like a pin wheel on her hand). Most of the music is remixed songs from the first game, but the boss battle music (With Courage), is a hard rock guitar song that raises the tension of the fight. The world map is similar to Tales of Phantasia, but you don't travel around it anymore. Instead, they use a point and click system.
Okay, I'm just going to rail on the flaws now. Biggest note, the lack of original voice actors. Though Colette, Presea, and Kratos keep they're same VAs from the original, everyone else doesn't. Most do a good job. But, they don't stack up to the original cast. The battle system is also very hectic. The field is linear, but it is easy to stray off of the linear path and go into a random direction. Also, there is a good chance that you'll move THROUGH the enemy, so once you reach the last hit of your combo, or unleash an Arte, you miss them completely. This is especially true for bosses and flying enemies. It gets very crowded in larger fights. The difficulty is really jacked, too. Enemies can deal a combo that does 145 damage to your 389 HP at the very beginning of the game. Enemies also have big, powerful, one hit attacks that can wipe you out. The elemental grid is also difficult to get used to. Puzzles are either ridiculously easy, or hellishly hard, no in between.
Despite these flaws, the game is very engaging and quite fun. Any Tales fan with a Wii (or fan of Tales of Symphonia) should pick up this game.