Of course, not as epic, as extense, as perfect as its predecesor... But of course, a great game that fans will love.
-Great story that is true to the first one.
-Improoved gameplay, you will fing fighting much more fun.
The Bad
- You can't explore through the field anymore, you will use a point system with the wii remote.
-Though being an excellent story, you will feel the lacking of new characters.
Being said that, you must keep in mind: Tales of Symphonia:Dawn of The New World will not dissapoint you if you are alredy a fan. The nostalgia of old characters and the misteries that sorround them will keep you hours in front of the TV, experiencing what I believe it's the strenght of the Tales series, it's inmersive, interesting, original story. At first you may not find it too extraordinary, but wait later in the game as a plot twist will amaze you.
Now, going out of the story part, let's talk about the gameplay a bit. Apart from the visuals, this is the only aspect in wich the game has surpassed it's predecesor: exploring and walking through the cities is almost the same, but when fighting you will find more comfort as the characters have a better AI and you can move freely on the field and perform more complicated combos, on the ground or in the air. You will learn artes and skills, and buy new clothing, weapons, items, etc (mucha as any other tales game). Now we'll talk about the game's new feature: the ability to capture, breed and evolve monsters. While it is an interesting gameplay, I felt it was just put there because of the lack of new characters, there are only two new characters that will fight with you, Emil and Marta, and though the old ones will rejoin you, they will only do it at certain Chapters of the story, and their use is very limited. Having only two permanent characters in your parties your monsters will be of use on the field, so train them, and cook some meals for them, you can do this by fignting and going to a Catz stabishment respectivily. Do not think the monster-system is bad though, but it feels just as a substitute for the non-present characters.
About the graphics, they've improved quite a bit, using an entirily diferent system and they movement of the characters are awesome, the dialogues are as always awesome and the designs as well.
The game isn't as extense as the first one, but it's long enough and it will satisfy you, well at least it satisfied me.