Tales of Symphonia Playtest
Hands on with the first few hours of the import.
June 26, 2008 - The sequel to the GameCube's finest gift to Japanese role playing hit the Japanese Wii today through Namco Bandai. While Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World is due out for stateside release later this year, we decided to brave the crazy kanji with the import, titled Tales of Symphonia: Knights of Ratatosk.
Given how much more successful the Wii has been over the Cube, we imagine the audience for the new Symphonia title will be divided clearly between those who have played the original and those who've never even heard of it. Without giving away any spoilers, the former should be able to get right into Dawn of the New World, as despite the new hero and heroine, the past cast (including former main character Lloyd) play a major role here, right from the start.
As for the newcomers, you can probably expect to be a bit confused at first, but in our few hours of play time, the game has slowly recapped the happenings of the original, both through story sequences and through those charming little optional dialogue bits that pop up as you explore the world. The dialogue bits are very frequent here, we're pleased to note, and full of an amazing amount of personality when you consider that you're just looking at flat pictures while listening to voice-overs.
Story aside, Dawn of the New World makes so many changes to the game systems of the original Symphonia that no one is going to be accusing Namco of rehash. From the new world map, with selectable destinations on a slick rotatable globe interface (see our new videos for a peek), to the updated battle system (now known as "FR:EE-LMBS" or "Flex Range Element Enhanced Linear Motion Battle System"), there's more new than old as far as gameplay is concerned.
The most dramatic change is one that you encounter early on in your adventure. You now have the ability to capture beasts after clearing battles. Once caught, you can add a beast to your battle party and strengthen it in subsequent battles. This system actually works into the storyline (you did notice all the non-human creatures in the screenshots and videos, didn't you?), and from what we've been able to sample so far, it looks like it will be a central area to the gameplay as well.
Namco has also given the title some new Wii-style control options. When exploring the overworld and dungeons, you have the option of guiding your character by pointing at the screen and holding down B. As with the stylus controls in the DS Tales of Innocence, it's possible to keep your character continuously running, making this a viable control option (although, just to be doubly sure you know, full nunchuck-based movement is possible as well).
During battle, the game doesn't have any crazy waggle gimmicks, but given the action-oriented nature of the Tales battle system, this is probably a good thing. Control feels natural through the split nunchuck and Wiimote setup. We particularly like the feel of making your character run around freely.
Dawn of the New World seems to have all the basics in place, from the staple Tales battle system to a character-driven storyline. We'll, of course, have to play through the full game to see how it stacks up to the original, though. Expect a full report once we have the English version in our hands later this year.
