Tales of Symphonia II: Dawn of the New World

At the moment, I have Emil and Marta LVL 30 with their Mystic Artes and some nice synthesized gear. In my opinion, it seems pretty good, and equal to the first. They both have their pros and cons, but I dont think the gameplay itself can match to Abyss or Vesperia. But playing through and reuniting with some old ToS characters can make all those hardcore gamers scream!

Planning on getting these as soon as this semester is over.

Could you name some of the pros and cons ( without spoilers of course). I want to get an idea of how this game plays. I heard they removed the over world for a click and point map? How does that work?

Alright, basically the new game's system is like this:
1. Battle system is almost identical to ToS, with the perks from ToA. The special equip skills such as Add Combo 1 and Glory etc. Also, free-run, U. Attack, and Mystic Artes are included, but over-limit is taken out. Also monster party members help fill in those empty party slots. Though U.Attack system gets very annoying.

2. The map, on the other hand, is indeed a simple choose a location and you will get there. You might think this nerfs on power lvling on the overworld, but the Kats Guild quests are perfect for racking up EXP and synthesis items. (The missions are usually a decently challenging straight-up battle, or to crawl through a simple dungeon with plenty of monsters that respawn ALOT)

Pros:
- If you've played any tales game, you can pick this up and play, so long as you can handle the Wii's controller.
- a must for any ToS veteran
- Voiced Skits!
- Johnny Yong Bosch (Ichigo, Renten) is the main characterr!
- Can register up to 12 artes thanks to the Wii controls. (Standard B button, directionals on the remote, and horizontal or vertical swinging with either the nunchuck or remote)
- gaining EXP is simple
- synthesis helps a bunch

Cons:
- battles seem somewhat slow paced at first
- all hits during free-run count as critical
- stun status (disabled and must jiggle control stick and press buttons to recover faster) happens WAY more frequently
- being stunned near enemies almost guarantees your HP decreasing by a good amount
- the wii's recognition between swinging vertical and horizontal can sometimes be annoying as it doesn't do what you tell it to do
- overlimit excluded
- cooking is no longer used

Thats about all i can think of so far xD

Sweet, thanks for the impressions. I never really cared much about cooking and overlimit was more of a pain than help so I'm not sad to see those two features go. The horizontal/vertical control thing does sound a bit annoying and frustrating. Hopefully it's not that bad when I try the game.

Also, Johnny Yong Bosch voices Emil? Why do I get the feeling I'm gonna keep picturing Ichigo in my head every time he opens his mouth.

It's finally out? :shock:

Sweeeeet. 8) Getting this as soon as I get home.

Is this a sequel?
Because if It is I must play it. I finished the game on the gamecube and loved it and have played many more of the Tales games I love every single one of them.

Yeah, it's a direct sequel to the Gamecube original. I believe it starts a few years after the last one.

Like I said before, I'm planning on getting this three weeks from now. I have exams coming soon so I really can't afford to be playing games.

Then I must buy this game. I hope it lives up to my expectations as a sequel. Most of the time I've been completely let down by sequels. Like FFX-2 those squarenix bastards they got me good on that one.

Just out of curiosity, did you know anything about X-2 before you got it/played it? -_- It kind of sucked, even from the info in magazines that were promoting it.

No since the FF series had never failed to live up to it's name before I got it without checking it out first. I believed in the franchise. Don't get me wrong though I loved the battle system and how everything worked out. However the storyline and the Girly girly stuff was just too much for me.

Thats exactly the reason i never bought it, just beat it in about a couple of days and gave it back to the friend i lent it from xD

AND Update on ToS II

I think im almost about done, but havent been able to play as much because of other things. Its definitely fun, and I've give Emil the title of Shinigami because he voice is Johnny Yong Bosch, he has 2 different alter-egos, and he practically rapes people in battle with his somewhat large swords and devastating air combos and massive bombardment of slashes.
But Marta's mystic arte ftw, 15k dmg to all enemies AND healing for 3k all party members?
"The beautiful rose has thorns!" Marta exclaims.
"Cutie Marta has a fang" Ratatosk Emil replies sarcastically.
"Try to be more enthusiastic !" Marta shouts in an annoyed voice.
Ahhh and Marta's obsession for Emil brings out the moe!

2 words


HELL YES!

this game is a must buy for the ToS lovers :D

accually he will voicing just like renton most of the time but when he gets the power of the ratatosk will be more of an ichigo voiceing

Holy shit 2 year old necro bump, but what can I say, I got this game barely last week and when I wasnt playing GoW2, or Halo 3 online I was playing this...

Cant say I completely liked it tho...

Doesnt hold a candle to ToS...

Everything else was already said 2 years ago too...

So yeah this game was satisfying to anyone who liked ToS as much as me...

If you STILL havent played it tho, I hope this epic necro bump of epic proportions pushes you to buy it...


...


Also I must admit this game had about 1,000,000X more DAWWW than its predecessor...

Especially the second to the last fight...

...

Well i brought it maybe 5 months ago but can't find time to play it. So far played only 2 hours maybe. Can't say i don't like Marta *Finally a non tsundere heroine!!!!!* I'm so sick and tired of this rpg shit like *heroine tries to push away MC while other chicks in a party who are much more appealing, try to hit on him all the time and in the end he still choses the heroine* example : Star Ocean 4