The game generally runs more smoothly and it improves the user interface to be much more visually pleasing. Environments get identical treatment, which really helps push the initial feeling that this game is indeed bigger and better. It also drops the cell shaded look for a more “realistically shaded” approach. The characters are a much higher poly-count with much cleaner textures. Graphically speaking, it is a big step up from the original. The music alone works as an incredibly convincing bridge between the two games. Dawn of the New World actually got a number of things right! The music remained mostly untouched, with tweaks here and there, but why fix what isn’t broken? There is a great blend of old favorites and new tunes, and even classics with a new spin or two. Had the game been made to be a stand-alone title it would have been a much better game, but as a follow up it was quite disappointing. Now, before I lay into Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World I want it to be made clear that I didn’t hate it. And, it’s done so in a very original way…or at least it was for its time. Many times throughout it’ll have you believing one thing, then it will laugh at you as it throws that all on its head. Some are story heavy, others are just silly, but all are pure fun. Commonly, whilst merrily moving along your journey, you’ll be prompted to watch a little conversation clip involving one or more on your party. Not only are the characters interesting, there is a certain level of humor involved in their interactions with one another.

The writing for Tales of Symphonia is among the best in the series. This is especially cool because you can have friends join you creating up to four player local experience by switching all of your party to manual. At any time during the game you can switch the character you play by changing their control style to manual, while the other three are run by the AI automatically. The real-time gameplay which has you commanding one of four party members in an open mini arena battlefield is fun, responsive, and rewarding. That being said, Tales of Symphonia stands the test of time in other areas. Between the fuzzy textures and sharp edged polygons there were times where I found myself wishing I could play the game again in standard definition. The funny here regarding first of the two games in this collection, Tales of Symphonia, is that the new clearer resolution almost does a better job of highlighting the fact that everything else looks very dated. Of course the process is a little more difficult than this oversimplification, but I imagine you get the point. Ninety-nine percent of them are old games that get upscaled to a higher resolution, reboxed, and shipped out again. Being that Tales of Symphonia Chronicles is actually two games, I’m going to touch more on the sequel (a game which I had neglected to play previously) more so than the original mostly to keep the review at a readable length. Oh, I’m not talking about Tales of Symphonia…I’m talking about its sequel Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World. Take it from me this is much harder for some games than others. I also believe that even if a game is cramping one’s style I think it’s important to recognize the appeal or the draw of it and how it may bring other people in and get them playing. Personal opinions will always shine through to an extent, and although this is something that is should be avoided you will catch a hint of it now and then from anyone. I believe that one of the most important jobs as a reviewer is to remain neutral to look and approach everything from an objective standpoint, to banish nostalgia and remove rose colored glasses if you will.

Tales of symphonia chronicles gameplay