Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World Review | YES ACTUALLY IT IS THAT BAD

[@ShinkuDragon]

I just clicked on the video, i have NOT seen the video, so all i can say yet is... Courage is the magic that turns dreams into reality.

[@Majuular]

Well, I'm not sure what you're expecting. You may enjoy the video, you may not, but one thing is for sure - courage is the magic that turns dreams into reality.

[@ShinkuDragon]

@@Majuular well i'm done now so here's my opinion: i agree with mostly everything in some regard the plot as you said had a nice hook, anyone who ever played the first one would know that -something- had to be up with lloyd, or this would have been an even worse game (which, by half of it, seeing how bad the game was i was actually starting to fear they actually made lloyd evil, the madmen). so the story itself wasn't bad in the "how it begins how it ends" way, but everything that happens in-between, jesus christ, hit me with a shovel so i can forget it i enjoyed the combat however, but i played the game ages ago so i didn't remember the enemies being such sponges. also the breeding part i really liked, since it's something i really like in games, especially when there's no limited stuff (i'm looking at you FF13-2). as you said some monsters were absurdly useless, but others were straight up broken bonkers, i think i used a jormungandr which was pretty neat, and some sort of harpy woman or something that had a crapton of magic and healed a lot to anyone who has seen the video but not played the game, Majuular absolutely understated HOW. FREAKING. MUCH. they say the courage phrase. the part where he puts a flashback saying "this happened 3 minutes ago" isn't even an exaggeration and may in fact be downplaying it, i remember it happening literally after richter left, so if you read fast enough emil would remember it in under 3 minutes, and they JUST. KEEP. REPEATING. IT. OVER. AND. OVER. the whole game. there's a reason why that was all i said in my post, and it's because they said the phrase so damn much that every time someone mentions the game the first thing i remember is that damn line. i sometimes forget the name of the MC's, but i can't forget that line. visually the game's fine. it was the first tales on a nintendo console that didn't look chibi iirc, so it felt like an upgrade. and 8-way run during combat was much loved after symphonia 1's kinda janky combat map speaking of maps, the removal of the world map has to be one of the most stupid decisions i have ever seen. like if it was the same map as symphonia 1 i could've understood it maybe since fans may not want to walk all over again, but it was literally the merging of two worlds, experiencing first hand by traveling the world map how the world changed was one of the things i was hoping for when i bought the game, so disappointment right there Marta made me hate Laura Bailey, that's how much i hated the character. Marta gets better later on (VERY later on), but poor Laura didn't deserve the hate i had for her due to this role because holy hell Marta starts both insufferable and so horny for the MC (which as mentioned is as unlikable as can be) that i wouldn't have been surprised if one night she sat on his dick and stitched their hips together. no, i'm not exaggerating, she's THAT horny at first and just to elaborate on the laura thing a bit. i have nothing against her, she's an amazing voice actor, but this game made me second thought every purchase i made from then on if i heard she did VA work on it, which, considering how many works she's been in, was a very sizable amount. later on i would learn that no, she wasn't a shitty VA, i just had the single worst possible first experience with her voice acting, she did amazing works in games i would later go to play like Dissidia final fantasy or Fire emblem awakening. i'm not even going to go over how this game absolutely shits on the previous cast though, them being pretty much unplayable (i can't remember if you could actually control them in combat) but they were level capped to 50 in a game where the max is 200, and couldn't change gear so they became useless extremely fast when some monsters could be dealing thousands of damage or healing your whole party while tanking much better so yeah, this game was such a disappointment, doubly so because it has symphonia in the title. like tales of zestiria was a bad game, but that didn't drag a fan-favorite game through the mud with its existence. well maju if you read this (and anyone else), that's my opinion on both the game and video. i disagree with some things but they're just preferences (mainly combat and the pokemon breeding, which i admit is wholly out of place as much as i like it), but for everything else you're either spot on or understating your fury. thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

[@Majuular]

@@ShinkuDragon I wasn't expecting such a detailed and spirited response, but am delighted to see it nonetheless!

[@ShinkuDragon]

@@Majuular i am a big fan of symphonia, and of tales games in general, so the post is fueled by the same thing as the video, rage and disdain hahaha. Also unrelated but got too into writing the post i forgot to thank you for the pin! Keep trucking with the great content my man and have a pleasant day

[@justinfreeman4614]

I will make this a meme on future videos.

[@devingunnels3251]

The funny thing is that Ratatoskr in Norse mythology is a squirrel. So every time they say Emil is going 'ratatosk mode' I just think of him running around frantically looking for acorns.

[@GrimmShane]

It's a squirrel that acts as the sole caretaker of the world tree's branches!

[@eros439]

@@GrimmShanehe is going tree care taker mode! Watch out!

[@cryguy0000]

I just learned that by playing God of War Ragnarok.

[@cupriferouscatalyst3708]

@@GrimmShane also a messenger/errand boy type dude

[@onieni9779]

Just imagining Scrat with Emil's hair and clothes brings a hearty chuckle to me and idky

[@HimeTakamura]

There's something about the way that the original cast is utilized and interacts with the new cast that makes the whole game feel like someone's Tales of Symphonia fan fiction where Emil is their original character donut steel and Marta is his OC waifu.

[@Majuular]

So true, yuge Donut Steel vibes throughout the entire main story.

[@ShinkuDragon]

The biggest one imho is the level 50 cap. It literally makes them unplayable. You are literally punished for using the original cast you love.

[@jessegugs3182]

Hime, you've exactly put into words my feelings towards the characters and interactions. Wonderful description.

[@planescaped]

I can totally see it.

[@johnserosanguineous1886]

I feel ZERO shame in playing as the original cast as soon as you're abled too.

[@chugga]

Wow… I always heard nothing about this game and assumed it was just a very okay sequel that didn’t light the world on fire. I had no idea it was so much worse than the review scores. Good work going into such detail so no one else wastes their time. I have something of a story to share. My whole childhood, I was BEGGING for some famous person to make my name more known because no one pronounces it right. Then I found out the hero of this big, important game was named Emil. My reaction was “AW MAN, the MAIN hero in the sequel to the greatest game of all time has my name! I bet he’s gonna be such a badass with how much people loved Lloyd! He looks so cool with the green and red eyes! I can’t wait! Everyone’s gonna think I’m awesome for having the same name as the coolest character in video games!” And theeeeeen it released and the only thing I heard was that Emil was the worst part. This fictional character actually disappointed my expectation of reality.

[@Majuular]

That is a harrowing tale. As a Luke, I also feel underrepresented in games - outside of Luke from Tales of Abyss, ironically another Tales protagonist who is written to be unlikable. But unlike Emil, Luke redeems himself by getting a haircut. Symbolic gesture and whatnot. Thanks for the comment!

[@matthewdyck5503]

My favorite childhood youtuber commenting on this video is not something I was expecting.

[@Patrick-bn5rp]

Chugga, the reviewer is biased. I would argue that this game is actually better than Symphonia. I played both back to back and felt this one respected my time as a player far more by cutting out the time waster that was the overworld, just as an example.

[@Majuular]

@@Patrick-bn5rp l m a o

[@Patrick-bn5rp]

@@Majuular we're allowed to have opinions. I just disagree with yours. XD

[@TalkerDudeMan]

Here's a fun fact: "Ratatosk" isn't some scary demon. It's a squirrel. In norse mythology, Ratatosk was a squirrel that ran up and down the world tree delivering letters.

[@chazzwozzio]

It also talked shit to both the world serpent and the world eagle

[@westonmeyer3110]

In Valkyrie Profile the most powerful monsters are literally hamsters. Rodents are dangerous and well respected in Asgard.

[@pralenkaman8105]

​@@chazzwozzio not the world serpent, that's jormugandr, he trades messages between nidhog and the eagle at the top of ygdrassil Vedrfolnir Either way Ratatoskr also cares to the branches of the world tree, which could be translated to ratatosk in tales of symphonia dotnw caring for the world tree not letting the demons get into the new world and destroy it So yeah, it kinda makes sense when you think about it, it just requires a bit of mental gymnastics and knowledge on Norse myth, even though I like Norse myth, it took me a good while to put these pieces together

[@ag9953]

Not letters, gossip, Ratatosk went between the serpent and the eagle telling them all the awful shit they said about each other.

[@Quetzalpacheco-hv9tb]

Wasn't he the equivalent of a modern 4chan troll?

[@MrCanadiaMan]

As someone whose not only first Tales game, but also first ever JRPG was the original Symphonia, watching you rip this sequel to shreds was very cathartic.

[@Majuular]

That was essentially the goal, so I'm glad to have succeeded 😁

[@ggessentials4261]

yeah same lol

[@nightmarishcompositions4536]

Same exact story for me. It was the first jrpg and Tales game I ever played as a kid, been my favorite genre of games and still one of my favorite series to this day.

[@JaredClaunch]

Same story here too!

[@kirstieyap6692]

Im the opposite, dawn of the new world was my first rpg, never played the original, excited to see my nostalgic first experience with rpgs ripped appart

[@Smily613]

The quote "Courage is the magic that turns dreams into reality" has been branded onto my very soul, ive forgotten alot of things about tbis game but I will NEVER forget that quote.

[@ShinkuDragon]

Another broken soul i see

[@LaCazaLP]

It was even on the back of the German Box Art....

[@ColeslawVariant]

The "Live Laugh Love" of gaming.

[@BillionairesArentYourFriends]

We thought we were so damn cool. 26 now, loved the game as a kid. I hate it with a burning passion now. Kinda like spicy foods, but in reverse.

[@Atmnoah]

@@BillionairesArentYourFriendsloved this game as a kid it was my first tales of, tried to replay it many times always stopped i feel you big time on this take🤝🏽

[@DoshDoshington]

I played this game. What a dumpster fire. After playing the first one and loving it, this game was my first practical lesson to never get excited for anything. It crashed right before the final boss and corrupted my save. I never tried to play it again, I never tried to look up the ending. Nothing of value was lost.

[@404cp]

You should try the actual end of the saga, Tales of Fantasia which Symphonia is a prequel to. Takes place hundreds of years later and it turns out that Mithos was apparently completely right about what would happen if magitech got too advanced and got used for war.

[@Maguspwns2]

Fantasia has my fav story next to Abyss! The music is also actually good instead of totally forgettable like 80% of Sakuraba's Tales and Tri-Ace stuff. The tone and characters are so fun and it actually has fairly well written female party members. Don't play the GBA version though. The translation for that version is a dumpster fire.

[@TheAngelCrab8]

There's actually much more to Phantasia than just that. It's actually set a few thousand years in the future, but Martel, the tree, world map are all the same. Derris-Kharlan even shows back up, and a book in one of the cities lists the twin moons of the planet as being named Sylverant and Tethe'alla. Even Mizuho is back and you get a ninja party member from the Fujibayashi family. I agree that finishing the saga is very worth it, even with Phantasia being the first Tales game meaning it is very hard to play by modern standards.

[@aussakagamine8862]

@@TheAngelCrab8 I think tales of phantasia the animation is pretty good fill in, also saves u the hassle of playing the really bad GBA port if u wanted the English experience.

[@ninototo1]

Phantasia is one of my fav Tales games which is sad cause it's the oldest. It has a world map, super pretty graphics for the time (which still hold up if you like pixel art), a cool story that gets surprisingly dark, tons of exploration, beautiful, detailed towns etc Modern tales games don't have a lot of that and it sucks. They improved combat and graphics but thats kinda it. The rest regressed.

[@TheArkhamjester]

I second this and add a third, Tales of Xillia which if I remember right takes place a thousand years after Phantasia and shows the effects of overusing magitech, then called asphyrixis. Also half elves are so bred into the populous that they dont exist. Rather people have Mana lobes and can use magic.

[@WatanukiProductions]

I remember playing this game in college, I had a mostly positive experience despite it being pathetic compared to Symphonia and I could tell that much but I enjoyed it for what it was. I was pretty proud to have gotten the best ending on my first playthrough because I didn't use a guide and just followed my gut and it turns out that if you don't do a whole bunch of things exactly right you're screwed out of the best ending, including seemingly unimportant decisions at the very start of the game. The thing is some of the reoccuring story beats became inside jokes with my friends. "Oh you're Lloyd's friend? Lloyd killed my parents!" That joke was so prevalent in my friend group that we burst out laughing when Harry said, "Voldemort killed my parents!" with the same intonation in Order of the Phoenix, earning us a few looks in the theater.

[@Jessikapus]

I actually don't find Emil's timid, meek and nervous nature to be very insufferable or alienating in itself. I was actually invested in him when I first started the game. The problem is that he effectively has no arc or satisfying resolution. He's also very passive and doesn't proactively push the plot very hard, but I guess that's not saying much because the plot barely exists anyway. Just like evil Lloyd it's an interesting setup with no satisfying payoff.

[@Jessikapus]

In short Emil would probably be a better character if he was in a better story lol

[@jebusauriorets]

I agree i was very invested on emils personality since we rarely have shrinking violet characters, the whole ratatosk mode ruined it for me because any problem or challenge for shy emil would be instantly solved by ratatosk coming out

[@Jessikapus]

@@jebusauriorets Yeah it's not a very satisfying way to develop his character. (calling it development is pretty generous even)

[@Aflay1]

I feel like for Emil to be more effective, a character like Lloyd is needed to drive the plot forward, rather than Emil. I think Emil is more of a protagonist who provides insight as events proceed, rather than initiating the events. He's reactionary. Not only is Lloyd a more familiar character and a fan favorite to attach to while we develop Emil's character, but he is just the kind of character who can bring out the best in Emil without necessarily stealing the show. Keep Emil as the main character, but maintain Lloyd Irving as the driving force, or at the very least, the voice of reason is the change these characters really need. It's not difficult to write around this. You can keep it as the sort of evil impersonator story, but have Lloyd join much sooner, have Emil show reservations toward Lloyd much sooner, and work up to Lloyd being a positive influence for him. And just when their relationship is solidified and Emil has more trust in Lloyd, throw Ratatosk in the mix, and have Lloyd be the voice of reason in that regard. We wouldn't need Ratatosk as the driving force, but as a test of Emil's growth as a character. Emil would work as a timid protagonist if he had better characters to bounce off of. Hell, I'd dare say he had a lot of potential to self reflect. His personality had a lot of potential to be introspective. He's very apologetic. Why? Explain. He has an inner alter ego who contrasts him. They never give him a chance to even BE a character, and it's a shame. I want to like Emil.

[@Jessikapus]

@@Aflay1 Very eloquent. I strongly agree.

[@drewk.4105]

You can absolutely craft stuff you dont own. Thats the only way to get the evolution statues for the high-tier monsters. It only shows you the item in the crafting menu if you have the right "base Item" though. Like it will only show you the Thundercape if you have a Leathercape in your inventory or Red Sage if you have Sage Also for the Monsters evolving back. If you choose to go back to their first form they will get 10% of their current Stats added to their new Form. So they will get more powerful each time you repeat the evolution cycle.

[@mbii7667]

I knew there had to be something to that monster evolution thing

[@LaCazaLP]

Also. The more Darkness Monsters you had the stronger Emils Mystic Art was.

[@LtZerge]

Yeah the monster system is basically the same as Digimon, which I liked. Certainly a grind but fun to make that perfect monster but moving stats and collecting skills.

[@Shosholegbt]

*So this video is fake and says nothing interesting. Only fake stuff…*

[@ben_sisko2149]

I wonder why he didn't gave a heart to this comment... not a fun of being corrected, I guess.

[@KyuubiNaruto41]

You can play as the previous Symphonia characters. You just wouldn't want to their max level is 50 while Emil's and Marta's is 200 and they don't gain levels by xp but by story progress. I played through the game a second time with the 10x xp and by the time I got full access to Lloyd and the gang I was in the level 100 range. It also makes the final fight for the 'good' ending very annoying as they will be level 50 while you are still overleveled making them deal 1 pip of damage per where if you so much as breath on them you win. There is one thing I did like about the game quite a bit. There is a sidequest when you have Lloyd in your party you can go to a few towns to see the damage Lloyd's silence has cost. At one point you are given the choice of who Lloyd had the highest affection for. When heading to Flanoir Lloyd has more people blaming him and he goes to cool off whoever you chose will then comfort Lloyd. Another was one that is easily missable if you don't know about it is you can see Kratos talking with Yuan at Yggdrasil basically saying a final farewell before they can no longer communicate.

[@KirbyUber]

If I recall correctly player 1 was locked to Emil or Marta, players 2-4 can play as the old cast or Emil/Marta, so as it seems the creator was playing solo, the poor guy was locked to Emil or Marta through bad design. Can't play as the monsters either sadly.

[@KyuubiNaruto41]

@@KirbyUber I played the game by myself I was able to play any character I wanted besides the monsters you just have to switch who you control in battle pressing C. Its the same way how you would switch which character you controlled during battle in Symphonia. But like I said you just wouldn't want to as nothing is customizable about them.

[@KirbyUber]

@@KyuubiNaruto41 Ohhhh! Fair point mate. Still silly you can't just set that before battle and yeah, really dumb how their gear and level were set like that. Really hammers home how they are *guest stars* and not the main characters :/

[@woodbevis]

Man, I thought I was crazy, but you literally hit every thought/issue/stress/anger I had about this game. This game should have never had the word "Symphonia" in it's title. Awesome video

[@halkon4412]

I think this is still the only RPG I've fully completed a new game+ run on. Even as a kid I knew it was bad, but the monster collecting gimmick, high level caps and generous NG+ mode made it my go-to "turn brain off and grind" game at the time. It helps that my family only had a Wii, so it wasn't competing with much.

[@canalsincontenido]

Tales games are pretty iconic for having a mildly demanding grinding that you can do for way too long and just stay there doing nothing. Not the best sounding feature, I don't see a bullet point with "just grind forever, it's okay enough!", but it's something that attracts people to the franchise.

[@Kooki_Mawnster]

Yeah same it was the only ever rpg I had seen in that time as a child. I didn't get to play it that much since my brother was a game hog (tbf I suck at games anyways lol) but I held this game closely and got attached to the characters from a young age haha. But I don't blame anyone who sees different I can definitely understand since this is the sequel from another great game (I've never played the first one but always hear great stuff abt it)

[@Xpwnxage]

@@canalsincontenido I enjoy grinding in rpgs as long I love the battle system. One of my favorite things to do in Souls is to just grind enemies for upgrade materials.

[@derpfluidvariant0916]

Just found the game, is the evolution system fun? I've been digging for a game that has an Evolution system akin to "So I'm a Spider, so What?" and more loosely "That time I got reincarnated as a Slime", and this game came up along with some neat looking evolution trees. This video is kinda making me question if I should play or not though, so is it fun enough for someone just looking for a middle ground between pokemon and Disgaea grinding?

[@dekufiremage7808]

@@derpfluidvariant0916 Honestly just pick up one of the new Digimon games for a similar style of evolving monsters or one of the Dragon Quest Monsters game with their similar enough synthesis mechanics

[@LazyTallGuy]

As someone that was obsessed with ToS when it originally came out and one of the few games I’ve played more than 5 times. I was SO disappointed with this “sequel” I agree with pretty much everything you said. Just wanted to add that they didn’t even bother updating the old casts looks a la Xillia 2 but the voice acting was what really annoyed the hell out of me. Lloyd will forever be Scott Menville for me!

[@RisingPhoenix05]

The current best way to play is the translated PS1 version right? I wish that the version that came with Narikiri Dungeon X was translated, it's by far the best version gameplay-wise

[@eschw2444]

One of the disappointing things about the "evil Lloyd" thing was that Decus was such a dumb simp. THIS guy destroyed Palmacosta? Seriously? And it doesn't help that the Lloyd fake-out goes on for sooooooo long. We KNOW Lloyd isn't evil, or at the very least has a very good reason to do what he did, so having character like Raine cast doubt on Lloyd is terribly OOC but it's only done to psych the player out that Lloyd may be evil longer. It doesn't sell at all, so it's just wasting the player's time. Emil sucks. Marta sucks. Alice sucks. Decus sucks. Ratatosk sucks.

[@BlackfangDragon]

The only person who didn’t suck was Tenebrae and that makes it all the more frustrating for me!

[@infernaldisdain8051]

What? They pretty much immediately let the player know that Lloyd is innocent with how he reacts to things. In universe the only ones who really suspect Lloyd are Emile and Marta because they don’t know him or that Decus can shapeshift. Raine’s point was that while she believes in Lloyd she can’t prove his innocence by just believing in him and blind faith in someone or something has gotten in trouble before. Basically “innocent until proven guilty” but his running around without explaining himself makes him look more suspicious than he would otherwise.

[@Kuce]

There’s even a way you can find out more about Alice and Decus. Not that you’d want to but here’s the cliff notes. Alice and Decus are half elf orphans who were badly treated. Alice goes on a killing spree on the people who hurt her and Decus, which is why Decus is horribly subservient to her. It doesn’t really add anything to her already obnoxious character, not really sympathetic. Alice doesn’t even appreciate Decus until AFTER he sacrifices himself for her. And Marta actually feels bad for them after their boss battle to make a last ditch effort to make them sympathetic. The bad guys really suck this time around…

[@MiyaoMeow588]

Do you...not know who Raine is? She's always been the pragmatist of the group. For her to blindly believe in his innocence with no room for considering the contrary is what would actually be OOC

[@AzureRoxe]

@@infernaldisdain8051 The PLAYER knows immediately Lloyd is innocent, but the game stretches out the reveal that he is innocent for most of the damn game.

[@SilverShinobi23]

Man, this brings back memories of when I played this fervently on the Wii. I remember maxing out the Harpy Queen and Big Wolf and beating Lloyd at the beginning of the Unknown difficulty. Seeing Emil and Marta go straight to level 180 from that fight, that stuck with me. This game may not be perfect or great, but I just wanted to share that memory with everyone here

[@jsmith1291]

My least favorite part of this game was a late fight that the players is supposed to lose on purpose for the best ending, by which point you've leveled Emil so much that the guys he's supposed to lose to can barely scratch him even if you deliberately equip lousy equipment on him before this fight. I did this fight, watched some TV while the pitiful enemies inflicted their scratch damage, and I believe it took 30-40 minutes to lose the fight. Did it not occur to anyone programming this game that if the player is doing nothing for a minute or so, they've figured out the gimmick and it would be okay to just say the player met the requirement to lose the fight, skip to the next part, and move on with the story? Who wants to spend 30-40 minutes watching their character get smacked around? It's like the game is actively punishing the player for leveling up, the thing that the player is supposed to do because making the player-character stronger is a basic requirement for progressing with the story in an RPG.

[@remarkable6952]

My guy were you level 200 with maxed out stats on new game + or something? Cause it does not take a half hour to lose the fight lmao not even close, you are REACHING with that statement. And even if you were maxed out it would take maybe 4-5 minutes at the most

[@chocobofangirl]

as the kind of fool who usually at least tries to get to 99 by the end of RPGs I feel him lol@@remarkable6952

[@askovtk4834]

It said something when Emil has better characterization in Tales of the World 3 where he get along with fellow "mode switching" bubby Luca and helps Caius get over his "I am not human" issue (also given the fact he doesnt repeat that phase 1000 times in that game) Tales of the World 3, A GODDAMN SPIN OFF GAME

[@TheREALCarmenR]

I played this game a little a long time ago, and this is all I remember. Colette: *Exists* Marta: Get away from my man you b*tch *ss sl*t. Emil: I am very lame.

[@TequilaMockingBird91]

I’ve never got that Raine “gave up on Lloyd” in Dawn so much as she was gently trying to teach Emil (and Marta, in particular) the value of critical thinking and to rely only on objective facts when making decisions as opposed to subjective impulses. She is a teacher after all so it’s in her nature to teach these things to her “students”. Also, Genis has always maintained an his social awkwardness around Presea, even when he did know the truth of her true age. This is shown in skits in Symphonia where he desperately tries to flirt with Presea by calling her ribbon “cute” (in 3 separate skits) as well as a 4th skit where he’s stressed about trying to find a cute gift for Presea that will cause her to like him.

[@Ekkolocationzz]

Another banger video! DoTW truly is hot dog water. Doesn't deserve the Symphonia title.

[@Majuular]

That is an incredible insult.

[@CaptainAstronaut]

I remember over 10 years ago, playing this game for 20 hours, and not having fun for 20 hours, so I stopped playing it. After watching this excellent review, I'm glad to see I didn't actually miss anything in the rest of the game

[@Majuular]

In fact, you DID miss something - 20 more hours of not having fun lol

[@lordinquisitor6233]

What I find kinda amusing is they probably named it Ratatosk mode because it sounded cool but in reality it’s named after a squirrel from Norse mythology

[@RealEvilLordExdeath]

And you really think they didnt had the posibillity to use Google? U really think they used a word and didnt Research what it was? Let me Tell u something, shiva from final fantasy is also not a woman, but the developers knew that.

[@TwilightWolf032]

One major problem I find with Emil is his voice in English. Since I speak Japanese, I have played the original Japanese title for the Wii on emulators, and his Japanese voice makes him a far more enjoyable character to accompany. The English voice in his normal states makes him too whiny, while his Ratatosk voice makes him too, well, evil. In Japanese, the difference in tones is far more subtle, to the point when he starts pretending to be his other half, it is far more believable that the characters would buy it without taking a good look at his eyes. Japanese Emil sounds like a normal teenager, cracking up jokes with his friends from time to time, but still being awkwardly shy, while Ratatosk sounds like a more confident and no nonsense version of himself, giving both of his sides more charm when they each start showing traits that the other half possesses (like Ratatosk trying to come up with a quick witty remark to Richter after a battle, only for him to embarrass himself instead). English Emil sounds like a whiny bitch with a victimhood fetish at times. It's like he goes out of his way to sound like a little bitch, so much so that even his attempts at gaining a bit of strength and standing up for himself (courage is the magic that turns dreams into reality) come off as insincere on his part whenever he does it. To put it simply, English Emil was Flanderized in his whinyness!

[@going2021]

Johnny young Bosch did his best dont blame the dude the character is just complete garbage

[@TwilightWolf032]

@@going2021 I'm not blaming the voice actor, I'm blaming the voice direction.

[@___________0Z0X]

This, along with the fact that they didn’t get the original voice actors proves to me that the localization team didn’t care too much.

[@TwilightWolf032]

@@___________0Z0X The localization team didn't really care too much on the first title either, just a bit more than on the sequel. Just check the scene where Lloyd and Kratos kill the Desian that turned Lloyd's mother into a monster, Kratos sounds very emotional in the Japanese one but he sounds extremely indifferent in the English version. That was the scene that foreshadowed Kratos' relationship with Lloyd, but he sounds like he does when he's playing the narrator in the English version and it's just jarring.

[@___________0Z0X]

@@TwilightWolf032 I disagree, he sounded very cold and emotional to me. Also, the fact of the English version of the game got an entire different orchestral scene that matched better in my opinion, with the opening tells me that someone cared about localizing the game.

[@j255173]

Oh baby...we don't talk about this game :( I chose to be part of the camp that believes this game is not cannon.

[@mariokarter13]

"Luke from Tales of the Abyss is made to be unlikable." And it worked because he goes through an actual character arc. Intentionally making your protagonist unlikeable is a risky gamble because you're betting on the audience liking the protagonist by the end. If you don't put in the work, your best case scenario is that the audience stops caring about what happens to the protagonist, worst case they start actively rooting for the antagonist.

[@MrBangBat]

The complaint about back and forth busy work reminds me of a complaint I have about the original Suikoden, which I recently replayed: So many sequences are just "go here, then come back." Sometimes a character you need to recruit needs another character in your party. So you have to go back to your base (either teleporting or by boat), then go to the basement, go up to the fourth floor, talk to the NPC who changes your party, mashing through his comments about wine until you get the change party menu, accidentally hit "Admit to Party" when your party's full because you're mashing through text boxes, then wait for the game to load the error message so you can try again, then kick someone out of the party, put the person you need in the party, then go back to the elevator, take it to the basement and then either ride the boat or teleport to the person you need to recruit. And then, sometimes, when they finish the recruitment, the character you used to recruit leaves your party, so you have to repeat this all again to get a full party back. Oh, you don't have the character you need for this plot sequence because no one mentioned it? Rather than have that NPC show up when he's needed, you have to go back to the tower, repeat all the little steps to put him in the party, then go back to where you needed that NPC for main game plot to happen, only for him to be removed from the party so he can do plot. There's a sequence where a major character is upset with a decision you made and leaves a conversation you're in the middle of. You have to go to the elevator, go to the basement, get on the boat, go to the nearby town, go to a nearby house, talk to him where he immediately admits he was wrong and goes back to the tower without you, so you have to repeat all those steps in reverse order just to continue the same conversation you were having before. Because this sequence is so short and pointless it really highlights the problem with back and forth busywork. Anyway, loved Symphonia but was not sold on the hook for the sequel from moment they said "Lloyd's a bad guy! Don't you want to find out why?" I said, "No, it immediately sounds like you don't understand the first game or the characters and you just want to be dramatic to grab attention and I'm not going to give it to you."

[@DuskoftheTwilight]

I have to agree with the offhand statement that this really feels like it was a standalone entry in the Tales series that someone had the bright idea to retool into a Symphonia sequel. It explains so much about how the old cast was treated and depicted.

[@solidsnack912]

Finally lmao, I've watched the original symphonia review 5 times now I enjoyed it that much, can't wait to see this one!

[@dannyinthemiddle969]

Somehow you got me to guess 1....oh higher? Okay 3. Wait lower now? 2? And when you said 2 I was like WOAH is this a magic trick?

[@symphomaniac]

You can actually play as the entire cast. You just have to switch to them after a battle starts. Or in the coliseum. Yes it's stupid, but you definitely CAN play as everyone. I remember how bad most of them felt

[@cirokuma]

LETS FUCKING GO IVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS!!! In advance I think it's worth mentioning that the main scenario writer for ToS/DotNW wanted to have the sequel set 400-ish years in the future, where everyone from the main cast is long dead except for the Sage siblings, only to be pressured into making a story where everyone is alive to appeal to the fans, which I personally thing heavily detracted from the overall story experience. I actually really enjoy Emil as a character but find that the game as a whole is extremely underwhelming as a whole and wish he was in a different game...but maybe that's just me. Same with Alice, who I don't think should've died. I find Marta the one of the worst Tales characters of all time which is saying something because the majority of Tales girls are poorly written. I definitely think the absolute worst part of this game is the way it disregards things established by the first game-- not only story, but with characters too. Emil has what seems to be a pretty serious personality disorder and we spend half of the game with the original cast kind of being asses about it which alway rubbed me the wrong way, especially because it seems so out of character. In the first game we already established that prejudice is bad so why is everyone so intent on treating Emil like an outsider? Not to mention the fact that the main villains for the majority of the game are the vanguard (understandable motivations, poor execution) and the Church of Martel...which should NOT exist, because Genis and Raine made it clear they wanted to reveal the truth about history. They're hailed as saviors of the world, yet apparently the false religion still exists and has power? It makes no sense. And now I'll actually watch the video B)

[@Majuular]

You may find that we disagree on Emil... rather strongly. but I respect your opinion nonetheless. Hope you enjoy(ed)!

[@cirokuma]

@@Majuular I've been pretty actively involved in the Tales fanbase for a long time, so I've definitely seen all the hate around him- and I actually shared that opinion myself for a long time! It's only in one of my many, many (yikes) DotNW replays recently that I've come to enjoy him, but that's just because I relate to him more as an adult more than I did as a kid. You always have very sensible thoughts about games so I definitely look forward to hearing your thoughts on Emil. Honestly, you'll probably give me a new perspective to reflect on. I'm only like 1/5th through the video but I will return 🙌 Also, I'm curious, do you have any plans to review other Tales games? I want to hear your thoughts on ToX1 and 2 because they're really ??? weird and less talked about.

[@Gazeta2nd]

@@cirokuma the Xillia games deserve more love, honestly

[@canariawing]

definitely not just you, i really enjoy emil as a character and a protagonist as well. alice was one of my favorite characters too, though i do feel her death was warranted but it could have been interesting if she was taken into custody and made to pay for her actions

[@capt.bellamy]

I actually like this game. I like emil and his other side, Marta was kinda annoying. I mean I get she's the love interest. And I dont think that a female character should be judged by whether she talks about dudes since there's only 2 thing you can be talking about a dude or a dudette, the grinding is horrible, the levels are way too weird to travel. And the rises in difficulty is ridiculous.

[@wellwhatdidyouexpect3882]

I don’t blame you for not being a fan of the game. Even when I was like 10-12 years old I beat tales of symphonia and loved it so much I couldn’t wait to play more so when this came out I got it and played it with my neighbor. We both gave up like 10 hours in. Even as a kid I I didn’t understand why it was bad but at the same time I couldn’t keep playing.

[@ZellyTheFangirl]

You went over the bad monster collection gimmick but didn't even mention the rng involved just trying to *catch* one of the little jerks. Gotta wrestle with elements just to have a *chance* at *maybe* getting a pact after the fight and they can STILL turn you down! EDIT: Also really hoping we see reviews for the rest of the Tales series from you now! Not all of them of course (Japan only releases make me sad) just the ones you've played. :)

[@alexanderluna4598]

This would make more sense if it wasn’t the easiest thing ever to max out the element gauge with a single element just by spamming artes. Monsters join chance are determined by the gauge that is complete controllable by the player…

[@Synthexor]

I was super fortunate and I was able to play the original Tales of Symphonia with 4 friends, each of us playing different characters during the battles. We had a blast discovering all of the twists and turns of the story and slowly exploring and uncovering the truth of the world. Beating the final boss all together is such a great memory. A year and a half later we got Dawn of a New World and it was the MOST underwhelming experience. I don't even think we made it past the first (what felt like 400) hours in Asgard. We left it behind, but I've always felt a little guilty that I didn't see it through to the end. Thank you for your sacrifice in making this video. I'm now grateful that I didn't waste my time lol

[@ninototo1]

dude im so jealous you got to play symphonia with friends

[@merk40tharealest13]

NERD!!

[@TheWorstPartyMember]

I had a very similar experience except I was playing with my sister! We did a second playthrough of Symphonia maybe a week before the sequel came out, then blasted through the sequel. After the credits rolled we looked at each other and both said "that sucked" and traded it in at GameStop the next day.

[@Nixahma]

A co-op run of Symphonia sounds so fucking cool

[@LaCazaLP]

The final Boss is literally Evil Emil vs Good Emil lmfao. And yes if you die you get a bad ending. You can also get a different ending IF you kill richter and Marta at the end or if they kill you. And i think the best ending was if they kill you. So the BEST ending with the best Titles for both Emil and Marta are locked behind DYING to the final Boss. I CANT LMFAO.

[@Mysticgamer]

I have very few memories of this game but I remember one thing that made me laugh. At one point Colette joins the party for a town or so then you do something (don't even remember) and afterwards Emile and Marta are like thanks Collette, do you want to join our quest? She basically says nope she had something to do then and flies off. I laughed so hard...I didn't blame her in the slightest.

[@abyssalleviathan6904]

Y'know, I like this game and somehow had a good time playing it, and yeah this is all fair. But damn its funny when you realize that one of Emil's bullies also voices Sonic the Hedgehog

[@jessegugs3182]

This image is terribly funny, oh my goodness. Thank you for pointing that out.

[@minhadmahmud2500]

As in Jason griffith?

[@Cross-chan]

@@minhadmahmud2500 Roger Craig Smith

[@nitro8611]

This is one of the few video games that truly, genuinely broke me. I don't know how to explain it, but it's as if the game is tailor made just to annoy the living shit out of me. It's like a bunch of Namco Bandai executives sat down in a conference room and said "Hey, there's this guy named Nitro, let's go out of our way to piss him off specifically."

[@Leiliel1]

As a fan of Dawn of the New World...yeah, the 2:30 theory is pretty accurate. This was my introduction to Tales, and while I know it's objectively worse than Symphonia 1 and the innovations of monster collecting was...never fun, I can't hate it. But please, burn it. I have no more need of this, and like training wheels, to not remove them would be a health hazard.

[@Majuular]

I appreciate your honesty. I occasionally replay Carmen Sandiego & the Secret of the Stolen Drums, so I can relate.

[@queengames8421]

Shameless Dawn of the New World fan here, I agree completely. Stuff like the Lloyd being evil thing both has less impact but also seemingly makes more sense when you've never touched any of the games before at all.

[@anonymoususer2336]

I really wish they'd make a proper sequel for Symphonia. Being the first "breakout" success for the Tales of series, I feel like it really deserves a PROPER revisit.

[@zedorian6547]

It had a "proper" sequel. It had DotNW. If you want a full Tales of game for a sequel then you have Tales of Phantasia

[@Aeterny]

​@@zedorian6547 Did you even play the original? Do you even know that fans believe Phantasia is 4,000 years after Lloyd reunited the two worlds? The ending shows us that everyone would be going forward with their personal goals in addition to helping the united world transition to a bright future without discrimination, Exspheres, and a reliance on the church. All of this and more could’ve been expanded upon in a proper sequel, by exploring the actions of the characters, especially as they work together and more than likely stop a war from Tethe’alla and dismantle resistance movements from those who want to continue using Exspheres as well as abusing half-elves.

[@t.j.8388]

“Magnitude 10 Bitch Boy” has got to be one of the best insults I’ve heard in recent memory

[@caravaneerkhed]

I beat arise, and now I’m playing through vesperia, and then berseria, and then I’ll go back to symphonia.. and I very much intend to play symphonia 2 as well… so I can’t wait to hate it with context

[@Zaothus]

I got this bundled with Symphonia 1 on the PS3 collection. Played 50 hours of Symphonia, to the end credits, and had a blast doing it. Fired up Dawn of the New World, played for 3 hours, then went "nope, I'm out," and haven't ever touched it since. :)

[@going2021]

Just means the rest of us like tos more.

[@switch4964]

Recently got back into Tales thanks to Arise. Found you through that Symphonia review and now I'm watching this. Can't seem to find any long-form reviews of these games so I'm very glad to have stumbled on you. Looking forward to checking out your other vids over my weekend too. Cheers!

[@nightmarishcompositions4536]

Arise was a great return to form for the Tales series. I’m excited to see what future entries will look like!

[@knox7945]

Arise was great, it just needed that multiplayer that Tales had before.

[@StephenLewisUniverse]

It's like the dev team watched "The Final Sacrifice" and decided that weenie of a hero would be a great idea to model their main character off of.

[@MmeCShadow]

"Some of my favorite games" > Footage of NIER > Footage of Deadly Premonition I was already getting this vibe as I worked through your other reviews but I appreciate the confirmation: you are a man of *impeccable* taste.

[@VladDascaliuc]

Hey dude, I found you after searching Tales of Symphonia on a whim and catching your sexy 2h and 20 min review of it, and being a fan of both RPGs and long form analysis, your content is right up my alley. You've got a knack for making it flow smoothly, and a great voice to pair it with. That aside, I'm kinda curious if you've ever played the Breath of Fire games? Specifically 3 and 4. I'd be curious what you think of them, mostly because it makes me kinda sad how forgotten they are. 3 is basically my favourite game.

[@Majuular]

Never played BoF but want to try it someday. The pixel art in 3 & 4 is absolutely gorgeous. I also like the Westernized "Conan the Barbarian" marketing aesthetic Capcom went for with the SNES games lol

[@planescaped]

@@Majuular I loved Breath of Fire 3. To this day it still has one of my favorite shock reveals of all time. Make sure you avoid spoilers.

[@Rex13013]

@@Majuular Random question but I'm also a jrpg an long form analysis fan that have been loving these videos since the Tales franchise is one of if not my favorite, so I was wondering if you were gonna look over the other games like Vesperia, Abyss, Graces and Xillia? If you're not taking a break like you said at the end

[@RobzdaBlade]

This Channel DEFINITELY deserves more subs. Man puts mad work into his vids.

[@LastFantasiaWeapons]

Early into my first, only, and last playthrough of Dawn of the New World, I realized I was on a tour bus. You go to all the places you've been to before, meet people you already know, and see things you already did. None of the old puzzles in the old dungeons have been reset, but oh wow, there's some extra room to the elemental dungeon! Each dungeon. And you will be revisiting all of them. The pinnacle of this is when Emil and Regal are stuck in some dungeon, and Regal decides to break his vow to never use his hands for violence and break out by firing a kamehameha. He... already did this. This is a beat for beat retread of Tales of Symphonia. And Emil and Marta's relationship was just the absolute worst. Emil swings from being a sniveling, pathetic loser with no redeeming qualities, to an insane, murderous psychopath with no redeeming qualities, and Marta is, for no reason what-so-ever, head over heels in love with Murderous Psychopath Emil. And being in love with that weirdo is her only character trait! So much so that "I love you Emil!" is one of her victory quotes!

[@andrewbenner6349]

I'm so glad to find out I wasn't missing something. That it was just not there to begin with. What was there was convoluted nonsense. I loved Abyss and Vesperia.

[@Syoubat]

I didn't mind dawn of the new world but I agree it wasn't nearly as good as symphonia

[@ichaukan]

The best part of Dawn was Tenebrae. The irony is real.

[@ratatosk02]

I'm gonna be completely honest with the following: Although I did and still do enjoy DotNW, I will admit (and believe me this does hurt to say), that it is not good. When I was fairly young, probably around the age of 6 or 7 or maybe 8, my older brother (great guy love him) introduced me to a franchise called 'Tales of'. Now DotNW had just come out, so had Vesperia. We played a bit of both together, Vesperia being the first (although I barely have any memory of that one perhaps due to me playing very little of it), with DotNW being the second. I saw bits and pieces such as the Bad Ending, snippits of the start where Marta and Emil are in the cave near the Luin Lakebed, etc. Hell, I swear there's a scene of the big guy in armor, I forget his name (he appears in Luin after the cave segment) in the ice temple. I swear there's scenes where Emil says "You bastard." Although both of these could be the Mandela Effect in my head. Anyways, after probably a year, I almost completely forgot about the franchise as a whole, and this remained true until 2020. I still have my Wii, and those memories of DotNW, although little and few and far between, kept surfacing in my mind. So I checked, and there it was in the cabinet. So I opened the case and the disc was gone. I looked for it for about a week, went to a nearby game store in my town, and to my luck, found another copy. So then I replayed it, my brother got me ToS1 on Steam, and I played that one too (albeit after DotNW). And honestly, after everything, after experiencing both games to their near fullest (Still need to beat 2nd playthrough on DotNW & 3rd on ToS), I can say that ToS is vastly better than DotNW. Although, to me, Emil's character development is dealing with anger issues, MPD, etc, the more I look back on it, I can't help but see the game quickly returns to "Hey, Marta's holding me hostage through love and affection." And although in Chapter 3, she recognizes she's put him on too high of a pedestal, that's all that there was for the conflict (at least from what I remember). I saw Lloyd, a kid who's ideals changed from saving Sylvarant to Colette to both worlds and everyone else included, to... being framed by a simp for slaughtering a town he helped save? I saw Raine go from a rather observant and very intuitive woman to one who would doubt her "greatest student's" own actions. I saw Regal, who for some reason never removed his handcuffs despite making peace in ToS1? Sheena's back, always happy to see Igaguri Style (That victory screen quote is still hilarious to me). Zelos is seemingly happier, and ironically the person who doubts Lloyd is guilty, although he himself was rather somewhat observant as well. Presea was shoehorned in near the end of the game. Colette is still our favorite klutz, and Genis grew a 16th of an inch! As of typing this, I'd like to add that both Vesperia and DotNW released in 2008. Vesperia apparently went on to beat the PlayStation in Japan, causing the Xbox to have a dominant market there for a little while which is wild to me. Anyways, if there's one thing I know without a doubt, Bamco needed to do the characters, especially the legacy cast a lot more justice. If anything, I think DotNW should've been developed and released a couple years after Vesperia, being made with the focus of making it into another main (Mothership) title. The legacy cast should've had more to do, shouldn't have had fixed levels, etc. They were just kind of there, and that's disappointing to me. And I spoke with my brother about this too. We both agree that ToS1 is a vastly superior game with an amazing story. But we also agreed that DotNW is still a decent Tales of game, but by no means is it a good sequel. Perhaps the people reading this will think I'm being too nice to DotNW. I don't know. Personally, I love these characters, from both games. I hope we get more of them. I hope we get a Symphonia prequel with the Ancient Kharlan War and whatnot. Anyways, I apologize if this isn't very coherent. I'm just someone who was introduced to this great franchise as a kid, nearly forgot about it, but then rediscovered it through DotNW. For that reason alone, I love this game. I love the franchise, I just hope to see more of these characters, perhaps in a remaster Bamco keeps teasing as of late. Regardless, you earned another subscriber.

[@0mni42]

If I had a nickel for every time the sequel to a major JRPG reduced the number of playable characters from a full party to two and made up for the lack of variety with a frustrating and unsatisfying monster-collecting mechanic, while having the story take a drastic left turn away from everything that made the previous one interesting, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, etc. (The other one is FFXIII-2.)

[@Hardworlder]

This game seems like a prime example of why voice DIRECTION is so important. You can have top tier actors and it doesn't matter if the person telling them what to do is clueless.

[@___________0Z0X]

Precisely, it doesn’t matter that these were all professional voice actors.

[@TequilaMockingBird91]

I know this isn’t much of a defense, but the reason why the original party members are not playable is because it’s an homage to the original idea of “guest characters” that was considered for Symphonia 1 but was scrapped. The idea was that you can have 3 members in your party 1 additional party member known as the “guest party member”. Similar to Dawn, guest members couldn’t be controlled by a human player, you can’t change their equipment and they would ignore any party commands the leader makes. They pretty much just did whatever they wanted to do. Kratos was expected to be the first guest character pretty much for the entire Sylverant Arc. Then Sheena in Tethe’alla (the original idea was that she actually helps with the renegades rescue the team after Yggdrasil almost defeats them. The anime is an homage to this as well) Then it was Presea up until she learns about Alicia, then it was Regal until he morns Alicia, then finally it was Zelos up until he betrays the team. Again, not much of a defense but just found this interesting that Dawn wanted to bring something back that was scrapped from the original.

[@Vaskalen]

What pissed me off the most about this game (yes I bought it and played about 2 hours or so of it) was that the VAs would constantly mispronounce names. The worst offender being Palmacosta. It's spelled and pronounced 'Pah-alm-ah-coh-stah' in the original game, however they would ALL say it as 'Pah-alma-caw-stah'. The voice directors couldn't be bothered to look up how it was said in the last game and to me that was a big indicator of quality, so I turned it off for the last time and never looked back. I still have it somewhere, buried in the depths of my game collection. I blocked the rest out from my memory. Thanks for both this review and the one for Symphonia! Keep up the great work!

[@JurianChibo]

I'm commenting so late considering I literally already watched this video months ago. I didn't remember the courage line. For me, the line that got repeated so many times that it became an inside joke with myself was the "Are you a man? Or a dog?" one anyway I finished this game and liked it. I can't explain how, that was absolutely forever ago...

[@josephklause4869]

50:35 Luke is made to be unlikable. Yes, but he has also one of the best character developments I've ever experienced in a game.

[@RazorBladezX]

Many man tears in that game.

[@cosmo7314]

Eh, He still treated Mieu like crap even though he had his developmen😅 Kinda made his development sour for me, I liked Judes and to some extent Velvet development more.

[@Aeterny]

A proper sequel could’ve focused on the original cast and everyone they helped, the ending presented the seen and unseen positives and negatives of a reunited world with the characters being free to go forward with their personal goals while helping to make the world a better place. In addition to dealing with discrimination in its original form which was directed against half-elves, it would also deal with how the people of Tethe’alla and Sylvarant would treat each other considering the wealth and technology and stability of the former, this would pull Dwarves into the mix and allow Dirk and Altessa to shine, expose the elves’ reasoning behind xenophobia and isolationist stance, and it would deal much better with the unforeseen widespread destruction when Martel was revealed, the crumbling positions of the respective Chosen’s, resistance to relinquishing Exspheres, political instability and destabilization, any half-elves who remained, and so much more.

[@cirocustodio]

I was going to ask if you ever saw the scene of yuan talking to kratos but this game doesn't deserve that kind of attention

[@Bitbritly]

Thank Martel I am not the only one who thought this game was shit. I had hopes for this game, since ToS was one of my beloved games i literally played it over and over again. I played it so much that the guidebook fell apart, i was that obsessed with it. When i herd Dawn of the New World was coming out as the sequel, that was my reason asking my parents for a Wii i kid you not.

[@___________0Z0X]

Well, at least you had a Wii to play Brawl on.

[@Bitbritly]

@@___________0Z0X I really didn't play much Brawl on the Wii that much. If anything I played Melee more, and the GameCube games I own.

[@smithsmith6402]

I never got around to playing Symphonia when it came out, but after hearing praise for it for years I decided to give it a shot. I mistakenly played this instead thinking it was just a remake or something. Dropped it very quickly and was completely baffled as to how it could have had a cult following.

[@ChiefMedicPururu]

I hope that mistake was ever fixed.

[@yourhorseyepona7309]

That's pretty much the story of my younger self, minus the feeling that my kid self dreamt it up somehow with how few people talked about its sequel😅.

[@cyclonegale]

While I won't disagree DotNW is a poor sequel, feels like some of the points you were making were entirely glossed over and just wrapped up as a "It's bad". Some things were missed, but I assume they were skipped over for time's sake on a game you already don't like. (SPOILERS, I guess) Enemies never really felt like damage sponges, except for certain types (Golems, Treants). Especially when you can get Emil's second best weapon in the game by the time you get to Izoold (Echo Tracer). Accelerate is a busted skill and to give it to you that early makes the rest of the game a breeze, even if Emil doesn't hit as hard individually, chaining your artes infinitely makes up for it. Arte clarity is definitely not up to par. Emil and Marta's artes don't even really follow naming conventions properly. Like, he gets Demon Fang, but the upgrade is called Dual Death? Manipulating the Element circles in the bottom right gets significantly easier as the game goes on and you obtain more cores because Emil can augment his basic Artes with elements. Also the lack of unique unison attacks is a crime. I agree with you on quests for the most part. 95% of them are inconsequential, boring, repetitive, and not really worth the hassle. Except for the quests that give you the notes which allows you to unlock the two end game bonus dungeons that have the best equipment in the game. You don't even need to be capable of completely beating Twilight Palace to get some of the stuff that lets Marta stunlock everything with Photon forever. The other bonus dungeon gives you the unique monster and Marta's best weapon. But by this point you don't really need either, as your monsters have been raised by now (And you have the entire ToS1 cast at this point) and Marta already kills everything by spamming instant cast Photon. The story had potential I think. The hook of Lloyd supposedly being a bad guy, even though we all know it can't ever be possible, is a strong way to start. I kind of like Emil being a spineless softboy, at least at the start. Much for the same reason as Luke was a spoiled rich kid. It's kind of refreshing to have a protagonist that doesn't proclaim his ideals of right and wrong and what not to every bad guy, or tries to rush in to fix everything guns blazing. Although once the Vanguard is dealt with, that was probably the last high point for me. While I can understand most of the original cast not wanting much to do with Emil and his hatred for Lloyd, but having them come with a preset level and gear without a chance to make them better is just not good. It sucks that they put in so many optional scenes in a game where you are kind of actively discouraged from returning to places after you've gone there. Learning more about Decus and Alice in a scene in Hima, the scene with Yuan and Kratos, there's a lot of optional scenes that are ridiculously easy to never see. Richter is wasted on this game. He's got a pretty standout design, cool weapons, a cool fighting style, and in any other game would probably be a favorite if he were among the main party members in a better written game. Mystic Artes were done dirty. We finally get full cutscene Mystic Artes and they wasted the opportunity. I shouldn't say "MAs are too long" because I should be hyped when they're happening. Yuri's Savage Wolf Fury (With the skill extension) is long but I never once complained about that because it had impact. Mystic Artes have no visual or audial impact in this game. Jump cuts all over the place, nothing really happens, and the hit sounds and just as if they were hitting the enemy normally. Whack.

[@Majuular]

I think you give some fair criticisms, and I can't deny that my general exhaustion playing the game factored into some less in-depth viewpoints on certain topics.

[@cantbehelped]

The voice actor recasting was such a sore spot for me back in the day. I remember beating the game, but I can't say I ever looked at the game favorably. I tried playing it co-op years later and it was a fun time but not fun enough to ever warrant a second session. The worst part is an actual good sequel to Symphonia on the Wii could have changed the course of this franchise for the better. DotNW is one of the weirdest cases of "not offensive gameplay paired with the most botched sequel in existence." Anyway, you're taking a break from Tales for now which is probably for the best but if you ever come back to it my man, check out the game that Symphonia is a prequel to: Tales of Phantasia (I beg you to play the PS1 version translated but refer to the abysmal GBA script from time to time. They literally call The War of Ragnarok "the Kangaroo War" at one point) and it's also low profile Japan only sequel on Gameboy (which got PSP remake)

[@costby1105]

It was likely a deadline crunch combined with Namco being less experienced with Localization compared to Square-Enix and excessive use of Spellcheck without proof reading. I wouldn't be surprised if Nintendo n late 2005 offered to publish if for international release as they had done for all the Final Fantasy Ports.

[@XxJensei15xX]

Never clicked on a video so fast. Love your stuff man and this video put into words everything I've ever felt about this game. I bought this game on release date and honestly I've never felt so much regret ever. (Hopes for an Abyss video for the icing on the cake as for me it's definitely one of the better entries in the series by a far margin)

[@AdellRedwinters]

I remember I played this game for about 3 chapters and got bored and gave up, which was CRAZY to me cause symphonia was like a defining rpg of my childhood.

[@spacedoyster7686]

Dawn of the New world has what I like to call "Bad Sequel Syndrome," although I probably shouldn't coin a phrase for a phenomenon I've only noticed in two games, but whatever. It flanderizes the returning cast, puts much more emphasis on romance, attempts to add way too much comedy, and undercuts what came before by trying to one up the previous story. The other game with these same problems is Bravely Second, if you're curious. The gameplay is significantly better, at least, but that's about the only point in its favor.

[@noneofyourbusiness7965]

Hey, I just wanted to take a moment to offer some encouragement. I subbed after your fourth video and you are already one of my favorite content creators. I'm a long time subscriber of SsethZeentach and Mandalore Gaming and you are nearly at their level. Your humor isn't quite their level yet but your story telling is very well done, the long form videos you are putting out are my favorite sort, and the writing structure is excellent. I'm hoping you stick around for a long time. You are killing it!

[@Majuular]

I really appreciate the kind words. Sseth and Mandalore are among my favorite creators on here, so the comparison means a lot. I'll keep honing my craft and I hope you keep enjoying the vids :)

[@radicalantitheist]

@@Majuular in my opinion Sseth is pure comedy and little else madalore is pure review and little else so i would not make the direct comparison but rather you are kind of synthesis of the two in a longer form

[@Fightookaishii]

Watching your Tales reviews got me into the series, I'm grateful man!

[@cuerdencats4151]

Wow I loved Tales of Symphonia, and when I got my hands on the sequel it couldn't hold my interest and I gave up about 15 hours in. All I can say is, I am proud of you for having the courage to beat this game. I guess it's really true what they say; Courage is the magic that turns dreams into reality.

[@gamrage]

With everyone talking about Xenoblade Chronicles 3 right now, you talk about the game that everyone tries to forget. You keep on doing you man!!

[@EmperorJustin]

Hell yeah, been looking forward to this one.

[@schelleanne09]

I APPRECIATE ALL OF THIS. This entire video has hashed out precisely what I've been saying since playing this game about 15 years ago. I was so disappointed. Insulted. Upset. And particularly aggressive towards people who defend it. I've since toned it down on the last one, since being part of the wider tales fan community involves being respectful of others' experiences and contexts, but to say that I would ever play this game again sober or for free would be a lie. I played DotNW the one time. I've replayed Symphonia over 14 times since 2003 and it's always as fun as the first time. Just. Thank you so much for making this video, taking the time to play the game and write your thoughts. I feel so validated just listening to all the same things I had problems with back in the day. Your hard work is appreciated, truly 💙

[@hoboayoyo]

You're introduction and summary of the failing of DOTWN is nothing short of outstanding. The way this game poorly retreads on themes and idea's of TOS and how DOTNW has nothing meaningful or interesting to say. Emil's 'character', the centurions, the villain being a poor imitation of Mithos pains me to remember that this game exists.

[@LOREWITHBLAZER]

NGL Dawn of the new world was actually good in my opinion story wise but gameplay wise I didn’t like the party system

[@lowedelta]

Dawn of the new world is what got me into the Tales of series. I can see the flaws of it but still.. It will always have a special place in my heart.

[@OminousToast]

If someone criticizes you for liking the game just remember... Courage is the magic that turns dreams into reality!

[@___________0Z0X]

Honestly, I consider you lucky for playing this game first. Since you played Don of a New World first everything the game did seemed groundbreaking to you. And honestly, it’s a pretty good RPG if you consider its lack of competition on the Wii. And you could play the original since the Wii is backwards compatible.

[@briannamoonrise]

i played the original as my first tales of game but i played dawn of the new world and the monster mechanic just hooked me more than the original however i do like the original aswell honestly i think people overcriticize dawn of the new world but thats just my opinion

[@Landmasters]

Funny thing about the ending that wasn't mentioned, in that there are multiple. The Good and Best ending aren't much to write home about, just some basic choices and a points system that determines if you get one or the other. The area of intrigue in the Bad Ending, which to be fair you can easily avoid if you pay attention to the dialogue...though that requires being invested enough to give a shit If you get the bad ending, you not only get no credits sequence, but you don't get access to the GRADE shop. So if you slogged through this game to enjoy breaking the game for New Game+ and made the mistake of getting the bad end? Do it all over again. To be fair you can just reload and try again from what I remember, it's not like Undertale where having the audacity to want to see the genocide route disables the Best Ending permanently (unless you fiddle with program files, fuck that)

[@Karuoko]

- Majuular : "beloved characters are ripped to shreds by a group of writers who don't understand the gift they've been given in license to work with such amazing source..." - All Star Wars, Lotr, James Bond's fans : "first time eh ?"

[@planescaped]

Space Guy was a pretty cool movie eh, he did laser sword fights and wasn't afraid of anything. Shame he became undead though...

[@DeltafangEX]

Eureka Seven and Darker than Black fans too...

[@1SpicyMeataball]

Y'know this game came out before Disney Star Wars, the new James Bond and Lotr: Rings of Power right? It was preparing us.

[@versebuchanan512]

We've had our differences in the past, but you watch Darkplace, so now I'm subbed. I will fight to the death in thy name.

[@Ogre32890]

I remember playing through Symphonia 2 for the first time and constantly trying to give it some kind of credit. While I did finish the game it wasn't until I re-played Symphonia 1 again that I realized how horrible the writing truly was. It had been a while since I'd been through the original and once I'd re-lived that it just made Dawn of the New World feel like an insult to what Symphonia created. Also I played Dawn through with a friend and I cannot explain to you how torturous of a venture that is. Marta leaves the party in nearly every other scene and once you get her back you have to re-set her up for manual play almost from scratch: Every. Single. Time.

[@matthewdyck5503]

While watching the musical segment, I thought to myself wow does this music sound like it was composed by the guy that makes the mario tennis and golf games. And to no surprise it is. Motoi Sakuraba is out of this world good. The prog influences are so damn awesome.

[@fluffymcfluffington3188]

Have you ever heard of one of GameCubes hidden RPGs? Baten Kaitos. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts about that one. If you're looking for more games around that era anyway.

[@fightstyleleewill5003]

This is the first time in my adult life, where I am on KZbin and the introduction to a video was utterly FLAWLESS!!! I literally just paused the video at 3 mins and relate word for word of what this man is saying!!

[@jaye5716]

God I hate hate HATE Emil and Marta, while i do feel for the Bullshit they have to go through, Along with Ritcher my poor gay gay gaaay mommy daddy. Their hole dynamic was mostly toxic and obnoxious not to mention they themselves were just SOOO ANNOYING, EMIL for obvious reasons and Marta for Mutiple reasons. Least the original casts was still done well, I also loved our personal Team Rocket that hounded us every step of the way! Gosh those two were sooo much more likable lmao. My favorite character to play in the game would definitely have to be Regal, MFER WAS A BEAST UNLEASHED.

[@planescaped]

Emil is definitely one of the most unappealing protagonists I've ever seen...

[@JuniperArt98]

This is very late but does anyone know what that 1st person dungeon crawler with the fairies is at 36:20

[@blackdragoncyrus]

Shining the Holy Ark.

[@RisingPhoenix05]

The best thing about this game was a secret side quest where you saw Yuan and Kratos talk one final time before Derris Kharlan flies too far away for communication. The only in-character interaction I felt was in the game aside from the Lloyd/Collete scene in Aselia.

[@eros439]

Ayo lets go another vid! I’ve been rewatching your legend of dragoon and symphonia reviews every now and then as well as the vanquish one. Keep up the great work man I love it

[@dntknonuttin]

funny story I just wanna say, I ended up playing (a little due to us not having enough time) a bit of TOS with my mom, and she really liked it, we got as far as midway of Sylvarant. And though we never played it much after together, she watched me play quite a bit on my own and reacted to the emotional bits and such... We turn on the Wii, and try to play TOS: dawn of the new world. And... in 10 minutes she is like "yeah I don't really... like this, it feels different than I expected." I continued to play (I was a teen too so I was not offended at all). But yeah the entire game just feels off...

[@Slaanash]

Fun (?) fact: Emil is something like the 10th most popular character in the series as of the 2013 Tales character poll.

[@angelcesarfloresgonzalez6834]

The only ONE good thing that keeps me replaying this game its just hearing Lloyd' words "I Love you" to Colette. Everything else is a fanfic but that puntual moment is canon in my mind. Great video!

[@Maioly]

... I need you to review tales of arise I feel it shares a LOT of the issues you.mentioned with this one, but has far more praise. 23:24 hell even this is a very big issue with arise too!

[@omensoffate]

Tales of arise was so bad

[@Maioly]

@@omensoffate yes And yet people keep praising it Was told it was the best talea game of recent time And Its the only game of the recent few years I gave up on finishing, and I never do that. And not even touching on spoiler stuff Hell, as I wrote this i realized it has the exact same issues this one has with its skits too.

[@omensoffate]

@@Maioly dude the writing in arise is so bad. I got to like the 3rd town and had to delete it. It was so painful. I guess anime graphics makes a good game now.

[@Maioly]

@@omensoffate Oh, dude, it gets WORSE so much fucking worse. Very vague spoilers below the cut. But how do you feel about the game suddenly trying to say the genocidal, enslaving, comically evil space magic nazis were actually decent people all along? including a fucking sidequest to try and go. "see, they cared about each other, that means they were not as bad" Or how about an Anti-revenge anti-killing character arc appearing out of fucking nowhere, and directed at a character who is directly responsible for multiple genocides and was cackling evil-ly while another happened JUST A FEW SECONDS before!? OH, and how do you feel about the game LITERALLY RIPPING OFF NIER AUTOMATA, DOWN TO HAVING ITS OWN VERSIONS OF THE RED GIRLS!? There is even more, but I am already going into more detailed spoilers with this shit... That game's writing just gets worse and worse as it goes along... And thats not touching on the craptastic, half assed sidequests, including some that pop up later on that are OBVIOUSLY there to make you buy the microtransactions for level boosters and shit.

[@planescaped]

@@Maioly Every jrpg is *someone's* first/beloved. You'll find people who say anything and everything is the "best rpg ever made" I saw posts where people were saying that about Ys 8... I mean, it's a decent enough game... but claiming it to be the best jrpg ever made is just preposterous. XD Heck, there's games I loved as a kid that adult me would have absolutely zero time for. Any JRPG can be magical under the right circumstances... like Dawn of the New World.

[@spoopskeletal2873]

Saturday AND and hour long majuular video? Hell yeah

[@shawnconway6009]

It took me a while until you talked about the story for me to remember something that was tucked away in my brain from college. My friends actually bought and played this, and one of the jokes was 'SHUT UP EMIL' because he was such an insufferable loser. Like we made that a joke, and I forgot all about that until watching this video and my brain went 'SHUT UP EMIL' and brought on memories from more than a decade ago. So thanks for that.

[@nazi534]

There are only really three or four truly interesting side quests in the game. Richter, Kismet, Emil's unique weapon, and the handful of interesting unique monster evolutions.

[@weekbeecher8592]

Your approach to these types of videos is uniquely good.

[@jetstar157]

I just finished watching your Symphonia review, so it was a nice surprise to see this recommended to me! This game really was a let down, especially since the first Symphonia is my absolute favorite Tales game and just my favorite video game period. There were aspects I liked about this game. I liked Emil's character and thought he was fine (I know this is a hot take), the character models (even though I wished this game maintained the vibrant and colorful palette of the first game), and I liked Tenebrae and Ratatosk. I wish we could have gotten a proper sequel to Symphonia that really lived up to the legacy of the first. I would love to see more Tales of reviews from you, especially Vesperia and Abyss. Great job!

[@dianslabbert504]

To defend Dawn's lore only slightly on the topic of the Centurions and the locations of their alters. It was actually explained that Mithos and Cruxis built the summon temples on top of the Centurions' alters because the mana is densest in those locations and were suitable locations in order to enact his plan to separate Tethella and Sylvarant. The Summon Temples after all were also technically a sort of prison for the Summon spirits. And with the many centuries that passed between the events of Mithos' journey and the formation of Cruxis and the Church Martel to the events of Symphonia 1 it makes sense that information would be lost to time and kept secret by the highest ranking members of Cruxis. So in my opinion is an interesting expansion to the lore in that regard at least and makes you wonder how much exactly did Mithos, Martel, Kratos and Yuan experience on their journey. Otherwise everything else you have covered in the video is accurate and relatable

[@celestielsigh]

Symphonia is really close to my heart, first jrpg I ever played and one I got to experience from start to finish with my little brother. The sequel really hurt me with how bad it was lol Feels good listening to you rip it to shreds!!!!