The ever popular Japanese role-playing game (JRPG) genre is full of long running series, each obsessively adored by their own devoted fan bases who eagerly hail each new instalment as a life changing epic of majestic proportions. This kind of enthusiasm is easy enough to understand when talking about the leading series, the and Dragons Quests of the world for example, it is however, distinctly less so when talking about many of the more middle of the road sagas knocking around release schedules each year.

One such series is the 'Tales' games, specifically the new exclusive Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World. With a history that stretches back over twenty plus games and fifteen years it's been around for a while without ever really archived the kind of mainstream success the big boys of the genre have managed, preferring instead to tread a solid yet predictable path through JRPG history.

Larger video: 1mb   HD

At first glance Dawn of the New World's plot about a pointy haired yokel destined to save the world and avenge the death of his parents doesn't appear offer much of a defence against the oft levelled accusation that the majority of JRPGs contain stories so cliche ridden they could have been generated by a multiple choice quiz. Set two years after the previous outing (the original Tales of Symphonia), there's an intentional sense of familiarity to the world and its characters that will no doubt please those fans keen to revisit old friends and locations.

Unfortunately as the game and its story progress, and while the cliches admittedly do become less glaring, they are replaced by a narrative that anyone who missed the GameCube game may find hard to follow. Taking on the role of Emil (because you officially can't have a JRPG hero with a decent name) you'll play through a story that returns you to Tethe'alla and Sylvarant, two worlds reunited since the birth of a new World Tree. All is not well however, the death of the old World Tree has caused an imbalance meaning huge climate change and the appearance of terrifying roaming monsters.

It's worth pointing out at this point that while the story is at best nonsense (and at worst confusing nonsense) the game really doesn't help its cause with some painfully sloppy translation. Considering the tangled nature of the plot you'd have thought more attention would have been paid to making sure the script actually made sense. It's also a bad idea to create a lead character who, when not actually fighting something, is quite possibly the least heroic hero I've been asked to play in years - spending most of his time moaning and apologising. The aforementioned shortcomings in the scripting department mean that any character interactions, particularly with companion and love interest Marta, that may go some way to helping you warm to him, come across as stilted and devoid of emotion each and every time.

Despite the story trying to fool you into thinking there's a lot going on here, Dawn of the New World is actually painfully linear. Your continual drudge from location to location is never anything less than signposted and even when you think you've got the freedom to ignore it and go backwards to places you've previously visited you find little of value with all possible options and interactions already exhausted on your previous visit. Even side quests feel forced with your party warping to and from the depressingly small dungeons rather than you having to travel there yourself. Weapon and armour upgrades follow a similar pattern, each new town offers the next level of each item, your only really choice is if you want to buy it or not. Such linearity causes problems with the levelling at times too, move through the plot too fast missing out some of the side quests and you'll find yourself too weak to progress without a bout of grinding.

One age old JRPG convention that has thankfully been side-stepped is the idea of random battles. Instead enemies appear on screen before battles are triggered giving you the chance to pick when, and if, you tackle them. When a battle does kick-off things play out in real-time, al la previous Tales games which does make a nice change from the turn-based shenanigans of most JRPGs. There's always a tendency for this kind of real-time combat to become a bit button bashy and it has to be said that Dawn of a New World doesn't avoid this pitfall entirely despite its best intentions. However, it's also surprisingly satisfying at times and there is a fair degree of fun to be had chaining combos with the A button, performing Arte (magic) attacks with B, and getting your party together for joint Unison assaults with C.

The AI that controls your companions isn't too bad either, and you've always got the option to issue tactical orders via the battle menu if you want a bit more control. It's also nice to discover that up to three of your (real life) friends can join in with battles too, taking direct control of party members to give Dawn of the New World something of a co-op feel at times. These real-time multi character control battles are by far the best bit of Dawn of the New World and really deserve to have found themselves in a better game to let you appreciate them to their fullest.

One other feature worth mentioning is the ability to add monsters to your party as you play, by defeating them using the correct elementally aligned Arte attacks. Once captured monsters are able to fight alongside you in your party and you can even improve their abilities by cooking them special stat boosting meals. Unfortunately your human companions do tend to be more powerful than your collected monsters pretty quickly and there's little real motivation to build up much of a menagerie once the novelty of the collection and feeding process wears thin.

Disappointingly there's not been a huge improvement in the visuals since the GameCube original, in fact it wouldn't be outlandish to imagine Nintendos previous console was the original intended platform for this sequel too such is the lack of spit and polish applied to the visuals. Things aren't helped by the loss of the original's cel-shaded look either, while environments have been rendered with more jaggy edges that you should be seeing these days on any console. Spell effects are one visual plus point with some suitably flashy effects on display when you cast some of the more powerful spells.

The slightly dated feeling seeping from the game engine isn't helped by the decisions to use the corner cutting static headshot style of cut-scene a lot of the time. Who needs emotion and atmosphere when you can fade between a limited selection of still images to keep the viewer interested. Some bits of the game world have nice touches of detail here and there but for the most part it all comes across as very lifeless and uninspiring. Combine that with a frustrating lack of interactivity even in the more densely populated locations and annoyingly restrictive linearity and you're never even slightly encouraged to feel like you're exploring a real place.

The thing is, despite all my moaning, there's not anything fundamentally wrong with Dawn of the New World. It offers a pleasingly long adventure (although a lot of that time will be spent watching the painful cut-scenes) for those willing to give it the chance, its over plotted attempts at story will no doubt please fans already well-versed in the mythology and the battles are by far the game's strongest feature. In fact, it fits the JRPG template perfectly, a success which is also perhaps its greatest failing. By so obviously not trying to do anything new or interesting it casts a glaringly bright light on how stagnant the genre has become once you dip your toe outside of the big name franchises. Five, perhaps even ten years ago Dawn of the New World would have seemed somewhat mediocre, in 2010 is just depressing.

55%

By Paul Newcombe