LogFAQs > #899027593

trdl23 posted...

I didnt mean that to come across as shade-throwing! I just meant that if you had no more desire to dig into the game and see what else was there, it clearly didnt grip you the way it did to me, so I understand the ranking.

No worries. I tried to give it the benefit of the doubt but it just didn't vibe with me as much as it did with others.

56. Tales of Symphonia 2: Dawn of the New World
Original Release: 2008
Developer: Namco Bandai
Platform: Wii

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLYJN2QHdd0" data-time="

I came to this game with absolutely zero expectations, as every Tales fan seemed to condemn its existence. I was not disappointed at all! It ended being a pretty decent release for what it's worth. If you start this game knowing that it's probably not going to surpass the original, or that it won't grip you as much as some of the more popular Tales titles, I think you'd enjoy it, as I did.

Not the biggest fan of Emil and Marta, but Tenebrae made everything better. I also enjoyed the central conflict between the Vanguards and that other group, even if it amounted to basically nothing. Finally, Richter actually received quite a bit of development and is one of the series better villains. The story itself is alright, I guess, although it never reached the highs of the original. It felt much much more grounded. It makes me wonder why they turned this into a sequel and not an all new spinoff-type Tales game. Especially because there's actually not a whole lot of recycled content -- the same areas from the first game were redone for the new visual style and even the music returning from the original was rearranged. I hate recycled content, but I never felt like everything was being rehashed here.

Didn't mind the combat either, even if monster raising is an overplayed trope that needs to be retired if it's not in a Pokemon game. I don't remember Emil's limit breaks to be all that useful, either. However, the dungeon battle theme, linked to above, is one of the greatest Tales battle themes of all time. Speaking of dungeons, they were quite well designed. I loved Symphonia's dungeons enough to actually rank them on this board many years ago! Keep in mind that after this game, no Tales game actually had any effort put into any of their dungeons: they ended up being boring labyrinths or corridors with zero personality.

I heard mention this game's the reason the next Tales wasn't released until 2012 (Graces), but I'm not sure how accurate that is. Did people really think it was that bad? Because it's a pretty solid and charming little Wii RPG from start to finish.