Level Up! Seize the Experience!

Now that I have a few more hours under my belt, I can safely say that I like my first experience with the Tales franchise. The whole business of recruiting monster partymembers like Pokemon is still a bit of a mystery to me, but I get just as happy when it happens. I don’t care if it is all by accident. I’m having a blast.I also like the methods the game uses to help you level up. There are stations of the Katz Guild all over the world, and if you check in you can opt for additional quests. I have no idea what treasures the quests offer, but my eyes are spinning with additional levels like a cartoon character’s would for dollar signs. If this saves me the trouble of doing nothing but bare bones leveling for a few hours, it will be more than worth it.

I’m still a little disappointed with the motion controls. I haven’t learned enough Artes to attempt to elicit the use of the motion-controlled shortcuts, but the motion controls have been implemented in other, weak ways. It’s almost as if the developers realized halfway through production that they were making this game for the Wii so we better damn well put in some motion controls. As of now, this game could have been produced just as well on the PlayStation 2.

But it’s still early, so they can always change my mind…

Graphics-wise, going from a graphics giant like Lost Odyssey to Dawn of the New World has been a bit painful on the eyes. The graphics on the Wii RPG are far brighter, but definitely more on the anime side than anything else.

So while that is a downside to the game, the combat style is such a breath of fresh air. Granted, it’s a new frustrating breath of fresh air, because I have to switch the gears in my brain. I was so used to taking my time in making decisions and planning my strategy that I’ve fallen out of the habit of making quick decisions. That’s a bit of a problem when the combat happens in real time. I haven’t died alot..yet…but I have had to heal myself far more than I should. I went through the same issue when I started Crisis Core, so I know I’ll get over this one just as quickly.

One reason why I stopped playing Final Fantasy VII is because I couldn’t handle playing two turn-based games at once. The gameplay was too slow for me and it was driving me insane. So now that I’m playing Dawn of the New World that features real-time combat, I will be picking up Cloud’s buster sword once again.  But not too soon. I want to swim in this action for a little while before slowing things back down again.

I’ve been looking forward to trying out Symphonia for awhile, because I’ve been curious how a RPG will play on the Wii, and now it’s very obvious. It plays much like any RPG on any other console, except that there are a few motion-sensing elements. I’m a little disappointed by it. However, it looks like when I learn some more Artes that I’ll be able to incorporate the motion-sensing a little more as short-cuts for individual Artes. They have it set so players can choose either motion-sensing or nonmotion-sensing controls, but SERIOUSLY, you’re on the freaking Wii so if you don’t want motion controls, go pick up Tales of Vesperia or play the original Symphonia again.

My feet are still wet, so I’m not ready to discuss initial impressions just yet. But so far, I’m liking the gameplay and the controls. The dialogue is humorous, but the names are really, really lame. But if the names are all I have to complain about, I should be golden. Here’s hoping!