When comparing ToS and ToS:DotNW, several things come to mind when playing the latter: lack of a 3D world map, inability to customize all but 2 of the main characters in the game, imperfect battle system, TotA-esque visuals, and limited character usage.
First things first: this game had a LOW budget, so I can understand that when compared to other Tales games released shortly before or after it can't do as well. That's not to say that Namco is off the hook, as they chose to spend more time on their flagship game of the time, Tales of Vesperia. Now, I don't know about you, but I'd much rather that game over DotNW, simply because everything about it improved over the previous games. DotNW was a rehash of things I've seen already in TotA and was just a lackluster upgrade to it.
Let's talk about the ABSENCE of an actual world map in 3D. Now, this has been a staple in all Tales games to date with this game, and then here comes this game with the point and click option. I'm sure Walmart even advertised the game as being innovative in its use of point-and-click option. To me, this just shows how lazy Namco was, not only in how "original" this concept is but also how much time they put into actually presenting the game. I loved the traditional aspect of wandering about the world and fighting enemies while trying to reach the next destination. This game just eliminates that and pastes a map for you to choose where to go next.
In all previous games of this series, with a select few characters, ALL of the characters could have their equipment changed. This game allows you to do that ONLY with the 2 lead characters. All other beings in your team have nothing you can give them. This includes the old ToS characters that all join you later on towards the end of the game. They may seem like they're powerful, since some the weapons and armor they use at the end are actually their best in the previous ToS game. However, because of certain limitations in the usage of these characters, this renders them useless. They're essentially just for show simply due to the fact that all of the World Regeneration characters have a limit of LV 50. Everyone else in the party can go up to LV 200. This makes them impractical to use in battle solely for the fact that some monsters do a better job of staying alive and casting in the support lines, such as Sword Dancer. The only reason I'd use them is for nostalgia. Other than that, they're dead when hit a couple times by common monsters, depending on the difficultly level. This was one of the hugest letdowns of the game, as you can't EVEN change the 1st character slot. It always has to be Emil or Marta you're using. It can't be any of the ToS characters. Monsters won't be there for obvious reasons, but still, this made me want to throw the game in the trash. I never wanted to use those 2 characters, and here Namco says "DEAL WITH IT!" and smacks them there.
When battling, I noticed a few flaws with this game. Firstly, when battling on the same 2D plane as a monster, you can easily unalign yourself with the monster in question and start using artes meaninglessly. This issue is prevalent in Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology, as once you start using an attack followed up by artes, you'll be lucky if all artes hit the monster. This game did a good job of making it less annoying, but it SHOULDN'T be here in the first place. I mean, even the PSP game, Radiant Mythology II, makes it so that the characters FOLLOW the monsters they're attacking when using artes. This game, however, does not. IIRC, these games were being developed at the same time (DotNW and Radiant Mythology II), so there should be no excuses for this. Also, certain characters have abilities that grant them the use of certain benefits in battle, but these cost SP, or skill points, to use. One such character, Regal, cannot even use an ability of his even if all of his SP is NOT IN USE. Now, I don't know about you, but this is clearly a sign of Namco not even caring anymore. It's like the ability is taunting you that you can't ever use it unless you use a GameShark. (Which, btw, I didn't use because the game shall never be played by me again so I won't give it a second chance) It also did not introduce any new concepts to the battle system. Almost all previous entries to the franchise have, but this one did not. (i.e. Fields of Fonons, Aerial Artes, Craymel Artes, Blastia Artes, etc)
Last thing I noticed with this game are the visuals. First thing I thought of when I first saw the main cinematic in the game was how badly it looked compared to others games on the Wii. This game looked as though it could pass for a PS2 game without the motion control. If you look at Tales of the Abyss and Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World side-by-side, you'll see a clear similarity. Some of the attacks used in the game are rehashes of attacks used in ToS, and the new attacks they used in the game are just copied directly from TotA. The only new attacks I've seen that are any good are the Mystic Artes, which are the characters' most powerful attacks. These look decent, but everything else did not. Previous Tales games employed the uses of 2D well-drawn character sprites that looked great. Even ToS looked awesome, as it made cel-shaded games look realistic in nature. Also, to anyone who's played the final part of this game, when viewing the 2nd to last cutscene there, you can see the clear lack of bug-testing this game has gone through because the whole area looks like it's distorted. It made me think my TV had a problem rendering the CS, but it was in fact the game. Everything looked blurry and downright bad.
This game is a step back in time; with its use of sub-par visuals, a battle system that is lacking innovation and functionality, and a story-line that we could make without, I only recommend this game to people who have never played a Tales game before.
