I don't know, Dawn of Sorrow isn't exactly a bad game, it's just...weird. You have the (mostly) bland level design (not to mention bland colours), the terrible story, butchered characters, horrible anime art (not saying anime is horrible, but the art in this game is) and an ok soundtrack. On the other hand it has really good controls, the DSS is polished and a lot better than Aria's (even though it needs more grinding) and amazing boss battles. Lost Village is also great.
It isn't something I'd go back to again and again, unlike Ecclesia, which manages to stay fresh because of the improved enemy AI and great balance in just about everything. Much better characters/story/soundtrack/atmosphere, too. I could really go on and on about why I like this better, but I'll just leave it at that.
Just my thoughts on why he should ignore the first two.