Tales of Symphonia: Knights of Ratatosk

[Zetah]

This is a few days old, but with Jump Festa @ Japan, there's been a new trailer released for the game, along with a demo for it and new screenshots. What's been confirmed is a 3rd new character named Richter (who looks like a mixture between Jade+Luke+Asch), and Collete returning as a playable character (bleh). And, I assume that everybody who's been following news on it somewhat already knows that monsters are playable in the game as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaTReHTrt-U

http://www.gpara.com/comingsoon/tos_wii/1228/index.php

Setting for the game is:

Long ago, Sylvarant and Tethe'alla were united as a single world that drew strength from the Great Kharlan Tree. Divine intervention tore them apart, however, and the Tree withered and died. It was eventually left to a boy named Lloyd to restore the world to its true form. At his journey's end, a new Tree was planted to replace the old one and to hold the two worlds together. This was the story of the Journey of Regeneration.

Together once more, the world is now entering a new era. However, its people are still faced with many problems. After the lands became one, maps were rendered useless and the climate went through many vast changes: desert towns became frozen wastelands and lakes dried up into valleys. All of this stems from an overlooked factor in the unification of the worlds: the spirit of the old Kharlan Tree, Ratatosk, still exists somewhere, and its slumber has sent the world into chaos.

However, Ratatosk isn't the only problem: the people of the two worlds are starting to hate each other. The citizens of Tethe'alla look down upon the citizens of Sylvarant due to their inferior technology, and the citizens of Sylvarant fear the citizens of Tethe'alla because of their power. Two years have passed since the worlds were first merged, and the people of Sylvarant have created a vanguard with which to rise against the Church of Martel and the people of Tethe'alla.

One day, the Church of Martel went to war the vanguard, and Sylvarant's city of Palmacosta was caught in the crossfire. Countless innocent people died and Palmacosta was consumed in a terrible fire. This event came to be known as the "Purge of Flames", a bloody massacre led by Lloyd Irving of the Church of Martel.

Tales of Symphonia is by far one of the best games I've played, and I'm glad the sequel seems to be shaping up well. Hell, I'm glad there's a sequel in the first place. While Tales games have never been that good in the graphics department, this game is looking much better than what the original screenshots showed us. I'm kind of not liking the whole "Lloyd's the bad guy now" thing, though. What the hell would we call those weapons Marta is using, though? Katars? Maybe some MNK75s can answer that for me. Eitherway, she looks like a much better female protagonist than Collete was.

Another thing I noticed in the trailer: No Kratos. Kratos fangirls are dying inside right now, it's possible they just left the dude in outer space.

Also somewhat Tales of Symphonia related, all 4 OVAs for the Sylvarant arc are completed now, and the subtitles for the fourth one are available. There's going to be 4 more OVAs for the Tethe'alla arc, which is going to be really difficult to squeeze in the rest of the story. They'll likely spend 1 entire OVA on Regal/Presea/Regal, and then they have to go through all the rest of the Tethe'alla stuff in the other 3. I just don't see how it'd work.

[Ziegus]

Looks pretty cool. There seem to be alot of Tales games coming out lately lol. Vesperia, Symphonia 2, Innocence. So many games to play when they come over to America (if they do).

Also regarding the trailer, I'm glad they use the story of Zelos not dying. As much as I like using Kratos the whole scene of Zelos dying struck a nerve with me. Also Regal's chains are off! Ugh, I want to play it already.

[Kaylia]

I suppose it's a good thing. Tales games are never the best rpg out there, but most of them were fun. Nice to see a rpg on the Wii too

[Xajii]

Hm. I want to see how it plays...

And I'm not excited about being Colette. Bring back Sheena <3

[Priran]

Hopefully they release it for other systems eventually, like they did with the original.

[Zetah]

Hm. I want to see how it plays...

And I'm not excited about being Colette. Bring back Sheena <3

She's there, it's in the video.

[Charismatic]

a bloody massacre led by Lloyd Irving

That was all I needed to see to make me want to play...

[Dmitry]

Hmm. I'll have to play through this again. I just don't see Lloyd being a bad guy, but it's been a while since I've played, plus a lot could happen in the 2 years.

[Julian]

We have an rpg forum <_<

and a topic on this: viewtopic.php?f=30&t=25094

and a topic on the other new tales game that's actually going to be a new game and not some spin-off: viewtopic.php?f=30&t=27793

edit: also wtf@that new character they announced, it's like a jade and asch had a child or something <_<; kinda disturbing.

This game is looking better and better though, I'll admit, even though it's still a spin-off, I think.

[Noobta]

Symphonia is the only game I've replayed more than 5 times :< So fun transferring kills over at the end, then owning once you get the cursed weapons

[Silka]

edit: also wtf@that new character they announced, it's like a jade and asch had a child or something <_<; kinda disturbing.

My first thought was Jade and Dist's love child but that works too- Though it'd be more like Jade and Asch had a kid and, to be cruel, dressed him like Dist.

Seeing Genis and Presea make me excited, but what makes me even more excited is the fact that (according to Wiki) it will use Abyss's battle system, which I love to death. (I'm so in love with that game in general though...)

I want the Tethe'alla OVA already. ;; OVAs need more Presea. :nikkei:

[Dmitry]

I hope Presea is in this one. She was my favorite character to play as.

[Zetah]

We have an rpg forum <_<

and a topic on this: viewtopic.php?f=30&t=25094

and a topic on the other new tales game that's actually going to be a new game and not some spin-off: viewtopic.php?f=30&t=27793

edit: also wtf@that new character they announced, it's like a jade and asch had a child or something <_<; kinda disturbing.

This game is looking better and better though, I'll admit, even though it's still a spin-off, I think.

I already knew about it, I had searched to see if there was another one in General Discussion, and the RPG forum sadly has very little activity in comparison to this one; I dislike bumping up really old topics since the last time it had any sort of activity was just for the trailer back in October.

I don't see why you'd call this a spin-off, because in every single aspect it's a sequel through and through. Same world, just Sylvarant and Tethe'alla merged together, takes place 2 years after the original, has almost all of the same characters from the past game except Kratos, has a similar battle system except with Abyss's battle system replacing Symphonia's, and still has those anime cutscenes thrown in here and there. A spin-off would be Final Fantasy: Chocobo Tales, rather than FF13. Tales of Symphonia: Reiard Racing would be a spinoff, not this.

Presea was in the vid too, for the person that wanted her in.

[Julian]

Well, it looked like a spin-off at first (hence the "I think") with the whole "using monsters" thing going, but now it's starting to look a lot more like its own game, hence the "This game is looking better and better though" :D