Tales of Symphonia: Knights of Ratatoskr

[BrianM]

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.

 

[Mr.GAW]

Well, ToS was one of my favorite games as well. I pumped over 200 hours into that game. Naturally, I'll have to buy this- but it was so long ago that I playede ToS that I'm afraid I won't feel the connections.

 

[Crooked Crow]

Wow, the sequel looks great.
The new female character definitely looks better than Colette lol
I don't like the new main male character, though.. Lloyd was better.
He may be the antagonist of the story, but he can't be evil..
Maybe the main characters of the story are corrupted or something.

 

[RT]

No other release date outside of Japan has been set. Still, it does look like a very interesting game. I enjoyed ToS, and I'll probably get this if it is released in the US...

 

[#HBC | marshy]

While I hate most JRPGs, I've only heard good things about the first one, and this is one of the few games I'm interested in getting for the Wii.

If I haven't played the first one, will I be completely lost? Also, is the story such a big part of the game that it's make-or-break, or will I still enjoy the game if the story sucks?

This series reminds me of Baten Kaitos, another game they need to bring to the Wii.

 

[BrianM]

While I hate most JRPGs, I've only heard good things about the first one, and this is one of the few games I'm interested in getting for the Wii.

If I haven't played the first one, will I be completely lost? Also, is the story such a big part of the game that it's make-or-break, or will I still enjoy the game if the story sucks?

This series reminds me of Baten Kaitos, another game they need to bring to the Wii.

I think some things will be hard to understand once you get some of the old cast back, you'll definately want to pick up the first game. I think it's only $20 anyway. What are you waiting for? Get to it.

 

[Brightside6382]

Erk, while I did love Symphonia (had one of the best battle systems only rivaled by SO3) I think a sequel is just going to kill it. It seems like symphonia is going the route of ToD (Tales of Destiny) and its going to come out with a lackluster sequal and a few re-makes. (the ToD remake for PS2 was amazingly great though...)

 

[digitalmaster287]

I loved ToS. It was one of the best RPGs I've ever played (rivaling FF7). I really hope this game comes to North America because the Wii really needs some good RPGs....

 

[Klowne]

Wait, so if i read that right, Lloyd is on the Tethe'alla side? That's seems pretty odd to me.

 

[Mr.GAW]

Wait, so if i read that right, Lloyd is on the Tethe'alla side? That's seems pretty odd to me.

You read wrong.

While I hate most JRPGs, I've only heard good things about the first one, and this is one of the few games I'm interested in getting for the Wii.

If I haven't played the first one, will I be completely lost? Also, is the story such a big part of the game that it's make-or-break, or will I still enjoy the game if the story sucks?

This series reminds me of Baten Kaitos, another game they need to bring to the Wii.

I'm sure they will catch you up at the beggining of the game, you won't be completely lost. Also, the story won't suck. ToS had the best story in any videogame I've ever seen or played, better than all the FF's IMO. I can at least guarentee it will be better than BK's mediocre at best story, that's for sure. (although that was a great game in terms of gameplay, I hate how they put the sequal on GCN instead of holding out for Wii.)

 

[#HBC | marshy]

I think some things will be hard to understand once you get some of the old cast back, you'll definately want to pick up the first game. I think it's only $20 anyway. What are you waiting for? Get to it.

I might rent it, but probably not, I have a Wii and a 360, and I barely play either, so it's rare for me to go back to the GC. Also, my interest in this game spawned from the lack of good Wii games, I'm most likely going to get this game later in the year after I've had a time with Brawl and Mario Kart, the only games I see to be worthwhile on the system. Most likely, I'll play the original if I enjoy this, which I most likely will.

I'm sure they will catch you up at the beggining of the game, you won't be completely lost. Also, the story won't suck. ToS had the best story in any videogame I've ever seen or played, better than all the FF's IMO. I can at least guarentee it will be better than BK's mediocre at best story, that's for sure. (although that was a great game in terms of gameplay, I hate how they put the sequal on GCN instead of holding out for Wii.)

Ah, that's good to hear. As you already pointed out, BK's gameplay was its saving grace, what with the lame story. I've seen some of the reactions from people part of the close following that Tales of Symphonia seems to have, and am interested in trying out JRPGs again. Good reviews and the one person I know who did play it said it was great.

And yeah, Tri-Crescendo should have taken a note from the Zelda team and put it on both systems.