Sorry to disappoint DB but i should have made it clearer, the game is going to be for the Wii its just going to be using the Gamecube graphics engine so expect more of the same seen in ToS.

I can't really say I'm "excited" for a 2nd one, I wouldn't really be disappointed if it turned out untrue, but I would want to play it if it did come out

But I would have to disagree with Dragon on the Zelos part. He was funny but he was one of my least favorite characters. I've played the game several times but when having to choose between Zelos and Kratos...come on. I hope Kratos would return in the second one, I know he went away but it would be awesome if he came back. But what's this about ToS and ToP? I thought all of the games took place in different worlds, like how Final Fantasy is set up (until recently >_>).

Thanks for the info Mushroom. Very interesting stuff. The two main characters seem kind of meh-ish but I can be positive. I am curious as to what kinds of problems there may be with the world after it seemed Lloyd and company made things right. It seems even after 4000 years there is still racism against half elves, maybe that will play a part. Hopefully racism in our own world doesn't last for 4000 years.

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

Although I don't know if that last ninja girl is from the first game or not.

Have you not played Symphonia then?

Sorry to disappoint DB but i should have made it clearer, the game is going to be for the Wii its just going to be using the Gamecube graphics engine so expect more of the same seen in ToS.

Yeah I haven't played it. Not more than for an hour or so. In the Tales series I've only played Eternia (Destiny 2 in the US) and Abyss.

There's a reason why they call the Wii the " Gamecube 1.5 ". Wii users have been and will be eating 'cube titles for awhile.

So who's that ninja girl in the last pic?

ToS is definetely a lost classic though, not nearly enough people played it.

Unfortunately ToA never came here, so I cannot compare the two games >_<

She's pretty awesome man, has this whole hidden ninja village thing going on if I rememberrightly. Unfortunately her attacks weren't particularly cool, but she was a good character.

Now if ToS had been released for the PS2 I wouldn't have been surprised to see it being a fairly big hit - might even have meant more titles making over here in the UK and EU.

Hopefully ToS:KoR will be able to make it more mainstream with the current success of the Wii - though whether it'll appeal to the majority of Wii owners is another question entirely.

As Athrun said you need to import this - TotA easily gives ToS a run for its money as the best of the Tales of... games. Even if you go the cheap route and get a swap magic boot disc like I did - £15 and a bit of time and you'll be up and your PS2 will be up and running for most US titles, all without voiding your warrenty.

Has anyone seen any news regarding the controls for this game? I can't see it being able to work with the wiimote alone which leaves it down to the classic controller or the gamecube pad and how they'll adjust the ToS controls to accommodate the FR-LMBS of TotA.

Haha. Ok. This may be a noobish Q, but tis the noe thing that always held me back from doing this, so i'll jsut ask and get the embarassment out of the way. Do I need an NTSC capable tv though? Because by my reckoning, if say my tv didnt support it ( which it doesnt im sure - i have a very awful tv), then the game would be in black and white >_< I would have to play a game in black and white.

A lot of information on Tales of Symphonia: Ratatosk no Kishi (Knight of Ratatosk) for Wii has been released today, courtesy of Bandai Namco Games. The sequel to 2003's GameCube RPG Tales of Symphonia will employ an enhanced version of the Flex Range Linear Motion Battle system (FR-LMBS) featured in Tales of the Abyss. The battle engine will support up to four players. The development team is also adding eight elements (earth, water, fire, wind, ice, lightning, light and darkness) to the system. In Knight of Ratatosk each location has a certain elemental affinity. Depending on the usage of elemental attacks by both party members and enemies, this local elemental affinity can change over the course of a battle, though. Such an elemental change apparently will have various effects on a battle's progress.
The development team has gone with a traditional control scheme. The Wiimote's motion sensor is used to execute special techniques. Like previous games, Knight of Ratatosk also allows players to pull off those powerful moves directly via shortcuts (instead of having to enter a menu). Using the Wiimote, players can perform a certain movement which will then trigger off the technique. This motion control can be switched off as well, though.

At the end of the battle, players can invite defeated monsters to join their party. However, only monsters with a certain character can be turned into party members. To make things even more complicated, a monster's character will change during battle, depending on the party's equipment or the actions taken by the party. Furthermore, monsters might decline to join the party.

A new character set to appear in the game has also been introduced. 20-year Richter Abend is searching for the Ratatosk Core to achieve a certain objective. After a childhood that saw him being oppressed by others, the young man has become extremely cynical. During his search for the Core, he meets protagonist Emil. While Emil's cowardice and passiveness annoy Richter, he still helps Emil. There seems to be a certain reason for this Richter's kindness, though.

Following the events of Tales of Symphonia, the two worlds had become one. However, as a result of this fusion, the environment has begun to change dramatically. Snow is falling in desert towns and lakes are drying up. The fusion of the worlds however is not the only cause of these problems. Another one is the condition of the powerful spirit Ratatosk. For unknown reasons, he has fallen asleep, resulting in a collapse of the natural balance. Meanwhile, the only thing that unites the people of the two worlds is their animosity toward each other. To protect the oppressed people of Silverland, a resistance group known as Vanguard was formed. As it opposes the Church of Martel, a confrontation between the two camps became inevitable. The Church eventually moved against Vanguard members holding a meeting in Palmacosta. The city was burned to the ground, with many innocent people becoming victims of the purge. The ringleader of this bloody crackdown is said to be Tales of Symphonia's protagonist Lloyd.

I wonder if Kratos will show though i doubt it, but at least we get Sheena and the rest...also Lloyd is apparently going to be an antagonist in this one. I hope the plot is going to be good but it looks good from whats been said so far.
In any case i hope they don't edit the American version of this one as much as they edited the first TOS taking out the hi-oguis and all, it kind of pissed me off that the characters weren't as balanced as in the Japanese version either

Funnily enough, it was big enough to get ported to the ps2 - in japan >_< I'm pretty sure it never made it stateside, and definetely never came here. WE also missed tales of rebirth during that time period. *sigh* story of my life

I don’t remember having the Falcons Crest (I have the GameCube version)...

But I think this is a prime example of how different the Japanese market can be to that of the rest of the world. As a nation they embraced the cube more than anyone else - as a result ToS sold well and they got the PS2 port - while over here and the states it went pretty much unnoticed - i know the copy i bought had been sitting on the store shelf for a good few months before i picked it up - and it was the only copy they had, and it was a popular store.

In Japan i've no doubt, barring a major disaster, that KoR will do well - but as we know what does well in Japan doesn't always translate to a success here - so the question is how well can it do in the states? Are there enough of the more 'serious' gamers out there with a Wii to make it a success? Will there be enough Wiis about to ensure the people who want this game can actually play it? But we're getting ahead of ourselves - will it even be released? There was an 11 month difference between the japanese and US release of ToS - so i think we'll have a bit of a wait before we find the answer to that question.

As for the NTSC playback - i hate to be the bearer of bad news but i think its down to the TV, i know thats the case with DVDs as the signal from the player to the TV is in the NTSC format and up to the TV to process it. I think if your TV younger than a few years old though you should be OK as it comes as standard on a lot of TVs in the UK now. As you said its not urgent so maybe you could try and contact the manufacturer and see if they can give you the info.

I doubt you will have used it as it was one of those that needed a few conditions to be met before it could be used - i think you needed to have the material blade equipped and Lloyd's title as Eternal Swordsman and then have your health under a certain level - and then it could be activated by pressing a button combination. There's videos on youtube (as usual) of this and IIRC an english one for Genis as well not to mention all the japanese ones.

But I think this is a prime example of how different the Japanese market can be to that of the rest of the world. As a nation they embraced the cube more than anyone else - as a result ToS sold well and they got the PS2 port

IIRC the reason ToS got a PS2 port it was because it sold so badly in Japan compared to the US.

Latest instalment in the Tales of... franchise doesn't disappoint

Namco's RPG title Tales of Symphonia has gone back to number one in the Japanese software charts thanks to a release on the PS2, selling some 265,000 copies despite following on the heels of a Cube release last year.

The game has sold around 332,000 units on the Cube since its launch (and has also performed well in the USA, where it launched a few weeks ago ahead of a European launch later this year), so sales on the PS2 boost it past the half million mark in total.
.....

These scans show off two new characters, Aqua (catgirl) & Tenebrae (black cat), when translated into English. From the early translations, it seems the former follows Richter Abend, while the latter follows Marta Lualdi.