The game this time does not centre itself around Lloyd Irving, although he is discussed as part of the back-story and featured in some form later in the game. At the start of Ratatosk, a tale is spun of how a long, long time ago, the lands of Sylvarant and Tethe'alla were brought together to become a united front that used the Giant Kharlan Tree as their source of strength. Sadly, though, nothing is ever simple and ‘divine intervention’ caused them to be ripped apart from one another once more, leaving the Tree to wither away and eventually cease to exist. Thankfully, back then good old Lloyd came to the rescue and the young lad was able to bestow peace unto the world and restore it to its former glory. To top it all off, a new Tree was planted following the successful mission that would flourish and become a worthy replacement for the Giant Kharlan Tree and join Sylvarant and Tethe'alla together again for the rest of time. This tale went by the name of ‘Journey of Regeneration’.

In Knight of Ratatosk, the world has entered a bright new era, but despite this, people still face many problems due to extreme climate changes, with deserts becoming frozen wastelands and lakes drying up transforming into desolate valleys. This originates from how people neglected the fact that following the unification of the worlds the old Kharlan Tree spirit, Ratatosk (believed to be based on Norse mythology), still exists somewhere, with its slumber eventually sending the world into chaos. In addition to this, the people are starting to be at loggerheads with one another, since the inhabitants of Tethe'alla believe themselves to be superior to those of Sylvarant thanks to their more advanced technology, and those of Sylvarant live in fear of the Tethe'alla dwellers’ excessive power and brute force. Two years on from the merging of the worlds, the people of Sylvarant, in an attempt to counter the supposed threat, have created a Vanguard with which to rise against the Church of Martel (of which Lloyd Irving is now a key member) and the people of Tethe'alla.

 

As for how Knight of Ratatosk plays, the dungeon crawling aspect of the Tales RPG series remains, but the battle mechanic has once more been tinkered with to enhance the experience for players. The game uses a modified version of Tales of the Abyss's Flex Range Linear Motion Battle System and will support up to four players simultaneously. It has been revealed that players will also be able to capture, breed, and level-up monsters that can then join forces with you in battle to fight alongside lead character Emil Castagnier on his perilous journey. Other changes to the mould include how the Field Map has been scrapped this time round, in favour of a point-and-click system, whereby the Wii controller is utilised as a pointer to navigate the world. And with Symphonia’s ties to the SNES game, Phantasia, the world map displayed will be the same as it was back then, with the exception of town names retaining their Tales of Symphonia monikers.

 

On the character roster front, currently only a handful of characters have been revealed from the game, but there is sufficient information out there now to go into some detail about whom players can expect to come across during this adventure that takes place two years after the events of Symphonia on GameCube. First up is the already mentioned Emil Castagnier, whose catchphrase is "F-fine. I'll try, but if I mess up, don't blame me!", which seems to sum up his attitude perfectly. Emil is a sixteen-year-old lad whose voice in the game is done by Hiro Shimono (who also worked on Shadow Hearts 2, Phantom Brave and Eternal Sonata). The sword-wielding young chap sadly lost his parents recently in the blood purging of Palmacosta, and is an honest, somewhat na? child that is also somewhat of a coward who struggles to make firm decisions. Hearing a monster crying in the distance one day, Emil goes off in search of it, leaving the village behind.

On his way, he meets Marta Lualdi, a sixteen-year-old girl (voiced by Rie Kugimiya – who recently did work on Final Fantasy IV DS, Riviera: The Promised Land and Star Ocean: The Second Evolution) with the catchphrase of "If you’re a man, be strong!", who lost her mother during the Great Kharlan Tree’s rampage. She appears to know Emil, yet oddly enough he has no memory of meeting her at all. Whatever the case, she reveals that she is being hunted and he offers to fight by her side, becoming her guardian knight in order to protect her and the Ratatosk Core found on the left side of her forehead, which is imprisoned in a dormant state. Later on it turns out that the being he heard crying was actually summoning him in order to strike a deal and make him a Knight of Ratatosk, granting Emil Ratatosk’s power during battle, with his eyes turning red when it happens and his personality changing into that of a cruel fighter, causing some to see him as a monster. Other than Marta and Emil, twenty-year-old Richter Abend features, acting as something of a teacher to the young protagonist, despite his dislike for Emil’s timidity and passiveness. Finally, of those revealed so far, Colette Brunel from the GameCube’s Tales of Symphonia is back and playable, with Nana Mizuki reprising the acting position. The heroine of the original game, her role now in Knight of Ratatosk is as the last Chosen of Mana (since the Chosen system was abolished when the worlds were reunited), performing the final Ritual of the Chosen to help the people of the world.

 

Other than Colette, it appears that other characters from the original Symphonia will return, with the latest trailer showing that all party members will return, yet Kratos remains unconfirmed. It seems there may be a twist in the tale, though, as Lloyd is depicted fighting against Emil and Marta in one scene, plus Zelos seems to be making a return, which may surprise many. The game is currently sporting some gorgeous looking visuals, with plenty of animated sequences being included and hectic battle scenes, all helping to make this look like a massive improvement over its already aesthetically pleasing GameCube precursor, and comes with a theme song by the same Japanese popstrel that penned the fantastic main track for Tales of the Tempest, misono, with her new, equally catchy song ‘Three-Legged Race’ being used for the introductory sequence. The game certainly has a lot going for it, and considering the currently barren RPG landscape on Wii right now, it automatically propels itself up to near the top of the interest tree!