Revealed by Nintendo Power in it’s latest issue, what was previously known as Tales of Symphonia: Knights of Ratatosk has now been confirmed for North American release and has had a name-change: it’s now known as Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World. No other details we’re revealed, except that it will be the Wii’s first “epic RPG”. Obviously the folks at Namco have let Opoona slip their minds.

Check out NeoGAF member botticus’ summary of an interview between Teruaki Konishi and Tsutomu Gouda after the break. It will most likely answer every question you could possibly have concerning the Tales of Symphonia sequel. Careful, spoilers about game content abound.

Interview with Teruaki Konishi and Tsutomu Gouda

- Symphonia highest selling Tales game in the US and still selling better than Abyss

- Planned as a spin-off, later decided to expand the scale and make it a direct story sequel
- Project started summer of 06, before Wii was known to be the “casual” system.
- Nintendo specifically asked them to gear the game for a hardcore audience
- Monster system implemented to make the game more enjoyable for casual audience without watering down the full Tales experience; catering to hardcore Tales fans first and foremost – no changes made after the “casual” perception of the Wii became apparent.

- Light use of the Wii remote, activating shortcuts without watering down the Tales experience: pointing at what you want to shoot with the Sorcerer’s Ring; click and drag the world map and select destination with the pointer.
- Might be looking at adding more motion-control features to the NA release (no comment)

- Scenario writer for DotNW wrote the original game. Few other design staff from the original game, but majority are new to the series.
- Character proportions changed to stay faithful to new designs
- Fujishima was too busy to do the character designs, so Daigo Okumura (art director for Symphonia and Abyss) did it.

- Monster capturing system intended to be strategic (certain monsters are more useful in certain situations) and a collect-a-thon. Difficult to collect all monsters the first time through the game, though.
- Affection system present in the monster attraction aspect, no story changes as there were with the original game. Optional side quests available.
- Cooking system returns, but now the Wonder Chef teaches you recipies for monster food, which will change your monster parameters or aid their evolution.

- Ratatosk was in the original game but was dormant, and has now awakened.

- Whenever Emil et al find a new spirit, Lloyd is there trying to stop them – why?

THE END

Not part of the interview, but a quote from Gouda at the end of the reveal article:

This game is not Tales of Symphonia 2 [noting the many experimental aspects of the game's structure and mechanics]. In terms of the storyline, however, Symphonia 2 is exactly what it is.

Also from the article:

Of the 8 surviving characters, all are playable at some point in the game – Zelos in, Kratos out (but he’s the narrator of the intro). Emil and Marta are the only permanent human characters, the rest of the party of 4 is made up of monsters and guest appearances.

About half of the locations and dungeons are rehashed from the original game (though quite a bit different due to changes in the world).

Monsters recruitment is determined by the element of the battlefield compared to the element of the monster, and influenced by the monster from your party you use to sway them.

11 hours of voiced event scenes and character skits. Event scenes feature realistically proportioned characters, cinematic camera angles and motion-captured character animation. “Prospects looking good for fully voiced skits and perhaps even actual theme-song vocals in the game’s North American version.”

NeoGAF
botticus’ summary