Tales of Symphonia Debuts
- April 28, 2003 15:22 PM PST
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The next game in Namco's RPG series, a GameCube exclusive, will hit Japan before the end of the year. All the details are inside.
Making good on their earlier warning of new Tales games on the horizon, Namco opened up its official homepage for Tales of Symphonia today, the latest game in their series of console and portable RPGs. The new title, a GameCube-exclusive project, is due to hit Japan before the end of 2003. No U.S. release plans were announced.The new Tales is something of a departure for Namco's popular RPG series (the last console game, Tales of Destiny 2 for the PS2, sold over 600,000 copies in Japan). Exactly how much of a departure can be plainly seen with one quick look at the screenshots?yes, this will be the first entirely 3D Tales game, and it'll also be the first one to use cel-shading for its characters, as per recent GameCube-title fashion. The game won't be entirely alien to Tales fans, however?series designer Kosuke Fujishima is back with the character designs for Symphonia, and the series' Linear Motion battle system is also in full effect (although how it'll differ now that everything's in 3D remains to be seen).
The star of Tales of Symphonia is Lloyd Irving, a strapping 17-year-old raised by a dwarf foster parent after his mother and father died when he was young. Lloyd lives in the world of Silvalant, a land faced with extinction, and he wants to restore Silvalant to its former peaceful days with the help of friends Collet Brunel and Genius Sage. Collet is a member of the Mana tribe, which grants her the power to create the reborn world Lloyd envisions, but there's one small catch?if Silvalant prospers, then Teseara, a world at polar opposites with Silvalant, atrophies into doom. As Lloyd and crew slowly discover this during the game, they'll find themselves having to make some difficult decisions?should they concentrate on Silvalant at Teseara's expense, or should they try to find some kind of alternate solution to help both sides?
We'll have more info for you shortly?if you'd like to see extra screens and character art right now, you're advised to pay a visit to Namco's official Tales of Symphonia page.
