Want to know the skinny on Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World? You're just a click away!

Tons of tidbits from Nintendo Power have hit the interweb, gushing into the grateful hands of RPG-starved Wii fans the world over. Firstly, it has been confirmed that GameCube's Symphonia was the highest selling Tales game in the US. So it's no wonder that this title (which was originally planned as a spin-off) has been made.

It is a fully-fledged, direct story sequel, the development of which began in 2006, before the so called "casual market" of the Wii was established, with Nintendo specifically asking for a game that would cater to a hardcore audience. While developers chose themselves to add the Monster system to the game for casual appeal, no specific changes were made after it became clear that the Wii was clicking with "casual gamers".

The Wiimote will be used for button shortcuts, pointing at what you want to shoot with the Sorcerer's Ring and to click and drag the world map and selecting your destination with the pointer. Apparently, more motion controls may be added for NA release. Most of the staff are new to the game, though there are some from the original. Daigo Okumura (art director for Symphonia and Abyss) was in charge of character designs.

There are around 11 hours of voiced event scenes and character skits. Event scenes feature realistically proportioned characters, cinematic camera angles and motion-captured character animation. Apparently, fully-voiced skits will make the translation this time around, and maybe even actual theme-song vocals. Wowza.

This time round, as previously mentioned, players will be capturing monsters - in a system that's said to be strategic battle-wise, while also providing people with something to collect. Monster 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. Apparently it'll be a difficult task to collect all the monsters first time around.

The title's affection system will be present in the monster attraction aspect, though it won't affect the overall story of the game as it did in the original (think the balcony scene in Flanoir). Optional side quests will of course be available, and the cooking system returns, along with the Wonder Chef who now teaches you recipes for monster food, which will change your monster parameters or aid their evolution.

Spoilers: Don't read on if you want to avoid plot and character details for the game. Don't say we didn't warn you!

Okay, now on to the really spoilery stuff. All eight surviving characters of the original will be playable at some point, this includes Zelos (who, depending on which ending you choose in the original, can be killed off). Disapointingly, Kratos is not confirmed as playable, though does narrate the intro of the game.

Apparently, the evil Ratatosk was in the original game but was dormant, and has now awakened. New characters Emil and Marta are in your party throughout the game, aided by Monsters of guest appearances from the old cast. As for Lloyd... well, whenever Emil and Marta find a new spirit, Lloyd is there trying to stop them.

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