Video Game / Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World

Courage is the magic that turns dreams into reality.

Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World (Tales of Symphonia: Knight of Ratatosk in Japan) is a spin-off sequel to Tales of Symphonia, released in 2008.

The game takes place two years after the end of the original, and things did not turn as well as our heroes had hoped. When the two worlds of Tethe'alla and Sylvarant were merged into one, it invalidated every existing map and threw the climate of the new world into chaos. Furthermore, tension is stirring between the two civilisations: the people of Tethe'alla look down upon the less-advanced people of Sylvarant, to the point where a group of Sylvaranti calling themselves "The Vanguard" have begun a campaign of military resistance against the Tethe'allan Church of Martel.

Emil Castagnier is a timid and ostracised boy whose parents were killed in the "Blood Purge" of Palmacosta, an attack by the Church of Martel that was apparently led by Symphonia protagonist Lloyd Irving. While the other kids in his town revere Lloyd as a hero who saved the world (and rebuilt their town), Emil despises him and wishes he had the strength to avenge his parents.

One day, he meets and befriends two people: an enigmatic Vanguard warrior named Richter Abend, and an Action Girl called Marta Lualdi. Marta is being hunted by the Vanguard due to the Plot Coupon embedded in her forehead, which contains the dormant Summon Spirit Ratatosk. Determined to protect her, Emil makes a pact to become a Knight of Ratatosk, allowing him to use a fraction of the Summon Spirit's power in battle but awakening a much more dangerous and ruthless side of his personality in the process.

The slumber of Ratatosk is the cause of much of the chaos in the new world, as his presence interferes with that of the new World Tree created at the end of Tales of Symphonia. Thus, Emil sets out with Marta to awaken the other slumbering servants of Ratatosk and in turn awaken the Summon Spirit himself, whilst protecting her from the pursuing Vanguard and seeking his vengeance against Lloyd.

Dawn of the New World plays a lot differently than its predecessor. The player only has Emil and Marta as permanent members of the party, and over the course of the game they meet and join up with the other heroes of the first game, who are in various stages of disbelief about the situation with Lloyd. To fill out the roster between them, Emil is able to defeat and recruit any regular monster in the game. Cooking is used in the game to power up the monster beyond the usual leveling, and can also evolve them into their different variations. Gathering monsters also helps Emil become stronger as more of the Centurions' cores are awakened.

An HD collection of this game plus the original Tales of Symphonia, titled Tales of Symphonia: Chronicles (or Tales of Symphonia: Unisonant Pack in Japan) was released for the PS3 in 2014. Both games can also be bought separately off the PlayStation Network.

---

This game provided examples of:

• Accidental Misnaming: This happens to doggie...er... Tenebie...er... Tenebrae. He eventually accepts being called Tenebie.^note In the literal worst case, he gets named Paw Pad (by Presea)
• Accidental Pervert:
  • Lloyd gets stuck with this role again, when Genis (jokingly) accuses Lloyd of wanting to have an affair with a married woman. All of the previous game's possible love interests scold him while Marta eggs him on.
  • And when the party visit the hot springs, the same thing as last time happens when the girls bathe: Lloyd tries to stop Zelos from peeping, but Lloyd is the one who is caught and blamed.
  • When it's the boys' turn to bathe, Marta puts Emil in a similar situation, causing him to bond with Lloyd over the sorrow of being members of the Accidental Peeping Toms club.
• Alas, Poor Villain: Alice and Decus's final scene. By that point in the game, the player is most likely wanting to really rearrange their faces with Emil and Marta... and the two wind up dying holding each others' hands after their massive Villainous Breakdown
• All Men Are Perverts: Referenced in the hot springs segment. Marta tries to trick the party into thinking that the hot springs were closed so that she could be alone with Emil in the men's spring. Her plan fails and the two of them are caught by the rest of the party. Naturally, everyone blames Emil and assumes it was his doing, even after Marta admits the whole thing was her idea.
• All of the Other Reindeer:
  • Alice allegedly recruits monsters to massacre all of her fellow orphans, because they teased her about her half-elven blood. The end of a quest chain about her past reveals that she didn't recruit monsters to kill the other orphans. She made a pact with a demon so that she could save Decus, and that is what Decus said was responsible for the attack. The death of that demon also led to Alice losing her ability to control monsters.
• And I Must Scream:
  • Everyone in the party that still has a Derris Emblem in the final dungeon experiences a temporary condition that they describe as this.
  • The bad ending of the game will result in this for Emil/Ratatosk as he traps himself in his core form to seal the Ginugagap forever.
    • And considering the Less-Bad Ending has him commit Seppuku after unintentionally killing Lloyd and Marta...
  • Richter's plan to use the Cruxis Crystal and the mana fragment to burn himself alive for all eternity using the mana generated from that to keep the demons from passing through the Ginugagap.
• Anguished Declaration of Love: Played with. Marta's love for Emil is well known, even as it changes from infatuation with an idea of him to truly falling for the real Emil. Even so, Marta tearfully shouting while asking if she ever meant anything to Emil in chapter 8, then burying her head into his chest and telling him she want to be with him might be considered one, even if it's not exactly a confession of love. Emil nervously tells Marta that he loves her, though she cuts him off at the end with a kiss. His confession is not all that anguished, but it does come out during a pretty heartwrenching moment, as it may be the last time the two of them will get a chance to make their feelings for each other known.
• And Now for Someone Completely Different: There's a form of this when the game is played in tandem with its predecessor. In Dawn of the New World, the opening is narrated by a character from the previous game (which you would have no way of knowing without having played the first), and you briefly get to see the protagonist of the first game. Very soon after, though, you're introduced to the new protagonist, Emil, and the cast of the first game won't show up for awhile.
  • Additionally, Emil's introduction itself can be very jarring if you've played the first game. Despite being the same age as Colette during her journey (and only a year younger than Lloyd), Emil is notably much less brave and significantly more whiny than any of the protagonists of the first game. Defenders of Emil will cite this as a nice change of pace, while detractors often claim it's just a downgrade.
• Aristocrats Are Evil: Other than the ones in Lloyd's party and the royal family, most of the aristocracy in Meltokio are stereotypical snobbish douchebags.
• Art Evolution: Compared to the original game, the CG models became more detailed and bear a greater resemblance to their drawn character models as well as having more detailed movements. (The fact that this game uses motion-capture instead of Going Through the Motions helps greatly in this regard.)
• Awesome, but Impractical:
  • Ars Nova is a secret unison attack that can be used when the Unison bar isn't full and two of the minor elements are Light and Dark. It's a long stream of attacks that do a small amount of damage, at least compared to the gradually more powerful Second and Third elemental movements - it's actually a lot more useful if one can use it at the END of their combo chain.
  • For those who are trying to collect all the monsters, be warned; using Unison attacks of any kind will clear all minor elements from the grid. Using one at the wrong moment will erase the elements you worked to build (though if the monster you're trying to recruit is killed by the Unison attack, it can still be recruited).
  • Ain Soph Aur is a move that can be chained into from Emil's Mystic Arte after a certain story event if you know how. It costs twice the amount of a normal Mystic Arte (100 TP instead of 50, and if you don't have enough it drains all of your TP), and it's based off Emil's naturally low Arte Attack stat. It hits more times (and possibly does more damage) the more monsters the player has pacts with. This, unfortunately, still doesn't really make it that useful unless you really work for it, and it's still based off of Arte Attack. It's even more impractical when used against Richter, who will launch it right back at you with Eternal Recurrance.
• Back-to-Back Badasses: Emil and Marta during their "Ars Nova" combination attack, as well as during a couple after-battle conversations. Certain party members from the previous game also enjoy one-on-one after-battle scenes; occasionally, their victory poses result in this trope.
• Bag of Spilling: No matter how powerful you got the party in the first game, they won't have any of the Infinity Plus One Swords or techniques in the sequel at first, and the first time they each join your party, their level caps are much lower than you probably got them (especially if you got 2x, 10x, or combo experience in a New Game Plus). At endgame though, they'll once again have their endgame equipment from the last game (with the exception of Lloyd, who is using a new weapon due to the fact Flamberge is at Anna's grave). They'll be stuck at level 50 though.
• Barrier Maiden: Richter's master plan involves turning himself into one of these. Emil also attempts to become one.
• Battle in the Center of the Mind: The Post-Final Boss against Ratatosk's personality. Win or lose, the ending continues and Ratatosk's and Emil's personalities come to terms with each other, and agree to become one.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Before fighting Ventus/Windmaster, Emil laments that "[he wishes] Ratatosk would just possess [him] all the time so [he] wouldn't be so scared". Point A: "Ratatosk" is a lot more accurate than he probably meant at that time. Point B: As it turns out, his "Ratatosk Mode" is an ass.
• BFS: Decus has one. And after Decus dies, Alice, using the power of forsaken love, manages to wield it as well, until she herself is killed.
• Bittersweet Ending: No matter which of the three endings you get, they'll all be bitter-sweet. The good endings are sweeter, though. No matter what, Richter's plan fails, meaning Aster doesn't get brought back to life. He's also stuck guarding the Ginnungagap for at least 1000 years. But Ratatosk has given humanity another chance and is even re-writting the laws of the world to allow it to survive without mana. And in the best ending, he lives out the rest of "Emil's" life while his servants take over.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: Monsters, according to one series of quests.
• Bloodless Carnage: Which is normal for the series, but really noticeable in cutscenes where people take lethal hits like Emil fatally slashing Decus' back and Marta doing the same to Alice; clothes are not even damaged.
• Book Ends: Assuming one gets the "good" ending, the story begins and ends with Marta in Palmacosta near the same shop with Emil arriving and fulfilling her wish.
  • The first boss fight is against Lloyd, and Emil is not expected to win. The last boss fight is against Lloyd and Marta, and Emil does not want to win.
• Brick Joke: When the party finally reaches Altamira, you can find Eau de Seduction (the offensive cologne that Decus is always wearing)'s creator, who's wondering why he hasn't gotten any commendations on it.
  • One early skit has Tenebrae talking about his shapeshifting abilities, including that he could even turn into a beautiful woman if he so wants. Near the end of the game, he transforms into Celsius to distract a pair of Vanguard soldiers.
  • When Emil, Marta, and Tenebrae first find one of Lloyd's masks, all three of them (and the menu) dismiss it as "pretty tacky". A second mask can be found later on, described as "still tacky" in the menu. During the last of a series of sidequests involving Richter, Emil offers to put one of them on due to perceiving his resemblance to Aster as making Richter uncomfortable; Richter reacts to him drawing it out with "What is that?!" in a tone that makes it clear he, too, finds it tacky.
• Brother–Sister Incest: During one skit, Sheena and Regal are revealed to have joked that Zelos may have a thing for his sister, Seles. Zelos doesn’t take too kindly to the insinuation.
• But Thou Must!: A few choices are offered to the player during cut scenes at the very beginning of the game. Either choice causes the cut scene to ultimately play out the same way and the story continues on in the same path, although one choice does affect which ending the players might get.
• Call-Back: In the first game, Lloyd mentions the Quick-Jump option in a skit while having to climb the Tower of Mana again, only to get a confused reaction from the rest of the party. This time, Tenebrae mentions it when the party has to revisit the Temple of Ice, with the same result (although this time Regal gets a smug, knowing look on his face instead.)
  • One of the Hot Springs cutscenes has Lloyd getting falsely accused of spying on the women (again.) Afterwards, his title changes to the Peeping Tom title you gain from the same scene in the first game.
  • Emil and Marta can also get the Peeping Tom and Ironing Board titles that Lloyd and Colette get.
  • In the first game, Kratos was in possession of unique "Cruxis" equipment that could not be removed, with certain elements (Flamberge and Arredoval) worked into his character model. In this game, Richter (as a temporary party member) cannot have his equipment removed, and every item is simply a piece of his attire.
  • The Iselia/Flanoir scenes at the end of the game. Lloyd can have a conversation with his closest ally from the previous game at the same exact balcony as last time.
• The Cameo: One of the murals in a cave room in Asgard has what appears to be an image of Natalia Luzu Kimlasca Lanvaldear on it. The Judas Mask is mentioned in game as one of Presea's crafting specialties, and is actually usable in the PAL Wii and HD versions.
  • Abyss' version of Tokunaga can be seen on Marta's backpack and a toy of Mieu is see in the game's end credits.
  • Due to plot reasons from the first game, Kratos is the only party member absent from this game's story. He does make a very brief appearance in an optional cutscene towards the end of the game in addition to narrating the prologue though.
• Chaste Hero: Still somewhat played straight by Lloyd, but Emil subverts this, despite his naivete about the world.
  • This can be subverted by Lloyd, should you pick one of the girls in the Iselia/Flanoir sidequest near the end (Raine and Presea are already with him at the time in their respective routes, Sheena’s relationship with him is left a bit ambiguous in hers, and he is outright seen confessing to Colette at Emil’s encouragement).
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • Quite a lot of Emil's early idiocy (such as not knowing how to fish despite growing up on a coastal town, nor knowing anything about the Desians' Human Ranches despite there being one near his home town) comes across as lame exposition on the Symphonia world for those who haven't played the original game. It's actually foreshadowing the fact that this person has no memories and is filling in the blanks as he goes along.
  • Everything about the awkward way Richter interacts with Emil, and especially the way he frequently refuses to look directly at him, makes much more sense by the end of the game.
  • Also, Emil's two personalities being able to imitate each other.
  • Niflheim only appears as part of a sidequest in the first game. Now it's a major focal point in this one.
  • Anyone who's played the original game knows that Lloyd Irving hates the word "justice" (Mystic Arte notwithstanding). When Marta's father shrugs off her attempts to call him out with "Means and methods are insignificant in the eyes of justice!", you KNOW that Lloyd is not your enemy, and he WILL kick this guy's ass.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Yuan makes a brief cameo in Asgard at the beginning of the game before he's revealed as the World Tree's guardian.
  • This is a good example of a previous character appearing that doesn't look like it's him; the character models in this game are overall proportioned much differently, Yuan is a half-elf who doesn't have pointed ears, he's traded out his Renegade armour and cape for a suit, he's wearing his hair in a ponytail, and his voice actor is different (at least in the English version).
• Chekhov's Boomerang: Decus' cologne.
• Clingy MacGuffin: Ratatosk's Core.
• Combination Attack: Emil and Marta's "Ars Nova" Unison Attack.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Tons, all over the place, but manages to avert Continuity Porn. Special mention goes to the overworld theme, which is not from Tales of Symphonia (like most of the music), but from Tales Of Phantasia.
  • One portion of the game (a skit maybe?) has the characters discussing time travel. Tenebrae says it's impossible, but then corrects himself, saying "There are those who can manage the task, but for humans it is exceedingly difficult." The obvious implications are the time traveling events of Tales of Phantasia.
• Continuity Snarl: Demons are... Drastically different between Tales of Symphonia and Tales of Phantasia, and hoo boy this game does not help matters, flat out stating demons are allergic to mana... Despite the presence of several demonic spirits in Phantasia, which are made of mana as a rule. Demons are also neutral at worst in Phantasia, willing to help save the world provided they are approached with the right pact ring like any other spirit, whereas in both Symphonia games they are implied to be an Always Chaotic Evil race. To be fair, Phantasia takes place thousands of years later, so things might have changed by then.
• Convection, Schmonvection: One series of quests has you jumping over pools of lava without any ill effects in order to, wait for it, deliver someone dinner.
• Costume Evolution: Oddly averted. Not only does every single character from the original game look and dress exactly the same as they did two years ago, but Genis and Presea don't look any older despite having assumedly hit puberty by now.
  • Regal plays this straight. He does wear his prisoner garb from the previous game for certain parts, but he also dresses in a formal suit for others.
• Counter-Attack:
  • If Emil uses his Limit Break extension against Richter in battle, then Richter will block and counter it while saying, "Did you really think the same attack would work?"
• Crutch Character: The Tales of Symphonia cast, and Richter. They're powerful initially, but they don't gain experience points or level up. That said, their Mystic Artes are still ridiculously powerful.
• Cute Little Fangs:
  • Marta actually has a single fang. They don't draw that much attention to it, though. One post-battle scene actually did mention it directly.
    Marta: Beautiful roses have thorns!
    Ratatosk Mode!Emil: Cutie Marta has a fang.
  • Alice has one too when she's in sadist mode.
• Cutscene Incompetence: Very nicely averted by Emil's Ain Soph Aur Mystic Arte. It's unlocked for player use after a cutscene where he uses it on Richter, and it doesn't visibly do anything. In normal gameplay, it's perfectly functional (if Awesome, but Impractical)... until your next boss fight against Richter, whereupon it won't do anything worth the extra TP (although the Devil's Hellfire leading up to it will be perfectly functional).
• Cutting Off the Branches: Both subverted and played straight. When Lloyd talks about who he picked to bring with him on his quest at the end of the first game, the game allows to player to pick who it was they chose. However, the ending in which Zelos dies is rendered non-canon. The game also has the original cast doing the Nibilim sidequest, revisiting the temple next to Iselia to discover Corrine's fate, and visiting the hot springs.
• Damn You, Muscle Memory!: A Compilation Re-release that contains both a game that came out before Free-Run and a game that came out well after Free-Run is going to result in a lot of this if you go from one to the other. Also, attempting to activate returning characters' Mystic Artes the old-fashioned way will achieve nothing. And a... 'strategy' that enables Over Limit is now counterproductive, as the player party cannot activate Over Limit.
• Damsel in Distress:
  • Seles and Marta. Alice insults Marta for that tendency in her speech in the final dungeon.
  • Also Regal as James Bondage. This is even Lampshaded as the other characters get worried about how he seems to be used to getting imprisoned and being in handcuffs.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Tenebrae is just really snarky, rude, and condescending. Also Emil, the protagonist, is a good person yet of darkness element.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: Shares a page with the rest of the franchise here.
• Deconstruction: You know how the first game ended with the belief that things would work out for both worlds and that everything the heroes did would make the new world better? The aftermath is not so rosy. The party fixed a couple problems (and the really big one about the declining-world thing) but there are issues they didn't touch, and some of their actions caused more problems. For instance, the issue of racism towards Half-Elves is still around. It's slightly mitigated by new found racism between Sylverantis and Tethe'allans, because the two think of each other as basically aliens.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?:
  • Indeed, the more we learn about Richter's backstory, the more it seems like a Ho Yay repeat of Kratos', or even Regal's. But... surprise! It isn't. All the people saying he killed his best friend are only making assumptions.
  • It's not enough to be considered a Whole-Plot Reference, but in this game, the main protagonist is an amnesiac alter-ego of a powerful entity turned evil, who the game's purple-clad Big Bad tried and failed to kill. Said Big Bad is also after the female lead for a special MacGuffin she possesses. Where have they done that before? Given the previous game's big twist, one wonders if George Lucas is one of the developers.
  • In one skit, Colette mentions the "Symphonian Eight" and that they fought against the sinister "Dark Five", as well as one of the Dark Five proving to be Symphonia Red's father. This also doubles as a reference to that one show
• Doomed Hometown: Palmacosta and Luin, though they recover very quickly.
• Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: Played with in-game. For most of the game, Marta's swooning over Emil is mostly harmless schoolgirl crushing. Until the Hotsprings Episode, that is. Marta tricks everyone in the party, except Emil, into thinking that the hot spring is closed so that she could be alone (and naked) with him (an action that would probably be received a little differently if the genders were reversed). Emil is understandably shocked when Marta wanders into his side of the spring but before anything can come of it, the rest of the party walks in on them as well. Nicely Lampshaded in that Marta promptly confesses that the entire thing was her idea and yet none of them believe her, instead insisting that it must have been Emil's doing.
• Downer Ending: The Bad Ending. After hurting Marta, Emil kills himself and makes Ratatosk seal the door. Marta, who appeared to be dead, mourns the loss of her friend and spends the rest of her life wishing she could have saved him.
• Dual Wielding:
  • Richter dual wields a sword and an axe. They and his whole body are on fire for the final boss fight. The Rule of Cool may have just reached critical mass.
  • Lloyd's still using two swords as well.
• Dulcinea Effect: This is invoked. When Marta first meets Emil, it's as if she wants him to come to her rescue, even though he's really reluctant to get involved. Then for a while, she's really insistent that this is what's going on, until Emil snaps at her, telling her that he thinks it's really annoying to be followed around by someone like her.
• Dying Declaration of Love: Villainous twist: When you kill off the Terrible Trio, Alice and Decus, they admit their love for each other in a sequence that ends with both of them cut in half, yet lying in each other's arms. They're together in hell.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: An out-of-the-ordinary-example; if you play the EXP X10 or Combo EXP games, chances are that Emil will be around level 150 or so by game's end. Seeing as the Good or Normal endings require you to let a computer controlled Lloyd and Marta defeat Emil, be prepared to sit and wait for an hour or more as they whittle away at him one point of damage at a time. One of the few times that it would be nice if the computer WAS a cheating bastard! The best way to deal with this is to either change your equipment to the worst possible or (if you have it) equip the Pain Killer. After that, just hold the free run button and run in front of Lloyd.
• Evil All Along / Good All Along: Surprisingly enough, Emil and Richter.
• Excuse Plot: Most of the Katz's side quests are excuses to have the characters run around and beat up monsters.
• Fanservice: A return to the hot springs from the original has the new female lead, Marta, joining Emil for a bath... Emil, upon being discovered, is accused by everyone else (Except for Lloyd) for being a major Peeping Tom.
• Eye-Dentity Giveaway: The protagonist Emil Castagnier has an aggressive Split Personality that takes control during battle after he became a Knight of Ratatosk, which is revealed to be the real Ratatosk's dormant personality. Which personality is in control can be distinguished between Emil's eye colors, with Emil having green eyes and Ratatosk Mode Emil having red eyes. This becomes plot-relevant later on, as it's shown that while the personalities can take on the other's voice, they can't change their eye color to match. When Ratatosk takes on Emil's voice to talk to Marta, his back is turned to the screen and when he turns around, we see that his eye color is still red. When Emil pretends that Ratatosk has taken over, he does take on his voice, but his eye color remains green, signifying to the player that it's actually Emil in control.
• False Flag Operation: It was the Vanguard led by Decus who destroyed Palmacosta in order to eliminate any dissent in the Vanguard and have Lloyd and the Church of Martel take the blame. In the game itself, Magnar tries to do the same thing to Luin, with the same motive.
• Fantastic Racism: In addition to the return of the half-elf bias from the last game, there is now a class war waging between Sylvarant and Tethe'alla.
• Flashback to Catchphrase: For the first couple of chapters, it is almost guaranteed that when someone speaks the words "courage is the magic that turns dreams into reality", the scene will cutaway to Richter's initial utterance of the phrase.
• Foreshadowing
  • Late into the game, Ratatosk Mode Emil pretends to be regular Emil, disguising his voice (the camera is behind his back the whole time so the player can't see his eyes.) At the end of the game, regular Emil does the same thing in reverse, and the only clue for the player is that his eyes don't change color.
  • Speaking of Ratatosk Mode, there are a number of hints throughout the story that, while everyone believes the mode is a different version of Emil and treat him as such, they're actually two separate individuals in the same body. Namely Emil doesn't want to hurt Richter (even as he fights when necessary), whereas Ratatosk Mode expresses his desire to kill him; Emil doesn't want to treat Marta/near anyone else badly, sometimes even when they'd done bad stuff, while his other self has no such inhibitions. And then of course, a number of times when Emil's turned Ratatosk Mode, he states that if he were always himself (ie in Ratatosk Mode), things wouldn't have happened as they did... and that's not even getting into certain incidents later in the game:
    Regular Emil: Richter's not that sort of person!
    Ratatosk Mode Emil: Who said you could come out!?
• Fun with Acronyms: "Flex Range Element Enhanced Linear Motion Battle System" (FREE-LiMBS).
• Gambit Index: Lots of people with differing plans
  • Richter's plan for instance was intended to be a Thanatos Gambit.
  • Surprisingly, Emil carries out a Batman Gambit although the trope is rather subverted since it fails if Emil actually loses to Lloyd and Marta (which gives the player a shot at the good ending), and it Goes Horribly Right if the player kills them, netting the player a bad ending.
  • It could be argued that the entire game is Tenebrae's attempt to calm down Ratatosk and get him to change his mind about ordering the Centurions and monsters to commit genocide through his journey as Emil. Naturally, he succeeds.
• Gameplay and Story Integration
  • Ain Soph Aur only works once against Richter before he learns how to reflect it back at you. This works both in cutscenes and in boss fights with him.
  • Ratatosk Mode allows Emil to attack more aggressively and learn basic physical artes, but doesn't actually increase his stats. This is because Ratatosk is actually Emil's true personality, who is confident enough to make use of his inherent physical strength.
• The Glasses Come Off: Richter, in his final boss form and cut-in. Apparently, pacts with demons can also correct your eyesight. Who knew?
• Going Through the Motions: Take a shot every time Marta leans over with her hands behind her back, Richter adjusts his glasses, or Emil slumps forward.
• Good Is Impotent: Emil is a complete and utter wuss when he's not channeling his Blood Knight persona. But subverted in the end when Emil seals away his Ratatosk personality and turns out to be just as powerful and courageous as his evil side.
• Got Me Doing It: One of the Katz Guild Quests have Emil and Marta saving a man named Donero, who speaks with a sort of coutry/Texan drawl. Marta is the first to start talking like him, then Tenebrae, who constantly wonders why Emil hasn't been "infected." When Donero is saved, Emil finally starts speaking like him, too.
• Gotta Catch Them All: The Centurion Cores, which Marta has to hatch so the nature will stop being all messed up. The Mons Emil recruits too, though it is not a requirement to get them all.
• Gratuitous German: Decus' artes. The word "Zauberbindung" appearing to signify possibility of forming a pact. "Richter Abend".
• Gratuitous Latin: All of the Centurions' names are simply the Latin words for their own elements (Tenebrae means "darkness", aqua means "water", et cetera.)
• Guide Dang It!: Just like the first game there are several optional side quests and cutscenes that are time sensitive and can only be accessed at specific points of the story. Unless you know exactly what you're looking for and when, odds are you will miss a majority of them on a blind playthrough.
  • One of these is Emil going questing with Richter, which also includes a slew of hidden skits, Character Development and Foreshadowing between the two.
  • Learning about Alice and Decus' rather sad backstory and learning about why Decus is so utterly devoted to Alice.
• Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today?: Averted: Emil tries to convince himself of this in a short skit after he finds out Regal was forced to kill his lover, spurring Emil to wonder if he could do the same thing with Richter... Seen here at about 0:35. Emil later reveals to Marta after their fight with Alice and Decus that he was determined to avoid a fight with Richter due to his desire to save everyone.
• Healing Checkpoint: Yellow checkpoints avert this, while green ones (usually found in dungeons near boss battles) play it straight.
• Heroic Sacrifice: A massive Double Subversion. Richter's Thanatos Gambit was to end with him using himself to permanently seal away the demons of Nifelhelm by burning for all eternity. Emil and chums beat him up, but then Emil springs his own so that he can take Richter's place. Following a massive combo Get A Hold Of Yourself Man and Enemy Within fight, Ratatosk decides to solve the problem by rewriting the natural laws of the world. Richter still has to burn in order to seal the demons until Ratatosk finishes, just for a thousand years instead of eternity.
• He Is Not My Boyfriend: During one skit, Colette is trying (and failing) to stop herself from thinking about Lloyd too much, given the circumstances. Marta quickly asks if they are more than friends, causing her to get flustered, deny it, and run off.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Decus' cologne manages to identify him as Lloyd's impersonator.
• Hot for Teacher: You can make Lloyd and Raine an item in one small optional scene near the end of the game.
• HP to One: Played with. Story-relevant bosses have their own Mystic Artes, which are ridiculously powerful, but can't reduce any party member or Mon below one HP. Not a completely straight example, as characters with high HP and defense can endure with more than 1 HP, but in practice, it usually fits.
• Humans Are Bastards: Ratatosk was planning to kill humans and half-elves for destroying the original World Tree.
• Improbable Weapon User:
  • Marta uses a bladed pinwheel strapped to her wrist.
  • As well as Genis, who fights with a Kendama. Though granted, they even say during a skit that he mostly uses it because it helps him concentrate, that and he accidentally knocked Lloyd out with it once.
  • Alice's weapon is a riding crop styled to look like a toy rapier.
• Inconsistent Dub: Subversion, concerning pronunciation rather than actual translation, but "Tethe'alla" and "mana" are both pronounced differently from the original game.
• Infernal Retaliation: Richter in the final boss battle.
• I Know Your True Name: The name that Lloyd gave to the World Tree is treated like this, with Yuan explaining that is Ratatosk were to learn it before the tree stabilizes, he could steal its power.
• Innocent Innuendo: The letter from Raine to Regal. Neither will divulge what the contents were, but the way they refuse to talk about it leave everyone convinced it was a love letter. It's actually about Raine's concerns about Emil and his Ratatosk Mode.
• Insistent Terminology: "Nazdrovie!" "Light-Frog!!" Which, of course, leads to Dialogue Reversal after Tenebrae eventually gives up.
• Interspecies Romance:
  • Aqua/Richter, though that is one-sided.
  • Ratatosk!Emil/Marta.
• Invisible to Normals: The Centurion Tenebrae can hide himself from most people. Yuan and Colette can see him just fine. He's still invisible to the rest of the original cast, but can reveal himself whenever he so pleases.
• Jerkass Has a Point: The mayor of Iselia is just as unpleasant as ever and still scoffs at Lloyd's idealism, but he also points out that this very same idealism means Lloyd would never engage in the Palmacosta massacre. Later, he turns out to be right when the killer is actually an impostor and Lloyd was Good All Along.
• Journey to the Center of the Mind: Near the end, where you fight Ratatosk inside Emil's mind. It's implied this is another event that determines the ending.
• Karma Meter: Determines the ending if you don't get the bad ending.
• La Résistance: Subverted with The Vanguard, who are downright villainous.
• Large Ham: Emil in Ratatosk mode. The hamminess is taken to an extreme with his Mystic Arte.
  • Brute and Decus just love Chewing the Scenery and Milking the Giant Cow in most, if not all, of their cutscenes. Even one of Decus' non-cutscene motions joins in on the fun.
• Lethal Chef: Marta has experience, but because she never tasted her own food and her only taster was her father (who assured her that it was delicious), she's horrible. However, once she realizes this she vows to get better and eventually becomes a decent cook. Richter is also a bad cook, but for the opposite reason: his utter lack of experience. And of course the "Passable" Chef from the first game: Raine. She starts off by trying to give people her rice stuffed lemons.
• Limit Break: Mystic Artes.

• Loads and Loads of Sidequests: There are several "quests" given by the Katz guild. They involve either defeating one enemy, or slaying monsters in long, simplistic dungeons. There are lots of neat items to gain from these quests, so go ahead, the salvation of the world can wait.
• Love Confession: If Colette’s scene is picked in the Iselia/Flanoir sidequest, Lloyd confesses to her after some encouragement from Emil.
• Loves My Alter Ego: Subverted, Marta falls in love with both Emils, even asking Emil if there is a way both Emils can stay instead of one of them being sealed away. She calls herself out on this soon after.
• Loving a Shadow: Emil calls Marta out for this, showing that he's starting to grow a spine. She later gets further comeuppance as manly, badass "Ratatosk Mode" shows up more often and proves to be a huge jerk. Subverted in the long run when she falls truly in love with both sides of Emil.
• Meaningful Name: Aside from the above-mentioned Genius Bonus with 'Ratatosk', 'Tenebrae' is Latin for "shadows". All of the Centurions are named similarly for their respective elements. And 'Aster' is Greek for "star", and it turns out he had a star-shaped birthmark on his collarbone. 'Richter' is German for "judge" (literally "righter") and 'Abend' is "evening", but that's just Gratuitous German with no particularly deep/ironic meaning (unless you consider it Theme Naming, given that the previous game's purple-wearing redhead mentor, Kratos, had a last name that translated to "Tomorrow").
• Mid-Season Twist: Throughout the game, you are tasked with the challenge of reviving Ratatosk, The Lord Of Monsters, and Emil is named The Knight Of Ratatosk to protect Marta, who has a key item for reviving him. The reality is that Emil died in the prologue, and was replaced by Ratatosk. Your whole quest to revive Ratatosk was a sham.
• Minion Maracas: Richter does this to Emil at the beginning of the game.
• Mons: A major gameplay system and plot point and the source of all non-Emil, Marta, or TOS 1 party members. Fortunately, it's not the entire point of the story.
• Multiple Endings: Three of them—two for intentionally losing the battle against Lloyd and Marta, and the Bad Ending (essentially a Non-Standard Game Over) for winning said battle.
• New Game Plus: As with most Tales games, Dawn Of The New World has a New Game Plus once you complete it.
• Ninja Log: Used to fake out Richter.
• No Cure for Evil: Averted - Alice has access to healing magic. And she will use it.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Ratatosk Emil deals one to Magnar after their fight. An optional cutscene also has Decus snap and beat the hell out of a priest for long after Alice ordered him to stop.
• Non-Standard Game Over: The bad ending.
• Official Couple: Emil x Marta.
• One True Sequence: Considering the antagonists have Rheiards on their side, you'd think Emil and co. wouldn't be able to get to all the dungeons exactly when they do every time, especially with all the sidetracking they do.
• Optional Boss: Album Atrum can only be fought at the end of the game after finishing the Treasure Hunter Katz quests.
• Painfully Slow Projectile: Emil's Ain Soph Aur attack in a few cutscenes. In one, it takes several seconds to cross a small room, even though part of it might be simple slow-motion focus. Either way it's odd, considering the fact that in battle, it sweeps across the battlefield in about second. Not to mention a certain flashback, where the projectile was nearly as fast as lightning.
• Pair the Smart Ones: Likely subverted with Raine/Regal, specifically with Raine's love letter, which was actually a letter with her suspicions about Emil.
• Permanently Missable Content: The Richter sidequest and cutscenes offering Character Development for Alice and Decus become lost after certain points. Katz quests, too, including the Treasure Hunter series of quests that need to be cleared to fight the game's Optional Boss.
• Post-Final Boss: Twice in succession. After defeating the Final Boss, Richter, Emil faces two more bosses. First, a fight he must lose against Marta and Lloyd (or get the Bad Ending), followed by a fight against Ratatosk's personality. The latter fight can be won or lost, with no difference other than a small scene change.
• Power Creep, Power Seep: None of the original cast have given up their Exspheres yet... and yet are easily matched by Marta and Emil, as well as the Vanguard.
• The Power of Love: Decus uses it ''AGAINST'' the player.
• Quirky Miniboss Squad: Decus alone has enough quirk for two miniboss squads.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: The Mayor of Luin in the only person in that town that's isn't openly hostile towards Emil and upon the Vanguard's invasion is willing to admit the matter with Lloyd may require investigation. He's also the only citizen of Luin to actually thank Emil for saving the town, unlike some other villagers, especially UncleAlba.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Alice gives one to Marta during their final confrontation.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: When Emil's eyes turn from green to red, it's an indication that he's tapped into his Superpowered Evil Side. As no one else seems to notice this, it's more a wink to the audience than anything.
• Regional Bonus: The PAL release of Dawn Of The New World has an exclusive Gallery option, allowing players to view the artwork and all of the skits.
• Reincarnation: Of a fashion. In a skit with Tenebrae, Lloyd reveals his belief that Mithos became the new World Tree.
• Remember the New Guy?: an Ascended Extra, Aster, is retconned into the first game. What's depressing is that, since there actually were NPCs in the place where Lloyd supposedly met him, Team Tales could've just picked one of them and not bothered with these sorts of shenanigans.
• Rescue Romance:
  • Decus became enamored with Alice after she killed his harassers at the orphanage they grew up at.
  • Also, Marta loves Emil for this reason, but it's subverted... because it wasn't Emil who saved her during the Blood Purge, but in actuality, Lloyd. Marta never finds that out.
• The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: The Vanguard is quickly revealed to be just as bad as the Church. Perhaps even worse, since they themselves spearheaded the Blood Purge as a False Flag Operation.
• Rewatch Bonus: The prologue, along with various other story events/hints, all take on an entirely different context once you know the truth of things.
• Rogue Protagonist: Lloyd.
• Say It with Hearts:
  • Alice!
  • Marta does it as well, though less often. She even writes them in the diary.
• Schrödinger's Gun: Lloyd asks Emil to guess who went with him on the journey to collect the Exspheres. No matter what the player chooses, he's right, and that person becomes Lloyd's 'special person.'
• Sheathe Your Sword: The good ending requires you to throw the final fight with Lloyd and Marta.
• Ship Sinking: Subverted: Lloyd, in his way of thinking, proposed to a new minor character named Lilia—torpedoing all main ships? Nope. It's stated in the same scene that Lloyd never had feelings for Lilia, and was proposing to her out of duty, 2. She rejected him massively, and 3. the second Flanoir scene confirms any canon ship you desire. The torpedo was fake. On the other hand, it's played straight with...
• Ship Tease: The "Love Letter", which is sunk once you find out the contents of the letter.
• Shoehorned Acronym: Played with. Alice calls Decus a "dumbo", though the latter interprets it as an acronym for "Dashing, Undaunting, Majestic, Brilliant, and Oh-so-handsome", and proudly accepts it.
• Shout-Out:
  • Alice's grunts are named Athos, Porthos, and Aramis.
  • Marta tells Emil a story sounding suspiciously like "Hansel and Gretel" in one skit.
  • A bear monster is named Corduroy.
  • Several skits make references to other Namco games — Presea makes charms called Loni-Kyle and the Judas Mask, for instance, and Klonoa is explicitly stated as the mascot of Altamira. The most surprising reference, though, is Colette speculating that Regal's training an army of spies to hide in cardboard boxes to save the world. Given that Regal is voiced by Akio Ōtsuka in the Japanese version, it's not that surprising.
  • One skit also makes references to The Phantom of the Opera, Man in the Iron Mask and V for Vendetta, of all things.
  • Raine also quotes Sun Tzu in a victory skit: "If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the results of a hundred battles."
  • After her iron maiden scene, Presea admits in a skit that she was scared at the time. Her heart was going waka waka waka. Waka waka waka.
  • Emil's father looks like he might be a distant reletive of Guy Cecil. Sort of fitting considering that Emil and Guy share their English voice actor.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: In a rare villainous example, Richter does this to the party when they try to talk him out of his plan.
  Richter: What do you know?! My methods are my business! I don't need you telling me what to do!
• Single-Target Sexuality: Decus is Alicesexual. And Marta is Emilsexual.
• Slasher Smile:
  • Ratatosk. Emil's Super Move Portrait Attack during his "Devil's Hellfire" Mystic Arte.
  • Alice has one of these at times, especially during her own Super Move Portrait Attack.
• Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Addresses this aspect of Lloyd from the original, showing that the world hasn't gotten that much better, and that many people blame Lloyd for many deaths that he may or may not have indirectly caused. On the other hand, this is Tales of Symphonia we're talking about, after all.
• Snow Means Love: Features a return to this from the first game, when Lloyd joins you at the very end of the game, although it's optional. Moreover, the scenes themselves are optional (and only one can be chosen) and can very well be missed. If you go to Iselia after Lloyd joins, he and Emil will talk about his journey to collect the Exspheres. At this point, you can pick the ally that accompanied him on that journey after the previous game. Lloyd and Emil will talk about that person for a bit. Then, after going to Flanoir, an angry townsperson attacks Lloyd, blaming him for the death of his sister. Feeling bad about everything that’s going on, Lloyd goes off to the balcony where the previous game’s Flanoir scenes took place. Go there, and he has a conversation with the party member picked back in Iselia.
  • In Raine and Presea’s respective scenes, Lloyd is confirmed to already have gotten together with the respective girl prior to the game.
  • In Sheena’s scene, Lloyd’s relationship status with her is left somewhat ambiguous. It’s not explicitly stated whether or not they’re already together, but it is somewhat implied they are.
  • Colette’s scene is fairly strongly implied to itself be the moment she and Lloyd get together. Emil outright tells Lloyd about Colette’s feelings for him, and Lloyd gets rather flustered, hinting that he may have had a Love Epiphany at some point between the end of the original and this game, but hadn’t yet admitted his feelings. Emil encourages him to do so, and later, in the Flanoir portion, he does.
    • This leaves Colette as the only person Lloyd says “I love you” to.
• Spot the Imposter: Hilariously done when you finally find the Lloyd responsible for the Palmacosta attack.
• Staged Populist Uprising: Inverted, The Vanguard is formed after the unification of the two worlds, as a way for the Sylvaranti to oppose and resist their status as second-class citizens to the Tethe-Allans, and their systematic oppression by the Church of Martel and the protagonist of the previous game, Lloyd Irving. Later, it is revealed that the travesties carried out by the "church" are actually being staged by the Vanguard as a way to generate grassroots support
• Story Overwrite: While it is possible to win a certain Hopeless Boss Fight, which occurs near the beginning of the game, the story continues as if you lost anyway.
• Sudden Sequel Heel Syndrome: Lloyd Irving, sort of. It was an impostor and the real Lloyd was only hindering your goals because he was trying to set things right as well.
• Super-Powered Alter Ego: Emil.
• Talking Is a Free Action: Lampshaded by Tenebrae during a chase scene.

  Tenebrae: Why do humans have a tendency to stop and talk? Need I remind you that we are currently being pursued?

• Taking the Bullet: Happens a couple of times actually:
  • Richter rebounds Emil's Ain Soph Aur on him. In his shock at this, he doesn't move... then Marta takes it for him.
  • Tenebrae does this in Meltokio to get rid of a monster that was about to self destruct and take Emil with it.
  • Hawk does this unwittingly, trying to jump into a battle between Commander Brute and the party, but only managing to be impaled on Brute's sword and giving Emil and the others time to get away.
  • Decus does this for Alice after your final battle with them. She does not take it well.
• Theme Naming: All of the Centurions' names are simply the Latin word for their respective elements. Alice's Mons are called Athos, Porthos and Aramis, referencing the Three Musketeers. As shown in the pictures gallery unlocked after beating the game once, Emil and Marta's early designs were initially called 'Soleil' (French for "sun") and 'Selene' (Greek goddess of the Moon).
• Tomato in the Mirror: Emil is Ratatosk, in a dead kid's body, with another dead kid's identity!
• Treachery Cover Up: The heroes of the original hide the truth regarding Cruxis and Mithos.
• Tsundere:
  • Richter towards Emil, to some serious lengths. Also parodied with Marta in skits.
  • Also, in the aforementioned Schrödinger's Gun, if you choose Sheena, she gets this towards Lloyd.
  • Ratatosk Mode Emil has his moments.
• Two-Person Pool Party: Marta tries to have one with Emil, or at least some variant of it. It doesn't work.
• Undying Loyalty: Tenebrae to Ratatosk and to Emil after it's revealed that he's Ratatosk.. Zelos has this towards Lloyd, outright refusing to associate with Emil and Marta at first due to poor word choice on their part about Lloyd. He's the only party member who outright refuses to believe that Lloyd did any of the crimes he's accused of and outright believes that Lloyd has to have good reasons for his secrecy. He's proven to be right, doesn't mean that everyone isn't annoyed about it.
• Ungrateful Bastard: How does Ratatosk mode Emil thank you for healing or reviving him? "You're slow!" Ironically, when he uses an item, he tells the recipient to "Be grateful."
• The Unreveal: Remember how the original game teased us with "This tree's name is-"? Well now we've got this game, and we think that we'll learn what he named it, but it turns out that it's a plot point that Emil can never learn the Tree's name, for its own protection. And it turns out that everyone from the previous game knows it already. Presumably they all learned its name during the credits of the first game. For the curious, the tree's name was revealed in Tales of Phantasia, set in the far future of the same world as Symphonia. The tree's name is Yggdrasil.
• Unstoppable Rage: Alice does this during her Villainous Breakdown.
• Villainous Breakdown: Alice has one in the final dungeon once Decus takes Emil's sword for her. She devolves into an Unstoppable Rage because she really did love Decus back... despite treating him like crap. It's only stopped when Marta kills her... and she tells Decus they will be Together in Death soon, before dying while holding his hand.
• Weakness Turns Her On: While Marta is infatuated with Emil's "heroics" early on, she eventually comes to terms with Emil's true personality, and ends up loving his "wimpy", pacifist self all the same.
• We Cannot Go On Without You: If all of the players human characters are defeated in battle, they get Game Over, even if any of their Monster Allies are still capable of fighting.
• What Does She See in Him?: In one skit, Marta asks Colette if she and Lloyd are more than friends, causing her to get flustered and run away (See He Is Not My Boyfriend). Emil questions how Colette could possibly like somebody such as Lloyd, since at that point he and Marta know him as a murderous psychopath. Marta, in typical Marta fashion, gets the wrong idea.
  • Near the end of the game, Emil can take advantage of this knowledge if Colette is picked in the Iselia/Flanoir sidequest, helping to set her and Lloyd up.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Ratatosk Mode Emil gets this a lot from Marta on his Jerkass moments. Emil gives himself one when it's revealed that he's Ratatosk and that he used Marta to keep himself safe.
• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: The Centurion Cores grant their owner great power, but will drive them insane. Except Marta (using Ratatosk's power), Emil (being Ratatosk), Lloyd (protected by the blessing of the new World Tree) and Richter (strong willpower, as evidenced by his inadvertant ability to make Aqua fall in love with him even before he makes a pact with the demonic realm).
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: The entire Symphonia party, Marta and Tenebrae think this about Emil, especially in the ending.
• Zettai Ryouiki: Marta. Aster also manages this in boots.