Nintendo Wii Fanboy

You don't have time to be reading this. In fact, by spending valuable seconds reading this very sentence, you have wasted enough time to insult these new Dawn of the New World trailers by not giving them your undivided attention. This massive RPG loves spamming fans with countless videos, and we don't like it. It's a tease. Still, we keep coming back and absorbing everything associated with the sequel to the best RPG on the GameCube. Anyway, what are you still doing here? Hit the jump for plenty more Tales goodness right now!

Yesterday's Namco Bandai press conference revealed media for new Tales RPGs on DS and PSP, and announced a Tales of the Abyss anime series. But outside of their 2008 lineup, series manager Makoto Yoshizumi announced that a new Tales game would be released on Wii in fiscal 2009.

The new game is to be the latest in their "Mothership" Tales series from Namco Tales Studio, rather than a port, remake, or side story. The good news, then, is that as a high-prestige title, it's more likely to be localized. We expect that Namco Bandai will continue to focus their promotion on Tales of Hearts and the other new games, so we'll have to wait a bit for specifics on this new Wii game. We've still got Tales of Symphonia 2 to look forward to anyway.

More delightful media has emerged from the Namco Bandai Editors' Day event! We've updated our gallery with new English screens (and a few inexplicable Japanese screens) of Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World.

The latest game in Namco Bandai's milked-to-death RPG series (though the relative milked-ness of the Tales name may not have any bearing on the quality of this game!) features a new twist in the form of 200 unique monsters, all of whom can (and, perhaps, gotta) be caught. You can swap out monster party members and alter their stats with various foods.

Dawn of the New World will dawn on the shelves this fall.

Two "Centurion Spirits of Ratatoskr," some kind of spiritual protectors, will join your party in Tales of Symphonia: Knights of Ratatoskr. The first is a grey, sort of feline Pokémon-looking creature called Tenebrae who works with the power of darkness, and is responsible for protagonist Emil's status as a Knight of Ratatosk. The second is a cat-child-thing called Aqua, who is unsurprisingly expert with water-based abilities. Aqua works with party member Richter.

We can't quite determine if the attachment between these Centurions and party members means that they'll be relegated to a support role or if they're in the party. We think a big magical cat-monster would be a pretty good asset on the team.

Rumor has it that NamcoBandai is planning two new games in their popular Tales series-- well, one new game and one new-ish game-- for the Wii. The PS2 Tales of the Abyss, as the Internet would have us believe, will get an upgraded port on the Wii, with new content and improved loading. In addition, a new game called Tales of Harmony is possibly in the works, which will take place 10 minutes (!) after the end of Tales of the Abyss. Get 'em both (if they're real) and you've got an epic RPG marathon!

For unattributable rumors, they seem awfully specific, which makes them either more credible ... or credible enough fakes that we will reward the con artists responsible by believing them. We choose to believe, because the Wii could use some Japanese RPGs! We think that the one-handed Wiimote would be a great, relaxing way to play an RPG.

While the Wii has an impressive line-up of games coming its way, there isn't much in the way of RPGs. Sure, Square-Enix has announced Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles and Dragon Quest Swords, but neither are what we'd call classical role-playing experiences. But wait! There's hope!

First off, on June 20th, Namco will unveil another game in their long-running Tales series. While this game is by no means confirmed for the Wii, there is a very suspicious "unannounced RPG" coming to the Wii from Namco-Bandai. Connect the dots?

Along similar lines, Square-Enix has registered the name "Friends of Mana" as part of their World of Mana series, which already includes Children of Mana for the DS and Dawn of Mana for the PS2. Will it be released for the Wii? C'mon, it could happen.

Maybe we're just grasping for straws, but both companies have shown strong support for the Wii. Would it be so massive a surprise if  the Wii got some sword-slashing, magic missile-casting action?

[via Cubed3]