The Collector's Edition Novel

So as someone who has no intention of getting the English version of Symphonia Chronicles, I have to ask... Can anyone who did get the localized Collector's Edition give a summary of what's happening in that novel? I hadn't considered the possibility this thing would get translated until today, when someone posted a picture of their own collector's edition loot.

Most noteworthy, I hear Kratos and Yuan are talking and having an argument in the prologue, so I'd love it if someone could write me up a quick script for that so I'll know what's being said by them.

I'm also interested as I didn't get a chance to pre-order the CE when it was available.

...I wanna read the whole thing but I've been broke. D:

Is the nasty cough going around still bothering somebody? I can recommend nice coughdrops, if you know what I mean.

I plan on grabbing the collector's edition.

Probably online, considering there's not that many of them period.

[spoilerbox="Live commentaries~!"]Pffft, yeah, right. You two are just friends. Your relationship is purely heterosexual. No homo.

They fucked up. They managed to fuck up that line.

What's this? What's this? A typo on this page!

What's this? What's this? There's typos everywhere!

Can I ship Raine and Linar? I ship Raine and Linar.

Petition to rename flashlights “Pretty Sparkle Happy Lights”

Genis, no. Botta was buff enough for the both of you.

Harley, you little shit.

He did the thing. They actually put that scene in the novel.

Iced coffee.

I lied.

It's actually hot.

Excuse you? I believe a certain Mithos Yggdrasill was Genis' first half-elf friend.

Is being a half-elf an euphemism for something else or...?

Oh, come on! Can we stop with the coffee jokes now?

PLOT TWIST!

It was hot chocolate all along! *le gasp*

Hell, yeah! You tell those bitches, Raine!

Neeeiiil!!! ＼（＾▽＾）／

The Alicia Fund? (╥﹏╥)

...And this is how Genis Sage was friendzoned.

Pffft! You came, huh, Genis?

Nooooo!!! Not the water, too???

Presea is having none of your beverages bullshit.

THE BEVERAGE IS A LIE!!!

Don't talk shit about the Chosen's companions in Luin.

Oh, for fuck's sake. Regal's tea is cold.

No, wait, it's hot.

Things are heating up in Altamira!

I lied, the city is actually getting cold.

Presea gets shit done.

Regal is the man your man could smell like. His suit is now diamonds~![/spoilerbox]
I'll stop here for now, keeping Manslut Wilder's chapter for tomorrow!

A kind soul on tumblr is transcribing it~

http://perditus-regulus.tumblr.com/post/78191969011/tales-of-symphonia-successors-of-hope-prologue

Oh, god bless!

Saeko wrote:

[spoilerbox="Live commentaries~!"]Pffft, yeah, right. You two are just friends. Your relationship is purely heterosexual. No homo.

They fucked up. They managed to fuck up that line.

What's this? What's this? A typo on this page!

What's this? What's this? There's typos everywhere!

Can I ship Raine and Linar? I ship Raine and Linar.

Petition to rename flashlights “Pretty Sparkle Happy Lights”

Genis, no. Botta was buff enough for the both of you.

Harley, you little shit.

He did the thing. They actually put that scene in the novel.

Iced coffee.

I lied.

It's actually hot.

Excuse you? I believe a certain Mithos Yggdrasill was Genis' first half-elf friend.

Is being a half-elf an euphemism for something else or...?

Oh, come on! Can we stop with the coffee jokes now?

PLOT TWIST!

It was hot chocolate all along! *le gasp*

Hell, yeah! You tell those bitches, Raine!

Neeeiiil!!! ＼（＾▽＾）／

The Alicia Fund? (╥﹏╥)

...And this is how Genis Sage was friendzoned.

Pffft! You came, huh, Genis?

Nooooo!!! Not the water, too???

Presea is having none of your beverages bullshit.

THE BEVERAGE IS A LIE!!!

Don't talk shit about the Chosen's companions in Luin.

Oh, for fuck's sake. Regal's tea is cold.

No, wait, it's hot.

Things are heating up in Altamira!

I lied, the city is actually getting cold.

Presea gets shit done.

Regal is the man your man could smell like. His suit is now diamonds~![/spoilerbox]
I'll stop here for now, keeping Manslut Wilder's chapter for tomorrow!

Wait, what, what does Genis say about my Botta-kun? *cough cough cough wheeze gasp choke needs cough drops anyway*

@ Tumblr prologue transcription: I will be laughing FOREVER about Kratos being all "nah, gotta cut Yuan short or he will go on with one of his endless stupid rants nooo he always does that". FOREVER. Yuan likes going into pointless rants. Accepted. Approved. I love it.

sistaofpeace1 wrote:

A kind soul on tumblr is transcribing it~

http://perditus-regulus.tumblr.com/post/78191969011/tales-of-symphonia-successors-of-hope-prologue

...Why wait for them when you could read the actual novel? *hint hint*

SoryuAleksi wrote:

Wait, what, what does Genis say about my Botta-kun? *cough cough cough wheeze gasp choke needs cough drops anyway*

He wants to get all buff and manly like Regal when he grows up. XP

Coughdrops have been distributed~

That was a fun little novel. It didn't have the best translation in the world, and the number of times I saw "Exphere" made me want to punch something, but still. :3

Not sure if a certain part in the Presea chapter was just her being dramatic or if Miyajima broke canon though.

cutepresea wrote:

Not sure if a certain part in the Presea chapter was just her being dramatic or if Miyajima broke canon though.

What part?

[spoilerbox="More live commentaries~!"]Meltokio's not the only thing that's hot, if you know what I mean.

Zelos, you sassy little shit.

You can put your lips on me, Zelos! (｡♥‿♥｡)

After all, he is simply one hell of a butler~

Toma needs his own adventures!

Woah, Colette, stop hitting on Lloyd's boyfriend.

Thanks for reminding me of Corrine. It's not like I needed my feelings or anything...

*cue Richter theme*

｡･ﾟﾟ･(>д<)･ﾟﾟ･｡

Damn it, Lloyd![/spoilerbox]
That was... interesting. ...Did I just read a crackfic? ∑(O_O；)

Saeko wrote:

cutepresea wrote:

Not sure if a certain part in the Presea chapter was just her being dramatic or if Miyajima broke canon though.

What part?

[spoilerbox="This one"]"Presea was at a loss for words. If there was ever a time in which she'd been frustrated with her perpetually childlike appearance, this was it. The Ex(s)phere she had equipped, which was parasitic in nature, halted her growth. She could do naught but look like a child for the rest of her days."

Presea's confirmed to age within the games after she gets the new Key Crest, whether it be certain lines in ToS or the fact that she's bigger in Dawn. She should end up with an adult body if it keeps up.[/spoilerbox]

cutepresea wrote:

Saeko wrote:

cutepresea wrote:

Not sure if a certain part in the Presea chapter was just her being dramatic or if Miyajima broke canon though.

What part?

[spoilerbox="This one"]"Presea was at a loss for words. If there was ever a time in which she'd been frustrated with her perpetually childlike appearance, this was it. The Ex(s)phere she had equipped, which was parasitic in nature, halted her growth. She could do naught but look like a child for the rest of her days."

Presea's confirmed to age within the games after she gets the new Key Crest, whether it be certain lines in ToS or the fact that she's bigger in Dawn. She should end up with an adult body if it keeps up.[/spoilerbox]

I thought she was more akin to an angel at that point.

[spoilerbox]being able to alter her metabolism at will[/spoilerbox]

Sounds like a break from canon to me.

Also, I seem to have caught a severe cold.
Does anyone have coughdrops?

edit: all cured! What is this sorcery?

The reactions of the Tumblr microcosm have me as apprehensive as excited.

sistaofpeace1 wrote:

Coughdrops have been distributed~

Already?  Missed the boat!

Eep, spoke too soon.

cutepresea wrote:

Presea's confirmed to age within the games after she gets the new Key Crest, whether it be certain lines in ToS or the fact that she's bigger in Dawn. She should end up with an adult body if it keeps up.

Seemingly a reminder that "Word of God" is malleable thing- to both forgetfulness and outside influence- after nearly ten years.  How much of the post Gamecube-release stuff did she have anything to do with?

Is it me or does this thing sound like a bad fanfiction? I'm trying to read the transcription of the prologue sista posted and I'm already side-eyeing the Kratos quivering with rage thing...

Yeahhhh... There's some very questionable things happening in this novel.

This novel is a bad fanfiction and nobody will convince me otherwise.

Saeko wrote:

This novel is a bad fanfiction and nobody will convince me otherwise.

Is this one of those classic moments in which you can't differentiate between canon and your own interpretation of a story to the point where you think your own (fabricated) version of the story is superior to the actual story, or is it actually just a really bad novel?

I haven't read it yet.

Yume Hanabi wrote:

Is it me or does this thing sound like a bad fanfiction? I'm trying to read the transcription of the prologue sista posted and I'm already side-eyeing the Kratos quivering with rage thing...

It gets better; that prologue felt far too OVA-inspired.  The rest of it reads much more like out of the game.

Slivendiferious wrote:

Saeko wrote:

This novel is a bad fanfiction and nobody will convince me otherwise.

Is this one of those classic moments in which you can't differentiate between canon and your own interpretation of a story to the point where you think your own (fabricated) version of the story is superior to the actual story, or is it actually just a really bad novel?

I haven't read it yet.

I cannot speak for anyone else, but I had no issues with any of it outside of the aforementioned Kratos and Yuan spat (How many conversations do they actually have in the game?  The OVA might actually be your best source there).  In fact it even encouraged some of my speculations.

I think it has to do with the very well-tread source material (and the well tread time-frame, the immediate years after the game) getting a larger official continuation ten years later (I believe the radio dramas are either backstory, gags, or character-specific, so something this broad is a relatively new thing?), and having to lead into Dawn.  Example, Sheena drops a couple "Regal, are you trying to propose to me?" jokes when he gives her Aster's ring to get to Zelos.  I liked it because it foreshadowed their longer screentime in Dawn and it sounds like a quip Sheena would make after making it really clear she does not feel at home in upper class homes.  I can imagine others would think it in bad taste.

Or we can all just accept the fact that you cannot continue a JRPG story without sounding like a fanfic because once the original media game goes to press, even an official sequel merely becomes an interpretation of where its ending will lead.  If the game's actual writer can't "do it", well, either she's forgetful, or she, as you guessed, saw a conclusion you as the reader did not.

There were definitely parts of the writing itself that was a bit odd (why Miyajima thought bringing back the old coffee gag was a good idea, I'll never know), and the translation didn't help matters at times either.
I still liked seeing how the people of the world were reacting to everything and how that was affecting the ToS characters. It's something I felt Dawn needed to touch on a bit more alongside its story.

It's probably just that the original writer is just bad at writing novels. The Kratos novel was pretty terrible, writing-wise. The ideas were interesting, but as a novel the book is a failure.

Also Dawn as a whole, and so this novel since it is tied to it, differs from her original headcanon for the future of Symphonia (which I think is terrible and thank Namco it's not included in the game itself), so yeah, even if it was written by Miyajima it's not that surprising that it doesn't really feel like Symphonia anymore.

But it's not even about conclusions (I haven't read the whole thing yet, just the beginning of the prologue), it's about Kratos rarely showing emotions in-game (remember how everyone was so shocked that he was mad after Kvar's ranch? I guess the effect is a bit lost in English because the skits aren't voiced and also cuz Cam Clarke's Kratos is generally more emotional than Tachiki's, but this book was written for the Japanese audience first) and here he's suddenly slamming his fist and quivering with rage. That's a pretty huge leap in characterization that comes out of nowhere, if you ask me.

The coffee thing is probably because it became a meme in the fandom. Stuff that comes out after the original material is also often heavily influenced by fan's reactions. Which is good, in a way, it shows that they're listening to the fans, but on the other hand they're sometimes forcing in elements that don't belong just because it's popular.

Slivendiferious wrote:

Saeko wrote:

This novel is a bad fanfiction and nobody will convince me otherwise.

Is this one of those classic moments in which you can't differentiate between canon and your own interpretation of a story to the point where you think your own (fabricated) version of the story is superior to the actual story, or is it actually just a really bad novel?

I haven't read it yet.

I wouldn't call it a continuation of the story, the whole thing is really just "An undetermined amount of time in the life of..." as we follow the not so exciting journey of Aster's amulet. There's no new canon to speak of (I refuse to believe that pure gold leaf tissues are a thing), it's just the characters... doing stuff.

It feels like a bad fanfiction in the sense that I had to constantly remind myself that I was reading a real novel meant to be taken seriously. I would have totally believed someone telling me that it was a crackfic, imagine the OVA if they had actually included all the jokes we came up with.

Yume Hanabi wrote:

It's probably just that the original writer is just bad at writing novels. The Kratos novel was pretty terrible, writing-wise. The ideas were interesting, but as a novel the book is a failure.

Also Dawn as a whole, and so this novel since it is tied to it, differs from her original headcanon for the future of Symphonia (which I think is terrible and thank Namco it's not included in the game itself), so yeah, even if it was written by Miyajima it's not that surprising that it doesn't really feel like Symphonia anymore.

You need to give us details, now! *sits on the floor with popcorn*

Yume Hanabi wrote:

The coffee thing is probably because it became a meme in the fandom. Stuff that comes out after the original material is also often heavily influenced by fan's reactions. Which is good, in a way, it shows that they're listening to the fans, but on the other hand they're sometimes forcing in elements that don't belong just because it's popular.

Nonono, it's not just "Let's bring back the coffee scene as an inside joke!". The coffee scene is everywhere. Every. Single. Chapters. There's a redition of the coffee scene in every ways imaginable and then some.

Yeah, that's what I meant: the coffee thing became popular in fandom, so now the joke is repeated again and again. It's a form of fanservice. There probably wouldn't be any coffee joke in that novel if fans never cared much about that scene.

And I don't know all the details, I have yet to find the actual interview to see what she said exactly, but apparently her own headcanon for the future of Symphonia was Lloyd basically going through what Mithos did and dying alone. Then Namco decided to make Dawn, which squashed that idea, so we should be thankful for Dawn for 'rescuing' the characters from their sad fate. Or something >_>

Yume Hanabi wrote:

apparently her own headcanon for the future of Symphonia was Lloyd basically going through what Mithos did and dying alone

wtf, so...so she wanted Lloyd to basically go against what his whole character was about? D:
I think I should go hug Namco for giving us what we got then...