Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World is an action role-playing game developed by Namco Tales Studio and published by Namco Bandai Games for the Wii as a cross of spin-off and sequel to Tales of Symphonia for the Nintendo GameCube and PlayStation 2. The game was released in Japan on June 26, 2008, in North America on November 11, 2008, and in Europe on November 13, 2009. During the events of the first game, Lloyd Irving and his companions embarked to a journey that led to the merging of the twin worlds of Sylvarant and Tethe'alla. After the lands became one, however, maps were rendered useless and the climate went through many vast changes: desert towns became frozen wastelands and lakes dried up into valleys. All of this stems from an overlooked factor in the unification of the worlds: the spirit of the old Kharlan Tree, Ratatosk, still exists somewhere, and its slumber has sent the world into chaos.[3] To complicate matters, tensions have quickly escalated between the people of the two worlds. The Tethe'allans look down upon the Sylvaranti due to their inferior technology, and the Sylvaranti fear the Tethe'allans for their power. Two years have passed since the worlds were first merged, and Sylvaranti dissidents have created an insurgency, known variously as the "Sylvaranti Liberation Front" and the "Vanguard," with which to rise against the Church of Martel and the Tethe'allans.