In a recent interview with Famitsu magazine, producer Hideo Baba talked about Tales of Zestiria and how it will be different from past games in the series. In the same interview, he also shares a little more information on Alicia, the upcoming game’s heroine.

Alicia occupies the lowest seat in the royal family, meaning she is the farthest one in line from being the next heir of the kingdom. So even though she is considered royalty, her position isn’t very high. However, this doesn’t matter to her, as she chose the life of a knight, and loves doing what she does.

According to Baba, she’s the type of person who’d put herself in danger in order to be of help, while protecting her country and its citizens.

She ends up traveling with Slay, but her reason for going on a journey is different from his, as she always acts while thinking about what she can do. In terms of personality, she’s a little bit more on the serious side, and properly responds to Slay’s optimistic personality. As the story goes on, however, you’ll be seeing different sides of her during conversations and other sub-events.

As far as the battle system goes, Baba doesn’t reveal much, but he says that it will focus on the “sword and magic fantasy” and will be quite different from what you’re used to. It will be an evolved form of the current linear-motion battle system, but he says there will also be a “big surprise” he hopes fans will look forward to.

The focus of “dragons” will be a first time for the Tales of series. According to Baba, dragons are often depicted as good, evil, and are some sort of symbolic existence to various worlds. While he doesn’t reveal whether they’ll be good or bad in Tales of Zestiria, he says they will be a big part of the game’s story.

Baba also says that Tales of Zestiria’s scenario and character designs are pretty much complete, and at the moment the development staff are working on various systems and graphics pertaining to the game. Their next step is to work on in-game and animated scenes, which they expect to be a tough process that will require plenty of work, but Baba is confident that the staff’s motivation will get them through.

Finally, Baba ends the talks by saying Namco will be hosting more events as we approach Zestiria’s release date, where they’ll be announcing more information, and thanks fans for making the Tales series’ 20th anniversary possible.

Tales of Zestiria is currently in development for PlayStation 3.