I have several themes I might consider doing a fanart/short comic over… Request which one you want first and I might actually do it J

<Apollo Justice> (Kristoph) “REAL men wear nail polish.”

[self explanatory]

<Tales of Symphonia KOR> (Emil+Richter) “Ain Soph Aur”

[How the hell does Richter deflect that attack every time?!]

<The World Ends With You> (Conducter!Neku, Joshua, Mr. H) “Dead God’s Pad”

[Because the plot bunnies won’t die.]

<Tales of Vesperia> (Yuri, Flynn) “Illegal is faster”

[For once the main character isn’t an idealistic country bumpkin.]

<The World Ends With You> (Joshua, Minamimoto) “The Matrix”

[As, in Joshua can FREAKING STOP BULLETS, not !InverseMatrix!!!]

<Trauma Center and Ace Attorney> “Doctors v.s. Lawyers”

[You know you want it.]

<Rondo of Swords> (Original Serdic, Divine Emperor Serdic) “It could have been perfect. Your royal blood would have worked just as well as Marie’s.”

[This could be a whole doujin…Or an attempt to cover a gaping plothole the size of ginnungagap]

<Soul Nomad and the World Eaters> (Gig and Revya) “The BFF Empire”

[is an inside joke]

<Disgaea> (Laharl, Adell and Mao) “Yet another Lucky Star parody”

<Trauma Center> (Derek) “Do you know what else the Healing Touch is good for? KILLING!”

[This was an actual quote from the game by Adel… Seriously though, if Derek didn’t decide to become a doctor, he would totally be an assassin.]

<Death Note> (Light) “And then I will take this potato chip…AND EAT IT!”

[Another direct quote. By the gods it’s so freaking epic. And taken out of context.]

<Tales of Symphonia KOR> (Emil, Ratatosk and Marta) “What do you mean, ‘no coffee’? You call this a café? You defy the will of a GOD, you foolish mortal! I’ll kil- Erm… um, I’m sorry. I’ll be leaving now ^__^.“

[A rough translation of Emil’s VA’s explanation of his ‘split personality’.]

<Tales of the Abyss> (Jade, Dist, Peony) “Why are Jade’s clothes covered in monster guts?”
[Because Jade was a screwed up little kid.]

Note that all this is from watching Japanese gameplay videos on niconico douga and youtube. Since my Japanese skills are that of a first year, don't expect all information to be final/correct.

Now, for spoilers: (These are MASSIVE spoilers, as in 'till the very end of the game spoilers)

Regarding Lloyd: Obviously, he's a good guy. He's LLOYD, for crying out loud. The guy Emil and Marta is chasing is actually Decus, Alice's partner and spy for the Sylvarant Vanguard. Using an arte that allows him to take on anyone's appearance, Decus posed as Lloyd, destroyed Palmacosta, and did a bunch of other nasty things to frame Lloyd.

Colette and Zelos: Both still trust Lloyd. Colette listens to Emil and Marta's story but still believes in him. No sign of romance between Lloyd and Colette though. Zelos plain out denies even the possibility that Lloyd could become a killer. Emil angrily comments that "Zelos is the type of fool who would still trust Lloyd if he witnessed him kill people with his own eyes."

Regal: In the opening, we see him in prison clothes (wtf?) but his handcuffs are gone. In battle, he still uses his feet for no adequately explained reason. In game, he wears a rather fancy looking coat.

Presea: She got her emotions back, so she's HAPPY. Her portraits are still soulless since the developers got lazy and decided to reuse TOS's skit and status screen pictures.

Raine and Genis: Take a rather objective standpoint in all of this. Raine admits that she suspects the Lloyd 'had something to do with the blood purge of Palmacosta' but does not believe that he caused it. However, she admits to being a little suspicious. Genis is also worried. When Emil, Marta, along with Genis and Raine get attacked by fake Lloyd (Decus, not the fake chosen group Lloyd), Genis is forced to accept that "Lloyd might be an enemy".

On Marta: She carries the Ratatosk Core on the left side of her forehead, key to reviving Ratatosk. To accomplish this, she travels with Emil and the Centurion of Darkness Tenebrae. She and Emil attempt to collect elemental cores as well as make pacts with monsters along the way.

On Martel/Yggdrasil: Yggdrasil is pretty much a twig at the moment. Definitely not strong enough to supply mana to the world. Give it 1000 years. Yuan and Lloyd are guarding her.

Yuan: Ditched the cape for a semi-normal outfit. Knows what's going on, is in league with Lloyd (the real one).

Kratos: Is in Derris Kharlan. Deal with it.

Richter: At first, he is detestful of Emil for being a coward. Regardless, he teaches him how to use a sword and mentors him for the first three hours of the game. After that, he attempts to kill Marta. Well, there goes their frienship. Throughout the game, Richter attempts to kill Marta though is stopped for different reasons each time (one time, Richter retreats after Zelos begins flirting with Marta). His motive is to become a KOR as well under the Centurion of Water Aqua. He even joins the Vanguard to do so. In the end, you find out that Emil is actually Astel, Richter's companion (and brother? I didn't understand that part). Astel and Richter knew that Martel wasn't strong enough to support the world and begged Ratatosk to help. Ratatosk flat out refused, stating that it "was you humans that created this mess" and blasts Astel with mana, seemingly killing him. Yup, Namco pulled a Kratos on us.

Emil: Astel wasn't really killed; just absorbed into Ratatosk's core. During the Blood Purge of Palmacosta, Marta screams towards Ratatosk to aid her. Astel emerged from the core with no memories and wandered around the destroyed Palmacosta. He walks into a house and a dying woma calls him "Emil" (she can't see and assumes that Astel is her son). The woman tells "Emil" to run before Lloyd kills him. She then dies. Emil, who has no memories instinctively screams "mother!!!" and from the trauma, believes that he was in fact a resident of Palmacosta and the couple he witnessed die on the floor were indeed his parents. In battle, he uses a badass looking single edged sword and slices things with it. He calls upon the power of darkness to do his bidding. He also commands monsters. Sound like villain, no? Outside of battle, Emil's just a wimp.

Ratatosk: The spirit of the original world tree that supplied the world with mana before war screwed everything up (Mithos's era). Is currently dormant, but is beginning to awaken. Ratatosk now inhabits Emil's body, possessing him to do all sorts of nasty things. Sadistic and has the trademark !insane laugh. At the very end, Ratatosk, in Emil's body decides to save the world by using his mana to fuel the world for 1000 years. During that time, Martel will grow and eventually become strong enough to support the world. Once that happens, Ratatosk will no longer be needed and perish. In order to do so, Ratatok needed two sacrifices: Emil will serve as his body and vessel; Richter will be a human sacrifice. (Emil(Astel)XRichter fangirls will appear. I know it.)

So yeah, we can assume that poor Emil dies after 1000 years of mana fueling. We can assume Ritcher dies shortly thereafter.... Poor Marta, can't be with her loved one.... >___<  ...Sounds very familiar eh? It's like Tales of the Abyss, except Luke comes back after two years.

There was also something about Niflheim, Ginnungagap (the Gaping Gap) and the apocalypse, but with all this going on, who cares?

 Other Stuff: 
-Regal X Raine (!!!)
-Emil's hi-ouji has an extension. It's worth watching just for that hilarious evil laugh.
-Alice and Decus are NOT playable.
-Seles gets kidnapped at least once.
-Dirk is badass and wields a nasty hammer during a certain cutscene.
-Emil makes a pact with Verius (Corrine) late in the game.
-The BGM consists mainly of remixes of the original TOS soundtrack. They are awesome.
-Colette and Zelos still have their angel wings and techs.
-Genis's Indignation Judgment is now Indignation (think Jade's super-nuke-pwnage hi-ouji). Indignation is NOT a regular spell anymore.
-No word of a cameo battle.
-Raine is still obsessed with ruins for no adequately explained reason. Coined from Raine's "Ruin Mode", Marta derives a "Ratatosk Mode" title for Emil in a funny scene in the Treit ruins.
-When Emil and Marta first encounter Zelos, Richter is about to attack. Zelos begins flirting with Marta, Emil just stands there, doing a literal O______O expression that is extremely Phoenix Wright. Richter retreats XD.
-There are several hot spring scenes similar to the ones in TOS. Marta get's the Ironing Board title (flat-chested) and due to a misunderstanding, Emil gets the title "Pervert Demon Lord (Overlord)". Lloyd is also accused once again of peeping.
-Skits will be voiced in the ENG version for once!
-All returning TOS characters have hi-oujis but no cut-in's. The only party members with character art during hi-oujis are Emil, Marta, Ratatosk!Emil, Decus, Alice and Ritcher.
-Alice and Decus die together, killed by Marta and Emil respectively.
-Bruto (leader of the Vanguard) is actually Marta's father. Go figure.
-Richter Abend means evening judge in German. Just something to keep in mind.
-The wonder chef is back in all his glory
-All 8 TOS characters (minus Kratos) will be permanant party members for the final battle. During the main story, they come and go as guest characters.

Emil Castagnier, Knight of Ratatosk is going to EAT YOU ALIVE!!!

Just beat The World Ends With You.
It is so full of win!