New Tales of Vesperia Scan - Battles

I am reposting a popular post from my personal blog (Automatic Life) that has translations from the latest Famitsu article on Tales of Vesperia. The scans take a closer look at ToV's battle system, and introduce two playable characters: Rita and Karol Capel.

Karol Capel (presumably closer to "Carl" than the feminine alternative) is a 12 year old monster hunter from the "Makari no Tsurugi" or "Makari no Ken" (it could be either) (lit. Sword(s) of the Demon Hunters) guild. The article says that he has big dreams that he rests on a big weapon. (He appears to fight with a large hammer.) He is reportedly very good with his fingers, and very "in the know" on a lot of matters.

EDIT: The trailer mentions that the guild is officially called the Hunters' Blades Guild in English.

Rita is a 15 year old magic user and magic researcher who is cited as a child prodigy. However, she is apparently only interested in her research, and pays little attention to anything else. She can become very angry if interrupted in her studies, and is ostracized even from the other researchers. She apparently fights with a scarf-like object that can be seen in the first scan, and also has control of a giant cat arm of some sort. I like her goggles.

EDIT: The Wikipedia page on ToV states that Rita fights with a book. (Then what is that scarf she's holding in her portrait and is clearly hitting a monster with in one of the screens?)

Karol and Rita bring the list of revealed characters up to six (with Yuri, Estelle, Rapede, and Flynn previously unveiled). It is generally believed that there is at least one more playable character to come, but I have my money on two. For reference, this team's previous games, Tales of the Abyss had seven playable characters (but you could only keep six) and Tales of Symphonia had nine (but, again, you could only have up to eight).

In terms of the battle system, the Famitsu article points out many similarities to ToA (not surprisingly, since it is the same team), including the ability to hold a button and run around the battle field freely (I kinda wish you didn't need the button, but oh well).

The battle system also features a gauge at the side of the screen which indicates the player character's "overlimit" skill. As you fight, the gauge fills up, and can store up to 4 fully-charged bars. These will allow the character to unleash a powerful overlimit attack based on how many full gauges the player has managed to acquire. 1 full gauge = level 1 overlimit, 2 full gauges = level 2 overlimit, etc. During Overlimit, characters can also produce powerful attacks called Burst Arts. Ooo.

Additionally, there are skills that reportedly alter other abilities. These can be set to your characters, and after repeated use will become fully completed abilities that can be used at will.

Finally, the battle system features a "fatal strike" system. Each enemy apparently holds an endurance factor, referred to as FS taikyuuchi (lit. FS endurance points) which come in three varieties (though the article doesn't elaborate on what these types may be). As the party hacks away at the enemy, its FS endurance falls in addition to its HP damage. If the FS falls to zero, your character can perform a "fatal strike" attack which will instantly destroy most enemies, and heavily damage bosses. This is likely going to be a very important aspect of battles, especially later on in the game.

The game is shaping up to be quite cool, and the more I see about it, the more I MUST HAVE IT. Thoughts?