Agree with Noxious. 

To add a bit to what Rockette said, we're all new, essentially. The entire story was re-written, the battle system re-worked, and some of the mechanics re-done. The timeline, and the timeline alone, of the narrative puts it before the events of the last RP, but this one [i]firmly[/i] stands on its own. No prior knowledge is necessary whatsoever.