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The 30th anniversary of the Tales series is just around the corner and Bandai Namco has already started preparations with the Remastered Project. For those who would like to take a walk down memory lane, or are curious about what other Tales games they can play while waiting for new (or remastered) releases, here is a full list of the mothership Tales titles.

Tales of Phantasia 2q1f5t

Release Date: December 15, 1995

Platforms: Super Famicom, PlayStation, GBA, PSP, iOS, mobile devices

The first Tales title takes place in Aselia and follows Cless Albane, who seeks revenge after his hometown is destroyed. He learns that the culprits behind the attack wish to revive a powerful sorcerer king, Dhaos. Using the power of time travel, Cless and his friends travel to the past and future in order to defeat Dhaos for good.

Tales of Destiny 304o49

Release Date: December 23, 1997

Platforms: PlayStation

The original Tales of Destiny came out on the PlayStation and the remake came out in 2006 for the PS2. It follows Stahn, who accidentally finds a sentient sword that calls itself Dymlos. He, along with other wielders of speaking swords, fight for the Eye of Atamoni, which is a powerful relic from an ancient war.

Tales of Destiny Remake is one of the best titles in the Tales series for its story—which expands on the original and includes a redemption arc for popular character Leon—and fighting style. Hopefully, Bandai Namco has plans for a remaster so that it can officially release the game to the west.

Tales of Eternia 2t543o

Release Date: November 30, 2000

Platforms: PlayStation, PSP

Tales of Eternia, released in the west as Tales of Destiny 2, has nothing to do with Tales of Destiny. Instead, it follows Reid Hershel and his friends, who live together in the world of Inferia. One day, they come across a mysterious foreign girl named Meredy and through their interactions with her, learn of a different world called Celestia. They journey together to stop an ages-old conflict between the two worlds.

Tales of Eternia feels like the turning point for the Tales series in that it propelled the series into its initial popularity. It was popular enough for an anime adaptation and a MMO, though the anime was pretty bad (in that it had little to do with the game) and the MMO didn’t last long. The battle system feels a lot more fluid compared to Phantasia and Destiny, and it holds up to newer 2D Tales games too. 

Tales of Destiny 2 3i3854

Release Date: November 28, 2002

Platforms: PS2, PSP

The actual sequel to Tales of Destiny, Tales of Destiny 2 follows Kyle, who’s the son of Stahn and Rutee from the first game. Due to his parents’ heroic past, he’s also obsessed with becoming a hero. One day, he meets a mysterious girl named Reala and embarks on a journey to become a true hero.

Like the above Tales of Destiny Remake, Tales of Destiny 2 is a fantastic game. It’s got a great story, compelling characters, and a difficult battle system that’s rewarding to master. The meme himself, Barbatos, is also from this game. Considering how much trouble he can give you, it can be a little hard to laugh at the jokes Bandai Namco make at his expense.

Tales of Symphonia 5r3l5w

Release Date: August 29, 2003

Platforms: Nintendo GameCube, PS2, PS3, Windows PC, Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One

Tales of Symphonia was popular in its native Japan, but it’s what really put the franchise on the map for the western audience. While the west had gotten Phantasia and Eternia, they weren’t exactly selling like hotcakes in the way that Symphonia did. The story follows Lloyd, who s his friend Colette’s pilgrimage to regenerate the world of Sylvarant.

Tales of Rebirth 3d484v

Release Date: December 16, 2004

Platforms: PS2, PSP

The story of Tales of Rebirth heavily focuses on racism. It takes place in a world where people wield a magical power called Force after King Ladras, in his final moments, uses his power to unleash the potential in people around his kingdom. Veigue lost power of his Force of Ice and froze his childhood friend Claire in a pillar. Even after he manages to free her with the help of new friends Eugene and Mao, soldiers acting on orders from Karegia Kingdom heiress Agarte take her away. His journey to rescue her from the palace morphs into a battle to end racism.

Tales of Legendia 4q6q12

Release Date: August 25, 2005

Platforms: PS2

Tales of Legendia follows the story of Senel and his surrogate little sister Shirley. Shirley is the Merines, a legendary figure among the Ferines, which is a race of people who can live underwater. Because Shirley is the Merines, many different factions want to capture her to use them for their own schemes.

Compared to previous titles (and its successor Abyss), Tales of Legendia looks and plays in a very weird way. This likely has to do with the fact that the developer, Project MelFes, consists of Tales Studio , along with developers from the Tekken and Soul Calibur series. It’s the first Tales game with Go Shiina as the composer and the soundtrack is objectively the game’s highest point.

Tales of the Abyss 5h3k3x

Release Date: December 15, 2005

Platforms: PS2, Nintendo 3DS

Tales of the Abyss is the eighth mothership title, but it’s the commemorative game for the series’s 10th anniversary. It follows Luke fon Fabre, a pampered noble and swordsman who ends up outside of his comfy mansion after heroine Tear appears to assassinate her brother, who’s also Luke’s teacher. The story heavily focuses on Luke’s personal development as he seeks the meaning of his birth. There is also an anime adaptation for Abyss, which you can watch on YouTube.

Tales of the Tempest r5ii

Release Date: October 26, 2006

Platforms: Nintendo DS

Tales of the Tempest follows Caius Qualls, who is a Leymon (essentially a werewolf). After the church takes his guardian prisoner and kill the parents of his childhood friend Rubia, the two of them set out for the capital. The adventure then turns into one to overthrow the church.

Tales of the Tempest is the first Tales game for a handheld console. However, the reception to the game was very mixed, with some places giving it a very positive score and others giving it a very negative one. Points of criticism included the story’s short length, lack of content, unappealing relationship between Caius and Rubia, and more.

Tales of Innocence 14305s

Release Date: December 6, 2007

Platforms: Nintendo DS, PS Vita

The story of Tales of Innocence follows avatars, human reincarnations of the divine Devalokans who can still use supernatural powers from their past lives. Ruca, a timid boy, is an avatar of the powerful Asura and he awakens to his powers after rescuing fugitive Illia, a fellow avatar. They meet up with other avatars, who then travel to do something about the wars engulfing their world.

Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World 4t508

Release Date: June 26, 2008

Platforms: Wii, PS3

Though the sequel of Tales of Symphonia, Dawn of the New World introduces a lot of lore and elements that weren’t in the original game. It follows Emil, a timid boy who survived a massacre that Lloyd from the first game perpetrated. After meeting with Marta, a girl with Ratatosk’s Core on her forehead, the two of them set out on a journey to fix the meteorological problems occurring around the world and escape from Marta’s pursuers.

Tales of Vesperia 164y6m

Release Date: August 7, 2008

Platforms: Xbox 360, PS3, Nintendo Switch, PS4, Windows PC, Xbox One

Tales of Vesperia is a very popular and successful entry in the Tales franchise, selling over 1.5 million copies worldwide. It also has a prequel film, though Flynn in particular is so out-of-character it might as well be fanfiction. The story follows Yuri Lowell, a former soldier who’s now doing odd jobs around his neighborhood. After meeting a noble named Estelle and fleeing from the capital with her, he forms a guild called Brave Vesperia.

Tales of Hearts 6c70r

Release Date: December 18, 2008

Platforms: Nintendo DS, PS Vita, iOS

Tales of Hearts follows Kor Meteor (Shing Meteoryte) who meets siblings Kohaku and Hisui Hearts. A monster infects Kohaku and in an attempt to save her, Kor accidentally destroys her Spiria (her heart and emotions). The three of them set off on a journey to restore Kohaku’s Spiria.

People don’t talk about the CG Movie Edition, but I definitely that one. People were comparing the models to the Evil Goddess MOCCOS, an old 2ch meme about the ugly KOS-MOS figure that came with the Xenosaga Episode 2 Box Set.

Tales of Graces 5q5o6m

Release Date: December 10, 2009

Platforms: Wii, PS3, Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Windows PC

Tales of Graces follows the story of Asbel Lhant, who is the future heir of the Lhant village. As a child, he befriends an amnesiac girl named Sophie and the prince of Windsor, Richard. Witnessing Sophie’s death traumatizes him and he runs away from home to become a knight. Seven years later, he reunites with Sophie, setting into motion an adventure that takes him all across the world of Ephinea.

Tales of Xillia 1l6o71

Release Date: September 8, 2011

Platforms: PS3

Tales of Xillia is the first Tales game that combines character designs from Kosuke Fujishima (Phantasia, Symphonia, Abyss) and Mutsumi Inomata (Destiny, Eternia, Rebirth). Like Tales of the Abyss, it’s a celebratory mothership title. In Xillia's case, it was for the 15th anniversary. It follows Jude Mathis, a medical student who encounters Milla Maxwell after she breaks into a military research facility in an attempt to destroy a secret weapon. Now that they’re on the run from the military, Jude and Milla, along with their companions, journey to help Milla with her mission to save the world.

Tales of Xillia 2 3nb3v

Release Date: November 1, 2012

Platforms: PS3

Tales of Xillia 2, like Dawn of the New World, is a sequel of its predecessor while introducing elements and lore that the original game never really mentioned. It takes place a year after Xillia and follows Ludger Will Kresnik, a guy who just wants to cook. It turns out he’s not just a good cook, as he possesses the Chromatus. He and the cast from the first Xillia need to go into parallel worlds—essentially what-if scenarios from the first game—and destroy them to prevent their own world’s destruction. He also has to pay off a huge medical debt. Ah, adult life.

Tales of Zestiria 3cr5c

Release Date: January 22, 2015

Platforms: PS3, PS4, Windows PC

Tales of Zestiria was, like Abyss and Xillia, an anniversary title and this time, it was for the 20th anniversary. It draws inspiration from Arthurian legends and it follows the story of Sorey, a young human who can see the mystical spirits Seraphim. He leaves the village of Elysia with his best friend Mikleo and, after forming a pact with the Seraph Lailah, he becomes the Shepherd whose job is to purify the Hellion rampaging throughout Glenwood.

For an anniversary title, Zestiria had its fair share of controversies. Before the game came out, Japanese fans were ticked off about how prominent advertising for Alisha was, yet she was a mere guest party member in the actual game. After it came out, fans seemed split on the story, battle system, and tutorials.

Tales of Berseria k586k

Release Date: August 18, 2016

Platforms: PS3, PS4, Windows PC

Tales of Berseria technically serves as the prequel to Tales of Zestiria. However, you don’t have to play Zestiria to understand Berseria. It follows Velvet Crowe, a normal village girl who lost her pregnant sister after a daemon attack. One day, tragedy strikes the village and Velvet comes across her brother-in-law Artorius killing her younger brother Laphicet in a ritual. She transforms into a daemon and Artorius tosses her into jail. Once she wakes, she swears vengeance on the man who used to be her family.

Tales of Arise 37x2o

Release Date: September 10, 2021

Platforms: PS4, PS5, Windows PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X

Tales of Arise follows the story of Dahnan slave Alphen, or “Iron Mask,” and a Renan girl named Shionne. A curse on Shionne hurts anyone who touches her but since Alphen can’t feel pain, he’s the only person who can pull a sword from the Master Core she has. Like Rebirth and Eternia, it deals with themes of racism and oppression.

The post All Mothership Titles in the Tales Series in Release Order appeared first on Siliconera.

While Namco Bandai is giving the Tales series a big push, we missed out on a bunch of games. Speaking with Siliconera, Tales of producer Hideo Baba said Tales of Phantasia was one of the most important games since it started the Tales series.

"To expand the fanbase, I would like players to have a chance to play previous titles that weren’t released overseas," Baba declared. I asked which title in particular he wants to bring to the West.

"I received so many inquiries about the PS3 version of Tales of Vesperia," acknowledged Baba. "Personally, I would want players to play Tales of Hearts for the Nintendo DS because the team pushed the DS hardware to the maximum and the game's story is about the heart. Unfortunately, we don’t have any plans to localized Tales of Hearts, but this one is my favorite one."

Tales of Hearts came out in 2008 and was released in two flavors – one with anime cutscenes, the other with CG cutscenes.

The post Tales Producer Says You Should Play Tales Of Hearts appeared first on Siliconera.

Namco Bandai hasn't forgotten about Tales of Hearts. In fact, they took an extra step to protect the title in North America by filing a second trademark for Tales of Hearts on February 17, 2012.

The difference between the original trademark, ed in 2008, is the new trademark applies also applies to able video game software. The previous trademark covered computer game programs, coin-operated amusement games, and networked video games. Perhaps, Namco Bandai is considering to release Tales of Hearts as a digital ?

Tales of Hearts was originally released for the Nintendo DS in 2008 with either anime cutscenes or CG movies. The game has a number of Namco crossovers including Lloyd Irving from Tales of Symphonia, Jade from Tales of the Abyss, Klonoa, Heihachi from Tekken, and KOS-MOS from Xenosaga.

The post Tales Of Hearts Trademark Filed By Namco Bandai In The US appeared first on Siliconera.

This week, we wrap up our discussion with Crimson Nocturnal, discussing Tales of Hearts' "love" theme, talking about the motivations behind taking on such a project, and finally, the fan-translation community in general.

Participants:

Co-founder, Crimson Nocturnal — Josh Patterson, (aka neoxephon)

Siliconera — Ishaan Sahdev

Ishaan: Let's talk a little about the game itself. The custom Namco genre for this one is "RPG of a meeting between hearts." Why the emphasis on hearts? Is there a heavy focus on romance (referring to Shing and Kohak) or does the "heart" theme refer to more than just that?

Josh: Yes, there is definitely something there between Shing and Amber as the game progresses, but the theme is not just limited to that. The game places a huge emphasis on "Spiria" or hearts. Without giving too much away, Kohak or Amber (depending upon which name you prefer) has something occur to her at the beginning of the game. This results in her "Spirune" or heart being shattered into many pieces and spread across the world. These control her emotions and the only one that remains is "Kindness". You spend a good portion of the early game retrieving her missing "Spirune" pieces. "Spiria" is essentially the life force that creates will and emotions.

Ishaan: How do you feel the romance angle holds up in the game? It's a theme one would love to see more developers explore, but such few games get it right because either the characters aren't convincing, or the events unfold in an unconvincing manner...

Josh: Well, as I said, there is something going on between Shing and Amber. It develops throughout the story, but ultimately ends up leaving the player hanging. To be honest, I don't see it as anything more romantic than your typical hero and heroine falling for each other. If you're looking for a game focusing heavily on romance, Tales of Hearts probably isn't that. It is, however, a great Tales series entry.

Ishaan: Crimson Nocturnal have three projects that you're working on at the moment -- Tales of Hearts, SaGa 2 and Summon Knight. That's a fair bit of work and it requires a real sense of dedication. Tell me a little bit about the team...does anyone want to get into localization as a profession, or is this purely a hobby?

Josh: It seems to be more of a hobby for everyone, I know it is for me. The people that make up the three different teams are either very ionate about the game they are working on or very ionate about ROM hacking in general. Doing it as a hobby does have its advantages, such as not having time constraints and not having to work on games that we do not care about.

Ishaan: That's what fascinates me about the fan-translation community. Scanlation, too, for that matter...although, breaking into a career in manga is much harder because it's not as big an industry. There's a lot of groups that abandon projects halfway, but there's also several that painstakingly see them through to the end for no profitable gain. And like you pointed out, it would appear that, to a lot of these people, it's no more than a hobby.

It makes you wonder if certain publishers aren't looking in the right places for localization staff...or even freelancers to outsource to. But then again, no one really s themselves that way because it's a legally "grey" area...

Josh: I think there are a lot of people that get into game translation projects believing that it is as easy as translating the text and then pasting it into a text document. They do not realize the amount of work that it involves. It overwhelms them and it results in projects being abandoned. It can be extremely tedious at times and even occasionally boring.

Yeah, ROM hacking is definitely in a "grey" area when it comes to legality. Patches allow us to translate the games and provide the results to people, without redistributing the source files for the game. Although fan translations take a lot of the same skills localization teams use, it's still not something you would want to put on a resume, at least I wouldn't.

Ishaan: Yeah, that's the sad part. I've spoken to game publishers and even worked at places where a lot of people just...aren't very ionate about the medium. It's a 9 - 5 job that earns them money, and that's about it. I in scanlation, we'd occasionally have times when someone was recruited off a scanlation team to work at Viz or Tokyopop or Dark Horse...

You mentioned that a lot of people don't think it through properly, when they opt to begin work on a project, and that it can get tedious. Obviously, there's an advantage to not having to adhere to a budget or schedule, but on the other hand, you've got the community pounding on your door. Does that ever get to you?

Josh: Yes, there are times. I've even received hate mail because someone gets mad that we haven't finished a game yet. Those people are extremely impatient. They expect us to work non-stop, as if our sole purpose is to complete the translation for them. I've learned to filter out most of it, but occasionally it can still get on the nerves. On the flip-side, there are those that are very patient and are just appreciative that the project exists, so it isn't always bad. They realize that we all have lives outside of the projects.

Ishaan: This is a bit of a personal question, but have you found yourself making new, actual friends through fan-translations? Are you close to the team or is it more of a "professional-cum-friendly collaboration?"

Josh: All of the people within the teams I consider to be my friends. Some of them have been a part of the projects longer, allowing me to get to know them better. There are even a few that I chat with on a regular basis. There definitely appears to be friendships forming between other team , as well.

Ishaan: That about wraps it up. Thanks so much, Josh. I really appreciate you ing me for this. Do you have anything else you'd like to add or talk about?

Josh: I'd like to thank those who have been following our work with great patience. I promise the wait will be worth it. I'd also like to make a shout-out to all of the awesome people that make up Crimson Nocturnal. Without them, none of these projects would be possible. They are all irreplaceable and extremely valuable. I have a great level of appreciation and respect for all of them.

Missed part 1? Catch up with it below:

Part 1: Translation of a Meeting Between Hearts

The post Siliconera Sounds Off: Behind The Tales Of Hearts Translation appeared first on Siliconera.

Given Siliconera's emphasis on niche games, a lot of the titles we cover never make it to the Western markets in localized form for a variety of reasons, ranging from financial viability to a general lack of interest. Similar to scanlations and fansubs, this is where fan-translations come in.

The fan-translation community is a fascinating entity. In a way, it isn't bound by the budgeting and scheduling constraints that restrain so many professional localization publishers. Above all, there's an inspiring amount of cross-group collaboration, flexibility and ion, without which the progress we've seen just wouldn't be possible.

This week, we caught up with Josh Patterson, co-founder of Crimson Nocturnal, the fan-translation group behind Namco Bandai's Tales of Hearts (and Summon Night X, and Square Enix's SaGa2) to get a feel for how the project came about and what the translation process is like.

Participants:

Co-founder, Crimson Nocturnal -- Josh Patterson, (aka neoxephon)

Siliconera -- Ishaan Sahdev

Ishaan: Could you tell me how Crimson Nocturnal started? How'd you come together, and how did you decide on a name?

Josh: Early last year, I became interested in contributing to the ROM hacking scene. One of the first places I ed up at was GBAtemp and it was there that I met a person that goes by the name Donelwero. He was busy working on a menu patch for Dragon Quest IX and I decided to help him out, if only for fun. We both quickly lost interest in working on a game that would receive official localization and quit that project. Soon after, I ed him about my interest in starting a project for Tales of Hearts. He shared in that interest and the project started. At first, we did not have a name. Truthfully, our name does not have a greater meaning, it just had a nice ring to it. Both of us liked the sound and we stuck with it.

Shortly after that, I came in with DarthNemesis, who is very well known within the GBAtemp community for his contributions to ROM hacking. He has been responsible for programming a large number of custom tools that we use for our projects. I happened upon [ToH translator] Caphi while searching around for a dedicated translator for the Tales of Hearts project. At the time, he was working on a FAQ translating a good portion of the game's main story. He had interest and shifted his focus to actually translating the game. There are also several others that have ed up and have contributed greatly to their respective projects since then. Crimson Nocturnal is essentially a group of people that are very dedicated to the goal of bringing great games to English speaking gamers, that otherwise would never happen.

Ishaan: Haha, DarthNemesis is kind of popular, especially after his work on Soma Bringer.

What happened after your team banded together? Was there someone in a "producer" role that assigned responsibility to the rest? I'm sort of curious about the production pipeline you set up, since it seems like you have a (relatively) sizable team.

Josh: I've been responsible for selecting people to fill the roles. The role of the translators is to, obviously, translate the text within the game and make it somewhat understandable. Sometimes this can be tricky, because the Japanese language does not always translate smoothly to English. The role of the editors are to take those translations and ensure that everything is using proper grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc. while (if it is a character's dialogue) keeping the personality of that character. They are also responsible for checking line lengths. If line lengths aren't proper, the text will spill off from the screen making a large portion unreadable.

The programmer role focuses on creating the custom tools that we use for the project. For some of our projects, such as SaGa 2 and Summon Night X, this is relatively easy because of the way the game developers set everything up. Usually, the programmer is responsible for creating a text extraction and reinsertion tool as well as possibly an archive unpacker/packer. Some games, such as Tales of Hearts, use custom archive formats (think of .zip). In order to fully translate the game, you need access to the files stored in those archives. You can't open these with the same utilities that you would for .zip or other common archive formats.

The leader role not only focuses on putting together the team, but also has other responsibilities. These include manual editing of game files (rarely, there will be some parts of files that are near impossible to get working in the text extraction/reinsertion tool), graphic editing, finding newly introduced bugs and fixing them, packaging the patch, and sometimes editing should that area need a extra person. There is also the assistant leader role, which is essentially the right-hand man of the leader and has the same responsibilities.

This team structure is different from other ROM hacking groups. Groups, like Absolute Zero, opt to use smaller teams and then add on editors toward the end of the project. This works for them because they are releasing one patch when it is all done. For us, it is more beneficial to have editing keep pace with translating, that way we can do our periodic releases. We do periodic releases because the teams have found it helps to have community as they go along and it gives us specific milestones to reach.

Ishaan: How do you keep character personalities consistent? Does one of the translators maintain character bios or notes for the editing team to go through?

Josh: Yes, the translators usually have notes about each character's personality and they are available to everyone on the team. These notes can include everything from the kind of speech the character uses (such as a robot that doesn't use slang and shortened words or a character that uses Old English), to how a specific character acts toward another character (such as whether they get along or not). We feel it is important to stay true to what the game developers intended the characters to be. It's especially important with games such as Tales of Hearts, which has characters with very defined personalities.

Look for part 2 next week!

The post Siliconera Sounds Off: Translation Of A Meeting Between Hearts appeared first on Siliconera.

Most Japanese publishers are scrambling to find new franchises from their portfolios that they feel would be suited for the Western market. Some have been successful while others haven't.

Majesco struck gold with Cooking Mama, which brought the firm back from the brink of bankruptcy. Capcom have been doing their best to push Monster Hunter in Western territories, while the Ace Attorney series that originally debuted on GBA has received fairly popular Nintendo DS localizations. They even helped start a trend on the DS by localizing Gyakuten Saiban, following which a slew of DS adventure games were announced by various other publishers. While Square Enix have been more conservative with what games they choose to localize -- no Nanashi no Game for instance -- even they took a chance with The World Ends With You. SEGA tried with Let's Tap.

The key point to keep in mind here, though, is that while these publishers are introducing new intellectual properties on a steady basis, they wouldn't dream of giving up on their established franchises. You would never see Square on localizing a Final Fantasy game or SEGA on Sonic.

Namco Bandai on the other hand, have acquired a reputation lately for ignoring the pleas for some of their most interesting, most anticipated games overseas. Case in point: the majority of fan translations I've been keeping an eye on over the past year or two are all for well-known Namco games.

I'll it, the topic of localization is sketchy, and no one on the journalism or publishing side has quite figured out what always does and doesn't work. It's important to understand the financial side of localization decisions before you start asking for stuff or foaming at the mouth when your favourite games aren't translated.

For instance, it's easy to see why Namco's Sky Crawlers is being handled by XSEED, whose entire business strategy revolves around identifying and understanding opportunities in the overseas "otaku" market and carefully controlling production and marketing budgets to ensure they're profitable. One could also apply that line of reasoning to Fragile Dreams, which Namco had no intention to localize either.

However, things get a little less complicated when you're dealing with a well known RPG franchise like the Tales games. Take Tales of Innocence and Tales of Hearts for instance. Both are DS games, both have the of a recognized brand and the DS RPG market is fairly lucrative at this point.

Yet, we're going to have to settle for Absolute Zero's Tales of Innocence and Crimson Nocturnal's Tales of Hearts translations. No offense to either of these teams; their projects are some of the DS games I'm looking forward to playing the most this year and the next. Still, it's not quite the same as owning the real thing. Having that manual you can flip through when you're bored. Having the box lined up alongside the rest of your collection. The pre-order bonus that tends to come with so many high-profile Japanese games nowadays.

And it doesn't stop with the the DS Tales duo. Beyond those two, I'm looking forward to Romhacking Aerie's XenoSaga I & II translation. Before that project was announced, there was a time when Laura and I were hellbent on the idea of spearheading a translation/romhack of it ourselves, given that Namco would never undertake a localization themselves.

But you could go even further back in time and find projects people still want from the PS2 days. Tales of Destiny: Director's Cut and Tales of Destiny 2 never made it out of Japan either. Both those are getting translated by Phantasian Productions, who are also working on one of the many Tales of Phantasia translations. At this point, the number of fan translations for Namco titles is second only to that of Banpresto's (owing to their numerous mech games).

As fans that are so heavily invested in Japanese games, obviously it's a little disappointing for us to see publishers like Marvelous Entertainment desperately trying to build up their image and brands, while Namco -- having long worked past growing pains -- choose to keep some of their best games from the world.

The reason for this can be summed up in a single world: globalization. Namco is but one of the many Japanese publishers aiming for a stronger presence in the Western market. It's quite likely that their research indicates the kind of games Siliconera readers enjoy aren't the ones that will be bringing in the most profits. And so, they choose to on those in favour of...wait, what? A remake of Klonoa? One Piece?

(There goes that theory.)

In all seriousness, I do hope that, despite their efforts to appeal to the global market, Namco don't forget their roots and why a lot of us love them in the first place. As this post clearly shows, I'm just as incapable of figuring out on what basis Namco games are chosen for localization as anyone else.

The post Tales Of Fan Translations appeared first on Siliconera.

Like Tales? Like crossovers? Then you're going to love Tales of Hearts. Cameos from other Tales games were expected, but Tales of Hearts goes a step beyond and brings characters from other Namco Bandai games into the Tales universe. KOS-MOS, the female android in Xenosaga, s Shing as one of the game's many characters.

When you call KOS-MOS she rushes into battle and fires a burst of bullets with her G Shot special attack. Tales of Hearts isn't the only game where KOS-MOS has a cameo role, but it looks like those are the only roles she is getting since the Xenosaga series prematurely ended years ago. Namco Bandai should just pony up and make a KOS-MOS light gun/RPG hybrid for the Wii or something.

Images courtesy of Namco Bandai.

The post You Got Xenosaga In My Tales of Hearts! appeared first on Siliconera.

In battle, Tales of Hearts feels like any other Tales game. Shing and company run on a straight line and input special moves with button commands. This system has some differences like an emotional gauge that replaces technique points and a combination gauge that lets you call out cameo characters like Lloyd Irving, but Tales of Hearts hardly takes advantage of the DS' touch screen by using it for a menu.

At one time the Tales team was tossing around different ways to use the touch screen. The official Tales of Hearts blog has a concept design which gave players the option of using scribble commands for techniques. While this system was original it was scrapped early on in favor of something more traditional.

What do you think? Are the DS Tales games better off using a tested Tales system with a few tweaks or should Namco Bandai try something new?

Here's what battles in Tales of Hearts look like just in case you haven't seen them before.

Images courtesy of Namco Bandai.

The post A Tale Of An Unused Touch Screen Tales Battle System appeared first on Siliconera.

Tales of Symphonia's lead character gets around. He already got cameo role in Soulcalibur Legends and a "villain" role in Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of a New World. This December Lloyd Irving is going to be in Tales of Hearts too as a character. Other Tales alumni in the game include Judas from Tales of Destiny 2 and Jade from Tales of the Abyss. Unfortunately, these bonus characters aren't part of the story. They aren't even playable like Shing or Kohak. characters that function more like a Marvel vs. Capcom assist or a Final Fantasy summon.

Images courtesy of Namco Bandai. Scan of Shonen Jump from Videogamer X.

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The key difference between Tales of Hearts: CG Movie Edition and Tales of Hearts: Anime movie edition is the movies. One has anime cutscenes and the other has CG. We've seen the CG models before so let's take a look at how Shing and Kohak as illustrations.

In case you missed the CG trailer it's below for comparisons sake. (Thanks Pichi!!)

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Reading through previous comments it look like Siliconera readers are more interested in the anime version. Now that you've seen both trailers do you still prefer Tales of Hearts with anime movies or CG cutscenes.

Images courtesy of Namco Bandai.

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The MSRP for Tales of Hearts in Japan is 6,650 yen or $62 American dollars. Each version costs around $62. Granted PlayStation 3 games can go for an upwards of 8,000 yen in Japan, but that doesn't ameliorate the damage done to the wallet. Good thing prices for games in Japan often fluctuate from the MSRP even on the first day of sales. Amazon plans to sell Tales of Hearts Anime Movie Edition and Tales of Hearts CG Movie Edition for 5,370 yen ($50) when it comes out on December 11.

Namco Bandai has yet to confirm if the ed Tales of Hearts trademark will be used for a North American release.

Images courtesy of Namco Bandai.

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