The Tales Universe (Discussion)

With Tales of Xillia coming out in North America in just a few months, I thought it'd be nice to make a thread that is dedicated for all you Tales of series fans out there. First, what are the Tales series? Well, they're basically a series of RPG games developed by the Namco Tales Studio, and published by the Namco Bandai Games. The series are often unrelated to each other, except for their names, as they all start with their series name, "Tales of". The games in the series have been divided into two types -- the main series of games, called "Mothership Titles", and the side story games, titled "Escort Titles".

This is the list of the Mothership Titles of the Tales Games:

Tales of Phantasia
Tales of Destiny
Tales of Eternia
Tales of Destiny 2
Tales of Symphonia
Tales of Rebirth
Tales of Legendia
Tales of the Abyss
Tales of Innocence
Tales of Vesperia
Tales of Hearts
Tales of Graces
Tales of Xillia
Tales of Xillia 2

This is a list of the Tales games that are not technically part of the main series of games, but rather, they are one-time games / sequels / spin-offs, or in other words these are the Escort titles:

Tales of the Tempest
Tales of Eternia Online
Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World
Tales of VS.
Tales of the Heroes: Twin Brave
Phantasia: Narikiri Dungeon
Tales of the World: Narikiri Dungeon 2
Tales of the World: Narikiri Dungeon 3
Tales of the World: Summoner's Lineage
Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology
Tales of Fandom: Volume 1
Tales of Fandom: Volume 2
Tales of Mobile

So, following this discussion, these are just some questions to think about. Mainly... Are you a Tales fan? What do you think of the Tales games in general? Which of the Tales games have you played, and which ones are your favourite? Which characters are your favourite? What do you think about the idea that the majority of these games have not been released outside of Japan? Why do you like the Tales Games? Any other thoughts / stories / any mondo that you want to share?

Definitely a Tales of fan; might not be my favorite series of games, but I do enjoy them. Storylines might not be the series' strongest suit, but where the series does shine is in its addicting gameplay and character development (to an extent)

As for what I've played, aside from the two Xillia games, I've played all of the mothership titles in the series. Rebirth and the two DS ones are the only ones I haven't finished though.

Favorite? I think it's probably Vesperia. Originally on my first playthrough through the game I didn't think much of it, and stopped about halfway through it. Then about a year ago, I decided to give it another chance (had to repurchase it too!) and realized it was the most fun I had with any of the other titles so far. Definitely my favorite cast; Estelle is no doubt my favorite character in the entire series.

Namco-Bandai has been on my good side lately. I don't know what there deal is with not wanting to localize any 2D titles (no word on Innocence R, no?) and I would have liked the PS3 version of Vesperia as well, but I guess you can't have everything with them.

Tales Of games are so hard to get in Europe, so I've only ever seen the 3DS port of Tales Of The Abyss on sale.

I am interested in playing the series, so I am planning to pick of Abyss sometime this year.

Well, I'm obviously a Tales fan myself. <3 I dunno, I do love the story lines behind each game; especially certain Tales games like Tales of Symphonia, Tales of Abyss, and Tales of Vesperia.

Anyways, I've played Phantasia, Destiny, Eternia, Destiny 2, Rebirth, Symphonia, Abyss, Innocence, Vesperia, Symphonia: Knight of Ratatosk, and Graces. I think my favourites from all of them have to be Vesperia, Abyss, Symphonia, and Destiny 2, because again, their story lines intrigued me way more compared to the others. Not to say that the others aren't bad! In fact, they're all pretty good!

My absolute favourite has to be Vesperia too; the cast stood out to me more, and the setting was absolutely beautiful. Rita, Raven, and Yuri are my favourites! Although, I haven't played it in quite a while, because I was busy playing the other Tales games, but, as soon as I'm done with them, I'll go back to Vesperia.

Icebloom said:

Namco-Bandai has been on my good side lately. I don't know what there deal is with not wanting to localize any 2D titles (no word on Innocence R, no?) and I would have liked the PS3 version of Vesperia as well, but I guess you can't have everything with them.

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I believe that not much titles have sailed outside of Japan because of the timing and the cost. The lack of fans in North America towards Japanese RPG games haven't made things much better. What sucks is that they also have no plans to release Vita titles in North America because according to them, Playstation Vita sales are getting pretty poor. Ugh.

Fortunately, we're still getting ToX, which will be released on August 6th, btw! Is anyone excited? :3

August? Did they move up the release date? I remember hearing the release date set as sometime during December. Either way, I might have read some the spoilers (accidentally, of course ;)) and I've heard some complaints of it being too short and lacking on extras. But, Famitsu almost gave it a perfect score, though I've rarely seen them give low scores at all, and I'm always excited to try out a new Tales game.

I mean the stories are passable, but I always found most of them dragging on too much. I probably enjoyed Phantasia and Destiny 2's stories the most mainly because of time-traveling/alternate dimension aspect.

Icebloom said:

August? Did they move up the release date? I remember hearing the release date set as sometime during December. Either way, I might have read some the spoilers (accidentally, of course ;)) and I've heard some complaints of it being too short and lacking on extras. But, Famitsu almost gave it a perfect score, though I've rarely seen them give low scores at all, and I'm always excited to try out a new Tales game.

I mean the stories are passable, but I always found most of them dragging on too much. I probably enjoyed Phantasia and Destiny 2's stories the most mainly because of time-traveling/alternate dimension aspect.

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Some sources say it's August. I don't know, maybe it varies.

Yeah, I've heard that Xillia was rushed, according to the makers of the game (like they didn't add the optional missions or other summon spirits). However, I do agree that it's a pretty neat looking game, and I do look forward on playing it! I'm not too sure about Xillia 2 though; all I've heard about it was that it was sort of like a pick-your-own-adventure, as it seems, and the choices you make reflect the game's ending.

Eh, sometimes I feel that the games are way too long myself, but, once you've gotten into it, you really do want to know what happens next.. like the first item I've played Symphonia; it seemed to last for eternity, but the excellent story-line made me keep playing!