It has emerged that Microsoft’s saviour RPG, Tales of Vesperia, incorporates downloadable content in a heretofore unseen manner: in fact you can simply eschew playing the game entirely and shell out points/Yen on Marketplace to obtain the money and gold, in a brazen imitation of classic MMORPG gold farming, except without the Chinese or eBay.
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Some actual screens of the Tales of the Abyss anime have emerged, and information on the next two Tales game titles also emerges, though as both are for portables you will have to forgive a lack of enthusiasm on my part. Tales of Hearts will be released on the Nintendo DS in the winter, and on the PSP there is Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 2, also due in the winter.
See below for the most ill advised character art in recent memory – Tales of Hearts truly has a do not want ambience to it.
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Fanatical Tales of the Abyss fans, such as myself, can rejoice with the knowledge that the anime is not far off; the Sunrise handled production will air in October.
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With the release of Tales of Vesperia imminent in August, for the Xbox360 at least, and the demo version already available for download, more details have emerged: Famitsu has a large number of gorgeous screenshots (the content is gorgeous at least, the screens themselves are the usual pathetically low res and over compressed little things we have come to expect from Famitsu) showing off new elfy character Judith, above, looking very appealing indeed.
The official site has also been updated with her info. All looking very promising.
I will omit the usual grumbling about the PS3 version not being announced yet. When?
In what is either an act of exaggerated melodrama or craven cowardice, figure maker Kotobukiya has voluntarily suspended the impending August release of their テイルズ オブ デスティニー リオン・マグナス / Tales of Destiny “Leon Magnus” (or “Lion Magnus”) figure, citing the “social effects” of the recent Akiba incident.
In fact it seems the stabber had something of an interest in Leon, having drawn him at some length… ten years ago when he passed out of his middle school star pupil phase of life.
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It seems that unofficial confirmation of a Tales of the Abyss anime is forthcoming by way of a mention of the title in an anime producer’s portfolio of products worked on. Apparently the production staff has already been settled up to episode 7, so an official announcement can’t be that far away. Other details are still lacking. Moon Phase thinks this can serve as reliable confirmation, and Moon Phase certainly qualifies as a reliable source for such matters.
As an aside, the same source reveals the progress of a new Inuyasha title, although details on this are even scarcer.
I can’t help but be enthused by this news, since Tales of the Abyss probably ranks as my favourite console RPG; hopefully they will do it justice. Looking forward to seeing some more of Anise and Ion, and all the others…
Tales fans, at least the few who own an Xbox360, can rejoice with the knowledge that Namco has officially announced the Japanese release as being August 7th, with an expected price of ¥7,800. The game has been designed with full internationalisation in mind (so forget about a Japanese dub), with an English language version set to follow shortly. No word on the PS3 release, of course.
Any ardent fan of the excellent Tales series of RPGs will already know about the magnificent looking テイルズ オブ ヴェスペリア / Tales of Vesperia, the latest and next generation incarnation of the series, but there has been something of an upset over the bizarre decision to release the game first on the Xbox360, with a PS3 release not even confirmed yet – whilst no denials, and the eminent logic of releasing the game to its main market on the PS3, as well as prior precedents in porting this series and others, all tend to suggest the PS3 release is all but inevitable, no official announcement has been forthcoming, until now… sort of.
It seems some observant soul managed to spot buried in a Bandai Namco financial presentation an entry (now amended) for ToV listed as due for release later in the year for both Xbox360 and PS3, however no sooner had the news got out than the document was amended to refer only to the Xbox360 release; the original page is mirrored below.
Just what kind of mistake this was may only be revealed by the passage of time, but most Tales fans can but hope it represents accidental confirmation of the PS3 release, and hopefully for this year and not next.
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