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118-512: The Tales series is a franchise of fantasy role-playing video games published by Bandai Namco Entertainment (formerly Namco ), and developed by its subsidiary, Namco Tales Studio until 2011 and presently by Bandai Namco Studios . First begun in 1995 with the development and release of Tales of Phantasia for the Super Famicom , the series currently spans seventeen main titles, multiple spin-off games and supplementary media in

236-444: A "run of the mill" story and "lackluster" battle AI . The website would find that the game's second half was more enjoyable overall, stating that "Legendia is definitely slanted towards more action-oriented role-players who don't mind breezing through an easy twenty hours before getting to the real tests of skill," and although the voice acting was "rather stiff," the translation was of good quality overall. GameSpot similarly praised

354-478: A 2008 interview with staff members, although it was not elaborated upon by the interviewer. The interviewers suggested that this point of view was based on the fact that Western fans were not generally experienced in Japanese culture, and so would see the stories in each entry as similar. The writers for each game are hired on a per-project basis, with both freelancers and in-house story writers being involved. Two of

472-747: A Western release. Tales of Symphonia was released in Japan on the PS2 and GameCube . The GameCube version was also released in North America and Europe. It was the first entry to feature 3D graphics for its characters and environments and the first to be released in Europe. Tales of Rebirth was released in 2004 and ported to the PlayStation Portable in 2008, but has not yet received a Western localization. Tales of Legendia and Tales of

590-523: A cel-shaded anime style ( Vesperia ) to a more realistic style ( Xillia 2 ). Skit character images are also directly inspired by anime art. The art style for each title is determined by the theme and story decided upon by the developers. Anime cutscenes are included in each game, and are a primary focus for the production team as they help make the first impression on players. The series aims to avoid standard anime tropes and common narrative elements with each installment. The first game to feature such cutscenes

708-600: A character or fictional world becoming popular in one medium, and then expanding to others through licensing agreements , with respect to intellectual property in the franchise's characters and settings. As one author explains, "For the studios, a home-run is a film from which a multimedia 'franchise' can be generated; the colossally expensive creation of cross-media conglomerates predicated on synergistic rewards provides an obvious imperative to develop such products." The trend later developed wherein franchises would be launched in multiple forms of media simultaneously; for instance,

826-510: A departure from series conventions, was originally set to release in 2020 for Windows , PlayStation 4 and Xbox One , but was delayed to September 2021 due to internal issues and the desire to launch the game on next-generation consoles . As the Tales series grew, games became categorised under certain branches: "Mothership" for main titles, "Escort" for spin-offs, and "Mobile" for phone games. A live-stream on January 20, 2020, celebrating

944-485: A franchise can even be created, which ultimately leads to the creation of brand worlds. Since the creation of Disneyland in 1955, bringing fictional media franchises to life through the theme parks slowly became increasingly popular as the way to perfectly blend tourism and real-life involvement with media itself. Similar to transmedia, the concept of bringing fictional media into a non-fictional space where fans can immerse themselves in real-life versions of elements from

1062-589: A lesser degree: an example of this is Destiny ' s "Chain Capacity" feature (the number of skills a character can perform), which appears in later games in the series. The battle system for Legendia was deliberately designed to be similar to a brawler: the stated reason was that the team wished to combine brawler combat with the story and leveling mechanics of a Tales game. Characters generally use Artes, which are special attacks characters can perform in battle. Players can usually only control one character, though

1180-424: A magical character for a brief period to deal greater damage, termed in-game as Armatization ). Characters are awarded with "Titles", nicknames that sometimes grant benefits to them in battle when assigned to them. In the majority of previous Tales games, when navigating the overworld or environment and encountering an enemy, combat took place on a separate battle screen. From Zestiria onwards, combat took place in

1298-518: A man named Vaclav Bolud, who promptly arrives and abducts Shirley himself. While in captivity, Shirley becomes friends with another captive, a young Ferines girl named Fenimore Xelhes. Senel and his team are joined by a treasure hunter named Norma as well as Moses, who has decided to atone for his earlier actions. Together, the team travels deeper into the ship, where they discover that not only does Vaclav have Shirley, but her older sister Stella, who Shirley and Senel believed dead three years earlier when

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1416-424: A modeling agency, several television shows ( Playboy's Penthouse , in 1959), and even its own television channel . Twenty-five years later, Playboy released private clubs and restaurants, movie theaters, a radio show , direct to video films, music and book publishing (including original works in addition to its anthologies of cartoons, photographs, recipes, advice, articles or fiction that had originally appeared in

1534-416: A multiplayer option was implemented for Destiny and has reappeared in later Tales games. The battle system's name for each installment is augmented with descriptive titles representative of features of that game's battle system: examples are the "Style Shift" system from Graces (characters shifting between two types of Artes) and the "Fusionic-Chain" system from Zestiria (a human character merging with

1652-630: A nationwide concert tour, an American Idol book that made the bestseller list and the film From Justin to Kelly . A transmedia franchise however is often referred to by the simpler term "media franchise". The term media franchise is often used to describe the popular adaptation of a work into films, like the popular Twilight book series that was adapted into the five films of The Twilight Saga . Other neologisms exist to describe various franchise types including metaseries , which can be used to describe works such as Isaac Asimov 's Foundation series . Multimedia franchises usually develop through

1770-451: A second series of scenarios after the player has completed the main story that focuses more on the individual characters themselves. Animated sequences also accompany certain story segments. The game features a variation of the series' Linear Motion Battle System , where players are able to freely move their characters around the battle area and engage enemies in real-time, known as the "X-LiMBS" (Crossover Linear Motion Battle System), which

1888-634: A spin-off, possibly due to poor reception of that particular title. The series debuted on the Super Famicom with Tales of Phantasia in 1995, and introduced multiple elements that would become staples of the Tales series. It was released in the West on the Game Boy Advance in 2006. It was also ported to the PlayStation , PlayStation Portable and iOS . The PlayStation received two original Tales games: Tales of Destiny in 1997, which

2006-579: A stand-alone drama in December 2001. Symphonia received seven audio dramas. Two CD dramas for Legendia were respectively released in August and September 2005. A manga of Phantasia was written and serialized in 2008 and 2009, while Abyss received three manga adaptations in the years after its release. Symphonia was adapted into novelizations and a manga serial. Destiny , Graces and Xillia also received adaptations of these kinds. The Tales series

2124-399: A story or felt that traditional role-playing game combat was too "tedious". Although the game features three-dimensional characters, battle sequences were purposefully restricted to a two-dimensional plane to allow the developers to create large monsters without fear of them obstructing the player's view of the action. Character animation was handled by Yosuke Kadowaki, who had previously used

2242-423: Is a real-time fighting system similar to a brawler, as opposed to the majority of RPGs at the time of Phantasia ' s release, which primarily used turn-based battle systems. Some features introduced in certain games have proven popular enough to remain in future installments like "Free Running" (the ability for a character to freely roam the battlefield). Elements of turn-based combat are also present, though to

2360-549: Is an action role-playing game that was developed and published by Namco for the PlayStation 2 as the seventh main title in their Tales series. Originally released in Japan in August 2005, it was later made available in English in North America in February 2006. The game was created by a development team known collectively as "Project MelFes", which was composed of members of Namco's Tales Studio along with developers from

2478-556: Is classified as a role-playing video game series. Multiple gameplay elements carry over from entry to entry. The main unifying element is the combat system, the Linear Motion Battle System (LMBS for short). Considered one of the mainstays and building blocks for every main entry in the series, it undergoes multiple incremental changes and alterations from one installment to the next. Introduced in Phantasia , it

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2596-472: Is considered to be among the most important JRPG franchises in Japan. The series has been gaining popularity in the West since the release of Tales of Symphonia , which is still considered one of its most popular games. As of 2023, the series had shipped over 29 million copies. Since the first installment was released in 1995, the Tales series has grown to include the main entries and multiple spin-offs that derive multiple gameplay and narrative elements from

2714-487: Is driven back by Senel and his friends. In the end, Maurits resolves to put aside old hatreds and work towards an era of peace between Orerines and Ferines as the characters return to their old lives. Preliminary development on Tales of Legendia began in 2000, after the release of Tales of Eternia , with many of its staff drawn from that of Eternia . Its development happened in parallel to Tales of Destiny 2 and Tales of Symphonia . While its exact development time

2832-444: Is set in a fantasy world covered in water, taking place entirely on a gigantic ship that is actually a remnant of an ancient civilization. Players assume the role of a young man named Senel, who must rescue his sister from individuals who believe her to be a prophesied savior, while the mysteries of his world begin to unravel before him. It received mostly mixed reviews upon its release in North America, with critics routinely commending

2950-573: Is set in a world covered mostly in water, with all the events of the game taking place aboard a massive, country-sized ship called the Legacy, a remnant of a highly advanced ancient civilization. The population is divided into two groups: the Orerines ("the people of the land") and the Ferines ("the people of the sea"), a race of fair-skinned, light-haired people with the ability to live underwater, with

3068-428: Is the Japanese term for a transmedia franchise. The term media mix gained its circulation in late 1980s and is first used to describe adaptations of Sakyo Komatsu 's Japan Sinks , but the origins of the strategy can be traced back to the 1960s with the proliferation of anime , with its interconnection of media and commodity goods. Some of the earlier popular Japanese franchises such as Vampire Hunter D in

3186-463: Is the plot and characters, which are often rooted in and revolve around themes such as justice or faith. The theme for each entry in the series is decided by the series producer based on current world events. The chosen theme helps dictate what the game will be called: once the theme is decided, the team search through various languages to find a suitable representative word. The narratives of each story were described by Gamasutra as "very typical" during

3304-466: Is unknown, a report in Famitsu stated that its development lasted three years. It was first revealed in December 2004 in a teaser trailer featured on a pre-order bonus disc for the series' previous title Tales of Rebirth , which only referred to the game by its development codename "Project MelFes". On February 14, 2005, Namco posted silhouettes of two characters on their Tales Channel website, with

3422-404: Is used when referring to games within the series. In 2007, Yoshizumi announced two classes of Tales games, "Mothership Titles" and "Escort Titles". "Mothership" essentially means "Main series", where as "Escort" essentially means "Spinoff". One of the recurring differences between the two game types internally is that "Escort" titles don't supply inspiration for main entries in the series, but draw

3540-423: The Tales series is Motoi Sakuraba . His first work on the series was for Phantasia , and has since contributed to nearly every main entry since there in the capacity of a freelance composer. Sakuraba has become noted for his signature musical style, which is present in the majority of his Tales scores. He also frequently collaborates with Shinji Tamura. The entries Sakuraba has not worked on are Legendia , which

3658-491: The fantasy and science fiction genres. Similarly, fantasy, science fiction films and television shows are frequently adapted into animated television series , video games, or both. A media franchise does not have to include the same characters or theme, as the brand identity can be the franchise, like Square Enix 's Final Fantasy or the National Lampoon series , and can suffer from critical failures even if

Tales (video game series) - Misplaced Pages Continue

3776-423: The 1980s and Pokémon in the late 1990s, acted as benchmarks in the country's transmedia dominance. The latter in particular began as a video game available on Nintendo 's Game Boy , and crossed through the media of television, film, news, and other non-media related realms, such trading cards, merchandise, and more. A number of Japanese media franchises have gained considerable global popularity, and are among

3894-544: The Abyss were both released in Japan in 2005, with both being released in North America the following year. Legendia was the first and only Tales game developed by Namco internal development team "Project Melfes", while Abyss was developed by the same team that developed Symphonia , and used its same graphics engine. Abyss was later ported to the Nintendo 3DS and released in Japan, North America and Europe. Tales of

4012-522: The Empire's forces invaded their hometown. After being forced to escape when they are confronted by Vaclav's underlings, the Terrors, the party regroups and meets an amnesiac women named Grune and boy named Jay who joins the team and accompanies them to the Legacy's bridge . They confront Vaclav once more, who plans to use Shirley and Stella's latent Merines powers to activate a giant laser cannon located on

4130-442: The Ferines leader Maurits Welnes. However, soldiers from the country of Gadoria attack during the ceremony attempting to kill her thinking she willfully sided with Vaclav, with Fenimore jumping in the way of one of their blades and dying instead. The traumatic event causes Shirley to be fully engulfed by Nerifes, the malevolent spirit of the ocean itself, before leaving with Maurits. Senel and his friends go after her, passing through

4248-673: The Heroes: Twin Brave in 2012. The main spin-off subseries is Tales of the World , which has grown to include ten games beginning with Tales of Phantasia: Narikiri Dungeon , released in Japan on the Game Boy Color in 2000. Only Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology has been released in the West. A second subseries, Tales of Fandom , consists of two puzzle-adventure games released respectively for

4366-580: The New World . Eternia received an MMORPG spin-off for Microsoft Windows titled Tales of Eternia Online . Multiple crossover games have been made for mobile platforms, including Tales of Link , the Tales of Mobile series, Tales of Card Evolve , Tales of Kizna and Tales of Asteria . Two titles for the PlayStation Portable have been released in Japan: Tales of VS. in 2009, and Tales of

4484-538: The PlayStation and PlayStation 2 in 2002 and 2007. On February 28, 2017, they had released another mobile Tales game called Tales of the Rays in Japan and worldwide on July 24, 2017. On March 28, 2018, however, Tales of Link ended their service, and a day after the closure, they announced the global version of Tales of the Rays would end their service as well on May 29, 2018. Tales of Crestoria another mobile game,

4602-610: The Suzukake Children's Choir, and both "The Legendary Sorcerer" ( 伝説の巫術士 , Densetsu no Fujutsushi ) and "The Birds Chirp, I Sing" ( 鳥は鳴き、僕は歌う , Toriba Naki, Boku wa Utau ) both performed by Kanon . In addition, some of the game's instrumental themes were performed live by the New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra . An official soundtrack was released in Japan in August 2005 by Avex Trax , which includes two discs of select tracks from

4720-670: The Tempest was released in Japan on the Nintendo DS in 2006 and is the first in the trilogy of games created for the system often called the Triverse. Though previously seen as a spin-off title, it is now a mainline title. Tales of Innocence was the next game released in Japan on the Nintendo DS in 2007. A remake of the game, Innocence R was released on the PlayStation Vita in 2012. Neither version has been released in

4838-423: The West. The first release on seventh-generation consoles, Tales of Vesperia for Xbox 360 , was released in Japan and North America in 2008 and in Europe in 2009. A Japan-exclusive PlayStation 3 port with updated content was released in 2009, which became available worldwide in 2019 with the remastered Definitive Edition on PlayStation 4 , Microsoft Windows , Xbox One and Nintendo Switch . Tales of Hearts

Tales (video game series) - Misplaced Pages Continue

4956-540: The Xbox 360, 465,888 for PS3, and over 500,000 for Definitive Edition ), Tales of Xillia (PS3), Tales of Berseria , and Tales of Arise . By March 2023, the series in total had shipped over 29.29 million copies. While keeping a lower profile in English-speaking regions, in Japan, it is regarded as one of the biggest role-playing video game series. 1UP.com 's Jeremy Parish, speaking in 2006, referred to it as

5074-511: The animated sequences from the 2003 film Kill Bill Vol. 1 , as well as animated features such as El-Hazard and Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water . Tales of Legendia includes animated cutscenes produced by Japanese studio Production I.G. , and contains more animation than any previous game in the series. Tales of Legendia is the first main series title in the Tales franchise to not feature music by Motoi Sakuraba , with composition duties instead going to Go Shiina . The game features

5192-432: The brand's upcoming 25th anniversary, revealed that these categories would be reworked: "Original" for larger titles, and "Spin-off" for smaller and non-canon games. The series has received a small number of sequels, and a large number of spin-off titles and subseries. These games are derivative rather than original works. Three direct sequels have been produced: Destiny 2 , Xillia 2 and Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of

5310-405: The burly man who wields a massive hammer plays the role of intellectual and healer." However, the website criticized the game for its sometimes "frustrating" combat and playing too similarly to past Tales titles, and that it would primarily appeal to longtime fans of the series. In 2012, 1UP would include Tales of Legendia on its list of "Underwhelming RPGs with Overwhelming Soundtracks," calling

5428-497: The center of the ship, leading many to believe that she is the legendary "Merines", a person destined to lead the Ferines to prosperity. After finding her at the thieves' hideout, she is captured yet again by a Ferines soldier named Walter Delques, who takes her away. When the group eventually catches Walter, he reveals that he was only protecting her from the real enemy: the Orerine Crusand Empire Army, led by

5546-459: The company's Tekken and Soulcalibur fighting game series. It features character designs from anime artist Kazuto Nakazawa and music from composer Go Shiina , as well as songs performed by Do As Infinity , Donna Burke , and Kanon . Its producers gave it the characteristic genre name RPG Where Bonds Spin Legends ( 絆が伝説を紡ぎだすRPG , Kizuna ga densetsu o tsumugidasu RPG ) . The game

5664-415: The day-in-the-life episodes of the many different Real Housewives series. Documentaries and docuseries are other highlights of the non-fiction branch of media franchises, such as the popular Planet Earth series, which serves as both a film and television transmedia franchise. Tales of Legendia Tales of Legendia ( Japanese : テイルズ オブ レジェンディア , Hepburn : Teiruzu Obu Rejendia )

5782-402: The deeper areas of the ship where they discover from fractured recordings that the Legacy was a colony ship from another world, and the Ferines came to the planet and made war with the Orerines 4000 years ago. Arriving at Maurits' stronghold, the party faces Walter, who reveals his jealousy over Shirley choosing Senel over him, and fights until his life gives out. They learn from Maurits that it

5900-407: The different media, regardless of the fact that they are being presented in sometimes completely different ways, such as the shared, interweaving storylines and elements of Spider-Man films, television shows, comics and video games. Espen Aarseth describes the financial logic of cost-recovery for expensive productions by identifying that a single medium launch is a lost opportunity, the timeliness of

6018-484: The established anime style. For the brand new title Tales of Arise , the world design went in a darker direction compared to earlier entries, both to further the series evolution and appeal to the Western market. Despite the overt focus on 3D graphics, 2D anime cutscenes are still planned as with previous entries. Similar to the previous games in the series, the anime sequences were produced by Ufotable . The engines for

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6136-725: The fictional worlds they love, adds to the overall narrative the franchise creates through its other media. Marvel's Avenger's Campus park is one of the many franchise-based theme parks created in recent times, following the creation of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studio's Islands of Adventure and Star Wars' Galaxy's Edge at Disneyland and Disney World . Media franchises tend to cross over from their original media to other forms. Literary franchises are often transported to film, such as Nancy Drew , Miss Marple , and other popular detectives , as well as popular comic book superheroes . Television and film franchises are often expanded upon in novels , particularly those in

6254-470: The film The Matrix Reloaded and the video game Enter the Matrix were produced at the same time, using the same actors on the same sets, and released on the same day. Transmedia franchises occasionally release content through certain media that is not canon to the main or greater story that the franchise is built around, meaning that the elements of said content do not truly exist in the main timeline of

6372-555: The focus on the content of the commodity to "overlapping the commodity image with the character image". The book Anime's Media Mix: Franchising Toys and Characters in Japan, by Marc Steinberg, details the evolution of the media mix in Japan. Long-running franchises were common in the early studio era, when Hollywood studios had actors and directors under long-term contract. In such cases, even lead actors are often replaced as they age, lose interest, or their characters are killed. Spin-offs and adaptations of popular pieces of media within

6490-421: The following June. The game was developed by a team that consisted of staff members from previous Tales entries, as well as developers from the company's Tekken and Soulcalibur fighting game series. Producer Jun Toyoda explained that the goal was to create a role-playing game with the "exhilarating battle scenes" found in those titles, and to appeal to players who either felt that fighting games lacked

6608-460: The form of manga series, anime series, and audio dramas . While entries in the series generally stand independent of each other with different characters and stories, they are commonly linked by their gameplay, themes and high fantasy settings. The series is characterized by its art style, which draws from Japanese manga and anime, and its action-based fighting system called the "Linear Motion Battle System". Multiple people have become linked with

6726-557: The fourteenth main title, Tales of Xillia 2 , was released in 2012 in Japan and 2014 in North America and Europe. The series' 20th anniversary title, Tales of Zestiria , was released in January 2015 in Japan and worldwide in October 2015, for PS3, PS4 and PC. The sixteenth main title, Tales of Berseria , was released in Japan for PS3 and PS4 in August 2016, and worldwide for PS4 and PC in January 2017. Tales of Arise , designed as

6844-429: The franchise's fandom , which is the community of fans that indulge in many of its media and are committed to interacting with and keeping up with other consumers. Large franchise-based fandoms have grown to be even more popular in recent years with the rise of social media platforms, as many fans seek to interact with one another for discussion, debate and even to create their own fan-made pieces of media revolving around

6962-405: The franchise, on websites like tumblr , Reddit and Fandom . In the case of successful transmedia franchises, each different medium should expand the target demographic and fandom, build the interest of the consumers and add to the overarching story and narrative of the franchise itself. A connection between the characters, settings, and other elements of the media franchise do still exist within

7080-415: The franchise. Canon content often times breaks continuity, leading fans to speculate or seek to confirm which media are canon and which are not, which can get confusing if the franchise does not provide an answer themselves since entire media can be non-canon to the greater story, with a popular example occurring. On the other hand, specific episodes, volumes or parts of a series can be canon while others in

7198-466: The future revolves around direct conversation with Tales series fans at gaming conventions and special events. Media franchise A media franchise often consists of cross-marketing across more than one medium. For the owners, the goal of increasing profit through diversity can extend the commercial profitability of the franchise and create strong feelings of identity and ownership in its consumers. Those large groups of dedicated consumers create

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7316-547: The game in order to start a new company, tri-Ace , which would go on to make the Star Ocean series. Remaining members would continue to develop games in the Tales series. The studio remained independent until 2003, when it was acquired by Bandai Namco and renamed Namco Tales Studio. The studio's shares were divided between Bandai Namco, Telenet Japan and series director Eiji Kikuchi . In 2006, Namco bought Telenet's shares, then later Kikuchi's, giving them full control over

7434-479: The game progresses, with up to four of them making up a player's party at any time. As players attack enemies, they fill up a "Climax" gauge at the bottom of the screen that can be expended to freeze all enemies in place for a short period. Whenever battles are completed, players are awarded both experience points that allow characters to gain levels and grow stronger, as well as items called "Eres Stones" that allow them to purchase additional skills. Tales of Legendia

7552-526: The game's characters and watching them grow rather than using them as avatars: the genre names are meant to distinguish them from other role-playing games. The terms, however, are largely removed from the English localized versions. There are also terms that are used in remakes or ports of games: "R" stands for "remake" or "Re-imagination" (as in Hearts R ), while "F" in Graces f stood for "future", in reference to

7670-507: The game's extra story content. The Tales series originated when Phantasia began production, based on an unpublished novel titled Tale Phantasia ( テイルファンタジア , Teiru Fantajia ) , written by the game's scenario writer and lead programmer Yoshiharu Gotanda . During the story development process, several elements of the original novel were dropped or changed. The game was developed by Wolf Team, an independent game development studio founded in 1986. Due to bad experiences at Telenet Japan ,

7788-537: The game's official reveal coming four days later. A tentative Japanese release date of sometime in 2005 was announced the following month, with an English North American release formally announced by the company in April for February 2006. In May 2005, Namco gave a finalized Japanese release date set for the following August. The game would make an appearance at the 2005 Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles

7906-431: The game, and a third disc that includes a radio drama featuring members of the game's voice cast. Two follow-up drama albums called Tales of Legendia ~Voice of Character Quest~ ( テイルズ オブ レジェンディア ～voice of character quest～1 , Teiruzu Obu Rejendia Voice of Character Quest ) were released one year later in August and September 2006 respectively, with the second volume containing an additional 41 tracks not present on

8024-401: The game, forming the basis for some location and character names. The game begins as Senel and Shirley wash ashore on the Legacy after their boat is tossed in a storm. Shirley is soon kidnapped by a bandit named Moses, prompting Senel to team up with a local sheriff named Will and a female knight named Chloe to rescue her. Will explains that Shirley's arrival coincided with a pillar of light at

8142-568: The games are generally developed in-house. The cited reasons for this included problems with outsourced development. Until Vesperia , the team worked on a by-project basis, creating new development tools and engines for each installment. Due to cost increases, the development process was altered and streamlined as more user-friendly software engines became available. The studio was divided into two teams: Team Destiny worked on 2D Tales titles such as Tales of Destiny , while Team Symphonia developed 3D titles. In-house, major distinctions were made between

8260-473: The magazine), footwear, clothing of every kind, jewelry, housewares (lamps, clocks, bedding, glassware), guitars and gambling, playing cards, pinball machines and pet accessories, billiard balls, bedroom appurtenances, enhancements, plus countless other items of merchandise. Non-fiction media franchises also exist in the television and film media, with reality TV being one of the most well-known examples; ranging from competition shows like The Amazing Race to

8378-400: The main entries. Except when indicated by naming, the main Tales entries are separate from each other apart from gameplay mechanics and themes. While Tales titles are often ported to new consoles after their original release, these remakes are rarely localized. The 2006 Nintendo DS game Tales of the Tempest was originally seen as a main entry in the series, but in 2007 was classified as

8496-403: The main series are Rebirth and Innocence , while an example of the latter is Legendia . Speaking in 2013, Baba explained that the main priority for localizations was for the main series rather than spin-offs. In addition to this, he stated that their localization team was limited and they needed to "pick and choose" which game to bring to the West. For its Western release, Eternia ' s name

8614-400: The media fictional material is unrelated. Non-fiction literary franchises include the ...For Dummies and The Complete Idiot's Guide to... reference books . An enduring and comprehensive example of a media franchise is Playboy Enterprises , which began expanding well beyond its successful magazine, Playboy , within a few years after its first publication, into such enterprises as

8732-407: The most popular elements from them. The games are also frequently given what is called a "Characteristic Genre Name", which is essentially a short subtitle or phrase that outlines the game's overall theme. The main reason for this, as stated by Yoshizumi, was that the series was not seen as a role-playing series by the development team, but rather "Character Playing Game", with the player learning about

8850-510: The opening sections of Zestiria , Dawn of the Shepherd , was produced as part of the 20th anniversary celebrations related to the title. It was also released on the game disc. A full series based on Zestiria began airing in July 2016. Books and audio dramas have also been made. Phantasia received multiple CD dramas, including four collected into anthologies in January and March 2000. and

8968-463: The opening theme song "Tao" performed by J-pop group Do As Infinity , which is replaced with an original track, due to licensing issues, as well as the ending theme "My Tales" performed in English by Donna Burke and Gab Desmond. Incidental vocal songs include "A Firefly's Light" ( 蛍火 , Hotarubi ) performed in Japanese by Mayumi Sudou, "Hotarubi", performed in English by Donna Burke, "Let's Talk" ( お話しましょう , Ohanashi Mashou ) performed by

9086-485: The previous employer of multiple Wolf Team members, the staff sought an independent publisher for the game. After an unsuccessful pitch to Enix , they entered a publishing contract with Bandai Namco (then Namco). Phantasia had a troubled development cycle for the original Super Famicom version, with many creative disagreements between Wolf Team and Namco. The disagreements led to most of the Wolf Team staff leaving after

9204-879: The previous official soundtrack release. Music from the game has been featured in video game concerts such as the Eminence Symphony Orchestra 's A Night in Fantasia 2007 in Sydney, Australia, and Press Start -Symphony of Games- 2009 at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Space . Tales of Legendia was mostly well received in Japan, earning a 32 out of 40 total score from Weekly Famitsu based on individual reviews of 8, 8, 8, and 8, as well as an 85 out of 100 average from Dengeki PlayStation magazine based on scores of 80, 80, 90, and 90. The game would go on to sell 342,779 copies in

9322-473: The previous titles, the combat system is a turn-based RPG, which is very rare in the series. The prominent narrative theme of the Tales series is the issue of coexistence between different races. A particular example of this is Tales of Rebirth , which extensively explores themes of racism. Scenario writer Hiramatsu Masaki was inspired by the ethnic conflicts seen in Yugoslavia . Another recurring feature

9440-400: The producer of the original version of Hearts . Alongside Baba, the chief series producer is Makoto Yoshizumi, who had produced multiple titles including Destiny and Innocence . The series is distinguished by its art style, which emulates manga and anime . According to Baba, the character designs are created once the main character's story, personality, and environment are determined by

9558-406: The producers opting not to use a dark or science fiction-based setting. An exception is Xillia 2 , which mostly took place in a modern setting, and explored darker themes than usual. This direction was confirmed as a one-off experiment for the series. The main characters play a key role in the Tales games, as it is partially through them that the main theme of each entry is depicted. For Abyss , it

9676-423: The production and release is more important than its integrity, the releases should raise brand awareness and the cross-ability of the work is critical for its success. American Idol was a transmedia franchise from its beginnings, with the first season winner Kelly Clarkson signing with RCA Records and having the release of A Moment Like This becoming a #1 hit on Billboard Hot 100. The success resulted in

9794-578: The reaction of Western fans to this. Fan localizations have also been created, such as for the original versions of Phantasia and Innocence . While the option of the Japanese voice tracks have been heavily requested for Western releases by fans, licensing issues have mostly prevented Bandai Namco from implementing it. Localization for mobile titles is also a low priority due to them being co-developed by Japan-based mobile developers. The series has generally sold well during its lifetime. The series' strongest sales base has been Japan: in 2007, sales distribution

9912-403: The recurring writers are Takumi Miyajima ( Symphonia and Abyss ), and Naoki Yamamoto ( Hearts , Xillia , Zestiria ). There are very few mainline games that share a setting: Symphonia takes place along the same "time axis" as Phantasia , while Zestiria and Berseria take place on the same world at different time periods. The settings for the stories are primarily high fantasy worlds, with

10030-421: The region by the end of 2005, becoming the 30th best-selling software title of that year, with a total of 397,000 copies sold worldwide by December 2007. Elsewhere, Tales of Legendia received "mixed or average reviews" according to video game review aggregator Metacritic . While IGN felt that the game's characterization and "addictive" battle system were its high points, the title was ultimately marred by

10148-455: The rest of the production team. Beyond that, the artist is allowed to use their imagination, though they can be asked to alter things like costume details, and facial expressions. One of the main designers for the series is manga artist Kōsuke Fujishima . He was first brought in to design the characters for Phantasia , and has since designed for multiple entries including Abyss and Xillia . Another designer, Mutsumi Inomata , first designed for

10266-525: The same medium are not, such as the fact that only some of the Battlestar Galactica comics are canon, with a large amount of them breaking the continuity of the main story. In Japanese culture and entertainment, media mix ( wasei-eigo : メディアミックス , mediamikkusu ) is a strategy to disperse content across multiple representations: different broadcast media , gaming technologies, cell phones, toys, amusement parks , and other methods. It

10384-459: The same motion-capture technology on Soulcalibur II . The scenario was written by Koki Matsumoto and Tsuyoshi Tanaka. The main story theme was "bonds", with the main priority being the overlapping stories of the main cast. Unlike previous Tales games where character art and design was mostly done by Mutsumi Inomata , Tales of Legendia features characters designed by anime illustrator and animator Kazuto Nakazawa , known for his prior work on

10502-428: The same space as exploration. Most Tales games have skits, side conversations between different characters that can be both dramatic and comedic in nature. They are commonly portrayed as character portraits or profiles, with text along the bottom of the screen. They were first introduced in Tales of Destiny , though the majority were cut from the English release. In the original English GameCube release of Symphonia ,

10620-463: The series with Destiny , and has contributed designs for multiple entries including Eternia , Rebirth and Xillia . A third regular artist is Daigo Okumura, who designed characters for Vesperia and Xillia 2 , as well as Dawn of the New World . Other designers to work on the series include Kazuto Nakazawa ( Legendia ), Kouichi Kimura ( Xillia 2 ), and Minoru Iwamoto ( Zestiria ). The art design for each game's world and characters has ranged between

10738-438: The series, including character designers Kōsuke Fujishima and Mutsumi Inomata , producers Hideo Baba and Makoto Yoshizumi, and composer Motoi Sakuraba . The series was created by Yoshiharu Gotanda . Most of the main Tales games have been localized for North America and Europe, although almost none of the spinoff titles have been released abroad. While generally seen as a niche series in English-speaking regions, Tales

10856-652: The series, notably Destiny and Legendia have been favorably compared with fighting games and brawlers, especially the Street Fighter series. GameTrailers ranked the Linear Motion Battle System, with particular reference to Graces , as one of the top five JRPG battle systems. Their stories and characters have generally received a more mixed response from Western critics: opinions on entries such as Legendia , Abyss , Xillia were mixed to positive, while others such as Symphonia , Graces and Xillia 2 were criticized. The main criticism for these games and Legendia

10974-463: The ship to destroy the Ferines' village and later subjugate other countries around the world. Although the party is victorious, Vaclav sets the cannon to fire in his final moments, with Stella in turn awakening her powers just in time to fly into the path of the beam, sacrificing herself. Shirley resolves to complete a ritual to fully become the Merines and fulfill her destiny, meeting with Walter and

11092-404: The story. Unlike previous games in the series where monsters were visible before being encountered, Tales of Legendia features randomized battles that occur every few steps while inside dungeons or other hostile areas. Like previous games in the series, Tales of Legendia was designed to focus on the interactions between the main cast. However, a unique feature to this game is the addition of

11210-584: The strong cast of characters, and the interactions between them, but complained of excessive random battles and backtracking through locations in the game. 1UP.com praised the game's story, stating that "despite the predictability of the overall narrative, the details are frequently surprising and consistently entertaining," and additionally found that the game tended to flaunt convention in its characters: "Yet within this morass of overly familiar plot devices, Legendia tries to rise above its limitations by twisting conventions. The strongest combatants are female, and

11328-480: The studio. In mid 2011, a financial report indicated that Namco Tales was in serious financial trouble, having a debt of 21 million dollars and posting a loss for the previous financial year. The studio's absorption into its parent company was formally announced in November of that year. After the absorption of Namco Tales, former series brand manager Hideo Baba was appointed as series producer. He had previously been

11446-625: The team behind the series put a large amount of effort and development in keeping the series fresh while retaining the base elements across each installment. The positive reaction of gamers in the US to Symphonia influenced the way the various teams developed titles after that point. Speaking in 2014, production manager Denis Lee said that, since Symphonia ' s release, the popularity of the series has grown. In response, Bandai Namco have focused on getting more entries out in Western territories. Much of their research about what titles to release or develop in

11564-404: The teams and staff transferred to the new in-house development studio called Bandai Namco Studios. The size of the teams was reduced and the previous studio's main divisions were merged. This allowed production to be streamlined, but also meant that the team could only focus on one game at a time, rather than working on two games simultaneously as they had done before. The regular main composer for

11682-408: The tensions between them serving as the backdrop to the game's plot. In addition, a select portion of the population are known as "erens", people born with the ability to use special powers known as "eres", which are divided into two groups: crystal eres, which includes casting magic spells, and iron eres, which revolves around physical abilities. A fictional language known as Relares appears throughout

11800-457: The third biggest RPG series in Japan behind Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest . Gamasutra 's Brandon Sheffield echoed these sentiments, stating that "While the series doesn't have quite the cultural cache of Final Fantasy in the West or Dragon Quest in Japan, it's still a very popular brand worldwide". IGN 's Anoop Gantayat additionally referred to it as the third biggest Japanese role-playing series in regards to sales. Multiple entries in

11918-471: The time it was stated that there were no solid plans to create a game with a single female protagonist. A sole main female character, called Velvet, was eventually included in Berseria . The way the characters interact with each other during the narrative forms one of the core aspects of designing each game. Another main priority is for players to see a part of themselves in the characters. Unique terminology

12036-447: The title's music while panning its derivative plot and tedious pace, and would sell approximately 397,000 copies worldwide. Tales of Legendia is a console role-playing game set in a fantasy world featuring three-dimensional characters and environments. The game is presented from a top-down perspective, and players must move their character through a number of locales, battle monsters, and interact with non-player characters to advance

12154-413: The two studios except for some core staff Namco Tales produced the majority of the mainline Tales games until its absorption in 2011. The notable exceptions are Legendia , which was developed by an internal staff group at Bandai Namco, and Innocence , which was developed by Alfa System . Alfa System also developed many of the portable spin-off titles. After the absorption of Namco Tales by Bandai Namco,

12272-519: The voice track for the skits was removed, but for its HD re-release, the Japanese voice track, and consequently the skit voice tracks, were included. The first English release to include fully voiced skits was Vesperia : they had been planned for Abyss , but were cut due to space issues. Another recurring feature is the Cooking system, where characters learn and prepare dishes to restore health and forms of experience points. In Tales of Crestoria, unlike

12390-477: The world's highest-grossing media franchises . For example, Pokémon 's penetration into the American market of the franchise along with others of Japanese origin, such as Yu-Gi-Oh! , gave rise to the recognition of what is variously called transmedia storytelling , crossmedia, transmediation , media synergy, etc. Researchers argue that the 1963 Tetsuwan Atomu marked a shift in Japanese marketing from

12508-577: Was Destiny . The cutscenes were animated by Production I.G , which has provided cutscenes for the series until Xillia . For Xillia , aiming to demonstrate a new artistic direction for the series, production of the anime cutscenes was given to Ufotable . For the Nintendo DS release of Hearts , two identical versions of the game were released as an experiment by the production team, with one featuring traditional anime animation by Production I.G., and one featuring computer-generated cutscenes by Shirogumi Ltd. The CGI cutscenes proved less popular with fans than

12626-694: Was 87% in Japan, 8% in North America, 3% in Europe and 2% in mainland Asia. The best-selling titles of the series as of April 2008 were Tales of Symphonia ( 1.6 million copies for the GameCube and PS2 ), Tales of Destiny ( 1.534 million for PlayStation and PS2), Tales of Phantasia ( 1.431 million for Super Famicom, PlayStation, GBA , and PSP), Tales of Eternia ( 1.271 million for PlayStation and PSP), and Tales of Destiny 2 ( 1.106 million for PS2 and PSP), not including mobile or online games. Other titles that have since sold over 1 million copies worldwide include Tales of Vesperia (614,305 copies for

12744-408: Was changed to " Destiny 2 ": this was due to a possible trademark conflict and the wish to exploit the popularity of Destiny . The 2006 PSP port of Eternia retained its original title. With Zestiria , Bandai Namco planned to attempt releasing the game in the West in the same year it was released in Japan. The deciding factor in this resolution was the delayed release of Xillia and its sequel, and

12862-472: Was composed by Go Shiina , an in-house composer, and Innocence , whose composer was Kazuhiro Nakamura. Sakuraba and Shiina had collaborated on the score for Zestiria . Multiple titles in the series use licensed theme songs by multiple Japanese artists: among the artists are Garnet Crow ( Eternia ), Deen ( Destiny / Hearts ), Kokia ( Innocence ), Ayumi Hamasaki ( Xillia / Xillia 2 ) and FLOW ( Berseria ). One recurring aspect of many earlier localizations

12980-457: Was decided to take a risk and create an unorthodox protagonist that would be initially unlikable. For Vesperia , the team opted to raise the age limit of the target audience, showing this in the game by making the main protagonist a more mature type. A female main protagonist was included for the first time in Xillia in the form of Milla Maxwell alongside male protagonist Jude Mathis, although at

13098-433: Was in fact the Orerines, not the Ferines, who are the outsiders. He explains that the Orerines' terraforming technology upset the will of the sea so much that his people can no longer live in it, and wishes to use Shirley to flood the world and appease the ocean so that the Ferines can thrive once more. After he is beaten and Shirley brought back to her senses, Maurits summons a physical manifestation of Nerifes itself, which

13216-445: Was released in three parts between 2007 and 2011, and released as a single collection in 2013. Abyss was adapted into a 26-episode TV series between October 2008 and March 2009. Phantasia and Eternia have also received anime adaptations. The series' first theatrical film, a prequel to Vesperia called Tales of Vesperia: The First Strike , was released in 2009 in Japan and 2012 in North America. A made-for-television anime based on

13334-525: Was released on July 16, 2020. Tales of Luminaria , the latest part of the Tales series, was released on November 3, 2021. It features a unique battle system with 21 characters that are playable indepentendly and together, including a multiplayer mode. The game was discontinued in 2022. The Tales series has expanded into other media, including CD dramas, manga and anime. Multiple Tales games have been adapted into anime OVAs and TV series. The Symphonia OVA

13452-548: Was released on the Nintendo DS in 2008. A remake, Hearts R , was released in 2013 in Japan and 2014 in North America and Europe. The twelfth entry, Tales of Graces , released on the Wii in Japan in 2009. A PlayStation 3 port, Graces f , was released in 2010 in Japan, and in 2012 in North America and Europe. Tales of Xillia , the series' 15th anniversary title, was released in Japan for PlayStation 3 in 2011, and in North America and Europe in 2013. Xillia ' s direct sequel and

13570-500: Was specifically designed to resemble a traditional fighting game . Despite playable characters and enemies being rendered in 3D, battles are limited to a two-dimensional plane where combatants can only move forward, backward, or jump straight up into the air. In addition to normal attacks, players can attack enemies using special skills called "Eres", which involve spending Tech Points (TP), and can be chained together to create combos. A total of eight playable characters can be recruited as

13688-461: Was that the story was either predictable or cliché. The in-game graphics have also drawn mixed responses for several games in the series, including Destiny , Eternia , Graces and Xillia . In 2013, leading up to the release of Tales of Symphonia Chronicles , Baba called Symphonia the most successful title in the series in the West thus far, although the series' main target audience was still in Japan. In an earlier interview, Baba commented that

13806-426: Was the first title to be released in North America, and Tales of Eternia in 2000, which was released in North America as Tales of Destiny 2 in 2001. Five titles were released on the PlayStation 2. The true direct sequel to Destiny , Tales of Destiny 2 , was released on the PlayStation 2 in 2001 across Asian territories and ported to the PlayStation Portable in Japan in 2007; both versions have yet to receive

13924-487: Was the removal of the Japanese theme song, such as with Symphonia , which had its theme song replaced with an orchestral version. The first Western release of a Tales game to feature the theme song used in Japan was Vesperia . Multiple Tales titles, the majority of which are spin-offs, have not been localized for the West or have only been released in North America: two examples of the former case for entries in

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