Namco Bandai Announces New Tales Titles For 2008

Namco Bandai has announced that it is to mark the 10th anniversary of the Tales franchise in North America with Tales of Vesperia for the Xbox 360 and Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World for Wii, both to debut later in 2008. Tales of Vesperia is the debut of the Tales series on the Xbox 360, and is set in a world reliant on a mysterious ancient technology known as "blastia,” and follows former knight Yuri as he “delves into a shadowy plot to use these magical devices to control civilization, or destroy it.” The title is to use an all-new graphics engine and character designs by Kosuke Fujishima (Ah! My Goddess, Sakura Taisen), promising “high-quality HD character models and environments that are indistinguishable from traditional cel-based anime.” The game is to further feature additions to the series' trademark real-time combat system, allowing players to do battle in “massive battlefields” and learn new special attacks tied to individual weapons, plus new finishing blows. Mission-based battles are to increase the variety of each encounter, and players will gain unique items by fulfilling various battle objectives. Players can also use materials collected by successfully executing finishing moves to craft unique equipment for their characters. Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World is a direct sequel to the original Tales of Symphonia for the Nintendo GameCube. Dawn of the New World is to follow the journey of two new heroes, Emil Castagnier and Marta Lualdi, as they seek to uncover the mystery of why their world has fallen into ruin. In their quest, their paths are to cross with the original cast of Tales of Symphonia including Lloyd and Colette. Dawn of the New World is to introduce a new monster recruitment feature in which players can capture more than 200 enemies and train them to participate in battle. Players can feed these monsters to make them more effective, and evolve them into several new forms. The game is to also features an updated real-time battle system that lets players move freely around the battlefield, execute unison attacks and take advantage of a new elemental alignment system. "The Tales series is one of our most successful and well-regarded franchises, and we're celebrating its 10th anniversary in a big way with two new games that redefine role-playing on the Xbox 360 and Wii,” said Todd Thorson, Director of Marketing and Public Relations for Namco Bandia Games America. "Not only can gamers look forward to playing these two incredible titles later this year, but we'll be supporting special anniversary-themed programs throughout the year to thank all the fans of the series for their dedication and enthusiasm.”