Namco-Bandai Editor Day - A Tale of Two Tales
A long Namco-Bandai staple in the RPG category is their Tales series of games. Well this year actually marks the ten year anniversary of the Tales franchise and going right along side that they are releasing two new Tales games (not to be confused with the two tails of Miles "Tails" Prower) . The first up was the sequel to Tales of Symphonia which was on the Gamecube. The sequel is called aptly enough Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World and is being developed for the Wii. The other Tales title is called Tales of Vesperia and is coming to the Xbox 360. Both Tales games have everything you would expect them to: lush worlds with no random encounters, a cast of bright and colorful characters, and their tried and true Linear Motion Battle System. Well all that and the lovely anime/manga stylized characters that seem to leap off the screen in their glowing colors. With all that in common, each title does have some unique features.
First up, Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World, picks up two years after the original game ended. The world had found peace only to have trouble rear its ugly head again it and our young heroes must go and (yada yada yada you know how it goes). As stated earlier, the game and characters looked good on the Wii and the controls seemed intuitive enough when playing; however, it was easy to tell that overall the graphics engine used was the same from its predecessor on the Gamecube, with a little bit better window dressing. One feature they added to the game is the ability to capture monsters in the world and then raise them to use in battle. It also seemed that there was a bit of a pet trainer/trader idea present with this new feature that I didn't get to play with. Other than those issues, the game seemed to play pretty well, though it still seems like the localization process hasn't yet begun on the game.
The other title, Tales of Vesperia, was very impressive in both the trailer they showed us and the hands-on gameplay. True to form, the developers were able to get truly awe-inspiring visuals out of the powerhouse that is the 360 graphics system. The game developers boasted the game to be one of the first hi-def hand-drawn RPGs coming out to market in this next generation of consoles. When I got to play the game, I was simple taken back by the filtering and brush strokes that create what is a beautiful game. As I joined the game in progress, I was happy to see the ease at which each character could be assigned to a different controller, allowing a co-operative play among friends. I also got to experience the Overdrives and special attacks that the characters can pull off in the game at certain times. Overall the linear motion battle system was very fun to play with, since it was more button-mashing than menu driven. Many talked about how similar to Eternal Sonata the game seemed to be; however, I have a feeling that Eternal Sonata is very much like what the Tales franchise has always been like.
Overall I was very impressed with the two new entries in the Tales series that are making their way from the Japanese shores to the rest of the world. Both games only had a 'late 2008' release time frame, which means it is anyone's guess. Hopefully we won't have to wait too long for these two Tales to give us our happily ever afters.
PixelPoet
Posted to Hot Stuff, Video Games on 16 April 2008
· Comments (2)
Other stuff like this: namco bandai, tales of symphonia dawn of the new world, tales of vesperia, wii, xbox 360
I'm so looking forward to playing these games.
Gah! I can't stand the fact that a PS3 replease of Vesperia is only 'maybe' at the moment. If they can do it with Eternal Sonata, please don't leave us Playstation fanboys in the dark.