A video message from Tales series producer Hideo Baba confirms that the Tales of Hearts R PlayStation Vita game will get a Western release this winter. He also asks fans to look forward to more news about Tales of Zestiria and Tales of Hearts R.
The game was briefly listed on video game retailer GameStop's website as a "GameStop exclusive" with a release by Bandai Namco Games, but was later removed. The game shipped in Japan last year. The original Tales of Hearts game was released for Nintendo DS. The title was trademarked twice in the U.S. but has not been released.
The game remakes the Nintendo DS role-playing game Tales of Hearts, fully voiced and with new story events. Calcedny Arcome, a former non-player character, is a party character for the new game.
The North American and European arms of Bandai Namco Games began streaming an announcement trailer on Tuesday for its Tales of Heart R PlayStation Vita game. The game is slated for release in Europe and the Americas this Winter.
Bandai Namco Games Europe describes the story:
Tales of Hearts R follows the story of Kor Meteor, a brave young man living in a small village by the sea, as he sharpens his fighting skills under the watchful eye of his grandfather. Impressed with Kor's growing skill, his grandfather bequeaths to him a special type of weapon known as a Soma. Soma users must possess exceptionally strong Spiria, the source of all life from which the human mind and will are derived.
Armed with his Soma, Kor soon encounters a young woman named Kohaku Hearts who has been placed under a spell by a mysterious witch. As Kor attempts to lift the spell, he accidentally shatters Kohaku's Spiria Core, the source of her emotions. Kor must set out on a journey to find a way to make Kohaku's Spiria whole once more.
The game remakes the Nintendo DS role-playing game Tales of Hearts, fully voiced and with new story events. Calcedny Arcome, a former non-player character, is a party character for the new game.
Bandai Namco Games America also revealed the August 19 release date for Tales of Xillia 2. The Collector's Edition will ship with a Ludger Kresnik figure, a replica of Elle's Pocket Watch, a Rolo Plush Charm, a music selection CD, art book, and costume DLCs for classic Tales of characters (Yuri Lowell, Emil Castagnier, Asbel Lhant). The game shipped in Japan in November.
I don't even have a Vita and I preordered this game. I fell in love with the Tales of series with Vesperia and have bought every game since, I'll totally buy a Vita for this, when it comes out.
At Bandai Namco’s Global Gamer’s Day event, Siliconera spoke with product manager Dennis Lee about the reception of the Tales of series of RPGs in the West. Namco have begun to bring these games over fairly regularly now, and have committed to trying to grow the franchise in the West. Lee said this was entirely because of communication with the series’ fans.
“So, a lot of what we had done in the past—mainly the PS2 and GameCube era—of course, JRPGs were popular and the Tales of series had the most successful title in the series released in that console generation, Tales of Symphonia,” Lee said. “In the years after that, there were some ups and downs in the series. There were a lot of titles that weren’t brought over to the west—in fact, there was a span of two or three years where we didn’t bother to bring any over.”
“A few years back is when we decided to really focus on the series and the fans because they’re asking for these titles, so we started with Tales of Graces F and the 3DS version of Tales of the Abyss, and we started to do things where we went to events and talked directly to anime and Tales of fans about what they wanted. A lot of those requests were things like Japanese and English audio options, shorter waits between Japanese releases and Western releases, and so on.”
“That being said,” Lee continued, “we’ve put a lot of work into making sure that Japan and America get Tales of games right around the same time. With each game we’ve released, sales have increased—so we believe that fans have been going out and talking to other fans. With games coming out on a more periodic basis, I think it conveys [to new fans] that this isn’t just a one-off game, it’s not just another RPG.”
“Working with our community and fans has helped the audience to grow, and we’re delighted to see it taking off so well in the west.”
I asked Lee if there were any other devices Bandai Namco were looking to bring Tales of games out on in the West.
“Right now the team’s very focused on getting us caught up to Japan with the new releases, and they’re looking at different platforms to get these games out to the fans,” he replied. “There were a couple of… experiments, you know, with games like Tales of Phantasia, which we released on iOS. That received some mixed results. In general, though, we’re looking at all of the ways in which we can bring the Tales of series to the fans.”
Note: Screenshot from Tales of Zestiria, the latest game in the series. It’s been confirmed for Western release, but has no release date yet.
At their Global Gamers Day press event two weeks ago, Bandai Namco discussed their upcoming list of games, and one of the titles they mentioned was Tales of Hearts R, which is slated for release this Winter.
Hearts R was chosen for localization based on a Sony survey, and Bandai Namco have shared the first English screenshots of the game that provides us with the official names of the main protagonists.
Notably, Kohaku Hearts and Hisui Hearts will retain their Japanese names in the English release, but main protagonist Shing Meteorite’s name has been changed to “Kor Meteor”.
We’ve covered Tales of Hearts R extensively in the past, and you can catch up on our coverage of the game by using its tag.
Europe Gets Japanese Dub Only But With Multiple Subtitle Options
Quote:
Tales of Hearts R will feature Japanese-language voiceovers and subtitles in English, French, Italian, German and Spanish, Bandai Namco Europe announced today.
This information pertains to the game’s European release, naturally.
Tales of Hearts R is slated for release this Winter in Europe. Bandai Namco have not commented on how many languages the American version will feature yet.
Is the physical release a gamestop exclusive because they sponsored the physical pressing?
As much as I don't like gamestop, I wish they did a physical release of Sword Art Online.
Yup Gamestop is the only ones carrying it in America.
For SAO, I think it's more important to fix the English translation but yes a physical copy would be nice too. Same goes for all of these Atelier Plus Ports.
04-19-2014, 12:38 AM
[PS Vita]Tales of Hearts R Will be Localized This Winter
All countries
Argentina
Austria
Belgium
Brazil
Bulgaria
Chile
China
Colombia
Czech Republic
Estonia
Denmark
Finland
Greece
Hong Kong
Hungary
Iceland
Indonesia
Ireland
Israel
India
Latvia
Malaysia
New Zealand
Norway
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Russia
Singapore
South Africa
South Korea
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
Thailand
Turkey
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
Linear Mode
