Tales of Graces f's European release has finally been finalized via @TalesofU. The PAL version will be released on August 31, 2012. In addition, all those who will pre-order will receive a special edition bundle of the game.
NAMCO BANDAI GAMES UNVEILS TALES OF GRACES F DAY ONE EDITION CONTENT AND LAUNCH DATE
NAMCO BANDAI Games Europe today announced that acclaimed role-playing game Tales of Graces f is heading to EMEA and Asia Pacific on the 31st of August 2012 for PlayStation 3.
In addition to the game itself, the day one edition of Tales of Graces f - created especially for fans across Europe and Asia Pacific - highlights the artistic talents involved in the game with the Original Soundtrack, Behind the Scenes videos, and a high quality hardback art book, all included in a newly designed folded box. A special DLC is also included with original costumes from Tales of Destiny 2 and a custom PlayStation 3 theme for Tales of fans to rejoice about.
Tales of Graces f is the latest episode in the renowned Tales of series on the current generation of consoles on the Western market, and the first European appearance of the franchise on PlayStation(J®(J3. The story is set against the backdrop of three kingdoms (J–(J Windor, Strata and Fendel (J–(J all struggling for dominance of the world and follows Asbel Lhant as he sets off on a journey with his comrades, protecting the bonds of friendship and fighting for his ideals.
For the first time in the Tales series, the combat system lets the player freely change attack style depending on the battle situation. The characters$B!G(J distinctive weapons can be swapped for different styles, and the new combat system is easier to control while simultaneously making battles more involving. The title is developed by NAMCO BANDAI Studios Inc. in Japan with the aim of bringing to life the rich depth of the evocative characters designed by Mutsumi Inomata.
For more information on the Tales of series, please visit http://www.namcobandaigames.eu. Watch videos and trailers from NAMCO BANDAI Games Europe on YouTube.
So, to summarize, the special bundle, being called the Day One edition, and by that they mean you have to pre-order it to get it, will include the Tales of Graces F game, a soundtrack CD, a DVD with "Making of" videos of the game, a hardbound artbook and a DLC card with the Tales of Destiny 2 costumes for Asbel, Richard and Sophie and the PS3 themes, all wrapped in a special folded box.
We also have some videos and screenshots coming up, as soon as I finish downloading them. It turns out they're the same ones we posted here, so just check them out there.
To our European visitors, Namco Bandai will be at the upcoming London MCM Expo this May 25th to 27th. Ms. Hollie Bennett (@HollieB), Consumer and Community PR Executive of Namco Bandai UK has kindly informed us of what they have in store for the community.
Ms. Bennett will be holding a series of live demos and presentations of various Namdai games coming soon to Europe, one of those being Tales of Graces f. No news yet on Graces f's actual release date in Europe, but we'll hopefully be able to learn more during the event.
This is the schedule that Namco Bandai will have at MCM Expo:
MCM Expo - Day 2 (May 26th, Saturday):
3:00-4:00pm - Naruto Shippuden UNSG Tournament - The winner will receive a trip to Japan Expo and signed & framed artwork. More details here.
5:00-5:30pm - Tales of Graces f live demo and presentation.
6:00-6:30pm - Ni no Kuni live demo and presentation
MCM Expo - Day 3 (May 27th, Sunday):
10:30-11:00am - Dragon Ball Z Kinect live demo and presentation
You can follow @TalesofU via Twitter for more EU Tales updates.
In an interview from Famitsu magazine, Tales of Series Producer Hideo Baba talks a bit about the upcoming Next Tales of.
There has been a lot of speculation about this game being "Tales of Xillia 2" or something like that. Mr. Baba, however, assures in the interview that this is a completely new mothership game set in a new world we will venture in, and is not a sequel of some sort.
He mentions that the past Tales games have always been high fantasy and magic. In this new game, we will be introduced to a somewhat inorganic modernized human civilization much like our own.
The most interesting part for me though, was the catch copy phrase/theme of the game, which Mr. Baba mentions as "Are you determined to destroy the world for the sake of one girl?" and this will be much related to the game's story and even the battle system.
We'll get to know more about the game on June 2nd.
No, this isn't exactly the "Next Tales of" game we're all excited about right now, but it is something.
It has just been announced in Famitsu App's page that a new Tales of the World game will be making its way to the Android this July.
The game, Tales of the World: Tactics Union is, as you can make out from its name, a strategy/tactics game. The screenshots show the Tales characters moving through a grid map and fighting monsters. All the characters get new status art, and are also able to use Mystic Artes/Hi-Ougis.
Confirmed Tales characters so far include:
Lloyd Irving (Tales of Symphonia)
Norma Beatty (Tales of Legendia)
Guy Cecil (Tales of the Abyss)
Natalia L.K. Lanvaldear (Tales of the Abyss)
Rubia Natwick (Tales of the Tempest
Flynn Scifo (Tales of Vesperia)
Sophie (Tales of Graces
Asbel Lhant (Tales of Graces
The screenshots also reveal that the following characters will be available:
Judith (Tales of Vesperia)
Veigue Lungberg (Tales of Rebirth)
More characters will be announced in the future. It also seems from the screenshots that you'll be able to fight other Tales characters in this game.
There are also new ones in the form of these two mascot characters. The one on the left, modeled to look like a star, is Tern ( テルン ). The one on the right, modeled to look like the moon, is Nacht ( ナハト ), which seems to be derived from German. Thanks to Majin3 for this info. They seem to be in opposition against each other.
The countdown site for the Next Tales of game has opened. 19 days till the big reveal, folks! Which, by the way, will be the first day of the Tales of Festival 2012 (June 2). It seems Namco Bandai is planning a simultaneous update of the site together with the announcement over at the Festival. Also according to the site, it seems the announcement over at the Tales of Festival will only be simultaneously given via a live broadcast exclusively for members of Tales Channel +.
The countdown site has this light purplish theme, so we can expect the game logo or something to be similar. The site also confirms that there will indeed be commercials for the Next Tales of game itself on May 21st and May 28th during the program "HEY! HEY! HEY!" which will run on those days starting 8pm Japan time.
But for all we know, the game will probably be leaked early in a magazine or something.
A scan for the Jump Magazine announcement of the Next Tales of game has finally been leaked, showing us some concept art of what seems to be modern and advanced cities for the upcoming game.
Personally, the style is reminiscent of both Tales of Xillia and Tales of Vesperia, though a little bit more advanced and modern. The said train-like structure is indeed present, and a lot of tall buildings and skyscrapers flood the cities. It's not that modernized, but it does seem more advanced than any previous Tales cities we've seen.
Also, looking at the art style, these are most probably by Daigo Okumura again.
When we really have nothing much yet on a game, you can expect a lot of speculation to pop up here and there.
The most interesting one yet (Aside this from being jokingly called Tales of Fantasy as a pun on Final Fantasy) is that could this be Tales of Xillia 2? Or perhaps related in anyway to Xillia?
But why are most speculators (mainly the Japanese) saying so? Mainly because the X in Xillia and the X used in the font for the Next Tales of are quite identical. That doesn't really explain why it's not as similar as the rest of the font, but you know.
As usual, this is just speculation, so take it with a grain of salt. For all we know, this is just one big coincidence. I mean, usually, when they say "Next Tales of," it's usually an entirely new game... but then there was Tales of Destiny 2...
Welcome once again to AC's "Tales Merch Monthly" column! To those who missed last month's debut post, this new column of ours focuses on any upcoming Tales of Series related merchandise, as well as those that (we think) are already available and are worth collecting. From shirts, to figures, to even keychains, we'll try to cover as much as we can! The column will be out every month, and will focus on stuff just released/to be released for that same month, as well as Tales stuff you can pre-order that will come out in the coming two months.
Majority of the merchandise are related to Tales of Xillia, hence the subtitle.
Click the read more option to see the whole long list! Or click below to see the subsections!
The said URL, http://next.tales-ch.jp/, is indeed online, but is currently still closed to the public (requires authorization username and password).
The URL is said to be published in the issue of Jump Magazine with the Next Tales of announcement, so most people are assuming the site will be open beginning next week Monday or so. And if it will really be open by Monday, it will most probably be another countdown site.
Though there's no info whatsoever about the "Next Tales of," those who get Jump early are saying that the concept art presented in the magazine features a modernized city, with what seems to be a train running towards a far away silhouette of many buildings.
In the meantime, we'll be keeping an eye on the URL, as well as scrounging around 2ch for possible updates. Stay tuned!
Most of us already know that a new Tales title will be announced at the upcoming Tales of Festival 2012 this June 2 and 3. Next week's Jump Magazine confirms that the next Tales game will indeed be a mothership title.
We don't have a scan yet, but the source is reliable (Nore139's blog. He apparently gets the mag ealry). No news yet on the game itself. It's simply being labeled as "Next Tales of," with the platform, release date and price still set as to be announced. Apparently, there is a concept art that comes with the announcement, showing what seems to be a modern-day city, with what seems to be a running train going towards a faraway silhouette of many buildings.
Details will be given on Tales of Festival 2012, but it also says that there will be a commercial for it during the show "HEY! HEY! HEY!" on May 21st and May 28th. It's unclear of the commercial is for the game or for the Festival though.
Namco Bandai has released part 3 of their community interview with Tales of Series producer Hideo Baba. Like before, Mr. Baba answers some of the fans' many questions, along with presenting some Tales of Series merchandise lying around in his office.
Highlights of the interview include: - We can expect more improvements with the Tales battle system in the future. It's something Tales is highly praised for and is one of the company's main focuses.
- When asked whether future magic-using characters would be given more melee artes to be at par with melee characters, he answers that making a character good at everything would just make them lose their personalities. So at most, they would just like to even all these traits among the characters.
- Mr. Baba says that, for now, the spinoff titles are the main games to look at when looking for character creation and connecting with and playing with friends.
- He also presented the Tales of Magazine in the video. Mr. Baba mentioned that if the number of Tales of fans increase overseas, they might consider running the mag there as well.
- One of the most difficult problems with Tales is how it's being handled outside of Japan. It requires a lot of promotion from all angles, and is one problem the company always tries to think about.
- Someone actually asked why it's so hard for Namdai to localize the games. Mr. Baba replies by saying that as a JRPG, Tales has a lot of text, so it takes a lot of time, money and work to give it an overseas release, hence they can't help but release the game in Japan first... Personally, I don't think that was what fans wanted to know about, Mr. Baba...
The video still has the "...to be continued" message at the end, so expect more parts to come.
>> Hideo Baba Tales of Series Community Interview - Part 2
SyphonVectorman
Namco Bandai Games' Europe Youtube Channel released the second part of Hideo Baba's interview about the Tales of Series. Questions covered include how they create their characters and story in the early stages of development, if the company is focusing on Tales of games for the current generation of consoles or if they'll be waiting for the next-gen consoles to be revealed, and if they'll be using more playable animal characters such as Repede.
You can watch the full interview here:
Highlights of this part of the interview include: - When asked what the most fun thing about making the games is? Everything.
- Tales games are never inspired from real life movies or novels. Mr. Baba insists all of their work is original.
- About designing characters: The character's background, such as his life up until the game's time, the environment he grew up in, his age, his height and weight are all worked on before passing the information to the character designers. They can then use their imagination to work on a character that will fit the data. They do get asked to tweak a few things here and there.
- Though it usually depends on the title, the first step in the creation of a Tales game (after thinking up of the game theme, I think) is actually the creation of the hero and his heroine as well as the game setting. Since the hero and heroine will be closely intertwined with the world they will journey in, both hero/heroine and game setting are worked on simultaneously.
- When asked whether we will be having new Tales games for existing hardware or whether it'll be for the next gen, currently, Mr. Baba answered that they're focusing on making better Tales games for current existing hardware. Once the next gen consoles are out though, they'll be sure to make Tales games for them as well.
- When asked about character customization, he answers that the most we would be getting is changing the characters' clothes and attachments. Changing the physical appearance however would be something that would only hinder the designs of heroes and heroines in main Tales games, and given the nature of the series, it would be something unnecessary.
- When asked if we will be having more animal characters like Repede: He really couldn't say since it would depend on the setting entirely, and whether adding a mascot character would help in expressing what they want. Some games will have them, some games will not. In the end, Mr. Baba says he really can't promise anything at the moment.
Throughout the interview, Baba shows off more Tales merchandise including a one of a kind picture drawn by Ufotable (company responsible for the Symhponia OVA and Xillia anime cutscenes) that was sent to him as a gift in November last year.
The interview also doesn't conclude here. It seems there will be a part 3 after... or even more! They're really doing their best to answer most of our questions.
Posted by SyphonVectorman on May 02, 2012 - 07:17pm PDT Post a Comment (2)
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