Just in time for the Tales of The Rays' 6th anniversary comes a special collaboration. Scarlet Nexus, a Bandai Namco Action RPG made by Tales developers is coming to Rays!
The surprise announcement came through the Official Tales of Youtube channel. You can watch the collab PV itself here:
Surprisingly, there's only one character from Scarlet Nexus itself coming to Rays this time. Kasane Randall will be joining Tales of The Rays as a fully playable character. This is unexpected because the number of characters added via collaboration events have increased over the years, the last time we had only one character was from the original The iDOLM@STER collab that gave us Haruka, which was also developed by Bandai Namco. Naturally you can expect Kasane to come with a full moveset featuring the psychic abilities Scarlet Nexus is known for.
In addition to Kasane's debut, four Tales characters will be getting Artes and costumes based on Scarlet Nexus characters. Veigue Lungberg will take the role of Karen Travers, a nod to both characters being voiced by Nobuyuki Hiyama. Leia Rolando appears dressed as Hanabi Ichijo, both connected by their choice of weapon as well as fire element attacks. The last two characters are our beloved Rays originals: Mercuria dressed as Arashi Spring and our protagonist Ix Nieves dressed as Yuito Sumeragi, the lead hero of Scarlet Nexus!
The video also gives us a sneak preview of a couple of the Mirrage Artes that will be added for this collab. Kasane's is shown at the beginning with Ix' at the end. You can see they put a lot of work into accurately recreating the Brain Crush animations, down to the camera angle! You can also see a preview of Ix' new 5* Arte here:
【お知らせ】
こんばんは。運営です
近日登場予定のイクスのコラボ魔鏡とコラボ鏡装の紹介です
魔鏡は念力の超脳力で敵を攻撃し、気絶を付与します
鏡装は刀で前方を攻撃し、さらに念力で追撃する秘技が登場です。#ザレイズ pic.twitter.com/zPjJHvPL0R— 【公式】テイルズ オブ ザ レイズ (@talesof_therays) February 13, 2023
Ix' collaboration 5* Arte is Psychokinesis Follow-up Attack, a prominent mechanic from Scarlet Nexus itself! You can see he won't have to use an entire MA to psychically throw objects at enemies. More Arte/costume preview tweets will be released in the days coming to the event, so be sure to follow the Rays account if you'd like to see them! We'll compile them all ourselves when the event releases too.
For those who aren't aware, Scarlet Nexus is an Action RPG released in 2021 that has many long time Tales developers behind it. The Director is Kenji Anabuki who worked on many Tales games such as Symphonia, Abyss and Vesperia; and also draws the infamous wanted posters from across the Tales series himself. This gag was used in Scarlet Nexus as well, it can be considered his thumbprint! Takumi Miyajima, writer for Symphonia, Abyss and even Rays itself wrote the story for Scarlet Nexus. Before this announcement, Scarlet Nexus had also collaborated with Tales of Asteria, making many fans feel as if a Rays collaboration was only a matter of time. Kenji Anabuki and Takumi Miyajima also share their own posts, excited for this collaboration:
https://twitter.com/shibainu_kenji/status/1625128250249986048?s=20
まさかのスカネクコラボ！ 穴吹さんがめちゃくちゃプッシュしまくっているとの風の噂を聞いていました。これを機にスカネク未体験の方は、是非ゲームを遊んでみて下さい。２章までのストーリーを遊べる体験版がありますので！ ハートフルな絆のお話だよ！ https://t.co/dlpNjphMGc
— 実弥島巧 (@Jerry_cat) February 13, 2023
According to Miyajima, Kenji Anabuki was pushing for Scarlet Nexus and Tales of The Rays to collaborate for a while! We're glad he got the crossover he wanted, and many of us are excited to see this happen as well. And who knows, maybe there will be another part of this collaboration down the line?
We'll put out a new article explaining how to play through the collaboration when it releases, as well as showcasing all the new Artes and costumes. So keep an eye out for more information from us!
Tales of the Rays is a Tales mobile game for the iOS and Android featuring characters designed by Hidenori Matsuraba and a new ADF-LMBS (Advanced Flick Linear Motion Battle System). The game tells the story of hero Ix Nieves and heroine Mileena Weiss in the world of Tir Na Nog. Characters from the previous Tales titles appear in this game. The game initially had an English version, but was short-lived and now currently runs exclusively in Japan.
