Tales of the Abyss

[Guy]

Two new Tales games for Europe give me such a grin. Abyss is finally coming out here at last!

[Emerald Emblem]

Originally Posted by Guy

Two new Tales games for Europe give me such a grin. Abyss is finally coming out here at last!

It's such a welcome surprise to be sure, I enjoyed the anime (What I watched of it anyway)

[darksnowman]

Famitsu review score and comments:

8, 8, 7, 8

- 60 hours clear time
- 100 hours for those who explore
- reduced load times
- touch screen adds some convenient features, for battle special moves and cooking shortcuts
- 3DS version is based off the US PS2 version

"It's always nice to play a portable RPG with all of this voice work. It's well-made and doesn't feel old, but there also hasn't been much added to it, although touch-screen skill selection on the bottom screen is nice. The story unfolds in epic fashion, and the large number of skits adds depth to the tale. However, some of the text displays are pretty small, including the status screen. The delay in changing viewpoints on the field map is also annoying."

[Guy]

Pretty decent review and no criticisms to destroy the experience. Cannot wait for this to hit!

[Emerald Emblem]

Good news everyone, Tales of the Abyss 3DS has been bumped up from a tentative 2012 release to a November 2011 release for those of us in Europe.

http://www.talesunion.com/news/tales...ber--1713.html

[Diageo]

Fantastic!

[killer kirby]

Yes fantastic ignoring the fact that they are releasing it around one of the busiest times of the year, I fear it shall be overshadowed by everything. seriously, Namco have the worst timing for releasing a game.

[Diageo]

Well it's fantastic for me anyway so meh.

[EEVILMURRAY]

Originally Posted by killer kirby

Yes fantastic ignoring the fact that they are releasing it around one of the busiest times of the year, I fear it shall be overshadowed by everything. seriously, Namco have the worst timing for releasing a game.

What other decent 3DS games are coming out for Christmas?

[Hero-of-Time]

Originally Posted by EEVILMURRAY

What other decent 3DS games are coming out for Christmas?

Probably Mario Kart and Super Mario 3DS. In terms of 3rd party games probably sod all.

[Emerald Emblem]

Thing is all we know is November, not what week specifically it'll release. Yes, people will likely save up for the Mario games but since 3DS has been screaming for a stronger line-up hopefully gamers will get this game first because they want to justify the price they paid for their 3DS. Here's hoping it sells well initially.

[ShadowV7]

If you mean we don't know when TotA is released in November, it's the 10th.

[Emerald Emblem]

At last week's Japan Expo 2011, fellow French Tales fansite Kingdom of Tales got the chance to sit down with Tales executive Makoto Yoshizumi to talk about the series and the new localization push from the company's North American and European branches, along with a few other interesting tidbits, namely Tales of Graces f's release date in Europe.

For those who don't have the time to read the entire interview (both a French and English version are up as of this moment), below is a synopsis of what went down.

Tales of Graces f
- Tales of Graces f will be released sometime during Summer 2012 in Europe.
- It's unclear if all of the DLC costumes and skits available on the Japanese PlayStation Store will be available in the Western version. This includes the Code Geass costumes, which might have some issues due to licensing. They did state that they are working on trying to bring it all over, however.
- He wanted to make things clear that the game will only be on the PS3, i.e. no Wii port.

Tales of Xillia
- While there's no plans for the title as of yet, apparently Graces f's sales aren't linked to the game's release according to Yoshizumi, but instead to fan demand (jokingly mentioning Facebook spamming being one possible way to show it ).
- ufotable was chosen specifically for the 15th anniversary, but Yoshizumi isn't sure at the moment if they will be used again in a future title in the series.

Tales of the Abyss (3DS)
- Apparently the magic sales number for the title is 250,000 (guessing this is a worldwide number).
- They want to release more Tales titles on the Nintendo 3DS.

Tales Series
- There's talk about porting older Tales titles to HD consoles not only in Japan but in North America and Europe. It's unclear if he means releasing them as PSN classics or doing actual HD versions of the titles, however.
- Yoshito Higuchi, the man responsible for Tales of Vesperia was working on an unrelated project during the time Tales of Xillia began production, hence why Hideo Baba took the reigns. Apparently said game won't be revealed till sometime after this year's Tokyo Game Show, however.
- Go Shiina, the person in charge of Tales of Legendia's score, is currently tied up in other projects for Namco Bandai. Motoi Sakuraba is still the main music composer for the series.

Misc.
- Sword of Legendia, which was at first thought to be related to the series, was officially canceled a few years back.

http://www.talesunion.com/news/tales...ing--1718.html

So Tales of the Abyss 3DS will be considered successful if they can shift 1/4 of a million copies worldwide (We hope it doesn't just refer to Europe), whether the second point is releasing them in Europe I'm not sure but hope that is the case.

[darksnowman]

From Comic Con.

[Hero-of-Time]

Iwata Asks: Tales of Abyss

[killer kirby]

I would like to say that this game is better than Symphonia and Vesperia, for one reason alone...

TEAR!!! seriously, she makes Collette and Estelle look like a fucking joke.

[Jonnas]

Colette has always been a joke

[S.C.G]

Originally Posted by Jonnas

Colette has always been a joke

Yep, a running - and then falling over - joke still though... I feel she's an enjoyable character but not amazing.

I can't wait for this btw, never got to play it on the PS2 so I shall be picking this up on 3DS for sure.

[Hamishmash]

Two beautiful weeks were spent playing a borrowed copy of Symphonia and that's all I know about this series.

The thing I liked the most was the battle system... is that the same in this game?

[Tales]

Pretty much. You can move around freely with a shoulder button but you can't attack or defend while doing so. Otherwise it's the same linear battle as in ToS.

[EEVILMURRAY]

Originally Posted by killer kirby

TEAR!!! seriously, she makes Collette and Estelle look like a fucking joke.

With a name like that?! C'maaahn.

I shall have to investigate in November.

[darksnowman]

Just read the Iwata Asks while having a cuppa there now. So the main character in this is a scum bag who you end up growing attached to? Reminds me a bit of whats his face from Symphonia 2 who was difficult to warm to, though thats cos he was so feeble to begin with.

Lol @ the Tales of fanbase. 70% male for the games, 95% female for merchandise! Crazy.

Its also interesting the way they talk about how they create and plan the games themes and characters. They make it sound like so much thought goes into it, whereas we all know RPG stories are 99% copy and paste jobs!

[Hero-of-Time]

It looks like us Euro peeps may be still getting the game this year. Namco Bandai EU has released another trailer with " COMING 2011" still at the end.

Trailer

[Nintendo Fan]

Awesome news!

[Ike]

It was only the US release that got delayed.