How Tales was born

This time will be brief summary just so we know and value developers dearly

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HISTORY

We are aware that this legendary series is a JRPG-styled video games published by Bandai Namco Entertainment then developed by a division called Namco Tales Studio in 2011 and by Bandai Namco Studios until present. Tales made a hit in 1995 with the release of Tales of Phantasia for the Super Famicom. BOOM! Tales next found its lore of series expanding to sixteen main games and several spin-offs. Next, manga and anime just tagged along.

Each series stands independently with different characters and stories. What they have in common is similar gameplay, themes and high fantasy settings. The art style itself is inspired from Japanese manga and anime. Multiple awesome creators have been involved with the production. Kōsuke Fujishima and Mutsumi Inomata designed characters, Hideo Baba and Makoto Yoshizumi became the producers, and Motoi Sakuraba composed the musics. The series was created by Yoshiharu Gotanda.

Majority of main Tales lores have been localized (translated systems from one language to another) for western regions. Sadly, one or two of the spinoffs has been released globally. Surprisingly, Tales  achieved a high-profile in Japan. In 2006, 1UP.com's Jeremy Parish referred to the franchise as the third biggest JRPG series behind Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. The series has been raising more and more in the West since Tales of Symphonia, which is still considered one of its legendary lores. 

Bandai Namco acquired the studio in 2003 and renamed it to Namco Tales Studio. SOO ABOUT SHARES, The shares were divided between Bandai Namco, Telenet Japan and series director Eiji Kikuchi. In 2006, Namco bought Telenet's shares, then later Kikuchi's, WHOA GREAT GALD!! HENCE, NO HOSTILE TAKEOVER. 

In mid 2011, a Namco Tales was in serious FINANCIAL DEBT of 21 million dollars OUFF!! AS MUCH GALD LUDGER (XILLIA 2) OWED not to mention a loss for the previous financial year. LUCKILY, parent company formally saved the studio by absorption announced in November same year. SO GRATEFUL Tales NEVER DIED!!

 

DEFINITION

The Tales series got its name based on Phantasia, an unpublished novel titled Tale Phantasia, was written by the scenario writer and lead programmer Yoshiharu Gotanda. During the story development process, changes in elements would always be altered, right. So, the title is basically focused on emphasizing theme for the game itself with a hint of philosophy. I GIVE YOU EXAMPLES 

PHANTASIA (FANTASY NOVEL ATMOSPHERE), 

DESTINY (HOW DESTINY UNITES TWO LIVES), 

ETERNIA (ETERNAL BONDS), 

SYMPHONIA (RESOUNDING SYMPHONY OF DIFFERENT ELEMENTS), 

REBIRTH (REBIRTH OF DIFFERENCE UNDERSTANDING), 

LEGENDIA (CREATING LEGACIES), 

ABYSS (KNOWING YOUR LIFE PURPOSE), 

INNOCENCE (CREATING HISTORY IN INNOCENCE), 

VESPERIA (BRINGING THE BRIGHTEST GUIDANCE TO HUMANITY), 

HEARTS (HOW HEARTS FORM STRENGTH IN EACH OTHER), 

GRACES (BLESSINGS TO PROTECT HUMANITY), 

XILLIA (POINTING OUT ENDLESS CONVICTIONS AFTER COUNTLESS EVENTS & ENCOUNTERS), 

XILLIA 2 (CHOICES SPIN YOUR FATE), 

ZESTIRIA (PASSION OF PURIFYING THE WORLD), 

BERSERIA (BERSERK AND FURY IN CONVICTION), 

ARISE (INHERITANCE AND EVOLUTION).

 

COMPETITORS

 Tales does not necessarily monopolize JRPG sector with unique battle systems, and fresh characters for every installments, you know. 

Three popular JRPGs I manage to gather so far consist of Final Fantasy, Atelier Series, then Dragon Quest. Tales sure has put itself in road of great rivalries ever since its first opening with Phantasia. 

So, Tales must brainstorm new features that keep players busy exploring environments offere, or offer other interactive activities that raise more questions about main plot aside from intriguing main stories. 

  

Battle Mechanism

JUST A HINT ABOUT TALES UNIQUE BATTLE STYLE, The LMBS (LINEAR MOTION BATTLE SYSTEM was first created for the Tales of Phantasia. SO, the most basic backbone of the system focuces on battles fought on a single two-dimensional visual with enemies moving in real time. 

In original version, only Cress Albane is playable, and all of his artes require a specific distance from his target, "short" or "long". Most of the other party members are pure spellcasters, and all of their magical abilities are animated. Some other attacks which are not spells, such as Cress' Lightning Tiger Blade and Beast  that show slight pause for the duration of its animation (COOL, HUH!). 

This break in the real time battle experience is known as "spell pause", and it could not be avoided by developers due to the animation system on 16-bit specified consoles such as Game Boy Advance.

Tales of Destiny, Eternia, Destiny still display similar battle mechanism with gradually growing improvements for the animation stress as to make arte movement even look better (visually speaking). At that time, that was the best arte display ever seen for 16-bit level. do you see how smooth the transition is ? from pixelated graphic to softer image.

Present

The moment you all have been waiting for!! Tales of Arise!! yay!!

yup, Zesty may have disappointed some fans and invoked lots of critics, but I still can not understand WHAT PISSED YOU ALL OFF (I am still grateful for it though despite its camera lackness) then Tales of Berseria restored all of our expectations with better features, simpler tutorials, and greater plots as well as characters. 

Build with Unreal Engine 4, Tales of Arise already showed us several spoilers on its environments, battle mechas, plots, characters, as well as skill tree system. Tales of Arise seems to be the starting peak of the epicness of this installments (I hope I will play it in my laptop someday ~~). No more R2 button holding for free run, more fluid party switch button, plus more ACTIONS on finishing move (do not forget the Mystic Artes!). 

Well, lucky for all of us to stay faithful in keeping up with Tales series 90% for chara + ARTES + weapons 

10% for skits + stories haha. However, Arise will SOON have great RIVALRY against FINAL FANTASY XVI. Overall, I think this masterpiece will have reached what we all expected (100% perfection).

Thanks for reading!!