While those looking to import Tales of the Abyss 3DS might be slightly disappointed today, if Amazon's listing is correct, North American fans might be in luck, as it seems the online retailer might have inadvertently outed a North America release of the game.
Tales of the Abyss was originally released on the PS2 on December 15, 2005 and was localized in North America on October 10, 2006. The game was regarded as an improvement over Tales of Symphonia, extending that game's multi-line battle system into a battle system which allows players to freely move about the field in battle.
Last month, we uncovered new trademarks for possible names for the next Tales of title. It seems Namco Bandai has put up the sub-domain for the official website up early, and it looks like we can infer what the final name is: Tales of Xillia.
The game will utilize the contrast between light and shadow, which will lead to the game having a different art style direction than Vesperia's anime-style graphics or Graces's watercolor-style graphics (it could be more of a hand-painted or oil painting-like feel if the concept artwork is any indication). Baba stated that when he saw some of the concept artwork images running on actual hardware he was very impressed.
Right now, the sub-domain has a website The Idolmaster as placeholder, likely until they actually get ready to reveal the game next month.
It's currently unknown what else Tales of Xillia will entail besides knowing the name, as well as any chances of a Western release.
According to a recent radio interview that was leaked online, it appears that the rumored PS3 Tales of title, rumored to be named Tales of Unitia, has been confirmed with a release date, alongside another PSP Tales title.
According to the interview, the next Tales series title will be exclusive to the PS3 in Japan and will be released sometime during Fall 2010, which would mean that much of the game should have already been completed by now, which isn't that huge of a stretch considering the "Team Symphonia" part of Namco Tales Studio's last game was back in 2008 and most of the main team likely didn't take part in the PS3 port of Tales of Vesperia.
In addition, the interview also stated that an unnamed PSP Tales title would be be released sometime in the future, although no specific information was mentioned.
Earlier this week Namco Bandai registered a new Tales of Phantasia: Narikiri Dungeon trademark, but the purpose of the trademark was currently unknown. According to one of the series's ending illustrators, it appear we might know what that mystery trademark will be used for.
The source of the leak came from Kazuyoshi Yaginuma, who has done the ending illustrations for the recent Tales of games. He leaked that he was doing the illustrations for Tales of Phantasia: Narikiri Dungeon R, which would be for the PSP. The original Tales of Phantasia: Narikiri Dungeon was released on the Game Boy Color back on November 10th, 2000. Considering this remake would be released 10 years after the original, the X in the original trademark could be a tie-in to the difference in years, although that is pure speculation at this point.
Namco Bandai has yet to comment on this leak, and the original posting has yet to be removed, so it is unknown if this was intentionally done by Namco Bandai or if it was an accidental early leak. Considering the brief time in-between the trademark and the leak, it could be possible that the company will reveal the game in the next few weeks.
According to the latest issue of OMN (Official Nintendo Magazine, in Europe), Europe will be seeing a localized release of Tales of Graces later this year. Namco Bandai released the game last December and has yet to announce a localization of the title.
The issue stats that the game will be released in Summer 2010 in Europe. Considering the lag that the European versions have encountered in the past, it is possible that this signals a North American versions sometime earlier in the year, or the company could be trying to bring the releases together like Square Enix is doing with Final Fantasy XIII.
This would also make sense considering Spring 2010 is set to be filled with tons of next-gen releases which would drown out much of the possible sales of the game.
As of now Namco Bandai has yet to comment on this news, so this can only be taken as a rumor until we get official confirmation from the company.
Tales of Vesperia was originally released in 2008 on the Xbox 360, followed by a port on the PlayStation 3 the next year. According to one of the voice actors from the Japanese version of the game, it seems either the game might be appearing on the Wii in some fashion (either as a port, sequel, or spin-off).
The source of this news comes from Rikiya Koyama, the Japanese voice actor for the character Duke. It's not concrete what type of game he was referring to, since he mentioned the strength of the brand and the recently released movie. A straight-out port is unlikely due to the graphics in the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions, so if this is true, it would likely be a sequel or a spin-off similar to Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World.
It appears Namco Bandai might be planning to reveal another Tales of game, according to a teaser website that has just launched on Namco Bandai's official Japanese website.
The website, which only has Next RPG Project K as the title and a countdown clock (which currently has six days remaining), has nothing else that would signify what this mysterious game might be. When it originally popped up on the list of games on Namco Bandai's website, it had a Nintendo DS icon attached, although that marking has now been removed (it could be like before with Tales of Vesperia on the Xbox 360, where the platform was accidentally leaked before the official announcement).
Thanks to this blog, it could be possible this is a spin-off or is related to Sgt. Frog (Sergeant Keroro), which was used as a tie-in in the PlayStation 3 version of Vesperia as a DLC costume title for Karol, due to the K_66 in the URL.
In any case, we should know around November 12th if this is the next Tales of title or not.
According to a user on VGChartz's forum, it appears we might have confirmation about a North American localization of Tales of Vesperia on the PlayStation 3.
According to the user, they were attending London Expo and talked w/ Troy Baker, who was the voice behind Yuri Lowell. Troy stated that him and the rest of the voice actors were called back to voice the changed scenes that included Patty Fleur as well as all of the unvoiced scenes from the Xbox 360 version (since the PlayStation 3 version voices everything this time around).
Said user also included a photo from the event, which furthers the credibility of the story. No confirmation from Namco Bandai on the news at this time, however.
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