Tales of Xillia Confirmed For The West

Finally, Namco Bandai has revealed their next Tales title for the west.  Tales of Xillia will be coming to Europe and North America.

No dates or additional information is available yet.  I’d imagine with the time frame it took for Tales of Graces f post announcement, we’d probably see it mid/late 2013.  This information was given through a tweet from the official Namco Bandai UK account.

@TalesofU:
We are very pleased to announce TALES OF XILLIA is coming to the west!

They then followed up that tweet with:

@TalesofU
Haha fear not my American friends as you are also getting Tales of Xillia.

Perhaps this was really the news the NA Community manager had for us? It’s confusing, but I’m happy either way. I can’t wait for a release date!

Tales Series News Coming Soon

While Japan got some major news recently with Tales of Xillia 2, the west has been quiet since the release of Tales of Graces. That may change soon since Namco/Bandai’s community manager for the west spoke up tonight.

Rich Bantegui ‏ @Filthierich

#TALESOF stuff to share with the community very soon! Tune-in here and don’t forget to like http://facebook.com/tales!!

Could this be the announcement of Tales of Xillia localization? It seems imminent with the development of Xillia 2 in Japan. Or a less likely announcement could be Tales of Innocence R for the Vita. Or could it just be some goofy contest or something goofy just to troll fans into a frenzy? I guess we’ll see. Follow him on Twitter for the announcement, or stay tuned here as I will be covering it if it’s a big game announcement.

Edit: Rich has since replied that it will be some time next week, so don’t expect anything til then.

What’s Next For The Tales Series?

Now that the Tales of Abyss 3D and Tales of Graces f ship have come and gone, I’m left with a bit of a question. I’ve enjoyed Abyss so far and Graces definitely had it’s own charm. At this point I’m wondering what’s next on the chopping block for Tales in the US.

To be honest, I may be a bit off the wall when I say the next Tales game I want is Tales of Innocence R. It’s not that Xillia doesn’t look incredible, because it certainly does. However Graces left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth due to it’s changes from the original Tales model I learned to love with Vesperia and the Symphonias.  The music was lacking, it had a lack of exploration, there was too much back and forth, and it had a few hit and miss characters. That leads me to fear where Xillia has gone, further away from ‘my’ wants or a return to it.  I’ll give Graces credit though, they did some amazing things with the combat system.  I’m sure they will do the same with Xillia, but everything else seems to be degrading.

2012 Looking Up For JRPGs

Life of a fan of Japanese gaming from the west has it’s ups and downs.  At times you get great games to spend hours upon.  While at other times you go so long wondering if Japan still loves you.  Getting a localization of great titles just seems like pulling teeth at times.  Well, it almost seemed like 2011 was one of those years.

Well, negativity aside, it looks like 2012 is shaping up.  Companies are looking to bring their great titles to the west and JRPG fans are ready to snag them up.  Here’s a lineup I put together to get you all as excited as I am.  Some may debate that some arn’t “RPG”, you get the gist.

Valkyria Chronicles 3 (PSP): While Sega told Gamespot a solid ‘no’ to it’s localization in the west, after a huge signature campagne the question of their minds being changed went up in the air again.  Maybe we won’t see it on PSP, but there’s still a chance for a Vita port which would be amazing.  So.. while most my hopes are shattered, I still keep shred somewhere in the back of my mind.  [Unconfirmed – Unlikely]

Tales of Graces f (PS3): Finally an amazing new Tales title is coming to America.  This installment is the first PS3 exclusive Tales game for the West and it gets the amazing sharpness in graphics to support it.  I may have to get a second PS3 on standby because I may kill my PS3 playing this to death.  [Confirmed March 13 Release Date]