@GoGoGodzilla: The Japanese demo actually comes in English. I think these footage are from somewhere else.

(Yep I've downloaded the demo).

stikves

Hmmm Though It looks kinda sweet, the cell shaded cartoon style of it kinda turns me off. The game play style also looks like it could get really old really fast. Maybe the story is great... Do not know if Wunt...

Flitz

Wonder how long the game will be. I know I've played ToS for at least 80 hours.

Green-clad Gamer Dude

I heard there were smoking dogs, but not only was the dog smoking, he was smoking a pipe! Thus, he is obviously the most sophisticated and intelligent character in the whole game.

jive238

I'm a big tales fan and the game is looking great, but I'm still not going to be buying a 360 just for this one game. I'm still pissed that it's even on the 360 in the first place.

desterion

That looks fantastic.

Amazon_Chris

While the Tales series is like playing a random generic anime, I still like it better than the Final Fantasy series. Mainly because I'm more of a fan of real-time RPGS instead of turn-based.

And also, who wouldn't like to have a dog that smoked a pipe?

kojirodensetsu

The graphics look clean, and this is a great indicator of what cel-shading can look like with next-gen graphics...but the animations don't seem to have the level of polish that Symphonia did. To me, these seem a bit clunky. Character design isn't great, either.

I'll probably skip it unless it gets amazing reviews.

wormguy

The art is beautiful but the animations suck.
Every time a character is about to talk he strikes a pose and remains in it until he finishes the sentence... :/

Garo

Smoking dog you say? Sold!

Trowble (XBL/PSN)

What I would not give to see a remake of ToD, played on the same perspective, with all the bells and whistles of current gen?.

I loved the ToA and ToS but the presentation of the combat system is tiring. It looks like Infinite Undiscovery and the three other high profile JRPGS has the same MMO-lite, WTF-ABT?, radiantastic A.I., realtime fighting snoozefest.

When was the last time you got blisters on your thumbs from gaming?. What better then ToD?

+ Watch video

PsycheE

@Akulina: You should check out Tales of Symphonia! It was amazing.I loved it. It came out on GC first and then later to the PS2. Stick to the GC in my op. However, that suggestion could have something to do with the fact that I'm a raving Nintendo Fanboy.

NaryaMithrandir

I'm a huge fan of the Tales Games. However! One of the main things that frustrate me is that if I have a friend or sibling playing co-op with me, during a battle scene, the focus continues to be on the main character of the story. And therefore, if I control the main character and move towards the right of the screen fighting an enemy, my co-op partner is stuck, blindly swinging away at nothing but air as he can't see the other creature that's right next to him while he takes damage and dies.
Annoying!

NaryaMithrandir

I thought the bit about a dog smoking was just another Patented Wacky Kotaku Non Sequitur.

Boy was I ever wrong!

Also, the cut scene

@Akulina: Guhhh, it's a Tales game. In other words the battle system is action-based. You slam buttons and sometimes block or dodge. There's about as much "technique" involved as in Tekken (half-joke).

There've only been like, what, seventy of these games by now? I guess the series is too new for anyone to know the battle system is action-based! (lol)

-- seriously, though, Namco must not be doing a good enough PR job on these games, or something.

Also, for the record: the music in both of these videos is pretty atrocious. That's budget distribution in the Japanese videogame industry for you. They should make a game on "The Price is Right" about it, where contestants are asked to watch a three-second clip of a Japanese Video Game and guess whether the actress voicing the three-year-old helium-voiced, balloon-breasted little girl's hourly rate exceeded the entire graphic budget, sound budget, or both.

108

Was that dog spraying that soldier?!??

Gunloc

What I wouldn't give for a current gen effects on ToD. Same perspective but with all kinds of bells and whistles.

The whole MMO-lite, non-ABT, WTF-mechanic-FFXII syndrome I see in Infinite Undiscovery and the other 3 games are a bit weary. Don't get me wrong, this game has a great air about; I had only good times with ToA and ToS. But...

When was the last time you got blisters on your thumbs from gaming?

+ Watch video

PsycheE

Speaking of dogs, that Frontline crap isn't working.

shak_0

@psycoking: I'm thinking the same!

@UnklDee: Wow, you don't need much to be satisfied! How many could you possibly have played this gen? Two?

Kaneda

It looks like its all footage from the Japanese demo. You can download it in the US by making a Japanese XBL account.

GoGoGodzilla

If the action holds up and it has a fantastic story that makes me care for the characters this is a buy. Also I'm lovin the fast load times.

Kaizuden

@thejakeman: still using an old joke that no one finds funny...: No never ^^; So thank you very much for the confirmation!

I will maybe give it a try then :)

Akulina

Wow, that really reminds me of this other game.. what was it called again?

Uh..

Ah, yes. Eternal Sonata. Think I've had my JRPG fill this generation, thanks. :P

UnklDee

Looks very fun, and I love the music in the background, i'm sure the co-op is going to be really fun.

D-Sovereignty

@Akulina: nope, real time battles here. have you ever played a tales game?

thejakeman: still using an old joke that no one finds funny anymore. i have no friends.

it's so generic it hurts my brain.

thejakeman: still using an old joke that no one finds funny anymore. i have no friends.

It is very pretty, but it is turn by turn battle right? So I will pass...

Akulina

Damn. Now I need to buy an XBox.

psycoking

@WolvenOne: Button mashing? Granted I have only played ToS, once you get a feel for the battle system (chaining special attacks over and over) I thought it felt far away from random button mashing...

As for this, looks really cool - The Tales series is one of my favorite JRPG series out there.

Toasterface[zd]

This is the first time I've ever even heard of a Tales game. I saw a teaser trailer about it, so I downloaded the demo when it hit the Japanese marketplace. Gotta say, I'm pretty impressed. I'm definitely going to be keeping my eye on this one. Like I said before, I've never played a Tales game, so the action in the demo was new and exciting to me. The one qualm I did have about the demo was the animations. I mean, come on-- you make a game with amazing cel-shaded graphics and you can't even give them a little more life?

cL9

You know, I've got to be honest here, I've never really cared for the Tales of series much. Primarily it's the battle system, it's always felt like an oddly placed button mashing fest to me, and the speed of it seems to marginalize much of the idea of leveling up.

The second problem, is that while the worlds are beautiful, and the characters reasonably well designed, the stories always feel somehow sloppy to me. Like they were thrown together rather quickly without much thought to creating larger, more interesting settings.

Don't get me wrong, the games have their strong points, which is why they've lasted this long. However for me, the strength's don't outweigh the weaknesses.

WolvenOne

@Squeek:
Unfortunately, both of them are extremely, extremely annoying, to the detriment of the rest of the party. Tales has always had issues with this, but in Abyss they seemed to be moving away from it a bit.

It's just depressing to see them falling back into old stereotypes, especially since Estelle is another soft-spoken healer girl with no personality and an inability to cook. Never understood the Japanese fixation on that archetype.

I'd continue the discussion, but I have to be at work in...6 hours, which means I should get to bed. Ugh.

Archaotic

Looks great. I love the Tales of-series (Phantasia and Symphonia especially), but I hate the fact that the previous ones (Abyss and Legendia, right?) never came to Europe. This one better be regionfree or come out here.

Alazar

@Archaotic: Small children?

I mean, there are two. The ages go: 12, 15, 18, 19, 21, 21, 28, 35. Obviously the big hammer kid is the 12-year old and the goggle girl is the 15-year old.

Also, there are plenty of videos on Youtube of the demo in English.

Squeek

Another Jrpg on the Xbox. This is just stupid, japan hates the Xbox and the US use it for macho games like Halo 3. Why do companies keep shooting themselves in the foot like this?

ryivanV2

Played the demo, didn't care for it...the characters are just so damn grating I want the entire cast to die in a fire. Japanese developers, STOP POPULATING YOUR RPG PARTIES WITH SMALL CHILDREN.

Archaotic

I wonder what that dog is smoking. If it were a cat, you could say it was catnip... wait a minute, why aren't there any smoking cats?! I feel jipped.

anoriel

@Toasterface[zd]: I have to agree with WolvenOne on this one; the Tales series has always been more about how quickly you could press buttons than the tactical skill involved. There was a slight change with this in Tales of the Abyss, but even there it was not enough to make the battle system feel different, as you could easily beat most of the game without it.

Don't get me wrong, I did like the battle system of the tales games. But after I played the same battle system for the 7th time, with as only improvement the speed, it got really old and became nothing but a button mashing fest. Even in Tales of Symphonia there were only few occasions where you had to watch your moves (a little) and that was primarily limited to certain bosses. For the rest it was just mashing the button, keeping an eye on your life/TP and the special skill meter (for Tales of Symphonia). Nothing more.

As for my interest; while the game looks pretty impressive graphically (I have seen better, but the game can hold up I think), as many have mentioned already, the animations feel unpolished. The feeling I got from the movie is that the battles do not seem to be very enjoying, I do not know what exactly contributed to that. Maybe it is because it is exactly the same as the other (older) Tales games, with better graphics (but most probably the exact same skill sets), I don't know. I do know that I will not be getting this game, or any JPRG for that matter, unless they actually TRY to do something different instead of the usual graphical update. For some reason I cannot enjoy a franchise that has not really evolved in the last 13 years.

Cridia

@4Degrees: That's because the person playing in the video is guarding way too much and attacking very slowly. Also he isn't really linking any special attacks.

I love the tales series and played ToS to death. I can't wait for this to come out as I've been itching for a JRPG.

Ricehead

Looks awesome, but the battles look really shitty.

4Degrees

Oh, wow. I would almost buy a 360 for this game. Will the NA release have Japanese voices as an option?

everybest

Hooooly crap, that is some BAD music.

gique

This looks awesome, so awesome that I'm going to buy my dog a pipe so he can smoke and play this game with me. In all seriousness though I'm glad to see the xbox getting more Japanese RPG's. Keep em coming.

dirkxxdiggler

@everybest: The demo has aduio and subtitles in English, so I am assuming that the retail version will be the same.

peacefuloutrage

I like the art style, but the animation is extremely bland. I don't think there was one bit of camera movement in the entire cutscene - to say nothing of the way the dog stood there looping the same breathing motion basically the whole time.

Chagrin

@stikves: No, The Japanese demo is in English and Japanese. The audio and subtitles default to the system settings.

You learn something new everyday.

peacefuloutrage

Looks like real time battle with button mashing controls again... topped by annoyingly screaming children in the cutscene. Count me out.

Starsky

@Chagrin:
Yeah but at least the dog had some sort of idle animation.

Garo

@Toasterface[zd]: I've only played Tales of Symphonia too (yes I completed it - eventually - good game but it was WAAAAAAY too long, they should've cut it by about half) and I definitely felt like the combat was basically button mashing. :)

As for this footage (only watched the second one), it looks okay and all, but I wish whoever recorded it didn't keep skipping the second half of each [voiced] sentence...

quen

Next gen RPGs that is...not talking handhelds here.

Shandy706

@ryivanV2:

RPGs have been making more in the US than Japan. Lost Odyssey, Mass Effect, Eternal Sonata, etc., etc....all sold better in the US than they did in Japan.

In fact Lost Odyssey sold incredibly well for a JRPG in the US.

Shandy706

@Garo:

Eh, you're right, it's better than being completely stock-still. And I guess I didn't account for the fact that not every game has the same intentions - scenes don't have to be grandiose to move the plot along. Maybe I'm just more obsessive about dogs and their representations than even I realised.. *strokes Okami*

Chagrin

WOW. Looks beautiful and ZERO load times from enemy encounter to beginning of battle. That's how you do it, Lost Odyssey/Blue Dragon. Pre-ordering this today.

thebetamax

The demo rocked like I almost couldn't believe. The Tales battle system is a lot of fun, the characters (especially Yuri) are awesome, and I love the comedy and lighthearted atmosphere. I can already imagine that first lazy Saturday after I get this game...

Madeira

looks good, i dont mind little kids, id prefer adults but o well ill take what i can get. For those who haven't played Eternal Sonata and are waiting for ps3 version, high pitched voices await you, especially salsa, so love em if you want to play em, or be disappointed.

but maybe you will like em then ;)

Dakobah

I'm a real Tales fan, so I'm sorry my lack of a 360 will make me miss out on this one. But I'll still have ToS2 to keep me happy. Speaking of which, is there any gameplay footage out for that one yet?

EmeraldDragon

@Shandy706: Of course they sold better in the US then they did in Japan. Nobody in Japan OWNS a 360. Heck, if everyone who owned a 360 in japan bought 5 copies of the game they wouldn't outrank the US counterparts sold.

Thats my point, microsoft seems to be pushing out these titles and gaining these IP's to try and win over the japanese market, while japan refuses to buy the console. Meanwhile, people who were interested in JRPG's of which playstation 2 was kind are sitting there on there PS3 waiting for there turn, im one of these people and its just silly watching MS throw money away like this.

ryivanV2

damn.. it just looks like Tales of Symphonia.. not as next gen as I was hoping for..

bigmuffpi

awww those characters are too cute to be fighting ^^

F22

If only it had turn based battles. I don't like watching most of the party doing their own thing 99% of the time.

skink

Xbox 360 has the best games this generation. That's why I'm never going to buy one. I'd rather be platform loyal than enjoy the great games.

I'm waiting for ______ on the ps3.

WatershipDown

dude made me forget wtf i was actually going to say.

HEY GO FIGURE THE GAME LOOKS LIKE... ANOTHER TALES GAME.

Which is good, dont get it twisted.

Dogysamich

@UnklDee: XFD!

Looks like Eternal Sonata? Sure.

If you say it plays and that causes you to have your fill, then i hope you havent played your fps yet, or else touching another one will make you a hypocrite.

Hope you didnt touch a 3-d fighter, either, cause hittin another one falls into the same category.

Dogysamich

It looks kind of mediocre. Methinks it needs more (MOAR!) interesting character animation.

bean, bean, the musical... well, you know.

Maybe I'm just a cynic, but it looks exactly like Symphonia to me. =S

MPD51

Holy shit that dog did a backflip attack.

If that's a real attack in the game I'm going to use that every time because it looks cool.

THECapedCaper

Hmm.

The music was really generic. It actually sounds like something from a PSOne RPG. Is that really all the 360 can do?

Otherwise, it looks fine. The graphics are nice (is it running off of the IDOLM@STER engine?) and the voice acting is okay.

It looks generic, but all Tales games are in the beginning (at least the ones I've played). The good ones end up being really interesting.

I'm hoping it turns out to be a great game. THe US version is coming out sometime before the end of 2008, right?

Do Kesubei

@WatershipDown: Not sure what point you're trying to make or it's relevancy to this thread.

Fox

Too bad it's only for the 360.
Which means I won't buy it.
It just doesn't make any sense that a JRPG would exclusive to the 360 when the 360 is selling so extremely poor in Japan, the land of the JRPG.
Microsoft is desperate to do something to improve their sales in Japan and they think they can do that by buying exclusivity.
LAME

marklip

Will be buying a 360 for this (among other things, but this was the catalyst). It looks gorgeous, fun, and if Tales of Symphonia is any indication, its allegedly generic-looking story will be deceptive. I trust the Tales people implicitly.

Also, totally dig the way the camera was working in the battle system. A lot more interesting than Symphonia's. Also, while ToS is easily one of my favorite RPGs, to say that the animation here is less sophisticated is insane. This looks exactly how I want a current-gen cel-shaded RPG to look.

thesycophant

+ Watch video

Cringe in horror

Altima NEO

I tried the demo, I wasnt too impressed. The English voice actors were pretty bad.

My brother, whos a fairly big "Tales of.." fan didnt care for the demo either. He felt the gameplay was too slow.

Altima NEO

I'd ask why he has to flip his sword consently, but I guess thats like a kind of visual bar that tells you when you can do something again, unlike in ToA's guy which just [normally] stood there after, an atk

AznSlackerType

So I control one character during a fight? That is lame. Who's balls need to be busted so that we can start getting some good ol' select your attack RPGs.

Lost Odyssey was good, but I don't think the ring system did enough to separate it from the pack. That and lack to of a limit break like attack kind left things to be desired.

I don't think I'll be getting this game.

RichMeisterMan

@Fox: I thought my point was pretty obvious. If this game was for PS2, Wii or PS3 or even PC, people would be talking about the game or if they won't buy it or not.

Instead they complain about it being on 360, say it shouldn't be on 360, and then tell us about how they won't buy it or ever buy a 360. You never get those comments about any of the other platforms.

It's ironic because no other console has the variety, quality and volume of games, as the 360.

WatershipDown

Actually, that's a good question: Will the first current-gen Tales game (an incredibly popular series in Japan) help to drive Japanese 360 sales? By all rights it should, especially in consideration of all the other JRPGs.

Frankly, if developers are willing to go for it and Microsoft can get them, shouldn't they? Shouldn't the fans follow the good games to the platform of their choice? Isn't this how it's supposed to work?

thesycophant

If you thought this was just a typical Tales game with pretty graphics...you'd be right.

Benjo

I hate Namco for thinking it's okay to bring these titles over, dub them with shit voices and then expect the audience to be immersed in their game. It's a pig-headed marketing strategy! And not so much even a strategy...

At this point, even though it's Tales, it looks too much like Eternal Sonata which, even with the dialog track, I couldn't get through.

sir_carrot

@ryivanV2:

I see it more as them wanting JRPG fans, not so much Japanese gamers. And, considering the LONG dev time for RPG's, MS having their dev kits available so much earlier than the others gave devs a head start on RPG development.

DARTH_TIGRIS

@ryivanV2:

You said that the US doesn't want to buy these games...so how about you shut up...as your "point" was proven wrong.(besides your point that Japan doesn't buy more than the US..which is true.)

Vecha

@WatershipDown:
I beg to differ.
I don't know where you've been for the bast two years, but the PS3 and Wii have gotten that exact treatment since they released. The PS3 would get kicked because of it's pricing and lack of big name games, and the Wii because it was also had a lack of games, a funky control scheme, and a tilt toward the casual crowd. Each console has its fair share of fans and haters, and the 360 is by no means getting a particularly harder time than any of the other consoles.
I agree with you that the 360 has a ton of great games out for it, probably more in number than either of the other two consoles (depending on your opinion of a quality game, of course). Sure, there's some random anti-360 comments in this post, but they're no worse than what I've seen against the other consoles. And besides, any sensible person can just ignore them.

Blah8

@Do Kesubei: "The music was really generic. It actually sounds like something from a PSOne RPG. Is that really all the 360 can do?"

Blaming the 360 because you don't like the music in the Tales of Vesperia gameplay video? What the hell is that about? If that's the kind of music the ToV developers want to put into their game, that's what they'll use. Its ridiculous to think that their choice of music is an Xbox 360 limitation.

josh924

Day One purchase for me. I loved Tales of Symphonia and this should be more of the same...but prettier!

malio

I'll be honest here. I didn't like Symphonia - I predicted the entire plot (except for that little twist at the last boss, not saying anymore), and while I did beat it just to say I beat it, I can sadly and shamefully say that I never got into it.

Since then, I haven't been a real Tales fan. But for some reason, this game strikes me as...curious. Maybe it's the pretty look or the fact that my 'Box needs more RPG and SO4 got me in the mood. Damn you, co-op and pretty graphics!! I might actually GET this!!

GwennBlackfeather

Dang you console loyalists are gonna miss out on a great game. :\

TheBagofSand

I used to hate turn-based combat, but then I got into ES with it's turn-based realtime stuff, now this game seems so freaking hectic and unorganized lol. I love it though anyways, the crazy particle effects everywhere and flashy colours are amazing.
My one complaint with the demo is that is has no tutorial or anything. I have never played a tales game so I didn't know what to do. I press start, and it tells me that RT is Fatal Strike. So I spammed RT, B, and A and once in my like 7 playthroughs I did one Fatal Strike.
The ES demo had 2 people to explain combat to you, and I understood it easily. This game just throws you in and tells you to play.

Superstar90

looks awesome! the last tales game i played was tales of symphonia and this looks to be just as good if not better.

FlapDangerous

For those that haven't played the demo: you haven't seen nothing yet. Damn little boy is so annoying in Japanese and in English. Luckily, my brother and I both decided that the co-op gameplay was fun and we'd pick it up. Unlike in Symphonia the camera doesn't focus (in co-op mode) on one player, rather it gives a clear view of the entire field so you know what everyone's doing.
Also, Estelle, when in the overworld, has stick arms, it's very scary. Don't use Estelle as your overworld character unless you want to be scarred for life. You've been warned.

taichi425

Wow... this game looks TERRIBLE. Looks like a direct rip of Tales of the Abyss (which was by far the worst game in the entire Namco Tales series). I've played about 6 different Tales games, and frankly, it feels like they have been going downhill for a long time now.

Jason *Jaxel* Axelrod

Good to know that the 360 generation has pushed conceptions of JRPGs all the way back to pre-PS1 days. Seriously it's painful reading some of the stuff people write here.

Ueziel

@108:
you must suck at Tekken if you think there is little technique to playing it well.

HarkMammil

The fighting video makes the main protagonist seems like an uber douche...

Etheo

@Kaneda: Pretty much, low saturation level on the genre.

@Dogysamich: Hehe, be easy, calls'em like I sees'em. But you gotta admit, the aesthetics aren't exactly far removed. It worked for me one time, I quite liked ES, but any more and it feels unimaginative. Then again, it feels like I've played the same Zelda game ten times over now since Ocarina and I still go back for more, to each their own (monotony) I guess.

UnklDee

@marklip: God forbid they try and diversify they're game selection.

Nexus6