For a certain subset of folks, speedrunning -- the art of beating a video game as quickly as possible -- is their window into competitive gaming. But if speedrunning Super Mario World is a 100-meter sprint, a Tales race is a marathon: superficially similar but wildly different.

Most people will probably be happy to stop at the second tier, but even then you're getting some decent games for about the price of a cheap movie ticket.

Bandai Namco's Tales action role-playing series is normally pretty formulaic -- a plucky group of colourful heroes joins together to save the world from some dire threat. Tales of Berseria's protagonist just really wants to murder a guy, and her companions are happy to help.

Briefly: Anime and video game voice actress and singer Miyu Matsuki passed away on October 27 at the age of 38 following an extended battle with pneumonia. The beloved actress leaves behind a massive body of anime and game work, including the Japanese voice of Lailah in Tales of Zestiria.

Nothing gets me ready for buttoning through endless expository dialog like the music from the opening of Tales of Zestiria.

Upcoming title Tales of Zestiria will have the original Japanese voice track in addition to a new English one. But for most past Tales games, this hasn't been the case.

Video: Here's the first English trailer for Tales of Zestiria, which is now slated to come West in Q4 2015. (It was previously scheduled for Q3 2015.) It's for PS3 only, sadly -- keep that DualShock 3 charged until then!

Imagine if Don Quixote was a JRPG and the title character really was fighting giants while everyone else saw windmills. That game exists and it is Tales of Zestiria.

The newest game in the series, Tales of Zestiria, has a theme song so excellent that I'm listening to it on repeat right now. Of course, it's far from the first game of the series to have an opening song this good.

With nearly 400,000 copies sold since its launch late last month, there is no question that Tales of Zestiria is a hit in Japan right now. So join me and let's see what all the fuss is about.

The latest Tales game, Tales of Zestiria, comes out in Japan next week, and already it has a lot of wallet-gouging DLC announced.

It was the annual Tales of Festival at the Yokohama Arena in Japan today with Tales of Festival 2014, and Bandai Namco had some interesting announcements for its latest Tales game, Tales of Zestiria.