One thing Namco loves is their Japanese RPGs and in particularly, their "tales" series. The franchise has moved over 10 million units which is pretty damned impressive when you think about it. This year marks the tenth anniversary of the series and to celebrate, they are rolling out two new Tales games, Tales of Symphonia for the Wii and Tales of Vesperia for the Xbox 360.

Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World is set two years after the original tales of Symphonia. A new game mechanic has been introduced that will allow players to capture over 200 monsters and raise them to help out in battle. The real time battle system is back allowing you to switch your attacking character on the fly, even in the middle of battle. The graphics have received an upgrade for the Wii as well with new character and background designs. While there are quite a few changes, onlookers observed that it is still very similar to the original.

Tales of Vesperia will debut on the 360 and marks the first time a Tales game will be presented in HD for in game play and the animated cut scenes. The graphics looked quite nice and gave me a little bit of that Eternal Sonata feeling just not quite as sharp. Vesperia also sports a real time battle system and the ability to customize your characters with various powers and abilities. If you are a Japanese RPG fan, this is one you won't want to miss as I was very impressed with the small portion that I saw.

Both games are set to release this year although there is no hard release date set. make the jump to check out some screens from both of these upcoming games.

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tales of symphonia

Tales Of Symphonia Wii Gets June Release

Here's what we knew before, oh, just now. We knew Tales of Symphonia: Knights of Ratatosk was due for release in the "Spring" on the Wii. Least in Japan. We knew it's also to be localised and released in the West, re-christened as "Dawn of the New World". Now that it's right now, well, we now know that the game will be released in Japan on June 26, so at the very least, you now also know not to expect it in English anytime before that.
バンダイナムコ、Wii「テイルズ オブ シンフォニア -ラタトスクの騎士-」[Game Watch]

tales of symphonia

Wii Tales Of Symphonia To Be Localised, Sent To America

The latest Nintendo Power has, as its cover feature, the news that the latest Tales of Symphonia has been scheduled for a US release. It's currently being localised, and will drop the "Knights of Ratatosk" subtitle in favour of "Dawn of the New World". And...that's about it. Nothing else new to report since we've already seen the thing, but hey, it's nice to know American Wii owners will soon have the option of a meaty JRPG. No word on a US release date, but the Japanese version's out in the spring, so it shouldn't be too much later than that.
Nintendo Power's big reveal: Tales of Symphonia coming to the U.S. [Wii Fanboy]

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Tales of Symphonia 2 Japanese Trailer

The Tales franchise continues with the second installment of the Tales of Symphonia series. Featuring Tales' custom "Flex Range Linear Motion Battle System" and what looks to be quite a bit of anime cutscenes, Tales of Symphonia will be a Wii exclusive. No release date for the US has been announced yet but the Japanese version is due out in Spring of 08. The video quality isn't the best, but the in game battle scenes still look pretty great. We'll cross our fingers for this one.