tales of seriesThe Tales series is a franchise of console role-playing games published by Namco. Several entries have been localized for North America and just four for Europe. Tales of Phantasia was developed by Wolfteam in 1994 and published in 1995. Most of the Wolfteam staff involved left Telenet Japan after the game was released and then formed tri-Ace, who now make the Star Ocean and Valkyrie Profile game series, published by Enix (now Square Enix).The Tales of games continued to be developed by Wolfteam and published by Namco until after Tales of Destiny 2, when both companies formed the dedicated joint venture Namco Tales Studio, and moved the Wolfteam staff to the new company. The only remaining staff from Tales of Phantasia at that point were series director Eiji Kikuchi and music composers Motoi Sakuraba and Shinji Tamura. Namco Tales Studio has developed every subsequent Mothership Title in the series other than Tales of Legendia and Tales of Innocence, which were developed by Team MelFes (a Namco in-house development team, with members who worked on the Tekken and Soulcalibur series) and Alfa System respectively. Every Mothership Tales game has used character designs of either Kosuke Fujishima (Phantasia, Symphonia, Abyss, Vesperia), Mutsumi Inomata (Destiny, Eternia, Destiny 2, Rebirth, Tempest, Innocence, Hearts), or Kazuto Nakazawa (Legendia). (wiki) battle systemThe series possesses an unusual battle system for a role-playing game. It has been likened to that of a 2D-fighting game and is called the Linear Motion Battle System (LMBS, for short). Usually, the player has direct control over one character (often the protagonist), and can move and direct this character in any way he or she chooses. By pressing the attack button along with a directional button in different directions, the character can perform various kinds of attacks, ranging from simple slashes and thrusts to ground-to-air or air-to-ground attacks. The character's weapons usually have different attack values for a slash or a thrust. There are three modes of control for each character: Auto, Semi-Auto and Manual, with the first being fully controlled by the computer, the second a classic hybrid mode and the third offering true manual control over the character, more comparable to a fighting game. At any time, the player can bring up a menu which pauses the action and allows him or her to select an item or an ability to use (and the target), to choose a spell to cast (and the target), to change a character's artificial intelligence tactics or to escape from battle, among other things.The later games in the series allowed for up to four players to join in a battle (requiring the MultiTap for PlayStation consoles) instead of computer control (with the exception of Tales of Legendia, which was developed by a different team). The Linear Motion Battle system has been progressively enhanced as the series progressed. Tales of Phantasia started with the Semi-Auto mode, Tales of Destiny added a true Manual mode (with the exception of the Game Boy Advance remake of Tales of Phantasia, which Manual mode can be used if Technical Ring is equipped.) and the ability for multiple players to control one character each, Tales of Eternia sped up battles considerably and added the now very popular Hi-Ougis which were then exploited by Tales of Destiny 2. Additionally, a hit counter is displayed, leading to impressive combo feats which, once recorded, are popular in fan circles. Newer Tales games extend this battle system through different means: Tales of Symphonia added a 3D battlefield while retaining the linear connection between controlled character and targeted enemy; Tales of the Abyss builds upon this and offers the optional Free Run similar to Star Ocean 3. Tales of Rebirth, on the other hand, kept the 2D system while offering three lines of movements instead just one. And to further Rebirth's three-lined system, Tales of the Tempest combines it with a full 3D battle engine. The new battle system for Tales of Destiny (PS2) is the Aerial Linear Motion Battle system (or AR-LMBS), and it includes Chain Capacity. Using Chain Capacity, you can chain up to as many attacks as you want until you run out of CC. More information can be found on the Official Japanese Tales of Destiny (PS2) Site. (wiki) game listMain Games1995 Tales of Phantasia SNES/SFC (fan-translated into English and other languages) 1997 Tales of Destiny PS1 2000 Tales of Eternia PS1 (2001 in North America as Tales of Destiny II) 2002 Tales of Destiny 2 PS2 2003 Tales of Symphonia GCN 2004 Tales of Rebirth PS2 2005 Tales of Legendia PS2 Tales of the Abyss PS2 2007 Tales of Innocence NDS 2008 Tales of Vesperia X360 Tales of Hearts NDS Remakes & Ports 1998 Tales of Phantasia PS1 2003 Tales of Phantasia GBA 2004 Tales of Symphonia PS2 2005 Tales of Eternia PSP 2006 Tales of Phantasia ~ Full Voice Edition PSP Tales of Destiny PS2 2007 Tales of Destiny 2 PSP 2008 Tales of Destiny Director's Cut PS2 Tales of Rebirth PSP Original (gaiden titles) 2006 Tales of the Tempest Sequels 2008 Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World Tales of the World 2000 Tales of Phantasia: Narikiri Dungeon GBC 2002 Tales of the World: Narikiri Dungeon 2 GBA 2003 Tales of the World: Summoner's Lineage GBA 2005 Tales of the World: Narikiri Dungeon 3 GBA 2006 Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology PSP 2009 Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 2 PSP Fan Disk 2002 Tales of Fandom Vol.1 2007 Tales of Fandom Vol.2 Tales of Mobile 2004 Tales of Tactics 2005 Tales of Breaker Tales of Commons Tales of Tactics Gaiden 2006 Tales of Wahrheit 2008 Tales of the World: Material Dungeon Tales of Mobile 2006 Tales of Eternia Online |