Tales Series - an RPG series which holding onto its roots

 Tales Series - the long running RPG game.

Tales series had been around as long as I could remember, back in Playstation 1 era (1990s). The recent release of Tales of Rise by Bandai Namco Entertainment for PC gaming, Playstation 4 and 5, X-Box One and X/S systems had made me think back at the experience I had with those games in the Tales series, which often overlooked when compared to Final Fantasy series. My first experience was the Tales of Abyss which was released for Playstation 2 back in 2005. 

The Tales series first made their debut back in 1995 with Tales of Phantasia and Tales of Destiny (in 1997). Both of them were on Playstation 1 but unfortunately I had overlooked both games in pursuit of other games. Tales of Eternia came out for Playstation 1 as well (in the year 2000). Namco continued to produce and release Tales of Destiny 2 (in 2002, a sequel to Tales of Destiny which was released earlier for PS1), Tales of Rebirth (2004), Tales of Legendia (2005) and Tales of Abyss (2005) for Playstation 2. Tales of Symphonia (2003) was released for Nintendo Gamecube, Tales of Innocence (2007) was released for Nintendo DS and Playstation Vita, Tales of Vesperia (2008) for X-Box 360, Tales of Hearts (2008) for Nintendo DS and Playstation Vita. 

The NAMCO went on a publishing spree and produced Tales of Graces (2009), Tales of Xillia 1 and 2 (2011 and 2012 respectively), and Tales of Zestiria (2015) for Playstation 3. Tales of Berseria (2016) was released for Playstation 3 & 4 and for PC gaming. They went silent after that and came out with Tales of Arise in 2021, which seems to be targeting an online MMORPG style of gaming. I do not know yet, since I have not played it.

Of all these Tales games in the series, the ones I did play was Tales of Abyss, Tales of Zestiria (which I finished last week) and Tales of Berseria which I finished last year (November 2021). I thought that Berseria came before Zestiria so I played that first. 

In my personal opinion, Tales series is what Final Fantasy game should have been if SQUAREnix were not so hooked up on the "Blame" plot. Tales series usually revolved around an individual's resolve, perspective and actions when he or she faced an obstacle in Life and the World. Tales of Zestiria for example was about a young naive boy and his friend (an invisible being called Seraphim which most humans cannot see) as they face off (with a few others) to write a wrong done by the previous Shepard (a person of similar ability as the boy). Even so the influence of politics and the a religious organization was involved, the series did a fair amount of display of both good and evil in both of these institutions so showcase a fair portrayal of them and their influence in the society.

Tales of Berseria was about a young woman's act of revenge toward the wrong done to her and her family which turned her into a Helion (a demonic being) and how she have to rise above her Dark Nature and resolve the matter. Religious aspect was largely devoided here but they did include political elements but not too much as to bore the players to death. In both Worlds (which are linked), the story focused on the individual aspect while the background story and the world building itself remain largely unchanged or recognizable from the previous Tales game you had placed. 

Therefore, every time you pick up a Tales game, you could know that it is a fresh idea and story which may or may not set in the same World but has little connection to the previous games. But in Final Fantasy series, thing had been going downhill since Final Fantasy 12 (2006 for Playstation 2). Before that game, the plot (similar to the Tales series) had always revolve around a group of young people who takes on the World and its challenges. But after Final Fantasy 12 and onward, the plot changed to a "Blame Game" where regardless of the situation, the story always seems to be blaming "God" or "Crystal" or "the Authority" or someone for their problems. This nonsense have become so thick and nausea that it had turn away a lot of fans from continuing to support the series any further (myself included). 

Furthermore, KONAMI further increased the support for its Tales series by releasing anime-version of its games (after its initial release) for those who wants to understand the story better. But so far, I have not checked out any of these anime except for the Anime on Tales of Zestiria. It is kind of sad that a lot of fans and new gamers to the series had no idea that KONAMI had release so much materials on Tales games. 

And now, with the release of Tales of Arise, which seems to be an ambitious project, I could not help but to wonder if Bandai NAMCO is trying to reclaim the title of top RPG game maker from its once rival company, SQUAREnix again. And whether SQUAREnix is slowly sliding down toward absurity with its lazy story-writing and move to emphasis on monetary short-term gains in sacrifice of its plot writing and brand name. Whatever the case is, I hope KONAMI continues in this path, improving the quality and presentation of its series. 

Source : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tales_(video_game_series)