Title: Tales of Hearts: Anime Movie Edition/CG Movie Edition
Genre: Role Playing Game (This particular Tales' "genre" is "To Meet With Hearts RPG")
Platform: Nintendo DS
Players: One (Multiplayer for Spir Mazes)
Developer: Namco Tales Studio (Team Frankenstein, a.k.a. staff of various Tales Studio teams from Team Destiny (Destiny 2, Rebirth, Destiny Remake) and Team Symphonia (Symphonia, Abyss, Vesperia)).
Publisher: Namco Bandai
Release Date:
-Japan: December 18th, 2008
-North America: Will it make it?
-Europe/PAL: Will it make it?
Versions: Anime Movie Edition, CG Movie Edition. Both retail for 6,650 Yen.
Bonuses:
Preordering the Anime Edition gets you a "Viva Heartful! Tales of DVD", which contains:
-Chat Drama, featuring the characters Shing(Hearts), Kohak(Hearts), Yuri(Vesperia), Emil(Ratatosk), Ruca(Innocence), Ashe(Abyss), Guy(Abyss), Barbatos(Destiny 2)
-Tales of Festival: Tales of Hearts Stage Video
-Tales of Hearts Opening Movie (Anime)
-A promotion video of the Tales of Series' lastest work!
-Information on a new project by Bandai Namco Games!
While the CG Edition nets you a "Visual and Original Soundtrack DVD", which has:
-Soundtrack (contains 10 songs)
-Design Material Collection
-Tales of Hearts Opening Movie (CG)
-Voice actor interviews
-A promotion video of the Tales of Series' lastest work!
-Information on a new project by Bandai Namco Games!
Reviews
Famitsu- 9/8/8/8 (33/40)
Characters (Click first name for anime, last name for CG)
Shing Meteoryte
16 years old, uses a sword, Soma name is Asteria.
Kohak Hearts
17 years old, uses a baton, Soma name is Elrond.
Hisui Hearts
18 years old, uses bow gauntlet thingies, Soma name is Gale Arc.
Innes Lorenz
24 years old, uses a big axe blade thing, Soma name is Folseus.
Beryl Benito
18 years old (yes it's true...), uses a paintbrush (yes it's true...), Soma name is Thiers.
Kunzite (CG)
Over 2000 years old, uses tentacle blade thingies, Soma name is Vex.
Only two people below 18? Is it just me or are the number of characters in JRPG casts under 18 really starting to shrink? Not even Star Ocean and Tales are really doing it anymore.
And yes, they're all named after stones if you were curious.
Videos
Trailer 1 (Anime) (CG)
Trailer 2 (Anime) (CG)
Dungeon tours (1) (2)
Field Dungeon
Skits (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7)
Cutscenes (1) (2) (3) (4)
Battle videos (Shing) (Kohak) (Hisui) (Innes) (Beryl) (Kunzite) (Support Attacks) (Combination Attacks) (Combination Attacks 2)
Other (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0uvq4c2sr8) (Spir Maze) (Prologue (Anime)) (Prologue (CG))
Opening Movie (Anime) (CG) (Whenever it gets uploaded)
Full version of the opening song
Bonus DVD (New Tales) (Chat Drama) (Soundtrack) (Special Fragile video) (CG Opening) (Anime Opening) (VA Interviews) (ToF Stage)
(Note that all of the Bonus DVD stuff besides the Tales video are Nico links, you'll need an account or just wait for them to be on Youtube)
You can also stream them in better quality here: http://toh.namco-ch.net/playmovie/index.html
Download: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=NMH4OYJ1
Screenshots
Basic plot
Tales of Hearts follows the story of Shing Meteoryte, a young village boy who finds the siblings Kohak and Hisui Hearts washed up on the beach, which begins his adventure with the two to collect (and uncover the secrets of) Soma, mysterious pieces of equipment, and the Zerom, strange monsters that can eat into, and contaminate a person's heart, which the Soma can fight against.
Throughout the journey he also meets and joins forces with Innes Lorenz, a woman running a carriage company where she's the only employee, Beryl Benito, a girl wanting to be the court painter, and Kunzite, a mechanical guardian that somehow possesses a heart and was programed to protect a certain someone, and encounters more obstacles and threats to the world than just the Zerom...
Gameplay/Features/Details
Tales of Hearts is the eleventh mothership title (the Tales series' way of calling something a mainline game), the second mothership title for the Nintendo DS, and the first mothership title to be developed for the DS by Tales Studio! And by time the release of Tales of Hearts comes, it will have been four years (and a few days) since we got a completely new 2D Tales game with Rebirth, which released way back in December 2004! These games sport 2D sprites, sometimes 3D environments, and a two-dimensional battle-system, which, despite not being three-dimensional, can be a ton of fun. Let's see if this one ends up being better than Tempest and Innocence!
The opening song, "Eien No Ashita" (Eternal Tomorrow), is performed by DEEN, who also did Tales of Destiny's opening song over ten years ago in 1997.
At it's core, the gameplay is pretty similar to any other Tales game, Japanese RPG, or Role Playing Game in general. You play the protagonist, who gets a band of other would-be heroes to travel across the world to various towns and dungeons in an adventure full of enemies, allies, treasure, and other secrets, and as the adventure goes on you progress through the plot. While most people understand the core by now, this is when the various things surrounding it kick in and make these games unique. This game has a lot of weird new features or remixed versions of other features, so I'm going to list anything notable and try to explain it in detail for those who didn't know.
No random encounters - For the first time in a 2D Tales game, there are no random encounters (not in dungeons anyway)! While you can't tell exactly what you are fighting, you are free to avoid or engage in battle with enemies that are visible on the field. Symphonia didn't let you know exactly either, but you have to start somewhere.
CNAR-LMBS - Tales of Hearts uses the "Combination Aerial Linear Motion Battle System", or CNAR-LMBS for short. Like almost every other game in the series, it's defined by realtime battles, in which there are no turns or or menus to cycle through to fight. You use your current skills and brute force to link together attacks, and work with your allies all in conjunction to claim victory over your enemies in battle.
Aerial & the Emotional Gauge - Another somewhat unique factor to this game is it takes the system the Tales of Destiny remake started, and allows you to fight and create combos in mid-air, allowing you to juggle enemies in mid-air. Instead of TP like a lot of other games in the series, ToH uses the Emotional Gauge (or EG for short), which appears to be heavily influenced by the Chain Capacity (CC) system of the Tales of Destiny Remake, and the Rush Gauge (RG) of Tales of Rebirth. Like ToD's system, there are no "levels" of skills. Any skill you have can be linked to another one, and using normal attacks or skills consumes some of the EG. Don't worry about spending too much though, the EG recovers automatically if you stop to rest a second or two. The RG influence kicks in with the "high" and "low" system of the EG. If you're the type who fights a lot and chains a lot of combos, the EG becomes red, which is a signal that it's in "high". If it's on "high", you have increased attack power and are capable of making longer combos, with the drawback being that you take more damage. If you're the type that bides your time and doesn't fight too much, it stays blue, which is a signal that it's on "low". You have less attack power and can't chain as many combos, but you also have higher defense power as a benefit. It mixes the reliance on speed and linking attacks of ToDr with the reliance on being balanced in how you fight of ToR.
Combination Gauge - The most original aspect to this game's system is the ability to call in inactive party members. Every party member has a Combination Gauge (or CG for short). On the bottom screen you have a choice to set a couple of shortcuts. You can set things from items to attacks of your active party, but that's not the point here. You're free to set a skill from someone who won't be in the party, and if you use the skill in battle, that person will pop into the battle, use the skill, then jump out, at the cost of some of your CG gauge. You can also use it to make combination attacks. Provided you use the right skill combination and timing, two people (at least one has to be in battle I'm sure) can work together to make a new attack! It adds another somewhat strategic element to the game, since now you aren't forced to put someone in the fight just because of one crucial skill they may have (so you can even throw out that annoying healer if you want to and just call them in for healing, lol). The CG fills as fights go on and you work with your party.
Cameos! - Another thing to note is that you can call in support characters from other Tales games, or even other Namco properties in fights to use a skill too! You can see a full list of who pops up here.
Soma Build/Evolve - You don't buy weapons in Hearts like some other RPGs. Instead, you get various materials from battles and other places, and use it in the "Soma Build" system, which is somewhat similar to the Swordian Device and Enhance systems of ToDr and ToR respectively. Through the Soma Build system you can learn four types of skills: Parameter, Battle, Action, and Support. Parameter skills are stat increases, Battle skills are more attacks/spells for your characters to use in battle, Action skills are things like Aiming Dash and Backstep, and Support skills are things like increased item drops. Once you've done Soma Build enough, you can use "Soma Evolve", which lets you transform your weapon into various types for each level, each being more proficient in certain things (attack power, skills, magic, etc.). It encourages you to find the system that fits your party and play style the most.
Recovery Stones - Tales of Hearts is the first mainline game to remove cooking/food for recovery or other effects in favor of a very similar system, the Recovery Stone. This system gives you a recovery stone, a little stone (duh) that you can equip various effects to, and can set to kick in at various points or situations in battle. It also has energy, which is consumed when it's used, and can be recovered in dungeons or at special shops for the stone. At these shops you can also buy new effects, and increase the number of effects that can be set to the stone. So you have the capability of having the stone used in the middle of a battle when the party is at 50% HP, recover 30% HP, and increase the group's attack power, or make it occur at the end of a battle, recover 80% HP, and cure status effects.
Spir Mazes - I guess to please the people who liked that dungeon quest system in Innocence, Hearts uses Spir Mazes. While I don't know how many, if any, are required by the plot, there are various NPCs in the game that you can talk to, and go into their heart and all that stuff. In this place you can explore to cleanse that person's heart, and you can find various (rare) items and enemies within. You can also play with a friend, and you can go around and find even more little treasures.
Soma Link - This also brings back the relationship thing from Symphonia and Innocence (it actually makes a lot more sense in this game than the others though, communication/interaction is supposed to be a big theme), called "Soma Links". In places throughout the plot, you may have times where you can make your own decisions. It changes the plot somewhat, and you also have a "Soma Link Level". Depending on your decisions, the level/value increases, and apparently you'll even gain new abilities from it.
Field Dungeons - Little areas that link towns to dungeons, or towns to towns, and pop up when you're moving from your location to a new area. They're similar to the usual Tales dungeons, there are enemies, treasure, puzzles, etc. After you've cleared them, you can travel between towns and dungeons on the traditional world map.
