Bandai Namco started its Stories 30th Anniversary Celebration series with a special Anniversary Project show. And while there were no special surprises or announcements, series producer Yusuke Tomizawa reiterated that the team will be working on more remasters.
in the original Japanese show (reported Gematsu), Tomizawa-san stated that he could not reveal specific plans, but said that Bandai Namco intends to “provide [remastered games] pretty consistently.”
The developers revealed the Anniversary Project shortly after the reveal of Tales of Graces f Remastered, consisting of a team dedicated to bringing older games from the series to modern systems. Graces f Remaster is the first game in that “series”, and it will be released in January 2025.
Tomizawa-san stated during the broadcast that yes, the development pipeline of the Remastered project has been established and the team is working hard. Actually, English 30th Anniversary website it's live now, follow Japanese site which was launched at the beginning of the year.
Separate English streamtitled 2024 Tales of Anniversary Celebration, didn't add much to the conversation, but Graces f producer Yuki Ishikawa answered a fan's question about remastering the 2D games in the series, saying he doesn't think it's “the only right answer” to re-release or remake the game is to convert it from 2D to 3D. While he likes that “kind of expression,” he also says that “there's something beautiful about pixel art.” And we couldn't agree more.
So no news of new remasters or remakes, but they are coming! We'll almost certainly be talking about them here next year anyway, so we'll keep our eyes open. Additionally, Tales of Graces f Remastered is almost a month away, as the game releases on January 17, 2025.
Tales of Phantasia celebrated its 29th birthday over the weekend in Japan. Originally released on the Super Famicom on December 15, 1995, Phantasia became the first game in the Tales series. We've only ever seen the game on the GBA in the west.
North America got its first taste of the franchise on PlayStation thanks to Tales of destiny (which has an excellent Japan PS2-only remake), while Europe got its first taste of the series on GameCube thanks to Tales of Symphonia. The latest game in the series is Tales of Arise, which launches on PlayStation, Xbox and PC in 2021.
Earlier this year, the Switch release Tales of Xillia was spotted online, sparking speculation of a re-release of the PS3 exclusive. The Graces were eventually announced, but many are wondering if duo Xillia is next on the bill.
Are you excited for the new Tales games? What game do you most want to see remastered? Let us know in the comments.
