About

The Tales series is a popular JRPG franchise published by Bandai Namco Entertainment (originally just Namco, nicknamed "Bamco" by some gamers). The series anime-style art and character designs are provided by artist Kōsuke Fujishima (creator of Ah! My Goddess!), as well as music composed by Motoi Sakuraba. Instead of using an turn-based battle system the Tales series uses an fighting system called the "Linear Motion Battle System" where the character can move freely in an arena-like area. Another feature of the Tales series is "Titles" which provide small boosts to certain stats of the characters, though they were in the original games some "Titles" in the 3D Tales of games provide costume changes for the characters and with more recent games accessories that can be added and even altered. "Skits" are another feature in Tales games which the characters have side conversations not part of the main dialogue, most being humorous.

The Series Timeline

The first game of the series was Tales of Phantasia for the Super Famicom; Tales of Phantasia spawned a PS1 re-release, an anime, a PSP full voiced port and finally the game made it overseas with the release of the Gameboy Advance version in 2006.

In western countries the series started to gain more popularity thanks to the release of Tales of Symphonia on Nintendo Gamecube in 2003. Thanks to the success of Symphonia in the United States the developers as well as Bandai Namco started to focus on getting more Tales of titles overseas. With Symphonia's success a sequel was made for Nintendo Wii as well as an HD version of the original for PS3 as well as an anime series. A PC port of the HD version was released on Steam 2016 anbd was given to customers for free if they preordered Tales of Zestiria.

There have been other successful Tales of games as well; including Tales of the Abyss on PS2 & 3DS, Tales of Vesperia on the Xbox 360, Tales of Xillia on the Wii and currently Tales of Zestiria on the PS3/PS4 & Steam, as well as it's Prequel Tales of Berseria.

An HD re-release of Vesperia based on the PS3 version will finally be made available to western audiences in January 2019; the PS3 version had been a Japan exclusive originally featuring addition content and two additional party members.

No Items Ever!

"No Items Ever!" or アイテムなぞ使ってんじゃねぇ！(Don't Use Items!) Originates with Barbatos Goetia; one of the main antagonists in Tales of Destiny. If the player uses an item he will go into a rampage going after the player that used the item knocking down anyone in his way. Barbatos returns in Tales of Vesperia as a cameo battle in the Coliseum (He is called Killer of Heroes) this time if a player uses an item it will trigger Barbatos' Mystic Arte "No Items Ever!". He is referenced as a title in Tales of Hearts, by completing an entire playthrough without using items.

I Lied It's Actually Hot

In Tales of Symphonia the lead character Lloyd Irving tricks Colette Brunel into revealing her inability to feel physical pain, or even anything (due to her "Angel transformation") by telling her first that the coffee he gave her was hot, then cold and then that it is actually hot. Fans have interpreted this in a comedic way by saying Lloyd was "trolling".