50 Fun Facts About Tales Series

Staff who left after Tales of Phantasia founded tri-Ace and created which sci-fi RPG series?

Star Ocean came from tri-Ace, formed when most of the original developers walked out after creative disagreements with Namco during a troubled production.

Tales of Phantasia, the first Tales game, debuted in Japan in 1995 on which console?

Super Famicom was the original's home, and Western players had to wait until 2006 to buy the game officially, as a Game Boy Advance port.

Which young swordsman from the world of Sylvarant is the main hero of Tales of Symphonia?

Lloyd Irving sets out to protect a childhood friend on her pilgrimage, then learns that saving his own world would doom a parallel one.

Which former Imperial knight founds a guild of his own as the hero of Tales of Vesperia?

Yuri Lowell is a darker lead than most: when the Empire fails to punish two corrupt officials, he kills them himself.

Tales of Berseria gave the series its first sole female lead, which prisoner bent on revenge?

Velvet spends three years locked up before breaking out to hunt the brother-in-law who sacrificed her younger brother in a ritual.

What name does the Tales series give its signature style of combat, first used in Tales of Phantasia?

Linear Motion Battle System fights play out in real time like a brawler, a bold break in 1995, when most role-playing games were turn-based.

What are the optional chats between Tales party members, shown as character portraits, called?

Skits debuted in Tales of Destiny, but most were cut from its English release, and English voices were left out of them for years because of time constraints.

Which Tales game reached North America in 2001 under the borrowed name Tales of Destiny 2?

Tales of Eternia took the name to dodge a possible trademark clash and cash in on an earlier hit, though Japan soon got a true sequel with that title.

The makers of Tales of Phantasia pitched the game to which publisher before signing with Namco?

Enix turned the team down, so they signed with Namco instead, and the two sides went on to clash repeatedly over creative decisions.

Tales of Symphonia, the first Tales game released in Europe, launched in the West on which console?

GameCube was its only Western home for years: the PlayStation 2 port never left Japan, and it was also the first Tales game with 3D characters.

What are special attacks called in the Tales series, including the powerful Mystic versions used during Over Limit?

Artes are the building blocks of every fight, and in Tales of Graces a Style Shift system lets fighters swap between two types of them.

Which composer, also known for the Dark Souls and Golden Sun soundtracks, wrote the music for most main Tales games?

Motoi Sakuraba has worked on the series as a freelancer ever since Tales of Phantasia, and he once played keyboards in a progressive rock band.

Which manga artist, creator of Oh My Goddess!, designed the characters for Tales of Phantasia?

Kōsuke Fujishima returned for later entries including Tales of the Abyss and Tales of Xillia, and he also drew the casts of the first five Sakura Wars games.

Which swordsman travels through time to stop a sorcerer king as the hero of Tales of Phantasia?

Cress Albane is sent a hundred years into the past after his village is razed, because nobody in his own time has the power to harm the villain.

Which country boy turned adventurer stows away on the flying ship Draconis as the hero of Tales of Destiny?

Stahn Aileron is caught by the crew and forced to work as a deckhand, and only breaks free when a hostile force attacks the ship.

In Tales of Destiny, what name is given to Dymlos, Atwight and Chaltier, which choose their own masters?

Swordians are sentient swords forged to win an ancient war; they then fell into a deep stasis sleep, waking only when a grave threat rose again.

Which pampered young noble, an amnesiac since his kidnapping, is the hero of Tales of the Abyss?

Luke fon Fabre was written to be unlikable at first, a risk the developers took on purpose, and he later learns he is a replica of the real heir.

In Tales of the Abyss, what name is given to the prophecy that has bound humanity's actions for thousands of years?

The Score bred such complacency that the destruction of an entire island and its people was allowed to happen simply because it had been foretold.

Tales of Vesperia's playable party member Repede, designed by art director Daigo Okumura, is what kind of animal?

Dog is right: Repede is the son of a knight captain's hound, and the hero takes him along when he walks away from the knights in the prequel film.

The title Tales of Vesperia comes from Vesper, a name for which planet seen in the evening sky?

Venus inspired the name because the heroes and their ship were meant to be a newborn star shining over the land, like the planet at dusk.

Tales of Xillia let players pick medical student Jude Mathis or which heroine, the main series' first female lead?

Milla Maxwell is heir to the great spirit who walled off part of the world behind a barrier, and she rescues her co-star from a military research lab.

In Tales of Xillia 2, which hero is plunged into debt by medical bills after a hijacked train crashes?

Ludger works off what he owes by destroying parallel dimensions for a powerful company, an ability that runs in his family.

Which young man, granted powers by the spirit race called the Seraphim, is the hero of Tales of Zestiria?

Sorey travels the land of Glenwood fighting hellions, creatures born from negative emotions, in the game that marked the series' 20th anniversary.

In Tales of Zestiria, what is the fusion of a human fighter with a Seraph partner into a hybrid form called?

Armatization boosts the human fighter's stats and changes with the partner: one pairing grants a huge sword and fire magic, another a bow that shoots water arrows.

In Tales of Arise, which amnesiac slave nicknamed Iron Mask recalls his real name only once the mask breaks?

Alphen gets his name back after a fight with a regional Lord, and he teams up with a woman whose curse hurts anyone who touches her.

Tales of Arise swapped the series' usual in-house tools for which widely licensed technology?

Unreal Engine 4 gave the game a sharp jump in graphical quality, and it went on to win the role-playing prize at The Game Awards 2021.

Which heir to the lordship of Lhant runs away to a knight academy as the main hero of Tales of Graces?

Asbel befriends an amnesiac girl as a child, watches her sacrifice herself to save his friends from a monster, and meets her again seven years later.

The PlayStation 3 version of Tales of Graces added extra story content and a letter f that stands for what?

Future is the word, a nod to the new story chapter, while the R on remakes such as Tales of Hearts R stands for remake or re-imagination.

Tales of Legendia's team, Project MelFes, included developers from Soulcalibur and which other fighting game series?

Tekken veterans help explain the combat, which was deliberately designed to resemble a fighting game and stars a martial artist as its lead.

Which marine of the Holy Alliance is the hero of Tales of Legendia, set aboard a country-sized ship?

Senel Coolidge sets out to rescue his surrogate sister from people who believe she is a prophesied savior, all aboard an ancient vessel called the Legacy.

Which bullied boy is the hero of Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World, the sequel released on Wii?

Emil blames the first game's hero for killing his parents, and he can recruit more than 200 monsters to fight beside him.

In Tales of Symphonia, which Chosen of Sylvarant gradually loses her humanity as she is transformed into an angel?

Colette Brunel does not know her pilgrimage is a trap: the order guiding her wants her body as a vessel for someone else.

In Tales of Symphonia, saving the world of Sylvarant endangers which parallel world, home of the ninja Sheena?

Tethe'alla shares a single source of mana with its twin, so one world can prosper only while the other declines.

In Tales of Symphonia, which traveling mercenary hired to escort the Chosen is revealed to be the hero's father?

Kratos betrays the party as an agent of the order behind the pilgrimage, and the seal the heroes later need broken is bound to his own life.

Which sorcerer king, once sealed away with two magic pendants, is the main villain of Tales of Phantasia?

Dhaos has a motive: he came from a dying planet seeking a seed from the world tree, and turned on humans because their technology was draining it.

In Tales of Vesperia, what are the aer-powered devices that protect cities and supply their resources called?

Blastia were built from the crystallized remains of a powerful ancient race, and the story begins when the core of one is stolen from the hero's neighborhood.

Which currency, earned in battle alongside experience points, buys weapons and items in the Tales series?

Gald can even be a loyalty reward: the North American version of Symphonia's Wii sequel hands out extra to players with a cleared save from the first game.

The ethnic conflicts of which former European country inspired the racism themes of Tales of Rebirth?

Yugoslavia was on the writer's mind as he scripted humans and beast people turning on each other, a dark take on the series' recurring theme of coexistence.

Which anime studio took over Tales cutscenes from Tales of Xillia onward and made the Zestiria TV series?

Ufotable was brought in to signal a new artistic direction, replacing a rival studio that had animated the cutscenes ever since Tales of Destiny.

Which Japanese rock band performed Karma, the opening theme song of Tales of the Abyss?

Bump of Chicken's song was swapped for an instrumental version in the West over licensing, though its singer also composed pieces heard in the game.

From 2007, spin-off Tales games were classed as Escort titles, while main entries got which matching label?

Mothership was the label until 2020, when the publisher switched to sorting its games into Original and Crossover entries instead.

Tales of Phantasia grew out of Tale Phantasia, an unpublished what by its lead programmer?

Novel is right: programmer Yoshiharu Gotanda wrote it, though several of its elements were dropped or changed as the game's story took shape.

A 1UP.com writer ranked Tales as Japan's third-biggest RPG series, behind Final Fantasy and which other franchise?

Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy lead at home, where the series earned 87 percent of its sales in 2007, against just 8 percent in North America.

Tales of Vesperia launched in 2008 as an exclusive for which console?

Xbox 360 was picked because Sony's rival machine had not yet been shown to the developers, and Microsoft's console was winning fans worldwide.

What is the subtitle of the 2009 Tales of Vesperia prequel, which took the Tales series to cinemas as an anime film?

The First Strike shows why the hero left the knights; its makers chose a prequel so they could explore his past with a fellow knight.

Which Tales mobile game, launched in July 2020, broke with series tradition by using turn-based combat?

Crestoria was a rare turn-based entry in a series built on real-time fights, and its service ended less than two years after launch.

Which hero of Tales of Rebirth sets out to rescue his kidnapped friend Claire Bennett?

Veigue lives in a world shared by humans and beast people, and his rescue mission drags him into the racial conflict consuming the land.

Which hero of the PlayStation 2 game Tales of Destiny 2 is the son of two heroes from Tales of Destiny?

Kyle sets out eighteen years after his parents' adventure and is drawn into conflict with the cruel warrior who killed his father.

Which Japanese pop superstar sang the theme songs for both Tales of Xillia and Tales of Xillia 2?

Ayumi Hamasaki's Japanese vocals were kept in the Western releases, and one of her albums came with a code for a songstress costume in the game.

Which legendary weapon appears in both Tales of Phantasia and Tales of Symphonia, where it merges two worlds?

The Eternal Sword is also the only thing that can stop the first game's villain from fleeing through time, a clue that the two stories share one timeline.