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I'm as big a fan of Namco's Tales series as anyone, but at times they force me to admit there can be too much of a good thing. American audiences aren't privy to the avalanche of Tales games each year, but with two in-house teams and regular outsourced studios like Alfa System banging out new releases across all platforms, Namco scarcely gives their fans time to rest before foisting the next entry of the series on them. Even though most of them have still kept up the quality, the sense of newness that helped to make the series stand out in the first place has long faded. And yet, Tales of Hearts might be different.
The Nintendo DS has had a rocky history with the Tales series, but Namco is hoping the third time will be the charm. Their first effort, developed by Dimps, is widely regarded as the worst game in the series, and has since been excommunicated from the "mothership" line. Tales of Innocence, developed by Alfa System, was a serviceable downsizing of the recent 3D console entries but added little of its own. Tales of Hearts marks the first DS Tales developed internally by Namco Tales Studio, the first with music by fan-favorite Motoi Sakuraba, and a unique crossover between Team Symphonia and Team Destiny staff. Perhaps Namco is changing its tune.
They're clearly putting their all behind this one, but what's most striking about Hearts is just how experimental it is. The series was once known for its creative and original gameplay, but much of the innovation has since stalled. This is a title that takes chances, some of which pay off and some of which don't, but the change of pace itself is worth something. How different is it? Well, there is no equipment, no Magic or Technique Points, no cooking or food system, and you won't see the overworld until 12 hours into the game. Even more surprisingly, it actually works.
They're clearly putting their all behind this one, but what's most striking is just how experimental it is.
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Like most Tales games, Hearts is driven more by characters than an amazing narrative, but the cast here is top notch. Despite terribly goofy names like Shing Meteoryte and Kohak Hearts, the main characters quickly endear themselves, thanks in part to a liberal sprinkling of humor. The story starts off a bit cliché as the soul of Kohak is shattered into crystals across the world which, of course, need to be collected and reassembled. Luckily, this quest only comprises the first act of the story, and things eventually get a bit more interesting.
Namco clearly invested a lot of resources into this production. The graphics are unimpressive, a mix of 2D sprites and 3D backgrounds that disappoints on both ends, but the massive amount of high quality voice acting and animation is shocking for a DS game, even just on a technical level. Nearly every key story scene is voiced, and the amount of animated cut scenes are comparable to the recent console installments. Namco has taken an interesting chance with these too, offering the game in both the classic "anime" flavor like Tales of old, and a "CG" edition with rendered movies reminiscent of Square Enix games. The art in-game remains identical in both versions, and consistent with the anime style so the CG cut scenes seem out of place and inconsistent with the game's style, so most players will want to grab the anime edition.
Gameplay retains a lot of the usual basics, but takes a few surprising turns. Towns and dungeons are now connected by "field dungeons," simple mazes of branching paths, reminiscent of those in Star Ocean. This kind of structure can help to keep the game on track and give the world a sense of scale, but they're also restrictive. To solve this issue, Tales of Hearts introduces a proper world map around 12 hours into the game, allowing the player to travel freely to all previously visited destinations. It comes into play about when the flying ability generally would in other RPGs, and serves a pretty similar function. There are no enemies on the world map, and traveling around is fast and easy.
Battling and character building reveal a few twists as well. In classic Tales fashion, battles are still side-scrolling action, but this time they're much more combo-heavy. Instead of ordinary Magic Points, an "Emotion Guage" drains every time you perform an attack or spell. This gauge replenishes at the end of your combo, so you no longer have to feed your characters items to restore their TP constantly, and 30+ hit combos are ordinary. This ability to chain attacks, as well as a counter system can make manhandling single enemies a bit easy, but the enemies are aggressive and things can get a bit hairy in larger battles.
As I mentioned before, there is no proper system of equipment – a startling move for any RPG – but that doesn't necessarily represent a simplification. Instead there is a "Soma Build" system that allows you to use gathered materials to unlock new abilities and status enhancements. After enough of these upgrades you'll be allowed to evolve your weapon, and how you do so will determine which abilities you can upgrade next. You will not, however, be able to go from swords to axes, or anything that will meaningfully affect your basic controls.
Despite the blocky, simplistic 3D graphics, there really is some excellent design to the towns and dungeons. Each city has its own personality and a decent amount of turf to explore, and the dungeons are considerably more interesting than the simplistic efforts of Tales of Vesperia. While perhaps not as gimmicky or novel as some past Tales games, the developers have at least remembered to deliver a consistent flow of unique puzzles. Three types of "Sorcerer's Ring" projectiles can now be juggled on the fly, and play a major role in overcoming many of the game's challenges.
The experimental design is a mixed blessing. The changes made have definite advantages, as well as a few drawbacks. Still, the change of pace could prove to be the shot in the arm needed to wake up series fans. More of the same just isn't good enough and the DS certainly wasn't going to be the system to take the same old formula to the next level. In thinking creatively, Tales Studio has created a game that stands on its own merits, while still maintaining the same level of quality we've come to expect. If Namco continues to think this creatively in future installments, there could be more life left in the series than I expected.
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