When Bandai Namco kicked their Tales franchise remasters to the max a few years ago, I didn't dare hope they'd touch the 2D entries. After all, if you ask five JRPG fans in the West when the series started, there's a very real chance that at least three of them will tell you “Tales of Symphonia.” It was the garish 3D full-shaded presentation of this GameCube entry that lit the fire in many gamers, relegating Phantasia, Destiny, and Eternia to distant memory at best.
Maybe it's because Japanese players don't have this problem. Maybe it's just because they feel that way. But in any case, it seems distinctly likely that Bandai Namco is looking deeper into the past for its next remaster—or at least, one of its upcoming remasters – than I would have thought likely. And thank goodness for that, because Tales of Eternia rules.
Tales Of Destiny: Director's Cut When, though
Tales of Eternia might not even ring a bell that immediately for you if you've actually played it. This is “thanks” to Namco's decision to label it “Tales of Destiny II” in the West, a decision that became all the more unfortunate when the actual Tales of Destiny sequel debuted two years later in 2002. This sequel was, unfortunately, never localized outside of Japan. Not even the PlayStation 2 port of Tales of Destiny (or its excellent re-release Director's Cut) was ported overseas.
All of this means that not only have the 2D Tales entries been overlooked outside of their native territory for far too long, but suddenly I dare to hope that one day we'll see both Tales of Destiny II and the much improved original Tales of Destiny receive an official English release. i can dream
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Tales of Eternia was not completely left behind after the release of the PS1 2000. It got a PSP port in… wait for it… Japan, Europe and Australia. Yes, that means there is an English localization, but somehow it never actually made it to retail shelves in North America. Bizarre.
Look, I could write an entire essay on all of this. Importantly, the very official European rating board PEGI has an application for “Tales of Eternia Remastered.” This was spotted by the sleuths at ResetEra and promptly blew up my Discord inbox. This remaster remains unannounced, mind you. But in all my years I have never heard of a fake page on the PEGI website. I'm really trying to imagine that this isn't confirmation that a deeply underrated early Tales title is on the way.
And I dare say that this time this port will remember North America.
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