Bandai Namco Entertainment’s Tales of JRPG franchise marked its 30th anniversary in 2025, and as part of the celebrations, a big announcement was teased for the IP at the end of February this year. The full announcement, a collaboration between anime studio ufotable (which produced animated cutscenes for several mainline entries including Tales of Arise) and Production I.G, was finally revealed on April 3, but fans in Japan haven’t taken kindly to it.
I’m really grateful for the brand-new illustrations themselves, mind you.
But given the current state of the Tales series, I’m sure there were plenty of fans who, after seeing that kind of hype, were expecting an anime to be announced.
The fact is, the Tales series itself has fallen so far out of favor that the fans’ frustration is at an alarming level…
Following the initial teaser in February and several countdown posts, ufotable announced that it will be collaborating with Production I.G to create 188 original illustrations spanning every mainline Tales series entry. The project will boast character designs by acclaimed animators Akira Matsushima and Noriyuki Matsutake, and the first batch of illustrations will cover Tales of Phantasia and Tales of Xillia. This announcement was also accompanied by news of a live concert celebrating the Tales of Zestiria anime, due to be held on May 17 this year.
While the content of the announcement is not controversial in itself, the way it’s been teased and marketed has been condemned by a number of Japanese players, who feel like they were set up to expect something much bigger than what they got. The important context here is that Tales hasn’t seen a new mainline entry in five years, and the playerbase has been growing increasingly frustrated with the lack of developments in the franchise. Given the 30-year milestone and grand countdown this new announcement had, many were hoping that if not a new game, they’d at least hear news of a new anime adaptation, given the involvement of two animation companies.
This is not the first such case either, as the announcement of the Tales of Xillia remaster in August last year prompted similar criticism. Fans of the series considered the pre-announcement campaign to be overblown for a remaster, and were further disappointed in Bandai Namco Entertainment’s handling of the IP when they found out the title would be releasing on the same day as Dragon Quest I & II Remake, the Japanese equivalent of overlapping with GTA 6. Considering the publisher launched the “Tales of Series 30th Anniversary Remastered Project” in 2025, it does seem to be making efforts to keep the IP relevant, but without a new mainline entry of full remake announcement, fans’ concerns aren’t likely to be dispelled so easily.
Tales of series fans can expect “consistent” releases of new remasters, says producer
