In a recent panel discussion taking place during Tokyo Game Show 2025, the Tales of IP’s general producer Yusuke Tomizawa talked about Bandai Namco Entertainment’s ongoing Tales Remastered Project. He explained why his team hasn’t been able to put out new remasters in chronological order and talked about his objective for the project.
The Tales Remastered Project was launched in October 2024, with the purpose of bringing early entries to modern hardware as the franchise nears its 30th anniversary. The first release to come out of the project was Tales of Graces f Remastered, an enhanced version of the series’ 12th mainline entry from 2009. This was followed by the announcement of Tales of Xillia Remastered, based on the franchise’s 13th installment from 2011. Bandai Namco has promised a fairly consistent output of new remasters, but it seems the order in which they come will depend on some technical factors.
During the TGS 2025 panel, Tomizawa explained (starting from around the 34:35 mark) that Bandai is currently producing remasters at a larger scale and faster pace than ever before. However, since the Tales series dates back to 1995, the process isn’t as smooth for each title. “We have to start by finding out where the source code is and who’s managing it. It’s a bit embarrassing, but since there were multiple different development studios working on the series over the years, we have to find the original data first. And when we do find it, it can be full of gaps, which takes months of analysis to deal with.”
To avoid getting stuck due to certain titles requiring more time to reconstruct, Bandai Namco has launched multiple remaster projects in parallel. From there, the devs decide which titles to prioritize based on how quickly they’re likely to be completed. Tomizawa acknowledges that sticking to chronological order would have been tidier, commenting, “Honestly, I know some fans out there may be thinking What’s with the release order?,” but he emphasizes that his priority is to get early Tales games into players’ hand as quickly as possible, aiming for both speed and quantity.
In past interviews, Tomizawa had mentioned that “there was a period when, due to various circumstances, trying to stick to chronological order too much made us unable to release anything, and it’s a frustrating memory for us.” At the time, he didn’t go into the details, but it seems like technical issues related to source data were a big part of what was blocking his team. For the new Tales Remastered Project, the selection criterium appears to be based on a combination of fan demand and what project has the highest potential for release.
