The upcoming Tales of series remasters were made possible by giving up on chronological order, producer says 

Bandai Namco Entertainment recently announced Tales of Graces f Remastered, which will revitalize the original 2010 RPG with new graphics and a variety of QoL improvements. This will be the first game to be remastered under the Tales of series Remaster Project, which aims to bring the 30-year-old series’ early titles to modern platforms. 

With 17 mainline entries between 1995 and 2021, many Tales games are only playable on past generation consoles. The recent announcement of the Remaster Project has sparked a lot of excitement for the already revealed Tales of Graces f Remastered, as well as hope that beloved entries like Abyss and Xillia might be getting their turn next. But the Tales of developers didn’t have an easy time getting to this point. In a recent interview with Famitsu, series producer Yusuke Tomizawa talks about the team’s efforts to bring back the Tales series’ classic titles in chronological order, as well as why they ultimately gave up doing so. 

“I think it would be more pleasing to release (the remasters) in the original order of the series, but 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.” 

Tomizawa doesn’t give details as to why the chronological approach didn’t work out. However, he explains that experiencing difficulties made the development team switch to prioritizing titles that had the highest potential for release. He comments, “In the long run, I think that releasing as many titles as possible is what will make everyone happy,” suggesting that the team’s change of priorities will allow them to deliver more remastered titles in the future. 

The developers also mention that comments from players, especially on social media such as X, have had a big impact on their choices. “Fans’ requests are the best indicator for which titles to remaster. Tales of Graces F’s announcement was a result of our overall assessment (of fan feedback).” Tomizawa explained.  

As an aside, the Tales of series producer addressed another point that everyone’s curious about – whether there will be a brand-new Tales entry for the 30^th anniversary. Tomizawa does not reveal any specific details, but comments that their development, production and marketing teams are “making milestones towards a new title” and working hard to deliver a “good announcement.” 

Tales of Graces f Remastered is scheduled to launch on January 16 for the Nintendo Switch, PS4/PS5 and Xbox Series X❘S/Xbox One. The PC (Steam) version will come out a day later, on January 17.