Video: Tales of Rebirth is the West’s missing chapter

The Tales series has been strong in the West in recent years, including with its most recent release, Tales of Zestiria. But that hasn’t always been the case! There are many games in the franchise that didn’t see release outside of Japan, and the most highly-regarded of these is Tales of Rebirth. Check out our video!

Tales of Rebirth was released for the PS2 in 2004, between Tales of Symphonia and Tales of Legendia. Why, then, didn’t it get a wider release if it was received favorably? The answer is a common one in localization stories: pixels. Rebirth was the last in what could be called the franchise’s classic era, with a complex battle system that is best compared to Guardian Heroes with its multiple layers and active combat. Sony, and others, didn’t look too favorably at flat games in what was then deemed a polygonal era, so it was doomed at the time. Thankfully for importers now, that pixel art holds up better than any polygons of the time, and the systems are similar enough to enjoy despite the language barrier.

Topics include: Relaxing intros, lots of laughing, leaving town, changing lanes, tales of Tales.

Apologies for some minor audio issues in the recording.