Video: The art and Artes of Tales of the World: Reve Unitia

The Tales series has long been known for its battle system. So what happens when you play a game that takes that away? In the case of Tales of the World: Reve Unitia, you find that there’s a lot more than a battle system that makes Tales feel like Tales.

An enhanced port of mobile title Tales of the World: Tactics Union stripped of microtransactions, Reve Unitia is a tactical strategy game with tons of quests and maps, as well as — most importantly — a whole host of characters from the franchise’s storied history. Whether you like protagonists such as Symphonia‘s Lloyd and Xillia‘s Milla or less heralded characters like Vesperia‘s Rita and… well, anyone from Tales of Innocence, you’ll find a lot of your favorites here.

Developed by Jupiter, the team behind both the Picross titles and Spectrobes, the game packs in a lot of upgrades and equipment to snag and maps to play, but what’s most impressive about it is how it makes tactical movement feel similar to the main series’ gameplay. Magic takes some time to cast, combat artes are faster but still use AP, Demon Fang has a little bit of range… you may not be used to Tales in a grid, but you’ll find that your series knowledge pays off in these battles.

Anyway, enough yapping from me. Watch! (And if you’re interested, maybe import it? It’s very cheap.)

Topics include: Picross‘ unattainable level of quality, lesser-known Tales releases, reasons Luke is the worst, masochism.