Tales of the Abyss

A new game in the Tales of series has been revealed by way of some partial scans from a Japanese magazine. It's titled Tales of the Abyss (a departure from the usual "Tales of blank-ia" names) and is currently in development for the PS2, to be released in Japan in 2006.

This revelation comes as a bit of a surprise, since Tales of Legendia, the next Tales game, won't be coming out in North America until early 2006. But the announcement makes sense when you consider that Legendia will be released soon in Japan (August 25).

All we've got right now is the title and scans of a guy and a girl from the game. We'll bring you more info as it comes.

Source: GamesAreFun.com (Pictures there, too)

I think it's awesome. Not a single game in the series has disappointed me yet. I hope it comes to the US so everyone can enjoy it, but if it doesn't I'll just have to import it like I did with Tales of Rebirth.

Can't wait to hear more.

Edit:

Found some full scans including screenshots:

One
Two

This is totally cool!

Wish they would make another tales game for cube, but I don't think they will. How many tales games does PS2 need? It's already got Destiny 2, Rebirth, Symphonia, and is getting Legendia, and ANOTHER one is announced?
5 to to 1, so unfair.

I guess I'd better buy a PS2.

The character designs look good. Even if Reid's belly top has made a comeback, and the guy looks like he's wearing a g-string. The girl looks pretty cute, and pretty mature. This is pretty refresing, certainly nothing like big-eyed Claire, Colette or Reala. I wonder who's doing them? I think it's the Symphonia dude, the girl really looks like Martel.

Originally Posted by Feline Witch

This is totally cool!
How many tales games does PS2 need? It's already got Destiny 2, Rebirth, Symphonia, and is getting Legendia, and ANOTHER one is announced?

My God. Namco is sure pumpin' out the Tales games! Not that I'm complaining. Jeez. Did Tales Studios double their staff or something? The character look the most bad @$$ed out of all the main characters I've seen in the series. I hope they also have *interesting* personalities to go along with their appearances.

Dang, they're a fast team. There's a new game every year and it always seems to be a well-recieved, excellent RPG. So, this is awesome news.

Even better news is that it's in 3D. Kind of a bummer, since I really like the 2D anime sprites they've used so often in the past, but that certainly increases the chances of a western release.

Sweet...to bad I dont have a PS2 though o well when I get a job I will buy one! Anywho i still have yet to beat ToS on my gamecube, but I still love the game!

Dammit...they needa make another one for the cube. PS2 is as good as done with their successor revealed.

Originally Posted by dark_link93

Dammit...they needa make another one for the cube. PS2 is as good as done with their successor revealed.

If it's like the PSone, people will continue playing the games long after the next generation of consoles has started. The Gamecube is just as much "done".

It would be interesting to see a darker game in the usually brighter Tales series.

Wow, that looks totally awesome. I should really get a PS2, since they're pretty cheap used, and there's all these Tales of games coming out that I want badly. I wish they would make another one for the Gamecube- the Gamecube controller just feels much more comfortable to me with that style of gameplay.

The male lead looks like some kind of red-haired Zelos/Regal lovechild. Good Lord. Bellyshirt... hello there.

The female lead looks pretty though... she looks almost identical to Tatiana from Last Exile, only with long hair. Buuuuuut...

WTF IS UP WITH THAT MASKED PIRATE GUY!?!?!?

OMG!!11! Leik a n3w 7a135 game!!1!1!!!

It's good to see that the PS2 will still be pumping games, even after the PS3 is released. Since it's 3d, there is a better chance that it will be released here. I hope the main character has a huge ego...all most of us can do is wait...wait for someone to translate the magazine...

That "masked pirate guy" is like a magazine mascot, 'cept this magazine is Shonen Jump

Here's the scan, only pasted together.
http://www.tales-cless.org/images/tota.jpg

I hope that this Tales has a female lead =O

Update to come onto Tales Channel on August 1st.

http://namco-ch.net/taleschannel/index.html

Yeah, tales needs a female lead. I can only think of a few rpgs with female leads: Xenosaga (and from what I hear, Shion dimwitted her way through that, but I have never played the gmaes) and the Atelier Series (which are now using male leads).

Perhaps the guy is the one with some kind of holy power and is nice to everyone, and the girl is stupid, eats and sleeps too much, but wants to save the guy? That would be cool, but I am kinda sick of those cutout character types. But seing them in gender reversal would be cool.

Sounds good. Namco's a good team, if you can produce games at such a fast pace and still not phase out the quality of it. Intelligent Systems is really what Nintendo should place its trust in though.

If anything though, I have a certain sadness towards the Tales series. I'm part of a rather underground fanbase that plays Tales of Phantasia, the original game that kicked the series off. I love with it a passion and its a shame that few know that game actually introduced that engine(except well, in 2-D) to us, least the exsistence of the game. It should have been ported to the US shores ages ago(to this day it hasn't though), but yet people still barely know of it. Such a shame.

Originally Posted by Sir Chuc

I hope that this Tales has a female lead =O

Indeed! There is a serious lack of such games altogether, not just in the Tales series. If they made that change for Tales of the Abyss, it would be a welcomed one from me, definately.

Female leads are the best. :3

Originally Posted by Frost Guardian

If anything though, I have a certain sadness towards the Tales series. I'm part of a rather underground fanbase that plays Tales of Phantasia, the original game that kicked the series off. I love with it a passion and its a shame that few know that game actually introduced that engine(except well, in 2-D) to us, least the exsistence of the game. It should have been ported to the US shores ages ago(to this day it hasn't though), but yet people still barely know of it. Such a shame.

I often wonder why Tales of Destiny, which I've heard is the worst in the series, made it over when Tales of Phantasia, arguably one of the greatest SNES titles of all time, did not.

Perhaps Symphonia and Legendia (and Abyss as well, assuming that sees the light of western shores) will create a large enough fanbase for them to consider releasing the port. It's highly doubtful, but there's always a chance, I suppose.

Oh wow this came out quick and the quality looks the same as all the others, AMAZING!!!

Originally Posted by Mr. Wonderful

If it's like the PSone, people will continue playing the games long after the next generation of consoles has started. The Gamecube is just as much "done".

It would be interesting to see a darker game in the usually brighter Tales series.

No that's not what I meant. I mean Sony should be starting to focus on PS3 launch titles rather than new PS2 games. I mean they still aren't making games for PsOne are they? I'm not saying people will stop playing PS2 games, hell, I still play my N64. I mean that it should have been a dead system by now, seeing a Spring release for PS3, less games should be getting confirmed. Systems only survive up to 3-5 months after the successor is unveiled. And as for Gamecube, well the Rev hasn't been boasted about too much yet so I'd say the Cube is still the head of the Nintendo house.

I don't think Sony will have much to do with the game, Tales is Namco property, so it would usually be Namco doing all the work on the game and not Sony. All Sony really needs to do is give Namco permission to use their system and cough up the money to publish the game.

I'm sure Sony and the companies that produce games for their consoles are hard at work at next-gen titles, they just seem to have some projects they might prefer to develop for a system they're more familiar with.

Plus, Sony seems to like drawing out their consoles' livespans. PS1 had a fair number of major titles come out for a good year and half/two years after PS2 was released. I wouldn't be surprised if the same thing this time around either.