With the release of Tales of Hearts R coming out next month and Tales of Zestiria coming out in January in Japan. Hideo Baba (director/producer of Tales of Series) has come to London to promote the wonderful Tales of Hearts R. I caught up with him to ask him a few questions about Tales of Series and address the questions the fans want to hear.
Tales of Hearts R is coming out soon in the US/EU next month. Depending on the success, will there be a chance for Innocence R to be released?
Hideo Baba: There is a possibility that Innocence R will be released however for the mean time, Zestiria will be our main focus as it’s the new franchise game.
The fan community wants older series to be released as a PSN classic or remastered; Games such as Destiny, Legendia etc. Do you think this would be a feasible option for you?
Hideo Baba: I’m happy that there is demand for the old classics to be released as a PSN classic or remastered version however due to the size of the team. Most of the team members are placed in the main franchise game which means that there is very little resources for other projects. Remastering the game from scratch would take time and would require a lot of effort but anything can happen.
Tales of Zestiria is coming out soon in Japan. With the international release to be 6 months approx. Do you think a simultaneous world wide launch for future titles would be possible?
Hideo Baba: I know that the tales community has grown a lot and I am very happy with the outcome of Xillia and Xillia 2 in the western countries. A simultaneous release would be extremely hard due to the licensing which takes a long time and also the dubbing of the game. Currently the tales market is the biggest in Japan so our focus is mostly there, however over time if the demand in the western countries such as US and Europe become as big as Japan. I will definitely take a look at this in more depth and plan out a strategy.
If we take out the dubbing of the game and release the game with only Subtitles, would this make it any faster?
Hideo Baba: Even if we take out the english dubbing, the licensing will always delay the release. It would probably save around 2-3 months if we only release in subtitles however don’t expect the release would be quicker by 6 months if we remove the dubbing.
Will Tales of Zestiria have dual audio?
Hideo Baba: *Laughs* I know there is a big demand for dual audio from my fans. As you know Tales of Hearts R has EFIGS subtitles with Japanese audio. There has been fan demand for Japanese audio in the future releases of tales, however for the mean time I cannot really comment on this however it is still possible.
If it doesn’t have dual audio can you release it as a DLC?
Hideo Baba: It is possible to release it as a DLC however I would rather put it together with the CD so my fans don’t need to download it. Plus it would look more professional.
In Zestiria, will there be more in game costumes? Xillia and Xillia 2 didn’t really have many compared to Vesperia and Graces F. It seems that there are a lot of DLC costumes as well these days.
Hideo Baba: Xillia and Xillia 2 I believe has a fair amount of costumes and attachments. Compared to Vesperia, I know Vesperia had loads as we got carried away with it. However the costumes are really dependent on how much time we have left after creating the main core of the game. Once we have the main core game completed; we focus on the costumes, attachments etc. Which leads to the DLCs.
Any hints for the collectors edition for Zestiria for the international release? Will it be the same as the Japanese version?
Hideo Baba: Ahh at the current moment we are still planning what to release as the Collectors Edition for the international release. I think the mascot toy (shown in pic) will be part of it hopefully. I am happy that the collectors edition sold very well in US/EU for Xillia/Xillia 2. I want to make sure that the Collection Edition for Zestiria will carry on making my fans happy.
Last question as time is nearly up. I know you get this question a lot but will we ever see the PS3 version of Vesperia come to the US/EU? Even if it’s just subtitles like Hearts R or a remaster for PS4.
Hideo Baba: Sorry but sadly there is no plans for this at the current moment.
*15 minutes Times up*
It was a pleasure meeting with Hideo Baba and I hope that the Tales of Hearts R release will be successful.
Tales of Hearts R will be released in US on 11th November 2014 and EU on 14th November 2014.
Tales of Hearts R Soma Edition will be available for EU as a day one edition which can be pre-ordered now. Buying this allows you to enter into a special draw: Details in image below.
