Tales of Hearts Gets Two Versions

[Demon_Skeith]

Namco is getting set to answer that age-old question: which is better, CG or anime? In Japan, Tales series fans will get to make their choice by buying one of two versions of Tales of Hearts.

The upcoming DS entry in the series will be released in two forms. One form will have anime movies as produced by Production I.G. The other form will have CG movies as produced by Shirogumi.

Aside from the changes to the movies, the in-game content will be exactly the same.

You can get a glimpse at the changes for yourself by browsing the tales of hearts webstie. When opening up the site, you'll have to select between a preference for either the anime or CG version. The artwork on the site changes accordingly.

Both versions of Tales of Hearts will hit Japan in December. Outside of Japan, Namco has yet to announce its plans for the title. We'll have to wait and see if we'll be given a similar choice, or if we'll have one particular animation style forced on us.

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[Demon_Skeith]

update:

Following up on yesterday's story about Namco's plans for two versions of Tales of Hearts, a few new details on the game have come our way through the game's official site.

The site introduces a couple of new characters who join previously announced Shing Meteorite and Kohaku Hearts as protagonists. First up is Koahku's older brother, Hisui. Voiced (in the Japanese version) by Masaya Matsukaze, the 18-year-old Hisui is strongly protective of his sister. Also introduced at the site is Innes Lorenz. Voiced by Shizuka Ito, Innes runs her own delivery shop and is tougher than she appears (but apparently not tough enough to tell the truth about her weight).

Also introduced at the site is the game's battle system. As previously announced, Hearts makes use of the Combination Aerial LMBS system, and advanced version of the Aerial LMBS battle system from Tales of Destiny. The "combination" part of the system comes from a new combination gauge. When this gauge fills up, you can select to perform combination attacks with party members who aren't on the battle field. Candidates for your combo pairings appear on the touch screen, and are accessible with a simple tap.

Joining the combination gauge is the emotion gauge. This gauge appears to control how many consecutive moves you can make. It depletes as you make attacks, and recovers automatically when you're resting. When the gauge is full, you can make more moves but have weaker defense. On the flip side, when the gauge is low, you can't attack as much, but your defense rises. The official site also mentions that the gauge is influenced by character relationships, although it doesn't get into specifics.

You can see the new characters and gameplay systems for yourself at the Tales of Hearts official site. As we noted yesterday, to access the site's content, you'll have to first make your choice of CG or anime character designs.

Tales of Hearts is set for a December release in Japan.

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