It’s hard to believe that the Tales franchise turns 30 this year.

Bandai Namco has put a lot of fanfare into this fact with an entire anniversary celebration starting with the Tales of Graces f Remastered due out later this month.

Furthermore, during a recent anniversary broadcast, series producer Yusuke Tomizawa said, “Our staff will continue to worth together to bring you a variety of announcements to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Tales, so please stay tuned for more news.”

The developer also has an anniversary website with a section called the Remastered Project. It looks like the plans are to bring more remasters to modern consoles.

That could mean a lot of different things, but the speculation has jumped to more remasters on the way. It would definitely fit what Bandai Namco has done previously with bringing back past games.

While a lot of the speculation has been on bringing Tales of the Abyss and/or Tales of Xillia back, I think the focus should be on the series’ origins. That would include Tales of Phantasia, Tales of Destiny, Tales of Eternia, and Tales of Destiny 2.

These four games released between 1995 and 2002 mostly on PlayStation consoles though Phantasia did start out on the Super Famicon. Many of them received PlayStation Portable ports but haven’t seen much modern love.

Tales sits up there with some of the top RPG franchises in the world though its placement in rankings is up for debate. Often, Tales, Pokémon, and Shin Megami Tensei battle it out for the spots behind Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest.

Since Tales is in that category, it should follow the lead of the Big Two and open up its early catalog.

Final Fantasy did this with the Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster while Dragon Quest did this with both the rerelease and HD-2D remakes of the original trilogy.

Doing something similar would help Tales stand out a bit more, especially since it’s been a while since either Pokémon or Shin Megami Tensei have opened up their original games.

It’s always fun to see where a franchise begins and if Bandai Namco wants a chance to showcase what the franchise does well, it should start with its origins.

That could be in the format of either rereleases or remakes. Personally, some kind of upgrade would be at the top of my list similar to what Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest have done.

Sure, there’s plenty of desire for more modern games in the franchise, and I would welcome them too. I just think that if there was ever a time to bring back the origins, the 30th anniversary would be that time. That could even look like just the original game to better feel the waters.

Either way, it’s a great time to be a Tales fan because Bandai Namco is turning inward to highlight the series. What makes it more exciting is a new Nintendo console is also on the horizon, adding in a lot of intrigue.

What about you? Which Tales game would you like to see remastered? How do you think Bandai Namco will celebrate this milestone? Let us know in the comments below or head over to our Discord channel to join the conversation.

Featured Image: Bandai Namco (via Noisy Pixel)

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