In the past, I have been complimentary of Bandai Namco’s Tales of Remastered Project, but I think the developer recently missed a big opportunity.
Bandai Namco recently announced it would remaster its 2016 action RPG Tales of Berseria as part of its ongoing project of remastering older titles. While Berseria was a popular outing for fans, its inclusion as the next title in the ongoing project raises a lot of eyebrows.
For one, the game released on the PlayStation 4, meaning its original version is still relatively easy to get. To me, a remastered project should aim to open up the deeper cuts from the catalog that aren’t so easy to play.
Sure, this remastered edition would bring it to Xbox and Nintendo consoles, but it still feels too soon to get a rerelease of the game.
For one, there are plenty of others still in line for this treatment. The easy answer seems to be Tales of Xillia 2, the direct sequel to the game just rereleased at the end of October. Fans were wondering why the game didn’t get a rereleased with the first installment so it seemed like the natural next step was the sequel.
Other entries that seem to get lifted up are Tales of the Abyss, Tales of Legendia, and Tales of Hearts with a heavy emphasis on Abyss. These all seemed like likelier candidates alongside Xillia 2 given that they hadn’t been rereleased for a while, a trend in line with Bandai Namco releases of Tales of Graces F and Tales of Xillia.
I’ve also voiced support of Bandai Namco going deeper and bringing back its earliest games of Tales of Phantasia, Tales of Destiny, or Tales of Eternia.
I do want to clarify that I don’t think Tales of Berseria is a bad game and not deserving of a remaster. It does make sense to get it on more consoles. What I do think is Bandai Namco missed an opportunity going for such a recent game as its next remaster.
Berseria is newest title behind 2021’s Tale of Arise, making it still fresh in gamer’s minds. A remastered project should be about a franchise’s history and helping more fans experience what made it special through its back catalog.
Now, this announcement does reveal more than just the next remaster. It tells us that Bandai Namco is using a metric that we are not aware of to determine future remasters. That is certainly the company’s prerogative. Bandai has yet to give me a reason not to trust its process with this.
If anything, getting Berseria on other consoles could boost the economics of the project and fuel future projects. We could even see a quick announcement of the next remaster since Berseria is so recent. Furthermore, this remaster falls in line with a quick pace or releases over the last year. There’s still reason to be optimistic here.
That said, it does feel like a slowing of momentum of diving deeper into the Tales of catalog, at least that is the case for me. I also know that I’m not everyone and others may feel differently, especially if you never owned a PS4.
Still, it would be nice to see Bandai Namco use this Remaster Project to highlight the distant history of the franchise rather than its recent past. There’s certainly a place for that but now doesn’t seem like the place.
What about you? Are you excited for a Tales of Berseria remaster? Would you have liked to see a different game? If so, which one? Let us know in the comments below or head over to our Discord channel to join the conversation.
Featured Image: Bandai Namco (via Steam)
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