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Namco is funny.

They release a game, but you're hardpressed to see one commercial for it on tv.

Then wonder why it flops in America.

TOTA is coming out next tuesday(Wednesday is more likely tho), but not one promotion. Even on the net!!

All i see is FF12..........Valkyrie Profile: Silmeria, or Disgea 2.

Namco really drops the ball, time and again.

If they ported this game over to the gc, they'd sell at least 300,000 units in America.
They did it for Tales of Symphonia in Japan for the PS2.

They opened up a few thousand mouths with TOS, and would rake in cash if they simply ported it over here.

Cuz at least i know Nintendo would put out some promotions for the game, since it sold well for gc over here.

Don't know much about the power of fandom, do you? It's because of numerous fan outcrys and petitions on the internet that TotA is even coming to America at all.

Thanks to that and importers' and Japanese gamers' reports that TotA is the best in the entire series, it's been heavily anticipated online for months. Namco doesn't need to use money on commercials; every Tales fan in the country will have a copy of the game by the end of the week.

All 25000 of us.........

TOTA is coming over, due to the decent North American selling of TOS, and then the better selling of TOS on the PS2 in Japan.

PS2 sold the best, so any game on it will sell better.....In Japan.

But the problem is, that TOS for GC didn't have to compete with FF, or Valkyrie Profile.

It had the spotlight all to itself pretty much.

On PS2, you have FF12 coming out 2 weeks later, and FF is THE Rpg series over here.
VP 2 Silmeria just got released, and i'm hardpressed to find any promotion for TOTA in any gaming magazine like EGM, or Game Informer.
Gamepro might have a mention, but likely not from the way the other two shunned it.

Tales games were always overshadowed by bigger names over here.

Always.

Hence the poor selling of the ps1 games, and the reason why we haven't gotten any over here for ps2 yet.

On GC, they'd have a built in fanbase with cash in hand....

They totally alienated that fanbase, by not even throwing them a port, like they did for TOS on the PS2.

It isn't ALL about TV commercials, what the hell gave you that idea? I haven't seen any ads for any games except Scarface lately. The game flops because of overrated series' like Final Fantasy. TotA has two weeks to get good sales before FF12 comes out, and the fanboys who hype it to the heavens realize how bad the gameplay in 11 is and that 12 isn't all that great. Final Fantasy was a lot better before 7, when I didn't see it EVERYWHERE.

I'm only buying 3, and then 1-6. I will probably never buy another final fantasy after that.

TotA looks like a great game, and it's because of pieces of shit like Final Fantasy that ruin every other RPG series' chance for a god damn sale we will never see 3/4 of the Tales series. Thanks alot SquareEnix ****heads, why don't you make something decent like Star Ocean 4 and put Final Fantasy to rest?

I doubt they will make up to Final Fantasy 30 anyway, which I'd like to see due to the roman numerals.

Originally posted by UniOmni
Namco is funny.


If they ported this game over to the gc, they'd sell at least 300,000 units in America.
They did it for Tales of Symphonia in Japan for the PS2.


Cuz at least i know Nintendo would put out some promotions for the game, since it sold well for gc over here.

It only got ported to Ps2 in Japan for the sales, it sold well here on GC, and poorly in Japan. Just because ToL didn't sell well due to the Final Fantasy fanboys refusing to spend $50 on SOMETHING DIFFERENT. Doesn't mean TotA is doomed.

Funny how often people seem to think that ToS is solely responsible for American interest in the Tales series, and that any other Tales game put on the GC would instantly sell hundreds of thousands of copies. Legendia wouldn't have sold any more than it has already if it had been on a different console.

But yeah, J, I agree. Final Fantasy is good, but not deserving of its gross popularity. Thanks to FF's push for high-end graphics (well not FF alone, but it's a large part) in each game, and the subsequent gorging of each game in America, Namco thinks that 2D character sprites will prevent games from selling in America. Thus, of the 15 unique titles (18 total, by my count) in the series, America has gotten 6, including TotA. *sigh* I want Tales of Rebirth...

I know TOS isn't solely responsible.

I had TOP for Ps1, and Tales of Eternity as well. But both games sold like shit.

Fact.

TOS blows the sales of the two above out the water.

And part of the reason why TOS sold so well, was due to its promotion, and the fact that it was pretty much the only huge RPG on the GC.

SKies of Arcadia was a couple year old port, as was Evolution, and FF:CC was a weird title.

Baiten Kaitos could've been huge, but the cardbased play system turned off alot of potential buyers.

People were clamoring for Tales of Rebirth, or Legendia on GC.

And alot of that clamor, was due to the reception that TOS got.

TOTA looks alot like TOS.

I maintain, that they had a ready made audience over here, at least on GC.

On PS2, its just one more Rpg, in a sea of Rpgs.

On GC, its like a pitcher of water in a desert. No comparison.

We'll see how TOTA sells in comparison to TOS.

What promotion of ToS? The ONLY time I ever saw anything related to ToS, bar Tales of internet sites, was Nintendo Power. I never saw a single commercial, a single ad poster, anything. The sales flyers in the newspapers barely even mentioned it.

ToS sold well because it's a damn good title, not because of any huge advertising campaign.

I'm pretty sure i saw multiple commercials for TOS.

Never said it was a huge campaign, but there was actual promotion.

Not even in a game magazine will i see TOTA.

But i see FF:12, and VPilmeria.

TOTA doesn't have any promotion i've seen, internet or off.

And when it doesn't sell, Namco cuts us off.

And i repeat, that were it to be a GC title, failure isn't a likely option.

Look at how FF:8 sold, simply due to the popularity of FF:7.

Originally posted by General Kaliero
Funny how often people seem to think that ToS is solely responsible for American interest in the Tales series, and that any other Tales game put on the GC would instantly sell hundreds of thousands of copies. Legendia wouldn't have sold any more than it has already if it had been on a different console.

But yeah, J, I agree. Final Fantasy is good, but not deserving of its gross popularity. Thanks to FF's push for high-end graphics (well not FF alone, but it's a large part) in each game, and the subsequent gorging of each game in America, Namco thinks that 2D character sprites will prevent games from selling in America. Thus, of the 15 unique titles (18 total, by my count) in the series, America has gotten 6, including TotA. *sigh* I want Tales of Rebirth...

Well it is to blame for grossly successful RPGs like FF, Namco would of NEVER said that I think if FF wasn't as mainstream as it is now. I think if 7 didn't cause the bullshit it did, and it stayed small like when 1-6 were out. We would have a lot, if not all of the Tales games here.

Originally posted by UniOmni
I'm pretty sure i saw multiple commercials for TOS.

Look at how FF:8 sold, simply due to the popularity of FF:7.

And how many fanboys can say they love 7 8 AND 9? Everyone I know who plays either hates 8 or 9, and LOVES 7. Well, I can't stand 7 at all, love 8 and 9. I plan to play the originals to play a REAL Final Fantasy. I also loath 10 horribly, and didn't like 11 at all either.

No FF has sold as much as 7, because 7 sold a disgusting amount of copies. The only thing that makes me happy about 7 being successful, is Advent Children. I LOVE the movie, HATE FF7.

i like every final fantasy, even "7, 8, AND 9", except for 11 and X-2. Final Fantasy doesn't ruin RPG's, the junction of Square-Enix does. Radiata Stories was a terrible excuse for an RPG, and even though the story of Dirge was good, it wasn't necessarily that fun. and i don't know about you, but the last i checked, FF7 set a standard for depthful characters. don't judge the original FF7 based on the bland spin-offs, or you're no better than the "FF Fanboys"
and to be honest, Tales of Symphonia was over-hyped... Phantasia and Destiny 2 were better

and when Abyss comes out, i'm going to have a hard time deciding between using Jade or Anise

Originally posted by Kayne Archeron
about you, but the last i checked, FF7 set a standard for depthful characters. don't judge the original FF7 based on the bland spin-offs, or you're no better than the "FF Fanboys"
and to be honest, Tales of Symphonia was over-hyped... Phantasia and Destiny 2 were better

and when Abyss comes out, i'm going to have a hard time deciding between using Jade or Anise

I own 7, I got it used, so I AM allowed to place judgement on it because I DID beat it back in the day. No Tales game is overhyped when compared to Final Fantasy. I mean it isn't like Tales games are long saught to be imported here like Final Fantasy. They just HAVE to be imported. Yes Square-Enix is responsible for putting a damper on RPGs due to the gross success of the entire series.

I don't care about 7 being noted for the depth of characters, it didn't seem that deep to me, my favorite characters were Tifa, Red, and Vincent. 7 is brought up in every single RPG argument and I hate it so much because of that, it's ALWAYS brought up.

Agree with the guy above me.

I owned 7 and 8, and imo, 8 was the better game.

Vincent and Garret were my favorites in 7, and imagine how i felt when the story went all angsty, cloud is the clone of Sephiroth, and his buddy got killed...blah blah blah.

The game is overhyped, due to alot of people not knowing that rpgs existed before 1997.

FF6 is better, and so is the one with Cecil, and the one with Butz.

And Chrono Cross blows all of the above out the water.

TOS is overrated, due to the same reason why 7 is. For many, it was there first rpg, so its the memorable one.

ToS is genuinely good, though, and is currently my most-beaten game aside from Zelda OoT. Despite that, I really prefer ToE.

FF6 and FF7 had similar stories in some weird ways, though most people don't agree

To clarify for those who are likely tearing their hair in frustration, TotA is available to the public starting TOMORROW. I was getting very pissed at Target, Best Buy, and Walmart until an EBGames employee was kind enough to tell me that though everything shipped today, the game would sell tomorrow. Guess the guys working at the OTHER places couldn't be bothered to inform me that UniOmni's ETA was a day off.

Ah well.

I preordered from Amazon anyway.

Everywhere i go, it appears that fans think this game will be better than Symphonia.

I wonder how it'll stack up.

The reviews thus far, favor Symphonia a bit more.

I don't have an issue with that, since i loved TOS, even though it appears to be a popular game to hate.

But i gotta say, i do wish they'd have used the same graphic scheme as TOS. Cuz right now, the edges on characters look unreasonably jagged and glitchy.

Yeah, the graphics do seem a little odd. Not necessarily BAD, but a little less than they could be. I know they were shooting for a watercolor-like look this time around, but putting a cel-shade black line around the forms (like Symphonia, now I think about it) would really improve the overall look of the characters.

Reviews are biased, the only difference is the load times are a little long. Otherwise it is superior to Symphonia in everyway. Every site has been biased just because it's an RPG on Ps2, and of course the "WONDERFUL FINAL FANTASY 12 IN TWO WEEKS!" I really wish that would flop in sales.

The graphics are fine, I enjoy this more than the real-people-who-are-you sometimes, especially in Final Fantasy 12, they look TOO realistic for my taste.

So you have it then? Nice to know the graphics work, my opinion of their oddness was based on the small stills I could find.

I never trust reviews, because there are always idiots who hate any RPG unless it's FF. Also, they show up when the reviewers have had only a few hours' time with the game. One blasted TotA for a complete cliche of storyline and characters, when the hallmark of Tales games is starting with cliche and stereotypes, and then breaking them to get the real story going.

Yeah, I got my pre-ordered copy today. The only SquareEnix product I like is Star Ocean 3. The graphics are fine, people are just too spoiled with the crap from Final Fantasy. I don't see how you can rip on Tales, and then love Disgaea. Both are 2D graphics, different styles, but still 2D.

And actually most RPGs start out that way, they all open with the same type of thing, and then expand.

Got to play for about an hour earlier today. Right from the beginning, total "Tales" feel. I'm sorry I ever doubted this, it's awesome. I love how every character in a Tales game is likeable in some way.

Originally posted by JToTheP
Reviews are biased, the only difference is the load times are a little long. Otherwise it is superior to Symphonia in everyway. Every site has been biased just because it's an RPG on Ps2, and of course the "WONDERFUL FINAL FANTASY 12 IN TWO WEEKS!" I really wish that would flop in sales.

The graphics are fine, I enjoy this more than the real-people-who-are-you sometimes, especially in Final Fantasy 12, they look TOO realistic for my taste.

Hard not to be superior to Symphonia, when the same team designed both games, and had the chance to pick up on the few flaws that Symphonia had and do it better.

But i will maintain that the graphics would've looked better with the cell shade line, and it probably would sell leagues better on the GC.

And i completely agree about FF game graphics.

I play videogames for escapism.

People trying to simulate real life don't create art, imo.

So which version of Karma do you guys like? The original Japanese with the lyrics, or the instrumental version we got here?

I admit I don't know what the lyrics mean, so that may effect my position, but I really think the voice didn't do much for the song, and like the instrumental quite a bit better.

Also, is this the first time the localized version has featured the same music as the original?