Tales of Innocence

Tales of Innocence (テイルズ オブ イノセンス) is a Tales game released on the Nintendo DS in the fourth quarter of 2007. It is the ninth Mothership Title in the Tales series. Mutsumi Inomata is the character designer for the title. The opening is completely animated, with art by Production I.G. The theme song, "Follow the Nightingale", is performed by Kokia, as well as the ending theme, "Say Goodbye & Good Day". The music is composed by Kaz Nakamura. The game's characteristic genre translates to "Connecting Thoughts RPG" (想いを繋ぐRPG).

A trademark was filed for the game in North America in 2007, and on April 7th, 2011 Namco Bandai Games America filed another trademark. However, according to a recent interview between Kotaku and Tales series producer Hideo Baba, there is no planned localization for Tales of Innocence R because "the PS Vita itself is doing relatively poor in the West".

Story
The Imperial Capital of Regnum kept itself in peace during the long-lasting world war. Slowly, people with a "special power" began to appear. Feared by normal people, Regnum set out a law to capture all people with special powers. One day, Ruca Milda, the son of a merchant in Regnum, realizes the special power within him.

Characters
Ruca Milda (ルカ・ミルダ) - The game's main protagonist. His weapon of choice is a giant sword, and he uses Fire-elemental magic. Ruca is an introvert and is picked on by many of his classmates. He lives in the capital with his parents, who planned to have him take over their merchant business before the events of the game, but he actually wants to be a doctor. After meeting Illia, he slowly becomes more confident in himself and tries to become closer to her. He was Asras in his past life.

Illia Animi (イリア・アニミ) - The game's heroine. She wields two pistols and possesses healing and Water magic. She is somewhat of a tomboy and tends to openly reject the concept of the love-smitten heroine. It is revealed that her dream is to someday be a principal of her own school. She was Inanna in her past life, the most beautiful woman in all of Devaloka. A strange creature named Coda accompanies her.

Spada Belforma (スパーダ・ベルフォーマ) - Another character who joins the team. He uses two swords and Wind-elemental magic during battle. Spada comes from a family of knights, but he severed ties with them before the start of the game. In his past life, he was an enchanted sword known as Durandal that belonged to Asras.

Ange Serena (アンジュ・セレナ) - A holy sister from the town Naos who is rescued by Illia, Spada, and Ruca. She defends herself with a knife, much like the Thief class from the Radiant Mythology series, and uses Light magic, as well as exceptional healing spells. She was the brilliant tactician of Ratio, Orifiel, in her past life.

Ricardo Soldato (リカード・ソルダト) - A man employed as a bodyguard for Ange. He uses a large rifle and casts both Earth- and Darkness-elemental spells. He was Hypnos the Reaper in his past life.

Hermana Larmo (エルマナ・ラルモ) - A young girl who was orphaned by the war. Upon reaching Mamut and hearing a similar accent, the party determines Hermana's parents must have been merchants there. She fights using martial arts and can learn spells of all elements. She was Vritra, the caretaker of Asras, in her past life.

Battle System
Tales of Innocence uses the Dimension Stride Linear Motion Battle System (DS-LMBS). Combining the battle systems of Tales of the Abyss and the PlayStation 2 port of Tales of Destiny, it allows players to move around the field in full 3D movement and use attacks and skills in mid-air. Tales of Innocence includes many classic trademarks of the series with various changes, such as Gald and items being picked up from the ground after an enemy is defeated, and a lettered score depending on performance in battle. The game also significantly changes the AI system. Instead of just basic commands, players can assign AI-controlled characters five specific commands, each with its own priority level. Players can create and switch between five different AI combinations to fit different situations. All playable characters have a "Tension Gauge" which when filled lets that character enter the Awakening state. Movement speed and attack power are increased, and TP consumption and chanting time are decreased, allowing for more powerful attacks and longer combos. If a party member is in the Awakening state, Infinity Jam can be activated, which lets players create a long combination of attacks for a short time, and switch between the three characters used in the battle freely for better connection of attacks.

Ability System
Characters in Tales of Innocence are able to have their own "Style". Players are able to equip a style to a character, and each style gives that character increases in stats. The styles also level up, and when that style has leveled up enough that character gets abilities for use in battle or on the field. In weapon shops around the world, players can also add abilities to weapons with materials found throughout the game, allowing the creation of custom weapons different from those normally bought in shops, with abilities like poison or paralysis.

Guilds
Returning from Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology, Innocence uses a Guild, a place that players can go to accept requests, quests, or favors in return for Gald, Grade, and various other rewards. Dungeons have randomly generated maps to challenge players in each quest. When a quest is cleared, the player earns Guild Points. When the player earns enough Guild Points, their Guild Rank rises, allowing them to accept tougher quests, and possibly earn better rewards.

Development
On November 6, Namco added the "Staff Voice", a blog in which the developers of the game can put information on the development and features of the game. The first large announcement was that the game would give you the choice of having a "model outline", a dark outline around the models that gives the game a cel-shaded look. Another announcement was that the "Voice Adventure DVD", the pre-order item for the game, was going to be an adventure in which the player make decisions to continue, which can have good or bad consequences. Later, it was shown that the bottom screen would be used for a map.

Trivia

 * Tales of Innocence is the first game in the series to be rated for any demographic other than "all ages" in Japan, receiving a CERO rating of "B" as a recommendation for audiences at or over the age of 12. Most later titles also received the same rating, showing that the focus of the series has started to shift to older audiences through an emphasis on more mature content.