Tales of Innocence

Tales of Innocence is a Tales game released on the Nintendo DS in the fourth quarter of 2007. Mutsumi Inomata is the character designer for this title. The opening is completely animated, with art being taken care of by Production I.G and the theme song, Follow the Nightingale is performed by KOKIA, as well as the ending theme, say goodbye & good day. The music in this game was composed by Kaz Nakamura. Tales of Innocence is the first Tales game with an ending theme song.

As of now there are no known plans for a release of this game outside Japan.

Story
In a time of war, people with strange powers connected to their past lives are beginning to surface. Feared by others and captured to be used as soldiers, what is their true purpose and what truly happened in the past?

Characters

 * Luca Milda　（ルカ・ミルダ）: The game's main protagonist. His weapon of choice is a giant sword, and uses fire 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 Iria he makes blundering attempts to get close to her, inspired by the idea that they were apparently lovers in their past lives.


 * Iria Animi　（イリア・アニミ）: The game's first female protagonist to be revealed. 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. A strange creature accompanies her.


 * Sparda Belforma　（スパーダ・ベルフォーマ）: Another character who joins the team. He uses two swords in battle, in a fashion like that of Lloyd Irving. He uses wind magic. 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.


 * Ange Serena　（アンジュ・セレナ）: A holy sister from the town Naohs who is rescued by Iria, Spada, and Ruca. She defends herself with a knife, much like the Thief class from Radiant Mythology, and uses light magic, as well as exceptional healing spells.


 * 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 earth and darkness spells.


 * Hermana Larmo　（エルマナ・ラルモ）: A young girl from Sania Village who was orphaned, thanks to the recent wars. She fights using martial arts, and can learn spells of all elements.

Battle System
The battle system in this game is known as the Dimension Stride LMBS. It is a combination of the Flex Range LMBS from Tales of the Abyss and Aerial LMBS from the Tales of Destiny (PS2) Remake. Giving you full 3D movement around the field and the ability to use attacks and most skills in mid-air. Your party consists of only three people, a slight change from most other Tales games. As in Tales of Symphonia, normal skills are divided into three levels: Tokugi, Higi, and Ougi. After using a Tokugi, you can chain it into a Higi or Ougi, and you can link Higi skills into an Ougi. Hi-Ougis are in this game, and are unlocked by leveling up the hidden style to 10.

Styles are introduced in this game, and is accessed through the menu. There are four styles available in the beginning (Advance, Guardian, Wisdom, and Technical) as well as a hidden style (Innocence). Styles increase certain stats and decrease others, and you cannot unequip styles; you can only equip another one. Styles level up by fighting and winning battles; this means that only the characters included in the fighting party can have their style level up. Styles level up every 100 points (regardless of level) and give you equippable sub-skills. Sub-skills are equipped on the style menu, and perform different effects; leveling up the Advance style gives you a sub-skill that increases HP by 20%, and leveling up the Technical style yields the Dash sub-skill to increase running speed on the field. Sub-skills are equipped onto slots in the style menu, and more slots are obtained as you level up to obtain a total of 5 slots. Please note that you do not need the style that gives you a certain sub-skill to equip it after you unlock it. In example, it is possible to equip the Dash sub-skill after unlocking it with the Technical style, and then switch to Wisdom style. The hidden style in this game, Innocence, is unlocked by leveling up three of the four styles to 15, and then sleeping in an inn. Please note that one of the sub-skills unlocked by the Innocence style is the Awakening sub-skill, which allows Hi-Ougis to be performed.

Every party member has a Tension Gauge, similar to the Overlimit gauges from past titles. As you get hit, attack and block, the gauge will go up; and when at max the gauge will flash: movement speed and attack power will increase, while spell casting time and TP consumption are decreased, leading to long combos. During this state, pressing L and R will execute the "Infinity Jam", where all of the party members can take turns beating the tar out of the enemy. The gauge empties fast when not attacking, so obviously switching between characters constantly is required. Hi-Ougis can be activated by equipping the Awakening sub-skil, filling up the Tension gauge, and then pressing A and B at the same time. However, this costs 100 TP, and for some it's more efficient to use Infinity Jam instead, even if it looks really pretty.