User:Crystal Tear/History of Tales: Part 1 - Humble Beginnings

The Tales series has over twenty years of history behind it, and its turbulant past and interesting localization history make many other series' journeys seem tame and their overseas journeys effortless. While standing in popularity just behind Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest in Japan, in the west it is more easily supplanted by other series such as Persona. I must note that all the information recorded here is cited from official interviews and official information rather than fan speculation. Any such speculation that might enter this article will be highlighted as such.

In this first part of the series' history, I will be looking at the Tales series while it was still under the primary control of Telenet Japan, when the development team behind it was known under the moniker Wolfteam.

Origin(s)
The Tales concept was the brainchild of Yoshiharu Gotanda. Its initial form was as a fantasy novel called Tales Phantasia. This story formed the basis for Tales of Phantasia, a game developed for the Super Famicom by Wolfteam, a development team created by Telenet Japan. In the transition from book to game, several elements from the original story were trimmed down or cut altogether. The scale of the project necessitated the use of an extra-large version of the Super Famicom cartridge, and during the later stage of development, internal conflicts caused Gotanda to leave with a sizable number of staff. They would later establish tri-Ace, famed as the developers of the Star Ocean and Valkyrie Profile series. Wolfteam also had some difficulties with their publisher, with the team seeking out a third-party publisher after previous poor experiences with Telentet Japan. If you can imagine it, the team originally pitched the game for publication by Enix of Dragon Quest fame, but they were turned down. Their pitched to Namco was a success, and Namco published the

The title certainly had some talking points attached during the run-up to release: it featured a noticeable amount of voice acting and an understandable theme song (a rarely if not a first for the cartridge-based Super Famicom), used an action-based fighting game-like combat system as opposed to the then-standard turn-based battles of other RPGs, and manga artist Kōsuke Fujishima designed the characters. Tales of Phantasia proved to be a commercial and critical success upon release, garnering high scores from both Japanese and western critics and total shipments of 212,000 copies despite competing with Dragon Quest VI.

Cementing its place
With the success of Phantasia, production began on the next Tales game, which would become Tales of Destiny for the then-fledgling PlayStation. While Gotanda was gone, writing duties would be given to Sawako Natori, a writer who would go on to become noted for her work on the Drakengard series. Character designs were this time done by Mutsumi Inomata, whose primary work had been in anime. Destiny also marked the debut of the full-motion anime cutscenes, animated by well-known studio Production I.G, which would produce the cutscenes for the majority of the series' lifespan. It also featured an opening theme song by newbie Japanese rock band DEEN, and well-known Japanese actors lending their voices to the main cast. As a PlayStation title released in 1997 (the same year as the mindbogglingly popular Final Fantasy VII, the cult-creating Final Fantasy Tactics, and other notable games such as Tekken 3 and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night), it had a lot to prove and a lot to lose. Ultimately, the team had little to fear. Upon release, the game proved instantly popular, selling over 450,000 by the end of the year (please note, it released in December of that year). It was also the first Tales to be released in the west, releasing in North America the year after its Japanese release: while it divided critics at the time, it was a success. As of 2007, its worldwide shipments have totaled over a million copies, making it one of the best-selling games in the series.

The development team were on a role, and to celebrate the series' fifth anniversary, the team created the next game, Tales of Eternia, as a celebratory title. The staff who worked on Destiny returned for Eternia, including its writer and character designer. Upon release, it rocketed passed the sales of Destiny, although its final sales tally was noticeably lower, and critics and fans again praised it. It would prove to be the last Tales game released on fifth-generation consoles. An interesting thing to note about its western release was that, in America, it was re-branded as Tales of Destiny II, to give it brand recognition ala Final Fantasy. Its later European release, when it was remade for the PlayStation portable, retained its original title.

Retelling the tale
After the completion of Eternia, the staff wondered where they would go next, considering either starting afresh or revisiting a previous title in the form of a sequel. It was decided to create a direct sequel to Destiny, which would become Tales of Destiny 2, to explore the larger lore created for that world. Inomata once again returned to design the characters, and the PlayStation 2 hardware enabled the polishing and improvement of gameplay systems along with a smoother and more sophisticated 2D experience: their aim was to make the ultimate 2D RPG in an age when nearly every other developer was jumping to 3D. Unlike Destiny, the scenario was handled by a group of writers from Japanese scenario production company Gekko (yes, I'm not joking, scenario production company).

At release in November 2002, Destiny 2 proved more popular than either Destiny or Eternia, going on to sell over 702,000 copies by January the following year, and eventually shipping over over 900,000 copies worldwide. It once again received critical acclaim, receiving higher scores than its predecessor. Sony Computer Entertainment also released the game in Korea and Japan, but it did not receive a western release. It was originally going to be showcased in a worldwide promotional tour by Sony, but the volatile tensions between America and Iraq at the time caused the trip to be cancelled. Ultimately, Destiny 2 would be the last game to be produced by Telenet and Wolfteam. The year after Destiny 2 released, Namoco finalized the purchase of Wolfteam and renamed it Namco Tales Studio, with Namco having majority ownership. The first era of Tales was over, but its story had just begun.

''In Part 2, Namco Tales Studio cranks up the production line as the Tales series explodes in popularity in both Japan and the west. We also see how the series received help from other studios, and began branching out into the sprawling franchise we know today.''