Tales Of: A Retrospective | Episode 1 - Roar Of The Wolf Team

[Music] [Applause] if you ask someone today how they feel about the tales franchise they may speak of stagnant anime tropes or increasingly esoteric titles what they may not have considered is how important the series is to the development of Japanese role-playing games it's not only responsible for further popularizing the action RPG sub-genre but the creation of two beloved Studios that are still making games to this day this is the story of the Tales franchise and the developer that brought it to life [Music] you [Music] to understand the history of tails we have to look back to its original developers wolf team the studio was founded in 1986 as a group within software company Telenet Japan where their first contribution was to valise the phantasm soldier a side-scrolling action game for Japanese personal computers a year later valise programmer Masahiro a casino broke off from telenet an established wolf team as an independent developer it was during this time of independence that wolf team started making RPGs and strategy games like orcas and zhong kagetomo toki in 1990 oxy no went back to telenet and made wolf team an official subsidiary of the developer during this time they continue to make new entries in the arcus and Zaun franchises as well as original IPs such as el viento and ernest evans for the mega drive starting in 1993 the first of many shake ups that would hit wolf team throughout its existence came to pass when telling it absorbed the studio back into itself oxy no who founded the studio would still its head protested this move and eventually quit taking a chunk of the staff with him he would go on to form a new studio J force but it would only make five games before shutting down in 1996 after he went missing kono Union had rented a bar for they were - no kokoro da back at wolf team director joe asanuma designer Misaki nori moto and programmer / writer Yoshida Gotanda were starting development on tail Fantasia an action RPG for the Super Famicom telenet and wolf team began shopping the project looking for a partner to help fund it and after an unsuccessful pitch with Enix Namco stepped in as the games publisher from what we know development wasn't easy as Namco's input was making a cinema naughty moto and glutton de resentful of their new partner what happened next is what would tear wolf team apart AG Kikuchi a graphic designer and director at Telenet soon to be defunct riot subsidiary was transferred to wolf team as part of this move he was made director on the Fantasia project with longtime wolf team director Joe asanuma being pushed out of his usual role Namco also pushed for other changes that didn't sit well with members of the tale Fantasia team in what seems like a petty disagreement the name was changed from tail Fantasia to Tales of Phantasia character names were also completely changed from goat ondas original concept musky neigh the sword fighter became Kressel Bain Bowman the bow shooter became Chester Burke Lite Merlin the magician - our cake lane and temple the clergy - mint andhe made the character designs also received an overhaul courtesy of coast gave food to Shima a mangaka famous at the time for Oh My Goddess his designs brought a more professional anime aesthetic to the characters compared to the original what came next wasn't so much the fault of Namco but rather the size limitation of Super Famicom carts despite the game using what was at the time a massive 48 megabit cart the original story written by Yoshioka Tando would have spanned three separate perspectives over three distinct time periods but was dramatically reduced in scope originally the plot would first follow a woman named Winona who meets douse a man from the planet Daris Carlon who comes bearing a warning for the people of assay Lea about the dangers of Magi technology after it destroyed his own world douses warning falls on deaf ears however as the king brands him a villain he takes on his new mantle and begins a plan to wipe out all those who would continue research into magi technology despite knowing full well that douse only had noble intentions and that this role was thrust upon him Winona assembles a team of heroes to defeat douse and seal him away the second act of tale Fantasia would follow a woman named Raya whose parents both of whom were magi technology researchers were killed in the ensuing war with doubts unlike Winona Reyes only impression of Dallas was that he was an evil invader from another planet from there the second act follows her personal quest for vengeance finally the third act would be what makes up most of the final game set ten years after dowse was originally sealed away by Winona and three other heroes Kressel Bane and Chester Burk light lived peaceful lives in the small village of tortoise while they're out on a hunt their town is destroyed by Mars old old who kills everybody for a pendant that Chris's father gave to him kress and Chester vow vengeance and agree to track down Mars but have betrayed by Chris's uncle who takes his pendant and throws him in jail in the dungeons kress meets mint a young woman whose mother was killed by Mars they both escaped and seek out Morrison one of the original four heroes who helped seal away doubts after learning of Mars's plot Morrison rushes to douses tomb to stop it but it's too late as dowse is revived in a last-ditch effort to save the world Morrison sends cress and mint back in time to the height of the war with dowse to find a way to defeat him while he and Chester hold him off in the present in the past Crescent Mint joined forces with RK & Klaus who wield the magic necessary to defeat doubts from there the narrative continues to follow cress and his companions through time in their desperate attempt to stop doubts despite the final narrative not setting the world on fire Tales of Phantasia was able to set itself apart from other JRPGs at the time even among its action RPG peers while other action RPGs at the time were melee action games with stats like east or actraiser Tales of Phantasia retained the random battle element of turn-based RPGs of the time it introduced the linear motion battle system or limbs for short that had players fighting on a 2d plane and actively inputting commands for attacks and special moves for special moves players have access to two short-range and two long-range abilities for example presses 1st Special Move is a long-range attack that can only be used when he is a certain distance from the enemy spells on the other hand affect every enemy on the screen but have the downside of requiring a cast time the one downside in the original release is that players can only control crests other party members operate off of general AI routines assigned by the player such as focusing on offense or healing but players can also pause during battle to assign characters to perform certain abilities as the need arises with all these changes in setbacks Tales of Phantasia was delayed from its original release year of 1994 to 1995 the delay would initially hurt the game as it sails out the gate weren't at all impressive for the time with only two hundred and twelve thousand copies being sold in its debut month its performances blamed on coming out during the same month as JRPG juggernaut Dragon Quest 6 critically the game was divisive in Japan with famiiies scoring the game a 30 out of 40 with one reviewer giving it a 6 out of 10 while another gave it a 9 out of 10 despite its lukewarm reception in Japan one of the only English reviews at the time from game fan magazine had a much more positive view with the outlets saying Namco has the power to make an epic RPG and that it's the most stunning 16-bit game I've ever seen back in Japan however wolfteam was in tatters asanuma nori moto and Gotanda left to form their own studio after their protest over the changes made to tail Fantasia fell on deaf ears the new studio was to be called tri-ace and would be an allusion to how important they perceive themselves the three also reached out to their former colleagues at Wolf's team to join them at the newly founded studio and many heeded the call leaving wolf team a husk of its former self with tri-ace free to pursue their vision free from publisher interference they immediately got to work on a new concept from Gotanda who had written the original tale Fantasia scenario his new story had more ambition than anything he had written previously and needed an even more ambitious setting to contain it all with their first game tri-ace was looking to the stars as for wolf team telenet was pleased enough with Tales of Phantasia that they quickly restock the studio to continue the series with Kikuchi at the helm as series director motoi sakuraba remains the series composer but he was now a freelancer which enabled him to write music not only for wolf team but for tri-ace as well wolf team continued developing new games in the tales franchise with Tales of Destiny on the PlayStation in 1997 it was the first Tales game made entirely by the new wolf team led by agent Kikuchi it once again featured music by motoi sakuraba but the character designs were not handled by Fukushima instead wolf team went with Mutsumi Inomata an animator and character designer whose works include anime like city hunter guru se yada and Gundam Seed the story written by first timer cassia ishizuka followed the adventures of ston railroad the game begins with him stowing away on an airship that soon attacked by monsters seeking a magical weapon called a sword ian created during the aether wars a conflict between those and the planets and the technologically advanced civilization in the sky Stan seeks out other swordian wielders to put a stop to those who would reignite the aether wars once again for Tales of Destiny wolf team upgraded limbs to the enhanced linear motion battle system or a limbs for short while combat is still largely the same the enhancement comes with players now being able to map for different abilities to a character with a neutral and for directional inputs the range system is also gone allowing players to use any equipped ability at any location on the battlefield there is a larger emphasis on combos with some abilities being able to hit multiple times staggering or juggling enemies Tales of Destiny also introduced multiplayer for the first time in the series the primary player can only play a ston but three other players can control the rest of the party during battle with a multi-tap accessory tales of Destiny's most important contribution to the series came in the form of the active party window when on the world map there would be a tiny window in the bottom left hand corner featuring the party interacting with each other they would perform unique animations even have conversations the feature was the precursor to the skits found in every game onward but was unfortunately removed from the English release due to Namco declining to add an English dub speaking of the English release Tales of Destiny was announced from North America at e3 1998 with Namco telling RPG gamer at the time that they were putting everything into its localization to compensate for its 2d sprite-based visuals as they would look antiquated compared to Final Fantasy 7 which was released a year prior despite their efforts many outlets in the US heavily criticized the game with many honing in on its visuals GameSpot Speer bartholow gave the game a four point nine out of ten saying looking and sounding far too much like an SNES game Tales of Destiny seems like it was originally intended to be a sequel on the SNES that got delayed well into the Playstations lifecycle IGN's Andriy for nod was much more kind giving it a 7.5 but really sums up the attitude levied at 2d games at the time with his stinger it may seem somewhat elitist but many gamers today do place a huge emphasis on the graphics of a title and Tales of Destiny just seems well old even with its tepid critical reception Tales of Destiny was a sales success selling over 1 million copies worldwide with those kinds of numbers it was only natural that wolf team would start working on the next Tales game right away before that though [Music] wolfteam made one last non Tales game with cybernetic Empire a japan-only third-person action game the only interesting thing about this title is that it was published by telenet without the support of Namco from what little gameplay is available on the Internet they were probably right to avoid associating themselves with this one getting back to tales wolf team released tales of Eternia in the year 2000 it followed closely in the footsteps of its predecessor featuring 2d graphics character designs by you know Mata and a soundtrack by Sakuraba the game however was more ambitious shipping across three discs featuring more 3d elements multiple fully animated FMVs by production i.g and fully voice acted event scenes it's useless I tell you tales of Eternia written by Sawa Kona Torre script writer on the Drakengard series and the original near tells the story of two planets inferior and Celestia that are connected to each other via a device called the Orbis barrier on the planet of inferior read and his childhood friend Farah noticed a ship crossing the Orbis barrier from Celestia and crashing near their small farming village upon finding the ship they meet a young girl named marady who comes bearing a warning about the grand fall a theoretical cataclysmic event that would see the Orbis barrier fail thus causing inferior and Celestia to crash into each other from there Reid and Farah along with Merritt II and a cast of other characters travel between both worlds to discover the truth behind the Orbis barrier and prevent the grand fall for Eternia wolfteam further enhanced combat with the aggressive linear motion battle system or a limbs for short the big change this time comes the spells as they no longer pause battle nor affect the entire screen now spells are cast in real time and only effect localized areas allowing players to dodge them for the first time players can also directly control every character during battle by switching between them of course players can still pause the game to issue commands to other party members and the AI routines have been expanded to allow even greater control over their actions all this led to tales of Eternia to name Tales of Destiny - in the u.s. to avoid a trademark dispute with Mattel's he-man and the Masters of the Universe toy line receiving a better reception from critics at the time GameSpot's Brad shoemaker bucks the outlets previous criticisms of Tales of Destiny - say it's use of 2d visuals is something to be celebrated one of the effects on modern RPGs brought about by Final Fantasy 7 is an ever increasing focus on complex 3d graphics refreshingly Tales of Destiny - bucks this trend at a time when Final Fantasy 10 is only a few months from release many RPG fans will quietly applaud Tales of Destiny - s adherence to the old RPG ways as for its English voice acting critics were less than kind all game while giving the game a 4 out of 5 set the games English cast sound as if they were waiting to get their oil changed instead of being on a life-or-death mission max are you alright yeah well it didn't perform as well as Tales of Destiny tales of Eternia would go on to sell 873 thousand copies worldwide two years later wolf team would see its last release in two thousand and twos Tales of Destiny - for the PlayStation 2 a true sequel to the original Tales of Destiny and causing no small amount of confusion for American tales fans who now have to differentiate between Tales of Destiny - and Tales of Destiny - it would be the first time since Tales of Phantasia that Namco had declined to localize a title in the series while there's no official reason given it's easy to speculate the tales of destiny to being a 2d game on the ps2 was seen as too much of a risk in a North American market that was demanding cutting-edge 3d graphics after squaresoft defined the ps2 RPG experience with Final Fantasy 10 and Kingdom Hearts Tales of Destiny - written by NA 3 as well takes place 18 years after the events of the first game it stars the son of ston Andrew T Kyle who is convinced he is destined to be a hero just like his parents after meeting a girl named raela he begins his journey to learn what it means to be a real hero [Music] once again Wolfe team would evolve limbs even further with the trust and tactical linear motion battle system or TT limbs the big change this time around would be the introduction of the spirit system during battle every action whether it be a normal or special reduces the spirit bar once it's empty that character can no longer take any actions until it refills which can be accomplished by not taking any action or garden there's also a dividing line between the players party and the enemies that moves with the advancing group if a player character finds themselves behind enemy lines all spirit costs are increased if this sounds familiar the spirit system would eventually evolve into the chain capacity or CC system that North American players with first seat in Tales of Graces f Tales of Destiny - is also the first game to introduce grade as a component of battle depending on the players skill and technique during battle they are awarded positive or negative grade at the end of the game the accumulated grade can be spent on new game+ modifiers Namco had high hopes for Tales of Destiny - they expected to sell 600,000 copies and the game would go on to sell almost a million units after Tales of Destiny - released telenet Japan sold part of its stake in wolf team giving Namco majority ownership in 2003 with this change in ownership the team was renamed Namco tales studio and its fate was forever sealed as the developer of the Tales franchise with the death of wolf team and the birth of Namco tales studio AG Kikuchi and his newly named team was going to note the occasion by returning to the setting of the game that started it all he and his team would end up creating what is arguably the most beloved game in the series which would forever set a bar that some fans feel has been rarely met since hey everyone thank you all so much for watching if you all actually made it this far kudos quick disclaimer I guess there's some stuff that is missing from this technically we're not covering the remakes and spin-offs in the main series essentially expect those in some sort of spin-off episode later in the future I just wanted to get that out now before we got well I'm actually it in the comments like super hard if you like what we do feel free to leave a comment like subscribe even if you're feeling fancy you can also find us on twitch at twitch TV slash red muffler man and we're also on Twitter and you can follow myself at red muffler man and then Zach the person who is writing the series is at Faison masher but I just want to say thank you for watching we'll be making more content again soon so feel free to stick around take it easy [Music]

Channel: AddedCut

Views: 24,856

Keywords: Tales Of, Tales Of Symphona, Tales Series, Tales Franchise, Tales Of Phantasia, History Of, Lloyd Irving, Cress Albain, Stahn, Tales Of Destiny, Tales Of Destiny 2, Tales Of Destiny II, Analysis, Video Essay, Retrospective, Bandai Namco, Tales Of Legendia, Tales Of Graces, Tales Of Vesperia, Tales Of Arise, Tales Of Berseria, Tales Of Zesteria, JRPG, Wolf Team, Namco Tales Studio, Tales Of Eternia, SNES, PSX, Gamecube, Added Cut, RedMufflerMan, Phazon Masher, Xbox 360, PS3, PS4

Id: 2ksMey2vEUo

Length: 23min 8sec (1388 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 18 2019