Talking Point: Which 'Tales' Game Will Come To Switch Next?

Image: Nintendo Life / Bandai Namco

Big, bold characters. Comfortable story beats that deal with multiple worlds, gods, and the power of friendship. Confusingly titled battle systems. And colourful anime openings featuring J-pop songs. The Tales series has made a name for itself over the last 30 years for many different reasons, and it's why many — myself included — call it the comfort-food JRPG.

Despite growing up with big names like Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy, I can pinpoint the exact moment I knew that RPGs were my genre: Tales of Symphonia's release on the GameCube. It was cheesy, over the top, full of heart, and exactly what I needed as I stood on the brink of my teenage years.

This year the series celebrates its 30th anniversary as its first title — Tales of Phantasia — launched nearly three decades ago on 15th December 1995. Right now, there are 17 mainline ('mothership' — you'll get used to the terminology) Tales games out there, and Bandai Namco is currently working on a 30th Anniversary Remastered Project — the goal being to rerelease older entries on modern systems. Last month's Tales of Graces f Remastered is the first to bloom from that project.

The Switch has seen two other rereleases — Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition, Tales of Symphonia Remastered (though you might want to skip that version) — with a handful of other modern entries available on PC. But we're still missing multiple games, many of which are stuck in Japan, while the rest are relegated to older consoles.

I'm confident we'll see more remasters on either Switch or Switch 2, so, looking back at 30 years of history, I've plucked out five (ish) games that I think we're likely to see next. No spin-offs or mobile games.