Tales Countdown to December 15

On December 15… something will happen.

Something.

The official website for the Tales series, Tales Channel+, is running a countdown to December 15.

Thanks to Gematsu, I know the site is counting down “until something happens.”

December 15th marks the 20th anniversary of the Tales series, as Tales of Phantasia first launched in Japan on December 15, 1995. This countdown is probably for the last of the “massive surprises” promised for the anniversary.

What could it be?

The most likely guess is that this relates to the mysterious Tales of the Best (which I theorized about) or the upcoming Tales of Berseria, but could it be something more? Like a Phantasia remake, for example?

From countdown images found by Games Talk, it appears to be counting down the main protagonists in reverse order:

• 16 days left – Sorey from Tales of Zestiria (which I’m currently playing)
• 15 days left – Ludger from Tales of Xillia 2
• 14 days left – Jude and Milla from Tales of Xillia (which I highly recommend)
• 13 days left – Asbel from Tales of Graces
• 12 days left (today) – Kor from Tales of Hearts
• 11 days left – Yuri from Tales of Vesperia
• 10 days left – Emil from Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World
• 9 days left – Luca from Tales of Innocence
• 8 days left – Caius from Tales of the Tempest

Those are all the images we currently know, but if the pattern holds, we can infer the rest:

• 7 days left – Luke from Tales of the Abyss
• 6 days left – Senel from Tales of Legendia
• 5 days left – Veigue from Tales of Rebirth
• 4 days left – Lloyd from Tales of Symphonia (which I absolutely loved)
• 3 days left – Kyle from Tales of Destiny 2
• 2 days left – Reid from Tales of Eternia
• 1 day left – Stahn from Tales of Destiny

Counting down the main characters takes us to Cress and Tales of Phantasia right as the countdown ends.

This… supports all the theories, really:

• It could count down to Phantasia because it’s Phantasia’s anniversary, and mean nothing more.
• It could count down to Phantasia because Phantasia is getting a remake or other special treatment.
• It could count down through the protagonists because they’ll all be featured in a crossover like Tales of the Best.
• It could count down through the protagonists because we’ll learn more about the protagonist not featured, Velvet from Tales of Berseria.
• I could have the countdown entirely wrong.

Also, what the heck is “Tales of Dotmaker”? No one seems to think the countdown is for that, but what IS it?

Personally, I hope this is leading up to localization news (Innocence R!) or a remake of an older game. What do you think will happen on December 15?

And if you know what “Tales of Dotmaker” means, please tell me.

Update: Here’s some Dotmaker speculation from Reddit.