Operation Backlog Completion 2026
Jul 142025
 

Bandai Namco recently filed a trademark for Tales of Destiny.

Now, trademark news doesn’t always lead to an announcement, but don’t forget that we’re supposed to learn about the next Tales remaster soon.

Could it be Tales of Destiny after all?

Tales of Destiny is the second game in the Tales series. After being released for the PlayStation in 1997, it was remade in 2006 for the PlayStation 2, and then a Director’s Cut of the remake came out in 2008. Although the original was localized, the PlayStation 2 versions remained exclusive to Japan.

If it does get remastered, I hope it’s the Director’s Cut. I have the original Tales of Destiny (although I haven’t played it yet), and I’d love to be able to play the Director’s Cut.

We now have a handful of contenders for which Tales game will be remastered next.

Last July, retail listings for a Tales of Xillia remaster sparked speculation that Xillia would be the next remaster after Symphonia, so it was quite a surprise when the Nintendo Direct a month later did include a Tales remaster… Tales of Graces f.

That was followed by the announcement that Bandai Namco plans to remaster Tales games consistently, then last month they said they’d announce the next remaster this summer.

Earlier this year, a Tales of the Abyss trademark was filed, and now Tales of Destiny has a new trademark as well. Those feel like the most likely possibilities for the next announcement, unless the Tales of Xillia retail listing amounts to something after all.

But who knows? Maybe they’ll take us all by surprise and announce Tales of Eternia or something like that.

Which Tales game do you think Bandai Namco will reveal as the next remaster?

Dec 182024
 

The biggest surprise of the Game Awards for me was Capcom reviving both Onimusha and Okami, two series that looked like they’d never return.

Onimusha’s last full entry was in 2006, a whole 18 years ago. Only a browser game and a VR experience came out since then. The remaster of the first game was followed by rumors that subsequent remasters had been cancelled.

As for Okami, it also came out in 2006, with a spiritual successor called Okamiden coming out in 2010 and a remaster of the first game in 2012 (with ports in subsequent years).

So it’s been quite a while since Onimusha and Okami saw any love, much less a brand-new entry for each both being announced at the same even. We Ace Attorney fans think we’ve got it bad, but it’s only been 7 years since the last one – hardly any time at all in comparison.

But what makes this even more exciting is that an official press release from Capcom says they’re “focusing on re-activating dormant IPs that haven’t had a new title launch recently.” That opens up the doors for more than just Onimusha and Okami to return.

I’ve believed for a while now that a new Ace Attorney game is coming sooner rather than later, but what else could they revive? Dino Crisis has been dormant since 2003. Breath of Fire’s last entry was in 2002 (all right, technically Breath of Fire 6 came out in 2016, but let’s try not to think about that). Is it finally their time to shine again?

Moving aside from Capcom, this week also saw some interesting news from Bandai Namco. After Tales of Graces f Remastered was announced, we learned that they intended to remaster more Tales games as well. Now they’ve doubled down. In a new message translated here by Gematsu, producer Yusuke Tomizawa said there’s now a dedicated development line for Tales remasters and that they’re planned to be released “fairly consistently” and “as much as possible.”

This is exciting news, and it gives me hope that it will be more than just a handful of the newer games in the series. My hopes that we’ll get some of the untranslated games officially released are renewed!

In short, we could have a lot of good stuff coming. What dormant Capcom franchises do you hope to see revived, and what Tales remasters would you like to have follow Graces?

Sep 182024
 

The recent Nintendo Partner Showcase took me by surprise with several announcements, one of which was Tales of Graces f Remastered.

A since-removed retail listing made it seem as though Tales of Xillia would be the next Tales remaster, so the Graces news was especially unexpected.

It was soon revealed that Tales of Graces f Remastered is only the first of a Tales remaster project, with more to come. Now we have a few more details thanks to a Famitsu interview with producer Yusuke Tomizawa, translated by Automaton.

It seems they originally intended to release remasters in chronological order, but “due to various circumstances, trying to stick to chronological order too much made us unable to release anything” and instead their new goal is “prioritizing titles that had the highest potential for release.”

No further context is given, which makes this a curious statement.

Quite a few Tales games released in between Tales of Symphonia and Tales of Graces, so if the remaster plan started with Tales of Symphonia Remastered last year, that would mean they’d originally intended to remaster Rebirth next, then Legendia, then Abyss, and so on and so forth, but ran into difficulty. Without clarification, though, it’s unclear if he meant that or if they’d intended to start from the very beginning with Phantasia.

Now their decisions of which games to remaster take fan feedback into account, which apparently led to them prioritizing Graces f. (I’m surprised, I would have thought Abyss had the most requests.) Their ultimate goal is to release “as many titles as possible.”

This feels like it could be interpreted in either a positive or negative way. On one hand, wanting to remaster as many Tales games as possible sounds great! It should mean we’ll get more than just a handful. On the other hand, saying they couldn’t go in chronological order raises concerns that they’re going to skip over the earlier games after all.

But here’s an interpretation that takes both statements into account – what if they realized those earlier titles would require a lot more work, so they jumped ahead to a highly-requested game that would be easier to remaster, to get it out in the meantime while they’re working on the longer project? A Tales of Rebirth remaster, for example, might not be shelved but simply moved ahead since it will take longer to have ready.

(Tales of Rebirth is one of the few games left on my original list of untranslated games I wanted to see translated. Come on, Bandai Namco. It’s your turn.)

Overall, I think this interview is a positive sign for the future of the series and the revival of Tales games that are no longer readily available. Which games do you think they’ll remaster after Graces?