During Nintendo’s August 2024 Partner Direct, Bandai Namco announced that Tales of Graces f is getting a remaster for modern platforms. The RPG was originally released in Japan for the PlayStation 3 in 2010, and finally made its way to the West in 2012. Its return this coming January is no surprise. With the critical and commercial success of Tales of Arise, the Tales series has gotten more attention than it ever has before. Now, the series is celebrating its 30th anniversary and producer Yusuke Tomizawa has released a video message about Tales of Graces f and Namco’s wider Tales Remastered project, teasing that there will be more on the way.
Tales of Grace f is a great start for that project, but I hope it’s only the beginning. This is the perfect opportunity to release Tales games that never got a proper localization. And there’s one entry in the series that’s long overdue for a Western release: Tales of Rebirth.
A quiet classic
Tales of Rebirth takes place in a world where two races coexist: humans (called Huma) and beast people (Gajuma). The two races came together to form the Kingdom of Calegia. The story kicks off when the Gajuma king, Ladras Lindblum, dies. Right before his death, he unleashes his own power onto the world, bestowing Huma with elemental abilities called Force.
Rebirth tackles topics like racism as it explores the tensions between Huma and Gajuma. It reinforces its themes in several different ways. Force powers were previously only available for Gajuma to wield, but after the king’s death, Huma were able to manifest them as well. Both groups are on equal footing now.
The protagonist, Veigue Lungberg, awakens his Force of Ice. After his childhood friend, Claire, gets kidnapped by an all-Gajuma military group called the Four Stars, Veigue sets off on a journey to rescue her. Throughout his adventure, Veigue recruits allies to his side, including the leopard Gajuma and Force of Steel user Eugene, as well as the half Huma and half Gajuma Force of Lightning user Hilda. Veigue’s eclectic crew shows how different groups of people can band together for a common cause.
Rebirth’s discussion of racism through fantasy isn’t perfect. It’s heavy-handed in its storytelling and its villains are cartoonishly shallow with surface-level motivations. The antagonist who sets off the chains of events in the story simply believes that one race is better than the other because of generic and selfish reasons. Still, I’m glad that Rebirth sticks to its serious theme rather than casting it aside like Final Fantasy XVI does.
As such, Rebirth feels poignant for a Western release at the moment. Countries like the U.K. are experiencing race riots, while the U.S. is gearing up for a presidential election in November filled with divisive rhetoric. It feels like the right moment to revive a game that touches on those cultural anxieties, even in an imperfect way.
May the Force be with you
Aside from that meaty story, Rebirth sports a unique battle system that was a departure from the typical Tales formula at the time of release. Instead of using the standard TP/MP system for special skills that many RPGs have, Rebirth has the Force Gauge. That lets players build up offensive momentum to unleash special skills called Artes. This solves the issue of combat pacing when you run out of juice and have to just stick with normal attacks instead of throwing out flashy skills.
There’s a nice risk and reward component to it. Offensive Artes heal HP on top of doing damage. The more offensive players are, the more advanced Artes that they can perform, with the trade-off of plummeting defense. After using an Arte, it goes into cooldown mode. It can still be used during that time, but it’s not as effective and the healing factor isn’t as potent. It’s a smart decision-making layer that keeps combat from relying too much on button mashing. Rebirth’s more experimental battle system was so much fun at the time as it felt less restrictive; it’s a shame that it was ditched for the return of the typical TP/MP system in subsequent entries.
Rebirth was bizarrely skipped over for localization not once, but twice. In 2004, when it was first released on PlayStation 2, and then again with its PSP port in 2008. It’s even more confusing when its predecessor, 2003’s Tales of Symphonia, was a smash hit on the GameCube and put the series on the map in the West (Namco continually remastered it for every modern platform imaginable). Namco could’ve easily used the momentum from Symphonia’s success to localize Rebirth. Instead, 2005’s Tales of Legendia and Tales of the Abyss on PS2 were chosen instead.
With Tales of Graces f getting a remaster, there’s no better time than ever to give Tales of Rebirth its global due. In fact, Veigue even makes a cameo appearance in Graces f’s optional coliseum battles, and the party can face off against him. Since Veigue already has an English voice actor, why not go all the way?