Tales of Rebirth Update (PS2)

Namco' s Japanese website unveils new details about the new game in the Tales series.

By Jin Sakimoto | Sept. 19, 2004

Namco revealed a host of new details on the newest Tales game, Tales of Rebirth, due for release this winter in Japan and more likely to hit the United States because of the success of Tales of Symphonia.

While its already been revealed that the game will use a modified version of the Linear Motion Battle System with three different distinct lines for party members to be arranged on, the effects of those choices have been revealed. The lines from top to bottom are the Support Line, the Direct Line and the Parallel Line. Depending on which line characters are placed on and whether they are placed on the back or the front of the row, there will be bonuses to strength, defense, magic attack power and magic defense, as well as strenghtening the Force Gauge that characters will no use instead of the traditional TP the series has known to use special attacks. In addition, the line on the bottom will make the user' s HP automatically regenerate.


Ms. Agarte Lindblum

The way players can see what kinds of bonuses and what types of lines to place the four party members that can participate in battle is by going into the tactics menu, which Namco claims has again been tweaked to create more believable AI and looking at the colored dots which mark the characters on their places on the three lines above the settings.

In addition, instead of seeing enemies in the battlefield, like Symphonia, players will have to rely on the Force Gauge which will begin to spin when an enemy is near, and will spin increasingly violently the closer you get so players can avoid battles they don' t want to get into.

The eighth new character, Ms. Agarte Lindblum, has been revealed to be a refined 20-year old princess of the Gajuma race and the Calgia Kingdom, where humans and her native culture prosper. After the sudden death of her father, she ascends to the throne. A lady always kept secluded and sheltered from the world, never even set foot outside the castle, she knows little about the outside world around her but comes to pulled into Veigue' s adventure bearing a hidden secret that she cannot let rest.