Tales of Asteria Ending Service May 2023, 9 Years Since Release; Art Memorial Book & Soundtrack Releasing

The official Twitter account for the Tales of Asteria mobile game by Bandai Namco has just announced that after nine long years, the game will officially shut down its servers on May 19, 2023. Following this announcement, the developers have also prepared several “Thank You for Everything” campaigns, including free gacha pulls, limited-time events, and more, according to the Tales Channel blog post.

【重要なお知らせ】
いつも『テイルズ オブ アスタリア』をご利用いただき誠にありがとうございます。
2023年5月18日(木)をもちましてサービスを終了させていただくこととなりました。

詳細はゲーム内のお知らせ、テイルズチャンネル+よりご確認下さい。https://t.co/4U8prHRybe#アスタリア

— 【公式】テイルズ オブ アスタリア (@toas_promo) March 16, 2023

Furthermore, players will no longer be able to purchase any paid currency starting from April 13 and onwards. Any unused paid currency can be used until the servers close, but a refund window will be open per Japan’s laws in case you still have unused currency. In the blog post, the developers mentioned that two story updates are planned before the shutdown: The first in April, and the second in May, though the exact release day wasn’t specified.

All of the game’s illustrations will be preserved in the form of a memorial book set to release in late July. In addition, the official soundtracks will also be coming to streaming services sometime later this month. The book can be purchased at the Asobi Store for ¥8000 or ¥9800. The latter contains 180 additional pages containing clothing designs on top of the 540 B5-sized pages containing every single 4★ and above illustration released in-game thus far (with some exceptions).

To say that this is the end of an era is frankly an understatement. Even after Tales of Luminaria, or even Tales of Crestoria, all shut down, Asteria was there, still alive and kicking, which led me and others to think that it would never shut down. But I guess the time has come for Bandai Namco to pull the plug on the game once and for all.