Bandai Namco has announced that its soon-to-be shut-down mobile game Tales of the Rays will add a playable version of Schwartz from Tales of Legendia.
In a producer message, it has been confirmed that Schwartz will be the final added character due to time constraints ahead of Tales of the Rays’ shutdown next month. This can be seen as a final gift to players. Schwartz is an antagonist seen throughout the character quests in Tales of Legendia.
【お知らせ】
こんばんは。運営です。
『人の子よ。ここまであがいた褒美だ。』
テイルズ オブ レジェンディアから「虚ろなる導き手」シュヴァルツがプレイアブル参戦です。
30日～開催のイベントで迎え入れる事が出来ます。
さらに対となるあの人にも何か動きがあるようです。#ザレイズ pic.twitter.com/Pv5hdN8ANB— 【公式】テイルズ オブ ザ レイズ (@talesof_therays) June 26, 2024
An offline version, memorial book, and digital archive are in the works.
Tales of Legendia is notable for being the first mainline entry not to be developed by Namco Tales Studio; Namco Project MelFes instead did the work. This entry was released for the PlayStation 2 in Japan in 2005, while North America received it on the same platform in 2006.
This game’s English release is infamous for lacking voice acting in its second half. In 2022, dedicated fans created an undubbing patch, letting players experience the title with full Japanese voice acting, including during the second half.
Sadly, many Tales of games, including Tales of Xillia 2, were recently delisted from PSN. Bandai Namco has not communicated regarding these delistings, prompting increasing concern over preservation for this franchise, which hasn’t been great for a long while. So, hopefully, Bandai Namco will soon announce re-releases for all of those delisted titles and plenty of neglected older ones.
With Tales of the Rays incoming shutdown, no mobile entries remain, making the franchise’s status increasingly worrying.
Bandai Namco has announced that the latest entry of the Tales of franchise, Tales of Arise, has sold over three million units worldwide.
