Along with Challenger Pack 10, which adds 39 songs from the Tekken series, there are new Spirits to acquire from the Shop. These include Heihachi, Nina Williams, King, Kuma and Panda, Yoshimitsu and many more while Sophia and Arthur will appear in the Spirit Board and Shop. New Mii Fighter costumes have also been added including Dante from Devil May Cry, the Dragonborn from The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, Lloyd from Tales of Symphonia and Shantae from Shantae: Half-Genie Hero.

Each Mii Fighter costume can be purchased for $0.75 while Challenger Pack 10 costs $5.99 standalone or as part of Fighters Pass Vol. 2 for $29.99. One Challenger Pack remains and will be the last DLC fighter added, as series creator Masahiro Sakurai recently reaffirmed. Stay tuned for more details in the coming months on who it could possibly be.

Among the various Mii Fighter costumes, it seems that only Shantae has something extra with a song from her game added to the “Other” category. All of the new Mii Fighter costumes will arrive tomorrow alongside Challenger Pack 10 which includes Kazuya Mishima from Tekken. They’ll each retail for $0.75, just like previously released costumes.

As for Kazuya, the latest “Mr Sakurai Presents” helped outline all of his different moves. From using the Devil Gene to fire lasers and execute Smash attacks to extensive combos and launchers that can send opponents flying, the Tekken veteran should be an interesting new addition to the roster. Challenger Pack 10 will retail for $5.99 but is also included with Fighters Pass Vol. 2. Only one Challenger Pack remains so stay tuned in the coming months for more details.

The Tales of Festival 2020 is coming up and will take place on March 6th 7th. Originally set to take place last year, the festival was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Abyssal Chronicles, the event will be held in Yokohama Arena with tickets going on sale today.

Fans can expect the cast – which consists of voice actors from the various Tales games – to be split between the two days. Masaya Onosaka and Rina Satou, who played Zelos from Tales of Symphonia and Velvet from Tales of Berseria respectively, will be the MC’s for both days. Along with theme song covers, there will also be All-Star Skits with Day 1 focusing on the heroes and Day 2 on the heroines.

As for the paid online viewing option, it will offer multiple viewing angles and a light stick function with changing colors. It’s currently not confirmed whether more details will be provided on Tales of Arise, the next big title in the series which is reportedly in the final stages of development. Stay tuned for more details in the coming weeks regardless.

Claw of Jormag – Guild Wars 2

The Claw of Jormag is a World Boss and while you might think it’s a good 15 to 20 minutes to kill, you’d be wrong. Players have 30 minutes to complete the fight and it involves multiple stages where the Claw can’t be hurt. It can be damaged in between but otherwise, you’ll be running around breaking the corrupted ice shield, protecting Pact Bomb Golems, etc etc. An exasperating fight, even when everything is going your way.

In a bit of some unexpectedly good news, Bandai Namco announced a few days ago that not only would the upcoming Tales of Zestiria be coming to the PC, but what might be the series’ best outing yet, Tales of Symphonia, will also be making its way over to the PC soon.

If you’re excited to play one of the best Japanese RPGs of all time in glorious HD on your computer, then this information should come in handy for you- Bandai Namco have updated the game’s Steam page with the official specs that are needed to run it. Of course, since the game does not actually launch till 2016, this seems a bit premature. As a matter of fact, treat these as being subject to change at any time.

MINIMUM:
OS: Windows Vista 32/64
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4Ghz / AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+, 2.6GHz
Memory: 1 GB RAM
Graphics: Nvidia GeForce 8800GT / ATI Radeon HD 4830
DirectX: Version 9.0
Hard Drive: 7 GB available space
Additional Notes: Gamepad support

RECOMMENDED:
OS: Windows 7 (x64) / Windows 8 (x64)
Processor: Intel Core i3-530, 2.93 GHz / AMD Phenom II X4 940, 3.0GHz
Memory: 4 GB RAM
Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX 560 Ti / AMD Radeon HD 7850
Hard Drive: 7 GB available space
Additional Notes: Gamepad support

It’s interesting that it will be able to run on Windows Vista too. Overall, this doesn’t seem like anything too demanding or extensive- it will probably be pretty lightweight by the end.

Stay tuned to GamingBolt for more information.

Looks like Bandai Namco will be doubling down on the PC platform as a hotbed for games in their Tales franchise going forward. After announcing that Tales of Zestiria will be coming to the PC later this year, alongside a PS4 port, they have just announced that fan favorite and venerated classic Tales of Symphonia, still widely considered to be the best entry in the franchise, will also be coming to PC next year.

“We’re proud to reveal that Tales of Symphonia HD will be coming to PC Digital! This will be based off the HD version released last year and will be hitting digital shelves in 2016,” the publisher said.

They also revealed that pre-ordering Tales of Zestiria on Steam could lead to a free copy of Symphonia HD on PC. “Finally, the pre-purchase bonus for Tales of Zestiria on STEAM will depend on the number of pre-orders! Once the pre-purchase reaches a certain milestone, bonus content will be made available for all users where the final step is Tales of Symphonia HD is given to all STEAM pre-purchasers!” they said.

Hell, I would pre-order Zestiria for that, especially considering how well Symphonia has held up over the years.

Tales of Symphonia was a beautiful game back when it was released on Gamecube and PlayStation 2 in 2004, and it still remains one, showcasing the unusual longevity of its gorgeous art style. The HD update is accordingly pretty minimal, with everything having been touched up just a little bit so it looks up to modern standards, and what we get as a result is a very beautiful game. Dawn of the New World has received similar treatment, and visually, both games are eye catching (although there are some areas where they look anachronistically bad on your TV, thanks to a graphics design mentality that made sense in 2004, but no longer does in 2014).

"The real time battle system that was introduced in Tales of Symphonia remains a joy with this release too, although the lack of camera control in Symphonia's battles stands out"

As well as the Symphonia games’ graphics have aged, their gameplay has stood up better. The real time battle system that was introduced in Tales of Symphonia remains a joy with this release too, although the lack of camera control in Symphonia’s battles stands out- Dawn of a New World introduced full camera control that made battles flow that much better, and this update was an excellent chance to bring in one of the few improvements that the sequel brought with it into the original game, but bafflingly, Namco seem to have decided to forego that option. As a result, Symphonia’s battles can feel a little restrictive and unnecessarily antiquated, especially with Dawn of a New World and its more modern take right there in the same package.

Nonetheless, Tales of Symphonia featured an unusually progressive take on battles for a JRPG, and it actually managed to pull it off well, unlike some other big name RPG franchises, that tried and failed- multiple times (looking at you here, Final Fantasy XIII), and on the whole, the strategic depth and dynamism of the battle system translates fairly well even today.

The one unusual and unexpected outcome of this decision to keep Symphonia so faithful is that its sequel actually becomes a better game now than it was at its release. It’s easier to appreciate Dawn of a New World now and all that it brought to the table, and its quality of life gameplay improvements make it a fun game to play, even if its absolutely unsympathetic protagonist and a drag of a story that is told via poorly paced cutscene dumps drag that title down.

Indeed, this re-release does highlight how great Symphonia’s story and characters were, and why its sequel was far less well received- the group of heroes in Dawn of a New World is borderline intolerable, being as overwrought with cliche and over the top emotion as the worst stereotype of a JRPG would have you believe, and its story itself is unremarkable, and poorly paced, meaning you as a player have really no interest in seeing where it goes; Dawn of a New World’s gameplay improvements can only take it so far.

"The story experience can be further enhanced thanks to Namco's great decision of including both the English and Japanese dubs in the package. Whereas the English dub for Symphonia and its sequel was actually really good, playing a JRPG in Japanese can breathe new life into it, and the original voices are so emotive, that the story itself gets a second wind."

Symphonia on the other hand is a joy to play, and its story is still as sweet as ever (although in a more westernized gaming culture today, some things will induce far more cringes than they would have back when this game was originally released), but its story is sweet, its characters generally down to earth, and you will want to see their own arcs through to the end, every single one of them.

The story experience can be further enhanced thanks to Namco’s great decision of including both the English and Japanese dubs in the package. Whereas the English dub for Symphonia and its sequel was actually really good, playing a JRPG in Japanese can breathe new life into it, and the original voices are so emotive, that the story itself gets a second wind.

On the whole, this is a package that is wholly recommended- Symphonia is a great game, one of the classics of the JRPG genre, and it aged very well. Dawn of a New World actually got better with time, as its gameplay improvements make it a much better game than your memory would suggest (although its story is as awful now as it was then). The touched up graphics and inclusion of dual dubs only serves to reinforce this as the ultimate package for Symphonia fans. If you want some good, surprisingly progressive JRPG questing, get Tales of Symphonia Chronicles.

This game was reviewed on PlayStation 3.