PS4-exclusive titles include LEGO Jurassic World, LEGO Worlds, Rogue Lords and Tales of Zestiria. Need for Speed Unbound and The Outer Worlds: Spacer’s Choice Edition round out the PS5-exclusive titles.

As for PlayStation Plus Premium subscribers, they gain access to two PS4/PS5 titles – Jet Moto 2 for the PS One and Resistance: Retribution from the PSP era – and two PS4 titles – Tales of Symphonia Remastered and Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition. All PS4 titles should be playable on PS5 with backwards compatibility, further increasing the number of offerings.

PlayStation Plus currently has 47.4 milion subscribers. Head here for more details on active users for PlayStation Network, along with other sales updates from Sony.

Tales of Berseria crossed two million in shipments and digital sales. It launched in August 2016 for PS4 and PS3 before coming to PS4 and PC worldwide in January 2017. Thus far, total franchise sales have topped 25 million units with Tales of Arise being its fastest selling title till date.

It’s currently available for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5 and PC. For more details, you can check out our official review here. Along with selling well, it also set a record for peak concurrent players for a Japanese RPG on Steam, hitting 60,274 players just a few days after release.

https://twitter.com/tales_ch/status/1438374900817797120

Tales of Vesperia has been widely regarded as one of the best entries in Bandai Namco’s role playing franchise for years now, and in 2019, the Japanese company released a remastered version of the game for modern platforms to give audiences a chance to jump back into it and experience it once more. Clearly, many have done just that.

Bandai Namco recently made the announcement that in a little over two years since its launch, Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition has sold over 1 million units worldwide. In celebration of the milestone, they’re also selling the game at a discount in Japan until March 3, with prices cut down significantly on both PS4 and Nintendo Switch (and even more on the former for PlayStation Plus subscribers).

Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition is available on PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC. The next game in the series, Tales of Arise, is supposedly in the final stages of its development, and Bandai Namco has said it’ll be sharing more details about the game not long from now.

Microsoft has announced the next slate of titles coming to Xbox Game Pass, starting with Age of Empires 3: Definitive Edition on October 15th. It will be available for PC subscribers and offer 4K Ultra HD visuals, two new game modes and two new civilizations. Co-op title Heave Ho (PC), action platformer Katana Zero (console, PC and Android) and The Swords of Ditto: Mormo’s Curse (PC) will also be available on the same day.

But that’s not all. Bandai Namco’s Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition will also be available, bringing the remastered RPG classic to console and PC subscribers. On October 21st, ScourgeBringer will exit early access and be available for console subscribers while October 22nd sees Cricket 19 and Supraland added.

Overall, there’s quite a bit to look forward to. Next month could potentially be even bigger with the Xbox Series X/S launching on November 10th. The consoles will be available for $499 and $299 respectively with major titles like Forza Horizon 4, Gears 5 and more receiving enhancements.

Bandai Namco’s Tales of series – consisting of classics like Tales of Symphonia, Tales of Vesperia, and the more contemporary Tales of Berseria – has hit a new milestone. The series overall has hit 20 million units sold worldwide. To celebrate this milestone, digital versions for a number of different Tales of titles are currently on sale (check Steam for more details).

The Tales of series has been around for quite a while. Tales of Phantasia first released in 1995 for the Super Famicom, arriving in the West for PlayStation One. Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition is the most recent title, serving as a remaster of the Xbox 360 and PS3 classic. It’s currently available for PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

Another Tales of game is currently in development. It will likely be revealed at the upcoming Tales of Festival 2019, which takes place from June 15th to 16th. Stay tuned for more information, and check out GamingBolt’s review for Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition in the meantime.

That’s the basic set-up for Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition, an enhanced re-release of Namco’s beloved 2008 RPG. Namco Bandai has done really great work here: the game runs at a smooth 60 frames and the graphical updates look good. In addition to the technical upgrades, the Definitive Edition also packs in a ton of new content. The biggest additions are two new party members: Flynn and Patty. Flynn isn’t new to the narrative, but this is the first time he’s been playable; he’s Yuri’s longtime buddy, but the two often clash over the best way to do things. Flynn’s as honorable and straight-laced as they come, while Yuri isn’t above going around the law when he’s feels it’s necessary. Their friendship – and the conflict their diverging worldviews bring to the story – are a high point of the game, and it’s nice to see Flynn join the party as a playable character.

"This cast butts heads all the time. Many of them don’t get along. The things they do are often morally questionable. Some of them are jerks. They’re a pretty unique group, and watching each of these characters grow and change over the course of the game’s plot is a lot of fun."

The other new addition is Patty, who is completely unique to this version of the game. She’s a little girl who dresses like a pirate and claims to be the granddaughter of the legendary, and long dead, pirate Aifread. She’s got an interesting backstory and character arc, but like all small children in JRPGs, she can be a bit annoying. That said, she’s a fine addition overall and the game is better for having her in it. The most impressive thing is that nothing about her addition feels out of place. She fits into the existing narrative really well, and you’d never guess she wasn’t a part of the original story unless you already knew better.

It’s good that the new characters work so well, because the cast is a major part of Tales of Vesperia’s appeal. This is an exceptionally motley crew: Estelle, a girl of noble birth who spent her entire life in a castle reading books and is so sheltered that she doesn’t understand the concept of nicknames, is sweet and naïve to a fault, but the rest of the cast rallies around her and supports a fantastic character arc. Yuri and Flynn fight all of the time, and both are better men for the experience. Rita, a brilliant mage, and Karol, a cowardly child who dreams of being a great monster hunter, actively dislike each other, at least at first. This cast butts heads all the time. Many of them don’t get along. The things they do are often morally questionable. Some of them are jerks. They’re a pretty unique group, and watching each of these characters grow and change over the course of the game’s plot is a lot of fun.

But for all the game’s success with both its story and characters, and there are many, Tales of Vesperia: Defintive Edition is held back by its storytelling. This isn’t the fault of the game necessarily; it’s more to do with the fact that the game is old. It’s most noticeable in the in-game cutscenes, which can feel janky; characters’ mouths don’t always move correctly, and many featured stiff animations. It’s minor stuff, but it’s there, and can pull you out of the game. There’s also some awkward patches of dialogue and voice acting, and some minor issues with the localization, such as misspelled words. The other main issue comes with the new content that’s been added to the Definitive Edition. For starters, there are a number of new costumes that have been added, as well as new bosses, dungeons, equipment, skills, and even mechanics. It’s a lot to address here, especially if, like me, you didn’t play the original game, but nothing I ran into felt out of place.

"The real star of the gameplay is the game’s combat and leveling system. While you can only control one character at a time, every member of the cast is playable, and you can switch who you control at your leisure."

No, the real issue is the additional scenes that were added from the PS3 version. Namco Bandai decided to dub these scenes into English, but they didn’t bring back the original cast. This is especially noticeable with Yuri, who was originally voiced by Tory Baker.  While his replacement does his best Tory Baker impression, it becomes pretty obvious when the character’s voice changes. This is true for many of the other characters, too, and some of the replacements don’t even bother to attempt to sound like the person they are replacing. It’s not a dealbreaker, but it is noticeable and once you recognize it, you’ll see it everywhere.

While the new additions are welcome, it’s the core game that holds up remarkably well. The game’s cell-shaded art is still beautiful, the soundtrack is arresting without being overpowering, and the environments are wonderful to explore. Some will find the lack of a mini-map for towns, dungeons, and really about anywhere outside of the world map to be a bit bothersome, but I liked the choice. It kept me in the world and allowed to explore in a way that felt organic. In an era where every game has about a billion things for you to collect, it felt nice to just explore. The zoomed-out world map also feels pretty 90s, but when you consider that Vesperia is harkening back to an era of JRPG that no longer exists, it makes a lot of sense.

The real star of the gameplay is the game’s combat and leveling system. While you can only control one character at a time, every member of the cast is playable, and you can switch who you control at your leisure. What’s more, the game supports cooperative play for up to four players, which is great if you have someone you regularly share a couch with. When you’re not playing with friends, you can customize the actions your AI controlled allies will take in explicit detail, allowing you to build a detailed strategy against even the toughest of foes. It’s exceptionally rewarding to absolutely destroy a tough group of enemies because you planned well, and I admired how much control the game gave me, from everything over when my characters would use items to where they’d stand or how they’d behave during battles.

"Combat is classic Tales stuff: a real-time rumble with simple controls and a deceptive amount of depth (go watch a Tales of Vesperia combo video if you don’t believe me), and the game does a good job of continually adding mechanics so you’re not getting bored."

Combat is classic Tales stuff: a real-time rumble with simple controls and a deceptive amount of depth (go watch a Tales of Vesperia combo video if you don’t believe me), and the game does a good job of continually adding mechanics so you’re not getting bored, but the core here is pretty simple: a combination of basic attacks and Artes (special moves), while managing your spacing and position on the field. It can take a bit of getting used to if you’ve played newer Tales games – attacks are fairly slow and you’re open while you recover from any given move, so you can’t just mash; spacing and timing matter – but once you’ve gotten the hang of the game’s flow and the systems begin to open up to you, there’s a lot you can do.

Special praise must be assigned to the game’s skill system, as well. Skills are attached to weapons, which is how characters initially access them. Keep a weapon equipped long enough and the characters will learn how to use the attached skills without them. It’s a simple system, but one that gives you incentive to use weapons for reasons beyond its core states and gives you complete freedom in customizing your characters. Don’t want them to learn a certain move? Don’t equip that weapon. It’s easy as that, and it’s nice to have so much control over what your characters learn.

Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition amounts to a fine package, and easily the best version of a beloved game. While I wish that Namco Bandai had taken better care to ensure that the experience was more uniform by bringing back the original voice actors and fixing the cutscenes and certain parts of the script, but this is still a very good game that does a lot well, even ten years after its original release, and it’s easily the best version of the game available. Tales of Vesperia may not have an explosive start; it may start small. It might be simple. But it is charming and has an enormous amount of heart, and flawed as it is, that means a lot, even a decade later.

This game was reviewed on the Xbox One.

The latest Media Create charts for video game software and hardware sales in Japan are in, and in the week ending January 13, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has finally been dethroned, moving down from the perch that it has occupied since its launch right up until last week. Taking its place is New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe (which debuted strongly in the UK as well), selling over 166,000 units in the space of just two days, making for a very impressive debut. Meanwhile, Smash Ultimate is still going strong in second place, with sales of over 62,000 units.

Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition also had an impressive debut, collectively selling over 68,000 units in two days. The PS4 version is ranked third, with over 41,000 units sold, while the Switch version, with sales of over 26,000 units, follows close behind in fourth place. There are no other new entrants in the charts. Dragon Quest Builders 2 also occupies two places in the top 10, with the Switch version (almost 20,000 units sold) and the PS4 version (almost 18,000 units sold) charting at number 5 and 7 respectively, with Super Mario Party filling in the gap between them in sixth place with just over 19,000 units sold.

On the hardware front, the Switch finally saw its sales slowing down in terms of momentum. Though it’s still on top of the hardware charts, this week it sold just north of 78,000 units, as compared to the nearly 200,000 units it moved last week. The PS4 also saw a significant drop, going from almost 110,000 units sold last week to just over 18,000 this week (base model and PS4 Pro sales combined).

You can check out the full software and hardware charts below.

Software Sales (followed by lifetime sales)

1. [NSW] New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe (Nintendo, 01/11/19) – 166,303 (New)
2. [NSW] Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Nintendo, 12/07/18) – 62,580 (2,676,740)
3. [PS4] Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition (Limited Edition Included) (Bandai Namco, 01/11/19) – 41,510 (New)
4. [NSW] Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition (Limited Edition Included) (Bandai Namco, 01/11/19) – 26,588 (New)
5. [NSW] Dragon Quest Builders 2 (Square Enix, 12/20/18) – 19,565 (199,003)
6. [NSW] Super Mario Party (Bundle Version Included) (Nintendo, 10/05/18) – 19,054 (955,194)
7. [PS4] Dragon Quest Builders 2 (Square Enix, 12/20/18) – 17,931 (197,062)
8. [NSW] Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! / Let’s Go, Eevee! (Bundle Editions Included) (Nintendo, 11/16/18) – 15,353 (1,414,948)
9. [NSW] Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Nintendo, 04/28/17) – 14,991 (2,070,890)
10. [NSW] Minecraft: Nintendo Switch Edition (Bundle Version Included) (Microsoft, 06/21/18) – 12,590 (562,344)
11. [NSW] Splatoon 2 (Bundle Version Included) (Nintendo, 07/21/17) – 11,061 (2,893,881)
12. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Limited Edition Included) (Nintendo, 03/03/17) – 8,636 (1,255,292)
13. [NSW] Go Vacation (Bandai Namco, 12/27/18) – 7,576 (42,711)
14. [PS4] Judgment (Sega, 12/13/18) – 6,837 (240,293)
15. [PS4] Call of Duty: Black Ops IIII (SIE, 10/12/18) – 5,618 (519,799)
16. [NSW] Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum ‘n’ Fun (Bandai Namco, 07/19/18) – 4,682 (290,959)
17. [NSW] Super Mario Odyssey (Bundle Version Included) (Nintendo, 10/27/17) – 4,134 (1,935,809)
18. [PS4] God Eater 3 (Limited Edition Included) (Bandai Namco, 12/13/18) – 3,546 (204,056)
19. [NSW] Kirby: Star Allies (Nintendo, 03/16/18) – 3,082 (720,725)
20. [NSW] Fitness Boxing (Imagineer, 12/20/18) – 3,024 (13,201)

Hardware Sales (followed by last week’s sales)

1. Switch – 78,056 (199,982)
2. PlayStation 4 – 12,012 (87,669)
3. PlayStation 4 Pro – 6,289 (29,513)
4. New 2DS LL – 3,954 (22,645)
5. PlayStation Vita – 1,711 (4,138)
6. New 3DS LL – 1,483 (3,281)
7. 2DS – 268 (557)
8. Xbox One X – 38 (102)
9. Xbox One – 12 (53)

[4Gamer]

On the heels of the UK charts for video game hardware and software sales that came out yesterday (and which we reported on), a follow up correction has been issued (via GamesIndustry). Mostly, things don’t change much here, but there is a little bit of minor shuffling that paints an interesting picture.

First off, New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe, the Switch version of the 2D sidescrolling Mario game, is still the top selling game on the charts, but it ended up doing better than was initially expected. While the first report stated that the Switch version outperformed the Wii U version by 28%, the final number is substantially higher, with the game reportedly having sold 56% more on the Switch than it did on the Wii U during launch week.

Meanwhile, as the headline should tip you off, Tales of Vesperia ended up charting. It comes in at ninth place, and sold 40.7% more than the original game on the Xbox 360 did at launch. What’s most interesting is the platform split—in spite of the UK being the hardest market for Nintendo, the Switch version of the game did the best, garnering 49% of the sales. PS4 came in at second place, with 43% of the sales sold, while the Xbox One came in at last place with just a dismal 8% of the copies sold. Given that Vesperia’s remaster was announced on Xbox’s stage at E3, and that the original was an Xbox 360 exclusive in the West, and that the UK is a traditionally strong market for Xbox, this doesn’t reflect all that well on the console.

There is minimal movement in the rest of the chart—FIFA 19 and Red Dead Redemption 2 still round out the top 3, and the rest of the games still appear where they did in the original charts with not much changing. You can check out the updated rankings for yourself below.

1. New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe
2. FIFA 19
3. Red Dead Redemption 2
4. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4
5. Super Smash Bros Ultimate
6. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
7. Battlefield V
8. Grand Theft Auto V
9. Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition
10. Forza Horizon 4 

Tales of Vesperia is the most beloved game in Bandai Namco’s Tales of saga, and one reason for that is the amazing cast of characters it had. Fantastically well written (and voiced!) with relatable motivations and personalities, that cast is in large part responsible for elevating the game to the classic that it has become over the last decade.

So it is fitting that, in the last trailer for the game’s Definitive Edition ahead of its release tomorrow, Namco has decided to showcase and highlight the game’s cast, from Yuri to Luke to Judith, to beyond. You can check out the trailer—only in Japanese—for yourself below. Even in Japanese, I have to imagine you will get nostalgic.

That said, while this trailer is Japanese only, the game itself certainly won’t be, because it is launching tomorrow for Xbox One, PS4, Nintendo Switch, and PC. It will also include all of the expanded content that the PS3 port of Tales of Vesperia featured over the Xbox 360 version. And since the PS3 version was never actually released outside of Japan, this is going to be the very first time that we end up getting to play through it in the west.

While the game will be fantastic on all systems, if you plan on getting it, and are concerned about its technical performance, do be sure to check how it will be across PS4, PS4 Pro, Xbox One, Xbox One X, Nintendo Switch (docked and undocked), and PC.

Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition is launching in January 2019, finally bringing the beloved fan favorite to the modern age. The remaster seems like it has quite a bit of work put into it, and no matter what system you play it on, you will get a good visual upgrade out of it.

The official website for the remaster has been updated, telling us the frame rate and resolution we can expect for the game across all systems. The PS3 version of the game (which never came over to the west) ran at 720p, with a framerate of 30fps on the overworld, and 60fps in battle.

In contrasts, the Switch and Xbox One versions of the game will run at 1080p, with the same frame rates (the Switch version will cap out at 720p in handheld mode, because that’s the resolution of the handheld screen). The PS4 version also runs at 1080p, but runs at a steady 60fps throughout. The PC version of the game runs at a steady 60fps throughout, and supports resolutions up to 4K.

Given that no specific details for the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X versions, it seems like there won’t be any enhancements for those consoles. Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition launches on January 11, 2019. Make sure to check out the newest trailer for the game, if you are interested in picking it up.