Kotaku recently caught up with Hideo Baba, Producer on the Tales franchise, asking him a bunch of questions, with one of the more interesting answers revolving around the Japan-only Tales of Innocence R and Tales of Hearts R:
Unfortunately, at this present time we don’t have any plans to release any of the Vita titles. One of the main reasons is, unfortunately the PlayStation Vita is doing relatively poorly in North America, so it’s one of those things that if the numbers increased considerably, then it’s something we could consider.
While this is definitely disheartening news for PlayStation Vita owners looking to get their hands on some good RPGs, the PlayStation 3 is getting Tales of Xillia this year, and if Kotaku is correct, it’s going to show up in North America on August 6th.
As for the Tales franchise in general, Hideo said why the games don’t include Japanese voices with English subtitles:
Of course we want to cater to the hardcore audience, but I think it’s very important to cater to the more casual user who doesn’t want to just read the subtitles and wants to enjoy the game in their native language. I think for first-time users who pick up one of our games for the first time, I think it’d be a lot more of an enjoyable experience playing it with English voices.
He was then asked why they don’t give the option for both voices:
We’ve definitely heard this feedback from a lot of our fans across the world. I can’t promise anything at the moment, but we’re definitely looking at the option. I can’t say which title it might be in the future, but hopefully, eventually, we might have that option available in one of our titles.
Finally, on the topic of the PS4, Hideo said that he thinks “the specs are great,” but as for development plans right now, they “actually don’t have any.”
What do you think about Baba’s comments on the PlayStation Vita? Let us know in the comments below.
