Tales of Innocence (Hands-On) (Nintendo DS) Preview

Right from the off it becomes apparent that more care and attention has been poured into this project, the ninth main entry into the long-running franchise that started with Phantasia on the SNES way back in 1996. Alfa System, who previously worked on the highly acclaimed Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology for the PSP, is at the helm for Innocence and the game starts off with a 'Production IG' video sequence that looks as good as any anime out there today. All the while the rousing 'Follow the Nightingale' by Japanese popstrel KOKIA plays in the background, before the luscious title screen fades in and the music changes to a peaceful, lilting tune that you could sit and listen to all day! It is a stylish start to the game and one that bodes well for the rest of the adventure.

As soon as the game kicks in and the main story starts, the plentiful supply of voice acting strikes home quickly. Whilst Final Fantasy IV's DS remake from Square Enix clearly chose to go for fantastic CGI sequences in favour of more speech, Innocence goes over-board to try and match its home console versions, all of which are voiced the majority of the way through (heck, even the SNES and GBA editions of Phantasia had voice work included!). The quality is amazingly high. A bright, colourful world awaits the player and whilst only some of the high numerous skits are voiced, this proves to be a breath-taking product that last year most would have not thought possible on the platform. As for the music in general, the composer provides an uplifting, enchanting and all-round delightful throughout. And, continuing with the presentation side, on the visuals front when you consider the world is completely 3D, as are the characters within, and battles take place at a fast pace throughout, it makes it all the more impressive to see this squeezed onto the humble DS platform. Innocence is certainly the most technically advanced DS game currently on the market, only being challenged by Square Enix's FFIV recent DS release. As with that RPG, Alfa System has gone for the lower polygon model, but greatly hand-drawn detailed approach that actually makes the characters look far more realistic than ever before.

The story is based around the Imperial Capital of Regnum that has maintained a standard of peace for itself during the long-lasting war that has plagued the rest of the world. Over time, people with special powers began to emerge that were feared by regular folk, leading to Regnum enforcing a law that stated people with such abilities were to be caught and dealt with appropriately. The game begins with the focus on lead protagonist, Ruca Milda, the son of a Regnum merchant that has discovered he has special traits and is picked on at school. Other than Ruca, though, players will come across a wide array of interesting characters, each with their own distinctive personality traits. For example, there is Iria Animi, an impulsive, short-tempered girl who has run away from her village with her pet, Coda, after being chased by a mysterious group, as well as Spada Belforma, a warm-hearted chap that has cut ties with his wealthy family, Ricardo Soldato, an experienced mercenary, Hermana Larmo, a young orphan girl and Ange Serena, a sister who possesses healing powers, giving her the title of 'Holy Woman'.

It should be noted that Famitsu gave this one of the highest ever scores for an entry into the Tales series, giving the game a total of 35/40 and it certainly deserves the mark indeed, since it is certainly one of the better rounded titles in the franchise so far. Control is via the directional pad and face buttons only, unlike FFIV that allows the user the choice of stylus as well, but this works out for the better in the long-run as it means the battle mechanic works better than that of Tempest's random on-screen tapping technique. The official name for the battle approach taken for Innocence is the (*takes a breath*) "Dimension Stride Linear Motion Battle System". According to reports, this is a combination of the "Flex-Range Linear Motion Battle System" from Tales of the Abyss and the "Aerial Linear Motion Battle System" found in Tales of Destiny for the PS2. Basically, what this means is that rather than running along a fixed line in a 2D playing field (á la Phantasia), battles take place in a 3D environment where players can move around the whole arena with complete freedom simply by pressing the shoulder button. In fact, you can even pull of attacks and skill manouevres in mid-air as well now. It all works seamlessly, making battling much more enjoyable. And another nice addition is how when each enemy is despatched, they burst into coins and/or items that you must collect during the actual battle before they fade away. This adds an extra tactical element and actually helps to make it feel more rewarding when you get to the battle-end screen (which also shows a ‘Grade’ for how quickly and successfully you won).

Another important factor of battling is how the AI of your team is far better than in previous games, thanks to the level of customisation on offer. Each team member can have five different instructions to work from at any one time, as well as having those set to certain priority levels, so that players can have them, for example, choose to keep attacking rather than collect the dropped money/items all the time. It helps to give the player far more control. Then, later in the game, it is possible to pick up new ‘scripts’ that tailor their moves even more (an example being ‘use a stronger healing magic than before’, in other words more specific commands being given to members). Add in the Tension Gauge that when filled puts a player into an Awakening state (similar to Overdrives in Symphonia) that makes the character faster and more powerful, plus the on-the-fly character changing that allows multiple devastating combination attacks to be applied, and fighting becomes great fun…which is brilliant news since there will be LOTS of battling during the thirty-hour-plus adventure (or more if you work through the random dungeons and take part in the Guild missions available as well).

Other aspects of Tales of Innocence that have been spotted so far during this early hands-on with the game are things like how encounters are not random. Instead, the enemies appear on-screen every now-and-then, allowing players to dodge if they feel like it. Obviously there are times in enclosed dungeons where it is hard to squeeze past, but it certainly beats the constant and highly annoying random battles found in Tempest. Also, weapons can be customised, with materials found around the world being able to be attached to your chosen weapon to create special new and unique ones that have useful attributes and cannot be found in stores. Finally, cooking is back and a new 'Style' system has been included. For cooking, there are no chefs hidden around the world this time, with recipes found in chests instead, plus some recipes cannot be used until its partner one has been found as well. As for the 'Style' system, different ones can be equipped to a character and, as they level up, different statistical attributes change according to which has been applied. So, whilst some may have strong benefits in one area, there may be negatives consequences in other areas to balance things out slightly. Overall, it is safe to say that although Tales of the Tempest did have enough redeeming features to warrant an 8/10 when reviewed by Cubed3 at the end of 2006, it has definitely not held up too well over the past year or so. And this fact is made so much more apparent by just how fantastic Tales of Innocence is, making the previous game look amateur in nature. Hopefully Bandai Namco will either work with Nintendo to bring this beauty to the Western world, or continue the deal with Ubisoft for its PSP Tales games to ensure we get the chance to play a translated edition.