In
April of 2014, something that nobody saw coming happened: Tales of Hearts R was
announced to be coming to the West. Considering the fact that the Vita was and
is doing poorly worldwide, as well as the niche status of the series, it’s a
miracle the game made it over to begin with. And though its flaws prevent it
from surpassing the likes of Xillia 2, it’s still a worthy entry in the series.
Story
 |
| Yes, he actually says this in the Japanese version too. |
Tales
of Hearts R begins in Seaville, home to main protagonist Kor Meteor. Kor is
training to become a Somatic - a wielder of a unique weapon called Soma. After
a chance encounter with a young woman named Kohaku Hearts and her brother Hisui
Hearts, a witch named Incarose attacks and kills Kor’s grandfather. And further
complications result in Kohaku’s Spiria (this game’s equivalent to a heart from
the Kingdom Hearts series) being shattered. Kor and Hisui begin a long journey
to retrieve Kohaku’s Spiria.
This
game’s cast does have its charm, but somewhat fails to stand out. We have our
typical idiot protagonist, love interest, and traitor character. While the plot
itself doesn’t do anything new, the skits and subplots serve as the usual means
to flesh out characters. Unfortunately, a few elements of the story also end up
being a little too predictable and foreshadowing can be poor at times. That
said, it’s still an enjoyable story; it’s just that it doesn’t excel in either
main plot (like Tales of the Abyss) or skits (like Tales of Graces f).
Gameplay
The
battle system will feel right at home for those who have played Tales of Vesperia
and the two Xillia games. This time, the amount of artes you can use are
limited by TP and TC. Like in Xillia, you can chain any artes together as much
as you want as long as you have enough TP and TC. Each arte costs 1 TC and a
specific amount of TP, and unlike in the previous games, regular attacks no
longer use up TC.
Tales
of Hearts R introduces a new battle mechanic called Chase Link. When you land
enough hits on an enemy, a blue marker will appear. At that point, you can hit
them with the finisher from your regular attack string or a free-run attack
(which returns from Vesperia) to knock them into the air. Once Chase Link is
activated, the enemy will be completely defenseless and you’ll be able to
instantly warp to them and continue your combo until the Chase Link meter runs
out. While this allows you to string long and flashy aerial combos, the enemies
often don’t have enough HP for you to even initiate a Chase Link. I had to turn
the difficulty up just to be able to make the most of the battle system.
Another
notable addition to this game is the Strategy menu options. Although previous
entries allowed you to customize what the AI did, it was rather basic. Tales of
Hearts R introduces a system that will remind many of the gambits from Final Fantasy
XII. You buy “conditions and orders” to set for your allies. This lets you make
the AI do a lot more specific things that you might want them to.
Following
the trend of the recent Tales games each having their unique character building
system, Tales of Hearts R introduces Soma build. When a character levels up,
they get some Soma points to invest in 5 traits. Each trait emphasizes the
growth of different stats, and will also yield new weapons, artes, and skills
when leveled up with the Soma points. This helps cut down on having to buy new
weapons for every single party member upon entering a new town, though you’ll
still have to regularly update your armor and accessories.
On
the other side of things… this title brings back the random encounters that were
last seen in Tales of Legendia. There’s really no reason for this since the
original Tales of Hearts on the DS had enemies appear on the field. In terms of
puzzles and dungeon design, however, this game improves greatly. While Tales of
Graces f had irritating and tedious dungeon design, the two Xillia games didn’t
have many puzzles to begin with. This game strikes a balance with that; the
dungeons are easy to navigate through, and the puzzles aren’t as bland as in
previous games.
Graphics, Music, and Localization
Graphically,
this game is decent. However, it fails to push the limits of the Playstation
Vita. Games like Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;birth 1 look a bit better than
this. The soundtrack is also only decent at best, though it’s certainly better
than Tales of Graces and Tales of Xillia. Notably, a few of the tracks gave me
a Megaman X vibe.
Notably, Tales of Hearts R lacks an English dub. Because of this, a lot more attention was centered on whether the translated subtitles would be accurate or not. While I can't verify if it's completely true to the original, I can say that the localized dialogue gives the game a lot of charm. However, there are a few oddities that come up on occasion. Glaringly, the protagonist's name was changed from "Shing" to "Kor" despite there being no dub. "Kohaku" and "Hisui" were localized as "Amber" and "Jadeite" in their cameo in Tales of Graces, but revert back to their Japanese names here.
Length
The
game has various sidequests to do, but it’s not as much as other JRPGs. With a
large amount of those quests done, my final playtime hit around 40 to 45 hours.
Of course, there’s still New Game Plus for those who are interested in multiple
playthroughs.
Verdict:
8/10
Pros
- Great battle system
- Great character building system
- Decent soundtrack
- Charming, though somewhat flawed, localization
Cons
- Though the story and cast are good, they don't quite match or surpass what we've seen in prior titles
- Graphics fail to push the Vita's limits
With a great battle system, decent story, and charming cast, Tales of Hearts R is certainly worth buying. But is it the best Tales game? It’s certainly somewhat close, but it falls short in a few ways. Regardless, new players and veterans will find this title to be enjoyable.
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