Tales of Rebirth
| Tales of Rebirth | |
|---|---|
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| Developer(s) | Namco Tales Studio |
| Publisher(s) | Namco |
| Designer(s) | Mutsumi Inomata (character) |
| Platform(s) | PlayStation 2 |
| Release |  December 16, 2004 |
| Genre(s) | Console role-playing game |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, 1-4 (with multitap) in battle mode |
Tales of Rebirth (テイルズ オブ リバース, Teiruzu obu Ribāsu) is the sixth title in Namco's Tales RPG series. Released on December 16, 2004 in Japan, it is unknown if Tales of Rebirth will ever be released in North America. Due to Sony Computer Entertainment America's policies, which forbid publishers from releasing individually-packaged games with sprite-based characters[citation needed], it is highly unlikely that Tales of Rebirth will ever be slated for a North American release, much to the grief of fans in the United States, Canada, and Europe who are unable to import the game. Additionally, if Namco was going to port Rebirth to a market outside Japan, it would have announced its intentions to do so within a year of its Japanese release (by the end of 2005). Tales of Rebirth has an anime introductory video accompanied by the song Good Night by Every Little Thing.
Storyline
Tales of Rebirth is set in a world where humans (called Humas) and Gajumas (beast people) coexist in relative peace. In ancient times, both races joined forces to found the kingdom of Galegia. At the age of 60, the Gajuma king Ladras Lindblum (ラドラス・リンドブロム), who has wisely governed the kingdom for years, gradually weakens and dies a mysterious death. On the day of his death chaos breaks out in the kingdom, and since then people refer to this day as "The Day of Ladras' Fall". His daughter Agarte Lindblum (アガーテ・リンドブロム), the only remaining blood relative and heir to the throne, is being advised by Zilva Madigan (ジルバ・マディガン). The latter is often referred to as the princess, due to her close ties to the imperial family.
Veigue Lungberg lives in a village, Sulz, located in the cold, yet beautiful northern region. While he has never thought about leaving the village, he begins pondering this option after his familiar surroundings, including Veigue himself, come under attack.
Characters
- Veigue Lungberg (ヴェイグ・リュングベル, Veige Ryungeberu) – The 18 year-old protagonist of Tales of Rebirth, Veigue wields a sword in archetypical RPG fashion. An orphan whose parents died when he was young, Veigue has been raised by the family of Claire Bennett, the game's heroine. Veigue is cold, unsociable, and withdrawn, but when he is with Claire he softens. BALLLLLZ In combat, Veigue is a powerful close-range fighter who can endure a significant amount of punishment on the front lines. Voice Actor: Nobuyuki Hiyama.
- Claire Bennett (クレア・ベネット, Kurea Benetto) – Claire is the 17 year-old heroine of the game; her family took Veigue in when he was a child. She has rarely left her village of Sulles, but the events of Rebirth will change that. Her focus on the positive traits of others, good heart, and optimism have earned her respect and admiration in the local community. Though she travels with your party, she does not serve a combat role and therefore spends most of her time as a guest NPC. Voice Actress: Mio Yasuda.
- Mao (マオ, Mao) – Mao is a boy without memory traveling with the imposing Gajuma warrior Eugene Gallardo, whom he sees as a father to him. Only 13 years of age, Mao uses two tonfas as his weapons. Armed with many fire elemental techniques, Mao is a balanced character who can attack at long range with some spells and fight at close range with his tonfas. Voice Actor: Akeno Watanabe.
- Eugene Gallardo (ユージーン・ガラルド, Yūjīn Gararudo) – A powerful 40 year-old spear-wielding Gajuma warrior, he travels with Mao. Eugene, who is also an ex-commander of the Karegia Kingdom, is a physically strong character who excels at point-blank mêlée combat with the enemy due to his ability to take and deal damage. Voice Actor: Unsho Ishizuka .
- Annie Barrs (アニー・バース, Anī Bāsu) – A 15 year-old girl who hates Gajumas (after learning that Eugene is behind her father's death), she uses a staff as her weapon to cast spells. Annie can learn a wide variety of support magic, including healing, enhancing, and debilitating spells. Although her direct attacks are limited and weak, Annie is very useful in a support role, healing and curing the party while reducing the offensive and defensive capabilities of the enemy. Voice Actress: Akiko Yajima.
- Tytree Crowe (ティトレイ・クロウ, Titorei Kurou) – A worker in Petjanandka who cares deeply of his big sister and has big ideals of race equality. Hotblooded Tytree uses a hand crossbow in combat. He can attack at long range with his crossbow, but Tytree is hardly defenseless in close combat. He has a varied selection of martial arts techniques at his disposal, including a number of kicks that serve him well when the enemy closes in. Voice Actor: Kappei Yamaguchi.
- Hilda Rhambling (ヒルダ・ランブリング, Hiruda Ranburingu) – A beautiful but cold 21 year old fortune teller, revealed to be a Half (half Huma, half Gajuma, in a similar fashion of Half-Elves in the other Tales series) she attacks with magic cards in battle but is best suited to casting offensive magic. Hilda should be protected by other characters while she unleashes her magical arsenal uninterrupted. Voice Actress: Sayaka Ohara.
- Agarte Lindblum (アガーテ・リンドブロム, Agāte Rindoburomu) – Daughter of Ladras Lindblum, she is the heir to the throne by blood. Voice Actress: Emi Shinohara
- Milhaust Selkirk (ミルハウスト・セルカーク, Miruhausuto Serukāku) – Military leader and general, Milhaust is frequently antagonistic with the party, standing against and directly opposing Veigue. Voice Actor: Shinichirou Miki.
Battle system
Tales of Rebirth breaks slightly from the series with a new take on the Linear Motion Battle System, the so-called "Three-Line Linear Motion" system. The player's characters and enemies are placed on three different planes and the player has the ability to switch between these planes during battle. This system makes pre-battle positioning of party members on the three different planes critical to success. Two possible options are to place party members on different lines or to stack all characters on the same line, which makes battles more closely resemble those of previous Tales games that in effect only had one line or plane. Also, a new "Force Gauge" replaces the Technical Points, or TP, of the previous games. Tales of Rebirth allows you to assign four skills to the four buttons on the directional pad. In battle, skills have a recovery time that is directly related to the strength of the skill. The Force Gauge is a set of four diamond-shaped marks near the character's portrait in battle, where each diamond corresponds to the recovery time remaining on each of the skills assigned to the four-way directional pad.
The new "Rush Gauge", which measures a character's emotional levels during battle, is located in the lower left corner of the screen during combat. As the gauge fills up during battle, a character's offensive power will increase at the cost of decreased defense. The battle system also includes unique "Secret Justice" moves, extremely powerful combination attacks triggered by an attacking character and a supporting character. Due to the power of these techniques, they can only be performed under very specific conditions.
Another innovative feature added to Tales of Rebirth to improve the Linear Motion Battle System is styled "Enhance". After victory in battle, the player will receive "Enhance Points" (EP) that can be used to improve weapons and armor. EP can be used to improve basic parameters of equipment, such as attack and defense, and unlock latent added effects. Some of these added effects include double damage and protection against status effects. Finally, enhanced features from one piece of equipment, such as a weapon, can be transferred to another weapon.