While this comes as no surprise given Hideo Baba’s announcement video had already gained attention from Tales series, Bandai Namco Community Manager J. Kartje has today taken to the US PlayStation Blog to formally announce the upcoming international release of Tales of Hearts R. While most recent Tales game releases have been limited to the PlayStation 3, this will be their first time publishing an instalment in the series on the PlayStation Vita.
Below is the brief synopsis provided for the game:
The adventure starts with Kor, a young man living in a small village by the sea. While watching the house in his grandfather’s absence, Kor meets a young woman named Kohaku who has come searching for his grandfather.
However, a mysterious witch soon appears and casts a spell on Kohaku’s Spiria, the embodiment of her heart and soul. Kor attempts to lift the spell, but while doing so he accidentally shatters her Spiria Core, the source of her emotions. Armed only with the Soma, an unusual weapon given to him by his grandfather, Kor must now set out on a journey to find a way to make Kohaku’s Spiria whole once more.
With character designs by Mutsumi Inomata, and the new Aerial Chase Linear Motion Battle System enabling players to move freely in the air and experience aerial battles like never before, Tales of Hearts R is looking to become a JRPG classic in the PS Vita library.
Currently a North American Winter 2014 release is planned, assumingly with a PAL region release around the same time. This release will also complement the 2014 releases of Tales of Symphonia Chronicles and Tales of Xillia 2.
