With Tales of Xillia being released on September 8, 2011 in Japan, it seems only appropriate this week to look back at the Tales series. It’s a fantastic group of RPGs from Namco Bandai that, for some reason, never seemed to get the respect and attention it deserved outside of Japan. However, with Tales of Vesperia‘s success and the forthcoming North American release of Tales of Graces and rerelease of Tales of the Abyss, that could change…

Hey, that Amazon leak was right! Tales of the Abyss 3D is being released in North America. Namco Bandai made the official announcement in the May 2011 edition of Nintendo Power. Granted, it was just a picture of the cast with a note saying the game would be released in America, but that’s good enough…

3DS owners may have another game to start anticipating. A peek at Amazon suggests that Namco Bandai really is going to make an effort to support the Tales series in North America. A product listing hints at a North American release for Tales of the Abyss 3DS.

This particular, possible leak doesn’t come from an actual Amazon listing for Tales of the Abyss 3DS…

Namco Bandai may torture gamers when it comes to releasing entries in the Tales RPG series outside of Japan, but perhaps Bandai Entertainment can help ease that pain. At the Bandai Entertainment Industry Panel held today (July 23, 2010) at Comic-Con International 2010, a North American release of the Tales of the Abyss anime series was announced…

Namco Bandai’s Tales of series hasn’t been developed in North America, Europe and other regions the way it has in Japan. We’ve never seen any of the DS entries (Tales of Tempest/Tales of Innocence/Tales of Hearts), didn’t catch the Game Boy Advance Narikiri Dungeon or Summoner’s Lineage spin-offs and weren’t priviledged enough to see Tales of Rebirth. We’ve also been neglected when it came to remakes, as we didn’t get the Tales of Destiny PS2 remake, the Tales of Symphonia PS2 port or the Tales of Eternia PSP port. And to us, Tales of Destiny 2 refers to Tales of Eternia, and not the direct PS2 sequel to Tales of Destiny.

This has given Tales of fans a greater appreciation for every entry in the series that does manage to make it out of Japan. To be honest, there really haven’t been all that many. And, while we do greatly appreciate the ones we haven’t gotten, Namco Bandai’s still chosen to leave some of the best entries in the series in Japan.

Today, Gamertell’s looking back at the five best Tales of games North America has been lucky enough to get…