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…

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…

You know how we in the gaming media are always talking about how the Xbox 360 is having major, major problems in Japan? We’re not kidding.

Having examined numbers from Japanese game magazine Famitsu, Kotaku reports that only a single 360 game cracked the Top 100 sales list in Japan.

And, no, it wasn’t any of the console’s big Western hits like Gears of War 2 or Fable 2…

I have never been so excited about the release of a game on a system that I don’t own. Namco Bandai has just sent out a press release announcing that Bonnie Pink will be performing the theme song for the Xbox 360 game Tales of Vesperia. The song for the game is called “Ring a Bell” and it is already available on iTunes. I think it’ll be a good fit. For some reason the Tales of games always relaxed me, and a lot of her songs are very soothing and airy.

In case you haven’t heard of her, Bonnie Pink is pretty famous. She’s been singing since 1995 and has released 15 albums – one of them a greatest hits collection. She’s one of the few Japanese pop/rock stars I like who doesn’t mangle and mutilate the English language. Well, there are a few pronunciation issues in some songs (cough – “Get in My Hair” or “Sweet” – cough). If you’re interested in her music, I recommend “Last Kiss,” “5 More Minutes,” “Just a Girl” or “Sweet.” Yes, I know I just criticized “Sweet” – it’s still a good song and I love it. All the songs I’ve mentioned are available on iTunes.

I love Tales of games. In fact, I’m still secretly hoping that the GBA title Tales of the World: Narikiri Dungeon 3 will somehow get a North American release. So of course I am pleased to announce that a new press release from Namco Bandai states that 2008 will mark the arrival of two new titles in the series, Tales of Vesperia and Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World. Vesperia will be appearing on the Xbox 360 and the Symphonia sequel will be on the Wii. Both titles do not have a definite release date, but the press release states they will be released in 2008 to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the Tales of series.