This is Hideo Baba, producer for the Tales of series for Namco Bandai Games Studios. I am very excited to announce to all of our Western fans on behalf of the entire Tales of team that we will be localizing Tales of Xillia 2 exclusively on PlayStation 3 in 2014. Over the past year I have had the opportunity to meet with more and more Tales of fans by attending consumer events throughout North America and Europe. I would like to thank you all for being such loyal fans of the series and for helping spread the word for the series to other gamers across the Internet.

Tales of Xillia 2 will build upon the world and lore of Tales of Xillia, available on August 6th, 2013. The game’s story is set a year after the climactic end of Tales of Xillia and will revolve around Ludger Kresnik, a run-of-the-mill man who lives with his brother and cat, and Elle Marta, a young and dependable girl who Ludger meets by chance.

The main theme for Tales of Xillia 2 is “choice” and that theme is deeply engrained into not only the storyline, but in the gameplay mechanics as well. Throughout the game the player will have to make decisions for Ludger that will cause the story to branch out in a new direction. In addition to these key decision moments, the idea of choice is also reflected in the new Weapon Swap mechanic while in battle. Players will be able to switch between three main weapons; a sledgehammer, dual pistols and dual blades in real-time during combat. In addition to the new Weapon Swap system, the linking system returns from Tales of Xillia. Players can link to any active party member in battle to team up and destroy enemies with support attacks and powerful linked artes attacks.

We will have a lot more to talk about regarding Tales of Xillia 2 as the year continues. Please be sure to pick up a copy of Tales of Xillia in a few weeks, as well as Tales of Symphonia Chronicles — also exclusive to PS3 — early next year.