Tales of Hearts

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Tales of Hearts Box Art

Tales of Hearts is a soon to be released title for the Nintendo DS, the latest installment of the Tales DS lineup. It is currently scheduled to be released on December 18, 2008 in Japan, although no set time frame has been confirmed for North America or Europe - it is expected to transition over sometime during quarter 3, 2009. This is expected to be the first Tales DS game making a release outside of Japan.

There are two versions of the game that are supposed to be released. The CGI version is the first entry in the Tales series to feature cutscenes using CG. The Anime Movie version features cutscenes using animation.

Battle System

Tales of Hearts uses the CNAR-LMBS (Combination Aerial Linear Motion Battle System) which is similar to entries in the series before Tales of Symphonia. Instead of battles taking place on multiple lines (and free run in later titles) combat takes place on one single line. A new feature in the battle system is the ability to switch active and inactive party members in the middle of battle.

Tales of Hearts also features the Emotional and Combination Gauges. The Emotional Gauge takes the place of TP where the character can use any attacks, spells, combos, etc. they want until the gauge is empty. It can be filled back up by resting in battle. There also levels based on the gauge. The high level allows the character to use more powerful attacks but take more damage. When a character is in low level they have less attacks but are more resistant to damage. The Combination Gauge is similar to Unison Attacks in Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World. When the gauge is full the character may be able to call in inactive party members for very powerful attacks. These also include cameos of Lloyd from Tales of Symphonia, Jade from Tales of the Abyss, and much more.