The Newest Tales Remaster Reveals One Big Problem With the Series
Is 2016 really the distant past?
The Tales Series Remastered Project isn’t wasting any time getting to its next game, even with Tales of Xillia Remastered releasing just a few weeks ago. And while it’s a choice that makes sense, it might be disappointing to fans hoping that Bandai Namco would dig further into the history of its long-running RPG franchise. Tales of Berseria Remastered will arrive in February 2026, making it the third PlayStation 3 remaster in a row. Berseria is a fantastic RPG, but it’s one of the more modern Tales entries, and will benefit the least from quality-of-life updates.
Tales of Berseria came out in 2016 on the PS3, PS4, and PC, and is the series’ second-most recent mainline entry. But it occupies an interesting place on the timeline, as both a standalone title and a prequel of sorts to 2015’s Tales of Zestiria. On top of simply being a good game, some fascinating story connections allowed Berseria to retroactively improve a lot of Zestiria’s narrative shortcomings.
But Berseria is arguably the game that will benefit the least from the remaster treatment. You can already buy the original game on Steam or your PS5 right now, and a lot of the quality-of-life elements included in the Graces and Xillia remasters are present in the base design of Berseria, like objective markers and a better minimap. Older games like Tales of the Abyss or Tales of Destiny would benefit much more from remasters, not to mention games like Tales of Rebirth that were never released outside of Japan. But behind-the-scenes factors are likely making the PS3 games a priority.
For one, both Graces and Xillia were essentially rebuilt with the Unity Engine, and it’s likely that relatively modern PS3 games are drastically easier to do that with. We’ve also seen recent cases where studios have lost the source code to older games, like Final Fantasy Tactics, and it’s possible that Tales has hit the same roadblock. Bandai Namco’s decision-making likely boils down to a minimum amount of effort being put into achieving maximum benefit, especially since modern RPGs often feel much more attractive to new players than older sprite-based games.
Berseria is likely much easier to remaster than some of the older Tales titles.
The cynical response is that Bandai is taking the cheapest approach, but I do think some older titles will get remastered down the road — they just require a lot more work. It makes sense to quickly port these PS3 titles to drum up interest for the remaster series.
The core problem here is Bandai Namco’s lack of communication about the series. Everything Bandai has said about the remaster project has been cagey at best — we still don’t know how many games will be remastered, or when the project will conclude. Even the announcement of Berseria Remastered dropped out of nowhere. And that’s right after the release of Xillia Remastered, when fans assumed Xillia 2 would be next, because Bandai said it’s “on the way.”
This is compounded by the fact that we haven’t seen anything new from the series since Tales of Arise in 2021. Arise was the most successful Tales by a wide margin, and its phenomenal success likely shifted how Bandai saw the franchise. Whatever new game is in production may have been given more time and resources, and while it’s not inherently a problem that we haven’t seen any sign of a new Tales game yet, it’s easy to see how fans would be feeling conflicted with only PS3 remasters to keep them engaged.
Berseria’s great action combat could appeal to new fans.
All of this is especially baffling considering the massive resurgence JRPGs as a whole are enjoying. Persona has become a megaton franchise, Nintendo’s Xenoblade has seen major success, Falcom’s Trails games are on the rise, and one of the most talked-about games of the year, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, is a clear homage to the genre greats. If there was ever a time to capitalize on the legacy of a series like Tales, this is it. Instead, it’s starting to feel like Bandai is missing the boat.
