With the release of Tales of Arise only a few weeks away, it was a surprise to see Bandai Namco announce another new Tales game titled Tales of Luminaria at Gamescom 2021. A mobile Tales game, Tales of Luminaria had a brief trailer that showcased its 3D character and environment design, reminiscent of its console counterparts.
Although mobile Tales games have been successful in Japan, they have historically been unpopular in the west. This time, Tales of Luminaria has the advantage of riding the hype behind Tales of Arise. With more attention fixed on the franchise than ever before, the game could turn out to be an interesting way for the series to expand further.
What's Been Revealed About Tales of Luminaria
The trailer for Tales of Luminaria at GamesCom 2021 didn't reveal much about the upcoming mobile game. Its opening shots feature Tales protagonists over the years before revealing a brand new cast of characters and their weapons. As mentioned, Tales of Luminaria also features 3D character and environment designs that underscore the real-time combat the series is known for. While previous mobile Tales games featured overworld exploration, the Gamescom trailer seems to emphasize it more with shots of villages, NPCs, and different monsters. Previous mobile Tales games have featured characters from the mainline series, but it looks like Tales of Luminaria will focus on its original cast and story instead.
Tales of Luminaria is an interesting concept, especially following the success of mobile games centered around overworld exploration like Genshin Impact. As long as it has a compelling story and an interesting cast of characters, there's plenty of potential for it to succeed in the west. On the flip side, it's also quite easy for the game to fail, as it can't solely rely on the excitement behind Tales of Arise. Given the franchise's history of mobile games in the West, Tales of Luminaria has to bring something new if it hopes to expand upon the franchise.
Succeeding Where Previous Mobile Tales Games Haven't
The biggest worry for Tales of Luminaria is that the history of mobile Tales games have been hit-or-miss in the West. While its mobile games are quite popular in Japan, only one of them is still available globally: Tales of Crestoria. Tales of Asteria is one of the earlier mobile titles that's exclusive to Japan, meanwhile Tales of the Rays originally had a global server that was shut down in its first year.
Many fans cite Tales of the Rays as being the best one because it plays like an actual Tales game with a great original cast. On the other hand, Tales of Crestoria features a great story but its constant raid grinding and lack of quality-of-life updates have diminished its playerbase. As the only mobile Tales game available globally, it has numerous areas to improve upon, and fans can only hope that Tales of Luminaria does a better job of avoiding those mistakes.
Longevity is key for Tales of Luminaria given the franchise's previous history with mobile games in the west, and this will depend on how much it feels like an actual Tales game. The fact that Tales of Luminaria will see a simultaneous worldwide release with proper English voiceover seems to indicate that Bandai Namco is putting in more of an effort to appeal to western audiences. With the attention that Tales of Arise has generated, it'll be interesting to see how Bandai Namco plans to expand the franchise with Tales of Luminaria.
Tales of Luminaria is currently in development for iOS and Android devices.