In case you guys haven’t heard, there are two versions of Tales of Hearts: one featuring CGI cutscenes, the other with those same cutscenes in an anime style. For you Japanophiles, a new Tales of Hearts trailer showcases the anime scenes, illustrated by a company called Production I.G. The exact same trailer, with CG scenes, lies beyond the jump.
Personally, the anime style seems sort of flat, while I find the CGI to be pretty resonating. Other people find the 3D renders a bit creepy and unnerving, but you can compare for yourselves.
One may question Namco Bandai’s decision to offer to SKUs of the same game (albeit with aesthetic differences), but they obviously think there’s a market for it. There isn’t, however, a market of people that want to buy $62 DS games.
With the new trailer comes news that Namco Bandai have set the MSRP of both versions of Tales of Hearts to 6,650 yen (roughly $62), the standard price of a console game. Of course, the price may change between now and its December 11 release date, but popular RPGs generally get a bit of a price bump. Luckily, you can snag Tales of Hearts from Amazon for 5,375 yen (assuming you speak Japanese) or about $50 (if it ever comes to the U.S. — mum’s the word).
By now, my interest in Tales of Hearts doesn’t lie so much in what kind of game it actually is, but rather in the bizarre marketing experiment that Namco Bandai seems to be conducting. Are any of you guys willing to shell out $62 for a portable game?
[Via SiliconEra]
