Yusuke Tomizawa confirmed helming the development of the new Tales Of game for consoles
A recent Weekly Famitsu magazine issue had an interview with Bandai Namco's Yusuke Tomizawa. But instead of talking about God Eater or Code Vein—the two IPs he has been most well-known for—he was interviewed as the producer of Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition together with Yoshito Higuchi, the chief director of the original Tales of Vesperia. It looks like Tomizawa has been getting more involved in Bandai Namco's long-running Tales Of RPG series after Hideo Baba left the company last year.
As mentioned in our reveal article of Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition, this remaster is based on the PlayStation 3 version which added Flynn Scifo as a permanent party member and Patty Fleur as a new character. The whole gameplay segments will now run at 60 fps, animations are being up-converted to Full HD, and cutscenes that use real-time rendering are being reconstructed to fit the bigger resolutions. Costumes and items that were released as DLC will be bundled for free here.
Higuchi noted that the PlayStation 3 version was never released internationally, and they have been receiving 'love calls' from overseas fans who have been waiting for a very long time. Tomizawa was surprised at the massive cheers that erupted when it was revealed at the Xbox E3 2018 Briefing; his body shook literally as he actually felt how Tales of Vesperia has been received so much by the overseas audience.
When Famitsu asked Tomizawa if he has plans for more remakes or remasters of legacy Tales Of titles in the future, this is what he had to say:
"The important thing is to have as many people as possible love the Tales Of series for a long time, so it may be essential to create opportunities to have them try out titles that form the origin. I don't know yet if it'll be a remaster, remake or any other form, but I plan to make projects based on requests."
Tomizawa also confirmed that he is getting more involved with the Tales Of series in overall as its new producer. He even revealed that his team at Bandai Namco Studios is working on the brand-new Tales Of game for consoles that has been teased since last June. Although Tomizawa can't fully divulge how his new organizational system works in the development of the brand-new title, he is considering to take more communication with the series fans and listen to their requests. While Yoshito Higuchi is currently working on another unspecified title, he has great expectations towards Tomizawa as he has been seeing the latter actively communicating with staff members in the studio every day.
Finally, Tomizawa was also asked about Tales of Crestoria, the brand-new mobile Tales Of game unveiled just recently. Tomizawa revealed that he is not directly related with Crestoria's development, but he can confirm that Crestoria draws a totally different line from prior mobile Tales Of games—which were all-star games—by having a brand-new story. Tales of Crestoria is created as an "entrance" to the Tales Of series for the new user base which enjoys RPGs on mobile devices.
Yusuke Tomizawa is the producer of Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition, which will be released simultaneously worldwide for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC on January 11, 2019.