Earlier this month, Tales of producer Hideo Baba, stated he would have two surprise announcements for Tales fans in the West. The first being Tales of Symphonia Chronicles, the HD compilation, would have dual-audio — an option fans have been begging for in the franchise for a long time. With the first one being that, many had already guessed what the second surprise would be — and look at that, they were right.

At this year’s Japan Expo in France, Tales of Xillia 2 was announced for localization in the same way Tales of Xillia had last year, surprise trailer and all. Not only that, Namco Bandai are hoping to release this PlayStation 3 exclusive next year.

While not too surprising, it is strange that they decided to localize a sequel before the prior game even got released. When announcing Tales of Xillia‘s localization last year, Hideo Baba said that they also wanted to localize the sequel, but it would all depend on the sales of the first Xillia. Either plans have changed, or pre-order numbers are looking favorably for Tales of Xillia and Baba got the green light to announce it. All in all, great announcements by Hideo Baba.