#7 – Tales of Hearts R
Tales of Hearts released for the DS in Japan in 2008, and never made the leap to the West. Five years later, a Vita remake of the game was released in Japan. This remake was known as Tales of Hearts R. The Vita version adds voiced dialogue, more events within the main game and two new playable characters.
Heart-eating monsters named “Zerom” have spread across the world in Tales of Hearts R. Special weapons known as “Soma” were developed in order to defeat them. The beginning of the game sees the heart, known in the game as “spiria”, of a woman named Amber Hearts shattered into pieces and scattered across the world. Our main character, Shing Meteoryte, then sets off to find all the pieces of her spiria.
Tales of Hearts R utilises a real-time combat system. Attacks can be chained for powerful combinations, and special attacks used at the expense of TP. What’s unusual is the Combination Gauge in this game. Taking actions in battle fills it up. Once it fills up enough, you can then use it to summon characters from previous Tales games to help you out in battle, as well as characters from other Namco titles. There are also nine attributes to consider in battle, with different foes being weak to different ones, leaving a lot to consider.
This is certainly not the first Tales game to lack a Western release, but it is the latest. This author has yet to experience a Tales game, as they’re proving difficult to find. It’s a series I would love to try out, and I hope for both myself and fans of the series that this game and the other Japan-exclusive Tales games find their way over here.
#6 – Ace Attorney Investigations 2 (written by Tyler Lubben)
Originally released in Japan in 2011, Ace Attorney Investigations 2 is (to date) the only title from the long-running Ace Attorney franchise to not be localized. The Investigations games are a spin-off of the original series, following the story of Phoenix Wright’s friend and rival, prosecutor Miles Edgeworth. While the games still follow the same general investigation/argument gameplay formula as the other entries in the franchise, there’s more of an emphasis on exploration, as players actually get to control Edgeworth directly as he searches crime scenes for clues.
A direct sequel to the first Ace Attorney Investigations, Edgeworth is again assisted by his bumbling sidekick, detective Dick Gumshoe, and master thief Kay Faraday. Aside from the usual gameplay, AAI2 also includes a new mechanic known as “Logic Chess.” Similar to the psyche-lock system from previous games, players will need to coax information out of witnesses not by presenting evidence, but by navigating dialogue trees with certain responses to get witnesses talking.
While a physical release of the games seems less and less likely, it certainly could still make its way to Western shores over the 3DS eShop. Capcom has already shown that they are at least able to do so with the release of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies. Whether or not they are willing still remains to be seen. Here’s hoping that we do see yet another Ace Attorney game in the West before too long.
#5 – Zero: Tsukihami no Kamen (Fatal Frame IV) (written by Justin Guillou)
Originally released on the Nintendo Wii, Fatal Frame IV is known in Japan as Zero: Tsukihami no Kamen. It’s a third-person survival-horror game and the latest entry in the Fatal Frame franchise. The Fatal Frame games are known for delivering an incredibly eerie atmosphere, and are home to some of the creepiest enemies to ever appear in a video game.
The series stood out from other games in the genre because of the way you fought enemies. Instead of using a gun or any weapons, you use a camera to take pictures of the ghosts and damage them. This makes the game feel like a blend of the creepiness and suspense of a Resident Evil game with the photo taking features of Pokémon Snap. Fatal Frame IV changes the formula a little bit by adding a new camera system. The previous games in the series used a static camera angle, whereas Fatal Frame IV switches to a behind the shoulder viewpoint.
You play as Ruka Minazuki, who was one of five girls to be kidnapped in 1970. They were eventually rescued by a detective named Choshiro Kirishima; however, all five girls lost their memories and two of them died. Ruka, now 17, returns to her hometown on Rougetsu Island along with the other two remaining girls to figure out what happened all those years ago and regain their memories.
Apparently the game was set to be released in Europe in 2009, but was cancelled. As for how the game could be brought to a Western audience, releasing it on the regular Wii can be a risky move at this point since so many gamers have moved on from that system in favor of newer consoles. As a result, many will probably overlook it upon release. The best solution I could think of is a port or even a HD remake on the Wii U. So far the ports to Wii U have been handled very well, and I feel that the game could benefit from some of the Wii U’s features.
