Tales of Rebirth: Возрождение Истории (Tales of Rebirth: Vozrozhdeniye Istorii)

2004 video game

Tales of Rebirth (テイルズ オブ リバース) is a Japanese action role playing game published for the PlayStation 2. It is the sixth main entry of Namco's Tales series of video games. The game was developed by Namco Tales Studio and published by Namco. The game was released for the PlayStation 2 on December 16, 2004, and then later re released on the PlayStation Portable on March 19, 2008. Rebirth, set in a world populated by humans (Huma) and beast people (Gajuma), follows the adventures of Veigue Lungberg, a human whose friend Claire Bennett is kidnapped by agents of Agarte, heir to the throne of the kingdom of Karegia. Setting out to rescue Claire, Veigue and those who join him becomes entangled in escalating racial conflicts consuming the land. As with previous Tales games, it features an action based battle system, called the Three Line Linear Motion Battle System. The game was developed by the 2D Tales development unit Team Destiny. The characters were designed by Mutsumi Inomata, who had previously worked on Tales of Destiny. The scenario, written by Hiramatsu Masaki, dealt extensively with issues of coexistence between races and ethnic conflicts. The game has received positive reviews and strong sales in Japan, with the PlayStation 2 version eventually selling over 600,000 units and the PSP re release selling over 83,000. Western sites have been positive about the game, though neither version of the game have received English localizations.

Tales of Rebirth is an action role playing game with player characters rendered as two dimensional sprites on three dimensional backgrounds. Unlike previous Tales games, the camera follows the characters from a side long view, zooming in or out depending on their relative position, and instead of a navigable overworld, players fast travel to different locations using a standard map of the game world. Side conversations between characters called Skits (called "Screen Chat" (スクリーンチャット) in Japanese) feature both story relevant information and added details not essential to the story. At certain locations in the game, characters can engage in cooking various recipes: cooking them between battles restores health points. If the recipe is cooked enough times, a character masters it. Upon mastery, a character is granted experience points each time the meal is prepared. There are multiple difficulty levels. Rebirth uses the Tales series' trademark Linear Motion Battle System (LMBS), a real time fighting system similar to a beat 'em up. Up to four characters can be present in battle. The variation used in Rebirth is the Three Line LMBS, using a similar multi plane mechanic to Tales of Symphonia: characters can be moved across three different levels on the battlefield to either attack enemies on those lines or dodge behind an enemy on one line to deal damage from behind. During battle, a character can activate the Rush Gauge, increasing a character's attack power at the cost of lowered defensive abilities and stats, and perform Mystic Artes (秘奥義) with another member of the party to inflict high damage on single enemies. During battles, performing certain feats in battle, such as finishing in a certain time, rewards the player with a grade for their performance.

Tales of Rebirth is set in a world where humans (called Huma) and beast people (Gajuma) coexist in relative peace. The world's magical power is called Force, which manifests in various people as control over an element or aspect of the physical laws. In ancient times, after a war sparked when Huma attempted to enslave Gajuma, both races joined forces to found the kingdom of Karegia. An unspecified time before the events of the game, Geyorkias, the ruler of a spirit race called the Sacred Beasts, sought to destroy the Huma as their dark emotions were fueling a primordial destructive force known as Yuris: the other Sacred Beasts put a stop to Geyorkias' plan by sealing him away, then acting to nullify Yuris' threat. The story opens with the death of Karegia's king, Ladras Lindblum, poisoned by the royal adviser Zilva Madigan: during his final moments, he releases his power into the world, causing many humans to become possessed by Force, including Veigue, Annie and Tytree. As the king has failed to name a successor, Karegia enters an interregnum at his death.

Veigue Lungberg (ヴェイグ・リュングベル) is the protagonist of Tales of Rebirth, who wields a sword in battle and uses the Force of Ice. An orphan whose parents died when he was young, Veigue has been raised by the family of Claire Bennett. Veigue is cold, unsociable, and withdrawn, but when he is with Claire he softens. Veigue is voiced by Nobuyuki Hiyama. Claire Bennett (クレア・ベネット) is the heroine of the game and the only main character not to use Force. Her family took Veigue in when he was a child. She rarely left her village of Sulz before the initial events of the game. Her focus on the positive traits of others, good heart, and optimism have earned her respect and admiration in the local community. Claire is voiced by Mio Yasuda. Mutsumi Inomata, a noted anime artist who had previously worked on Tales of Destiny, returned to design the main characters for Rebirth. Prior to the main script writing stage, Yoshizumi conceived the basic set up and story for the game. The final script ended up being substantially larger than that of Symphonia, covering four full script books. The game's anime cutscenes were created by Production I. G.

Rebirth was officially announced in April 2004, a week after the game's title and existence had been leaked to the public early after a story from Jump magazine was made available a week early due to mistakenly being shipped early. In July, Namco announced that people who pre ordered Tales of Symphonia for the PlayStation 2 would receive a bonus disc featuring footage from an early build of Tales of Rebirth, upon purchasing Symphonia in September. The same footage, along with a playable build of the game was present at the Tokyo Game Show in the same month. The PlayStation Portable port of the game, which featured graphical adjustments for the platform's widescreen, was announced in July 2007. The port was made following the port of Destiny 2. As with those games, transplanting the 2D graphics onto the PSP and maintaining the experience of the original caused some difficulties. Conversely, they found the memory capacity of the PSP compared to the PS2 a good thing. Yoshizumi felt that the fact that it was a port rather than a remake divided the development team. The port also included extra minor story scenes and a viewing gallery for concept art. Neither the original nor the port of Rebirth have received an English localization, making it one of three mainline Tales titles to not have come to the west.

Rebirths soundtrack was composed by Motoi Sakuraba and Shinji Tamura, regular composers for the Tales series. The soundtrack was released as an album, Tales of Rebirth Original Soundtrack (ティルズ オブ リバース オリジナル・サウンドトラック), on January 26, 2005. Reception of the album has been mixed to positive. Patrick Gann of RPGFan said that fans of previous Tales soundtracks would enjoy it, though personally found it tiring due to similarity to previous Tales soundtracks. The reviewer for Game OST was generally positive, calling it one of the best albums of the series and better listening outside the context of the game than previous albums, though stated that despite some improvements, it did little to improve on previous Tales scores. The song was released on 27 December 2004, shortly after the game's release, on a CD single also containing "Koibumi" (恋文). The single reached 1# on the Oricon charts and remained in the charts for nineteen weeks.

Rebirth has been adapted into multiple media since its release. It inspired a five volume book series, released from February until November 2005. Guidebooks and art books have also been released for the title. It also inspired a manga retelling of the story, published through 2005. The comics were collected into two anthologies released on April 25 and May 27, 2005 respectively. To commemorate the PSP port, a new audio drama, titled lit. Dramatic DVD Peach Pie Edition; ドラマチック DVD ピーチパイ編; Doramachikku DVD Pīchipai hen, was created. It was released as a limited pre order addition, and contained voice actor interviews and stage videos from Jump Festa 2008.