The main reason for this post is to announce that Tales of Destiny R is no longer on hiatus! Of course, the resumption of the project doesn’t mean that Destiny’s completion is right around the corner or anything. Tales of Phantasia remains the top priority for Phantasian Productions and I’m still distracting myself with several other translation projects as well. (For more information on ToP and ToD2, Cless has given a detailed update on his site.) Cless is currently working on whipping the Destiny script into a format that will make life easy on all of us from the translation stage through the final editing. For my part, I really need to replay refamiliarize myself with Tales of Destiny before I dive into translating the main script. The menu translation is at a fairly advanced stage, so most of the brute force translation is finished. For me, the script translation typically requires more finesse than the menu and I’m sure Destiny will be no exception. Only time will tell exactly how the project will progress, but for now, I’m thrilled to be able to get it back on its feet.

In other random news:

• Tales of Innocence R looks… okay. I’m interested to see what they do with it. There’s no doubt that Tales of Innocence left a lot of room for improvement. I’m not loving the ToIR battle videos. Looking much too Radiant Mythology for my tastes. I won’t issue final judgement until I actually get to try it for myself, of course. I’ll almost certainly be picking up a Vita regardless.
• Tales of Innocence’s v1.1 patch is increasingly looking like it may meet the ToP v1.1 patch’s fate of eternal purgatory. Is anyone still waiting for an updated ToI patch?
• Tales of Graces’ English localization is supposedly complete. I’m very interested in seeing the results. Personally, the first thing I’m going to do is buy a strategy guide and see what they did with all of the series character names in Carta. Graces is not my favorite game in the series, but with 8-4 on the job, I have high hopes that the localization will allow me to love it in a new way. And, of course, I’m all about supporting the Tales series in any way I can. Everybody get out there and buy it when it’s released!
• Tales of Xillia keeps tempting me, but the recent announcement that content was cut almost surely signals that Xillia R isn’t far off. I’ll probably be holding out for that.
• Skyrim is amazing. I can and did spend pretty much all of my free time playing it since it came out. Looking forward to seeing the modding scene explode when the construction set comes out.
• One Piece is as great as ever. The Hunter X Hunter remake has been excellent so far.
• Friendship is magic.

Hearing Rich talk about community is enough to get me really excited as a Tales fan. He wants to get people excited about Graces so that it’s a huge success. Graces is the first step in helping convince Namdai that Tales fans are here to stay. So we’re helping to spread the word. And we’re here to listen. Rich really wants to hear what fans have to say and Tempus and I are able to help span that gap between Namdai and the fans. This is the kind of interaction and attention that Tales fans have been seeking for years.

So what exactly do we do as community managers? Part of it is just being involved with the community and taking the pulse of the fanbase. Rich wants to know what people are talking about, so by staying involved, we can help him stay in touch with the fans of the series. Part of it is getting people excited about Tales – that Tales Union contest was something that we planned. Rich said he wanted something to bring people together. He provided the prizes, and we provided the chance for people to get involved. We hope to run more contests and give out more great prizes going forward. Fan passion was a big part of what got us Tales of Graces in the first place, so keeping that passion focused in a meaningful way is the best way to ensure the success of the game and the series. And part of it is helping to plan how Tales of Graces and the Tales Series is presented at a higher level.

This was a chance I jumped at – a chance to support the series I love in an even more meaningful way. That doesn’t mean that just because I acquired the Community Manager title that I’ve lost the Translator title. I will continue working for the community in the same way that I always have, I’ve just added some additional ways that I can help ensure that Tales finds the international success that it deserves. My goal remains the same it always has been – help fans outside Japan get access to more Tales games. So, I’m on Facebook, I’m on Twitter, I’m on AIM (throughhim413), I’m on my own website and forum, obviously – if you’ve got something you want to say, give me a shout. We’re always looking for great ideas to help support the Tales series, so if you’ve got some, share them!

But first, the news: A Tales of Graces f English localization has been announced! Just when it seemed like the series was down for the count, it bounced back! Thanks to Namdai for making this happen and to all the fans who passionately petitioned them for it. As a result, the Tales of Graces Fan Translation has made the difficult decision of halting work on both the Wii and PS3 Graces translations. It’s not easy for a team that worked so hard on a game to give it up, but the staff agreed that we wanted to support the official localization as best we could. I was proud to see everyone come together in making that decision as I was to be a part of the project while it lasted. So why was I talking about being ashamed to be a Tales fan?

Following the almost miraculous announcement of Tales of Graces for localization, people immediately started asking about Vesperia PS3. Some of it was just innocent curiosity after the tease on ataleoftworichards, but others were clearly upset that Graces had been announced and not their game of choice. Guys, honestly? There’s nothing wrong with wanting Vesperia PS3 or any other Tales game. We all have different tastes and preferences when it comes to what we’d like to see localized. Personally, I’d love to see all of them localized. But can’t we at least appreciate and celebrate what we’ve been given? To do otherwise just seems to horribly ungrateful. We’re better than that. Let’s prove that by getting out and supporting Tales of Graces f with our purchases when it’s released. This decision came about because of passionate fans, but we can’t be content with that. This is our chance to help fuel a revival of the Tales series in the West.

Second source of disappointment… On the forum, there were all of these comments begging the Graces team to continue the fan translation of Graces (mainly the Wii version). Let me be very clear on my opinion on this if I haven’t been previously: Fan translations are not here to replace official localizations. Likewise, I don’t believe it’s our place to compete with them. I have always worked on every project with the stance that if an official localization is announced or if a company asks me to halt a project, I would do the right thing and stop the project. That is how the traditional fan translation community has always operated. As an unofficial translator, I am fully aware that all of my work could be for naught at any moment. However, I would nonetheless see an official localization as a blessing and welcome it. I am surprised that fans seemed to have different expectations. A number of people expressed what I can only describe as a sense of entitlement to a Graces fan translation because they had purchased a Japanese copy of the game. While I can sympathize with those now faced with the decision of buying a second copy of the same game, no one ever forced you to buy it. When you made that purchase, you had to weigh the benefits with the risk that the patch would never be completed for one reason or another. Considering the number of projects that are never completed due to lack of interest or dedication, I think that one that ends because we’re getting something even better is still worth celebrating. The fact that there are two versions of Graces doesn’t change the math. The Graces team made the right decision in deciding to halt both projects at this time. Our first responsibility is to support the series that we love. If all we do is clamor loudly and then fail to show up at the crucial moment, we’ll just prove to Namdai that they were right about not localizing all along.

When Namdai steps up and localizes a game, we all win. And when that doesn’t happen, we have a strong (although young) fan translation community to fall back on. From where I’m standing, the future of the Tales series in the West looks bright. As for Graces, I’ll be picking up a copy on day one. (Namdai, if you include all of the DLC costumes and such as extras, I’ll buy three!)

An updated Tales of Innocence will be coming at some point. Our intention is to make this the only update to the patch unless it becomes possible to fix the multiplayer somewhere down the line. All of the fixes will be minor grammar issues and bug fixes. There was only one crash discovered and it only occurs in association with a few of the ultimate recipe events. None of the issues were critical, so we didn’t feel it was worth delaying other projects to work on the v1.1 patch immediately. That being said, if you encountered any spelling, grammar, or technical issues that we haven’t been informed of, please do let us know about them so that we can fix them for the updated patch. Eventually we’ll get around to finishing the fixes, though Kingcom wants to get some other projects out the door first and I’m working on several others anyway.

If you follow the Tales of Graces project, you may have seen the announcement that I will be helping on their project. I will be checking the translation and hopefully continuing to assist with the localization process through the editing phases. I had started my work, but after doing a portion of the game’s introduction, decided that my initial belief that I could check the translation without having played the game was misguided. While it’s easy to ensure that a Japanese translation is correct, I can’t ensure that the game is being localized without context. So I bought the game and I’m currently waiting for it to arrive. I am currently taking a break from the translation check for now since anything I do now would need to be rechecked when I had the game anyway. It will take more work and more time, but a real localization is worth the effort it takes to get there. I want to do everything I can to help the project achieve its full potential. Other members of the Tales fan community are also lending a hand to help maintain continuity and quality with the rest of the series and the relevant fan projects.

Tales of Destiny is still on the backburner for now. Well, not completely. I am poking at it from time to time. But as previously announced, work on the project won’t really get back up to speed until both Absolute Zero’s Tales of Innocence and Phantasian Productions’ Tales of Phantasia project are complete. I have plenty of work to do on other projects as-is, so I’m thankful I don’t have two projects in full swing at the same time. Even if Phantasia were done right now, I wouldn’t be able to do any more on Destiny than I already am. When I do get back to this project, I want to give it the attention it deserves.

Things are busy, but fun. Regardless, Absolute Zero isn’t going anywhere any time soon. Hopefully we’ll have your continued support in the future.