This is supposed to be a year of celebration for Tales as the series turns 30 — but a lack of meaningful announcements seems to be pushing fans towards an increasing sense of disappointment.
As reported by Automaton, it's primarily Japanese fans who are leading the backlash, with the most recent reveal being quite heavily criticised across social media.
For context, Bandai Namco was previously hyping up an announcement in conjunction with ufotable — the famous Japanese animation studio that's worked on a huge catalogue of anime and gaming properties over the years, including Tales itself.
This announcement was teased all the way back in February, and the publisher's been sharing regular countdowns ever since. Understandably, franchise fans had started getting their hopes up.
But as it turns out, the announcement has nothing to do with a new Tales title or even a related anime project. Instead, it's been revealed that ufotable and fellow animation studio Production I.G. are joining forces to create a series of 188 original illustrations in celebration of Tales' 30th anniversary.
Now, to us, that sounds pretty cool — but it's obviously the nature of the announcement, and the hype cycle behind it, that's rubbed fans the wrong way. Again, this has been bigged up for months.
And we suppose this disappointment ties back into what's been a bit of a weird year for Tales so far.
We wouldn't blame you for forgetting, but Tales of Berseria Remastered launched near the end of February. It always felt like there was very little excitement surrounding the re-release, and plenty of fans argued that a remaster was largely unnecessary.
And that remaster was announced just a month after Tales of Xillia Remastered dropped, adding to that sense of apathy. After all, you'd have thought that a Tales of Xillia 2 remaster would be next on the docket — but there's no real rhyme or reason to Bandai Namco's approach, which is yet another point of frustration.
Of course, there's still plenty of 2026 left to go, but we do think the publisher has to more carefully consider how it communicates with what is a very dedicated fanbase. Here's hoping that the next announcement goes down better.
What do you want to see from the rest of Tales' 30th anniversary? Wait patiently in the comments section below.