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Tales (video game series)

video game series

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 17, 2026
Entity authorityQ1193867
Source-derived summary

The Tales series is a franchise of fantasy role-playing video games published by Bandai Namco Entertainment (formerly Namco), and developed by its subsidiary, Namco Tales Studio until 2011 and presently by Bandai Namco Studios. First begun in 1995 with the development and release of Tales of Phantasia for the Super Famicom, the series currently spans 17 main titles, multiple spin-off games and supplementary media in the form of manga series, anime series, and audio dramas.

While entries in the series generally stand independent of each other with different characters and stories, they are commonly linked by their gameplay, themes and high fantasy settings. The series is characterized by its art style, which draws from Japanese manga and anime, and its action-based fighting system called the "Linear Motion Battle System". Multiple people have become linked with the series, including character designers Kōsuke Fujishima and Mutsumi Inomata, producers Hideo Baba and Makoto Yoshizumi, and composer Motoi Sakuraba. The series was created by Yoshiharu Gotanda.

Most of the main Tales games have been localized for North America and Europe, although almost none of the spinoff titles have been released abroad. While generally seen as a niche series in English-speaking regions, Tales is considered to be among the most important JRPG franchises in Japan. The series has been gaining popularity in the West since the release of Tales of Symphonia, which is still considered one of its most popular games. As of 2024, the series has shipped over 30 million copies.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Tales (video game series)” as video game series. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Tales, video and game.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2011, 1995, 2024—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Tales, video and game providing the first useful test.
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A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Tales (video game series)”, the useful work is to connect “video game series” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1193867. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2011, 1995 and 2024.

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Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Tales (video game series)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.