Tales of Innocence

Tales of Innocence for Nintendo DS is a Japanese action role-playing game released by Bandai Namco Games on December 6, 2007. Developed by Alfa System, it is the ninth mainline entry in the Tales series and was designed as a substantial handheld installment rather than a side story. The game remained a Japan-exclusive DS release, so this is the original version, distinct from the later PlayStation Vita remake, Tales of Innocence R.

The adventure begins in Regnum, an imperial capital that has remained secure while war spreads across the world. Ruca Milda, the quiet son of a merchant, discovers that he is an "avatar," a person able to wield a feared supernatural power. His awakening draws him into the authorities' campaign against avatars and brings him together with Illia Animi, another young fugitive. As the party travels through a world shaped by conflict, its members uncover links between their present lives and a much older struggle involving reincarnated souls.

Exploration follows the familiar Tales pattern of visiting towns, travelling between story locations, entering dungeons, speaking with characters, and gathering equipment and materials. Optional guild work adds further objectives: completing assignments advances a guild and can open up rewards or related dungeon content. The DS also supports wireless cooperative play for battles, allowing two or three players to take part instead of leaving the whole party under computer control.

Combat uses the Dimension Stride Linear Motion Battle System, Alfa System's variation on the series' real-time battles. Encounters take place in 3D arenas where players control one combatant directly, move freely around opponents, attack, guard, use Artes, and change the active character. Launching foes creates opportunities for aerial follow-ups, while successful offense and defense build a gauge that can trigger a temporary powered-up state. Players can also tune the behavior of computer-controlled allies, giving the party more flexible roles than a fixed class arrangement.

Character growth goes beyond simply gaining experience. Weapons can be strengthened by combining them with materials, and those fusions can add useful effects as well as increasing a weapon's power. Story scenes and optional Skits provide extra exchanges among the cast, while certain conversations use choices that affect a character-bonding system. Those connections can produce practical benefits as the group develops, tying personal interaction to the game's role-playing systems.

Tales of Innocence presents its fantasy setting with full 3D character models, animated sequences, voiced scenes, and character designs by Mutsumi Inomata. KOKIA performed the opening theme, "Follow the Nightingale," and the ending theme, "say goodbye & good day." For Nintendo DS players interested in a 2007 Tales entry built around party-based action combat, customizable allies, reincarnation-driven storytelling, and wireless battle cooperation, Tales of Innocence captures an ambitious chapter of the series' handheld history.