Yusuke Tomizawa explains the Tales Of series development progresses ahead of Xillia Remastered's release

Weekly Famitsu magazine had a special feature covering Tales of Xillia Remastered, ahead of its release next week on October 30/31. The segment included an interview with the Tales Of game series producer Yusuke Tomizawa, where they talked about the development for not only Xillia Remastered but also the remasters for other titles and the yet-to-be-announced brand-new series entry.

We have compiled details from the interview, which you can find after the jump below. The remaster of Tales of Xillia, which originally appeared on PlayStation 3, will be available for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam.

One of the key highlights of this interview was when Famitsu asked Tomizawa about how many titles are being planned and developed in the Tales Of series remaster project:

Tomizawa: We established teams with numerous development partner companies. And if we include those from the consideration phase to the endgame development phase, there are more than 2 titles on the track. In 2025 we could announce and release Graces f and Xillia, but we are still continuing to consider & develop the remaster project. If some things could be sped up, some others may ended up slowing down. But even so, I'm thinking that we should deliver many titles to everyone as quickly as possible.

Famitsu: Does that mean you are going to announce the next entry in the project soon?

Tomizawa: Forgive me, but I still cannot tell concrete details about the next entry for now. The announcement for the next remaster title should be rather close... That's what we're aiming for.

The emphasis on "speed" is further reinforced when Famitsu later asked Tomizawa about Tales of Xillia 2 Remastered's status. Tomizawa noted that his team focuses on revealing and releasing titles that are done first, and the Xillia 2 remaster's development is still in progress, so the team is not quite ready yet to formally reveal it.

Tomizawa also noted that the team had to face more hardships the more platforms and languages the games are being made for. But he added that the team strives to have the historical entries playable to a wider range of users with better quality-of-life features, so they cannot avoid those hardships.

In addition, Tomizawa noticed that the current ratio for non-Japanese users in the Tales Of series fanbase stands at over 70%. However, he noted this is not caused by the Japanese user base dwindling, but rather due to the hardware spread ratio in the global population. On the contrary, Tomizawa found out that the foreign users' reactions and affections towards the characters do not differ much from the Japanese fans. So rather than trying to make the franchise more geared towards the overseas audience, the team focuses on the things that make the Tales Of series interesting and fun.

And when Tomizawa was asked about the prospect of the whole series and a brand-new game, this was his response:

Tomizawa: We are fast approaching 4 years passed since the release of Arise and 2 years since its sequel DLC, Beyond the Dawn. In the midst of that, as the development team for the Tales Of series, we are always thinking of a "new game"  and continue moving our hands without any changes throughout the series' history until now. I expect we'd take a bit more time until we can announce a new game, but we are proceeding on its planning and consideration in parallel with various things like—besides the obvious remasters—IRL events and goods. I hope we can continue to create a place to share and experience stories about the characters to our customers in various forms from the 30th anniversary to 40th, 50th, and beyond.