Best Vita RPG
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While the series' recent console releases have brought some fairly substantial changes, Tales of Hearts R harkens a bit more to the classic Tales experiences, complete with traversible world map. While those changes have breathed some new life to the Tales series, there's still plenty to enjoy from this more classic experience. The plot and world may not be the deepest around, but it keeps the twists coming thick and fast as the series often demands, and is helped by one of the more entertaining localizations that gives a great amount of charm to the story and characters. A return to aspects that encourage exploration and puzzle solving is more than welcome, particularly as it's one area Tales titles have seemed to shy away from in recent times.
The Tales series has been on a resurgence in the last couple of years, and this award shows that it's not all down to innovations in the gameplay. There's just nothing quite like that classic Tales charm that the series always seems to bring wherever it goes. Managing to unleash a huge combo on enemies remains immensely satisfying and even the return of random encounters fails to dampen the spirit.
by Alex Fuller
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