“X” writes:
“Wow, all this time and thatโs all the progress you made? Wait to go, The Flash. So, when are you going to abandon this project and start another one?”
Wonder no more.
After much thought, I have decided to drop the Tales of Hearts fan translation project. There are many factors that went into this decision, such as lack of fan interest. Therefore, it pleases me to announce that instead, in celebration of the (somewhat) recent release of Tales of Phantasia: Narikiri Dungeon X, I will be unveiling my newest project, Tales of the World: Summoner’s Lineage.
Summoner’s Lineage puts you in the shoes of Flein K. Lester, the great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandson of Klarth F. Lester, the famed summoner from Tales of Phantasia. He wants to be the best summoner — in fact, the best there ever was. He is ransacking some ancient ruins in search of Pact Rings when the floor collapses and he stumbles upon Macaron, a fairy born of magitechnology, sleeping in stasis and awaiting her next master.
Meanwhile, in Alvanista, Dr. Garrell is spending some quality time with his son, Xex. Xex is a kind-hearted boy, as gentle as can be. Only he’s not the good Doctor’s biological son — he’s a creation of magitechnology. Oh, boy, magitechnology! It’s perfect and stable and it never brings misfortune upon those who mess with it. Never in the history of the Aselian calendar has magitechnology caused any sort of catastrophic problem that may in fact hang the fate of the entire world in the balance, no siree.ย … Wait.
Needless to say, shit goes down, Dr. Garrell dies (oops, spoiler!!), and Xex wants to raze all of human civilization, what with being a living weapon of mass destruction and all. Flein, a plucky young summoner, and Macaron, a fairy, are the only ones who can stop him. Yeah, the world is doomed. But wait! It’s not quite doomed, because Flein can summon generic allies to his aid! Also, other characters join him along the way to form a ragtag band of good-hearted adventurers that will surely put an end to the menace of the evil Xex.
But wait, that’s not all! Later in the game, Macaron will be able to call the Heroes of Time forth from five hundred years in the past to join Flein in his quest!
Yes, that’s right, the heroes of Tales of Phantasia make an appearance in this canon entry to the Aselia timeline series of Tales games. Before you ask if there are any “high ohgees”, though, I should probably warn you: Summoner’s Lineage is an SRPG. That is, you move guys around on a grid, instead of Free Running around the battlefield in real-time like a headless chicken. You can form teams comprised of up to three units, which if formed properly can pulverize the opposition with special power attacks.
As you can see, Cless is taking the opportunity to team up with a couple of lovely ladies. He’s more compatible with them for increased battlefield effectiveness, he says. Mint just isn’t the right elemental type, he says. That sly dog!
What makes the story of this game truly incredible is the juxtaposition of the deleterious effects of magitechnology with the social commentary about how any given technology or creed is only as bad as you make it. After all, if there is evil in this world, it lies within the hearts of men. Macaron and Xex are on opposite ends of the scale, where one wishes to help preserve the world and the other wishes to see it burn to the ground, in order to avenge the death of his surrogate father. The irony of the situation is not lost on Flein, who realizes that the good Doctor would never have wanted the otherwise kind-hearted Xex to commit such atrocities. Interestingly, it appears that the reason Xex hates humans specifically is because they have the power to choose to be what they want, and yet they often choose the path of evil anyway. Of course, this also applies to Xex himself, making him a dark tragic antihero villain in the same vein as those from timeless classic works of literature, such as Sasuke Uchiha. By the way, this post is obviously once again a total joke. Please pretend it’s real if you comment in the comments section below… Thanks! There are heavy parallels between Summoner’s Lineage and Tales of Phantasia, of course. The similarity between Xex and Dhaos is obvious. What is not as clear is the relationship between the hero group and the hero group of old. Has humanity learned its lesson, or has it forgotten it over the long five hundred-year period? Will the Heroes of Time be able to draw upon their previous experiences and errors to guide Flein onto the true path of justice? It is philosophical questions like these that make this game a masterpiece.
Well, I suppose I’ve written enough about how good this game is. Apologies to the small number of you that were looking forward to Tales of Hearts, but as this game has the larger fanbase, I feel it is a better choice.
Please look forward to seeing an English translation patch for Tales of the World: Summoner’s Lineage!
October 2, 2010 at 3:42 pm | Permalink
hahaha that was awesome. my hat’s off to you, man. I definitely missed it at first, as did most everyone.
October 2, 2010 at 5:27 pm | Permalink
Oh you bastard, how could you? I was really looking forward to Tales of Hearts, and after all the work!
On a side note, a translation of this game would kick ass. Since I love those darn SRPGs.
October 2, 2010 at 10:08 pm | Permalink
HURR DURR I’M A BORED TRANSLATOR SO I’LL MAKE A JOKE POST.
This is exactly what you make yourself look like. Now quit fucking around and finish the translation, you have 4/5 of a game to go after fuck-if-I-know-how-many years.
October 2, 2010 at 10:17 pm | Permalink
It’s a disapointment, but things like this happen. Maybe you should release what you have to stop the trollers from trolling for about a few months or so.
October 2, 2010 at 11:34 pm | Permalink
Why start another project? You won’t finish it, as with Narikiri Dungeon games and ToH. Don’t bring everybody’s hope up and then do a half-ass’ed job and abandon the project a quarter-way through. That’s not cool. I’m not criticizing Eizan’s work, I think it’s great that he’s willing to do this for the community, but translating games, especially games such as the Tales series, is an ENORMOUS project and requires an incredible amount of time, dedication, and prestige. You don’t drop a project and start another one and then drop it and pick up another one like you’re picking out sweets in a candy shop like a child. By doing that, you’re wasting the community’s time as well as your own. The ToI patch is an exception, I admit, but not everyone can do it, and from what I’ve been seeing Eizan do, this is definitely not for him. Seven years of Tales, and not even one game translated halfway. Then again, who am I to judge? We’ll see how this new project goes, then I suppose we’ll have viable enough information to judge how he’s doing. Succeed loved, or die scoffed at, it’s up to you, Eizan, I’ll be cheering from the sidelines, and hoping that you’ll FULLY translate this project, and not do what you did to three other projects. Good luck.
October 3, 2010 at 1:58 am | Permalink
HEY YOU RETARD COMMENTORS READ THIS.
THE ABOVE POST IS A JOKE.
READ THE LAST PARAGRAPH. HE SAYS IT IS A JOKE. STOP BEING TROLLED YOU GOD DAMNED IDIOTS.
JESUS. FUCK.
October 3, 2010 at 4:59 am | Permalink
I stopped reading when he said Naruto was a “timeless classic work of literature”. Guess I should have read the next line before freaking out ^^
October 3, 2010 at 8:46 am | Permalink
*sigh* I was one of the many that are interested to this game.. but it’s ur choice to made..
*sits in a corner hopelessly*
October 3, 2010 at 9:00 am | Permalink
wow … people can be so gullible sometimes …
October 3, 2010 at 9:35 am | Permalink
xD i wonder how many of the comments above were just kidding around and how many were actually freaking out
October 3, 2010 at 10:29 am | Permalink
^__^ I love your posts Kaji. But they really do bring the retards out in the open as I’m sure you know. Keep up the good work ๐
October 3, 2010 at 1:43 pm | Permalink
I think you went too far with that joke. ๐
October 3, 2010 at 7:51 pm | Permalink
My heart just stopped for a minute.
You got me Kaji, you clever lovely bastard.
October 4, 2010 at 1:34 am | Permalink
The retards that can’t read freaked out and the slightly literate retards ignored the part in wich Kajitani asks everyone to pretend this post is for real. This entire page is embarassing to read.
Are you planning to make a real update soon or is this site doomed to become a bad joke?
October 4, 2010 at 3:07 am | Permalink
There is entirely too much enthusiasm written above for it all to be real. Still, woo, Tales of Hearts looked stupid anyway. What kind of title is that, anyway?
October 4, 2010 at 6:00 am | Permalink
That was hilarious, you made my wife and my heart stop for a moment there :P. She’s from Japan but has a bit of trouble with Kanji after being in America for so long, so she’s anxiously awaiting your translation (as am I).
Keeping in line with wanting us to comment like this was real,
OH MY GAWD HOW COULD YOU! YOU BROKE MY LITTLE WIFE’S HEART! SHE IS SOBBING OPENLY INTO HER DS RIGHT NOW YOU CRUEL HEARTLESS MONSTERS! YOU HAVE SHATTERED HER PETITE LITTLE HEART, I HOPE YOU ARE HAPPY WITH YOURSELF! WHAT IS SHE GONNA PLAY NOW, TALES OF SYMPHONIA AGAIN? I SHOULD MAIL YOU A GLASS BOTTLE OF HER TEARS! TEARS THAT YOU COULD HAVE PREVENTED! PREEEEVEEEENTEEEED!
There, how was that?
October 4, 2010 at 9:17 pm | Permalink
@Lawl
I’ll tell you honestly, I really did freak out…
October 5, 2010 at 7:15 am | Permalink
XD some people are so gullible…
October 5, 2010 at 10:09 am | Permalink
OMG look forward to this good game…..MY ASS…..
the ranslation was almost complete and you didnt even start it you bastard you better give it to someone to complete it i don’t like the gba tales of games i like well it was nice to have ToP in the collection i did buy this game on japanese only so i can play this on the DS legit but no thx for making me wasing my 40$ i will think of you like an asshole until you pick it up again
October 5, 2010 at 10:11 am | Permalink
I FEEL STUPID SRRY FOR BEING AN ASS ๐
October 5, 2010 at 1:53 pm | Permalink
Don’t be ashamed of feeling how you should, you ARE stupid.
October 5, 2010 at 2:27 pm | Permalink
OH!
The progress bar moved!
October 5, 2010 at 3:24 pm | Permalink
um yeah heres the thing hearts is way better than summoners lineage so if you would be so kind as to getting back to translating hearts that would be good.
October 5, 2010 at 9:12 pm | Permalink
@no worries
Don’t be a jerk… Nobody likes jerks…
@Totte95a
Don’t worry ’bout it I freaked out too… The main thing is to try to stay calm…
October 6, 2010 at 12:03 am | Permalink
haha, there’s a reason why I always read the comments BEFORE reading a post XD
October 6, 2010 at 4:27 am | Permalink
You ruined my life.
You’ll pay for this in the afterlife.
October 6, 2010 at 7:03 am | Permalink
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
The post was a great joke by itself, but the things amused me the most were the whiners’ posts.
Thanks for the laugh Kajitani Eizan XD
October 6, 2010 at 9:59 am | Permalink
I’m itching to say how stupid all of this is but I guess that would be pointless. I suppose Kajitani’s objective from the beggining was to see whiners cry, ass-kissers support unconditionally and trolls, well, troll.
Since I don’t understand your sense of humor, I suggest you delete this whole thing and pretend this never happened. But I doubt you care about a random internet person opinion, so I just ask that your next post be an actual update on the project and not yet another silly joke. It’s getting boring and repetitious.
October 6, 2010 at 10:03 am | Permalink
Okay, I’m going to be honest… I thought this was for real at first until I saw the tags and read it more thoroughly. You had me going!
But it’s good that you’re still working on the ToH translation! And TotW: Summoner’s lineage honestly doesn’t look that bad of a Tales game (and reading your description of SL’s battle system reminds me of how ND 3 did theirs with the 3 units per team and such)!
Good luck to you on both your endeavors!
October 6, 2010 at 4:24 pm | Permalink
But I was looking forward to the Tales of Hearts translation… ๐
October 6, 2010 at 4:53 pm | Permalink
Oh dear, I felt like my heart stopped… And then I read the whole post. >_< I feel stupid now… But oh well, that wasn't funny you meanie. ;_;
October 6, 2010 at 8:06 pm | Permalink
Oh those silly blog entry tags…
October 7, 2010 at 4:58 am | Permalink
Goddammit, I didn’t read the TL;DR part, or even the sodding blog tag.
Well played sir. Well played.
October 7, 2010 at 7:36 am | Permalink
what tag??
October 7, 2010 at 7:47 am | Permalink
mmmkay,…. already saw it.
October 7, 2010 at 9:17 am | Permalink
Wow, your funny…. Its been six months since your last update, and all you can do is post stupid jokes? Clearly this project is doomed…
October 7, 2010 at 4:06 pm | Permalink
Doomed? But … I can assure you that those Summoner’s Lineage pictures are very much the real deal!
October 7, 2010 at 6:44 pm | Permalink
well… a joke is a joke, live with it guys! all we can do now is wait, at least kaji finds a way to make us laugh xD
October 7, 2010 at 11:07 pm | Permalink
LOL… i saw J/K in the tags on the home page, but i wanted to clarify that this really was a “just kidding” and not some other acronym i didn’t know. so i skimmed through the comments before reading it all haha.
dude you are so truly evil! i almost cried!
i look forward to the day this patch actually comes to fruition.
October 9, 2010 at 1:34 am | Permalink
Wow, lol. This was actually funny. When I thought it would be canceled my reaction was ” o___o …” but when I read more…yeah. What made this even more funny were to comments, I doubt some of them were pretending to be angry lol
October 9, 2010 at 3:00 pm | Permalink
I will bet about 80% of these guys saying they noticed it was a joke, that it was funny, blah, blah are in fact those guys that freaked out using different names.
October 9, 2010 at 5:23 pm | Permalink
This post was of an epic level. It’s been a while since i laughed like that, sitting alone in front of my PC.
October 9, 2010 at 9:51 pm | Permalink
lack of fan interest?? you’re just making excuses!bastards
October 9, 2010 at 10:20 pm | Permalink
Fare thee well, Tales of Hearts. I look forward to more… heart-breaking posts like this in the future.
October 10, 2010 at 3:45 am | Permalink
T_T
Oh my GOD how sad! I was so looking forward to this game, too! I mean, what kind of person would do this? You shouldn’t have done this to begin with if you had no intentions of finishing at all. By the way, good one. Actually got me for a moment there. This is so infuriating! What? Now we wait for a few months before some ELSE proposes to start a ToH translation from scratch.
I hate the world. /wrist
October 10, 2010 at 7:10 am | Permalink
well, nice joke anyway kaji… fiuuuh… -,-a
October 10, 2010 at 11:11 am | Permalink
aww im so sad ๐
how about….at least releasing what you have so far…or giving the project to someone else
October 10, 2010 at 11:33 pm | Permalink
Funny. You really had me fooled for a while. Still with this, you realize you’ve ruined any oppurtunity for April Fool’s Day
October 12, 2010 at 8:39 am | Permalink
Wait, what? Does this mean Summoner’s Lineage isn’t going to be translated? Or Tales of Hearts isn’t going to be translated? I’m confused…
October 12, 2010 at 4:22 pm | Permalink
Neither is going to be translated. This whole BS will look even more stupid after he/she/it abandon the project as usual.
You don’t have to worry about a real post stating the project is being dropped, though. Kajitani always quits midway but never admits the obvious drops.