When this game was released in Japan back in 2013 and it looked like a localization was not going to happen, fans grew a bit disheartened. Seeing as Tales of Innocence R had already been passed for localization, almost all hope had been lost. But thankfully, it got greenlit and has finally made it's way over Westward. But not without some sacrifices made to the localization. Thankfully the game is still a great experience worth checking out.

The game centers around a young man named Kor Meteor, whose journey begins after he has a chance encounter with a young woman named Kohaku who is fleeing from an assassin. The Assassin catches up and while the two escape, Kohaku's 'Spiria',(basically this game's equivalent of a soul) is shattered and shards of it are spread cross the world. And of course they need to find them all restore here emotions, and by extension her humanity. Of course this also gets them caught up in a quest to also save the world. While the story is simple and a gigantic tropefest(the heroes literally use the power of friendship to save the day), it's still one of the more interesting Tales stories outside of Vesperia, even with taking the game's script changes into account. At one point the game was supposed to have an English dub, but to save on costs, a decision was made to retain a Japanese-only audio track. This of course introduces some off sync dialog at times, like Kor's name(it was originally Shing) among other things. This gives the game a 'dub-titling' effect. But the main body of the script is still intact, and the localization is still very good, albeit in text form.

The game plays very much like more recent Tales entries, although it fits in more with the PS2 era games. Players move around locations through a world map, and fields are fixed camera angles. You can engage in side-quests, denoted by a yellow question mark thought bubble over an NPC's head. Battles are once again random, harkening more towards the PS1 era. This decision is a bit baffling, as even the original DS Hearts had on-screen enemies. At least the encounter rate is reasonable, and consistent. Combat plays much like Tales of the Abyss or Tales of Xillia, only now with a few twists. Now players can perform 'Guard Breaks' on enemies, and after they become marked, they can be knocked back and take additional damage in a defenseless state. Furthermore, you can use a 'Chase link' be hitting the Square button to instantly warp nearby to pull off even more combos. While in this state you can tap on a character's glowing portrait to pull off a 'Chase Cross' to have an additional combo attack. Finally you can pull off a finisher by holding don the Cross button. These little tweaks help make the game's battles more exciting, and it brings a whole new dimension to making aerial combat a more tenable preposition. Although if you are playing on a Playstation TV, the touch controls have to be emulated, and directing the analog sticks rather than just tapping is somewhat difficult. Not to mention all other controls are locked out when it's engaged. Not a big deal though, as Chase Cross attacks aren't essential for getting through the game. The game also has an extensive AI, but it needs some tweaking to properly work. This leads to some issues.

The base AI script is fairly competent, it can be pretty stupid at times. But thankfully it can be bolstered with scripts that can be bought. These scripts are basically priority parameters that determine more accurately how reliable certain character actions are executed. Thing is, the general Heal commands and the like don't seem to work all that well. Commands that do specific things seem to produce better results. However, this of course brings up several questions. Questions like ?Why do I need to buy these?? and ?Shouldn't the AI be more robust to include these??. The game's difficulty setting also seems to affect ally support as well. They seem more likely to heal you are back off when wounded on lighter settings. And here's a pro-tip: Don't have the healers ever use the 'Conserve TP' settings. 'Moderate' or 'Generous' are fine for encounters and boss fights respectively. You'll thank me  later. 

Despite those battle quirks, the game is still fun to play. It has a fun story, fun battles, and a fun soundtrack(although not amazing). Visuals look good, but are more generic looking compared to more recent Tales entries. Again, the lack of a good English dub hurts. I still managed to laugh at the humorous skits in spite of this, which is a testament to the strength of the script. It just is a shame a dub is missing. At least the Japanese dub is good, for those who might be somewhat familiar with the language. Tales of Hearts R is still a solid experience for Vita owners who are into JRPGs, even if it has some stumbling blocks.   
       
Platform: Playstation Vita, PS TV compatible  

Acquisition Method: This game was a physical copy provided to the reviewer by Bandai Namco Games.