Tales of Vesperia moves Namco Bandai's long-running RPG series onto a Microsoft system for the first time, but that's not the only first for the series with this game. In 1UP's new Q&A with the game's creators, they revealed that Vesperia will also be the first Tales game to have a theme song that will be recorded in English and Japanese by the same performer -- J-pop sensation Bonnie Pink.
Here's what Namco had to say on the news in our interview:
"Also, Tales games always have theme songs, but on this one, for the first time, the same artist is singing the Japanese version in Japanese and North American version in English. The way the opening movie and the music fit together is going to be fantastic. It's the first time our company's done something like this -- though industry-wise it was done previously with Kingdom Hearts -- but it's a first for Tales and a first for Bandai-Namco Games. And today we're announcing the artist for the first time: Bonnie Pink is performing the theme song. Higuchi conveyed the game details to her, and she composed a song specifically for this game, wrote the lyrics, and recorded it in Sweden."
If you'd like to hear Pink's performance for yourself, her latest single, "Ring a Bell" was released on iTunes today. "Ring a Bell" is the Tales of Vesperia theme song that will be appearing in the English release of the game.
We also got some new information on Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World for the Wii. Dawn of the New World will be the first Tales game to employ motion capture technology, giving the animation a much more natural look than we're used to seeing in JRPGs.
For more info on both Vesperia and Symphonia as well as the Tales series in general, be sure to check out both of 1UP's previews.
More screenie shotties for Mai!
