A Tale Of An Unused Touch Screen Tales Battle System

In battle, Tales of Hearts feels like any other Tales game. Shing and company run on a straight line and input special moves with button commands. This system has some differences like an emotional gauge that replaces technique points and a combination gauge that lets you call out cameo characters like Lloyd Irving, but Tales of Hearts hardly takes advantage of the DS’ touch screen by using it for a menu.

At one time the Tales team was tossing around different ways to use the touch screen. The official Tales of Hearts blog has a concept design which gave players the option of using scribble commands for techniques. While this system was original it was scrapped early on in favor of something more traditional.

What do you think? Are the DS Tales games better off using a tested Tales system with a few tweaks or should Namco Bandai try something new?

Here’s what battles in Tales of Hearts look like just in case you haven’t seen them before.

Images courtesy of Namco Bandai.