Tales of the Tempest

Tales of the Tempest (テイルズ オブ ザ テンペスト Teiruzu Obu Za Tenpesuto) is a role-playing game in the Tales series developed by Dimps and published by Bandai Namco Games for the Nintendo DS.

The game was released in Japan on October 26, 2006. The game was never released outside Japan, though a complete English fan translation is available.

Plot
Our protagonist, Caius Qualls, has been living a peaceful life in his hometown. Unfortunately, his life gets turned upside down when he is discovered to be one of the feared Leymon, a race of wolf-like shapeshifters loathed by humans. As per JRPG norm, his hometown is destroyed as a result. Fortunately, Caius and his friend, Rubia Natwick, flee the ensuing chaos and set out on a quest for answers.

Why It Sucks

 * 1) Bad first impression. The opening that plays when you start up the game mostly uses pre-rendered footage animated using in-game art assets with only 3 brief scenes of anime footage (almost every Tales game is known for having anime openings and cutscenes).
 * 2) Repetitive combat with incompetent AI. Spellcasters, for instance, will usually go for melee damage when in melee range, despite them being able to do more damage using magic. Your allies will also often fail to heal you.
 * 3) Short game length, especially compared to other Tales games, clocking in at around 12 hours (By contrast, Tales of the Abyss, which was released immediately before this game, clocks in at around 60 hours, without counting side-quests). The story also feels rushed.
 * 4) Only 5 party members. Tales games usually have more party members. For instance, mh:awesomegames:Tales of Vesperia has 7 party members (9 in the Japan-only PS3 version).
 * 5) Poor graphics, even by DS standards.
 * 6) No voice acting outside battles. The Tales series has been known for having voice acting. Even the original SNES version of mh:awesomegames:Tales of Phantasia, the very first game, had at least voiced music.
 * 7) You have to use the Tent item to access Skits. In every other Tales game, Skits can usually be accessed by simply pressing a button (usually the Select button. Other buttons have been used, such as the Z button on the GameCube version of Tales of Symphonia) when prompted.
 * 8) The game was so poorly received that, when Namco divided the series into “Mothership Titles” (main series) and “Escort Titles” (Spin-offs, crossovers, and otherwise secondary titles), the game was put into the latter category when it was originally billed as a main title by Japanese media and promotional material.
 * 9) * Though as of 2020, the categorization of Tales series titles has been revised to "Original" (for main series titles and sequels) and "Crossover" (for crossover titles), with this game falling into the former category.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) As always, the soundtrack, composed by Tales series mainstay Motoi Sakuraba, is very high quality. Highlights include Encounter, Confrontation, Difficult Situation, Sincerity is Solemn, and the main theme VS.
 * 2) The characters are good enough that they still appear regularly in various crossover titles.
 * 3) The story, while rushed, is considered by some to be decent.
 * 4) The character designs, courtesy of Mutsumi Inomata and Daigo Okumura, are also pretty good.

Reception
The game was reviewed twice by Famitsu: once in Famitsu Weekly and once in the dedicated magazine Famitsu DS + Wii. Famitsu Weekly gave it a score of 28/40, with the four reviewers each giving a score of 7. While it praised the battle system, which was stated to be more action-oriented than previous entries, multiple points came in for criticism, including poor companion AI, lack of content, and the limited online functionality. They also thought 2D graphics would have been better than the 3D models used due to quality issues.

Famitsu DS + Wii gave the game a slightly higher score of 30/40, with the reviewers giving it respective scores of 8, 7, 7 and 8. The reviewers found the story "appealing", and enjoyed the increased focus on action in the battle system. Points of criticism were the map layout and leveling system. Dengeki DS Style praised the game's opening but was mixed about the battle display and other aspects of gameplay. SoftBank Creative's magazine Gemaga also gave a mixed review, praising the opening song and battle system, but found that the condensing or removal of standard Tales gameplay elements made the game "unsatisfactory" when compared to its predecessors.