Over the years, I have reviewed quite a few Tales games now. While they have all been excellent so far, some have been more addictive than others, to the point where I can’t put them down to write the reviews. The new Tales of Hearts R is a great addition to the series, but not so addictive that I can’t put it down.

Your characters in Tales of Hearts R come from a variety of places: small town, big city, ancient empire, etc., so they all look quite different from each other. All of the characters you will meet in your travels are quite interesting in appearance. Your basic townspeople are a bit drab and generic, but the main characters, both allies and enemies, are quite unique and very colorful. They remind me most of the characters from Tales of Vesperia in their looks. You can change their costumes when you find new ones and you can also add attachments that you find. When you change their weapons, you will be able to see a change in battle as well, which is nice. Sometimes it’s the little things that you notice.

Like the majority of RPGs that I have played lately, Tales of Hearts R is all in Japanese with on-screen text. I have gotten so used to this by now that it doesn’t bother me. It also means that you won’t miss anything even if you turn your sound completely off, so you can play anywhere without disturbing anyone even without headphones. If you don’t have it muted, you will enjoy the music. I quite liked listening to the various songs that played in different locations. The voicework is beautifully done as well.

A lot of the Tales games that I have played are quite complex from the very beginning. The storylines are masterfully created. When I first started up Tales of Hearts R, it seemed like a much less complex game to begin with. Yes, there is the legend of the moons colliding and ending the world. There is also a very powerful witch hunting down two of our characters, a witch who can kill even powerful soma users. But in reality, our mission is simple(ish). In the process of trying to help Kohaku Hearts, Kor Meteor shatters Kohaku’s spirit core. Kor vows to find all the pieces and heal her spirit. As you can guess, things will get more complicated along the way.

Once her spirit is shattered, Kohaku has no emotions left whatsoever. This means that she has no fear, but also no love. She is just existing. He brother Hisui Hearts is quite upset that Kor has broken his sister. He doesn’t care for Kor at all, as he is a bit overprotective of Kohaku, but he is stuck with Kor now, at least until they find all the shards. Kor has just received his soma from his grandfather and Kohaku has Kor’s mother’s shard. Soma allow their wielders to conjure weapons and use magic spells. Hisui needs one as well, which introduces Ines to the group. Ines presents herself as a businesswoman and sells Hisui a soma at a very high price. She seems to be good at getting the others indebted to her. As they continue their journey, they will pick up Gall, Beryl, and a few others to fight with them. The majority of the game you will have more than four characters to choose from, but not always the whole party. Sometimes they will be off doing other things. Towns are usually going to be safe from monsters but everywhere in-between, you will run into monsters pretty much anywhere. You cannot see them on the map or screen, so there is no way to go looking to fight or avoid them.

Things get a lot more complicated than just trying to fix Kohaku. Kohaku is a very special girl. She quite possibly contains the key to saving the entire world, which means that both the church and the army, both of whom hate each other, are going to want to control her. In a world where almost no one trusts anyone else, this small group is going to have to band together to try and save it.

On the whole, I find Tales of Hearts R to be on the easier side. So far, I have only run into one boss battle that I lost and had to retry. For the most part, I don’t have to concentrate much at all to beat the enemies. I can simply run to wherever I am supposed to go next, killing things relatively easy enough on the way, and advancing the story. The game is also very good about telling you exactly where you need to go next, so even I (who tends to get lost continually) got lost a minimal amount of times. If you do find things too difficult, you can run around and kill monsters to level up. You can also buy better armor to keep you alive longer. If you are finding things too easy, I guess you could use a less powerful weapon. You could also change main characters as you do not have to fight solely as Kor.

Weapons are interesting in Tales of Hearts R. You do not buy them anywhere. Instead, as you level up your soma, you will get new weapons. If you want your characters to become their most powerful, I recommend developing your soma carefully. Developing your soma also raises your stats and unlocks skills. Personally, I found developing the soma evenly worked pretty well. Some things are only unlocked when you have the stats next to each other leveled up together, so I liked keeping things pretty even.

Tales of Hearts R plays pretty much like the rest of the Tales games, with a few minor changes. Your basic attack is quite handy. It will hit the enemy and will raise your TP counter. (X) is your basic attack. Once you have the TP, you can use it by pressing (O) to perform an arte. You can assign various artes at once. I recommend getting to know them well and figuring out which you wield best. (Square) will let you guard. Personally I’m never a fan of guarding much, so I tend to attack more. (Triangle) will bring up your Battle Menu. Here you can do things like cast specific artes and choose items to use. Once you choose an item, you can choose which character will use it. You can use the D-pad buttons to run. The Left Stick will also let you run, but it does a free run rather than targeting the enemy while running. These are just the basic controls. There are a lot more advanced controls, like using a combination of the arrow keys plus buttons, (L1) and (R1), and sometimes holding down keys. It is a bit confusing and sometimes I would have to think a second to remember how to do something, but the game does a great job of introducing the new controls slowly so that you can get the hang of everything.

On the whole, I have quite enjoyed playing Tales of Hearts R. I have not beaten the game yet, but I have found that things are quite a bit more complex than they seem. I am not sure how much more I have to go in the story, but it is one I want to finish as soon as I can! If you’re a fan of the Tales series or just looking for a good RPG this holiday season, check out Tales of Hearts R on the PSVita. You can take it with you wherever you go and avoid relatives!