Eagle eyed fans of the Tales franchise found an interesting little tidbit hidden in the website of the European Union Intellectual Property Office. Tales of Arise Beyond the Dawn has a trademark on file, prompting a buzz of speculation for what this could mean exactly.
Tales of Arise is the latest entry in the Tales franchise and released in September of last year. The successful sales of the game reinvigorated interest in the long-lived series which began all the way back in 1995 with Tales of Phantasia. The Tales franchise is known for its proprietary battle system called the “Linear Motion Battle System” which provides a more action-packed flair to traditional turn-based JRPG combat.
The game was originally intended to reinvigorate the game’s fanbase after the encouraging success of titles like Tales of Berseria and Tales of Zestiria. This latest game took what Bandai Namco had learned from those successes and they pulled out all the stops for Tales of Arise.
Tales of Arise takes place on the planet Dahna, a medieval world that has been occupied by the spacefaring Renans since they invaded years ago. Players take on the role of the Renan resistance, trying to free Dahna from the occupation of the Renans while getting to the bottom of what exactly prompted them to invade in the first place.
The Tales series has released sequels and spinoffs in the past, and Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World has a similar title format to the new trademark. Here’s where things get interesting as far as the new trademark goes. Yusuke Tomizawa, the producer behind Tales of Arise is on the record as saying that Bandai Namco had no plans for a sequel.
So if there’s to be no sequel to the game, what are we looking at? Redditors who discovered the trademark filing have shared their own thoughts on the matter. Some fans suggested an anime series but the trademark filing is specifically for software. So the most likely situation is a spinoff, a prequel (not technically a sequel!), or Bandai Namco simply changed their minds on the sequel.
The EUIPO filing places the trademark under two categories, 9 which is reserved for software and other technological goods, and 41 which noticeably includes “translation and interpretation” services. While Tales of Arise Beyond the Dawn hasn’t been officially announced, the possibility of some kind of spinoff game is too high to ignore.