For my group of friends this series was like watching an anime together and playing a game together at the same time! A special kind of unique experience that no other series in gaming even came close! I've had more fun with a group of friends, a few pizzas and a game from this series than pretty much any other game series I've tried so far.

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The Tales of Series is special among JRPGs for many reasons: real time action combat, engaging storylines, funny skits and well written characters. But for many people the thing that really set the series apart was the ability to play the games together with other people.

Sure it wasn't an all encompassing aspect of the games, you can't play co op in the exploration or many minigames, etc. But in the action packed battles, where the game in my opinion is at its best, you could! And that little difference made the world to alot of people, my group of friends included. Every Saturday for however many months it would take to beat one of these games we'd meet up, get something to eat, sit down for a few hours together and play these games.

Even with the current situation, if you wanted to social distance, you could buy the steam version and still play together remotely via Steam remote play online! We did this on a second run of Berseria and it was a blast! The newest game in the series is clearly still "arena based combat", meaning you fight battles in separate arenas from the exploration portion of the game. This means it's completely in scope to have co op as Tales games have in the past, all it would take to add co op is a locked, distant camera like Berseria and some HUD tweaking. 

Please Namco don't sour this newest release by taking out what many people consider the best feature of the Tales series! It's totally doable even if by a later patch, not a day one feature. I'd even be willing to pay for this feature via DLC if that's what it takes to get it, and I feel like others would as well.

Namco, maybe advertise the feature more if you add it back in! Make it feel unique, talk about the feature on the game box, if played right the feature can really help the series stand out among many other games in my opinion! Some people that otherwise would have no interest may buy the games if they know this is something they could play with a significant other, a brother, etc.

Thank you.