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Tales of Legendia [Unreleased for the GameCube]

The “Tales” series is very popular in Japan and other countries in the world. There is lots of versions from many consoles, such as Playstation, Gamecube. However, there is a version that never have been released for Gamecube. It is supposed to be a sequel of Tales of Symphonia. Here is a scanned picture from a Brazilian Magazine called “Nintendo World”, which talks about it.

some_text

-Scan taken on the Issue 66, February 2004, from Nintendo World, page 13.-

Translation by joaowojcikiewicz and help with some old grammar errors by KooPako:

“Sequel to Symphonia (Tales of Symphonia – GC)

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RPG to Gamecube will have a sequel

Namco doesn’t stop. Just after releasing Tales of Symphonia, elected as Gamecube’s best RPG of 2003 by specialized game sites, Namco announces it’s sequel. Tales of Legendia will be the sequel of Symphonia, its plot takes place years after the events of the original game ( symphonia ). the game will also feature a Multi-Linear Battle system. (a mix of elements of RPGs and fighting games in battles), with 3D simulated graphics. Namco also revealed that the game will have connection with the new game of Tales which is being developed to GBA. More information in the next issues.”

NOTE: The magazine never came with more news about Tales of Legendia in the next issues.
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The game would also connect with Game Boy Advance. Connecting with an another “Tales” game that was not announced on this article. It could probably have E-cards with special items for the game, or use the Game Boy Link to play Multiplayer or something.

There is no other informations about this game.

In the day August 25, 2005, Tales of Legendia was released for Playstation 2.

Thanks to gabrielwoj for making the article, joaowojcikiewicz (for translating the Portuguese article) and KooPako (for helping with grammar) for the contributors! 

Pac-Man Ghost Zone [PSX – Cancelled]

Pac-Man Ghost Zone is a cancelled platform game that was in development in 1996 by Namco Hometek for the original playstation. This would have been the first 3D Pac Man game to be released for home consoles. Ghost Zone was previewed in various old magazines and it seems that it was even shown in some form at E3, but after a while Namco decided to kill the project for quality reasons. As we can read on the Playstation Museum:

We built a playable demo and even though there was some fun gameplay, the game just never felt right. The environments all felt too much the same and it was lacking a sense of grandeur found in other games like the recently released Mario 64. Japan must of felt the same way too – when we flew to Japan and presented it to Namco president Nakamura-San, he was very displeased. As a result, almost the entire team – save 1 designer (myself), 1 programmer (Gil Colgate) and 1 artist (Neil Strudwick) – were fired and we had to start again on what eventually became Pac-Man World.”

Thanks to Celine for the scans! (GamePro #100, Console+ #78, GameInformer #53)

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Brave Arms [PS3 – Pitch / Cancelled]

Brave Arms is an action game that was in early development stages at Namco’s Project Aces team, planned for the Playstation 3. We dont know how much work went into the game, as the only documents about it’s existence are a couple of scans (?) that shown some target renders and concept arts, probably created to pitch the project. As far as we can get from the japanese translation (@ Wikipedia), Brave Arms took place in Gran Rugido, the capital of the Kingdom of Sapin, an allegory of Spain in the Ace Combat series. The player would had fight alongside the local resistance against an unknown military regime.

There are no more info on Brave Arms and it’s currently unknown why it was never finished.

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Tekken (Rave War) [Arcade – Beta]

Tekken is the first of a series of fighting games with the same name, but originally in the beta it was going to be titled “Rave War” as seen in a scan from EGM issue 65. The game was developed by Namco and released at arcades in late 1994 and on the PlayStation in 1995. In another scan with concept arts taken from the Tekken Chronicle book, you can see very old / different versions of several Tekken characters. LeeChaolan was originally a silver haired brute, Nina looks like an Elf, and Kazuya looked a lot beefier than he does now.

Thanks to Celine for the EGM scan!

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Devilman [NES – Beta / Unused]

As we can read on Wikipedia, a video game based on the popular Devilman manga / anime series was developed by ISCO and published by Namco in 1989 for the NES / Famicom. The game is an action RPG where players take control of Akira Fudo and the objective is to follow clues that will lead the heroes through a ruined city, into underground caves, around a hidden military base and finally into a confrontation with Zenon.

John Doom discovered that in the game’s code are some hidden images, taken directly from the comics, which were not used in the final version. It’s possible that these scenes were meant to be used during the fights against the various demons (Silen, Agwell, Ghelmer, etc.). Another shot shows a dying Miki (as in the comics).

Thanks to John Doom for the contribution and to Jason for the english corrections!

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