Tales of Eternia Remastered Leaked by EU Rating Board

Before Bandai Namco could make the announcement itself, the European age rating board PEGI quietly posted a listing for Tales of Eternia Remastered. The filing, first spotted by Wario64 and reported by Gematsu, was published on April 16 according to the attached date, but only gained wider attention this week. It lists Bandai Namco Entertainment Europe as the publisher and, curiously, only names Nintendo Switch as the platform.

The PEGI listing slaps the game with a PEGI 12 for "depictions of non-realistic looking violence towards human and fantasy characters" and some mild bad language. Its description outlines the story of Reid, Farah, and Keele meeting a mysterious girl named Meredy, whose origins lead them across a dimensional boundary to a realm called Celestia. Standard JRPG fare on paper, but Tales of Eternia has a loyal following that has been waiting a very long time for this.

If you played this game back in 2000 and don't recognise the name, there's a good reason. Namco released it in North America as Tales of Destiny II, a baffling decision that became even more confusing when an actual Tales of Destiny sequel launched in Japan in 2002. The real Tales of Destiny 2 never left Japan, and neither did the PlayStation 2 port of the original Tales of Destiny. The PSP version of Eternia, released in 2005, made it to Europe and Australia but somehow skipped North America entirely. The game's Western release history is a mess, and a remaster that actually uses the correct title and lands on a current platform would go a long way toward fixing that.

Bandai Namco's Remaster Machine

This wouldn't exist in a vacuum. Bandai Namco has been systematically working through the Tales catalogue for years now. Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition, Tales of Symphonia Remastered, Tales of Graces f Remastered, Tales of Xillia Remastered, and Tales of Berseria Remastered have all hit Switch. The publisher announced a formal Tales of Remastered Program, and producer Yuki Ishikawa has publicly expressed interest in bringing back Tales of the Abyss as well. Eternia slotting in next makes sense given the pace.

I'm glad to see Bandai Namco reaching back to the 2D entries. Most Western fans' knowledge of the series starts with Symphonia on GameCube, and the earlier games have been stuck in a weird limbo of bad localisation decisions and platform exclusivity for over two decades. Eternia deserves better than being remembered as "that game they accidentally called Destiny II." A proper remaster on modern hardware, with the right name on the box, is overdue.

There is a real question about quality, though. Some fans have pushed back on the pace of these remasters, arguing Bandai Namco should "slow down" and "put some actual effort in," with the Berseria remaster singled out as particularly underwhelming. That criticism isn't unfounded. If Eternia Remastered ships with minimal quality-of-life improvements and no meaningful visual upgrades, it'll feel like another box-ticking exercise rather than a effort to preserve one of the series' best entries. Features like toggleable enemy encounters, which have appeared in some of the other Tales remasters, haven't been confirmed here.

The Switch-only listing is the other oddity. Every previous Tales remaster has launched on multiple platforms, so a Switch exclusive would be a break from the pattern. It's more likely the PEGI filing is simply incomplete, or that other platform ratings haven't surfaced yet. Bandai Namco hasn't commented on the leak at all, so there's no official word on platforms, pricing, or a release window.

Tales of Eternia originally launched for PlayStation on November 30, 2000 in Japan, with the PSP version following on March 3, 2005. If this remaster does materialise as expected, it would be the first time the RPG has appeared on a Nintendo platform.