One thing Namco loves is their Japanese RPGs and in particularly, their "tales" series. The franchise has moved over 10 million units which is pretty damned impressive when you think about it. This year marks the tenth anniversary of the series and to celebrate, they are rolling out two new Tales games, Tales of Symphonia for the Wii and Tales of Vesperia for the Xbox 360.

Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World is set two years after the original tales of Symphonia. A new game mechanic has been introduced that will allow players to capture over 200 monsters and raise them to help out in battle. The real time battle system is back allowing you to switch your attacking character on the fly, even in the middle of battle. The graphics have received an upgrade for the Wii as well with new character and background designs. While there are quite a few changes, onlookers observed that it is still very similar to the original.

Tales of Vesperia will debut on the 360 and marks the first time a Tales game will be presented in HD for in game play and the animated cut scenes. The graphics looked quite nice and gave me a little bit of that Eternal Sonata feeling just not quite as sharp. Vesperia also sports a real time battle system and the ability to customize your characters with various powers and abilities. If you are a Japanese RPG fan, this is one you won't want to miss as I was very impressed with the small portion that I saw.

Both games are set to release this year although there is no hard release date set. make the jump to check out some screens from both of these upcoming games.