This week’s Famitsu magazine has revealed quite a bit of new information on the forthcoming Japanese release of ‘Tales of Hearts’ for the Nintendo DS, plus there have been a couple of interesting updates occur on the game’s official website.

This week has seen a large update on both the official website for Tales of Hearts, as well as in the latest issue of Famitsu magazine, Japan’s gaming bible. There have now been two new extra characters unveiled, with the first being a character named Beryl and the other being someone called Kunzite, and it seems that apparently the developer has opted for the gem naming approach. As for what is no on the website, there are some very nice new wallpapers available, coming in two different flavours, one for the Computer Graphic-filled version and andother for the Animation edition of the game.

Below is a translation of the information revealed by Famitsu:

Soma Link
Throughout the game there are various events in which you can choose different options towards another character, called a “Soma Link”. Through certain choices it will cause the outcomes of scenes to change, and the character may gain points towards their “Soma Link Value”. Once it becomes high enough, the character can learn various skills.

Customisation
In the game exists the option “Soma Build”, through which the player upgrades the Soma (weapons) of the party and control their growth. Through using Soma Build, members of the party can gain new abilities called “Soma Skills”. When Soma Build is performed on a weapon enough times, the weapon goes through a process called “Soma Evolve”, in which the Soma will take various new patterns and/or forms.

It was originally thought that whilst Tales of Innocence was somewhat squeezed out of the charts quickly last year by the likes of Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen and the Final Fantasy IV DS remake, Tales of Hearts would have had a clear run this Christmas period, launching in early December with little to no competition. However, now it has been confirmed that both Level-5 and Square Enix will be throwing big hitters onto the market place a couple of weeks prior. Professor Layton’s third game, ‘The Last Time Travel’, as well as the Chrono Trigger DS port are coming at the tail end of November, 27th to be exact, and both may well steal some of Tales of Hearts’s limelight.

The question remains, though, will Bandai Namco decide to bring this third DS iteration of the series to the West this time?