Brilliant news! This will be a day one purchase for me if it does hit Europe. Fingers crossed Xillia did well enough to convince them to take a chance on Hearts R.
Det, I've seen you post about Tales games before. Why so good?
The Tales games have garnered fans for many reasons. I fell in love with Symphonia on the GameCube, then progressed from there - Vesperia on Xbox, Abyss on 3DS, Symphonia Dawn of the New World on Wii, Graces F on PS3, and I'm just about to tackle Xillia. I only bought Symphonia on a whim while I was waiting for Pikmin 2 to come out and it ended up as my all-time favourite game until Xenoblade Chronicles came along.
I love the visual style - bright, colourful worlds that look like living cartoons, which, to me, are more interesting than the more realistic style of the Final Fantasy games. I love the stories too. Some may say they're predictable and full of usual save-the-world tropes, but I enjoy them. There's a mix of interesting characters in all the games, and you get to know them pretty well thanks to the in-game skits and side-quests that help expand back stories and flesh out their characters.
It also helps that the battle systems are incredible too. It feels more like a beat-em-up (it's programmed by Namco's Tekken team after all), with real-time combat in an arena. Some games hold you on a linear path (like a 2d fighter), while others allow you to move around relatively freely (you still mostly move on a linear path between you and the enemy you're targeting). When I first got Symphonia I'd just switch it on to play an hour or so just fighting random monsters - years before I learnt what 'grinding' was all about.
The soundtracks from Motoi Sakuraba are also a big reason I love the series so much. I have a copy of the Symphonia OST a friend got me from Japan. It sits proudly on my gaming shelf alongside models of Lloyd, Genis and Kratos
So, yeah. In summation, you should really check it out if you like RPGs. The Symphonia collection would be a good start if you have a PS3.