Namco Bandai, DeNA to tell a social tale with Tales of Kizna for Mobage

Namco Bandai has as bad a case of sequelitis with its Tales series that Square Enix has with its Final Fantasy franchise. Marking the 14th (seriously) game in the series, the publisher announced that Tales of Kizna will launch on DeNA's Mobage. Slated to release only on Japan's version of the popular mobile social game network, KLab Ltd is handling the game's creation.

The Tales series of Namco RPGs (role-playing games) always takes on a heavy Japanese anime aesthetic with real-time combat and deep, twisting plots, but Tales of Kizna will have players battle enemies cooperatively using character cards. And since the game will feature characters spanning the entirety of the franchise, we're expecting a much lighter story this time.

Players, as with most social games, will have the option to join guilds and form parties to do battle with one another. On paper at least, the game sounds a whole lot like a mobile Mafia Wars, but with a card game as its combat system. Tales of Kizna is due out on Japan's Mobage network this November, and Japanese fans of the series can pre-register for the game right now.

We imagine this game marks the start of Namco Bandai's joint venture with the social gaming giant, BDNA Inc. DeNA has reportedly had trouble gaining a foothold in the U.S. and abroad with its Android version of Mobage. But to help move that along (as its main competitor, Gree, gets a move on with OpenFeint), the company has reigned in some big time developers. For one, No More Heroes maker Grasshopper Manufacture looks to bring the bloodiest social game to date to Mobage in Japan and abroad.

[Via Gamasutra]

Do you think such a niche RPG will do well on DeNA's Mobage network? Do you wish DeNA and its competitors would bring such games stateside and elsewhere?