Bandai Namco announced that it will end online services for Tales of the Rays in Japan and release its offline version on July 23, 2024. Existing players of the game will be able to re-watch story episodes they have seen and enter battles with characters they have collected during the run.
Tales of the Rays first launched in Japan on February 28, 2017. Bandai Namco also released a global version in July 2017, but it abruptly shut the latter down in less than a year in May 2018. The Japanese release continued on, and it gradually received crossover content from external titles like God Eater, Scarlet Nexus, Slayers, and Xenosaga. With the closure date set for July 23, 2024, the Japanese mobile game will have a total lifespan of almost seven-and-a-half years—or to be more precise, 2703 days.
Bandai Namco has also published roadmap schedules in Japanese that lead up to the offline version’s release. Once the game goes offline, existing players will no longer be able to make any content updates, such as enhancing characters, gathering items, and editing their own profiles. However, there will still be some playable stages, which include Cress Albane’s dojo stage.
In addition, Bandai Namco is working with Movic to release a Memorial Book bundle that compiles every illustration made for the mobile game in Fall 2024. The set will contain two books with around 600 pages in total. It will cost 13,200 yen (~$84.50), and pre-orders are immediately available until July 31, 2024.
Tales of the Rays is available on Android and iOS mobile devices in Japan until July 23, 2024, at 11 AM JST. The offline version of Tales of the Rays is available to download until October 22, 2024, at 12 PM JST, but it will only be accessible to those who have played the Japanese online mobile release.
Published: May 21, 2024 10:30 am