While the Tales Series has become very popular worldwide, not every game was localized.
- For a long time, it was a total crapshoot over whether any given title will ever be localized. As just one example, out of 4 versions of the series' first game, Tales of Phantasia, only the GBA port came overseas, and that version was widely considered the worst technically and the translation much disputed. The worst part is that other companies (such as Atlus) have in fact offered to localize Tales games for Namco, but Namco, with the sole exception of the aforemention GBA Tales of Phantasia and NGC Tales of Symphonia, adamantly refused.
- Phantasia got a release on iOS, but rendered it non-functional 8 months later because they couldn't sell enough microtransactions due to the negative reception from the port. No option to buy, no "Here's a nice present; come buy our other games maybe?", just poof, no way to launch the game past the title screen. Just, wow.
- Namco has released six cell-phone Tales games, but, of course, they haven't seen the light of day outside Japan. By April 2016 however, Namco started to avert this with one of their free-to-play smartphone games, Tales of Link getting a global release.
- Tales of Rebirth, both the PS2 and PSP versions. Because it's 2D. There are also references to (a fantasy) Arabic culture which might have been seen negatively.
- There's also the Playstation 2 special edition of Tales of Symphonia, which was similarly abandoned in Japan. Symphonia, we should point out, is by far the most popular and best-known Tales game in the US, beating out a series of Playstation and Playstation 2 releases despite being on the less-successful Gamecube. This may have something to do with one of the exceptions to the "Namco doesn't let other companies help them bring Tales games over" rule- apparently Nintendo funded the localization of the GCN version. Presumably this included an exclusivity deal (which would only apply in Europe and America).
- The real Tales of Destiny 2, both in its PS2 and PSP incarnations, also never came over, partly due to sales of the two previous games, and partly because it was in 2D and Namco was dead set against releasing 2D Tales games in North America. The PS2 remake of Tales of Destiny didn't come over for the same reason. Made worse by the fact that it is the fourth best-selling Tales game ever, despite not getting localized.
- Tales of Vesperia's PS3 port didn't seem to be coming for the longest time. The reason is very unclear: at first voice actor Troy Baker announced being called to record some new Artes, increasing hope, only for Namco to announce that Vesperia had an exclusivity contract with Microsoft. Later it was announced that the contract was only temporary and had already expired, so there was another reason for keeping Vesperia PS3 in Japan. It's a bannable offense to ask about Vesperia PS3 and its lack of localization in their forums. Thankfully for its 10th anniversary, the PS3 content went westward via a remaster for the Xbox One, as well as the PS4, Nintendo Switch, and PC.
- Tales of Innocence and Tales of Hearts were also left in Japan with no explanation. When asked at New York Comic Con, they said they've considered localizing the Play Station Vita remake of Tales of Innocence, but the Vita's low sales have been disconcerting. At one point, DLC for the game accidentally showed up on the American PSN. Averted with the Vita remake of Tales of Hearts which has been localized.
- While Europe got Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World, Tales of Vesperia, Tales of the World, Tales of Graces, and Tales of the Abyss, they didn't get many of the old Tales titles - namely, Destiny, Legendia and (the original PS2 version of) Abyss. Due to problems with Sony of America's porting policies, they did get the Eternia port (though not the original PSX game), while the same can't be said for US fans.
- The Smash Bros. clone/competitor Tales of Versus has been released in Japan as of July 2009. And despite filling a trademark in the West soon after the release, there was no English release announcement ever since.
- Other titles, such as the rest of the Tales of the World series (including the Radiant Mythology series, which only had its first game localized), the Phantasia sequel Summoner's Lineage and the Tales of Fandom series, are also restricted to the land of the rising sun.
- The original Wii version of Tales of Graces is exclusive to Japan, with the Updated Re-release on the PS3, Tales of Graces F, being the only version Western gamers get to play. Western Tales fans who own a Wii but not a PS3 were displeased by this since Namco excluded the audience they originally made the game for in the first place (and now that the HD compilation/remake of the Tales of Symphonia games are set to be PS3 exclusive as well, despite being exclusive to Nintendo platforms when they were first released, some groups of Nintendo fans wonder if Namco seems to also have a hatred for Nintendo gamers in the West). At least in this case, the Wii version is seen as inferior due to several bugs.
- The DLC Costumes from other licensed properties (Hatsune Miku, .hack, Idolmaster, Toro or Code Geass) were never released in the US or Europe, despite Namco owning the rights to two of those series.
- Subverted in the case of the Idolmaster DLC costumes, as Xillia and Xillia 2 both had those costumes available for download from the PSN for its localized versions.
- The PS3 version of Tales of Berseria was not released outside of Japan, due to the decline in the console's install base.
- With the advent of The New '10s, Namco is finally starting to avert this. Tales of Graces, Tales of Xillia and its sequel, and the re-releases of Tales of Symphonia and Tales of the Abyss have all been localized. As Xillia seems to have proved a surprising financial success in the west, Namco looks to be more committed to bringing the series outside of Japan, with Tales of Zestiria not only getting a western release, but being released on Steam as well, as well as Berseria and even Tales of Link and Tales of the Rays on smartphones. Unfortunately, with the console generation shift, it's all but certain many of the above examples will remain out in the cold.
- However, it seems that Namco is going back to their old practices, announcing shutting down Tales of the Rays global servers with Japanese servers going strong, causing a lot of backlash among fans, especially since the announcement came less than a day after Tales of Link was shut down.
