Tales of Innocence and Hearts: what changed from DS to Vita?

Tales of Innocence (December 6, 2007, Nintendo DS, developed by Alfa System) sent reincarnated gods to war in a world of floating ruins, with Inomata designs and full 3D battles on a handheld. Its remake, Tales of Innocence R for PlayStation Vita (January 26, 2012), rebuilt the game wholesale, adding new party members Kongwai Tao and QQ Seebach and reworking the story around them. Neither version has ever been released in the West, making Innocence the only mothership title with two full editions and no English release of any kind.

Tales of Hearts (December 18, 2008, Nintendo DS) carries the series' strangest version fork. It shipped in two editions of the same game: the Anime Movie Edition, whose cutscenes are 2D animation by Production I.G, and the CG Movie Edition, whose cutscenes are computer graphics by Shirogumi. Same cartridges' worth of game, two different films inside, and collectors have chased both boxes ever since.

Hearts also got the full remake treatment. Tales of Hearts R (Vita, Japan March 7, 2013) rebuilt it with a new battle system, full voice acting and a new party member, the monk Gall Gruner. This time the game crossed: North America received Hearts R on November 11, 2014, with the physical edition sold exclusively through one major games retailer, a distribution quirk that made the boxed copy scarce from the start.

Read together, the pair shows the remake era's lottery. Two sibling games, two rebuilds of similar quality, and opposite Western fates decided by timing and retail math rather than merit. Their Japanese guidebooks cover both the DS originals and the Vita rebuilds, a paper record of four editions where English has one.