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"Tales of..." Games for PC - Worth Playing?

Siveon

Bot
Joined
Jul 13, 2013
Messages
4,509
Shadorwun: Hong Kong
After trying out Vesperia I can't help but wonder what I was smoking, because the combat is outright awful. Clunky, awkward, and absolutely tedious when you get to the bosses. Almost as bad as Symphonia.

Characters/Story was a big nothing special so I was just kind of scratching my head at it. I think it is at least 3x better in co-op, when I last played it.
 

Mojobeard

Augur
Joined
Dec 12, 2010
Messages
393
It's a series that I do understand is not for everyone, but that I have a soft spot for. Anime and whimsy tolerance required.

Zestiria and Berseria aren't that great, though Berseria's a lot better. Basically there was some behind the scenes fuckery with Zestiria's development, so Berseria's a big apology for it. But neither of them have classic Tales combat.

Generally the three loved ones are Symphonia, Abyss and Vesperia. Symphonia is what I'd recommend trying first, it's the one that "everyone" played, it has a well executed cliched JRPG story. Abyss actually has some pretty decent twists, don't drop it just because you hate the main character. Vesperia has maybe the best cast and definitely the best main character, but there's parts where it feels like they're railroading you from place to place a little too heavy-handedly.
Their PC versions have some problems.
Symphonia's Steam release is based on the PS2 version which is a lot uglier than the GameCube one, but has all the side content.
Abyss is only available emulated, and there's some funky graphical glitches that can only partly be fixed, I was changing settings in almost every dungeon.
Vesperia's Definite Edition's English dub has a different voice actor for the main character for the added scenes, and I'm not a huge fan of the pirate loli character they felt obligated to add.
 

mogwaimon

Magister
Joined
Jul 21, 2017
Messages
1,079
the best Tales games you should be playing is Star Ocean 2. I also enjoyed Eternia and Symphonia, and what I played of Phantasia when I was a kid was pretty good.
 

Rahdulan

Omnibus
Patron
Joined
Oct 26, 2012
Messages
5,105
Finished Tales of Zestiria today after about a month long break. Jesus fucking Christ, what a mess.

Unlike FF13 I think you could make a decent game out of Zestiria with some changes that wouldn't require massive overhauls. One should keep in mind this pretty much continues the Tales of tradition of expecting the player to replay on NG+ and/or higher difficulty to experience everything the game has to offer. Going back to my earlier post about then ongoing impression nothing has improved until the very ending - you're still overloaded with systems that can be safely ignored on Normal. Shit, I was shocked to see I was progressing normally throughout the game as bosses kept out-leveling me by good 10-15 levels and I wasn't even dipping into my reserve of curatives. I had even forgotten herbs and red variety of said herbs can PERMANENTLY increase your maximum HP and SP. Armatization absolutely makes a mockery out of supposedly challenging fights and I was almost lead to believe retarded party AI was there to counterbalance it because they sure tried their damndest... to die and get in my way, that is. This made me want to wring someone's neck in the final boss fight which is set up to be a damage output race with a short window of opportunity before the boss KOs the party. Trying to direct other character with general idea of "tactics" is akin to herding cards.

Which leads me to the narrative side and why the hell is Rose even with you? It's like the game bends backwards to justify what she does and makes her tag along so Sorey isn't even [more] of a weirdo talking to thin air because normal people can't see Seraphs aka most of your party. It's even worse because she's a more interesting character and made me wish SHE was the protagonist instead most of the time. Especially since Alisha gets simply written out of the story at one point. What else to say? It's Anime: the Game. Expect melodrama cranked up to eleven, power of friendship and familiar character archetypes that never really evolve as they explain over and over and over what we just saw 30 seconds ago. At least the skits were funny. Come to think about it I really didn't mind the characters so much as just how they're in the wrong kind of story. They should be in a zany comedy about round animals and making tall puns, not saving the world from magical depression that turns people into monsters.

Verdict:
Watch the anime and save yourself some ~35 hours. I assume it can't be much worse.

255.gif
 

Terra

Cipher
Joined
Sep 4, 2016
Messages
896
Will they over go back to the classic side on battle system I wonder. Don't get me wrong, I loved the Graces system when it debuted and still enjoyed it in Berseria (which I've yet to finish and the battle system feels a bit... messy after returning to it after a few months) but I do miss the old 2d plane of movement with free run.

Tales games kinda lost me after they left the PS2 era, we have these bigger environments but they're just not fucking interesting to explore and are typically very low-effort visually & design-wise, Berseria was alright but I kinda dropped off it, I do want to go back though and I at least made it further than I did with Zesteria & Xillia. I just want a new entry on the same level as Abyss, dammit
 

Siveon

Bot
Joined
Jul 13, 2013
Messages
4,509
Shadorwun: Hong Kong
After trying out Vesperia I can't help but wonder what I was smoking, because the combat is outright awful. Clunky, awkward, and absolutely tedious when you get to the bosses. Almost as bad as Symphonia.

Characters/Story was a big nothing special so I was just kind of scratching my head at it. I think it is at least 3x better in co-op, when I last played it.
It's a slow roll but the combat does get a lot better, and honestly it is one of the most enjoyable games to just random encounter things. Practice your combos and timing, and you get EXP and such for it.

The story also gets better, not by much but enough. And when I got to play as a certain character I hope Yuri also gets endgame cool moves as well.

I'll try Symphonia again because Vesperia is turning into a low 8, high 7.
 

NerevarineKing

Learned
Joined
Jan 6, 2021
Messages
315
I dropped Symphonia, Abyss, Xillia, and Vesperia. The only one I actually finished was Berseria. Just play Star Ocean 1-3 instead of this series.
 
Self-Ejected

aweigh

Self-Ejected
Joined
Aug 23, 2005
Messages
17,978
Location
Florida
They need to do away with the enclosed "arena" screen for the 3D fighting, they need to do it more open like Ni No Kuni 2 or the new upcoming Trails games (go look up footage for it).

The whole thing where it transitions into a separate plane for real-team fighting is awkward, or at least the way Tales Turd games implement it is awkward. I found Ni No Kuni 2 did it a hell of a lot better even though that game has its own problems (a lot of them).
 

Siveon

Bot
Joined
Jul 13, 2013
Messages
4,509
Shadorwun: Hong Kong
They need to do away with the enclosed "arena" screen for the 3D fighting, they need to do it more open like Ni No Kuni 2 or the new upcoming Trails games (go look up footage for it).

The whole thing where it transitions into a separate plane for real-team fighting is awkward, or at least the way Tales Turd games implement it is awkward. I found Ni No Kuni 2 did it a hell of a lot better even though that game has its own problems (a lot of them).
It's not really all that awkward, it was just a matter of resource management. Having gigantic fields for combat was well above the budget of the games at the time, and the normal JRPG implementation of semi-random encounters makes perfect sense within that budget. dot Hack G.U. did do it at the time but scope of the dungeons were paired down significantly as a result.

Loading transitions aren't great but that's the least of the series' worries.
 

Rahdulan

Omnibus
Patron
Joined
Oct 26, 2012
Messages
5,105
They need to do away with the enclosed "arena" screen for the 3D fighting, they need to do it more open like Ni No Kuni 2 or the new upcoming Trails games (go look up footage for it).

Part of the problem in Zestiria is that "combat arenas" were designed to represent general approximation of the immediate area combat was initiated in. Sometimes this would just be awkward as you'd run into camera problems with it getting caught up on objects, for example. Or that "this is a boss arena" look open areas tend to have in JRPGs. I'm also not a fan of how they made these huge zones dotted with respawning enemies and collectables as replacement for open world. They're simply too big and you never get that genre staple like an airship or something so at some point you'll just start teleporting between save points, feature game likes to arbitrarily lock for narrative reasons.
 

Raghar

Arcane
Vatnik
Joined
Jul 16, 2009
Messages
22,507
the best Tales games you should be playing is Star Ocean 2. I also enjoyed Eternia and Symphonia, and what I played of Phantasia when I was a kid was pretty good.
Last boss of Tales of Eternia killed me 3x. 2.5 hour first fight, 2 hour second fight, 1.5 hour third fight. The final attack always killed me. I defeated him on third try.

Well I killed whole day with that, and playing games 6 hour+ in a row isn't healthy... But it's one of few RPG I finished.
 

Pocgels

Scholar
Joined
Nov 15, 2016
Messages
166
The main draw of the series for me has always been the co-op. If you have someone who likes this style of game to play with you regularly I think your experience will drastically improve. And they don't have to be good, although it won't hurt if they are.

Of what I've played:
Games with mana bars:
Symphonia - Strong (relatively speaking) story, very basic combat. The "first game" for most westerners, myself included. Best music, too.
Abyss - I loved the lead character but many people hate him. Lots of unintentionally funny scenes, and combat is a little more advanced than with Symphonia. Best if you have multiple people because of a unique mechanic in the game. Very low enemy variety for some reason.
Vesperia - Main character I liked that everyone else also likes. Gameplay is the strongest of these three, as well as mechanics and ways you can "build" your character.

Games without mana bars:
Graces - Annoying characters but probably what I'd rate as the best in gameplay, balance, and enemy variety.
Zesteria - The ultimate low point of the series. I cannot think of one thing this game did well, much less better than any other. Worst camera, worst characters, nonsense story etc. Stay away.
Berseria - Like Zesteria, but good. You can mash your way through the game if you want, but the combat is quite fun so take the time up front to learn it and not only will you have more fun but you won't have to fight bosses for 45 minutes because you can't do any damage.

There's supposed to be a new one coming out soon so hopefully they bring somebody over from Tekken or something and move the twenty-second combos over to a more appropriate game but don't hold your breath.

TLDR: Vesperia or Berseria; and play it with others if you can.
 
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downwardspiral

Learned
Joined
Mar 12, 2020
Messages
131
After trying out Vesperia I can't help but wonder what I was smoking, because the combat is outright awful. Clunky, awkward, and absolutely tedious when you get to the bosses. Almost as bad as Symphonia.

Characters/Story was a big nothing special so I was just kind of scratching my head at it. I think it is at least 3x better in co-op, when I last played it.
It's a slow roll but the combat does get a lot better, and honestly it is one of the most enjoyable games to just random encounter things. Practice your combos and timing, and you get EXP and such for it.

The story also gets better, not by much but enough. And when I got to play as a certain character I hope Yuri also gets endgame cool moves as well.

I'll try Symphonia again because Vesperia is turning into a low 8, high 7.

Don't hold too high expectation for TOS. Because it is the early 3D tales game.
Where TOV is usually been considered to be the game that improve the traditional 3D freeline system to the point that it is playable.
In late game, you get to play with some high level combo in TOV.
It feels more clunky because it is the evolutionary result of the traditional tales combo system compare to the newer fast pace combo like TOG TOB.

I played tales series since TOP. I never like TOS. Always felt super clunky compare to the 2D titles during that time.
It is even worse now if you already played TOV, you will miss so many QOL improvement when you play TOS.
I only replay TOS for it's characters. If you expect too much from the combat, you will only be disappointed.
 

downwardspiral

Learned
Joined
Mar 12, 2020
Messages
131
you should go play classic jrpgs that u may have missed due to being too young for this shit instead of trying to find entertainment in these tales of turds games

have u played earthbound, final fantasy 6, dragon quest 7, vagrant story, xenogears, FF tactics, dragon force, shining force 2, lufia 1, landstalker, genesis shadowrun, Phantasy star IV, romancing saga 2, saga frontier 1, secret of mana, etc

etc, etc. I am 100% sure are lots of JRPG hall-of-famers you've never played that you will love to death if you play them now inmstead of wasting time on a shit series like TALES

...but if you want a TALES rec then mine is tale sof PHANTASIA it is the only good tales game and they also know it too because it's the one with the most remakes.

Tales series is always the anime character trope with combo coop game.
It is essentially a fujoshi character fan service games.
The biggest mistake is to play tales game as something classic or serious or something deep.
It is enjoyable when you treat it as a trope game but not a SNES era JRPGs.
 
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