Tales Of ... series - Vesperia out on Steam

[Great Deceiver]

I've started playing Tales of Eternia (Tales of Destiny II as it came out in the US PSX) and it's much more to my liking. Starts out pretty fast, the 2d graphics aren't as offensive, the soundtrack is cool and very similar to Valkyrie Profile's, the combat system seems nice and quick, and more importantly the animu level is quite manageable. Especially enjoyable after turning the voices off.

 

[Mojobeard]

Beat Berseria, took about exactly 40 hours, didn't do any sidequests, and not much of a completionist. Very satisfying, though I liked Vesperia and Symphonia fighting much better. The world also doesn't stay open for very long, there's certain points where it lets you wander and that's it.

Turns out I had that AI bug the whole game, I was so used to shit party AI in these games I didn't even notice it, plus it's less noticeable if you have a lot of casters. Also it's not that big of a problem when Velvet can solo pretty much everything, so much so, that only the end boss made me start using healing items.

The bug is easiest to spot on Rokuro, if he's only hitting an enemy once and then running away, never comboing, it's bugged. The fix for the bug is making virtual controllers for your entire party and then putting them on Auto. You read that right. Japanese programming, not even once.

 

[Reinhardt]

Tales of meant to be played on japanese. Tales of Graces is one of my favorite games in the series, because i played it on dolphin and still don't know what was game about. But Sophie was cute and Pascal too.

 

[Chaotic_Heretic]

Yales of Phantasia on the SNES is the only tales of ___ game worth playing. Play it then play the later games and weep at the

i mean what is the shitty trend for characters to get more annoying with every release of the tales titles?

Phantasia wasnt a masyer piece story wise but it was serviceable and characters weren't annoying dipshits.

 

[erickaqua]

I've started playing Tales of Eternia (Tales of Destiny II as it came out in the US PSX) and it's much more to my liking. Starts out pretty fast, the 2d graphics aren't as offensive, the soundtrack is cool and very similar to Valkyrie Profile's, the combat system seems nice and quick, and more importantly the animu level is quite manageable. Especially enjoyable after turning the voices off.

And I like how the characters are mostly likeable. Farah is strong woman but she's not acting like a butch. Reid is pretty much God-incarnate with tremendous power, but he's too dumb and lazy to use his powers and just spend his time thinking what to eat for lunch. Also he has like 5 Hi-Ougis or something, he's pretty much Superman among Tales protagonists.

 

[Talby]

Is Tales of Zestiria worth it for 15 bucks? It's in the current humble bundle.

 

[jungl]

hell no its one of those rare games where you beat and you want all those hours you spent playing it back. The combat system and story are trash from start to finish. You better off watching the anime if that is your thing.

 

[Emmanuel2]

Yales of Phantasia on the SNES is the only tales of ___ game worth playing. Play it then play the later games and weep

I played most of the 2D ones even the Jap-exclusives and all I've been experiencing are incline except for Destiny PSX and so far my rankings are Destiny DC = NDX > Destiny 2 > Eternia > Keroro Spinoff > Innocence > ToP . I only care about gameplay/mechanics in my games though, stories can go fuck all for all I care.

I've started playing Tales of Eternia (Tales of Destiny II as it came out in the US PSX) and it's much more to my liking. Starts out pretty fast, the 2d graphics aren't as offensive, the soundtrack is cool and very similar to Valkyrie Profile's, the combat system seems nice and quick, and more importantly the animu level is quite manageable. Especially enjoyable after turning the voices off.

Eternia has a pretty underrated combat system, it's also pretty fun once you learn that you can go wavedashing and other technical shit with Max or just combo with Farah. Have you tried the undub version? It makes the game a whole lot better.

 

[Arkeus]

Is Tales of Zestiria worth it for 15 bucks? It's in the current humble bundle.

I'd say yes but it's pretty hit and miss. It did the horrible crime of not caring about the woobie waifu and its a fairly pessimistic game.

 

[Malpercio]

I don't care about the waifu and I think it still a pretty bad game. It really have a lot of issues story wise and gameplay wise.

 

[Crooked Bee]

So apparently this (Berseria) is kind of a prequel to Zestiria? (Haven't read any info on this online. At least from the Eizen/Edna angle, it certainly seems so, but also from some other things, like the invention of armatization.)

I also appreciate that it's essentially a Wizardry 1/Wizardry 4 thing: whereas in Zestiria you were the Shepard Shepherd and fought the Lord of Calamity, here you are the demonic Lord (Lady) of Calamity going against the Shepherd, showing a dark (and a bit too heavy-handedly totalitarian) side to the entire Shepherd vs calamity story. Of course, it turns out the Shepherd is actually (ab)out to kill way more people that you could ever hope to, but so far you're still basically as evil/self-centered as a traditional-JRPG protagonist can get.

This scene cracked me up:

Spoiler

Another anecdotal thing is that just like in Wizardry 1 you descend to the dungeon and then to the lowest floor, and in Wizardry 4 you ascend from your tomb on the lowest floor to the top, so in Zestiria/Berseria too: in the former you begin from your Seraph or whatever village on top of the mountain and go down into the world, and in Berseria (prologue aside) you start out in your prison cell on the lowest floor and then ascend the volcano and fight god and stuffies. But that's probably just a coincidence, not a direct implicit reference.

Also Velvet has stayed pretty extreme so far, which is nice, but she's also just far too emo, which is irritating.

 

[Crooked Bee]

No swimsuit costumes no buy.

 

[Arkeus]

No swimsuit costumes no buy.

They are free though, so he isn't wrong...

Also Velvet has stayed pretty extreme so far, which is nice, but she's also just far too emo, which is irritating.

I like pretty much all the characters so far, but what I'm really impressed is that they are doing a good job of having multiple characters being really important, instead of a clear-cut protagonist and then secondary NPCs. Eleanor/Phi/Magilou all give Velvet a run for her protagonist hat.

 

[Bohrain]

No swimsuit costumes no buy.

They are free though, so he isn't wrong...

Also Velvet has stayed pretty extreme so far, which is nice, but she's also just far too emo, which is irritating.

I like pretty much all the characters so far, but what I'm really impressed is that they are doing a good job of having multiple characters being really important, instead of a clear-cut protagonist and then secondary NPCs. Eleanor/Phi/Magilou all give Velvet a run for her protagonist hat.

I'd argue that Magilou remains pretty unimportant throughout the game and what little backstory she has gets revealed way too late, she had way too much focus as the comic relief character.
But overall I think this game is a very good example of how to do party chemistry right. Group of characters with simple driving motivations and general personalities, relateable characters flaws, lots of inter party skits and everyone goes through some character development. Completely shits on the companions being Wikipedia articles of their respective factions and the player acting as a shrink for them.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Well, technically Magilou is much more important than Rokurou or even Eizen (who is however really important in terms of the Berseria-Zestiria continuity) due to her

Spoiler

Melchior connection.

But in practice her narrative arc is pretty bad, ending all too abruptly (and, as you mentioned, revealed too late). I've been doing the side quests you get before the final dungeon and the conclusion of Magilou's character development narrative is the worst of them all (Eleanor's is pretty bad too though; Eizen's, by contrast, is pretty good).

 

[Arkeus]

Well, technically Magilou is much more important than Rokurou or even Eizen (who is however really important in terms of the Berseria-Zestiria continuity) due to her

Spoiler

Melchior connection.

But in practice her narrative arc is pretty bad, ending all too abruptly (and, as you mentioned, revealed too late). I've been doing the side quests you get before the final dungeon and the conclusion of Magilou's character development narrative is the worst of them all (Eleanor's is pretty bad too though; Eizen's, by contrast, is pretty good).

So, so many sidequests.....

Spoiler

make sure to go multiple times in each city to pick up infos from bloodwings

I actually like the end of Magilou's character arc quest as it implies more or less what she thinks without being too heavy handed. Also, Majelu's art is generic but it seems to be similar to the art of the seraph who was by the long dead poet Mayvin's grave in Zestiria, which is fun.

 

[Lord Romulus]

I'm enjoying the game so far.

 

[Arkeus]

Well, technically Magilou is much more important than Rokurou or even Eizen (who is however really important in terms of the Berseria-Zestiria continuity) due to her

Spoiler

Melchior connection.

But in practice her narrative arc is pretty bad, ending all too abruptly (and, as you mentioned, revealed too late).

Actually just realised there was another part of Magilou's quest:

Spoiler

you need to talk to the woman in loegress and man in stoneburry, then go to Melchios' sanctuary/temple and talk to Grimoirh there

 

[tet666]

CPY cracked it.

 

[Arthandas]

I tried the demo and almost got cancer after experiencing the roll your face on the keyboard combat. Button mashing is epitome of complex tactical gameplay compared to this.
Illuminate me if I'm wrong.

 

[tet666]

I tried the demo and almost got cancer after experiencing the roll your face on the keyboard combat. Button mashing is epitome of complex tactical gameplay compared to this.
Illuminate me if I'm wrong.

First Tales game?
That's pretty much how every Tales game plays at the start it gets better later on when you get enough ability's to form combos.

 

[Bohrain]

I tried the demo and almost got cancer after experiencing the roll your face on the keyboard combat. Button mashing is epitome of complex tactical gameplay compared to this.
Illuminate me if I'm wrong.

First Tales game?
That's pretty much how every Tales game plays at the start it gets better later on when you get enough ability's to form combos.

I think the general consensus is that Berseria has the easiest combat in the series so far, although a lot of it boils down how easy Velvet is to play. There is an actual thought process involved if you play someone else like Rokurou and set the difficulty on at least hard so the game doesn't hand out health absorbation like candy. It's not the worst system out there considering you can make it challenging if you want to and the fights are quick which I can appreciate in a 40h+ game.

 

[Great Deceiver]

Do you play this on manual or semi auto? Why does it even default to semi auto?

 

[Emmanuel2]

Do you play this on manual or semi auto? Why does it even default to semi auto?

I think most, if not, all 3D tales are semi-auto on default.

It makes players to not go "wtf, that didn't hit while I'm obiously in range" when they're not familiar with their own artes/charactters. The only difference between Manual and Semi-Auto is that whether or not you'll automatically move in range of the enemy when executing an attack command. The jump command is also affected, but not every 3D tales actually made jumping meaningful except for Innocence R or Hearts R.

You'll see alot players in good combo videos switch between them and is especially handy when positioning in movement-based/very technical tales of games like NDX, Graces F or Xillia.

 

[Mark.L.Joy]

Cheat engine for 2.5x speed, mob battles visible in the overworld, and real timish battle system meets all my requirements for a jrpg, don't know if I'll finish but the characters are carrying it along.