Tales Of ... series - Vesperia out on Steam

[erickaqua]

Bitch please, Alisha has no personality (and pants).

Do you have some problems with luscious, long, and sexy legs??

I'm aware that Alisha is boring aside from her legs, at least she's not offensive. The problem is everybody in your party can't stop talking about Rose and she's just too perfect.

Paraphrased:
"Oh look how Rose is both assassin and not malevolent"
"Oh look how Rose is an honorable woman"
"Oh look how Rose skillfully tracked down the [spoiler figure]"
"Oh look how Rose make Sorey more proactive"
"Oh look it's amazing that Rose can armatize like the freaking chosen one, the Shepherd."
"Oh look how Rose quickly adjusted to Armatization sickness, instead of 3 day sleep."
"Oh look how Rose's Mabo Curry Bun is a smashing hit"

Ugh.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Not for sucky players like me! I had the hardest time being able to kill some bosses (Had to go down to hard for a lot of different bosses until I managed to significantly upgrade my gear for example).

Go down to Hard? Are you playing on Intense? I wouldn't call going down to Hard being a sucky player.

I just unlocked Intense myself (or at least only just noticed it's there); I might try it out, although I'm feeling pretty comfortable on Hard right now. I'm not a combo-based action combat pro anyway.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Sounds like this might actually be worth a look. I haven't seriously played a standard jrpg like this in ages. Though I recently upgraded my computer so now I've got a shitton of backlog I didn't try before simply because I couldn't despite heavy interest.

 

[Night Goat]

One time, in the original Tales of Destiny, I got to a puzzle that was mistranslated. All I had to do to get past it was try EVERY FUCKING COMBINATION OF FOUR LETTERS IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. I did it though. Took me 24 hours of doing nothing but entering codes but I did it.

 

[Saark]

One time, in the original Tales of Destiny, I got to a puzzle that was mistranslated. All I had to do to get past it was try EVERY FUCKING COMBINATION OF FOUR LETTERS IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. I did it though. Took me 24 hours of doing nothing but entering codes but I did it. That was indeed my greatest accomplishment as a gamer since that puzzle has since been deemed impossible.

And here I thought getting Navas Charm in Alundra was a pain in the ass, this sounds a few orders of magnitude worse.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Anyone else struggling with the companions' AI like I am on Hard? Main storyline battles are easy, but optional/side quest bosses take my entire party down with a few hits because they can't dodge for shit. I'm usually the only survivor because I can dodge most of the boss' attacks, and this feels a bit ridiculous. I guess my party may be underleveled for these fights, but again, since I can dodge and survive, so should they. This also means my main character + the seraph he's armatized with end up getting all the XP from these battles. This isn't a big deal or anything, but it is getting on my nerves.

Sounds like this might actually be worth a look. I haven't seriously played a standard jrpg like this in ages. Though I recently upgraded my computer so now I've got a shitton of backlog I didn't try before simply because I couldn't despite heavy interest.

It's alright, but also not great. Still, it is the only expansive, traditional-style (action) JRPG to come out on the PC recently and it does have lots of side stuff (side quests, unique items, optional dungeons and nooks and crannies you can only access later when you have the requisite abilities, etc.), which I tend to enjoy a lot. Lots of optional boss battles, too.

However, while I enjoy the combat, I don't like the way it is designed. It's almost 100% rock-paper-scissors, especially when it comes to interrupts. The touted open world is so far not really open, either. I guess I'd recommend picking it up when it's at least 40% off.

 

[Arkeus]

Anyone struggling with the companions' AI like I am on Hard? Main storyline battles are easy, but optional/side quest bosses take my entire party down with a few hits because they can't dodge for shit. I'm usually the only survivor because I can dodge most of the boss' attacks, and this feels a bit ridiculous. I guess my party may be underleveled for these fights, but again, since I can dodge and survive, so should they. This also means my main character + the seraphim he's armatized with end up getting all the XP from these battles. This isn't a big deal or anything, but it is getting on my nerves.

Two little things I am unsure you are using:
first, the Titles your companions are equipped with tends to change their behaviour. So caster titles mean they stay away and cast, Melee titles means they get in Melee, etc. Oh, obviously you also want to use the command stuff to make sure they don't mess up too much.

Second, and more importantly, iirc there is a battle action that let friendly seraph auto-rez your squire whenever they have BG, so your non-controlled party members you be rezzed fairly regularly.

However, while I enjoy the combat, I don't like the way it is designed. It's almost 100% rock-paper-scissors, especially when it comes to interrupts. The touted open world is so far not really open, either. I guess I'd recommend picking it up when it's at least 40% off.

Yeah, the elemental/species/arte types rock/paper/scissors are very, very heavy in this game. It's something I have fun with, but not everyone does.

It also means that groups of enemy casters are a frigging pain.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Two little things I am unsure you are using:
first, the Titles your companions are equipped with tends to change their behaviour. So caster titles mean they stay away and cast, Melee titles means they get in Melee, etc. Oh, obviously you also want to use the command stuff to make sure they don't mess up too much.

Second, and more importantly, iirc there is a battle action that let friendly seraph auto-rez your squire whenever they have BG, so your non-controlled party members you be rezzed fairly regularly.

I am using most of those (I had no idea about titles influencing combat behavior though, so I'll check it out). However, it doesn't help that bosses tend to target my companions first and me second (no idea why), so that as soon as one of them is revived, the boss targets them and lo and behold, they're dead -- because they're unable to avoid the bosses' attacks even when I tell them to prioritize defense. I could switch to them and micro-manage them, I guess, but that sounds like a real pain.

Maybe I should just re-build their skills/equipment from the ground up, if I'm the only one having that issue. Or maybe I'm just underleveled since I run past most of the mobs.

 

[Arkeus]

I am using most of those (I had no idea about titles influencing combat behavior though, so I'll check it out). However, it doesn't help that bosses tend to target my companions first and me second (no idea why), so that as soon as one of them is revived, the boss targets them and lo and behold, they're dead -- because they're unable to avoid the bosses' attacks even when I tell them to prioritize defense. I could switch to them and micro-manage them, I guess, but that sounds like a real pain.

Yes, the bosses not hitting you and hitting your party members can be a real pain. My personal guess is that when a party member is a seraph the boss is strong against he'll be prioritized, but I am not completely sure.

Only thing that helps in those cases is stunlocking the boss long enough for the party members to heal.

Maybe I should just re-build their skills/equipment from the ground up, if I'm the only one having that issue. Or maybe I'm just underleveled since I run past most of the mobs.

Well... you aren't the only one having the party members dying issue, I just tend to have them not dead at the end of the fight. However, usually my own seraph is dead and switched out for another one, so Laihla (the seraph I use the most) is like 3 levels behind everyone.

Also, playing on hard when you skip most of the fights is probably not that easy, as Hard presuppose you to have good equipment. It's less "levels" than gear though. Well, levels still do help, as they give minimal stat increase and ARTES.

 

[Red Eye]

Lailah's VA died last week

 

[Perkel]

Played 1 hour, tried combat, seen animu clishes.
Basically jrpg for 12 year olds.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Also, playing on hard when you skip most of the fights is probably not that easy, as Hard presuppose you to have good equipment. It's less "levels" than gear though. Well, levels still do help, as they give minimal stat increase and ARTES.

I've only been using the fusion system sporadically lately. The fact that I don't fight the same enemy enough times to get multiple powerful drops means I don't get (m)any duplicates of the more powerful equipment, which makes fusion occasional at best.

Anyway, I'm almost done with the main plot. I might do some side quests before I beat the game. The combat system has sort of grown on me by this point. It's simplistic and complex at the same time, and you become very powerful once you've mastered all the combos, artes, blasts, etc. The proper challenge on Hard in this game comes from winning boss fights when underleveled and without using items. I've even managed to get several achievements for that which, according to Steam's statistics, only about 1-2% of players have gotten.

At the same time, I still think the companion AI sucks and the way you have to wait for the seraphim to revive so that Rose can be revived, too, is pretty lame (when not using items). I wish the companions were simply better at dodging instead.

Also, I like the loot system in this game. It's a solid combination of hand-placed loot and loot drops from enemies. It's pretty engaging. More RPGs, J- or not, should have this sort of system. The one thing I dislike though, is that you have to fight the same enemy too many times to get multiple instances of the more powerful loot; good for grindfags I guess, but not for me.

If I had more free time, I'd replay this on Intense/Chaos. I feel like I know the combat and other systems well enough for that already, and I've found that my reflexes suck less than I thought they would. However, D:OS EE and TitS 2 are calling, so I'll probably just move on to those.

 

[Saark]

I've put about ~20-30hours in now I guess. Since you've played the game for quite a bit longer I have two questions that kind of ruined the game for me a little:

Spoiler

I honenstly don't see myself changing items very much. My first goal was to get everyone the +20 stat groupskill which seems really powerful to me, but now I am rarely changing equipment at all. Every 3 or 4 hours I sit down for a couple of minutes to see if any of the randomly fused and dropped items can somehow retain this groupskill, but it's mostly just a "it covers the same base skill in the same itemslot, equip" tedium by now.
Also: Playing on hard and except for the rare-mobs that have this dark aura around them (the purple wolf in the fields in front of ladylake, or the bird in front of marlind) none of the fights are even close to being difficult. Does it ever become more challenging than "check their weakness, switch to strong seraphim, go SSJ and whack it till its dead while dodging the hard abilities"? The bird was at least kind of challenging because you didn't have any strong element for him, had to rely on an anti-bird attack to trigger the damage bonus for chain attacks and his mantra that basically killed you in one cast had literally no cast-time. Apart form that, everything just seems... too easy?{/spoiler]

 

[Crooked Bee]

I've found that the +20 stat groupskill gets meaningless at a certain point and you're better off specializing your stat growth. (Your stat growth depends on the stats you prioritize via your equipment.) Might be just me though; I like focusing my builds.

And yes, the main plot is mostly easy on Hard. The optional bosses are more challenging; I had a fun time with those two optional petrifying bosses, for example. Why don't you try playing on Intense and see if it gets more challenging, though? It's not like Hard is the hardest difficulty, so if you're finding it too easy, go for Intense or even Chaos.

Personally, Hard was easy-to-alright for me, depending on the boss (like I mentioned, I adopted the "no items except very rarely" policy and avoided most of the random mobs). I switched to Intense for the fight with Zaveid before the Wind Temple, but my companions started to go down even faster than usual and I didn't feel like micro-managing them, so I went back to Hard. I'm not particularly good at action games though.

 

[Arkeus]

After a certain point, skill-wise you will probably want the fourth and fifth lines (those that gives bonus to SC recovery and BG gain iirc). As for bonus skills, 3-stack gives more BG, and 4-stack gives one more attack in the combo (really, really good). For casters you might also want to go full out in their own element with a horizontal fusion. Can't recall what's what there, but Iirc there is one that gives 20% chance of doubling the damage from that element, which is just nice for seraph.

As for difficulty... honestly I had issues on hard when I had shitty equipment (now playing on Chaos, but my equipment is significantly better than it was). Optional Boss kind of still wreck me, and even normal encounters with caster groups are basically 'run the fuck away'.

 

[Crooked Bee]

I didn't have much equipment and thus not many skill building options available, so I mostly prioritized BG (which I thought was pretty useful for me, esp. against bosses) and simply took whatever else came my way, depending on the character.

I didn't find regular encounters to be that difficult, even against casters, personally, but I dunno. They never gave me enough trouble to the point that I had to run away. You're pretty much invincible in regular encounters when armatized, in my experience, as long as you avoid at least some of the enemy spells.

(One of the obelisks warns you against being armatized all the time, since that supposedly makes you more vulnerable after the combo somehow, but unless I'm missing something, I found that to be bullshit. Unless you're focused on interrupting enemy artes, you can pretty much stay armatized the entire time. YMMV, of course.)

 

[Great Deceiver]

My tolerance for jrpgs is quite high, sometimes I just want to chill out and play something with a cool battle system and some nice music. So I sat down to try some Zestiria today.

But the animu moe shit is turned up way too high, I just can't do it. Game looks quite pretty at 4k etc., but I just can't.

 

[Crooked Bee]

My condolences.

 

[Abu Antar]

My tolerance for jrpgs is quite high, sometimes I just want to chill out and play something with a cool battle system and some nice music. So I sat down to try some Zestiria today.

But the animu moe shit is turned up way too high, I just can't do it. Game looks quite pretty at 4k etc., but I just can't.

I had it pre-ordered but the place I ordered from fucked up so I asked for a refund instead of a new copy. I don't really feel any regrets and I, too, have a huge tolerance for anime tropes.

 

[Crooked Bee]

I dunno, I thought it was pretty fun; I don't have much experience with this kind of games, but in my limited experience the combat system and exploration/secrets make it worth a playthrough, at least. I could see myself replaying it on Chaos, too, if I had more free time.

I don't find JRPG tropes to be any worse than your standard orcs'n'goblins / force be with you WRPG tropes though, so YMMV.

 

[Abu Antar]

Tales of Berseria and Tales of Zestiria are set in the same world, the latest issue of Weekly Famitsu reveals. But the story of Tales of Berseria is set long in the past.

The setting of Tales of Berseria is known as the “Wasteland.” The continent in the middle of this world is what eventually comes to be called “Glenwood,” which is seen in Tales of Zestiria.

Though it’s set in the same world, the world of the past in Tales of Berseria is completely different than that of the future. Place names such as towns and nature are all different from the future seen in Tales of Zesteria, too. But there are also places where you’ll be able to recall the culture and nature of the future.

Famitsu also has some details on Tales of Berseria‘s battle system. Entering battle will follow the same smooth transition as seen in Tales of Zestiria, with further improved control and field of vision. As previously detailed, you’ll be able to activate Artes which can be registered to the Circle, X, Triangle, and Square buttons. Through this configuration, you will be able to trigger and coordinate various Artes based on your play style and the order that you press buttons.

 

[LESS T_T]

Symphonia is now available for pre-order at $19.99: http://store.steampowered.com/app/372360

 

[yes plz]

I ended up finding Zestiria too dull to continue with and moved onto Vesperia for the PS3. That one is awesome.

I'll probably pick up Symphonia. I remember finding Lloyd annoying but I haven't played it since the original GameCube release, so maybe he's not really that awful. Plus, the PS2 version added a handful of new content. Speaking of that, does anyone know if they bothered to go back and voice that new content with the English voice cast?

EDIT:
Looks like they were brought back. Sadly, though, the skits still aren't voiced in English.

 

[spekkio]

Symphonia is out in the tubes. But you should stick to the GC version:

THINGS TO CONSIDER REGARDING THIS PORT

1. The games resolution is locked internal at 720p, no matter what resolution you choose.

2. The different languages are broken, since they used a wrong font and some words dont even show up. Some things haven't even been translated into other languages.

3. The game is locked at 30fps, but some people can run it at 40 fps.

4. It has new typos.

5. The UI still uses PS3 button prompts AS WELL AS Xbox prompts. AT THE SAME TIME. So you'll be seeing two different "X" buttons at the same time etc..

6. Random crashes for some people.

7. Only 6 save slots.

8. Opening the config and save menu can take 30 seconds to load.

9. It uses a DRM that's called VMProtect, that creates a new *.exe every time the game starts.

10. And something to chuckle about. Apparently the one who is in charge of the discussion forums for this port was called "Lazy Mofo" on Steam. After being called out, he changed his Steam name.

 

[Duraframe300]

Symphonia is out in the tubes. But you should wait for a fix:

Fixed