Tales of Series

[Lazzie]

Dude, off-topic, but not all JRPGs are long. Try Chrono Trigger or something.

And I still don't know why so many Tales fans have such a hardon for ToS. Maybe because it was the first for many of them? I dunno. I still prefer Phantasia, Eternia, and Vesperia to Symphonia. I'm tempted to check out the Narikiri Dungeon X / Phantasia X PSP game, but my lack of Japanese skills hurts.

[Darkstorm]

Vesperia is the best of the ones I've played.
(Phantasia, Destiny, Eternia, Symphonia, Radiant Mythology).

I still need to play the symphonia sequel, legendia & abyss. They've been on my "to play" for years. Doesn't help that my backlog is three figures these days.

[Lazzie]

Vesperia's fabulous. I don't own it (or a 360), but I played all of it in multiplayer with some college buddies a year or two ago. I was really, really impressed. What a good, modern series Tales has become. I wish my old standby Final Fantasy was as good nowadays....

Oh, and a lot of people hate on Legendia (and they have good reasons), but I can't. I really liked it. Senel's the best brawler in series history, so much so that they have the new Fighter costume in the modern handheld spinoffs based more on him than any of the other martial artists in the series. If you have a Senel/Chloe frontline you can rack up 100+ hit combos like it's nothing. If his awesome throw finishers didn't reset, he would cross the line from overpowered to broke.

[Hiroy]

I need to play Vesperia when I get around getting a PS3. I didn't buy it because earler because I wasn't a fan of the cheap cel shading... The animations in the battle system looked great however.

I have some questions though. This is about technical details and difficulty. I would ask on GameFAQs, but some of the fans there are assholes.

-Are the enemy mobs balanced in a way that the combat system doesn't overpower them? You know, are they punching bags despite looking intimidating? This was the mian problem I had with Symphonia. Enemies had similar behaviors, and they never were a threat or challenge to the party. It didn't help that the game had different enemy types without any variation from threatening to least threatening. As silly as it sound, this is an element I look for in any RPG.

-How's the weight physics? Do all enemies have the same floaty weight or is there actually a weight system?

-One thing I didn't like about Symphonia was the requirements to activate particular Hi-Ougis. Like use a spell 500 times to use a powerful version of the spell once it hits 500(and you can never use it agian until you cast it 499 more times). That was plain silly, though I did heard this system was changed port. Is it in this game?

-How's post game(like bonus events before the final boss)? I haven't played a game with fun things to do after the main story since Star Ocean 2, Star Ocean 3, Star Ocean Blue Sphere, Resonance and Fate and FFX. While Symphonia's style of post-game was good, I felt as if they didn't push hard enough, especially considering that the max level was 255.

I may have other questions, but that's about that.

[stephen]

Are you asking about Vesperia or Graces F?

[Hiroy]

Vesperia .

[kryptonite]

I feel the battle system in Vesperia is even more broken... Once you get Overlimit, you can get a period of infinite combos/instant spells, and late in the game, you can do it without overlimit through tension skills, or use Rita and set others to "spam taunt" while you spam violent pain on big bosses and tidal wave on every horde and watch them die. At the beginning of the game, though, it's fine. You move and attack slowly, for one...

There was a weight system in both ToS and ToV... although in ToS only a few things were actually heavy (dragons, some bosses >_>). It's like this in ToV...

ToS GCN's most restrictive hi-ougi was probably Lloyd's 14% HP while equipping the Material Blades after getting the Eternal Sword while holding Attack, Guard, and Tech/Arte... Or Colette's random one. Genis's just needed 50 uses of Indignation and Overlimit... (although the port had the everyone else but you is dead, use an arte 200 times, be at 14% HP, use a skill that doesn't even always work, in Overlimit, and then use the arte)

Post game is similar to ToS's... You don't have to grind (I find this a good thing).

[Hiroy]

It's not like I never needed to grind in the games I mentioned. It's just the games gave valid opportunities to do so in dungeons that offered powerful enemies with high EXP gain to balance out the max level system(otherwise level 255 should not even exist). Of course, max level is optional. There are people that beat the super-bosses at level 1 given the right setup.

Thanks for the answers. I'm curious about Graces F too.

[Silence]

Tales games are the easiest RPGs to grind in, especially the ones that have an auto battle for the first character available. (Except Destiny II JP lol)

Grab turbo controller and a paper weight with a rubber band to make the analog stick stick. Use another rubber band on the trigger button which makes the screen rotate.

Go to world map, Go to town. :3

[Chronon]

I feel the battle system in Vesperia is even more broken... Once you get Overlimit, you can get a period of infinite combos/instant spells, and late in the game, you can do it without overlimit through tension skills, or use Rita and set others to "spam taunt" while you spam violent pain on big bosses and tidal wave on every horde and watch them die. At the beginning of the game, though, it's fine. You move and attack slowly, for one...

I don't think that makes the battle system of Vesperia broken. You have to play the game for quite a while and even then, most players are not going to figure out that combo. I think I'd put that in the catagory of "Easy to learn, difficult to master."

[Lazzie]

I don't think that makes the battle system of Vesperia broken. You have to play the game for quite a while and even then, most players are not going to figure out that combo. I think I'd put that in the catagory of "Easy to learn, difficult to master."

...Not really. Compared to link combos in SF4 or even basic canceling techniques in other fighting games and almost-fighting-games, Tales combos are pretty easy. It's more like "easy to learn, difficult to fulfill the silly requirements to learn the most advanced Artes, easy to master."

[Darkstorm]

Yup. Hitting all the artes X number of times to get the various advanced artes and levelling those up, etc etc, is the most boring thing about Tales games.

[Chronon]

...Not really. Compared to link combos in SF4 or even basic canceling techniques in other fighting games and almost-fighting-games, Tales combos are pretty easy. It's more like "easy to learn, difficult to fulfill the silly requirements to learn the most advanced Artes, easy to master."

Well there is also the simple solution of just not wasting your time doing super cheap combos and actually playing with the intent of having fun. You don't have to grind the hell out of every RPG.

[Lazzie]

Well there is also the simple solution of just not wasting your time doing super cheap combos and actually playing with the intent of having fun. You don't have to grind the hell out of every RPG.

...what? When did I say I grind the hell out of every RPG*, let alone every Tales game? All I said was that the combo system in Tales games (especially recent ones) is really easy; it's unlocking the crazy shit that's difficult, or at least time consuming. I've actually never pulled off any Mystic Artes / Extensions in any Tales game other than Vesperia because the requirements were so silly.

*On this subject: it really depends on the RPG. I will grind the JAYZUS out of some RPGs, and burn through others without any endgame shenanigans at all. 100% depends on the game. The only Tales game where I actually completed most or all of the major endgame sidequests was Phantasia, I think.

[Chronon]

...what? When did I say I grind the hell out of every RPG*, let alone every Tales game? All I said was that the combo system in Tales games (especially recent ones) is really easy; it's unlocking the crazy shit that's difficult, or at least time consuming. I've actually never pulled off any Mystic Artes / Extensions in any Tales game other than Vesperia because the requirements were so silly.

*On this subject: it really depends on the RPG. I will grind the JAYZUS out of some RPGs, and burn through others without any endgame shenanigans at all. 100% depends on the game. The only Tales game where I actually completed most or all of the major endgame sidequests was Phantasia, I think.

To get the REALLY cheap moves in Vesperia you need to grind... A LOT that was what I'm referring to, sorry. To be honest I prefer that easy battle system. It lets my friends join me without much struggle.

[Lazzie]

Anyone here played Tales of Innocence? I recently obtained a flashcart and within 24 hours I should be playing a ROM of it using AbsoluteZero's translation patch. Dunno much about the game, so if you have an opinion, fire away.

[stephen]

It's okay but not great. The DS tales games run on a very strict chronological axis of quality.

Hearts (latest) >>>>>>>>>>>> Innocence (middle) >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> Tempest (first)


Hearts is a really good game, one of the best RPGs on the DS (which at this point in time, is kind of saying something)

[Lazzie]

Sounds good to me. I heard that Innocence was good, but a step below a full-blown console Tales game in size and elaborateness. I look forward to playing it, and also hopefully playing Hearts if and when it gets a translation patch.

[The Beast]

Lately, after playing several different very different RPGs in a row, I sort of got hit with a sensation.

To play a very anime-inspired JRPG that was basically just JRPG to the JRPG max.

And I feel like Tales perhaps can give me this thrill I desire. I haven't seen this franchise in maybe a decade. Seeing Stephens post on Hearts made me consider it, but I'll just throw it out there:

Dunno, what should I look for? I was contemplating waiting on Tales of Grace F to be localized, but localization is not a factor for me. I was also wondering about Vesperia. Maybe even Symphonia?

I'm not quite sure where to start in this franchise. With the exception of Abyss (I had heard that it has insanely bad characterization, but I've only ever heard it from one person so I'm not sure), several of the games sound appealing and everything for the most part seemed to be received warmly. With a franchise that has a lot of entries like this, I'm pretty much lost on where to pick up what may as well be my first real look at it that wasn't me being five years old.

[stephen]

entries in the Tales series are pretty easy to gauge based on a few criteria: the battle systems usually get better the newer the game is. they're almost all minutely different from one to the next but it's an evolutionary process where certain features that make the game better are likely to be continued from that point onward.

the stories and characters are all super-anime in the worst way. I think for what you are describing, this is EXACTLY what you are looking for. Some stories/characters are better than others but they're ALL firmly within the range of craptacular to corny. I don't really have any major preference as far as the stories go, but what I've seen of Graces F is pretty solid. Vesperia's was solid as well. Don't play the Radiant Mythology games on PSP, they're dungeon-crawler spinoffs for fans only.

So in short, Graces, Vesperia, Symphonia are all perfectly fine places to start. As I stated above, Hearts is really excellent if you want a handheld game and if you like 2D sprites. Abyss isn't bad but they ran a little wild with antisocial/unlikeable characters for some people. Though they get overlooked in the general fandom because they were never released here, Destiny 2 and Rebirth are surprisingly deep in terms of battle system (both ported to PSP). Anything else is too old or not distinguished in any way.