The Tales of... Games

[sageoftruth]

I'm playing Tales of Berseria now. The apparent complexity of the combat system has my mind reeling. I managed to steamroll the first and second dungeons, including the bosses with what little experience I had, but so much of the combat still feels so foreign to me. I hope I'll understand it by the time the game starts demanding real expertise.

I haven't played much Tales before this - some Phantasia, some Abyss and Innocence.

Berseria's battle system is alienating the shit out of me however. It reminds me a lot of Star Ocean 3's battle system, but currently it doesn't feel like the choice of my attacks matters much at all. I'm just mashing buttons, running away when souls is slow and using that trigger demon attack if I feel I can land a kill with it as to not be gimped a soul afterwards.

For all the tutorial paragraphs the game threw at me and how little I actually understand of the system(I was also super stoned out of my mind from flu medication and kinda skipped past a lot of it) - it sure doesn't seem to matter what the hell I'm actually doing. Doesn't seem like the good sort of complexity to me.

Maybe it becomes less floaty and more impactful later on. So far the cast is carrying the game well enough - I find it kinda hilarious just how grim they are(mostly Velvet). I'll see where this game takes me yet, and I'm way past the point of a refund anyway.

Yeah, that's what I'm hoping too. I ended up taking a bit of a hiatus from the game as a result of how dazed/disappointed I felt. Once I finish Persona 5 and return to Berseria, hopefully I'll be proven wrong for lacking faith.

 

[sageoftruth]

I liked Tales of Phantasia on the SNES, it was impressive for a 16 bits game, and the story was refreshing for not being anime-cliche N? 22116... I played the newer ones, but not so much, and what I remember was that the stories stopped being subversions of anime cliches to being agglomeration examples of the medium.

If that is not something that turns you off, they are decent as JRPG.

That game really took me by surprise. It also had some truly amazing area music. I was always disappointed during random encounters in the overworld maps, since it meant I had to stop listening to the overworld map music.

 

[Jute88]

I have only played Symphonia, but I really liked it. I played it through about three times, so yeah, I would recommend trying it. The combat is really the best part of the game. The story, on the other hand, felt kind of weak. The story is supposed to deal with prejudice, but it doesn't delve deep enough in to WHY the prejudice exists in the first place. Also, the main villain is your typical "I was hurt, and I can't get over it."-anime bad guy. Really disappointing.

But despite all the bad things I just complained about, I still think it's a fun game! Give it a try!

 

[Zetatrain]

Abyss
-Easily my favorite in terms of plot and has some pretty good characters as well (the protagonist is probably the most developed of the Tales of games I've played). Combat system is above average by today's standards but might feel a bit too simple compared to modern Tales of combat. Unfortunately the skits are not voiced so this may affect your enjoyment of the story and characters depending on how much you like voice acting in your JRPGs.

The skits were voices in the Japanese language version of Abyss. Were they not in the dub? That blows lmao.

Btw yeah, this is my fav one as well plot wise, and as Jrpgs are all about the plot, my fav overall. That opening song by Bump of Chicken will forever stay with me.

Correct, which is weird because Legendia, which came out before Abyss, did have english voiced skits. And yes, Abyss' OP is awesome.

 

[balladbird]

Abyss
-Easily my favorite in terms of plot and has some pretty good characters as well (the protagonist is probably the most developed of the Tales of games I've played). Combat system is above average by today's standards but might feel a bit too simple compared to modern Tales of combat. Unfortunately the skits are not voiced so this may affect your enjoyment of the story and characters depending on how much you like voice acting in your JRPGs.

The skits were voices in the Japanese language version of Abyss. Were they not in the dub? That blows lmao.
.

oh, my friend, let me tell you the... tales! *rimshot*

I dunno who the tales games pissed off over at the US namco office during the PS2 era, but the localizations of most of the tales games during this era had all kinds of corners cut.

First was tales of legendia. Legendia took a different approach to its final act, treating the last storyarc of the game as a series of character-specific plots that gave each member of the cast closure. Namco us decided that this stuff must be just extra fluff, and declined to provide voice work to anything *except* the skits.

Then, in abyss, they decided to be cheap the other direction. voicing over all the events of the game, but none of the skits.

Now, I'm FAR from one of those "bwah! English dubs suck!" weebs, I'm more of an even-tempered weeb... but even I have to say... if you're gonna half-ass it, just leave the japanese voices in.

 

[Zeras]

My first Tales game was Tales of Destiny (which I still have, and still haven't beaten), though I also have Tales of Destiny 2/Tales of Eternia (unplayed), Abyss, Legendia, Tales of Graces f, Vesperia, Xillia 1 & 2, Zestiria, and the Symphonia collection (PS3). Again, haven't finished all of them but they are good-great games.

 

[Asita]

If you're doing Abyss, I recommend doing it with a friend or two. The combat revolves heavily around exploiting Field of Fonons (lingering elemental effects from prior attacks). This is perfectly possible when playing solo, but multiple players with good communication are far more effective at it.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I only played Tales of the Abyss, which I liked a lot.
Nothing much to write home about in terms of story - you're the chosen one, go save the world - but I liked the characters in it a lot, and by the end I was fully invested in them. I wasn't a fan of the combat and never felt like I got the hang of it. I just ran with a very basic combat model through the entire game without exploiting 90% of the rest of my options. That way I beat Nebilim, supposedly the hardest boss in the game, which that tells me that weirdly complicated combat scheme is mostly fluff and you can wing it easily.