Tales of Series Discussion

Off-Topic
#81

I haven’t played many games in the Tales of series, but the ones I have I have enjoyed a lot for the most part. I’ve played through Symphonia and really enjoyed it despite the age, I know many consider it their favorite though personally that goes to Vesperia for me. I like the cast in that one the most, especially the protagonist Yuri. He just felt so different compared to so many other generic as hell JRPG protags out there (and it doesn’t hurt that Troy Baker gave a really damn strong performance). I also enjoyed the story of it for the most part, though towards the end it did start to peter out with its final act for me. Still really solid all around. Abyss is another one I loved and it’s at a very close second to Vesperia due to its great character development, most notably for Luke who is my second favorite Tales protag.

Those are really the big three I always recommend people if they ever want to get into the series. I’ve also played Graces F but I find the story and characters there to be quite poor outside of Pascal, but the gameplay to be the best in the series. Also played about twenty hours of Hearts R on my Vita. I like the gameplay of it but like Graces F most of the characters aren’t doing much for me outside of Beryl. Will get back to it at some point in the future.

All that said I think Berseria looks pretty interesting so I’m hoping that one ends up well!

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#82

I’ve been thinking about several things regarding the Tales of Series lately, so I’m posting here again:

First off, one thing I like about these games is something that many RPGs still don’t do, and that is having a unique theme for almost every city in these games. Be it (Tales of the Abyss) the soothing guitars of Grand Chokmah or (Tales of Symphonia) the orchestral sound of Meltokio, every city has its own character thanks to that.

Second, I myself played Tales of Phantasia after Symphonia, so for me all those mythology gags came backwards in a way. Was always great when I was going like “Hey, I know this track!”. Although the most changed one of these are the following two tracks (Both are heard in the second half of their respective game, so click at your own risk): Tales of Phantasia, Tales of Symphonia. A very similar part is heard at the one minute mark in both tracks.

Third, I’m planning on playing Tales of Phantasia again, and I remember (Tales of Phantasia) getting my ass kicked by the enemy group of 5 Charon in Dhaos’ castle in the past. Charon was a small, red flying enemy that most of the time casts Thunder Blade pretty quickly. With this specific group, you have 3 on one side and 2 on the other. Does anyone have a good tipp on how to fight these, because back then my answer was level grinding, and there has to be a better way.

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#83

Very true. Even though Sakuraba is known to reuse themes and progressions occasionally, he does a fair job of pushing out a massive soundtrack that gives unique themes to nearly every area or event of the game. Granted, quantity doesn’t always mean quality (especially in the case of Graces), but I admire his work in Symphonia and perhaps even Abyss.

The same applies to Go Shiina, as well. In Legendia, most major areas have unique themes, all of which are excellently composed. One of the reasons a lot of people prefer Legendia’s OST over the dozens of Tales soundtracks is because Shiina’s style is less reliant on just simple melodies and focuses more on instrumental depth and variety. It would have been so easy for Shiina to just copy Sakuraba’s style like he was initially planning to do according to an interview, but Shiina already had his preexisting style and it wouldn’t have been quite as fun for him to pretend to be someone else. I think that’s why Legendia’s soundtrack has a ton of character to it, even moreso than most of Sakuraba’s themes.

Still like Sakuraba more, though. :stuck_out_tongue:

I’m the opposite case, although I know where you’re coming from because I never finished Phantasia. I knew that it shared the same summons, some of the same locations and even some musical themes with Symphonia, although I never got every reference to Phantasia until after the fact. Still, I wish you good luck on your playthrough of Phantasia! :slight_smile:

#84

As part of the Bandai Namco Publisher Weekend on Steam, both Zestiria and Symphonia are 66% off! Not just that, but Symphonia is free to play for a couple days! If you haven’t yet experienced this fantastic game, grab it and try it out for the two days allotted to you! I’ll be very surprised if you actually manage to beat the game in two days, but commendations to you if you do. :sweat_smile:

#85

And here I just bought Zestiria on Humble Bundle for $20 because I thought it wouldn’t go on sale anytime soon… :komue:

I may need to push some people to try Symphonia while it’s so cheap, though. I’m still feeling pretty strongly about that one…

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#86

Bring back this thread from purgatory… Resurrection! /o/

The Steam Holiday Sale is here again, and both Zestiria and Symphonia have received some deep discounts as a result!

75% off…Wow. I might finally cave in and buy them both. If you have all been waiting for a price drop like this, there’s no better time to pick up the both of these for less than $20 combined!

Also, for those who aren’t already aware, Tales of Berseria finally has a Steam page! :smiley:

#87

Now with Berseria out on steam, it’s time for this thread to come back.

First, I’m really new to the whole tales of franchise. The first tales game I played was Zestiria and that was only a month ago. I’m not exactly sure why I never tried to play a game myself. I did watch a Symphonia lets play some time ago, but it didn’t seem interesting enough for me to try it and I can’t even remember If I watched the lets play until the end.

But since Zestiria was on sale, I thought I might as well give it a try. Took me 5 days and ~50 hours gameplay to complete the whole thing and it was absolutely amazing. While the story is nothing special, you’re some dude who got chosen to beat up the evil guy, the characters are what really made the game for me. I love everyone of them and their interactions are awesome. Also, I like how the tales series does their storytelling. Watching and trying to get every skit was the best part of the whole game for me. Even though I wasn’t even close to completition. I might need to do another playthrough sometime.

The battle system is okay, I guess. I’m not experienced with jrpgs at all. I always think ‘Why don’t you cut out the battles and just let me enjoy the story and characters’. The battle system in tales games looks really confusing if you’re not playing yourself. But when I tried it, it wasn’t that hard to understand und I got through the game without problems.

The battle system in Berseria is the same as Zestiria with some changes, but nothing major. I had no problems so far.

But what is different in Berseria is the story. It’s way less predictable than Zestiria and it is really interesting to follow. I’m just before the last encounter, so I’m doing every sidequest I can find at the moment. The characters are, for me at least, not quite at the same level as zestiria. There are some annoying ones and some of the english voices are really really annoying and hard to listen to. (Looking at you, kamoana). I might have to say, I played both games with the english voices and they are good, as far as I can tell.

When I’m finished with Berseria, next up is Tales of the Abyss. I only have a 3ds and PC available, so sadly, there is not much to choose from. I’m probably going to play Symphonia sometime in the future, but since I already watched a Lets play of it, I’m not that eager to play it, at the moment.

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#88

Indeed. I’ll repeat the warning I’ve always given when a new Tales game comes out: Please, no story spoilers past the first boss battle. Non-story-related things such as sidequests, cameo and superboss battles, and minigames are fair game if you’re seeking help on how to accomplish those, but please don’t spoil the story for those who haven’t played the game.

I remember seeing screenshots of Symphonia and I went like, “What the crap is this battle system? Traditional fighting game-esque? What?” Then I played it and it’s like, “Wow, this is the best thing ever.” :smile:

I love the skit system, no matter what Tales game it’s in. It helps fill in the characterization holes that the story doesn’t really cover, while also giving the player the option to focus on the gameplay instead of getting attached to the characters. They’re not necessary to complete the game, but they’re fun for people who like extra fluff in their JRPGs. :slight_smile:

You could say that for pretty much every Tales game after Phantasia. ^^;

Berseria’s battle system, judging from the gameplay footage I’ve seen, reminds me a lot of its cousin series (Star Ocean) in that you can move in any direction by default. That’s a huge change from previous 3D Tales games, which kept you to a straight line by default. In Symphonia, you could only change your positioning by changing targets. Starting from Abyss onward, you could move about the battlefield by holding down a button. There were some slight exceptions, such as Graces which emphasized sidestepping over free movement. But I digress. :stuck_out_tongue:

That’s good to know. Tales games aren’t always known for having good English dubs, but it seems recently they’ve stepped up their game.

Abyss is a really good game. I hope you have fun with it. :slight_smile:

As someone who (tentatively) thinks Symphonia is the best JRPG ever created, I encourage you to play it at least once. Preferably with friends if you can find anyone with extra USB controllers. :wink:

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#89

Glad to hear that it’s good, I’m definitely gonna pick it up when I have time for it then.

Well good thing that Abyss is the best one!!

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#90

That’s actually the biggest problem of their battle system for me. Positioning is such an important thing in battles, especially when you are up against many enemies. It took me some time to realize that you can press a button to walk around freely in zestiria, but even that didn’t really feel right. Eventually I got an option to enable free walk all the time, without pressing a button. But if that’s not the case for the other tales games… Guess I will just have to try to get used to it.

After I finish abyss, I’m probably going to play it anyways. Then I have to wait for another PC port of a tales game to continue.

I guess if I look around a bit, I will find someone who says it’s the best tales game, for any tales game, wouldn’t I? But thanks, I look forward to playing it.

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#91

Usually, the first Tales game someone plays becomes his/her favorite, but there are exceptions (like me, who played Phantasia first and ended up liking Symphonia a lot more). I don’t want you to feel restricted by what sort of Tales game you should root for based on popular opinion, though. Symphonia, Abyss and Vesperia are mainly considered the most popular games in the series, but that doesn’t necessarily mean Eternia, Rebirth, Legendia, Destiny R, Graces and Xillia are worse games. It’s all part of one’s personal preference. ^^

#92

A little update regarding this thread:

There has been a lot of Tales news coming in regards to new and upcoming releases, localizations, popularity polls, events and other such things. I’ve neglected this thread for a while in pursuit of other interests, but with my recent purchase of Zestiria, I’m hoping to pick up the slack in the near future. As I currently stand, the best I can do is encourage people to support the series through either buying the games or supporting localization efforts of escort titles, as well as provide any incoming news about the series. Whenever I manage to upgrade my computer, I hope to provide progress on Symphonia PC and Zestiria, and perhaps replay older games like Destiny PSX and Eternia.

As always, I encourage people to show their love for the series here, asking questions, discussing about the games and posting your experience with the series, even posting fanart if you wish. Just remember to abide by the ‘no-spoilers-past-the-first-boss-battle’ rule. :slight_smile:

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#93

Usually I posting my tales fanart and my tales merchandise at twitter and sometimes talking about tales stuff with @SuikaShoujo

Umm if I’m not bother you…can I ask your twitter account…let me add you and let’s discuss about tales more :blush:

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#94

I am still really new to this franchise, but I started with Tales of Symphonia (Steam version when it was really cheap) from a friend of mine’s recommendation as it was their favourite game ever. Still, I am only 20-ish hours in (I play games really slowly) but I am really enjoying what I have played thus far. The game was unexpectedly pretty dark in tone and can get pretty grim at times, even in the beginning. I am currently at the Palmacosta Ranch in the Teleportation Hell Puzzle. I think this game shows its age in places and has some gameplay issues but I love the cast so far (Raine is best girl as it stands) and I also love the opening; I seriously watch it everytime I boot up the game. I dunno where to go (by that I mean what to play next) after this game though. Bersaria looked pretty cool, but I have seen a mixed reception to Zestiria. Since I am still really new to this franchise, I would appreciate some suggestions or advice on which game to play next.

I think this is might be a game series I will really grow to love (that is the hope at least) with time.

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#95

Oh man, Symphonia only gets better from there. It’s pretty much become my favorite game since I played it last year.

As for recommendations, I would definitely suggest Berseria. Like you’ve heard, Zestiria is kind of a major disappointment, but Berseria fixed most of the problems it had, and then some. I’ve completed 9 Tales games so far, and it’s in my top 3, second only to Symphonia and Phantasia (which, admittedly, I have severe nostalgia goggles for, and is a very different experience from the newer games).

If you happen to have a PS2 or 3DS lying around, Tales of the Abyss is another great one, considered by a lot of people to be the best in the series, along with Symphonia and Vesperia. It’s not my favorite, but it’s still REALLY good.

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#96

Well, where you go next depends on what you have. If you have any of Sony’s consoles or handhelds, you have a large portion of the franchise available to you. If you lack those, you can still catch a few games on other platforms, like the Xbox 360 and the 3DS.

I personally would recommend tackling Abyss after Symphonia, since I think it represents a natural progression from what Symphonia did and tried to do. If you don’t have a PS2 or 3DS, however, you can play either Zestiria or Berseria next. I’ve heard Berseria’s the better game, but how much you enjoy Zestiria will depend on if you can forgive its flaws. I read somewhere that playing Berseria first actually makes Zestiria more enjoyable, so you might want to give that a try. :smile:

#97

@SuikaShoujo @EisenKoubu Thank you both for the recommendations. I meant to reply a lot earlier, but I do indeed have a PS3 (though not PS2 yet), Xbox 360 and a 3DS (and a PSP for Sony handheld stuff… I may have a few too many consoles). Once I can actually afford stuff, I will look into getting a 3DS copy of Tales of the Abyss. There was also a Symphonia sequel/spinoff (Dawn of the New World) that got a mixed reception, is it really worth skipping or does it depend on how much I enjoyed the original Symphonia? I am more or less curious, though I would likely go with either Abyss or Berseria after beating Symphonia (kinda leaning to Abyss as Berseria is a bit expensive and I dunno when I can afford stuff for the next steam sale).

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#98

I’m actually one of the few people that thought Symphonia’s sequel wasn’t that bad. There are some REALLY irritating issues with the gameplay, the characterization of the characters from the original tends to be all over the place, and the plot doesn’t hold a candle to the original Symphonia, but I thought it was a decent game in its own right. The new characters were interesting, although some people REALLY hate the two mains, and honestly, your opinion of them will either make or break the game as a whole. The new side characters were all great though, imo. Basically, it’s not Symphonia, but I still wouldn’t rank it as my least favorite Tales game (that honor goes to Zestiria, lol), and it’s short, so you’re not wasting much time with it anyways.

#99

Courage is the magic that turns dreams into reality. Uhh… anyways the main reason I hated Symphonia 2 was that it seemed like they wanted you to use monsters a lot more than the original Symphonia characters but monsters are asssssssssssssssssssss… in my opinion.

#100

Wow, that actually opens up a lot for you, especially on the import side of things. :open_mouth:

I haven’t played it yet, but since you’re curious, I’d say go ahead and scratch that itch. I mean, the Tales fanbase may say a lot of things, but after personally liking Legendia, I’m finding it’s best to formulate your own opinion on these games. :wink:

While you wait for Berseria, since you have a PS3 and Xbox 360, I’d also recommend tackling Vesperia. It’s reasonably cheap on the 360, but if you can understand Japanese or are willing to use TL walkthroughs (or perhaps even willing to hack your PS3 for the English patch), you can try the PS3 version, which has tons more content than the 360 version.

Anyway, I hope you have fun with Abyss! :grin: