Tales Series

Well, the main complaint I have with the prologue is the characters, especially Asbel. He's super annoying, IMO. The others less so, but they're also annoying. Except Sophie, she's alright. Otherwise, yeah, it's pretty effective and sets the scene for the rest of the game well, now that I think about it more.

A lot of people hate Asbel at first sight, but later he gets his bubble of superiority burst (and you will love the guy who does the bursting) Sophie looks alright right now, because she's basically Rei Ayanami with pigtails. But if play through the Future Arc (Wii player here, so I couldn't) she lost points to a lot of people for becoming 'emo' (looks like nobody uses such a word correctly anymore)

Hubert gets out of his shyness shell and becomes badass, and Cheria... well, she becomes playable. With practically all she was when young intact. You'll also get Malik, King of Trolls, and Pascal, the funniest, most whimsical character ever. All in all a good cast, I don't think any of them feel one-dimensional or wasted in any way (even if everyone will tell you Cheria is 'just there')

Copying from one place is 'plagiarism'. Copying from several places, 'research'.

Yeah, I'm currently at Wallbridge, I think. And, Asbel is better now, and Hubert... is okay. He's badass now, but he's a total jerk now, don't know if that's an improvement. Although, a friend of mine who actually owns the copy I've played has him in his party and what I've seen of him at that point, he's less of a jerk then. And, Cheria is fine, although worse at healing than Sophie or the healer of the last Tales game I played, Tales Of Vesperia. And, Malik and Pascal are basically the best characters in the game.

edited 5th Oct '12 6:54:37 AM by Rosvo1

Oh my goodness I love Fortune's Arc.

I have a message from another time...

GRAAAARGH WALLBRIDGEEE! *pause* Sorry, that place gets on my nerves. And everyone's, for that matter. A dozen rooms that look virtually the same and arbitrary blockades that prevent you from getting a good mental picture of what the maze is like...

On the Lhant brothers topic: Hubert is a jerk, but with a good reason. He spent seven years in a foreign country thinking that his dad gave him away as an unneeded load. The resentment only gets stronger with time. There's a couple sidequests where you can see more on the subject and will actually make you, if not like, at least respect Aston. (By the way, the scripted fight at Lhant is bullshit. Hubert is stronger, yes, but also much fragiler than Asbel. I was winning when he... you know.)

About the girls: WTF Cheria bad healer? She is a T-type Raine, while Sophie is S-type Raine. The redhead gets the Area Effect heals, while the pigtail wonder gets the stronger, single-guy heals. And both get a revive Arte, so I had both on my team.

Totally unrelated: If you don't have Chaos already unlocked, forget about getting good shards (I mean high level ones. Most shards are crappy except CC related ones, Vitality and Rescue)

Copying from one place is 'plagiarism'. Copying from several places, 'research'.

Funny. Seems that after Symphonia, they like to split Raine's style of healing into two characters. Tear and Natalia, Cheria and Sophie...

What are some of your favorite lines from the series? It seems to me that the villains sometimes get a lot of cool lines. One of my favorites from Abyss is "Yulia's Score is a drug."

edited 5th Oct '12 10:00:59 AM by Enlong

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From Abyss:

Jade: I don't care about faith, miracles, fate. I only care about putting an end to what I began... that's why I'm taking fomicry back. I can put it to better use than you can.

Yeah, the maze that is Wallbridge is pretty annoying. And that fight in Lhant with Hubert is total bullshit. Both me and my friend were killed in that with 1 combo from Hubert. I was even guarding at the time. And, I can understand why he's a jerk. Really, the more I actually think more thoroughly about this game, I understand it more.

And, I actually confirmed this from my friend tonight on Skype: we both agree that Cheria isn't a very good healer. or, maybe, neither of us have gotten to the part where she becomes good.

Wasn't Estelle pretty much the only healer in Tales Of Vesperia?

edited 5th Oct '12 10:10:54 AM by Rosvo1

...oh yeah.

...See, I haven't played Vesperia, so sometimes I forget about its team composition.

edit:

From Symphonia, this is the first line that comes to mind as being really memorable and poignant.

Mithos: Farewell, my shadow. You, who stand at the end of the road I chose not to follow. I wanted my own world, so I don't regret my choice. I would make the same choice all over again. I will continue to choose this path!
Lloyd: You could have... you could have lived with us. In our world. ...dammit.

edited 5th Oct '12 10:18:06 AM by Enlong

I have a message from another time...

And, Vesperia was actually the first Tales game I ever played.

edited 5th Oct '12 10:17:31 AM by Rosvo1

I plan on playing Vesperia some time. I's on PS 2 as well, right?

I do see the wisdom in splitting the types of healing. Makes you have to choose.

...or combine. I wonder how a team with Tear, Natalia, Jade, and Luke/Guy/Anise would work?

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It's only on the Xbox 360 in the west.

Vesperia's a 360 exclusive in the west. The PS3 Updated Re-release is a case of No Export for You.

Anyway, while Estelle was the only character who primarily was a healer, Raven had a really good healing arte that made many players use him over Estelle because Estelle's AI makes for a poor healer.

I once did a playthough of Abyss with a main party of Luke, Tear, Jade and Natalia. With two healers, Luke can keep enemies off the mages with no problem.

edited 5th Oct '12 10:23:18 AM by lrrose

...daaaang. Ah well. I'll hold out hope for an Abyss-esque re-release some time.

On the subject of Raven's spells, I looked up a video of all the spells, and his incantations are hilarious.

Also, Rita's incantations are amazing. Like, even compared to Abyss's incantations, which are pretty darn good.

"O gathering flames of darkness, treat our dear guests to the strains of your terrible song! Bloody Howling!"

edited 5th Oct '12 10:25:03 AM by Enlong

I have a message from another time...

Hmm, might happen. On a somewhat related note, my friend bought a PS 3 solely to play Tales Of Graces.

And yeah, their incantations are really great.

Only ever used Raven as a damage-dealer, not a healer. Didn't really use him much outside of the damage-dealing stuff. But, it was useful to have two guys in my party to heal me.

edited 5th Oct '12 10:28:03 AM by Rosvo1

Ooooh, quotes! I love that game. Lenme think...

Graces: The 'right into next week' victory (sadly it's PS 3 only) Hubert's 'Tonight we feast on seafood!', the entirety of Cheri White, all of Pascal's lines, the end of the Malik/Asbel fight (Malik's 'you are gonna kill me?') More games later.

About Abyss: I had a team for mooks and another for bosses. Luke, Guy, Anise and Tear for mooks, Luke/Guy, Jade, Tear/Anise and Natalia for bosses. It worked pretty well and so I used all characters at one time or another.

About Vesperia: Estelle IS stupid, because her AI is that of a physical attacker, that coincidentally has healing artes. If you reach certain point in the game (you will know) you'll see that for a character with thousands of HP, it works... not so much with your Estelle (ops, spoilers) So I did the same with Raine, Tear, Marta, Meredy... I told them 'You sit there and look pretty until I tell you to use Nurse'. That's it.

About Graces again: Cheria becomes good (well, even better) when she gets Nurse. An Area of Effect so big it may a well be the entire battlefield. But really, if you need either Cheria or Sophie on constant healing duty, you are playing it wrong. And for the one who bought a PS 3 solely for Graces... congrats, that was Namco's intention all along. You totally fell for it.

Copying from one place is 'plagiarism'. Copying from several places, 'research'.

Yeah, you don't have to worry about spoiling Vesperia for me, because I pretty much read all the spoilers for it. Comes with being a Spoiler Hound. Don't want to do that with Graces.

As for the healing in Graces, the only time I really need healing is when I'm fighting bosses.

And, as for Estelle's AI, yeah, sometimes it just doesn't work.

Actually, quite a few times.

She was the only one with a consistent set of healing abilities.

Karol has 5, Raven has 1, and Yuri has 1.

Meteor Storm, Tidal Wave, Flame Dragon, Thunder Blade, and Gold Cat are the best ones.

Her abridges incantations are nice too(for the record I'm not referring to "Blah blah blah!" but rather the phrases or words she says while casting some Altered Artes).

edited 5th Oct '12 1:50:47 PM by JotunofBoredom

Umbran Climax◊

"Meow! Gold Cat!" Rita's shortened Overlimit ones are generally the amusing Blahblahblah, but Gold Cat got it's own.

As for Vesperia, I was rather saddened by how bad Estelle's AI was. If you weren't directly controlling her, Estelle is suicidally violent, which is funny given how often the game mentions healing people being basically an instinct for her.

Symphonia and Abyss (haven't played Graces) had far better AI for healers, with Raine and Tear being fairly reliable with their healing (you just need to watch Raine's TP, or she'll run up to try to refill it by whacking the enemy), and making good use of their spells.

As for Enlong, I agree about Fortune's Arc, as it is basically everything you will ever need, although you can only use it once per battle. It deals great damage, heals everyone, and provides a permanent form of every buff save for Revive. It's basically essential for Unknown Mode runs.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/lb_i.php?lb_id=13239183440B34964700 Alfric's Fire Emblem Liveblog Encyclopedia!

Alright, I've calculated it. I've spent somewhere around $25 on DLC. Speaking of which, I love how you can wear costumes separate from their respective titles now. It makes wearing them all the time more feasible.

I've got everyone except Malik and Sophie (who doesn't have one) decked out in the Mutsumi Inomata designed costumes, with Malik in his Detective Suit. I bought several attachments as well, so Sophie is wearing the angel wings and halo. I also turned Pascal in a Skimpy Bunny Cowgirl and Cheria into a Meganekko Imp.

The first thing I do as soon as Estelle joins the party is to go in the AI menu and set every one of her options to make her as passive(outside of healing) as possible. Even then, she can be stupid and run into the fray if everyone is at full health.

Umbran Climax◊

Well, Raine doesn't do much but heal because she can't do much but heal. Tear is a bit more agressive, since she has more offensive artes and strike artes (read: any strike artes). I'm guessing Estelle has a fair number of strike artes at her disposal?

At least Tear's staff does ranged attacks, so she's more able to refill her TP than Raine.

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Estelle has a fair amount of strike artes, but even when I turn that off and set her only to healing stuff, she still doesn't heal much and will still run up and smack people, even if she has a decent amount of TP. Honestly, to do anything on Unknown with her, you basically need to command her to do stuff like Nightingale and Revive, or she simply won't do them fast enough to actually help.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/lb_i.php?lb_id=13239183440B34964700 Alfric's Fire Emblem Liveblog Encyclopedia!

Estelle is technically a magic knight. While she can wield short staffs, most of her weapons are one-handed swords and she always carries a shield.

So yeah, she has strike artes.

In general, I like how the bigger tales games have been moving away from generic healers.

Umbran Climax◊

Another bit in favor of Estelle being a white knight rather than white mage is the fact that, mostly thanks to her shields, she's actually got pretty good defense from what I recall. That, combined with the strike artes, is probably why she's so fond of running into melee.