Tales Series

I just wanted to know if it was worth watching (and not an abhorrent trainwreck), good to know.

So it wasn't just me thinking the animation was off.

edited 3rd Oct '14 9:46:18 AM by Niitris

Sorey pushes Rose aside in a I-Don't-Have-Time-For-You way. It's hysterical, cause it looks like he has zero manners. Not to mention he's usually an absent-minded dork.

Tales animation has been terrible ver since Vesperia. It wasn't too noticeable because 90% of Vesperia's cutscenes had them standing around posturing, but it's pretty bad overall. Graces and Xillia had actual pre-rendered fight scenes and they looked awesome with mo-cap, but the average cutscene animation was also awful. Zestiria has actually improved on Xillia's animation and uses some vivid colours over Xillia's dry, drab, muddy palette, so it's beter. But people still can't turn around without doing a 180, apparently.

I still remember Abyss' anime Rugnica Plains scene. KIMLASCA TUBAS. PUTTY SOLDIERS.

And yeah Dhaos was rather...offly handled. Van was indeed better since, although not exactly totally sympathetic, he had a big point, the Score was everywhere and the player felt that it was kinda creepy.

Didn't Richter turn to demons too? I felt it silly that his big motivation was only hinted at in sidequests and not shown in story til the last minute.

He had a gambit to seal them away anyway. I don't recall if what we fought against at the last battle was a result of a pact or not.

Either that or that stone thing he had. Anyhow I always got the feeling the game tried a bit too hard to avoid making him look bad.

I know Dawn of the New World was Bandai's test run for the mo-cap stuff, and they kind of forgot to edit it. Like, the characters all jitter around all the time because people do in real life, but the mocap rigs exaggerate it.

The amount of times Emil tilts his head its a wonder it doesn't fucking fall off.

And I wonder if they ever implemented a hidden animation of Richter accidentally poking himself in the eye while flipping his hair

Haven't seen any of Dawn's bad mo-cap. How bad is it?

Made significant progress today! After finishing Ashihara (Chitose is still nuts), I went to the much changed Garam. Things that have changed: Garam's port has been separated from the city. After you leave the port, you have to go through an underground tunnel new to the Vita version. It's really small and uneventful (not even a boss!) and then you can get to Garam. The city has a very nice tune that sounds great without the DS's terrible sound quality bogging it down.

Things progress as you know them, with Hasta rampaging in the volcano and us going in to search for the memory circle. Dungeon layout has been massively improved, so it's no longer a complete torture like the DS version, but the enemies still hit like trucks. I did some work with Illia, and she is great. Tilt Beat is a smashing move.

You'll be pleased to know the Hasta sequence has been made less stupid. Instead of stupidly approaching the openly unstable asshole, this time Ruca stays back. Hasta drops his lance in the magma and promises to give them some good info if they spare him, with Illia and Ricardo pointing their guns at him. Ruca doesn't get close to him, but Hasta can now telepathically control his spear, so it jumps out of the magma and stabs Ruca in the gut. Yaaaay~

Spada is devastated (he even tells Ange to shut up!), Illia breaks down crying, Ricardo stoically prepares for the worst and Ange is busy praying. Sheesh, only Hermana and Kongwai are sure Ruca will make it. The brohugs between Spada and Ruca have been doubled and the bromance is going extremely strong. Oh, and Spada has a flashback where he laments how happy he would have been if he had just been born a soldier in Asura's army instead of a magic sword with a will of its own. Fooooooooooooooooreshadowing.

A new scene has been added: hot springs. Yes, hot springs near the volcano. The boys discuss what they want to do once the journey is over. Spada wants to see his father again and be friends forever with Ruca (broooomance), Ruca wants to finish school and take over his dad's business, Ricardo wants to give up mercenary work and relax, and Kongwai is planning to go back home to his country and...return to school. He's a student?! I didn't see it coming. Hermana is trying to pull the towel off Ange, because she knows the boys are listening and she wants to make them happy. When Illia hears they're on the other side, she...pulls out her guns and starts firing. Yup. Spada asks what kind of crazy chick carries guns in the hotsprings and she just goes wild. O-k.

And while in Innocence DS we should now head to Galpos and its jungles, we can't get to Garam Port due to a landslide! Something tells me my final party member is close...

Omake time: Hotspring boys◊ and girls.◊

Actually, a natural hot spring near an active volcano does make some sense. After all, the geothermal activity would heat the waters and, if they can tell when the volcano is about to erupt, it shouldn't be too dangerous.

Dawn's mo-cap is either fairly good or outright silly. Especially Decus.

GRACES UPDATE:

Got through the Rockgagong Fantastic Voyage. Suddenly I feel bad for poor Cheria what with her becoming privy to a side of the rockgagong nobody's ever seen before...it's insides. And nearly becoming privy to the inside of a privy too.

And I met President Paradine voiced by DC Douglas. Oh and Hubert's dad Garret who's a bit of a hilarious dick. Turns out he was going behind Paradine's back and trying to exert a little more aggressive control over Lhant than needed. Paradine finds this out from Hubert's letter and tells Garret to give up his authority over Lhant and fuck right off. Now that scene was great fun and assures me that President Paradine shares a spot with Emperor Peony and Princess Natalia and Mayor Haggar in the castle of "Best Fucking Royals/Politicians Ever". Must be thanks to the first two being voiced by DC Douglas. So now we pretty much have to go and fix Strahta's cryas problem somehow. Before they replace Hubert with someone liable to force Lhant into mining more shit.

Of course I'm not stupid. I know damn well this is gonna lead to Garret gunning for us for fucking him over and making him look bad. Sooner or later we'll bump into him being like "CURSE YOU SONS OF ASTON I SHALL CUT YOUR DICKS OFF AND WREAK MY REWENGEE" But hey, its the Tales series lol.

edited 5th Oct '14 12:47:08 PM by MightyKombat

So I asked a friend of mine on Skype the other day what Tales game I should start with, since I'm interested. His recommendation was Abyss. It's one of three Tales games that I've been sort of examining as an entry point. There's just one problem, though.

From what I can tell, Luke is pretty much one of the worst characters ever made (the only fully positive opinion I've heard is from Quarter Guy, and he didn't justify himself very well). To wit, he...

- Is voiced by Yuri Lowenthal (who is horrifically grating when entering Wangst mode, the only emotion I've heard Luke use).

- Does the typical "starts out gigantic prick, does a personality about-face, plays the whole atoner angle" that some JRPG protagonists do.

- Pulls no punches when it comes to the gigantic prick thing and has no redeeming personality traits to start out with.

- Performs a sudden personality flip to supposedly better himself.

That sounds frighteningly similar to... you know. Who knows, maybe Luke has development that's believable or well-paced to a degree, maybe he has some other special element. All I know is that I'm really not looking forward to him. I'd like to hear other opinions on him here so I can figure out if I should dread him more or dread him less. No spoilers please.

Also that midriff baring top is the dumbest looking thing ever

Personally, I really like Luke.

He does very little, if any, wangsting during the first half but he does angst a bit due to being forced to kill people (which is perfectly understandable). He actually starts off as a bit of a prick but not only due to being sheltered all his life (he's pretty much never left the mansion) and he generally tries to understand things. He quickly starts becoming more and more likeable throughout the first half of the game and only goes into full prick mode after you meet back up with Master Van (and every character calls him on this). After a certain major event, he gets a lot of things thrown in his face which makes him realize how much of a dick he was being at the end and that's when he promises to do better. He slips on occasions but his good parts certainly don't come out of nowhere.

edited 5th Oct '14 9:33:37 PM by Zelenal

Luke is a pretty good character. One of the better Tales protagonists, at least in terms of his character arc. His "personality flip" makes perfect sense in context, and it's more about him actively trying to be a better person than actually changing his personality. His character arc is pretty much the entire game, so there's no sudden "and now I'm fixed" moment, and even in the end he has his flaws. I would consider that good pacing, but maybe you disagree.

Love It or Hate It applies seperatley for both halves of Lukes Character Development. I liked Jerk!Luke more then Nice!Luke but hated neither.

What would be the other two games you're considering?

edited 6th Oct '14 12:59:09 AM by Kiefen

Luke's developement is mostly organic, barring some of the third act angst. The developement itself is paced mostly well. The pacing of the story overall is a bit off. Its gameplay is rough though, being the first title that's 100% 3D in battle movement.

Bad Kombat! -swats- Don't get ahead of yourself.

Fuck that, I made Garret look bad and he looks every bit the asswipe. I even saw a side scene where he calls an emergency council. He even calls Hubert an "impertinent little" something. I just know he's gonna get in our way and mess things up because Asbel and Hubert made him look like a shithead in front of the Prez.

It happened with The Pope and it happened with Mohs, I can see Garret doing the same. Aside, I wonder if this happens with that moron Ivar as well?

edited 6th Oct '14 4:38:27 AM by MightyKombat

Ivar has an identity crisis meltdown later on in the game, then runs off and becomes the final opponent in the Xian Du arena.

You only get to see it on Jude's path, though. Same as with the big moment of Alvin's plot. It's why most people would say to do Jude's path first.

Oh. I picked Milla first because coin flip.

It's generally recommended that you pick Jude's side first since it has most of the story compared to Milla's which has a few slight differences and not much else.

Ok, Xillia 2 progress time with spoiler tags.

Finished Chapter 13, Elle is no longer in the party because she's suffering from alt Milla angst syndrome, aka "I'm not from the prime dimension, I'm expendable." and so forth. Chronos is kind of suckish since he's all "Warble warble humans suck so much they suck they suck they suck." and while his boss fight was interesting, I'm tired of villains who are all "HUMANS SUCK!!!".

Character quests are still alot of fun though, plus you can get sell Golden Frogs from the Arkland Quag through Kitty Dispatch for 6400 Gald each and make most of the money for the debt that way. Do it on a bonus day that benefits Rieze Maxia (Bonus: Rieze Maxia, x2 Items, x3 Items, etc) and you make tons of Gald fast along with doing the jobs on the job bulletin board.

I guess I could start a new file alongside the Milla one with Jude on it.

I highly recommend you don't sell them, you will need them for synthesis in the post-game. And the post-game is a much better place for money. The EX dungeon hands you millions for only two bosses.

-swats again- I'm telling you not to be so sure! Sheesh.

And I said fuck that because Garret's got "dickface" written all over him.

@Raven: Luke's a bratty little shit, but I really can't comment on him too much because there was no one I really liked in Abyss to begin with. Jade's cool I guess, but I think his memetic status is way over the top. Dudes cool, but that's about the best I can say about him.

Really, my problem with Luke is how his personality straight up flip-flopped later. The events certainly justify a chance at turning a new leaf, but the narrative carried it through way too quickly for me to call it organic.

My theory is that Luke isn't Lloyd or Senel. And his arc makes more sense than Asbel's.

Not sure why you're using comparisons when no one brought them up, and those two aren't what I would call a shining beacon for protagonists to begin with. Really, most of them by in large are about as interesting as a brick wall. Still, I found Luke to be by in large boring along with most of the cast, and the obvious redemption angle he was given later on didn't do it for me either. Its a lot more then what others get, but YMMV if you could call it good.

edited 6th Oct '14 2:36:21 PM by SkormSnow-Strider