Tales Series

So, I finally got an update from EMS and the game left the exchange office yesterday. Depending on how much worse postal services have gotten this year, I should have the game by the weekend to actually judge for myself.

"If you aren't him, then you apparently got your brain from the same discount retailer, so..." - Fighteer

Btw, the new Neptunia game has some parodies of game companies. This is Bandai Namco:

I should note that the Neptunia parody characters are created by working with the parodied companies. Bandai Namco signed off on that.

That's kinda cute.

My sides are off to space.

"And you must be Jonathan Joestar!" - Sue

That's great timing. And S-sha needs more belts.

I'll get into Neptunia one of these days.

With rebirth1 hitting PC tomorrow, now would probably be the best time.

You reckon that the DLC ep will have new cameo battles?

I'm quite confident in my shitposting you know

It'd certainly be a nice gesture after this recent blunder.

Money isn't something I have a lot of these days unfortunately. From what I hear they're gonna chop the price in half next week, I'll get it then.

edited 29th Jan '15 6:40:47 AM by Niitris

So going off topic a bit...I really like Elize in Xillia 2. I mean, I liked her in the first one, too, but it's nice to see that she's come out of her shell so much. It's quite a shift, but I think it's still believable, and it's good to see her happy.

Plus, I always thought she seemed a bit too childish for her age in the first one. I mean, yeah, preteens are still basically kids, but she was acting more like a ten-year-old than a twelve-year-old. Her Xillia 2 personality seems a bit more like an actual middle school kid.

Considering how she had been treated before Xillia started...I totally buy her acting younger than she actually was.

Not Three Laws compliant.

Yeah, that's what I figured. And by that logic, it makes sense that being around people her own age would've given her a chance to mature a little.

YES I ALWAYS WANTED TO TALK ABOUT ELIZE IN X2

I LOVE how they really developed her in X2, as she's now loads more socially adjusted, a lot more catty if need be and assertive too. She really legitimately grew up and its amazing. Although still having her shy X1 battle animations is kinda funny.

In fact I gotta say X2 improved X1's cast in many ways. Alvin actually dealing with how being a betrayal happy meathead isn't good and how he legit wants to go straight, Jude no longer being an insufferable Milla fanboy who defaults to the "shy smilie kid" skit face in skits but now has more authority and personality than before. Hell, Jude even fucking calls himself out for his depressive-twat streak from X1 where he let Leia get shot and forgot to patch her up.

Gaius going from a fairly remarkable badass villain to a guy who's equal parts all knowing father figure, equal parts technologically inept nerdbaby, that was another one I liked.

edited 29th Jan '15 10:43:10 AM by MightyKombat

I'm quite confident in my shitposting you know

If only the game actually remembered they have something to do with the plot. T_T

Muzet has the best final episode though. GENTLEROID~

"If you aren't him, then you apparently got your brain from the same discount retailer, so..." - Fighteer

Muzet being turned into a comical manawhore was also pretty funny.

oh and making her playable i guess

AAAAAND I beat Illusionary Darkness. All. Legit.

My usual team was Ludger, Alvin, Muzet and Elize. I tell you what, Freezing Eruption is fucking great.

The last boss battle is against Noob Saibot versions of good ol' Cless Alvein and Stahn Aileron. Cless is weak to light and Stahn's weak to water but Freezing Eruption still stops them cold in their tracks and helped me crush them first time. I ended up getting Jude and Milla's Cless and Stahn costumes as rewards, a million gald and other concerns. About the only good thing the costumes have over the transformations is that the costumes trigger special winquotes and classic battle music fuck yes. Kinda wish you could carry those over to X1.

also I call the Darkness bosses "Noob Saibot forms" because they're almost completely shadowed out, which reminds me of the Mortal Kombat character Noob Saibot, who was also nearly shadowed out in terms of colour scheme (His debut, he was a completely solid black.)

edited 29th Jan '15 3:36:05 PM by MightyKombat

I'm quite confident in my shitposting you know

Noob Saints actually hit harder than their coliseum counterparts.

SO. Zesty came in! I got a pre-order strap of Edna. It's cute.◊ I like it, since I wouldn't really care for Alicia/Sorey/Mike. Also downloaded the pre-order Mystic Artes. They're not very interesting. They require a 50+ hit combo and 4 BG to activate, which is a bit tough early on.

Anyway, I'm very early in the game. The game's opening kinda reminds me of Abyss's anime opening, where Julia would narrate the backstory of the Score and Luke's eventual birth. This one opens with the narration of the Priest's appearance in the past and how he drove the darkness out. Then we cut to Mike and Sorryface exploring some ruins, when they're suddenly struck by lightning. They find a human girl in there, who is apparently the cause of the lightning. Sorryface's grandpa struck her down cause no humans are allowed into the ruins. Anyway, Sorry decides to take her to his village even though she looks suspicious.

At this point I have to say Alicia looks ridiculous with those huge greaves on one hand, but tiny garters and no armour. Changing that ASAP. Mike is cute. Sorey is a dorkface who can't go into an old ruin without stumbling on a rock.

"If you aren't him, then you apparently got your brain from the same discount retailer, so..." - Fighteer

Yeah, I managed to get the cameo fight in the coliseum but its a lot harder when Mint's healing them and Rutee's flying about everywhere and spamming OVL Tidal Wave.

I'm quite confident in my shitposting you know

So I picked up Tales Of Vesperia for 360, probably one of the last physical copies left in Sydney, I bet. Is there anything I should know, gameplay wise before I play it? (Since I already know that storywise it apparently turns to arse by Act 3)

Also, if Namco ever releases or ports a Tales game on Wii U, i'd honestly like to see either Nintendo Costumes or a "True Arena" that's Cameo Battles with the Cameo fighters wearing Nintendo outfits.

A corpse should be left well enough alone...

Just do a sequel to Tales of VS or even a proper fightan and have Alvin, Rutee and Rondoline. That'll do

edited 30th Jan '15 5:03:05 AM by MightyKombat

I'm quite confident in my shitposting you know

Speaking of Rody, I seem to miss the sidequest to get True Derris Elysion. Is it a time-restricted sidequest or what?

The Gagharv Trilogy Page's Main Editor.

Never ever sell equipment or materials and take advantage of everything you can to get good equipment. Using artes heaps and heaps will give benefits, all in all, just have fun with the game.

“I was thinking that work is like fertilizer in that I’m glad it exists; I just don’t ever want to get stuck in it."

Get a sidequest guide if you wnat to make any sense of those madness sidequests Vesperia has.

I met Lailah! Zesty just got exciting all of a sudden.

So anyway, Sorryface took Alicia to his village and helped her out for a couple days until she left. Crazy assassin Lunarre eats Maisen, no one cares, Sorry runs after Alicia and gets to the city. At this point, the opening plays! And it's where the OVA left of. Ahead lie spoilers.

On the way to the city on the lake, Ladylake, we meet the "Wings of the Wagtail" guild and Rose, though she doesn't introduce herself yet. When we get to the city, Sorry notices a lot of people who are actually turning into Hyouma. When the camera pans to Sorry's point of view, you see the tainted humans' true form. Anyway, we run across crazyface again, he tries to eat Mike, we kick his ass and he is then restrained by a bunch of assassins. As it turns out, the twit is an assassin, but the commnand to assassinate the princess had already been recalled, so he was kinda acting against orders. He's a super tainted Hyouma crazy. The assassins warn us that the princess is still in danger because someone is out to get her, so Sorry decides to warn her.

The city is currently at the midst of the festival of the holy sword. It's a festival where they ask for the blessing of the lady of the lake and people try to pull the holy sword from the temple. Sorry finds Alicia and warns her about the danger she's in, but she can't just cancel the festival. He also finds a woman sleeping on the temple steps, but no one else can see her. She's the Lailah, the Lady of the Lake. Alicia gives a speech where she acknowledges that things in the world are not going well (storms, illnesses, poor crops, war etc.), but believes these tough times are when traditions are most valuable and must be upheld. She conducts a ceremony where they symbolically burn away some stuff as a prayer to the lady of the lake to cleanse their sins.

However, the crowd begins to riot. They complain that the council has been eating away at their wares and jobs in fear of an impending war, which has driven them desperate. One of the soldiers attacks the dissenters, which triggers a fight in the cathedral. Lailah suddenly begins shouting they have to stop fighting because it will give birth to Hyouma, but it's too late. A few of the people begin transforming in desperation. Sorry asks Lailah to do something, since she's supposed to be the one with the power of purification, but Lailah says that the power rests within her sword. Only one who can pull the sword and becomes her vessel can utilize the power of purification along with her, but that is a difficult path of loneliness. Sorry says it's worth it, so he offers himself and pulls a King Arthur. This allows him to harness Lailah's power and purify the temple.

Entering into a contract with Lailah means he is now carrying her within him. But since his human body is naturally trying to reject her power, he faints. After three days and three nights, he wakes up again. Lailah takes him out to the city, explaining the state the world is in and how far the taint has gotten. She asks Sorry if he's ready to find the answer on just what it is that needs to be purified to return the world toa peaceful state where humans and Seraphs can coexist. Sorry accepts his mission, and it's time for a journey.

Non-spoiler impressions:

• Everything in Zestiria is seamless. Not just field to battle transitions, but also exploration to cutscenes. There's no separate loading for them.
  * The one field area I've been to is pretty big and does feel like adventure, much more than Xillia's or Graces drab fields. However, the textures look awful (gawd, the trees) and enemy presence is...scarce.
  * Costume customization is like Xillia's. I made the silly mistake of putting Alicia in her Idolmaster costume...so she showed up in it during the climactic scenes at the temple. It was kinda weird. Then again, you can argue it's more appropriate for a formal occassion than her armour!
• Lailah is a hilariously bad liar. When Mike and Sorry ask her about the previos priests, she literally says "LALALALAH, CAN'T HEAR YOU, THE WEATHER IS SO NICE".
• I don't care for Alicia at the moment. :/

"If you aren't him, then you apparently got your brain from the same discount retailer, so..." - Fighteer

Okay, so... Xillia 2 cameo battle sure is balls out hard! But I think I got some tips.

• Muzet is your friend.
• Just like in First-Person Shooters, KILL THE FUCKING MEDIC FIRST. So try to aim for Mint first. She's weak against Dark type moves so something like Ludger and Muzet's Hard Chain Reaction should work.
• I dunno if its just me but I THINK Cless' Chaos Distortion Blade can stop time briefly so that's a thing. Don't let him do that.
• When you KO Mint she'll use the Angel's Cry skill to get back up. HOWEVER! If you Skillseal her with a certain move, THEN kill her, boom, no resurrection for her.
• Rutee can resurrect her pals so kill her next, mostly if her health's lower than the gang's.
• Chromatus if and when you can. If Cless or Stahn hit Over Limit, pray you can pop a Mystic Arte or Chromatus or even both in time so you can avoid getting gangbang Final Fury. Same goes for when OVL Rutee starts doing her best Rita Mordio impression.
• I think Hungry Hunter can break Rutee and Mint's super armour when they're casting so if they're on their own, go for that.
• Killing Cless or Stahn means no enemy Double MA obviously. Even better is they forgot to pack Dark Blade and Regal Phoenix in case they got knocked down to solo so you're safe there, The only danger OVL will pose now is their hyper armour
• Ludger's Freezing Eruption rocks everyone's fucking socks and has a huge skillseal and Petrify chance. It can even freeze Rutee who's otherwise mostly strong against Water moves.

Funny anecdote: Rutee was low on health so I dropped Ludger and Muzet's Malignant Gravity on her to finish her off and rid the gang of another healer, only to find I had ALSO killed Cless in the crossfire leaving Stahn all on his own like a rainbow in the dark. I also kinda wish Liam O Brien voiced him agian, apparently in this game he's voiced by Orion Acaba, Ivar's VA. No idea who voices Cless but I think Lauren Landa's voicing Rutee here.

So that's the cameo ending out of the way. I think its about time I finished this game for realzies and Get the "Ludger Dies" ending.

I'm quite confident in my shitposting you know

This has been posted already, right?

Technically what Baba says is true, since he never actually called her the heroine...but oh those shattered expectations. X)

Distortion Blade can freeze time if it hits someone who isn't guarding and they don't avoid it. However, Cress's moves are super predictable...so if you use/link with Rowen while he has Opportune Moment and dodge Cress's stuff, you can actually freeze the field yourself, leaving the cameos to your mercy. >:) My favourite move is backstepping Distortion Blade before he can teleport, which the game counts as a perfect dodge, so he freezes before the move actually goes off! Oh, and you can use this strategy to dodge Stahn's uber Fireball, which is otherwise impossible to dodge by backstepping unless you're really far from him.

edited 30th Jan '15 10:11:07 AM by lu127

"If you aren't him, then you apparently got your brain from the same discount retailer, so..." - Fighteer

I actually had more luck linking with Muzet and dancing all around the place spamming Freezing Eruption when I could, although I'll keep Rowen's special into consideration. And thanks for the tip on Cless's time freeze move. Shit's annoying sometimes I swear. Also I kinda had an Hourglass from an earlier Elite Tag run so that helped.

I'm quite confident in my shitposting you know