Tales Series

Vesperia stuff: Patty is awesome, her Glamour Set costume is LOVE (stripped stockings!) and her moveset went half to Alvin, half to Rowen IIRC. Except for the 'luck' based artes. IMO, Yuri isn't as much an hypocrite as 'correcting his vision'. Because yes, Estelle means no harm while Ragou and Cumore are SO cartoonily evil and think they are SO untouchable by the law that the only way to stop them is the Dark Enforcer. Good ridance! They have a special place on hell for them, right next to Magnius, Mohs and Gilland.

Zestiria stuff: Rose still feels meh. Right now, she is as much the 'Shepherd's female companion' as Alisha was, but at least Alisha was something else as well. Now I'll say something bad: I haven't been so physically unnatracted to a female char since Rita Mordio / Pascal. By the way, I watched videos up to the entrance to the Fire Trial (Lastonbell and Goddodin areas) and I think Sergei should have been the fourth playable human. Guy still ships Sorey x Rose even after their charade was over!

I don't understand what happened with the Lord of the Land of the Lastonbell region (when did Fuuka Yamagishi die and become a seraph?) They fight a small werewolf hellion and then a bigger one tries to eat it: beat the latter and they transform into a girl and a dog. Who was whom? (?_?)

edited 26th Nov '15 10:19:27 AM by FlightMaster

I'm gonna try out that Tales of Heroes PSP game next. Anyone ever try it? I Ts got guys from Phantasia up to Xillia 1 last I checked.

It's a beat-em-up, basically.

Notable for using Elraine, Schwartz and Duke as its villains. They don't show up that often.

edited 26th Nov '15 10:55:39 AM by asterism

So its Tales of Musou/Tales of Dynasty Warriors?

The only game of that type I've ever played was Fist Of The North Star Kens Rage and though it was fun it got kidna repetitive. But hey Asbel and Jude are in it and so 's Tytree! And Lloyd's partner is Zelos for no reason!

Question If I was trying to get someone to play a Tales game for the 1st time what game would you recommend?

Abyss

Just make sure to point them towards a sidequest guide.

Had a feeling Thanks.

Any game with Free Run will do, but yes, you might as well play the first one that featured it.

Since my Abyss 3DS search isn't going well (I blame my Perpetual Poverty) I dusted off the old PSP and played a bunch of Radiant Mythology. Picked a Fighter this time around, since they are based off Senel and his throws (on a 3D, GOOD battle system) are sooo fun. 7 hours in, I just smashed Ganser's creepy face (20% quest completion) Off to Doplund.

Has no one tried to answer my question regarding Lastonbell's Lord of Land? Because I watched up to the Cardinal Forton / Medusa boss and it's WHOA.

1) Apparently passing the Trial gives you that particular Armatus form's Mystic Arte. The tester gives Sorey a choice, and being the boyscout he is, he prefers to injure himself rather than Lailah, but she goes ahead and receives the flames' blessing while telling our Idiot Hero 'do not try to carry your burden all by yourself'. At this point I realize: the Amnesiac Girl trope is as annoying as this instance of 'I do know, I just can't tell'.

2) Dezel is blind. Was this foreshadowed at any point? A sidequest, a skit, anywhere at all? Because if not, it came totally out of the blue. Well, you can make a point that he always says 'I can read the wind', but it doesn't sound like Daredevil's 'I can read auras' as much as 'I am atuned to nature'.

3) The aftermath of the Medusa boss battle. 'I can't forfeit my duties, my responsabilities... JUSTICE will prevail!'. I was half expecting Lloyd to jump at her with his 'DONT ever spew the word justice!' Okay, okay, my point: this is a scene that comes up a lot in the 'Rose is great/awful' debates. She finishes the monster off because no amount of Purification Flames could save it. 'Your job [Sorey's] is to give life, mine is to take it'. Forton is a parallel to Elraine: 'achieve a noble goal with dubious methods' yadda yadda. The noblest goal won't save you from being hellion'ized if you play dirty to get there. Killing, and doing so REPEATEDLY, no matter how much your victim deserves it, would make you a literal monster. Why would Rose prevent Sorey from bloodying his hands otherwise? Yet she is scott free of Malevolence! Because she is SPESHUL.

edited 1st Dec '15 9:04:15 AM by FlightMaster

It was foreshadowed just a bit if you squint hard, Edna and Zaveid know something is wrong with him at the very least.

^^The game is actually very inconsistent in terms of who becomes a hellion and who doesn't. Forton becomes a hellion and can't be purified because her mind can't be changed, more or less, but that priest who was murdering people didn't become a hellion because he legitimately believed he was doing the right thing (whereas... Forton was desperate, I guess?) Martran becomes a hellion but never changes form, but Symonne is pure because she believes in Heldalf despite her allegiance shift coming at least partially from her sadness from being chased away from seraph communities because of her great power (or something similar).

Basically, the game establishes, if a little inconsistently, that it's not the acts that cause hellionization, it's one's mental state while doing them. A serene killer who legitimately believes he or she is making the world a better place isn't likely to hellionize; a child who kills out of desperation, anger and fear is. It's not fair, but that's how it works.

I don't expect to be able to change your mind, but I will argue against the idea that it's just "because she's SPESHUL".

edited 1st Dec '15 10:08:50 AM by RedSavant

Just be ready to answer the question, Where the Abyss in the title comes from.

Tales titles tend to make no sense. Vesperia at least tries to tie it into the plot.

Zestiria comes from "a 'zest' for adventure" which is kinda the basic theme the game started with, especially in map design.

And Bersaria (which they might actually change to Versaria?) is from the 'Be' that starts the protagonist's name, Berubetto/Velvet. They probably won't change the title even if they romanize her name as Velvet, since (from the little we know so far) the connection doesn't seem to go much deeper than that.

Dunno if they'll change it. Apart from sequels, I think no mothership Tales game has started with the same letter? The second bit of their name, obvs.

Yeah, especially given that it's not likely to be plot-relevant. 'Bersaria' means just as much to the playerbase as 'Versaria' would, after all.

"Verseria" looks too much like "Vesperia" anyway

Remember when Tales games had actual words in their titles? Remember Destiny or Rebirth?

Ever since Graces it's got downhill.

What the hell is a xillia, anyway?

Here's a video that seems to have decent explanations for the titles up to Zestiria. They all seem to make sense to me, even if the names are still really weird.

edited 1st Dec '15 2:08:38 PM by Alfric

What? No, it's almost certainly from the word "berserk" and probably involves themes of losing control. Just like Xillia was derived from "exile" which was vaguely plot relevant.

The Tales titles aren't totally random, but they're not really all that specific either. Despite the word actually being mentioned in-game, I'd say Vesperia has actually been the least relevant.

Edit: Symphonia was about two worlds and different species getting along, etc.

edited 1st Dec '15 2:26:14 PM by Clarste

@Clarste: Oh, is it? Cool - I was just working off of the short announcement trailer they had, which has the text 'Next [Tales of] is... "B"' followed by Velvet introducing herself.

Oh so that's where Xillia's title came from. That makes more sense.

...Wait, does that mean the pronounciation is supposed to sound like "exile," too? If it does, I've been pronouncing it wrong all this time.

The Japanese for it comes out as ekushiria or something like that. So yeah, it's meant to be Ex-illia.

I'm not sure about it being derived from "exile", but apparently according to Baba it comes from "Zillion", a fake word used for an uncountably high number.

edited 1st Dec '15 5:11:52 PM by Alfric

Yeah, I was pronouncing it like "zillion."