Tales Series

I want to play the PS 2 remake of Tales of Destiny but the fact that I can't read Japanese prevents me from doing so.

You and I both, pal.

You and I and about 125435675 anxious, dissapointed fans.

Why, Absolute Zero. WHY.

edited 20th Apr '18 5:45:50 AM by FlightMaster

It would be better to atleast TRY to learn Japanese rather than crying over spilled milk so to speak.

Yeah learn an entire language for a single video game.

Well, there's plenty of game with no translation in other series, but at the same time, Japanese is pretty hard to learn from what I hear.

Posted this a long time ago, and decided to do it again.

I find it rather cute truthfully.

I love it just because Anise is there.

So, I finally finished replaying Tales of Vesperia. Overall, I spent 42 hours and 6 minutes on it.

I managed to beat Duke on my first try. All of my party members were in their 50's in terms of levels and this made it easier to fight Duke compared to when I first fought him. Of course, Duke gave me some trouble. I managed to beat him, but I used up all of my life bottles and my other teammates were dead(I used Estelle, Raven and Rita). Thanks to the all-divide and some healing items, I was able to beat Duke.

Overall, I still like Vesperia but I'm aware of it's flaws a lot more now. It's strengths lie in its combat system, art style and the characters. It's flaws lie in the pacing of the story, how you can miss some side quests easily and the environmental theme being tacked on somewhat(I still didn't think it was as bad as people say it is). I'm glad I got to replay the game.

edited 20th Apr '18 6:43:07 PM by pointless233

The environmentalist themes are definitely tacked on, but I think they, at the very least, work in the story.

Partly because the metaphor is so fantastic and stretched that its impossible to apply it to the real world, so the game avoids being preachy the way Chrono Cross was.

But more importantly, it reinforces the actual main theme of the game, that true justice comes about by resolving differences and working together. The Union and the Empire are working together, Yuri's grown out of his vigilantism, Flynn isn't a patsy, Judith stopped destroying blastia on her own, Rita and the Aspio mages are working tirelessly to build a system of magic with mana, and the entire world is ready to make its sacrifices for the greater good while Duke sits around angsting about how humanity sucks, because he refuses to see eye to eye with anyone and rejects their views as unimportant. Duke, for all the complaints that he's a tacked on villain, parallels Yuri in his decision to take matters into his own hand.

Yeah, I do see the similarities in Yuri and Duke. They are similar in that they think they have to do things on their own without consulting anyone else. I actually think Duke is a decent character.

I still think the Adephagos should have been the Final Boss. If you die then Duke takes over and destroys humanity leading to the Bad Ending. Vesperia's final boss is an excuse to have a long haired prettyboy be your last obstacle instead of the TRUE core of the problem. I am NOT saying it a way that diminishes Duke's importance as a character.

@ Japan only games: See, I am sad that Zero stopped his work because people with super rare and useful abilities like knowing Japanese and-or how to insert code into a game are very scarce and (I think) they should share their talent with less gifted people. You share your work in the internet, be it art, music, literature, tutorials or hacks in exchange for enjoying other stuff created with talents you DONT have. And no one asks you for anything (Well, if you are REALLY thankful there is the Donations option...)

What do you say, Elly? (Elize: Sharing is caring!)

About the people who say 'then just learn Japanese!'... well. It's true that there are enough JP only games in the world to last you a lifetime, and makes learning runes worthwile. But think of it as if a hero grows old but not passes the mantle to anyone else (like Zero should have done, the sensible option) instead crapping on all the work he's done.

As if Batman said 'I am tired of crimefighting' and didn't train Robin but instead destroyed all his suits and gadgets, lapidated the Batcave, killed his butler AND released all the villains he has captured (not like they need it, but...) And then some chump has the gall to say 'well, if you want criminals arrested so badly then YOU should grow superpowers'. You would agree with me that it is not that easy, my friend.

edited 21st Apr '18 5:12:46 AM by FlightMaster

I'm just gonna say, the way Absolute Zero quitted and the reason was also utterly boneheaded, overly optimistic of Bamco and straight up pie-in-the-sky dreaming that has no grounds in reality. I mean sure if it was yet another updated rerelease of Zestiria on Steam he was translating maybe, but Bamco couldn't give two chunky chicken shits about Destiny, Innocence or whatever else he was working on, and not even Leon Magnus changes that because they basically make him the big star of damn near every crossover game anyway so its pointless.

And forfucks sake man you don't quit in the hopes that a localisation will happen, you quit BECAUSE a localisation is ALREADY happening.

As some other people have theorized, I believe that the reason behind Absolute Zero just suddenly dropping all of his translations is not that overtly optimistic stuff he posted. Rather, that is just a facade for a personal reason that he would rather not tell.

Why do you refer to japanese writing as "Runes"? I mean, I know japanese writing can be hard in some parts. but it's not something I would compare to freaking magic runes.

edited 21st Apr '18 7:26:20 AM by dood9780

Referring to East Asian languages and writing as "moon" and "moon runes" is a meme.

Ah, right. Yes, basically what he said.

Well, that and because Japanese is weird. You hear them speak and recognize the sounds they make... yet you look at their writing and say 'these can't be called 'characters', just random lines and dots!'. That's why learning japanese is both hard and scary. Are they really moon people? ALIENS?

(LOL, kidding. I don't want any JP troper here to be offended.)

About Zero... if the reason actually is Real Life Stuff getting in the way... no one will blame him for releasing his notes / lending the code to some other trusty webpage. Unless he feels he has... no one to trust in all the vast internet.

Geez, I made it sadder than it probably is...

edited 21st Apr '18 10:51:44 AM by FlightMaster

Each character has a minimum of three different readings....yet the total number of sounds is only 110, the second lowest of any known language. It's one of those languages that we linguists find very funny.

Japanese, in a way, is using words to make words. Kanji aren't like the Latin alphabet. Each kanji has it's own meaning, and combine together to make new words. In contrast, our alphabet just tells you how to pronounce the word. Very different style of writing.

Also, some people thought Zero got hired by Bamco, and that why he stopped his translation.

Seems more viable than RL issues, since I can't figure out why he would hide such things. Most wouldn't blame him if such was the case.

You're thinking of Mandarin, not Japanese. Japan has its own two alphabets on top of a collection of kanji, and they only represent a single sound in the syllabary. The only word class where kanji combine all the time is nouns, and that's because nouns do not inflect. Conjugation is done almost entirely in kana, which is why verbs and adjectives are never free of kana.

Hey guys, guess who just found his Tales Of The Abyss 3DS cartridge during spring cleaning?

Heh, I got a 3DS around 2013 (in time for Smash Bros) and had been hunting for a copy for YEARS. I finally got it months ago, at just 30 euros used. If you didn't know this game was scalper fodder, now you do. To quote myself while checking prices: 'What, is the cart made of solid gold?'.

@ Badguy: If you are reading this and not simply dropped from the edge of Earth after finishing Ves P S3ria, the Labyrinth of Memories is the first Bonus Dungeon and one that was already in the 360 game. By the time you finish it you will have enough level to tackle the 100 man coliseum and not die horribly, even with the weakest chars. The same can be said for the second and PS 3 exclusive area, Telescopic Graveyard (Necropolis of Nostalgia for those of you with the patch.) HERE is when you finally discover what the heck is wrong with Patty! Don't miss it!

And if you feel you are lagging behind in levels, again Patty is the answer. More specifically, Critical Moment. Spam that until you get the best bonus in the universe: 10x EXP at the end of battle!

@ Japanese grammar: Okay, I ignored the kanjis and kana and jumped straight at JP grammar lessons to see what's the fuss about. Let's say my head hurts a lot now. (x_x)

edited 30th Apr '18 3:11:05 AM by FlightMaster

I've been casually learning Japanese off and on the past couple of years (life keeps getting in the way of any serious efforts) and I don't think the grammar is that bad. Sure, it seems confusing as hell when thrown at you all at once but it's not that complicated if broken down properly.

Actually memorizing kanji, on the other hand, isn't easy in the slightest.

Isn't Japanese grammar, like the reverse of English grammar. Like, the subject is specified at the end instead of the beginning? And there's less words for 'you' and 'I' in it.

This is what I got from comparing the actual lines to what the subs say.

edited 30th Apr '18 4:07:43 PM by RedRob

Usually. Depends on a number of things. Let's take this sentence as an example:

I understand a little Japanese.

If written in Japanese, that sentence would be this:

私は日本語が少し分かります。

Which, if translated word-for-word, would be thus:

I Japanese a little understand.

You could also leave out both 私は (watashi wa) and 日本語が (nihongo ga) if they're understood (which they usually would be).

Does Japanese have cases to convey the relation between words in a sentence?

When I google translate from Japanese I actually tend to find that translating it to German is more readable than translating it to English. Pretty odd considering that google translating English to German results in pure gibberish 90% of the times.

edited 30th Apr '18 6:58:14 PM by Kiefen

Kind of, I think? I'm not exactly sure what you mean by that but it does have a number of particles that indicate things like that. For example, in the sentence I just provided in my last post, は (pronounced "wa" but is the kana for "ha") and が (ga) are both particles. は is the subject marker (meaning that 私, I, is the subject) while が is the object marker. There's also の (no) which is often used as a possessive marker but also has another use that I don't fully understand.

There are quite a few others but listing them all would take too long.