Tales Series

goddammit Abyss

Also Rondy's alt costume in Rays is some goooooooood shit. Its crazy seeing her all covered up but I still love it.

OKAY ENOUGH RONDY GUSHING I guess this is a thing too https://brokenbase.wordpress.com/2017/08/01/tales-of-xillia-2-is-bad/amp/

edited 16th May '18 1:51:51 AM by MightyKombat

Wait, that's the bad ending route in Xillia 2? I thought it would have to do with saving or killing Elle to save the world or something, and the bad ending involves killing Elle after she becomes a catalyst and that's where the whole problem people had with it comes from. Julius is a cool enough dude I guess but the analysis is right; I know him for all of maybe a couple hours of actual screentime, whereas the party members have the entirety of the first game as well as the second game including the various affection quests you've done with them. I'm offended the developers even felt that was worth making into a choice.

I kinda wished that analysis pointed out how Ludger wasn't even a properly done Silent Protagonist. Or that barely any of the choices in the game meant shit all except relationship points.

G Ranted, Muzet, but still.

No, the bad end is Ludger sobbing and screaming that he cannot kill his brother, so he turns on the party. It also has the additional mind-numbing problem that the people who fought an entire game against the idea of sacrifice don't really need any convincing to throw Julius under the bus.

So much for "NO LIFE SHOULD BE BORN FOR THE SOLE PURPOSE OF DYING" huh?

On one hand, this wasn’t Symphonia, but on the other hand, that’s a theme that shows up a lot in the series. Less so in recent games, but it’s there. Even if the sacrifice in question is unavoidable, it’s not glamorized or anything. It just hurts.

Bad ending aside, Xillia 2 gets bonus bullshit points for having either Elle or Ludger die no matter what you do. The latter is the canon ending, and it involves Alvin smiling and telling Ludger that he wrapped things up almost perfectly. It’s been a while, but I recall most of the others being more proud of Ludger than sad for him. I guess the idea is that he had a choice and Elle didn’t, but it’s uncomfortably close to the “dying is heroic and fixes everything” mentality that the series usually goes out of its way to avoid.

The article is dead-on about the issues Xillia 2 had. I still liked it, but it was in spite of those things, not because of them. The entire plot runs on Expendable Alternate Universe (and by extension, A Million Is a Statistic), and while it doesn’t go without comment, it also isn’t given nearly the weight it deserves. You’d expect the first game’s cast to find that more distressing than they did, especially since the first game was more in line with the series’ typical attitude towards this stuff.

I totally agree about Ludger, though. It was a weird choice to dump that much emphasis on a brand-new character, in both story and gameplay, and then make him a silent protagonist in a series that never has those. His dialogue options aren’t even voiced unless you’re on a repeat playthrough, and even then, they don’t have to be. I was able to get invested in the rest of the story, but I barely cared about him because there was so little to go off of.

The entire Kresnik family coming out of nowhere was at least partially justified, since the first game spent barely any time in Elympios, but the complaints about the first game’s cast getting sidelined (and being used to remind you how cool Ludger is) are fair. I definitely liked the character sidequests and the bits that expanded on the first game and the consequences of its ending, but the main plot wasn’t about that.

edited 16th May '18 12:38:47 PM by SapphireBlue

I don't get why Elle death isn't the canon end. Seeing as the whole point is that alternate universes are expendable and she's from one of those alternate paths. It's also totally okay to let alt Milla fall in a bottomless pit to get the prime one back. Just isn't consistent, man.

The ending with Elle's death also has Ludger meeting Elle's mother.

It’s probably because Prime!Elle doesn’t exist yet. It's...very convenient. From a personal standpoint, I still don’t like the idea of her dying believing her life is worthless, even though the future Elle wouldn’t be exactly the same anyway, but with the rest of the game being what it is, it does come across as inconsistent.

I get the feeling that the game was trying to deconstruct the expendability thing, and emphasize that the problem was the trial itself, but it botched the execution. It's self-aware enough to point out what the problem is, but not bold enough to do any actual deconstruction. Since going through with the trial is established as unquestionably necessary in order to end it, the party gets stuck doing the exact same screwed up thing. Even when the characters do have doubts, they don’t hold much weight since there’s no room to act on them. It's telling one thing and showing another.

If they'd wanted to emphasize how sadistic the trial was, you'd think that the bit where Chronos was rigging it the whole time would've been given more attention, but it didn't change much of anything in the end.

edited 16th May '18 8:45:47 PM by SapphireBlue

Oh yeah, the fact that the worst Chronos gets is a slap on the wrist and a "don't do it again" is also incredibly dumb.

edited 16th May '18 9:22:23 PM by asterism

If the problem was the trial itself and it was going for deconstruction then the game really should have been about derailing the trial and/or refusing to participate. Maybe, you know, make a hidden ending one that's set up with the Pluto sidequest and just go kick the shit out of Chronos and make him stop his nonsense.

So, I've been playing Tales of Graces F for the past few days. I'm at the part where Asbel gets kicked out of Lhant after getting beaten by Hubert. I'm liking the combat. I can see why people say Graces has the best combat because the combos are really nice. I only have a little over 5 hours on the game but i think it's decent enough so far.

Has this been posted yet?

edited 17th May '18 4:00:03 PM by SapphireBlue

No. First time I've seen it.

And as I actually saw that movie a week or two ago, I totally got that reference.

I saw this on Tumblr originally, and if someone hadn’t tagged both things, I wouldn’t have known where the audio came from.

I haven’t actually seen the Ninjago movie, but the matchup is perfect.

I'm just wondering, what are the japan-only tales of games?

Most of them.

yeah, sucks to be an RPG fan in the u.s, but can you give me a list?

Tales Series

ok thanks, didn't bother to check the main page! (whoops)

Put simply, here are the games that are basically Japan only

• Destiny 2
• Rebirth
• Most of the PSP games that aren't the Eternia port and Radiant Mythology 1
• Narikiri Dungeon X and Phantasia: Full Voice Edition

short list i know but

So, I played some more of Tales of Graces f. I'm currently saved near Gralesyde. I've managed to meet both Richard and Pascal. Both are pretty good characters. I'm headed to Wallbridge to infiltrate it. I'm liking the game so far. The combat system is nice and I really like the character interactions.

So, I'm currently at Barona Castle in Tales of Graces f. I managed to beat Archduke Cedric, who gave me a real hard time ,and I managed to help Richard get the throne. I have over 9 hours so far. The characters are pretty likable and the story isn't as bad as people say, though it could change later on.

So, I finally made it to Yu Liberte in Tales of Graces f. I was in the Rockgagong's stomach and got rid of the parasites that were causing it problems. I also managed to fight the boss and win. I managed to save at an inn and I'll keep playing when I have the chance.

So I finished the last Rays event today, watched the last sub-stories... and deleted the app. While my phone will be grateful for the memory space, I'm going to miss Rays. In the brief few months it was up, it was far better a Tales game than Links, and delivered what we really wanted in a crossover games. The characters acting like themselves, bouncing off each other and jokes acting as mythology gags.

Maybe one of these days I'll actually learn Japanese and download the JP app.