Tales Series

From what I remeber about Barbos, his Secret Mission involves breaking the bridges where his reinforcements come from. It's probably the cause of your healers constantly dying.

The one where you light up pillars is Velius, since she splits four-ways and the Mission involves breaking her illusions by using fire artes on the torches to reveal her true body. That one I remember clearly.

So nah, the actual hard Secret Missions are those that force you to LET the bosses use their Mystic Artes then knock them down while they are gasping (Yeager, Alexei, Flynn too because you need to let him use ALL his artes...) and the ones that require weird positioning to hit an enemy's weak spot (the golem, the scorpion, Zagi on the ship, the one in the time-shifting desert.)

Oh, as a final note: I would be interested in that translation of Zestiria's guidebook. If only so we can finally discern how the f*ck Malevolence works.

Hint: we won't...Malevolence is an Ass Pull.

Edited by FlightMaster on May 23rd 2019 at 9:57:39 PM

I don't know why you're expecting an actual, well-thought out answer to how Malevolence works. At best you'll get a Voodoo Shark.

Please don't start that debate again its so massively tiring.

Okay, don't worry you two. I actually agree with BOTH. A translation of a guidebook is not gonna fix the fact that the plot device that forms the basis of the Zestiriaverse is flawed from the roots. And debating it is tiresome and useless (specially cuz Berseria later complicates it more.)

When a Raised by Wolves Idiot Hero is as 'pure' as an opportunistic merchant whose night job is murdering you know something stinks in the game devs' room.

Then again, the current game being discussed is Vesperia and that one doesn't have much variety in debating topics, either.

• Gatusso is abnormally hard.
• Enviromentalism VS vigilantism.
• Secret Missions (and Fake Gald) are cancer.
• Yuri / Rita is the best character / is overrated.
• Flynn should have been playable in the Xbox.
• Patty is a walking anime stereotype.
• Ristelle is the OTP.
• Lotsa missables. F*ck the Brionac (lol we know)
• DLC is Noob Mode. Use it Y-N?

Edited by FlightMaster on May 24th 2019 at 2:08:48 PM

The plot device you're thinking of specifically is?

The M word... that thing that works differently for every character. Malevolence. Come to think of it...

The idea of 'darkness in the human heart' is also used in Kingdom Hearts, the difference being that in that franchise you get separated into two beings and the 'darkness' can be found even inside the most noble of heroes, unlike here.

Mmm, there is more to discuss here. I will wait.

I say let people choose if they want to use Vesperia DE's level up crutch DLC especially if, like me, they're mostly about the story and all that and wanna have a smooth ride. That and its free so if you wanna use it and access the really fun moves you don't got to open your wallet.

Also, Estelle has Tri-Slash but sadly its not the Tri-Slash used by Charlotte Christine Colde from Samurai Shodown.

Purifying Malevolence(Kegare) is a thing in mythology. Including excising it completely because its separate from sin.

Sin can give rise to Malevolence(Kegare), but they're two fundamentally separate. Believing an act is immoral or seeing acts viewed as taboo gives rise to it, but if you don't see it as such you remain pure.

Zestiria AND Berseria are in line with that, but since Kegare has no english equivalent Malevolence was the term used instead. The fact the Heavenly Seraphim cursed mortals and Seraphs to become monsters because of it ends up with them equating sin with it as a result. As sinning is typically viewed as taboo and seeing or viewing acts as taboo gives rise to Kegare.

Edited by OmegaRadiance on May 24th 2019 at 6:03:24 AM

The problem with that is when it leads into lessons like "embrace sociopathy and you'll be just fine".

Exactly!

The idea of 'corruption' (I think Malevolence was called that somewhere in this topic...) is, as Kingdom Hearts puts it: do bad shit and 'darkness' turns you into a monster. But the Zestiriaverse's version is similar but different: feel bad about the shit you do and Kegare turns you into a monster.

The idea that your acts, which are objective and measurable, decide if you become a monster or not is a lot easier to swallow than the idea that feelings (which are VERY subjective) are the ones that do.

My bone with Berseria complicating matters is that in Zestiria Hellions are little more than mindless beasts that act on instinct, while in the prequel there a lot of (named, even) Hellions that are just people with monstrous bodies, but otherwise sane and logical. Would Sorey try to purify those? If they aren't a danger to society or to the environment? I think that's why Berseria gave us a Hellion protagonist: to make us question their world's idea of 'light', 'dark' and 'justice'.

Edited by FlightMaster on May 24th 2019 at 6:13:08 PM

Everyone becomes different kinds of Hellions and so they end up expressing it in different ways. This was something they had planned for Zesty, but it wasn't till Berseria they could show it. Same for Seraphim which we now see even take the forms of generic monsters and that Katz are Seraphs...apparently!

And we are shown Hellions who remain human and still think, which are rarer than the mindless ones.

Even amongst the heroic ones the ones who wanted to be cured were cured, and Shigure lived the rest of his life as a bloodthirsty momster of battle until he was eventually cut down, and chose not to be purified.

Edited by OmegaRadiance on May 24th 2019 at 9:22:56 AM

=triggered=

I. Hate. THAT CRAP. I swear to God, people had no idea how to design that bloody dungeon. I will do 10 Zhonecages and beat Magnadeus before doing this again.

So the Star Ocean mobile game is doing a collab with Tales of Rays, featuring Cless, Mint, Chester, and best girl Arche.

And their character models look better than anything their own series has ever done.

I know, its bananas. Its as if another RPG company cares more about Tales than their own studio

Also Rays in turn got costumes for Sophie, Laphi and Rondy too. Rondy gets some sorta ninja getup I don't recognize but Sophie...gets a very concerning Meracle costume.

Edited by MightyKombat on May 26th 2019 at 10:00:12 AM

Rondy is wearing Nel's outfit from Star Ocean 3. Which is quite fitting, since she is a nija-mage hybrid like Rondy.

Ah, thanks. My Star Ocean knowledge is limited to Last Hope stuff sadly.

Yeah, Rondy looks good in nel's outfit. I like it

I only played 1 and 2 on PSP. I tried to grab 3 on a second hand bin, but the previous owner though it would be funny to only sell the second disc to the shop. [much needed angry emoticon: here]

About 4... I saw it once or twice, again in the second hand shelves, but did not grab it because I game'd on a friend's PS 3 and also spent the money on another games. And 5... I actually could get it now, it is pretty cheap. Do you recommend? It is funny because Star Ocean is the Tales Series sister franchise... so much that 1 and Phantasia's plot are creepily similar.

Hah, now that I remember (since my Persona 4 run is about to end and I will play Hearts next) Sorey and specially Rose, would be f*cked in the Hearts world cuz ZEROMS EAT HEARTS is as close to a universal law as it can get there. Again, their 'light' and 'darkness' concept is different... and rather interesting.

Edited by FlightMaster on May 27th 2019 at 2:01:00 PM

I saw Last hope International in a local CEX and snagged it before I moved to the Midlands. Its decent. Can't find any SO girl with Rody's skintone tho.

FUCKING LYMLE THO IS SHE SUPPOSED TO SOUND LIKE A ZOMBIE 'KAY?

Do note that Star Ocean’s developers are Ex Wolf Team Devs who worked on the original Tales of Phantasia, they are basically sister franchises with a LOT in common.

I wouldn’t be shocked if Namco was looking to have Tri-Ace work on a Tales game nowadays honestly.

Well I guess if we got a Tales game that focused on space exploration and all that Star Trek shit. That's ground that Tales has not properly covered. Oh sure there's other worlds but those are either accessed via portals or whatnot or if there is somes orta space shuttle involved its an on-rails travel thing.

The easiest way to incorporate space travel into Tales (apart from just having another mothership standalone game) probably would have been an Eternia sequel of all things, given that the Van Eltia is capable of space travel.

As long as it involved more of a sci-fi angle and travelling to and from more than just two planets I'd be all for it.

Finally completed P4 GOLDEN! Geez, I hunted so many gold hands for money that I was lvl 89 (!) when I faced the Final Boss, so it was easy... and having a cookie cutter strategy of Trumpeter > Debilitate and Yoshi > charged Hassou'tobi was the final nail in the coffin. I would go for the maxed Compendium trophy, I had it at 90%... but I am lazy and you don't care about that. What you care is...

I ALSO STARTED HEARTS R!

I chronicled my run through the DS version of the game starting in page 135 of this topic, so I will omit plot commentary (but you are welcome to talk about it) and focus on the gameplay part.

—Start to Lagos cave: the graphics are colorful and bright. The minimap fills itself, like in DS, so it's good. Skits and dialogues flow clear and smooth (but they desynch in audio if you skip text too fast.) Character models are big and detailed enough. (geez, even npc girls look hot!)

Battles are agile and fun. I thought they were like a 'diet' version of Vesperia, but seem more like a deluxe version of Radiant Mythology (You use the pad to move and the stick to Free run, that's why.) Equips and skills follow a clear and linear path of progress. Money earning takes a... fair amount of effort.

What I haven't found yet is if the game keeps track of started / completed quests. That would be super useful, like Graces did in one of its sub-menus.

Edited by FlightMaster on Jun 1st 2019 at 7:38:28 PM

Since I don't have a Vita, don't plan to get one, and don't know anyone who does, I started watching a playthrough of Hearts R the other day. Seems worth mentioning now that FlightMaster is playing it.

The beginning was painful. I know all these games start out generic, but this one seems especially bad. It was starting to get interesting where I left off, so hopefully that's the worst of it. Also Kor is kinda annoying and Hsui is every overprotective older brother cliche thrown together. I came in knowing that, but yikes. There's probably more to him than that, but it's the vast majority of his screentime so far, and it gets old fast.

I'm still interested enough to keep watching, though. It has a certain feel to it that's different from the other games I'm familiar with, and that's not a bad thing.

Also got back to Vesperia on the Switch, and I'm a little ways into the last third.

On a different note, it feels like we're in an unusually long gap between games right now. I only got into the series on the tail end of 2013, so my perspective is limited, but they'd been doing one every year or two, right? I know it was a while between Xillia 2 and Zestiria in Japan, so maybe this is going to be normal now for games that aren't connected. I guess they're focusing on that mobile thing right now? Not sure how much emphasis it's getting.

Edited by SapphireBlue on Jun 1st 2019 at 11:43:10 AM

Hisui's main appeal for me is that this super angry hot blood shounen guy is your main healer, that shit's hilarious.

It's like they took the standard white mage character archetype and made every aspect the exact opposite.

Edited by asterism on Jun 1st 2019 at 6:45:50 PM