Tales Series

What about the LMBS? Yo know, the series' identity? Is it gonna look like a generic action game? I at least would not want that. Will it be ground or air based?

If there is gonna be no battle transitions (you fight exactly what you see) what are they gonna do with projectile / anti'air artes? Will they home on enemies helped by a targeting mode or don't?

It's over, guys! So I can stop nagging you with this:

Inside Gardenia: first we release Corundum, and watch her GOMENASAI RICHIA SAMA scene. We get a romantic 'Night before the battle' scene between the OTT Shing, Kohaku and Beryl and another with Richia and Hisui. When Goldy Drills finally repairs the teleporter, we explore a slimy Womb Level which culminates into the Extra Annoying Super Sandworm, and if you don't have Stone Amulets (I had three?) this will quickly become a Festival of Petrification. Apparently the Final Boss is around the corner, so I got out to do some farming. Aaand...

Creed as a Final Boss has it all. The combo ability of Chlorseraph, pure strenght like Striegov, a mountain of HP like Vorgas (that you can't even measure with a Magic Lens. *insert over 9000 joke here*) and summons mooks like the Sandworm... which, if left alive, will converge in a Black Hole so strong that kills anyone trapped. I must also add that NO boss in the game had managed to land their Mystic Arte on me, but this f*cker used overlimit 3 times in 10 minutes and ALWAYS landed his... chaining from a spell that comes out of f*cking nowhere and has so many hits that it always breaks your guard. Anyway, he is dead now... whew.

Not many surprises in the ending. After the credits with a storybook background (because if any game feels like a fairy tale, is this one) we get the awaited confession. Will They or Won't They??

Heeey! Lu was right, the subtitles go the extra mile and clearly say 'I love you' (at least in my language?) but Shing's voice actor merely says 'ore wa, Kohaku...'. That's not even a sentence!

Edited by FlightMaster on Jun 21st 2019 at 10:46:42 AM

Well, the Hearts R localization really liked fucking about with lines for no reason, but at least they tried to avoid the series' usual bloody twee "romances" that can't even say "I love you" for whatever reason.

I don't think the mechanics is really going to serve the series well going forward. It did its job well enough for awhile, but I think the one big thing the series has going against it is that its all pretty damned outdated at this point.

Frankly, I think the conventions of the series need to be redone top to bottom personally. The stories can be fun, but I don't think the LMBS has anything to offer anymore, and hasn't for the past fifteen years.

Agreed honestly. Final Fantasy sort of reinvented itself ages ago with FF 12 I think.

Mmm. FF 12 still had the old ATB. The innovation was overworld fighting instead of being in a separate screen. Even 13 still had ATB, it just was super fast and the Paradigms were on-the-fly Job changes, a feature from 10-2. Only 15 was finally free from the ATB tiranny since you could Attack! Attack! Attack! with no waiting whatsoever. It became a button masher, thing I don't want to happen to the Tales Series.

Kinda agree and disagree. It's true that the LMBS was perfected around Vesperia's time, and the following games felt limited. Graces didn't let you jump or set A artes. Xillia didn't let you do shit without a link partner / used TP along with CC. Zestiria needs you to have exactly 2 humans and 2 seraphs. Berseria has the Souls system, putting you in a tug-o-war with the enemies. And even then, Vesperia only lets you do crazy shit with endgame skills + overlimit.

But if you take the LMBS and the anime artstyle... is that even a Tales game anymore?

(I am opening Pandora's box here, but bear with me. Arise looks like it will become 'action game with RPG elements' like Nier or Monster Hunter. Yes, whenever people mention those kind of games I am like 'NOT an RPG, not even an Action RPG'. If that, we can call the Zeldas an RPG because BOTW finally make all those numbers visible, I mean HP, Strengh of Defense.)

TLDR: for me, an RPG is based around numbers, an Action game is based around skill and reflexes.

Well, the road is mostly clear now: fight in the Triverse gate to raise levels, cooking, grade and misc data (Back attacks, cross chases...) until level 80 or so, then do the arenas to reap those last Namcoins. Is it a good idea to push to level 100+ for the Bonus Boss w/o 5x exp?

Edited by FlightMaster on Jun 22nd 2019 at 11:25:44 AM

...Tales has always been more about skill and reflexes then just pure raw numbers. The numbers help Balance things out for late game enemies, but on the highest difficulty of recent games, action game style skills are the best way to go about things.

I’m all for that shift in that direction because i’ll actually think of Tales of Arise as a fun game and not as something found in a discount bargain bin. It still has the designer from previous games, it just looks like a modern game instead of a cheap PS 3 port.

Of course. It's an action RPG. There is a degree of skill required. Just like the SRPG require tactics and positioning. I just don't want the Tales Series DNA to dissapear, which are the LMBS, the anime art style and the Tales staples (skits, costumes, cameos, Katz...)

About difficulties: they are badly balanced. They are meant to go hand to hand with the Exp / SP multipliers: no matter how skillful you are, in Chaos / Unknown everyone will kill you in one hit unless you overtrained. They punish failure much more than they reward skill, that's my bone to pick with higher diffs.

YES, I want the Tales Series to become worth to keep and replay, not the kinda game you beat once and gets thrown in the bargain bin. I will always say that Sony's ecosystem is very dangerous to niche IP's like this one. Ponies buy the trendy game, beat it and then sell it to fund the next purchase. That's why new copies drop in price like a rock very soon, to compete with the influx of used copies from gamers that don't have such time / money / 'love' for this hobby as real fans.

I am moping up Hearts' arenas. More at six! *tune out*

Edited by FlightMaster on Jun 23rd 2019 at 11:34:47 AM

The anime artstyle hasn't been taken out, so I'm not sure why you keep panicking about it possibly going away.

Yeah, the screenshots are still anime-style. They're just a lot more detailed, and the official art isn't much different than usual.

Guess I overreacted. I still remember what they did to Hearts DS and its CGI videos. I don't want Namco to make an entire game like that. Uncanny Valley is an understatement. *shudder*

Oookay. Hearts has to have the easiest arena in the history of Tales Series. I was level 78-82.

-Single matches: Every enemy was doing scratch damage even on Advanced. The hardest was Beryl's because she has the physical prowess of a 5 year old (sorry girl, it's true) Easiest was probably Kohaku's: pure power and nice fast heals.

-Team matches: NOOO! *terror* Tell me, WHO put the godforsaken f*cking Sandworm as the last match of Advanced? The one responsible will be sent to a special Ironic Hell! But that's not all. Hubert and Pascal come to take the prize! This was annoying since I focused on Pascal and Hubert kept hitting ME and just ME. Buzz off, four'eyes, let me smack your girlfriend! (Hubert: She Is Not My Girlfriend! Yet.)

-Extra battles: The annoying part is not being able to check their HP or weaknesses (Nappa: Their power level is unmeasurable!) other than that they are the same as the old versions but with f*ckloads of HP. Byrox and Peri are less dangerous without Chalce around, but the Seraph Bros are as powerful as before. And we must fight TWO Incaroses. Anyway, if you are at the recommended levels all of them are very doable.

DONE! The last 13 Namcoins are finally mine! Citrine dear, give me your Risky Ring and get lost forever, for your sidequest will never be attempted again.

Seriously. F*ck that stupid Sandworm.

Edited by FlightMaster on Jun 23rd 2019 at 6:46:40 PM

Tales of Hearts was probably my least favourite Final Fantasy game

Okay seriously, its probably because both Yoshitaka Amano and Tetsuya Nomura's designs generally lend themselves better to CGI while the Tales series designs...kinda don't. They're much more anime in nature.

Its the clothes. Character designs themselves might be harder depending on the character in question, but Tales fashion choices are...well, terrible in anything that isn't animated. And even then they still can be weird.

I feel like things have gotten too Visual Kei since I want to say Vesperia. Like, check out the difference between say Lloyd Irving and Asbel Lhant; they don't even feel like they're from the same series. Did the designer change?

The designers for those games were different people, but they've both been around the same basic amount of time. They just did different games until Xillia, where they both contributed character designs.

@ Kombat: following your logic Bravely Default would be the best Final Fantasy.

So I was like 'screw it, I am doing the Bonus Dungeon' since I beat the two guardians that drop the needed orbs to open the actual Triverse gate and got like 8 levels! With +exp food of course. That put me in the high 90's, good enough to start.

It's like the Labyrinth of Memories, for those of you that beat Vesperia. Chunks of old maps and dungeons stitched together, with recolored and MUCH stronger enemies. The first miniboss is the reaper that Galland helped us beat back when he joined. The second is...

AAAARRGH ITS THE F*CKING SANDWORM AGAIN! HOW MANY TIMES MUST I KILL YOU AND YOUR DISGUSTING LEECH SONS! *mouth foam*

Okay. *breath* This.is.ridiculous. Someone among the game designers had a borderline zoophilic fetish for this bugger. It doesn't help that it's That One Boss. Count them. FOUR times you must fight this aberration. If someone replaced Vesperia's Recurring Boss Zagi with Gattuso... there would be bomb letters sent to Namco.

Where was I? Right, the next miniboss is a recolor of Vorgas. It's still weak to Water and Wind so Innes should be in. And geez, he hits like a cargo truck loaded with smaller trucks loaded with adamantium blocks. At the end I won ONE MILLION exp! And 33 grade, broke my record from when I beat Chalcy and Co, which was 31.

I am thinking about farming grade with the slime method now that Shing and Innes have the 1-point Damage skill. Basically play on Unknown, equip a Thunder weapon and hack the slimes in Seaville > swim in Grade like a cartoon duck swims in coins.

See you soon then.

Edited by FlightMaster on Jun 25th 2019 at 11:14:47 AM

Kinda, but not in the way you'd think. Kousuke Fujishima chiefly handled Phantasia, Symphonia, Abyss, and Vespira, while...I don't remember the other ones name did nearly everything else, which also happen to be the ones I don't like. Again, it namely being the outfits.

Inomata. He is the one who did the 'Team Destiny' games' designs. Eternia, the Destiny's, Rebirth and Graces. These, unlike Team Symphonia games whose 3d battle engine kept improving, kept reinventing the wheel each time, and that confuses and makes some fans dislike them.

I had less than 100 grade left till 2500, for the 'complete Monster / Collector book' exploit. I put Shing + Thunder badge and Innes + Thunder soma, 1 damage skill, +grade food, then fought two slimes on Unknown = 351 grade for a 15 min. fight! I guess I don't need to repeat that ever again, but... there it is.

I steeled myself for the 200 hits trophy... I got the '20 seconds Chase' completely by accident with Kunzite! I looked for a wind-weak mon but anyone with many HP can do. Kitty Mitts + Swarm of Thrusts + chase > Overlimit when chase is ending. Result: 217 hits.

Well, that's it. Only Faldeamus remains, lord of the Shadow gems, ruler of the Devil arms. If you play in Normal he has 1 million HP. And no weaknesses. He can null your elemental resistances to make his next hit devastating. Luckily, he is alone...

He has a cheap 'I win' button like the Fodra Queen / Armatus Heldalf. Yep, Finis Origo covers 90% of the field and utterly destroys anyone inside, but it is survivable! Play as the healer and stay on the field's edge, and get ready to pop an Omega Elixir when the inevitable comes (at certain HP thresholds?) It took FIVE tries and 40 minutes of my life! (actual battle: 11 min)

I was level 115 with my A team. Finished Creed at the 46 hour mark, and this guy died at the 62 hour mark. I am done, Hearts R! *waves* It was an amazing ride.

Except when it wasn't. (Four... f*cking... Sandworms.)

Edited by FlightMaster on Jun 26th 2019 at 1:45:45 PM

The guys behind Rays did a world map for the game. Sadly of course, Link wasn't taken into account, then again tho, nor were Versus or the RM games.

Basically every world is now just another country or continent. Pity poor Regnum.

Inomata is a woman. She was also responsible for old-school tragedy Windaria.

And yeah...I don't know who thought we needed more Sandworm or more Hasta in the R games. And yet we got plenty extra of them. Clearly, someone in the development team hates fun.

That world map looks absolutely hilarious with every continent just having a random chunk of ice on it.

Because they need to have a snowy region for each continent so that we can have different Christmas and/or New Year events for every year...?

Also, I’m pretty sure that Link characters and the Kanonnos, as well as collab characters, are exoflected by the Ark. That place exists outside of Tir Na Nog’s dimension and thus can’t be placed anywhere on the map. Though I wonder what will happen when Arise is released and they need to include its characters in the game since it’s a new Mothership title.

I guess...the same thing?

What about summers as well? If this planet has the same rotation thing as Earth then what about that?

It works the same. Notice that there’s no area without beaches.

Okay, I go away a couple days and all of You Fail Geography Forever, starting withe Ray's designers.

The Tales Series just can't fit into one world map because some games work with dual worlds in a hourglass planet (Inferia + Celestia = Eternia, Sylvarant + Tethealla = Aselia) If, and only IF there were canon 'fused' versions (Aselia is in Phantasia, but Eternia's halves never fuse) you could try fitting them in.

And then there is the issue of scale! If every continent is properly scaled and aren't super tiny (so you CAN travel across them in a matter of hours.) the actual planet housing them would be the size of JUPITER. Maybe that's why Tales dudes are so strong! Bigger means more gravity. They are DBZ characters!

Finally, I lol at the random glaciers on every continent instead of being placed in the poles or really high, cold mountains. The funniest part is that they are placed right next to coasts. You know, global warming does not work like that. The glaciers would melt instead of breaking off and drifting until they hit a coast.

(And why would they need a glacier nearby to celebrate Christmas? Do we, RL humans, pilgrimage to the North Pole to celebrate? *raises cane* Humbug!)

Conclusion: either the Tales Series if full of magic mumbo jumbo to make all of the above work or Rays' designers are full of sh*t.

Edited by FlightMaster on Jun 28th 2019 at 10:49:09 AM

Rays’ entire premise is that Everything Is Crazy Enough to Work. I mean, when you can just shoot a beam of light to the sky to summon a condensed version of one world in order to patch your own, all logic is thrown out of the window.