Topic: Tales of Series General Discussion

Oh what, Xilia ditched the world map?

That's one of my favourite things about these games. They'd better have a world map in Tales of Hearts R

IGN released a new impressions video on Tales of Zestiria. I'm not the biggest fan of the art style (Just seems a bit too generic and bland for me. I liked ToS, ToV, and ToX's styles far more), but else the game looks amazing. Really excited to explore this giant world, and the new joining system seems really neat. I'm kind of curious as to whether this game takes place in the same world as another Tales game. That's always a neat touch when they do it. I really have to pick up a PS3 for this.

Article: http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/09/18/tgs-2014-tales-of-zest...
Video: http://www.ign.com/videos/2014/09/18/how-tales-of-zestiria-im...

Considering how much backtracking there was in Graces, I'm actually really grateful for the fast travel in that game.

So Xillia 2 is a little... eh. Maybe I'm just too early in the game to tell yet, but I bloody hate this stupid paying back the loan feature. So far the game feels like one big chain of disjointed side quests with a money cap.

Want a ps3 for these games. Why ps3 so expense?

After the disappointments behind both Xillia games, the sloppy ToS port (that never bothered to correct design flaws at all), and the terrible localization of Graces, I'm really losing my faith in the Tales series. As if ToS2 wasn't bad enough, they held back Graces from an international Wii release, never localized the extended PS3 version of Vesperia, and while also dragging Innnocence and Hearts away from Nintendo platforms for absolutely no reason, they go full-course and release another of the Tales of the World trainwrecks - as a strategy game.
At some point, I simply realized that the folks from NamcoBandai are too busy being lazy to whip up a proper Tales game again. It's really sad to see a once really original and refreshing Action RPG turn into a generic, overbloated, and uninspired mess full of copy-pasted stereotypes in standard situations.

Getting a used PS3 will save you a nice slab of cash, but the PS3 Tales games are hardly worth it.

Yeah, Namco never really bothered to notice that, prior to Graces F, Xillia, and Xillia 2, most of the franchise's western fanbase was split across Nintendo and Microsoft's platforms. We weren't getting the enhanced remakes on Sony platforms like Japan was, and with Symphonia being many people's first game in the series, what the west saw was 1 Tales game on GC, 2 on PS2, one on Wii, and one on 360. That's really not convincing reason to go out and buy a PS3.

But yeah, I ToS: Chronicles has to be the laziest remaster I have ever seen in my life. They SLIGHTLY altered a few models, upscaled the game, and left the inferior PS2 framerate of 30FPS, while not updating any of the game mechanics at all or removing the invisible walls.

I can't say much for the PS3 Tales games though. I haven't played them. I was planning on getting a PS3, but I unexpectedly got a 360, so I'll be tackling Vesperia next.

I've only played Symphonia and Dawn Of The New World. I loved them both. I so wish I could play Hearts, it looks awesome... But they didn't localize it for Wii or DS. I'm not interested in the new one, since I don't own any Sony Consoles, and there's only Vesperia for 360, but I haven't gotten it.... Hopefully Bandai Namco will release any type of Tales games on Wii U, or at least 3DS, even if it's another port!

There is an english patch of the DS versions of Hearts and Innocence.

Sorry to double post, but this is completely different from the previous post. Does anyone else think they should port and relocalize Tales of Phantasia to 3DS?

I mean, the GBA version is notorious for being poorly translated, so why not offer the game on the most popular handheld out right now (without godawful microtransactions)

@iKhan Would be nice, but I think they won't do that, simply because they can get more out of newer entries. Logically, we should be getting Tales of Hearts/Innocence, but for some obscure reason, NamcoBandai decided to (once again, poorly) port them over to VITA, while maintaining PSP-level quality. A simultaneous 3DS release would've been the best decision overall, but, well... NamcoBandai and logic tend to go different directions.

No, because they've ported Tales of Phantasia 5 times already and I think they're running out of people who haven't played it before...plus I don't think I'd want to see it with 3D models...

But it's come to the west exactly 1 time, in a widely criticized translation.

At the very least, they should localize the PSX or PSP version and offer it on PSN.

Tales of Xillia is my favourite in the series. Played it three times over. Love it.

Well, yeah, but you were asking if they were going to remake it again. Of course they could bring over one of the ports they've already done.

New screenshots for Tales of Zestiria reveal 2 new characters and the new skills system.

Lunarre seems to play some sort of antagonistic role.

Symonne is, to quote the article, "a mysterious seraph with unknown intentions."

Just posting this because I love how the dungeons look so far

The new skill system allows the player to set up to 4 skills on their weapons with different combos giving different additional effects. Similar gear can be combined

More screenshots here
SOURCE: http://www.rpgsite.net/news/3970-tales-of-zestiria-screenshot...

And this is kind of old, but here is the TGS gameplay trailer

I'm really optimistic about this skill system. Doesn't seem brain bendingly complicated like in Innocence (I guess the lack of an english manual hurts too). But it's also not stupidly simple to the point that it needn't exist like in Abyss. Haven't really any played the PS3 titles, so I don't know how those are.

The combat and world also looks really fun. I think the more footage I see, the more it seems clear that they aren't trying to catapult off of Xenoblade's success like many early impressions thought. The world still looks very Tales-esque. That said, either my computer is running slow, or I saw some noticeable slowdown in the TGS trailer. I hope it's the former. Lastly, I'm still not crazy about the art style. It's not bad or anything, but unlike Xillia, Vesperia, or Symphonia, it doesn't seem to exhibit any unique visual elements that add to it's charm. It kind of seems like an HD version of something like Abyss or Symphonia 2, a pretty generic anime style. All in all, this game, along with X on Wii U, is going to force me to quit stalling and pick between Wii U or PS3 soon.

I haven't really been following news for the new Tales of the World title on 3DS. If anyone has, it'd be great if you could post it.

Here are my 10 hour in first impressions on Tales of Vesperia

-Love the characters, minus Rita, who I'm not sure about yet. Yuri reminds me of Kanan from SW: Rebels. Estelle reminds me of Starfire from Teen Titans, and Karol makes me think of Genis. (I don't really watch Anime, so enjoy my reference points in American animation). I wouldn't say they are as deep and complex as the characters in Innocence yet, but they are all interesting and amusing.

-Sense of exploration is much better than Abyss. Search points aren't visible from a mile away anymore, so you actually have to look around. Still nothing close to Symphonia though. Is it really that hard to reward the player for going out of his/her way and looking in a hard to spot area in the world map?

-Battle system is fun, and it makes really good use of free run. I love the diversity of fighters, and I find myself constantly switching between Repede, Yuri, and Karol. Though I do run into camera issues sometimes, with an enemy completely obscuring my point of view. Still getting used to Fatal Strikes

-Art Style is fantastic. Tales belongs in this sort of vibrant cel-shaded style.

-Synthesis is awesome. It's not brainbendingly confusing and confined to one location like in Abyss. And it's much more fleshed out than the system in Symphonia.

-I like the skills system. Tying them to weapons is a neat idea, and if forces me to put a bit more strategy into equipping weapons beyond "this weapon is stronger)

-Whoever designed this control scheme is a moron. Who decided that the "B" button is your standard attack in battle, but in menus, it becomes the cancel button? You don't know how many times I've screwed this up throughout the game. Isn't that a golden rule when you have lettered buttons? "A" is the standard attack in action games, and confirm in menus.

-The story is taking a while to get moving, but I don't really care because the rest of the gameplay is so damn fun.

We all know that there probably won't be any new Tales of games for the Wii U, but I still hope NamcoBandai will surprise us with the GBA version of Tales of Phantasia on the Wii U VC! It was even listed on Nintendo's website briefly earlier this year so I really hope it'll find its way onto the service soon!

So um...
http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/02/19/tales-of-zestiria-coul...

If this is true, that would be amazing.

I hope so! I'm a fan of Tales, but not enough that I'd buy a new console just for the games. I've been itching for a Tales game since Abyss 3D, and I'd be all-in to play it on my PC.