Topic: Tales of Series General Discussion

I'm guessing it's genuine. Releasing a fairly big budget game just on a previous gen console seemed like a bad business plan. I imagine PS4 and PC versions will follow.

It's not really a big budget game. Tales games make money despite most selling less than 1M units.

I'm thinking of trying one of The Tales game so Abyss a good place to start or should I wait for Zestiria/Symphonia to come out on steam?

@arronishere: Abyss is a fantastic place to start. It's where I started, at least. Symphonia would be a decent second option, but the battle system feels like a lesser version of Abyss'.

I noticed Tales of Zestiria and Symphonia on Steam as upcoming games. I've never tried a Tales game before. Hopefully these ports are good.

Also, is Tales of Vesperia on 360 and Tales of Heart R on Vita any good?

Vesperia is often said as being one of the best. I really hope that one comes to Steam, as it's not available on PS3 in the west. I really liked what I played of it. I'm not sure about Hearts R, but I heard it's a decent entry in the series, not top tier.

I'm playing the 3DS version of Tales of the Abyss and, so far, I love it.

@crazycrazydave Vesperia is extremely spam-heavy, and most bosses are unnecessarily drawn-out with insane amounts of HP, so I can confidently say: if you're out for a (somewhat) good story and very patient, go for it. Otherwise, steer clear. Tales of Hearts R suffers from very bland and outdated visuals, as well as being one of the easiest games of the series, so that one isn't easily recommended, either.

@arronishere A bit late, but I can only implore you to stay away from Abyss. Between the awful writing, unbalanced combat, and a bunch very annoying dungeons, only the character designs manage to stick out as a positive note. It might be easier for you to try and aim for Symphonia, which, while more restrictive, still feels like the combat is more than just a bunch of attacks you randomly throw around, plus you get a plot that is much more engaging and creative overall.
Otherwise, try Tales of Graces. Not the best writing, and the localization is particularly weak, but it's one of the more fleshed-out Tales of games out there.

@arronishere Hm, that's kind of a problem, but NamcoBandai is in the middle of releasing almost all of their PS3 games on steam, anyway, so more Tales of games are bound to arrive, as well.

Okay tales for me in general is beating an dead horse. That dead horse is Tales of Phantasia from the SNES. They made one great game, and then the team "Wolf-Team" AKA "Telenet employees" had issues with licensing and rights. So they made "Star Ocean" with Enix.

Enix is noticed for RPG games not by them but by other people. Compared to Squaresoft that just release an new RPG every other year, which is just another version of Final Fantasy.

That is where the line is drawn, with Tales of Phantasia, and Star Ocean. Every Tales games are forced releases. What worked and what was amazing on the SNES/Gameboy Color is kinda sad on the PSX and up.

In fact Star Ocean 2 was an terrible game ( in my opinion ), but it had an enemy that was just as good as Phantasia.

Otherwise Tales and Tri-Ace should be ignored. I mean great RPG games and all but they get too complicated to follow anymore. The Graphics are not really ( or should not be ) the problem for these games.

Last I heard Abysis was great but i do not know why? Tales on GCN was good but again that is the kiddie route no matter which way you go.

I won't try to defend Tales games as perfect, but the way I see it, they offer one of the most addictive combinations of gameplay I've ever seen in a video games.

The stories aren't always great, but they are deep and engaging enough to pull you in. Then, unlike turn-based RPGs, the actual combat takes a very long time, if ever to wear on you, due to its intense action nature.

I really wish more games used that mix.

Tales of the Abyss is one of the few Tales games with a good story, IMO. The rest rely on good characters to hold your interests in a cliche and convoluted plot. I've heard Tales of Eternia had a good story as well, but that's one of the few English releases I haven't played yet...

I need to try these games more. I've only really played Symphonia(and the meh DotNW), Abyss, Eternia, and Vesperia

Ended up loving Symphonia and Abyss a lot(with Symphonia being one of my favorite RPGs). Regrettably traded Vesperia toward the Wii U, so I'll probably get it again sometime later, and Eternia I got to the end but my save file got erased so I kind of just decided not to replay it

Cheers guys, will probably wait for Symphonia on PC to try out and hopefully Vesperia will get a release on PC with all the PS3 upgrades missing from the 360 version. Will probably skip Tales of Heart R, at least until I try out a few others first. Not a fan of games that are too easy.

On a random Note, StorMyu should never take on a translation project after Tales of Rebirth (assuming he doesn't completely burn out at some point). Not to say he's bad at what he does, but he clearly took on waaay too much for a team their size. Multiple translations simultaneously, no menu patch, extra modes, two formats simultaneously, all of which have to be done before they can consider the project complete. That's just too much work to do all at once, they should've started small so they could learn from their mistakes and make the later stuff go faster. One version, one language, no extra stuff until that's complete.

...anyways, if you're curious what the deal is with ToR's slow progress, there you go...

I'm still hoping Bamco localizes Rebirth for 3DS. It's such a perfect fit I don't get why it hasn't happened yet.

Tales of Series would be a perfect fit for the Wii U. I always have to open the menu a lot both in battle and open world. The Gamepad would be awesome for any RPG. Sadly there aren't much RPG on the Wii U...

I really enjoyed Tales of Xillia 2. It was a great game, with a perfect combination of exploring, story and combat.

Have any of you seen this game? The whole "fighting game combat in an RPG" thing immediately brought Tales to mind.

http://shiness-game.com/

I know this is old, but I'm not sure of a more appropriate place to ask this.

In Vesperia, does anyone have any tips on the waitress/waiter minigame in Dhangrest?

You need to complete level 3 to earn a costume for Rita, but it's the most impossible thing I've ever ran across. Every customer asks for no less than 5 different items in asinine amounts (15 of this, 19 of that, 17 of that, and so on), but they list no more than 10 items (they'll say they want something, than tell you to forget it), making it impossible to remember it all. Oh, and if you take too long to get them their food, they'll be mad that it's late (they seem to be already tired of waiting by the time you're done putting the order in, so this seems extra difficult).

Would it be best to physically write everything down, that way you're guaranteed get all the orders right, even though that'll make them late, or is there something else I'm not thinking of?

I have completed all 3 levels with Judith before, but all 3 seem to be just a bit tougher the second time around than they were the first.

@RR529 That's a GameFAQs Question, man.

Also, now I'm glad my brother wouldn't let me do any of the side stuff after reading some of it. I guess some of it would be fun, but I'd really need a guide to do any of that. Definitely second-playthrough-only, IMO.

But seriously, if you're in it for the costume, you don't have to worry about being late, apparently. You also can just pause Vesperia at any time and then you don't even have to worry about how long you take.