Topic: The Tales of Threadia

We haven't heard anything else about Arise yet, have we?

"Tales of" series is probably my most-enjoyed co-op franchise. Played through Symphonia & Vesparia a couple of times with different people now and introduced them to the series. Great fun to experience the stories together. Tales of Abyss I played alone, but it somehow didn't appeal to me as much as the other two did.

Even remember that there was an anime made on the Symphonia story?

Yeah, nothing but love for this franchise from me! Would be excited to see a game for the Switch, or dare I say; Lloyd as Smash rep!

One thing about Berseria I don't like is that it seems to have inherited the same style of dull cave dungeons that Zesteria had.

Everything else seems to be an improvement, though.

I just bought Symphonia at a con i went to last weekend because I thought I heard good things about it somewhere. Sounds like I made the right choice!

If I were to rank my top 3 Tales games I think I'd say:
1. Berseria
2. Symphonia
3. Vesperia

Velvet, Laphicet and Eleanor really make the game. Velvet in particular is a really unique main character compared to other tales games, and it was interesting to go around the world essentially as a group of what people would view as villians instesd of heroes. I'd say the worst part of the game is the other 3 main characters. They hardly have any character development until a tiny bit at the end of the game. Magliou is pretty nice for comedic relief, but overall the rest of the party is pretty throwaway. Vesperia and Symphonia definitely have a more well-rounded cast.

@Bankaj

There was anime for Abyss too I think.

Well, I beat Graces. I had mixed thoughts about it. Now onto Xillia.

My first impressions, I'm super glad that Xilia scraps the whole "A-Artes" and "B-Artes" mechanic. It sounds like it would be fun if I actually had some sort of practice room to really get a good hang of the A-Arte tree, but I was never able to grasp it. and use the right move for the right context.

Based on my party's level (they're all in the low 40's), I'm guessing I'm either a little over halfway or 3/4ths the way through Berseria.

I'm finding weirdly hard at the moment. Most of the time I'm crushing enemy encounters, but when I'm not I get hit hard (it's like it's very easy to get your health absolutely smashed down to half or less if you get caught in even one combo). I still just don't like the more zoomed in battle view (with the camera following behind your controllrd character) that was adopted at least by Zestiria (I liked the more overhead view Abyss & Vesperia had that let you watch over the entire battlefield more easily).

Still, it is a big improvement over Zestiria in most ways though (better characters, better character design, alternate costumes that aren't just pallet swaps, smaller but more interesting field areas, more appealing towns, and it has better dungeons in general as well, though it still has the ocassional dud). Oh, and I love sending out Aifried's pirates out on voyages because of all the treasures they collect that are usually callbacks to past Tales games.

Getting close to wrapping up Berseria. I think the final dungeon has opened up, so I'm going around doing sidequests, which I've pretty much ignored up to this point.

Fought against the protag of a previous Tales game and beat them without much trouble despite them being 10 levels higher than my party (though it sounds like there's going to be a similar, harder fight down the road with another past Tales character). Also ran into the game's level 100 superboss and did better than I thought (my party is just under level 60 and I managed to get it down to 1/4th health), but by the end it seemed like all it's attacks were one-shotting my party members, so I gave up for now.

Berseria definitely looks interesting. If I ever get the ability to play PS4 games, I'll definitely pick it up.

Right now I'm really loving Xillia. It' might be my new No. 2 after Symphonia. The characters are good, and Jude's conflict is really starting to become clear now, and I think it's quite interesting. The combat system might be my new favorite in the series, the field areas offer far more to do than Abyss and Vesperia's barren overworld, and some dungeons like Fort Gandala offer interesting puzzles that utilize verticality, which I appreciate.

@iKhan, definitely want to play the PS3 games someday. Hopefully they end up ported to Switch.

I was mixed on the switch from an overworld to field areas in Zestiria (it was the first post Vesperia game I played) as they were very large & usually quite barren, however in Berseria they tend to be split up into smaller chunks (each consisting of 2-3 separately loaded, admittedly more linear areas) that are more aesthetically pleasing. Granted Zestiria has a lot of other issues as well, such as the numerous copy/pasted forest, ruin, and cave dungeons, bland character designs, dull villages (which all may stem partially from the switch to a more contemporary western fantasy world), and the less said about the awful equipment system the better.

@RR529
See I'm of the opinion that the overworld in a JRPG should feel like an adventure, and in order to do that, a couple things have to be present.

• Meaningful optional content to pursue AND/OR non-linear progression between mandatory locations
• The ability to hide optional content outside plain sight

Symphonia had both of these elements, but Abyss and Vesperia were both severely lacking in them. Abyss had a pretty horrible point-based collectible/crafting system and pretty dull character building mechanics, and search points were always in plain sight, so it failed both of those requirements. Vesperia was a bit better, but even still, the occasional search point was really not a good incentive to explore an area.

So while Xillia's overworld segments aren't exactly pretty or highly populated, they are FILLED with stuff to collect and find, and I absolutely love that about it. I'll take that over a giant map that I can walk around on, but do nothing but go from point A to B in.

I've heard scary things about Zestiria, which I'll play after Xillia 2, so we'll see how that goes.

Just cleared Berseria! Once I get my thoughts sorted out I'll post them here (although Zesteria is a pretty average game, playing it first will make you appreciate Berseria's story more).

Tales of Arise is no longer a 2020 title

https://www.polygon.com/2020/6/25/21303054/tales-of-arise-del...

That explains why we've heard nothing about it since the reveal. We're not going to until next year.

Finally got hold of Tales of Berseria btw! I was struggling to find that for a good price for ages, but finally did.
A lot of people say it's their favourite in the series, so I'll have to see.