The "Tales of" Series

[BladeOfHavoc]

How many of you guys have played this gem? I got this a couple seasons ago for $37.00 on Amazon. I played it for about four months and became a Symphonia addict. Post your favorite moments, aspects, and reasons for why you like this game. IF necessary, use spoiler tags!!!

 

[Nasty_Nate]

Im pretty sure theres an old symphonia topic floating around

but yeah. ****'s beast. Music's awesome

 

[Kuraudo]

....is that... RL Dale Gribble?

... boss.

 

[BladeOfHavoc]

Stay on topic young grass hoppers. Today we are men, not (filthy) half-elves.

 

[Zero_Gamer]

Music is awful.
Story is generic.
Characters look and act generic.
Gameplay feels clunky.
Everyone looks like a half-dwarf.

And yet I like it.

 

[Turazrok]

Sequel sucked.

Original da bess.

 

[BladeOfHavoc]

Zero, how was the gameplay clunky?

 

[Zero_Gamer]

It just felt awkward and slow for the longest time.

I eventually got used to it, but it's not as fast as I want it be.

Despite all these qualms I have, I still like the game a lot. It's fun.

 

[Minato]

Zero, how was the gameplay clunky?

Clunkiest Tales game besides Phantasia and PS1 Destiny, IMO.
Everyone but Lloyd felt too slow to use manually on both movement and attacking speed.

And on another note, since the LMBS had multiple lines but no free run, it was hard to defend your casters unless you toggled between different enemies to position yourself.

While the battle system wasn't the best out of the Tales, it's still addicting and fun.

 

[BladeOfHavoc]

I have to agree on that one Minato, the casters will always run right up to the enemy to cast. I think that tales of the abyss was an improvement on the fighting system, but free-run isn't necessary to have a good fight.

 

[Minato]

I have to agree on that one Minato, the casters will always run right up to the enemy to cast. I think that tales of the abyss was an improvement on the fighting system, but free-run isn't necessary to have a good fight.

Yeah, Free Run made Abyss to easy as well which was somewhat of a shame.
Graces did it best though. Free Run was still in, but it drains your CC Gauge so the game wouldn't let you abuse it, so you'd have to wait for it to recharge.

 

[BladeOfHavoc]

I've never played Graces before, is it worth buying?

 

[Minato]

I've never played Graces before, is it worth buying?

It isn't out yet in the US, but they have announced that it'll be coming.
If you have a PS3, definitely get it.

 

[Chronodiver Lokii]

This game...its eaten over...
-counts-
...MANY hours of my life.
5 playthroughs. I had an obsession.

 

[Fayte Isaac]

im seriously pissed... i got a GC a few years back but didnt have very many games for it (aside from the practically mandatory SSBM and Wind Waker) so my friend let me borrow a few (one of which was Symphonia)
i played it for a few weeks and was totally addicted, but i had to give it back... to this day i still havent beaten it... which really sux because the game was epix

 

[Zero_Gamer]

I'm in the same situation as you.

:/

 

[BladeOfHavoc]

I'm on my fourth playthrough (mania) and I still love it. I'm looking forward to buying tales of the abyss soon, I need more tale's of.

 

[ryuu seika]

Guess what topic I just stumbled upon? I love Symphonia. I've finished it atleast 5 times. I then got into the rest of the series and have played every game released in english besides Vesperia. Enjoyed all but Knight of Ratatosk, though Destiny PS1 was a bit dull. I'm currently replaying Legendia and loving every minute of it.

As for Abyss, I'd wait to see if the 3DS version gets localised. The original has insane loading times which occasionally cause it to freeze. The cartridge format would fix the issue and with it, most of what is wrong with the game.

EDIT: And I recently found someone with an Xbox to use for Vesperia so I'll soon have played every english tales there is. I must replay Destiny though as I've only ever got the bad ending.

 

[TuxingtonIII]

Symphonia was pretty good. It kept my attention, but I just couldn't muster the effort to fully beat it when don't have Zelos or Kratos since they were the character I would play as (mages are obviously boring and the CPU is so much better with Lloyd than I am, hahaha)

 

[BladeOfHavoc]

I loved playing as Zelos! He would take down enemies that a Lloyd couldn't even think of. But, he ate more TP than Lloyd.
Recently, I got Tales of Legendia, I am in love with it...

 

[ryuu seika]

I wasn't as into ToL when I first got it as I should have been. Don't get me wrong, I still thoroughly enjoyed the game but I'm enjoying it rather more on my current playthrough.

I never liked Zelos. His speech annoyed me and when playing as him, his hits felt empty.
Ok, "never" is a bit of a lie, I liked him for the five minutes

Spoiler

he was evil

in the alternate storyline.

 

[fkacyan]

Gameplay: Amazing! Combat is awesome.
Story: Look up the RPG Cliche List. They literally copy-pasted story elements right out of it.

 

[BladeOfHavoc]

I personally like ToP's battle system more than Legendia's. The fights in Legendia come down to combo or die.

 

[ryuu seika]

Ah but you couldn't combo light monsters indefinitely as knockback increased with the hit count. Basic attack wall pseudo-combos bypassed that if you knew how to time them right as you only actually ever chained 3 hits before letting them recover right into the next chain. They could break out of that eventually by using their special (!) moves though.

I feel that there's a lot of depth most people don't see in ToL's combat.

 

[BladeOfHavoc]

I see where your opinion comes from, the game does have some crazy combos. But, ToP has even more amazing combos and attacks. In my opinion, Legendia was lacking a bit in the combat department. The game had some strange mechanics that always seemed to screw me over when I was in the middle of a good combo.

 

[ryuu seika]

I quite like the inability to infinite combo as it prevents the game from devolving into Jigenzan spamming and such.

 

[BladeOfHavoc]

Sorry to burst your bubble, but I've seen many infinites. I just can't time all of the moves correctly without sliding through my enemy or doing some other random action. Also, what is a Jigenzan?

 

[eighteenspikes]

this is the first RPG that I stopped playing completely by virtue of how ****ty the characters and storyline was. it was offensively bad. i got to tethealla and said **** it im out. and i beat quest 64 multiple times.

 

[ryuu seika]

Sorry to burst your bubble, but I've seen many infinites. I just can't time all of the moves correctly without sliding through my enemy or doing some other random action. Also, what is a Jigenzan?

I know I can't manage anything of the sort but having uncooperative AI teammates doesn't exactly help.

Jigenzan is the japanese name for Distortion Blade, one of Cless' most spamable moves and also one of his most powerful. I prefer to use the english names of most moves but their are some that I know better by the japanese. Specifically Jigenzan (Distortion Blade), Majin Rengazan (Demonic Chaos), Raiden (Merciless Thunder), Izuna Otoshi (Crow Blade), Semidare (Hell Rush)Kaenrekku (Blazing Tempest), Satsugeki Bokouken (Final/Fatal Fury) and Bigu Bang (Big Bang).

And as for you Spikes, if you can't appreciate a truly emotional game with proper real time combat, that's your problem but please learn to use apostrophes.

EDIT: unless you played "Dawn of the New World" and thought it was Symphonia. In that case, I can totally agree.

 

[Raziek]

Definitely one of my favorite games on the GC, I've logged at least 10+ playthroughs.

Yink and I recently beasted Mania mode in a co-op speedrun. <3

Zelos da bess.

 

[Minato]

Zelos da bess.

Yay, another Zelos fan. Not that Kratos was bad, both were awesome.

And I suck at Mania for Symphonia.
Maybe it's the AI that's screwing me over by wasting TP and dying so quickly, but it's pretty tough.

 

[BladeOfHavoc]

I feel your pain Minato, Genis wishes he was a fighter. If he gets under 100 TP, it's kendama to the face time! I don't think that Raine is much better with this problem either though...

 

[ryuu seika]

Yeah. Atleast in Abyss the casters actually can fight.
And in ToL they don't have to.

10xEXP makes mania easy though. Which reminds me, I have to finish my monster tech list at some point. I'm currently forty-something% done.

 

[BladeOfHavoc]

10xEXP is for quitters. I don't use EXP multiplying advantages, which is probably why I'm still level 9...

 

[Raziek]

We used 10x just to breeze through it quickly.

She made us take Kratos though. T-T

 

[Zook]

Aw man, this game was great. The plot was as obvious as ****, but the gameplay was a ton of fun.

 

[Deleted member]

me and pink reaper talk about this game fairly often. i think he said he's beaten it twenty-something times. i've beaten it 8. perfect file.

>_>

 

[ryuu seika]

10xEXP is for quitters.

Or those who don't want to die while waiting for mania mode monsters to use specific techs but can't be bothered to level for days.

Having used it once, I never will again though.

 

[Yink]

We used 10x just to breeze through it quickly.

She made us take Kratos though. T-T

Kratos > Zelos man. Sorry.

Also, I watched some guy with, half exp, mania...something else and then he got Gung-Ho, Friendship First and I Hate Gels! in the same playthrough. It was nuts.

 

[ryuu seika]

That seemed perfectly reasonable until I looked up Friends First. WTH

Spoiler

is that

?!