The Tales series... by my biased jurisdiction, deemed the best RPG title series of all. This blog will revolve around the two of the Tales series that I had personally played, Tales of Symphonia and Tales of Vesperia.
My History
Almost two years ago, I made a thread about a game called Tales of Symphonia. I made the thread (http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=46156) purely out of fanboyism, since I fell in love with the whole game, from its unique battle system to the way the story unravelled. To this day, I'm fascinated by the well roundedness of battle system and story concept, not to mention the great replay value!
Wanting more, I ended up searching on google and wikipedia for anything I might have possibly missed. Inevitably, I came across the 4 episode OVA animation, for which I made another thread: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=55626.
Despite the rather lengthy history, my love for the game didn't die, even after two years of having played Symphonia. Out of nostalgia, I checked the wikipedia page for Tales of Symphonia to find that there's a sequel coming out on the Wii! Tales of Symphonia: Knight of Ratatosk, otherwise known as Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World. I made a blog about it a few weeks ago, in fact: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=76993
Recently, I've been playing the game Tales of Vesperia. I'd heard about it by word of mouth, specifically, by a young high school freshman who happened to love Tales as much as I. Initially, I was worried because I wasn't sure that the game would live up to the spectacular experience provided by its predecessor. All of my anxiety dissipated within an hour's gameplay into Vesperia, as I reengaged in its battle system that conjured a flood of memories left fresh by its Game Cube cousin, Symphonia. Accordingly, a full week passed by in the blink of an eye, leaving over 40 hours of gameplay and a couple pounds of coke and cheesecake in its wake.
The Battle System
All this talk about spectacular gameplay demands an explanation and I'd be more than happy to oblige. If you're familiar with separate world map/battle system type RPG's, then you'd apply the same concept to tales. The way you enter the battle system is by getting physically close to an enemy or engaging a boss through a cut scene.
A small clip showing a few battle scenes:
The two Tales series used the exact same battle system, which is called Linear Motion Battle System. Basically, you as the main player can control your choice of whomever out of 4 available party members you selected in your first slot in two different modes: manual and semi-automatic. In either mode, you engage the enemy one at a time, depending on whom you're targetting, and pursue that target until you either switch or defeat the enemy. It would look something like this:
My favorite aspect of the battles is a system called overlimit, when you get hit enough or deal enough damage to basically go super saiyajin mode, using unlimited attacks and specials without any wait time. Of course, this consumes so much TP (mana points), but it's worth it to rip your enemy to shreds using the coolest moves like tempest and tiger blade:
Possible Spoiler! (It leads into battle from a cut scene a bit into the game) + Show Spoiler +
For me, this type of battle system is the dominating factor why Tales is simply the best, since you're constantly in motion, unlike the chesslike "wait your turn, run up and do one move" type of crap you have to deal with in most battle system rpgs. Grinding isn't so bad when you get to try out all sorts of different moves without having to wait until you get to hit that fucking A button. You have no idea how much of a relief that is for a guy who had to endure grinding Pokemon Red, spamming scratch and ember at viridian forest to level my charmander to ungodly levels since Brock's Onyx is gay.
The Story
In both of the Tales I had played, I'd noticed that the recurring theme revolves around friendship, and overcoming first small, then global obstacles through self and social maturity. Arguably, the same could be said of other RPG's, but Tales incorporates the perfect blend of social/political strife, while maintaing the slightly idealistic element recurrent in old rpgs such as final fantasy (hope for a better world and the likes). I really wish I could say more, but then, I'd have to go into detail with each game plus risk discussing spoilers, so I'll leave this part at that. I might possibly blog about Tales of Vesperia in the near future, though.
Replay Value I haven't completed Vesperia yet, but I do remember how much replay value Symphonia had. The main contributor to its replay worth probably stemmed from its character relationship system, which pairs you off with the character you most get along with depending on the choices you make in the game. You can pair Lloyd up with 8 others characters to bring different cut scenes, although the game's ending itself won't change much. One particular character's relationship alters the game's story significantly more than others, but that's for you to find out!
Other than that, the game uses a GRADE system, which can be earned or lost after battle. Depending on how much grade you store, you can "buy" yourself into the next game with different modes such as 10x exp, bring items from the previous game, make leveling harder, and various other treats.
That about sums up my (horribly biased) review on the tales series. I still have yet, a world of Tales series to investigate. Other titles I've heard are Tales of Phantasia (next up on my list), and Tales of Destiny. On a scale from 1-10, I'd give it a 9.5!
minus half a point because the game creators didn't make the game last forever.
I LOVED Tales of Symphonia (the most recently released one I've played). They are each truely amazing games and I hope to get my hands on the newer ones soon.
I only wish I could have played Symphonia on PS2 (with many improvements) instead of Gamecube, but it was only released in Japan.
I've heard the sequel is a bit different as you will have to catch monsters and use them in your party (o.O?), but I'm certainly interested still. Symphonia was so much fun I played through it 3 times in a row.
Ever since I got introduced to the Tales of series I have been addicted. Vesperia is by far the hardest of the NA releases on Hard. Instead of the normal 1.5x enemy strength they are at least 2.0x or 2.5x not sure.
ToS, amazing story little easy overall but Mania mode fixed that for me ToL, Bad story, bad difficulty just a filler. ToA, I loved the story and unknown difficulty. 4.0x monster strength JESUS CHRIST!!! ToV, Story is a little wacked Hardest Hard mode, really difficult to do w/o grinding. Still working on this game.
Also that guy in the video played horribly while being over leveled. All his spells can be dodged quite easily if timed right. He took so much damage from photon. Or even use a Guardian Field to limit damage
On September 13 2008 07:35 TonyL2 wrote: Yea there are quite a few Tales games, I'm still seeing when I have time to play Tales of Phantasia, the very first one.
Hmm, but if Symphonia is as good as everyone says I might have to get it, followed soon by it's Wii sequel
I envy you. In fact, I envy all of you who haven't played Tales Of Symphonia.
I wish I could have the joy of going through Tales of Symphonia, then play it through 10 more times before still having the upcoming sequel to look forward to T_T
Heh, but I just did a quick search on the internet and geez there's only used ones for sale that are selling for around £35 which is really quite a lot But I guess you'll prolly still say I should get it, seeing as you seem to love it so much, so I'm gonna ponder this longer
I do remember that my own used copy of Tales of symphonia was quite pricey. I believe I paid $17.99 for a used copy of the game. Of course, I'd still recommend getting this game since I'm ridiculously biased towards ToS...to a psychotic extreme.
Just do your research (but don't spoil yourself!) and decide if it's worth buying. Just for the record, this game's best played with at least one other person to control multiple characters on the battle field.
I played the demo of Tales of Vesperia on xbla and I had kinda mixed feelings. Maybe someone could clear up whether I will like the full game or not.
I did enjoy the battle system more then I do for most jrpgs. What I didn't like were the characters and the tone. Actually the main guy and his dog were alright but a couple of the companions really annoyed me. Also there was a part where the party was stopped by soldiers who said "there's a warrant for your arrest" or something but instead of having to fight our way the kiddy characters got into some silly antics and we all ran off into the woods.
What I am wondering is: are there other non-childish characters that I can swap out for the annoying ones and also does the tone of the game continue to be light hearted and silly or does it get a little more serious at some point?
On September 13 2008 07:35 TonyL2 wrote: Yea there are quite a few Tales games, I'm still seeing when I have time to play Tales of Phantasia, the very first one.
Hmm, but if Symphonia is as good as everyone says I might have to get it, followed soon by it's Wii sequel
I envy you. In fact, I envy all of you who haven't played Tales Of Symphonia.
I wish I could have the joy of going through Tales of Symphonia, then play it through 10 more times before still having the upcoming sequel to look forward to T_T
On September 13 2008 08:59 Pangolin wrote: I played the demo of Tales of Vesperia on xbla and I had kinda mixed feelings. Maybe someone could clear up whether I will like the full game or not.
I did enjoy the battle system more then I do for most jrpgs. What I didn't like were the characters and the tone. Actually the main guy and his dog were alright but a couple of the companions really annoyed me. Also there was a part where the party was stopped by soldiers who said "there's a warrant for your arrest" or something but instead of having to fight our way the kiddy characters got into some silly antics and we all ran off into the woods.
What I am wondering is: are there other non-childish characters that I can swap out for the annoying ones and also does the tone of the game continue to be light hearted and silly or does it get a little more serious at some point?
The thing I like about ToS is how simple it is. The combat is simple. The story is so cutesy and so are the characters. That's why I liked it. It was just simple fun to play.
There were some dark moments in ToS, but overall the tone stayed light hearted and young.
I assume this would apply across ToV but Zil can probably tell you that better.
On September 13 2008 08:59 Pangolin wrote: I played the demo of Tales of Vesperia on xbla and I had kinda mixed feelings. Maybe someone could clear up whether I will like the full game or not.
I did enjoy the battle system more then I do for most jrpgs. What I didn't like were the characters and the tone. Actually the main guy and his dog were alright but a couple of the companions really annoyed me. Also there was a part where the party was stopped by soldiers who said "there's a warrant for your arrest" or something but instead of having to fight our way the kiddy characters got into some silly antics and we all ran off into the woods.
What I am wondering is: are there other non-childish characters that I can swap out for the annoying ones and also does the tone of the game continue to be light hearted and silly or does it get a little more serious at some point?
If you want non-childish why play a JRPG? That is simply the worst analogy I've heard and Tales of I have high hopes for.
EPT![[image loading]](http://animelinks.pbwiki.com/f/tales_symphonia.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://darkdiamond.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/tov-title-screen.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://palgn.com.au/media/pics_inside/art_1505_id_8_mw_520.jpeg)
But I guess you'll prolly still say I should get it, seeing as you seem to love it so much, so I'm gonna ponder this longer
