Tales of X Games

Oglemi

Borf
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Spent 2 hours tonight running around Tales of the Abyss (I'm about 30 hours in atm) trying to find the fucking Monster Book.

Turns out there isn't on in this one.

(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻
 
So this thread prompted me to try out Tales of Symphonia

Hot damn this is a long-ass game

I have a few complaints but mostly I'm really enjoying it. Although I think my computer hates it.
 

aVocado

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I love the Tales games even though I haven't finished that many. I started out with Tales of Destiny on the PS1, but I think I only played co-op with my older brother because I was like at 1st grade back then (i was born in '96 but we played it late lol). After that I don't believe I or my brothers played any Tales games up until Tales of Symphonia where I mostly just watched my brothers play it rather than actually playing it, so it was mostly spoiled for me and I couldn't play it (even now) because of that. We also got Tales of the Abyss on the PS2 at some point but neither me nor my brothers actually ever finished it lol. I played Tales of the World on the PSP which, while being mediocre overall now that I look back at it, was really enjoyable to me to be honest.

Tales of Vesperia is pretty much the only Tales game (besides Tales of the World) that I actually played and finished, all the while being very intrigued by the game. It was excellent, and I really enjoyed it. Was probably my favourite game on the 360. too bad it's exclusive to that. Finally, I got Tales of the Abyss on the 3DS and I played up until a certain ridiculous dungeon (about 20 hours into the game?) that made me ragequit, and I haven't played since. I enjoyed it all the way through until that though. I plan on getting Tales of Zestiria when it's released, but for now I'm skipping Tales of Xillia and ToX 2.
 
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Oglemi

Borf
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Arikado if you liked Vesperia you'll really enjoy Graces, the banter and fighting system is the most similar (though sadly lacking a sarcastic character), but ya I'd say you can skip the first Xillia.

Also lol, I'm a bit surprised you got stuck anywhere in Abyss. I'll admit that the secret stuff has been pretty hard but I don't recall there being any significantly difficult dungeons thus far.

Also also, I'm now 50 hours into Abyss doing pre-end-game story and item hunting now that I finally found the final Mieu powerups.

Overall, I think there was more traveling back and forth and backtracking in this Tales game than any other I've played before. Thank god they give you a quick jump power later in the game because otherwise this would have been hell.
 
I've been vaguely considering trying to get back into Tales; I played Symphonia ages ago and liked it enough, but after that I abandoned both Legendia and Abyss after just straight-up getting bored (mostly due to length, though Legendia wasn't very good in general). I've heard that Xillia is a bit shorter so I may try that eventually, or more likely wait and see how Zestria turns out.
 

Oglemi

Borf
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Xillia is also a bit better than the others about plopping you into the main story and has less overall talking scenes than the others, plus all of the skits are voiced unlike the older Tales games. The only thing I didn't really like about Xillia was the linking part of the battle system, which was a neat idea in theory but overall not as enjoyable as Graces for example. The overworld traveling was also kinda repetitive but still fun to explore imo. That and Alvin is one of my favorite characters to play as thus far in the series and Milla and Jude both have pretty good voice acting.
 
Disc 2 is significantly shorter than disc 1, dw. :P Even if it was the same length, it would still be worth it.
 
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Acklow

I am always tired. Don't bother me.
I'm glad I'm in Thailand atm, because I would be playing ToX2 :(

But seriously though, it won't cut into my time playing Smash, so once I get back to the states I have a fresh game to play :3
 

aVocado

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Arikado if you liked Vesperia you'll really enjoy Graces, the banter and fighting system is the most similar (though sadly lacking a sarcastic character), but ya I'd say you can skip the first Xillia.

Also lol, I'm a bit surprised you got stuck anywhere in Abyss. I'll admit that the secret stuff has been pretty hard but I don't recall there being any significantly difficult dungeons thus far.

Also also, I'm now 50 hours into Abyss doing pre-end-game story and item hunting now that I finally found the final Mieu powerups.

Overall, I think there was more traveling back and forth and backtracking in this Tales game than any other I've played before. Thank god they give you a quick jump power later in the game because otherwise this would have been hell.
It's not really difficult at all, it just had a fucking stupid puzzle where you had to collect coloured spheres and place them in order somewhere, it was just really stupid.

Anyway I lost all my saves data for all my games when I forgot my 3DS XL on a plane (ugh.), but I think eventually I'll probably replay Tales of the Abyss, because it was pretty good imo and having Tales on the go is fun.
 

Oglemi

Borf
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Just finished Abyss, final battle was probably one of the most underwhelming thus far, probably on the same level as Vesperia. Especially compared to the final bosses in Graces and Xillia this guy was a total pushover. Still gratifying to beat him into the dirt. Ended with over 2500 Grade, not bad on a first playthrough.

Took a look at a few guides to see the sidequests and stuff that I missed; didn't miss too much overall to my surprise. I found all the Devil's Arms but got smoked by the secret boss so didn't bother trying to grind to beat her, figured I'd do that on another playthrough. Didn't beat the singles coliseum but did defeat the special group coliseum battle. Found all the secret fonstones for Jade's secret Artes.

Surprised just how much is supposedly exclusive to Din's Shop in Chesedonia. I figured there would be a secret item or two, was not expecting nearly 20 exclusive items to her shop, which is kind of a bummer. Also, I couldn't really figure out how the AD skills were unlocking, turns out they're connecting to your stats via the Capacity Cores. Be interesting to actually do that if I play through it again.

Also kinda surprised how much is exclusive to a second playthrough. Not surprised that there is stuff, standard Tales shenanigans, but there is quite a bit more than I was expecting.

Overall I think Abyss was one of the better Tales games, especially story- and character-wise I think it beats out all the others save for Symphonia. Battle-wise, I've grown too accustomed/spoiled to Graces and Xillia, but it was pretty good considering it was all on the 3DS; was a little disappointed about the fonic circle arte-change mechanic, but glad it wasn't any more complicated than that.

Ended up playing mostly as Natalia since it seemed like the party AI was a bit slower/dumber than in the other Tales games. With Natalia I could stand back and watch the whole battlefield, do significant damage from afar and blast out my Mystic Artes, and heal when necessary. AI-wise Jade and Tear were mostly on top of their shit, but Guy, Luke, Anise, and Natalia would all kinda attack and then have a pretty significant break where they'd back away and just stand there doing nothing, and then go back in and attack a bit. Tear's healing AI was also a bit off, especially compared to like Raine's and Estelle's. Also, her not having Nurse SUCKED, fuck Healing Circle/Revitalize. Was kinda disappointed in the Magic in this one overall, since it would be casted, appear, and then damage which would allow the enemy to run out of the spell before getting hit, instead of being casted then immediately damaging as in the other Tales games. Also, the large field-effect artes were limited to Judgment and Meteor Storm, both of which miss the outer reaches of the stage and usually only hit the opponents once or twice.
 
Finally finished Symphonia. Overall very enjoyable but there were some issues I had. Some of the dungeon puzzles can be really tedious and frustrating, I resorted to walkthroughs a couple of times so I could just get it over with. Overworld travel is also really shitty until you get the rheiards, and even then they were a little awkward. There were also a lot of occasions that could have benefitted from quick jumps, and the fact that the option does exist some times but not others is really frustrating. They even lampshaded it in a skit once, which was funny but also felt like a bit of a "fuck you".
I guess most most of my gripes relate to getting around the place. The plot and characters were all excellent, and the battle system was fun, although it got a little repetetive sometimes. Plus the methods to unlock techs had me puzzled at times. I never did get Demonic Circle even by the end of the game at level 60...
 

Oglemi

Borf
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Started playing Tales of Xillia 2 the other day, am loving it so far. It's at least miles above what they did with Symphonia 2 so I'm super happy about that.

The only thing I really don't like is Ludgar not talking at all, and then the noises that they do have him make are just so fucking stupid. I thought Colette spamming "sorry" was irritating after a while, oml if I hear a person do a gutteral throat stutter I will literally have to kill them on the spot. At least Elle isn't as annoying as she could be, though she's still too stereotypical "naive little girl" but oh well.

Teepo and Rollo are amazing tho

The story was kinda patchy to start and they definitely could have done it better, but I feel that was kinda what they were going for with the whole different dimensions/timelines thing.

Playstyle is just as beautiful as ever, Alvin 4 lyfe.
 

Acklow

I am always tired. Don't bother me.
Ludgar not talking is a plot device used for later in the game I believe (still working on the game myself). I'm pretty sure that's the reason why Elle talks for Ludger after most battles.
 
Working on symphonia (ps3), and for the life of me I can't seem to quite master the battle system. There's very little in the way of tutorial, and all of the guides were written for gamecube ><. Still a quality game other than that. I'll probably move on to the other tales games afterwards :D
 
I got Vesperia PS3 version, time to weeb it up

or it will be once it gets here, play-asia doesn't seem to give a delivery estimate for stuff sent over airmail unfortunately.
 

Oglemi

Borf
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Thoughts so far on Xillia 2. I'm currently at the point of the story where we found out how to get to the Land of Canaan.

Really loving the story.

Also really love the number of playable characters this time around.

Muzet's interaction with everyone is hilarious.

Gaius is quickly becoming one of my favorite characters.

Still hate Ludger's guffawing.

Rideaux can go fuck himself.

I've been really mean to Elle because it's hilarious.

Jude is somehow more annoying this time around.

Leia's voice acting took a really bad turn, it's like monotone or something.

Holy fuck confusion status is gay as hell and so much gets it this time.
 
vesperia is p fun so far, karol is annoying and the dog is the best
I came in expecting to dislike Karol and the game seems to have anticipated that or something and made him the butt monkey and I've ended up kinda liking him so far. He's probably my least favorite character and I have zero desire to play as him but I don't really mind him either.

also Flynn is really fun I'm retroactively disappointed with Bamco for never localizing the PS3 version even though everyone wants it and it would be easy money


in more recent news, Zestiria seems to have gotten a pretty mixed reaction inside Japan for reasons that are kind of spoilery, hopefully it's just them overreacting. Also someone found a listing for it in a Steam database, it'd be pretty cool if we got some Tales games on PC.
 

Oglemi

Borf
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Finished Xillia 2 a couple days ago. Ended up getting to the "really bad" ending (got stomped), and then the normal ending on a different file cuz I saved right before the bad one. The final boss was probably the least difficult final boss in a Tales game ever, but at least he made up for it with an absolutely hilarious Mystic Arte (Ultimate FIST).

Would play through it again to finally have a talking Ludger and see if I could get a different ending, but meh.

The X Dungeon was also the least difficult X Dungeon they've ever had in a Tales game.

I'm a completionist and hate to leave a game uncompleted, but man the farming for the final Custom weapons just looked like hell and I couldn't be assed to build up the Affinity with the other characters to get them through the X Dungeon enough times to get the materials for them. Like, one of the weapons required 6 Hourglasses and 2 All-Divides??? WTF.

Anyway, playing-wise, particularly battle system and X Gem system (Allium Orb), this was one of my favorite Tales games, which I find is a good sign that all of Graces and Xillia 1&2 have been good, I'm kinda really hyped for Zestiria. I figure even if Zestiria isn't as good as the last three have been, I don't think it could be any worse than Abyss and definitely never worse than Symphonia 2.
 
so I have been playing abyss and have found it pretty enjoyable. Sometimes though the overworld map Is extremely frustrating and makes certain parts really tedious. I am not super far in it though so I think it is just a case of not knowing crap. Also just saying, the amount of times the main character says shut up per sentence beats the amount shana says per sentence, does he get less obnoxious as the story progresses?
 

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