"Tales of" series (News,Discussion,Etc.) - News in OP

[Solkia]

I've been wanting to make this topic for a while, so here it goes.

 

In 1995, a game was created by Wolf Team and published by Namco named Tales of Phantasia for the Super Famicom. It was a JRPG with a battle system based on fighting games, dubbed the "Linear Motion Battle System". It was the first Super Famicom game to be 48MBit in size, and had streamed voice audio. The game sold a little over 200,000 copies.

 

This was the start of a new series of JRPGs known as the "Tales of" series. It is now up to 14 main series titles (Tales of Phantasia, Tales of Destiny, Tales of Eternia, Tales of Destiny 2, Tales of Symphonia, Tales of Rebirth, Tales of Legendia, Tales of the Abyss, Tales of Innocence, Tales of Vesperia, Tales of Hearts, Tales of Graces, Tales of Xillia, Tales of Xillia 2) with the latest being Tales of Zesteria , and has numerous spinoff titles such as Tales of the World: Nakiri Dungeon, Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology, Tales of VS, Tales of Heroes: Twin Brave, and more.

 

(I should note that Tales of Eternia was called Tales of Destiny 2 when it was localized)

 

It has made quite name for itself in Japan, and it's fanbase is slowly growing in the west.

 

This is a topic for any Tales related news and discussion.

 

2013 news:

• Tales of Xillia out now! Go pick it up.
• Teiruzu obu Fantajia FVE now out on Japan's iOS! Yay?

 

2014 news (much west, very surprise, wow):

• Tales of Symphonia Chronicles (HD collection) out now!
• Tales of Xillia 2 coming to the west. (EU: 22/8/14 US: 8/19/14)
• Tales of Zestiria announced and will be coming to the west.
• Tales of Asteria announced for iOS and Android in Japan.
• Tales of Hearts R coming to the west (November 11).

Edited July 4, 2014 by Alpha Solkia

[Kuzu]

These are action RPG's right?

[Solkia]

I think that's what people classify them under, I'm not entirely sure on that.

[frokenok3]

You pretty much you could say its an action RPG game yea. You control any character you want and you have tons of move to work with...

 

You can combo enemies and stuff. You have Hi-Ougis(ultimate moves) and a lot of other stuff.

[pppp]

These are action RPG's right?

 

 

You can call them that. Take a look:

 

 

 

I'm a big fan of this series, they managed to keep the awesome concept intact while making each game stand out with its own identity. Every game of the series i played was always at least good enough, even when the gameplay is mediocre the story managed to make up for it, and the opposite has also happened.

 

My personal favorite is the new one that came out last year and also today on PSN: Tales of Graces f. True, it did remove the classic world map from previous games, but the linearity is brilliantely executed since there's still alot of discovery to be made. The new alterations to the battle system also made combat more fast and intuitive while still having a lot of depth to it. The story was also pretty awesome despite being simple, mostly thanks to the fantastic cast of characters, their great development, the best skits in a Tales game yet, and the side-quests that added so much to their main story development and the world of the game. Honestly this side-quest is one of the best i've seen in any game:

 

 

But of course i also love the first Destiny, Symphonia and Abyss. Vesperia was pretty much the ultimate refining of the Symphonia gameplay formula which was enough to make it a very good game in my eyes, but honestly i found the story and characters to be rather meh. Don't get me wrong, it's not particularly bad or anything, i just didn't think the story or the characters to be all that interesting, in fact i thought the prequel movie First Strike had much better storytelling then the actual game. You cannot honestly convince me that Estelle isn't a shameless ripoff of Princess Garnet from FFIX. Like literally they're the exact same character. My wife even commented on one of the skits: "I liked you alot better when you were called Garnet". But the rest of the game was pretty much flawless so it's still a very good game on its own merits.

 

 

Honestly, the only reason this series isn't as popular as it should be is because it doesn't have the budget of SquareEnix games. They may not have high production values, but they focus on what really matters: Charming characters and story combined with great gameplay.

 

Can't wait for Tales of Xillia.

Edited March 27, 2013 by pppp

[GEO1452]

Since i cant stand the regular turn based rpgs, this is such a breath of fresh air to play in real time.

Im gonna buy the new game on ps3

Edited March 27, 2013 by GEO1452

[Snatcher2047]

Symphonia, Abyss and Vesperia are three of my all time favorite games, without question.  I also am not a fan of turn-based RPG games, so I rather enjoy all the freedom these games provide.  Haven't been able to play some of the more recent games (no PS3).  Symphonia 2 was a bit of a (Ok, HUGE) disappointment, with all it's limited gameplay compared to the original.  I'd definitely put Vesperia on the top of my list of which is my favorite.

 

I'm also a bit of a fan of the Japanese Anime counterparts to the games, although I haven't seen all of the Abyss anime.

[krazystitch]

A friend of mine actually just lent me Tales of Symphonia not too long ago, which I plan on getting to eventually. I'd heard a lot about it before and I know it's a favorite to many people, so I'm looking forward to playing it.

[Red]

Funny, I was thinking about making a topic like this too!

 

Anyways, my current favourite is Tales of Graces f. My first entry to the series was Abyss for the 3DS and I didn't like it. But I gave Graces a try, and I loved it! The character cast is also my favourite too. Asbel! <3

 

I'm eagerly awaiting Tales of Xillia, I can hardly wait until that comes out. Hopefully we should be getting a concrete release date over the weekend, with Hideo Baba holding an Xillia panel at Wondercon this year.

[Salamander]

I've only played Abyss for 3DS, but I'd be happy to try more.  I thought that game was kind of wonky in places regarding its scene direction, characterisation, and plot-mandated destinations, in ways I don't really feel too much need to go into, but the way the whole game was handled felt very original in story terms, and the gameplay was a lot of fun.  I'd really like to see more.  I don't get the impression that that's likely to happen very often, unfortunately... but on the other hand I understand that the first print run of ToA 3DS sold out, which even if it was a tiny run strikes me as a positive sign.

[Bria]

Tales of the Abyss will probably still stand as my favorite Tales of game in terms of game play. I first came into the series via Tales of Symphonia, which was very fun, but I find that the battle system in Abyss just makes it so much more better, personally. 

 

Still trying to get into Graces f, but I just can't stand the battle system that much It's a pretty looking game, though.

Edited March 27, 2013 by Bria

[Solkia]

Tales of the Abyss will probably still stand as my favorite Tales of game in terms of game play. I first came into the series via Tales of Symphonia, which was very fun, but I find that the battle system in Abyss just makes it so much more better, personally. 

 

Still trying to get into Graces f, but I just can't stand the battle system that much It's a pretty looking game, though.

 

Jeez, and here I thought I was the only one.

 

There's supposed to be some big news this year regarding the series, I'll post it here when it pops up.

[Sega DogTagz]

I greatly enjoyed Tales of Symphonia, but I kinda burned out on the series after being very disappointed with Tales of Symphonia 2.

 

My bro wants to give the new one that is coming out soon another chance, so as long as it maintains its co-op friendly campaign, I'll probably be picking that one up.

[Teoskaven]

I recently played Phantasia, i have already in program to play Destiny and Eternia and sometimes in the future, Graces, Xillia and then the rest of the seires that will get localized (damn you, PS3 Vesperia, where are you?!).

Fun fact: the same team that developed Phantasia, shortly after abandoned Namco and founded an indipendet studio: they where what now is Tri-Ace. So yeah, you could say that Star Ocean is the late cousin of Tales of.

[Solkia]

Which version of Phantasia? If it's not the PSX version with the translation patch, I am so sorry.

[pppp]

Still trying to get into Graces f, but I just can't stand the battle system that much

 

I honestly don't understand why there's so much hate for it? Is it because it's not the same as the previous ones? I mean i understand that but i honestly think the changes improved the gameplay. Allow me to take this excerpt from my review from my blog:

 

It's still essentially the same action based combat where you fight in a 3D area everytime you touch a monster and perform physical attacks and fighting and healing abilities called Artes while dodging enemy attacks. One of the major differences is that Technique points(This series equivalent of MP) was replaced by Chain Capacity points. Almost every action you perform costs a few CC, even physical attacks. However, characters are always regaining CC points when they are not doing anything that requires points. This obviously means there are no orange gels in this game. CC points make combat much more intuitive and fast paced, as you won't need to stop and go to the combat menu to use items to recover mana. Depth was not sacrificed though, as you'll need to use CC cleverly if you want to keep combos going and cause massive damage, which is essential against tough opponents. Another major difference is how this time there are 2 types of artes: B-Artes and A-Artes. B-Artes are performed by using the button inputs they're mapped to, like in previous games, but while performing these you can extend you attack combo by following it with an A-Arte if you have enough CC. Some enemies are weaker to a specific type of Arte, so good choices of which Artes to use is essential. The Over Limit(Unison in the Symphonia games) gauge that in the previous games allowed you to perform powerful Mystic Artes when full was replaced by the Eleth gauge. There's 2 sections of the gauge, every time you attack an enemy sucessfully or guard/dodge an attack the blue section fills a bit. It also works in vice-versa for the orange section. Depending on which section gets full, you or the enemies will go into an "Eleth Break" mode for a few seconds where CC is unlimited and you can perform Mystic Artes, powerful attacks that cause massive damage. This adds alot of strategy to the combat, since it forces you to constantly think about your strategy to avoid being on the receiving end of a Mystic Arte.

 

I honestly thought it did help make combat feel fresh while still unmistakenbly being Tales Of. What exactly turns people off about it?

[Solkia]

Yaaaaay, actual debate

 

 

I honestly don't understand why there's so much hate for it? Is it because it's not the same as the previous ones? I mean i understand that but i honestly think the changes improved the gameplay. Allow me to take this excerpt from my review from my blog:

 

 

I honestly thought it did help make combat feel fresh while still unmistakenbly being Tales Of. What exactly turns people off about it?

 

If anything, I hear Graces battle system was well recieved.

 

While it's essentially still the same basics that previous renditions use, for me the battle system just was not fun. Eleth burst always took way too long to build up in comparison to the enemy (for me at least), The thing about having to let that other gauge recharge in order to chain more combos annoyed me too.

 

I hear from Dawning that maxing out titles helps or something? I don't know but it's just not my cup of tea.

 

Xillia looks fantastic though, I can't wait to try it out.

[Teoskaven]

Which version of Phantasia? If it's not the PSX version with the translation patch, I am so sorry.

 

Exactly that one (btw, i used the translated names for the abilities). It was really a fun experience, so i'm looking forward to the rest of the series.

Too bad though that half of it never got out of Japan, wich is a shame. I can only hope they eventually come in USA/Europe in the near future.

[pppp]

Yaaaaay, actual debate

 

 

 

If anything, I hear Graces battle system was well recieved.

 

While it's essentially still the same basics that previous renditions use, for me the battle system just was not fun. Eleth burst always took way too long to build up in comparison to the enemy (for me at least), The thing about having to let that other gauge recharge in order to chain more combos annoyed me too.

 

I hear from Dawning that maxing out titles helps or something? I don't know but it's just not my cup of tea.

 

Well like i said in order to keep the enemy Eleth gauge from increasing fast you have to try to make sure you don't just blindly attack enemies as if you hit one that's guarding, it increases. It's all about finding an opening in their defenses. As for CC think about it doesn't TP also have its downsides? When you run out of TP you have to stop the fight and use an orange gel from the menu, just like you have to wait with CC. With CC however the time for recharging is smaller. Also a good way to keep CC from running out is dodging enemy attacks by strafing, as you'll get a +2 CC bonus. Hurray for rewarding methodical play.

Edited March 27, 2013 by pppp

[Sami]

I've only played Symphonia, Abyss, and Graces f so far. Though I thought Symphonia was extremely dated, boring as hell, and ugly as sin, the latter two games were fantastic (Abyss' pacing issues aside). I can definitely call myself a fan of the series now, and I can't wait to play Xillia.

 

One of my favorite thing about Tales has to be the way they take old, overdone tropes and deconstruct the hell out of them; Abyss' way of handling the whole

"clone of the main character"

thing was fucking brilliant, not to mention their take on the tired "hurr-durr amnesia" plotline.

Edited March 28, 2013 by Discoid

[Edward_Elric]

I suddenly feel a tiny bit cooler thanks to my avatar~

 

One of the things that irked me about Graces f was how they changed "Blast Caliber" into Mystic Artes. It just grates on me since Blast Caliber sounds cooler than Mystic Arte.

 

The story and overall plot of Graces was pretty shitty to be honest. What the whole plot boils down to is a poor imitation of Nanoha, while being way less appealing due to the lack of yuriness and somewhat annoying characters. Buuuuttttttt its not like I play Tales games for their story.

 

I look forward to playing a Tales game because of the battle systems they employ. The CP system in Graces was a breath of fresh air to me after playing through Eternia, RM1, Abyss and Vesperia. It felt less limited in some aspects and more in others. Effortlessly chaining A artes felt cool for a little while, but it started lacking diversity after awhile since I could only chain artes Lv1 artes to Lv2 artes and so forth. The B artes were okay but you couldn't even chain some of them unless you mastered a title that lets you go into another attack if held the circle button long enough. The real benefit of using B artes came about with the different buff each character had, like when Asbel changed to Beta mode he got iron stance which would protect him getting stunned up to a certain amount of damage, whilst changing back to Alpha mode healed him depending on how much damage you dished out while in Beta mode. And Graces also found a way to make guarding more useful than just lessening damage taken by having you "charge up," where a full red charge would let one attack break the enemy's guard (assuming they didn't have iron stance activated).

[Solkia]

I suddenly feel a tiny bit cooler thanks to my avatar~

 

One of the things that irked me about Graces f was how they changed "Blast Caliber" into Mystic Artes. It just grates on me since Blast Caliber sounds cooler than Mystic Arte.

 

 

Just addressing this part, Mystic Arte (Hi Ougi) is the name used in nearly every Tales game that has them. I'm guessing Blast Calibur refers to Blastia? I haven't played Vesperia yet.

[MegasonicZX]

Just addressing this part, Mystic Arte (Hi Ougi) is the name used in nearly every Tales game that has them. I'm guessing Blast Calibur refers to Blastia? I haven't played Vesperia yet.

He was referring to the japanese name for the mystic artes on this game (and also destiny) but that name was changed to mystic artes here since I guess namco doesn't like the sound of blast caliber much.

[Snatcher2047]

Forgot to post this in my original post, and seeing how this is a Sonic board:

 

 

SPOILER ALERT : It's the final battle from Tales Of Vesperia with the final boss theme from Sonic & The Black Knight "With Me" replacing the usual music.  I made this years ago back when Vesperia was first released.  I just felt the song worked with Vesperia's story, and I'm a sucker for an epic final battle rock song (blame Crush 40).

 

Forgive me, I'm kind of sloppy in this video.  Also, Estelle wasn't responding my commands for some reason.

[MegasonicZX]

Forgot to post this in my original post, and seeing how this is a Sonic board:

 

 

SPOILER ALERT : It's the final battle from Tales Of Vesperia with the final boss theme from Sonic & The Black Knight "With Me" replacing the usual music.  I made this years ago back when Vesperia was first released.  I just felt the song worked with Vesperia's story, and I'm a sucker for an epic final battle rock song (blame Crush 40).

 

Forgive me, I'm kind of sloppy in this video.  Also, Estelle wasn't responding my commands for some reason.

Nice, the BK's boss is kind of similar to ToV's final boss in some ways.