Tales Of?

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Does anybody play the Tales Of series of JRPGs? I love them! Their gameplay is pretty lackluster but they tell awesome stories (usually. Tales of Zestiria was pretty boring) that makes it feel like you're playing through an anime.

I played Tales of Phantasia back in the day and found it pretty fun. The side scrolling battles were novel even if it was repetitive, and often devolved to spamming the same attack over and over.

Since then I've tried playing a couple of the games, including Tales of the Abyss and Tales of Berseria. But I dropped them both early on because I found their gameplay systems lacking in depth and they became boring as a result. Can't say I have ever been drawn in by any of their stories, they're usually pretty forgettable.

To be fair Tales of Phantasia wasn't any different and had no more depth than the others. I think it's more that back then I was just much younger and had a lot more time on my hands. A long form game of any kind appeals less to me nowadays.

Hold on.

Did you say that the gameplay is lackluster but the stories are awesome?

I disagree. Tales games are good for exactly the opposite of that reason; the stories are universally poor, ranging from unfulfilled potential to straight-up bad, but the gameplay has a unique appeal. Tales of Graces is my favourite despite having a story and cast that lacks any appeal, because the combat is fun enough to stand on its own. Actually, my biggest gripe with modern Tales is that they took such a good system and ruined it in Zestiria and Berseria.

You're welcome to your opinion but I'm not sure how anyone can consider mashing a single button in combat and "exploring" an empty world to be more appealing than a story with believable interesting characters and legitimate plot twists that can and will catch you off guard.

I think my brother has a couple of them, but I've never played.

There certainly is some moving moments.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oM8nsOiX7xg

This is one of my favorites
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8OC4VjQMZ8

I played Tales Of Symphonia back on GC years and years ago and it blew my mind. I'm a massive Final Fantasy fan and nothing has ever come close. But ToS did. It's way high up there amongst my all-time favourites. I've been aching to play it again for a while now, but no longer have the game or GC anymore

If you have a PS3 they rereleased it in HD packaged with its sequel.
https://www.gamestop.com/ps3/games/tale ... les/109930

I completely forgot they did that! Thanks!

I also completely forgot that i own a WII and i think some GC games can be played a WII too?

Actually they ALL can. A Wii is literally a Gamecube with some extra bells and whistles thrown in.

Combat in the 'good' Tales games doesn't come down to simply mashing a single button. Graces' combat has a particular focus on position and movement, as well as some fairly technical combos that mix the fixed combo system, custom combos, and defer dodging. It's not the most advanced system in the world, but it isn't simply mashing a single button. Even the weakest Tales combat usually has some sort of control nuance to enjoy.

I'd like you to point out who the "believable" Tales characters are.

Legit plot twists. Well, given that everybody in the world predicted the Symphonia plot twist, I'd like to ask which twist you are referring to? I'll provisionally agree that the Xillia plot twist caught me off guard but, like all cool twists in a Tales game, it was resolved in an entirely anti-climatic way because the budget wouldn't cope with anything else.

e: I'd just like to ask. Has anybody played the sequel to Symphonia? Beyond the opening?

Pretty much everyone in Xillia. Jude was a brilliant student and his primary weapon was always his brain. Plus he began the game as a doctor and ended the game as a doctor. Milla was a human raised to think she was a god and she acts that way, but instead of being snobby and aloof (at least completely) she's a benevolent god who actually cares about her people. Alvin was constantly being pulled between two sides of the conflict and you could see the struggle in him, especially when Milla died and he ended up attacking his friends just to make things go back to normal. Elize and Tipo got on my nerves at first, but when I learned that Tipo wasn't actually alive, and he just spouted random embarrassing stuff because of his mental connection to Elize, it suddenly became cool and maybe a little sad. Gaius especially as an amazingly well fleshed out character. He's a good guy but also a bad guy. Jude and the others want to find a peaceful solution to the conflict, but Gaius, who has an entire country to think about, won't risk his people's safety with a truce with a country that has already attacked his country completely unprovoked, and so decides to completely wipe that country out. Most JRPGs have the bad guys as stereotypical mustache twisting villains who want to destroy the world just cuz. I love Gaius because what he wants to do is morally reprehensible, and he even says so himself, but in the end he's justified even when the whole thing is leading to a final showdown against him. He's even a good guy in the sequel.

I like the tales series alot. I did play tales of zestiria last though I still have yet to finish tales of xillia 2 on the PS3. I might have to start a new game there considering I forgot where I was at in the game.

Xillia 2 is lucky that its story was so awesome because the gameplay was extra lackluster here. I hated how it essentially held the story hostage until you collected enough money like some weird Animal Crossing spinoff.