I know that the series goes downhill fast after Vesperia, but are there any good titles prior to Symphonia?
Symphonia is the game I started with and it set the bar for me regarding Tales.
I did try Eternia on the PSP but couldn't get into it for various reasons. Phantasia I find almost unplayable.
Phantasia was the only good one.
I feel like you're trying to say something here but I don't quite understand it
Phantasia SFC is a bit hard to get into since the combat lacks the refinements the later ones have, and Destiny PS1 runs on a similar engine if memory serves. Granted, I won't fault them for it, being that they were the earliest entries in the series and later ones made an effort to improve. While Phantasia PS1 plays better and is currently the most refined version in English, it's still not quite there compared to Eternia, where combat got all around fluid for both melee and magic. The version of Phantasia bundled with NDX for the PSP features further refinements, but is not in English yet (a patch is in the works), and Destiny has an apparently really well liked PS2 remake with a Director's Cut, which is also not in English (a patch is also in the works). Aside from Phantasia, Destiny, and Eternia, there's also Destiny 2 for the PS2 as far as pre-Symphonia main series Tales goes, but it's not in English either, and most likely won't be any time soon given Cless' track record (taking 12 years to finish his Phantasia patch and all).
I personally really enjoyed Eternia and Phantasia PS1. Would have liked the latter better if it didn't freeze on me so much though, but I suspect I was using an outdated patch that might have caused it.
There's some fans I see around that claim that Phantasia is the only good Tales ever made. Granted, I'm not sure if he's saying that about the series overall or just for the pre-Symphonia ones.
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Phantasia is good and worth a play, though I haven't finished any others prior to Symphonia.
Graces f is also worth a play, if only for its combat. Everything else about it sucks hardcore, but the combat is the best in the series.
I enjoyed both Phantasia and Destiny. I didn't play anything else from the series, though, so I can't say how they compare to later entries. I suspect I wouldn't like them as much, because the 6th gen onward did everything possible to erase that charming aesthetic and slightly primitive mechanics that 16-bit and early 32-bit games had.
Have you tried tales of eternia?
I enjoyed Xillia and Xillia 2 more than Vesperia, both story-wise and mechanically.
Really don't get why people hold Vesperia up on a pedestal and claim it's the pinnacle of the series.
Reminder that Zestiria was ok
How is the PC port?
It's good, with the 60fps patch.
I'm actually looking foward to Berseria. I need more edgy main girls in my vidya.
is there a tales of infographic?
I wouldn't say the series goes "downhill" after Vesperia. It just becomes incredibly hit or miss, even more-so then it was previously. We're on a bit of a miss streak right now, but nothing egregious.
Excepting the latest, Zestiria. That game is simply dogshit.
Here's hoping Berseria is better. Coming on the heels of Zestiria, it'd be a fucking accomplishment to be bad in comparison.
I got this at some point.
Is there a franchise with a rockier/ more inconsistent installment quality than this franchise? I'd hate to get into this series and not know what the shit I'm doing.
BTW, is it true that this is a multiplayer action RPG?
>playing any Tales of game, let alone fucking Abyss, for the story/characters
Yes, I'm pretty sure all the games in the series allow for up to 4 players in combat.
The original Phantasia doesn't.
There's but that's more of someone's personal tier list than being that useful.
Yeah, as far as the console based ones go, excluding Phantasia SFC and Legendia.
I really wished the game remained as unbearable cunts (and Guy) being uncooperative cunts at each other, yet somehow saving the day, and then telling each other to go fuck themselves.
In some way the party being full of disdainful shitheads was a bit refreshing at first. Shame it didn't stay the course.
A game that keeps that tone the whole way through would be pretty neat.
I'd say tales of destiny directors cut for the PS2 is pretty good and challenging despite the ordinary jrpg story.
There was a tales mmo that failed and eventually died which was tales of eternia online. A pay to play mmo which tried to be like it's predecessor but ultimately failed due to the lack of subscriptions and general faults of the game.
The webpage is still there still showing the same sleepy thing and message about game shut down after all theses years.
Makes me wonder which other old-ass webpages still exist that haven't been updated in a while.
Do they tend to drag on a lot on the exposition? I only have Symphonia readily available at the moment, haven't gotten around to playing it, but I figure it's something like half Gauntlet, half drawn out OoT cutscenes and town strolls?
I played Zestiria, it was pretty garbage dunno why I even bothered playing it till the end.
Also there was 2much tutorials and instructions which I skipped 90% of so the game was harder than it should have been for me
The only reason is because the main character is such a different archetype than typical JRPG hero, and because people only remember post Symphonia, so compared to Lloyd and Luke, Yuri's a goddamn genius and isn't afraid to do what needs to be done. Otherwise it's alright.
Personally, I prefer Xillia 1 and 2. 2 recycled assets, but holy shit that atmosphere. I didn't mind the grind after a while, and Ludger being OP was fun for something different than just linking. Legendia was also a lot of fun, too bad it was singleplayer only. I should play Eternia and some of the others, as I've basically only played Legendia and onward.
Unfortunately, yes. For a series that makes strides in replayability elsewhere (Tales of games seriously have the best New Game+ out there), they really could do a better job of making dialogue and cutscenes more skippable. After you've read and seen that crap a few times you don't really care to waste your time on it anymore.
That's fucking dumb.
Listen, it has it's problems, but you being a moron isn't one of them.
Sorta. A lot of them take a while before you get a full party, and for games with Mystic Artes, you don't get access to those until late game. But otherwise, if you can put up with like 10-30 minutes of talking and then get a tutorial fight, 5-10 minutes more of talking and then first dungeon, you'll be okay. They only force you to explore a town after you beat the first dungeon basically.
nah the story was garbage, I didn't really like the characters that much and the maps/areas are just not interesting/boring as hell.
I just wanted to mention the way they introduced the mechanics were annoying because reading is 2hard for me
Out of the two I've played, I like symphonia for the characters and abyss for the fun boss fights and a couple of good music tracks. Story and writing in symphonia is bad but hilarious, whereas abyss is about 65% filler, lots of backtracking and redundant expository cutscenes so that they could put "over XX hours of gameplay!" on the box. The finale is good though. Gonna play eternia next, then berseria, whenever that's out.
I've played worse.
A bit. It takes the right people to co-op with for them to be enjoyable, usually someone that, if they don't like JRPGs or anime, at least tolerates it. With the right people they're a lot of fun.
Elder Gods of Tales
Symphonia
Abyss
Vesperia
Lesser Gods
Hearts R
Eternia
Destiny and Destiny 2
Combat Gods
Graces f
Xillia 2
It deserves recognition, but new players would be really hard pressed to enjoy it
Tales of Phantasia
Second to Worst
Spin-off games, including Knight of Ratatosk
Most non-mothership titles
Absolutely Horrible Irredeemable Trash
Tales of the Tempest
All other games may be ranked in any arbitrary order based on which has the cutest girls, funniest banter, or most enjoyable side details like customization systems.
i'm not sure it a tales game, but Skies of Arcadia is pretty bomb.
also try Baten Kaitos.
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For those who are not too attracted to Phantasia PS1, you should wait until the Phantasia X PSP version patch is out. It does not have multiplayer, but there's no spell lock so it's more akin to Eternia.
I played it just fine on co-op after Symphonia and Abyss, and still found it to be one of the best fucking RPGs I've played.
It subverted many of my expectations. Here's a particularly funny thing I remember:
Early on there's a set of 'elemental' dungeons - one of ice, and another of fire. Typical RPG stuff. In any case, you lose HP on the field if you don't protect yourself, and the HP will go down until it reaches 1 (again, typical RPG stuff). Later on however, there's a new set of elemental dungeons. In the new fire tower the same mechanic applied, and since I could just easily pop in a Nurse or items to heal (since time stops in spells and there's no item cooldown) I didn't care too much about it.
Turns out that in this NEW set of elemental dungeons, your HP can go down to zero, and effectively kill you. I got a Game Over in the fucking field map. At first I was mad but then I just couldn't stop laughing.
Vesperia onwards feature a skip scene button that you can use. Normally you hit Start to pause and then the skip button.
tales of innocence english translation never ever