I've been trying to finish Zesty so I'm more prepared for ToB since it's supposed to take place 1000 years prior or something like that. AND OH MY GOD YES THE BATTLE CAMERA'S SO FRUSTRATING. And yeah I follow a lot of Tales twitters/tumblrs and some of them already played the JP version of it and one of them did confirm that you can change Velvet's costume almost right away if you don't like her main one. I surprisingly didn't have a problem with Velvet's outfit, but I didn't like Magilou's for a while.
ohman we have a tales of thread? what? to start this post off, here's a vid the prozd guy did about the ridiculous titles the games have. i've currently only played symphonia, and i watched a walkthrough of symphonia 2. wish dawn of the new world was just a new, separate tales of game that takes place in the combined world but doesn't feature the symphonia cast. alas. symphonia is super special to me, the story and metaphors were a bit clumsy but imo forgivable due to it being an early 2000s game. i'm actually playing through it for like, the 100th time, with a friend who's completely blind to the series. i've heard that berseria is basically a refined zesty, after the... thing that zesty was. i hope you guys enjoy it though!! also, what tales of games should i play once i get the time?
Honestly, Magilou's outfit kinda grew on me after a while after I got to see her personality and all that jazz. Symphonia was my first, as well. I've only beaten Symphonia so far, but I've also played Abyss, Phantasia, Hearts and Zestiria, and I've started Eternia and Destiny. They're all pretty good from my experience. Abyss I would say has the best storyline/characters(the main character is probably the most developed in the series other than Emil from DoTNW), but since you like ToS so much, you might wanna play Phantasia since it takes place 4 thousand years after. Also, I saw that video on twitter. It was hilarious. CX
The only one I've finished is Abyss. I own Symphonia, and I got a good ways into it... and then I had to leave town, and the roommate whose PS3 I was playing it on moved out, and I couldn't finish it. :::<<<
I started Abyss, had a hard time getting into it at first because of Luke, but then watched the anime for it and the next thing you know I'm about more than halfway through the game. The entire party is so special to me. Eh, Symphonia's on Steam, so you can easily play it that way.
a) I don't want to buy it twice, and b) My laptop can't consistently run PS2+-era games without overheating.
Meh, it is a laptop after all. So here's a question for everyone: Favorite characters in the series as a whole?
HELLO YES PLEASE PLAY TALES OF THE ABYSS hi I'm Nai I'll be your Asch stan for the evening. but real talk Abyss has... basically it's one of the most real casts I've ever seen in a thing. Like I don't know how much was intentional on the part of the devs because usually Japanese media in particular do not... portray... trauma and abuse narratives very well. And while the OVERT trauma narratives tend to get that treatment (RIP Guy Cecil, dead of a serious trigger played for comedy), the more subtle things about the characters (especially Asch and Luke) are just??? so spot on??? I have a lot of feelings about tales of the abyss you have made a grave mistake in asking this.
I heard the steam version of Symphonia is atrociously buggy D: Symphonia was my first and holds a special place in my heart, I agree that Abyss is the best put together. It just feels the most cohesive with the cast and worldbuilding, etc. Vesperia is one of my top favs probably for sentimental reasons even if the plot is a little ??? at times. The battle system is one of my favorites. And the overall art style and aesthetic. I enjoyed Graces a lot but I know it's hit or miss for a lot of people. Battle system is totally different from the previous like...3? But it's fun once you get used to it. Rebirth is my baby but it never came out in English so it's way underappreciated. D; I have a fondness for Xillia & Xillia 2 despite them both being trainwrecks in their own respective ways. (X2 moreso) I've also played a bunch of spinoffs (Radiant Mythology 1+2, started 3, Twin Braves, VS, a tiny bit of Link). All time fav characters? hm. I'd say Colette from Symphonia, Guy from Abyss, Estelle from Vesperia, Richard from Graces, Gaius and Leia from Xillia, Ludger from Xillia 2, p much the entire cast of Rebirth. (is that cheating?) If i had to pick just ONE i'd go with Estelle. But honestly, I can't think of a character I straight-up dislike? Aside from some villains which is more like a "wow you're a terrible person but a great villain" sort of way. I guess Alvin is the closest but I really just hate how fandom woobifies him, i don't have that much objection to the character himself and his place in the story. (considering he's supposed to make you want to shake him very hard i guess he does his job well) I found myself warming up to even my most-disliked party members over the course of each game or subsequent replays, tbh.
I feel like a lot of Abyss's cast, and Luke especially, basically come from the writers going, "okay, let's look at this generic character archetype. Now let's tear it apart at the seams." In his case, they took the ~naive sheltered noble~ and went, "No, it's not going to be cute innocent misunderstandings for one-off comedy gags. They're not going to have any social skills, or any experience of interpersonal relationships of any kind without a huge power imbalance. They're suddenly going to have no knowledge and no skills and if everyone's trying to save the world, no one's going to have the time to talk them through every single thing they don't know or can't do. Everyone else will be frustrated because they're the millstone dragging everybody back when they could be doing stuff instead of talking about it, and they'll be frustrated because they have no idea what's going on. They'll be in more hardship and danger than they've ever been in in their life, all at once, and the only option they're being presented with is 'suck it up and deal with it'. They'll be a bratty, hurting mess."
Actually, I've heard that the Steam version of ToS's gotten fixed to the point where it's pretty decently playable. I don't have a PS3 or an Xbox so I've been watching walkthroughs of Graces, Xillia and Vesperia. Not too bad so far. I actually have an ISO of Rebirth that I've been meaning to play on my PS2 Emulator, but I haven't exactly had the motivation lately, and I'm already kinda preoccupied with the DC version of Destiny on there (thank god for translation guides though). It's really hard for me to dislike any of characters, but the only one I can think of that I just absolutely couldn't stand was Marta from ToS2. I just hated the way she treated Emil throughout. I know she gets better and all, but the ship really isn't all that healthy. As for favorites, I'd say Yuan, Lloyd, Regal, Zelos, Kratos and Sheena for ToS, the entire Abyss party(though Anise still annoys me sometimes) and Sync, Legretta and Arietta, Stahn, Leon and Philia from Destiny, Beryl, Chalcedony and Hisui from Hearts, Edna and Dezel from ToZ, Yuri and Rita from ToV, Cress and Arche from ToP, Richard and Asbel from Graces, and probably Eizen and Laphicet from ToB from what I've seen so far.
Yeah but there's also the elements of... Luke is functionally an emotional neglect case. His dad is a shitstorm and his mom is unreliable for Parent Things through no fault of her own. And he reads like a self-raised kid. He doesn't view older people as having any inherent authority, but he latches on hard to the people in his life that do give him the approval he craves (Van and later Jade). He hurts, but he also doesn't know how to express that he's hurting because he has no models for "I am having emotional trouble and this is how I deal with it" - healthy or unhealthy models, it should be noted.
Which is one of a number of parallels to Anise! Explicitly self-raised, in her case, and went the opposite direction in some ways because she had to parent her parents as well as herself. They both try really hard to pretend to be "more adult" than they are and don't want to/don't know how to ask for help when they need it, leading to massive screw-ups that could have been prevented if anyone had reached out beforehand.
-resurrects thread because I got all the PS3 Tales that were localized on Christmas and I recently finished Vesperia- Can I just say I love every single party member I've come across in these games? I haven't finished any of the PS3 ones sans Zestiria and the Symphonias, but I love everyone.... Also, Vesperia gave me such good feels and I might replay it later this year if I'm not pre-occupied by other things. And now, a dividing question: Zestiria - love it or hate it? I personally don't really care for it, but I did enjoy the graphics, party members(mostly) and soundtrack. Also, has anybody else played Berseria yet? If so, your opinions?
Brings thread up bc I finally got a controller to play ToS with on my laptop because fuck keyboard controls and my inner 13 year old self is having the time of their LIFE. My dumbass kids. I've missed them, cringey first hour and all. and i'm doing the stupid thing and playing the long route. with wooden swords. and also i have to go through the whole Kratos route at some point bc i want to complete the whole game plus collections so If someone would like to pick me up off the floor after I kill Zelos that would be nice. and I still want to play Abyss. Like. It seems like my JAM. like as bad as the ToS port was (i need to fix the stuttering in the start still) I just. Don't want to go buy the ps2 disc yet. pls release on steam namco.
