So I bought Tales of Symphonia on PS3, despite not having a great first impression when I played it on GCN... and I pretty much got bored again less than 2 hours in.
I LOVED Tales of Vesperia and have played a number of Tales games, though Vesperia was the only one I completed. For all the praise Symphonia gets, I thought I just didn't give it enough of a chance.
What is it about Symphonia that people love so much? The dialogue feels stilted, the plot cliche and the animations are stiff. I know Tales games have cliche plots, but Symphonia feels especially so. The lack of spoken English dialogue for Skits really sucks.
My tastes have changed so it is harder for me to get into an oldschool JRPG. Perhaps it's just that. Symphonia feels like a game that should be of a much higher quality but the era it came out in hamstrung it.
I love the game the whole way through, but I can see how it might not impress in the first few hours. Until the (relatively early) plot twist, it's a straightforward young girl goes on a sacrificial journey to save the world story. Once that arc passes, things get a lot more interesting. It's easily my favorite Tales world and second favorite cast (after Vesperia).
The production values are lacking when it comes to voice work and animations, but I don't really mind.
I really enjoy the flow of combat, although the lack of free run means it hasn't aged well. The port's bare minimum effort hurts it too, since you're still limited to six techs mapped at once. Every Tales game since has been able to map between eight and sixteen. Still, I have a lot of fun with Lloyd, Kratos, Sheena, Zelos, Presea and Regal, linking techs into combos, and all that good stuff.
The game definitely has its faults, but I love it anyway.
Pretty excited for Xillia 2 tomorrow. I'd challenge @Blackjack to another race to see who can beat the game first, but unless his employment situation changed, he has me outnumbered on free hours
It has changed, but sadly not enough to really put a dent in it (I work about 10 hours a week during the day and then 16 a week at night). Still, if you're getting it tomorrow, you'll have a head start. I did free shipping with Amazon Prime so I won't get it until Thursday or Friday. :P
3DS: 1607-3034-6970
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chiasaur11Never doubt a raccoon.Do you think it's trademarked?Registered Userregular
Man the thread title reminded me of how hilarious naive everyone was regarding Agria's backstory.
Party: Man screw Agria. She's just a psycho who loves fire.
NPC: No you see her entire family died in a mysterious fire when she was young.
Party: Oh man that's so sad poor Agria I feel so bad for her.
Me: What!?
To quote Hogfather: "We took pity on him because he lost both parents at an early age. I think, on reflection, that we should have wondered a bit more about that."
you finish the final battle and basically just shake hands and go on your way. Definitely not the norm for the series.
Oh boy, give Tales of Rebirth a shot (there's a really good dialogue translation guide for it) because that is full of discrimination. And peach pies. And it's the only Tales game where every party member is a boss fight at some point. Oh and the battle system is the most unique of all the Tales series so far (No healers! No TP! Block against spells by default! Three lines!)
It has changed, but sadly not enough to really put a dent in it (I work about 10 hours a week during the day and then 16 a week at night). Still, if you're getting it tomorrow, you'll have a head start. I did free shipping with Amazon Prime so I won't get it until Thursday or Friday. :P
It has changed, but sadly not enough to really put a dent in it (I work about 10 hours a week during the day and then 16 a week at night). Still, if you're getting it tomorrow, you'll have a head start. I did free shipping with Amazon Prime so I won't get it until Thursday or Friday. :P
CHANCE!
You realize now I'll just stay up for 24 hours straight.
you finish the final battle and basically just shake hands and go on your way. Definitely not the norm for the series.
Oh boy, give Tales of Rebirth a shot (there's a really good dialogue translation guide for it) because that is full of discrimination. And peach pies. And it's the only Tales game where every party member is a boss fight at some point. Oh and the battle system is the most unique of all the Tales series so far (No healers! No TP! Block against spells by default! Three lines!)
I'd really love to play Rebirth at some point. I remember being really excited when it was announced, only for it to be the beginning of Namco's "nope, fuck you, American fans" thing. Still bitter about that, ToD2 and ToD DC, since ToD is (for whatever reason) still my favorite game in the series.
I'm usually a fan of the Tales games, but I detested Xillia 1 for a lot of reasons. I hear here and there that Xillia 2's supposedly improved the gameplay of the first, but I'm skeptical. Specifically what I hated was: the MMO area design (Field, field, field, brown field, field, swamp, field...) and all the copy/pasting going on (ports especially), poorly managed and difficult to keep track of sidequests, the sidequests themselves (especially "find the tiny cave somewhere" and "backtrack through the dungeon you were just in" which seemed to comprise most of them), the ponderous and sluggish sphere grids, the constant link auto-combos interrupting my attempts to play, the unannounced areas/enemies that will insta-kill you for trying to organically explore. There's probably more, but that's all that comes to mind right now.
I also was not a fan of the characters or story, but I didn't get too much further past the obligatory awful "Tales protagonist does something monumentally imbecilic and within the hour, everyone respects them all the more for it" bit, so that may color things.
What's the straight dope here? Sequel improved enough for a second look, or more of the same?
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DemonStaceyTTODewback's DaughterIn love with the TaySwayRegistered Userregular
I'm usually a fan of the Tales games, but I detested Xillia 1 for a lot of reasons. I hear here and there that Xillia 2's supposedly improved the gameplay of the first, but I'm skeptical. Specifically what I hated was: the MMO area design (Field, field, field, brown field, field, swamp, field...) and all the copy/pasting going on (ports especially), poorly managed and difficult to keep track of sidequests, the sidequests themselves (especially "find the tiny cave somewhere" and "backtrack through the dungeon you were just in" which seemed to comprise most of them), the ponderous and sluggish sphere grids, the constant link auto-combos interrupting my attempts to play, the unannounced areas/enemies that will insta-kill you for trying to organically explore. There's probably more, but that's all that comes to mind right now.
I also was not a fan of the characters or story, but I didn't get too much further past the obligatory awful "Tales protagonist does something monumentally imbecilic and within the hour, everyone respects them all the more for it" bit, so that may color things.
What's the straight dope here? Sequel improved enough for a second look, or more of the same?
I can't speak too much for the second Xillia but I think you may just not be into Tales games.
Basically, I disagree with every single thing you feel about Xillia The First, so I cannot give you an answer that would be in any way accurate to what your opinion might be. Hopefully someone will come along who feels the way you did about Xillia and can give you an opinion that would fit you for Xillia 2, but I am not that person.
I'm usually a fan of the Tales games, but I detested Xillia 1 for a lot of reasons. I hear here and there that Xillia 2's supposedly improved the gameplay of the first, but I'm skeptical. Specifically what I hated was: the MMO area design (Field, field, field, brown field, field, swamp, field...) and all the copy/pasting going on (ports especially), poorly managed and difficult to keep track of sidequests, the sidequests themselves (especially "find the tiny cave somewhere" and "backtrack through the dungeon you were just in" which seemed to comprise most of them), the ponderous and sluggish sphere grids, the constant link auto-combos interrupting my attempts to play, the unannounced areas/enemies that will insta-kill you for trying to organically explore. There's probably more, but that's all that comes to mind right now.
I also was not a fan of the characters or story, but I didn't get too much further past the obligatory awful "Tales protagonist does something monumentally imbecilic and within the hour, everyone respects them all the more for it" bit, so that may color things.
What's the straight dope here? Sequel improved enough for a second look, or more of the same?
After playing until the start of the 4th Chapter (the chapters are oddly brief in Xillia 2, there's only 4 chapters total in Xillia 1), allow me to tell you what's changed around your concerns.
I can't speak of the battle areas yet, since I only got access to one so far, but they are very similar to the first game. Sidequests have now been replaced with a honest-to-god quest board. Very early spoilers, but you end up on a runaway train (cross that off the JRPG checklist) and have to be healed. You're basically forced to take out a loan of 20 MILLION Gald which you have to make payments on. So the quest boards are there to make you money and get specific titles or gear. They're under the Event List in the Library section with its own tab, and it's much better at reminding you when you've finished a quest or getting close to, along with when you're close to completing a title.
That loan also keeps you from going anywhere you shouldn't. Basically the loan puts you on a list so that you can't just hop a train to somewhere else and skimp out on paying it up. So you have to pay off the loan up to certain points before you can move on to a different area. That's at least how it's set up in the beginning, but it does seem to tackle your issue of going to areas you're not supposed to go to yet, although in a rather lame way.
The Lillium Orb has been replaced with an Allium Orb. They remind me a lot of the Espers from FF6. There's elemental ore you get by defeating enemies and finding it in battle fields. Allium Orbs have you install an extractor that takes an element from the ore and uses it to enhance you abilities. So extractors teach and enhance artes and skills that use that particular element, so the more you keep an extractor on someone, the stronger their skills and artes of that element get. I'm guessing there's at least 6 extractors, probably multiples of some and other unique ones to use.
My guess is that the linked artes will still be rather annoying, so I can't tell you if that's improved or not. I can say that they've improved on the linked artes so that even artes not tuned to your partner can be used for linked artes, but it's a basic linked arte and not a specially named linked arte. But you can chain them together with special linked artes in overlimit.
Anyway, that's my limited knowledge of the changes in the few hours I have in it so far. As of right now, none of the changes are unpleasant IMO, although I will have to get used to having a mostly silent protagonist in Ludger, and making choices all throughout the storyline might start getting old, since I know there's no way they all make a difference and are mostly superficial.
Quiotu on
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DemonStaceyTTODewback's DaughterIn love with the TaySwayRegistered Userregular
I'm usually a fan of the Tales games, but I detested Xillia 1 for a lot of reasons. I hear here and there that Xillia 2's supposedly improved the gameplay of the first, but I'm skeptical. Specifically what I hated was: the MMO area design (Field, field, field, brown field, field, swamp, field...) and all the copy/pasting going on (ports especially), poorly managed and difficult to keep track of sidequests, the sidequests themselves (especially "find the tiny cave somewhere" and "backtrack through the dungeon you were just in" which seemed to comprise most of them), the ponderous and sluggish sphere grids, the constant link auto-combos interrupting my attempts to play, the unannounced areas/enemies that will insta-kill you for trying to organically explore. There's probably more, but that's all that comes to mind right now.
I also was not a fan of the characters or story, but I didn't get too much further past the obligatory awful "Tales protagonist does something monumentally imbecilic and within the hour, everyone respects them all the more for it" bit, so that may color things.
What's the straight dope here? Sequel improved enough for a second look, or more of the same?
After playing until the start of the 4th Chapter (the chapters are oddly brief in Xillia 2, there's only 4 chapters total in Xillia 1), allow me to tell you what's changed around your concerns.
I can't speak of the battle areas yet, since I only got access to one so far, but they are very similar to the first game. Sidequests have now been replaced with a honest-to-god quest board. Very early spoilers, but you end up on a runaway train (cross that off the JRPG checklist) and have to be healed. You're basically forced to take out a loan of 20 MILLION Gald which you have to make payments on. So the quest boards are there to make you money and get specific titles or gear. They're under the Event List in the Library section with its own tab, and it's much better at reminding you when you've finished a quest or getting close to, along with when you're close to completing a title.
That loan also keeps you from going anywhere you shouldn't. Basically the loan puts you on a list so that you can't just hop a train to somewhere else and skimp out on paying it up. So you have to pay off the loan up to certain points before you can move on to a different area. That's at least how it's set up in the beginning, but it does seem to tackle your issue of going to areas you're not supposed to go to yet, although in a rather lame way.
The Lillium Orb has been replaced with an Allium Orb. They remind me a lot of the Espers from FF6. There's elemental ore you get by defeating enemies and finding it in battle fields. Allium Orbs have you install an extractor that takes an element from the ore and uses it to enhance you abilities. So extractors teach and enhance artes and skills that use that particular element, so the more you keep an extractor on someone, the stronger their skills and artes of that element get. I'm guessing there's at least 6 extractors, probably multiples of some and other unique ones to use.
My guess is that the linked artes will still be rather annoying, so I can't tell you if that's improved or not. I can say that they've improved on the linked artes so that even artes not tuned to your partner can be used for linked artes, but it's a basic linked arte and not a specially named linked arte. But you can chain them together with special linked artes in overlimit.
Anyway, that's my limited knowledge of the changes in the few hours I have in it so far. As of right now, none of the changes are unpleasant IMO, although I will have to get used to having a mostly silent protagonist in Ludger, and making choices all throughout the storyline might start getting old, since I know there's no way they all make a difference and are mostly superficial.
Thanks for at least trying. And to clarify, it wasn't the linked artes that annoyed me. It was the forced auto-combos it'd do off of normal attacks when both you and your link were focused on the same enemy. Having control arbitrarily wrested away as the game tries to do some 'cool' preset combo, but more often than not ended up primarily whiffing and preventing me from canceling, blocking, evading, or doing anything else at all as it leaped into the air to slash at empty space and then drop helplessly was... a constant source of frustration, shall we say? Just removing that would improve my opinion of at least the combat significantly.
And you're correct, only one choice matters toward the end. The entire "choose your own destiny" thing is just marketing. There's only a clearly bad end and a clearly good end.
I can't speak too much for the second Xillia but I think you may just not be into Tales games.
Certainly not the unfinished ones trying badly to imitate MMOs.
Errr I wasn't saying there's anything wrong with not liking them.
No need to get defensive.
But the series just might not be for you. No biggie. Plenty of other fish in the sea and what not.
I'm pretty sure that I've enjoyed most of the games, disregarding, or perhaps even in spite of the things that Xillia introduced or did drastically differently from all the others long after they were released, but I guess you'd know better than me!
Whelp, just got the game and about to start this. So the game-plan is to play roughly 8 hours per day until the weekend where I can gush 14 hours per day (not counting breaks), so maybe beat most of the game before this weekend and maybe work on either 100% the game or just weeding out the annoying side-quests that chances are I'll miss anyway because of multi-part sub-events. I'm doing this completely blind so it's to be expected that I'll miss some stuff.
Now I noticed Kresnik has multiple-choices when it comes to dialogue, and I can't help but wonder if his actual personality is shaped by it. Gonna find out soon regardless.
@ArcTangent from what you mean by combos. I not sure exactly what part you hate but that xillia the combos can be switched. Inputing a direction or plain neutral changes what move comes out. So attack attack down + attack is different from attack forward attack down attack. Switch up the move if the regular would miss or throw in a arte. If the concern is just the length of the actions such that you are stuck in the action when the counter attack happens that is part of the combat and really it just becomes part of strategy of ending combos early so you don't get hit.
@ArcTangent from what you mean by combos. I not sure exactly what part you hate but that xillia the combos can be switched. Inputing a direction or plain neutral changes what move comes out. So attack attack down + attack is different from attack forward attack down attack. Switch up the move if the regular would miss or throw in a arte. If the concern is just the length of the actions such that you are stuck in the action when the counter attack happens that is part of the combat and really it just becomes part of strategy of ending combos early so you don't get hit.
He means the two-man combo attacks that happen when you do a string of normal moves while linked. Stuff like Jude uppercutting the enemy and Milla smacking them back to the ground while jumping, instead of their usual non-arte combo moves.
Whelp, just got the game and about to start this. So the game-plan is to play roughly 8 hours per day until the weekend where I can gush 14 hours per day (not counting breaks), so maybe beat most of the game before this weekend and maybe work on either 100% the game or just weeding out the annoying side-quests that chances are I'll miss anyway because of multi-part sub-events. I'm doing this completely blind so it's to be expected that I'll miss some stuff.
Now I noticed Kresnik has multiple-choices when it comes to dialogue, and I can't help but wonder if his actual personality is shaped by it. Gonna find out soon regardless.
Okay, since I'm not a scrub when it comes to this series, and am not rusty either due to playing some Symphonia recently, I decided to start on Hard mode and go from there.
EDIT: @Ragnar Dragonfyre : Yo, I got a name to live up to. Besides, I play games instead of going out to drink or watch TV and junk. I go to work, eat, play video games, sleep. That's pretty much the majority of my day unless friends want to hang out IRL instead of online.
Anyway, started out the game and they kinda screw you over with a situation right at the start. 3 outcomes, all of them basically just suck. But then when the game "officially" starts, apparently you get rewards for having save data of Xillia. For example I got one attachment for playing the game. Now I'm getting another attachment for playing the "bajeezus" out of Xillia. Also some stuff for playing Graces f too.
Whelp, just got the game and about to start this. So the game-plan is to play roughly 8 hours per day until the weekend where I can gush 14 hours per day (not counting breaks), so maybe beat most of the game before this weekend and maybe work on either 100% the game or just weeding out the annoying side-quests that chances are I'll miss anyway because of multi-part sub-events. I'm doing this completely blind so it's to be expected that I'll miss some stuff.
Now I noticed Kresnik has multiple-choices when it comes to dialogue, and I can't help but wonder if his actual personality is shaped by it. Gonna find out soon regardless.
Whelp, just got the game and about to start this. So the game-plan is to play roughly 8 hours per day until the weekend where I can gush 14 hours per day (not counting breaks), so maybe beat most of the game before this weekend and maybe work on either 100% the game or just weeding out the annoying side-quests that chances are I'll miss anyway because of multi-part sub-events. I'm doing this completely blind so it's to be expected that I'll miss some stuff.
Now I noticed Kresnik has multiple-choices when it comes to dialogue, and I can't help but wonder if his actual personality is shaped by it. Gonna find out soon regardless.
*ahem* ... chapter 2 already, but I don't know what's worse:
being indebted 20,000,000 gald to some cheap-skate douchebag for a medical fee, or the fact that the debt collector that'll be monitoring me is voiced by the actress who played Noel Vermillion from BlazBlue... uggggggggh.
EDIT: also Ludger's VA is rather lackluster, though I guess it makes sense since he's a mostly silent protagonist. But still, his random quips like "What?!" or "Huh?!" sound so off-tone and random.
Ludger's silent thing would drive me nuts, but I found a completed save so I could start from NG+ with his voice turned on (which is a weird thing to make NG+ only), so that's pretty cool.
So far, I like this a lot more than Xillia. Combat feels faster (or maybe Ludger is just more fun to play than Jude, who is the only other character I have so far), the Allium Orb feels less clunky than the Lillium Orb, and it's nice to see old characters and areas back again.
I suspect my issues with level design aren't going to be addressed, but the introductory stuff is at least *way* more exciting than the beginning of the last several Tales titles. From the looks of the guide, there's a lot more depth and stuff to do in this game than the last one.
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DemonStaceyTTODewback's DaughterIn love with the TaySwayRegistered Userregular
I'm usually a fan of the Tales games, but I detested Xillia 1 for a lot of reasons. I hear here and there that Xillia 2's supposedly improved the gameplay of the first, but I'm skeptical. Specifically what I hated was: the MMO area design (Field, field, field, brown field, field, swamp, field...) and all the copy/pasting going on (ports especially), poorly managed and difficult to keep track of sidequests, the sidequests themselves (especially "find the tiny cave somewhere" and "backtrack through the dungeon you were just in" which seemed to comprise most of them), the ponderous and sluggish sphere grids, the constant link auto-combos interrupting my attempts to play, the unannounced areas/enemies that will insta-kill you for trying to organically explore. There's probably more, but that's all that comes to mind right now.
I also was not a fan of the characters or story, but I didn't get too much further past the obligatory awful "Tales protagonist does something monumentally imbecilic and within the hour, everyone respects them all the more for it" bit, so that may color things.
What's the straight dope here? Sequel improved enough for a second look, or more of the same?
After playing until the start of the 4th Chapter (the chapters are oddly brief in Xillia 2, there's only 4 chapters total in Xillia 1), allow me to tell you what's changed around your concerns.
I can't speak of the battle areas yet, since I only got access to one so far, but they are very similar to the first game. Sidequests have now been replaced with a honest-to-god quest board. Very early spoilers, but you end up on a runaway train (cross that off the JRPG checklist) and have to be healed. You're basically forced to take out a loan of 20 MILLION Gald which you have to make payments on. So the quest boards are there to make you money and get specific titles or gear. They're under the Event List in the Library section with its own tab, and it's much better at reminding you when you've finished a quest or getting close to, along with when you're close to completing a title.
That loan also keeps you from going anywhere you shouldn't. Basically the loan puts you on a list so that you can't just hop a train to somewhere else and skimp out on paying it up. So you have to pay off the loan up to certain points before you can move on to a different area. That's at least how it's set up in the beginning, but it does seem to tackle your issue of going to areas you're not supposed to go to yet, although in a rather lame way.
The Lillium Orb has been replaced with an Allium Orb. They remind me a lot of the Espers from FF6. There's elemental ore you get by defeating enemies and finding it in battle fields. Allium Orbs have you install an extractor that takes an element from the ore and uses it to enhance you abilities. So extractors teach and enhance artes and skills that use that particular element, so the more you keep an extractor on someone, the stronger their skills and artes of that element get. I'm guessing there's at least 6 extractors, probably multiples of some and other unique ones to use.
My guess is that the linked artes will still be rather annoying, so I can't tell you if that's improved or not. I can say that they've improved on the linked artes so that even artes not tuned to your partner can be used for linked artes, but it's a basic linked arte and not a specially named linked arte. But you can chain them together with special linked artes in overlimit.
Anyway, that's my limited knowledge of the changes in the few hours I have in it so far. As of right now, none of the changes are unpleasant IMO, although I will have to get used to having a mostly silent protagonist in Ludger, and making choices all throughout the storyline might start getting old, since I know there's no way they all make a difference and are mostly superficial.
Thanks for at least trying. And to clarify, it wasn't the linked artes that annoyed me. It was the forced auto-combos it'd do off of normal attacks when both you and your link were focused on the same enemy. Having control arbitrarily wrested away as the game tries to do some 'cool' preset combo, but more often than not ended up primarily whiffing and preventing me from canceling, blocking, evading, or doing anything else at all as it leaped into the air to slash at empty space and then drop helplessly was... a constant source of frustration, shall we say? Just removing that would improve my opinion of at least the combat significantly.
And you're correct, only one choice matters toward the end. The entire "choose your own destiny" thing is just marketing. There's only a clearly bad end and a clearly good end.
I can't speak too much for the second Xillia but I think you may just not be into Tales games.
Certainly not the unfinished ones trying badly to imitate MMOs.
Errr I wasn't saying there's anything wrong with not liking them.
No need to get defensive.
But the series just might not be for you. No biggie. Plenty of other fish in the sea and what not.
I'm pretty sure that I've enjoyed most of the games, disregarding, or perhaps even in spite of the things that Xillia introduced or did drastically differently from all the others long after they were released, but I guess you'd know better than me!
Sorry I glazed over the part where you said you liked the others. Not sure how.
But anyway that's very confusing to me! It felt extremely tales-y to me and was one of my favorites.
Apparently this game is a slightly altered job-hunting game. Not that it entirely matters from the normal standards but that's not the usual norm for a Tales game. Hell the rate in which you get party members is insanely fast too. After one night of playing I already got 6 party members to be of use.
Ludger's multiple weapons are pretty broken with the ability to basically have a counter to every situation. Hell Guns themselves are insane because you never have to get close to the enemy, and the hammer can just basically stunlock for days. Dual Swords are the only equipment he seems to change out via equipping actually, but they're nothing too special.
The worst part about the game thus far is the stupid Debt system.
Nova... oh man she gets on my nerves so much. I can't even get a couple thousand Gald without her popping in and going "OKAY TIME TO GIMME SOME OF THAT!
I played this a good bit yesterday thanks to a half-day at work.
No story spoilers:
The gald thing isnt that bad once you realize that each 'stage' of the debt repayment has a given amount of gald that once you cross it nova is going to call you for a payment. once you hit that amount or go over it every fight or zone shift shes going to call you until you are back down under that number. So dont just make a minimum payment once you hit that number, do several thousand and you wont hear from her until you farm a lot or turn in a bunch of jobs. Some of her calls get a smile out of me, they arent as annoying as i thought they might turn out to be. The most annoying voice in the game for me unfortunately is elle cause i hear her alot and shes a bit too loud and noisy as opposed to cute.
Also rollos meow is kinda annoying sometimes. and hes too fat!
Once you get to a certain stage of the game you start to get an idea of whats really happening. The first few chapters can be confusing cause its really unclear what is occuring. I spent a good hour last night searching around for what i was suppose to do next only to discover i needed to hit a point in my debt repayment to unlock a new train location, so i guess when in doubt, pay off your loan some more.
If it's anything like the first one, Gald will be nearly impossible to get at first and then a complete joke by the end of the game.
Actually quite the opposite. With the job-completion system, Gald is pretty easy to get, except through battles. Most job rewards will give you 800-1200 gald, and if you kill the Elite monsters you usually rake in 10-12k early on.
I definitely like the new victory poses and skits that happen in this game. Elle's voice actress isn't always spot on, but she's an adorably cute character regardless, when she's not being a brat. Whenever you level up she stands in front of Ludger and does a fist-pump alongside him, and goes "You definitely got stronger!", and some of her victory skits with other party members are great too:
Elle: *leans forward with her hands propped back* "Easy!"
Alvin: *does the same pose* "Easy!"
Ludger: *does the same thing* "Easy!"
Elle: "Are you making fun of me?"
Alvin: "Kind of?"
Ludger: "Uh..."
One thing I figured out is that Affinity is a lot different in this game. First and foremost it only matters with Ludger and the other party members. Second, while you can normally level it up through linking in battle, just like in Xillia, Ludger can also level it with party members by choosing the choice they like in dialogue, either through main cut-scenes or even in Skits (oh yeah, btw you choose Ludger's dialogue in skits too).
And while Ludger doesn't really talk much on his own, his facial expressions are the best, especially his cocky expression.
I must ask; can you synch with/as a long-range spellcaster without effectively removing one party member from the combat? To be more specific, can you link to a caster, and have them still hang back and cast while you punch things? Or link to a close-range fighter as a caster, and have them punch things while you hang back and cast?
Because not being able to do so was my biggest issue with Xillia 1, after I realized how much I liked playing as Rowen.
You can change up their tactics while linked to them, yes. You can have them act together with you, act freely, put whatever they do up to them, or whatever. Basically if you team up with Jude and you want to flank one enemy, you can have him help you do that, whereas if there's multiple targets, you can have him target another person while you're busy fighting the one you're targeting, and he'll zip back in whenever you're doing a link arte or his link-ability (which in Jude's case is helping you up when you're knocked down, and healing you slightly).
I think that works the same for casters, pretty much. I have to test it out more though.
You can change up their tactics while linked to them, yes. You can have them act together with you, act freely, put whatever they do up to them, or whatever. Basically if you team up with Jude and you want to flank one enemy, you can have him help you do that, whereas if there's multiple targets, you can have him target another person while you're busy fighting the one you're targeting, and he'll zip back in whenever you're doing a link arte or his link-ability (which in Jude's case is helping you up when you're knocked down, and healing you slightly).
I think that works the same for casters, pretty much. I have to test it out more though.
Yeah, I think that's a change from Xillia 1 that you couldn't do. In Xillia 1, if you were linked with someone, they were helping you in some way. In Xillia 2, you can be linked and have them be completely independent of you until you perform a linked arte.
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I love the game the whole way through, but I can see how it might not impress in the first few hours. Until the (relatively early) plot twist, it's a straightforward young girl goes on a sacrificial journey to save the world story. Once that arc passes, things get a lot more interesting. It's easily my favorite Tales world and second favorite cast (after Vesperia).
The production values are lacking when it comes to voice work and animations, but I don't really mind.
I really enjoy the flow of combat, although the lack of free run means it hasn't aged well. The port's bare minimum effort hurts it too, since you're still limited to six techs mapped at once. Every Tales game since has been able to map between eight and sixteen. Still, I have a lot of fun with Lloyd, Kratos, Sheena, Zelos, Presea and Regal, linking techs into combos, and all that good stuff.
The game definitely has its faults, but I love it anyway.
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Why I fear the ocean.
Oh boy, give Tales of Rebirth a shot (there's a really good dialogue translation guide for it) because that is full of discrimination. And peach pies. And it's the only Tales game where every party member is a boss fight at some point. Oh and the battle system is the most unique of all the Tales series so far (No healers! No TP! Block against spells by default! Three lines!)
CHANCE!
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You realize now I'll just stay up for 24 hours straight.
I can do that. It ain't no thing.
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Oh, touche.
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I'd really love to play Rebirth at some point. I remember being really excited when it was announced, only for it to be the beginning of Namco's "nope, fuck you, American fans" thing. Still bitter about that, ToD2 and ToD DC, since ToD is (for whatever reason) still my favorite game in the series.
I also was not a fan of the characters or story, but I didn't get too much further past the obligatory awful "Tales protagonist does something monumentally imbecilic and within the hour, everyone respects them all the more for it" bit, so that may color things.
What's the straight dope here? Sequel improved enough for a second look, or more of the same?
I can't speak too much for the second Xillia but I think you may just not be into Tales games.
Certainly not the unfinished ones trying badly to imitate MMOs.
After playing until the start of the 4th Chapter (the chapters are oddly brief in Xillia 2, there's only 4 chapters total in Xillia 1), allow me to tell you what's changed around your concerns.
I can't speak of the battle areas yet, since I only got access to one so far, but they are very similar to the first game. Sidequests have now been replaced with a honest-to-god quest board. Very early spoilers, but you end up on a runaway train (cross that off the JRPG checklist) and have to be healed. You're basically forced to take out a loan of 20 MILLION Gald which you have to make payments on. So the quest boards are there to make you money and get specific titles or gear. They're under the Event List in the Library section with its own tab, and it's much better at reminding you when you've finished a quest or getting close to, along with when you're close to completing a title.
That loan also keeps you from going anywhere you shouldn't. Basically the loan puts you on a list so that you can't just hop a train to somewhere else and skimp out on paying it up. So you have to pay off the loan up to certain points before you can move on to a different area. That's at least how it's set up in the beginning, but it does seem to tackle your issue of going to areas you're not supposed to go to yet, although in a rather lame way.
The Lillium Orb has been replaced with an Allium Orb. They remind me a lot of the Espers from FF6. There's elemental ore you get by defeating enemies and finding it in battle fields. Allium Orbs have you install an extractor that takes an element from the ore and uses it to enhance you abilities. So extractors teach and enhance artes and skills that use that particular element, so the more you keep an extractor on someone, the stronger their skills and artes of that element get. I'm guessing there's at least 6 extractors, probably multiples of some and other unique ones to use.
My guess is that the linked artes will still be rather annoying, so I can't tell you if that's improved or not. I can say that they've improved on the linked artes so that even artes not tuned to your partner can be used for linked artes, but it's a basic linked arte and not a specially named linked arte. But you can chain them together with special linked artes in overlimit.
Anyway, that's my limited knowledge of the changes in the few hours I have in it so far. As of right now, none of the changes are unpleasant IMO, although I will have to get used to having a mostly silent protagonist in Ludger, and making choices all throughout the storyline might start getting old, since I know there's no way they all make a difference and are mostly superficial.
Errr I wasn't saying there's anything wrong with not liking them.
No need to get defensive.
But the series just might not be for you. No biggie. Plenty of other fish in the sea and what not.
Thanks for at least trying. And to clarify, it wasn't the linked artes that annoyed me. It was the forced auto-combos it'd do off of normal attacks when both you and your link were focused on the same enemy. Having control arbitrarily wrested away as the game tries to do some 'cool' preset combo, but more often than not ended up primarily whiffing and preventing me from canceling, blocking, evading, or doing anything else at all as it leaped into the air to slash at empty space and then drop helplessly was... a constant source of frustration, shall we say? Just removing that would improve my opinion of at least the combat significantly.
I'm pretty sure that I've enjoyed most of the games, disregarding, or perhaps even in spite of the things that Xillia introduced or did drastically differently from all the others long after they were released, but I guess you'd know better than me!
Now I noticed Kresnik has multiple-choices when it comes to dialogue, and I can't help but wonder if his actual personality is shaped by it. Gonna find out soon regardless.
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He means the two-man combo attacks that happen when you do a string of normal moves while linked. Stuff like Jude uppercutting the enemy and Milla smacking them back to the ground while jumping, instead of their usual non-arte combo moves.
EDIT: @Ragnar Dragonfyre : Yo, I got a name to live up to. Besides, I play games instead of going out to drink or watch TV and junk. I go to work, eat, play video games, sleep. That's pretty much the majority of my day unless friends want to hang out IRL instead of online.
Anyway, started out the game and they kinda screw you over with a situation right at the start. 3 outcomes, all of them basically just suck. But then when the game "officially" starts, apparently you get rewards for having save data of Xillia. For example I got one attachment for playing the game. Now I'm getting another attachment for playing the "bajeezus" out of Xillia. Also some stuff for playing Graces f too.
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I'll still win! I will! Somehow....
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*ahem* ... chapter 2 already, but I don't know what's worse:
EDIT: also Ludger's VA is rather lackluster, though I guess it makes sense since he's a mostly silent protagonist. But still, his random quips like "What?!" or "Huh?!" sound so off-tone and random.
EDIT 2: THE MUTTON MAN HATH RETURNETH!
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So far, I like this a lot more than Xillia. Combat feels faster (or maybe Ludger is just more fun to play than Jude, who is the only other character I have so far), the Allium Orb feels less clunky than the Lillium Orb, and it's nice to see old characters and areas back again.
I suspect my issues with level design aren't going to be addressed, but the introductory stuff is at least *way* more exciting than the beginning of the last several Tales titles. From the looks of the guide, there's a lot more depth and stuff to do in this game than the last one.
Sorry I glazed over the part where you said you liked the others. Not sure how.
But anyway that's very confusing to me! It felt extremely tales-y to me and was one of my favorites.
Weird.
Ludger's multiple weapons are pretty broken with the ability to basically have a counter to every situation. Hell Guns themselves are insane because you never have to get close to the enemy, and the hammer can just basically stunlock for days. Dual Swords are the only equipment he seems to change out via equipping actually, but they're nothing too special.
The worst part about the game thus far is the stupid Debt system.
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No story spoilers:
The gald thing isnt that bad once you realize that each 'stage' of the debt repayment has a given amount of gald that once you cross it nova is going to call you for a payment. once you hit that amount or go over it every fight or zone shift shes going to call you until you are back down under that number. So dont just make a minimum payment once you hit that number, do several thousand and you wont hear from her until you farm a lot or turn in a bunch of jobs. Some of her calls get a smile out of me, they arent as annoying as i thought they might turn out to be. The most annoying voice in the game for me unfortunately is elle cause i hear her alot and shes a bit too loud and noisy as opposed to cute.
Also rollos meow is kinda annoying sometimes. and hes too fat!
Once you get to a certain stage of the game you start to get an idea of whats really happening. The first few chapters can be confusing cause its really unclear what is occuring. I spent a good hour last night searching around for what i was suppose to do next only to discover i needed to hit a point in my debt repayment to unlock a new train location, so i guess when in doubt, pay off your loan some more.
Actually quite the opposite. With the job-completion system, Gald is pretty easy to get, except through battles. Most job rewards will give you 800-1200 gald, and if you kill the Elite monsters you usually rake in 10-12k early on.
I definitely like the new victory poses and skits that happen in this game. Elle's voice actress isn't always spot on, but she's an adorably cute character regardless, when she's not being a brat. Whenever you level up she stands in front of Ludger and does a fist-pump alongside him, and goes "You definitely got stronger!", and some of her victory skits with other party members are great too:
Alvin: *does the same pose* "Easy!"
Ludger: *does the same thing* "Easy!"
Elle: "Are you making fun of me?"
Alvin: "Kind of?"
Ludger: "Uh..."
One thing I figured out is that Affinity is a lot different in this game. First and foremost it only matters with Ludger and the other party members. Second, while you can normally level it up through linking in battle, just like in Xillia, Ludger can also level it with party members by choosing the choice they like in dialogue, either through main cut-scenes or even in Skits (oh yeah, btw you choose Ludger's dialogue in skits too).
And while Ludger doesn't really talk much on his own, his facial expressions are the best, especially his cocky expression.
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Because not being able to do so was my biggest issue with Xillia 1, after I realized how much I liked playing as Rowen.
I think that works the same for casters, pretty much. I have to test it out more though.
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Yeah, I think that's a change from Xillia 1 that you couldn't do. In Xillia 1, if you were linked with someone, they were helping you in some way. In Xillia 2, you can be linked and have them be completely independent of you until you perform a linked arte.