I've been playing Lost Odyssey for the last week or two and I just got to the third disk this afternoon. I've cringed at the story a couple of times, but overall the game has been fun. The gameplay mechanics are definitely old-school, but there's a few things like Aim Ring system and the differences between Immortal and non-Immortal characters' skills that make it slightly less mindless.
I should stay out of here. Thinking about having paid full price for SO4 makes me ill. It was truly shit from a butt. The combat was OK I guess. But that's like saying the in-flight snacks on the Hindenburg were OK.
The thing that stings the most is that I have great memories of playing SO2 way back when on PS1. God I loved that game.
I ranted about this for a good fifteen minutes in a podcast one time, but two was awesome in large part because it sidestepped most problems with RPGs. Everybody but the main two characters was optional, though a lot of them were fun to bring along anyway. People tended to drone on during cutscenes but that petered out around the 1/3 mark. Almost nobody had a personal stake in what was going on besides just being in the neighborhood at the time, and were largely free of closeted skeletons or any other surprise revelations.
It just... had a surprisingly low amount of bullshit. I mean, the script was laughable (the PSP version fixed that for the most part) and the story was just kind of there, but on the upside that meant I didn't have to listen to the main dude bitch for an hour and a half because he screwed up. There was no existential nonsense, it was just a good old-fashioned "bad guys are over here with a doomsday weapon, good guy doesn't have anything else to do, here's the cheapest sword in the game, there's your token love interest (which you can ignore if you like) now get crackin'."
I should stay out of here. Thinking about having paid full price for SO4 makes me ill. It was truly shit from a butt. The combat was OK I guess. But that's like saying the in-flight snacks on the Hindenburg were OK.
The thing that stings the most is that I have great memories of playing SO2 way back when on PS1. God I loved that game.
I ranted about this for a good fifteen minutes in a podcast one time, but two was awesome in large part because it sidestepped most problems with RPGs. Everybody but the main two characters was optional, though a lot of them were fun to bring along anyway. People tended to drone on during cutscenes but that petered out around the 1/3 mark. Almost nobody had a personal stake in what was going on besides just being in the neighborhood at the time, and were largely free of closeted skeletons or any other surprise revelations.
It just... had a surprisingly low amount of bullshit. I mean, the script was laughable (the PSP version fixed that for the most part) and the story was just kind of there, but on the upside that meant I didn't have to listen to the main dude bitch for an hour and a half because he screwed up. There was no existential nonsense, it was just a good old-fashioned "bad guys are over here with a doomsday weapon, good guy doesn't have anything else to do, here's the cheapest sword in the game, there's your token love interest (which you can ignore if you like) now get crackin'."
SO4 was basically the complete opposite of this.
Also, it was before they gimped the skill system.
Granted, it's a little better in 4, but nothing like the awesome spamfest of SO2 with 10 or 11 skills activating at once.
I played and loved Tales of Vesperia, but I am some what of a Tales fan (Tales of Destiny 2 and Tales of Symphonia are both classics) so I would have to recommend it. However, if you are looking for a serious, dramatic, story with anything even somewhat true to life then it might not be for you. It's a fun game, with enjoyable characters, some often times hilarious dialog, okay voice acting, and a great battle system. Whether you're a hardcore gamer or just looking for something to kill some time, I think there is something to enjoy for everyone.
I haven't played SO4, but nothing about it comes across as interesting to me. SO: Til the End of Time and SO2 were both great, so it has a wonderful pedigree, but that isn't everything.
Personally I did not enjoy Lost Odyssey or Blue Dragon, they were both populated with bland characters and their combat systems were not at all interesting. They are, however, two very massive games and if you are looking for depth and somewhere to throw several hours of your life, both games deliver on that front.
Really though, if you're looking for a JRPG, just do yourself a favor and go get Digital Devil Saga 1 and 2. Even if you have to buy a PS2 to play them, it will be the best money you ever spend as a fan of JRPGs.
Tales of Vesperia is probably your best option. That's not to say it's good, it's story and characters are as unremarkable as the ones featured in every other Tales game. But, if you're new to the franchise, you'll probably find the novelty of the battle system interesting enough to move through the game. Tales definitely isn't a foul game, just occasionally absurd and consistently boring.
I liked Lost Odyssey more, but having said that, LO jumps the shark after the 2nd disc. The entire tone of the game changes, and it moves from generic story with potential to something completely inane. If story and characters aren't particularly important to you, I would say go for it, but at the same time, Tales of Versperia is a much better game when played with that same level of forgiveness.
Whatever you pick, I hope you like it.
Beck on
Lucas's Franklin Badge reflected the lightning back!
Did anyone else like Eternal Sonata? I got it a cheap used copy of it a few weeks ago and have been rather enjoying it despite a few flaws (repetitive enemies & overly long cutscenes being the biggest at this point).
Tales of Vesperia is probably your best option. That's not to say it's good, it's story and characters are as unremarkable as the ones featured in every other Tales game. But, if you're new to the franchise, you'll probably find the novelty of the battle system interesting enough to move through the game. Tales definitely isn't a foul game, just occasionally absurd and consistently boring.
:?
I'll agree that the story is unremarkable, and pretty much is in all Tales games. But I don't recall ever being bored by it, and the characters were mostly great.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, though. I'm sure there are people out there who outright hated ToV.
Stacking Star Ocean against Vesperia, Vesperia wins so hard that SO gets launched into space and suffers explosive decompression.
You might have to go through the game with a little mini-guide for all the missable sidequests, but nearly everything about ToV follows the theme of "all those annoying JRPG tropes, except they're not that annoying anymore!"
Did anyone else like Eternal Sonata? I got it a cheap used copy of it a few weeks ago and have been rather enjoying it despite a few flaws (repetitive enemies & overly long cutscenes being the biggest at this point).
Did anyone else like Eternal Sonata? I got it a cheap used copy of it a few weeks ago and have been rather enjoying it despite a few flaws (repetitive enemies & overly long cutscenes being the biggest at this point).
I have mixed feelings about it overall. Combat becomes extremely boring once you get all the party upgrades. They manage to keep it "kinda" fresh up until that point, but once there it's basically just echo building -> unleash mega combo after mega combo. Money was almost completely pointless because you could sell Beat photos of like the first boss and be set FOR LIFE the rest of the game. It was silly.
Story was kinda cheesy but I really liked the little Chopin real life interludes. I'm sort of a classical music nut though so meh.
BTW, someone mentioned infinite undiscovery... I'm playing it now and wow, it's just really unfun. I'm not too far in (just beat Lester at the first chain?) but I have basically no desire to keep playing it. Characters are annoying (I want to kill those 2 kids) and combat basically devolves into me button mashing. I hate the "heal" system, the crafting system, and every side-quest I've come across (why must the rewards be so fucking useless?). At some point, I'll probably grab a guide and just blast it out but blah. Of all the JRPG's on 360 I've played, this is the worst... and I've played Enchanted Arms.
If it's between Vesperia and SO4, go with Vesperia. SO4 has a LOT of issues, the inane characters, horrible dubbing, and awful story are all just scratching the surface. The battle system is about half finished with some really moronic design choices that just boggle my mind. Shit like an intelligent targetting system that designers in 1996 knew to include in their games, but apparently the SO4 team is staffed by a bunch of incontinent lemurs. It boggles my mind how Tri-Ace can do so much right with the VP series, and then proceed to forget all of it and bellyflop into a steaming pile of dogshit with most everything else.
And I still wouldn't say Vesperia's the best of the Tales games, but it's a very solid game that just drags on about 8 hours after it should have ended and ranks up the stupid Tales competionist nonsense more than it has any business doing. Symphonia and Abyss were bad enough in some of their "drop everything and go to the other side of the planet now or you'll miss an entire line of sidequests" shit, but Vesperia somehow manages to trump that.
I'll back Tales of Vesperia as well. It's got basically the anti-JRPG hero in Yuri (he's fucking awesome), and a decent cast behind him. My only real gripes are that the game is probably a bit too long, the combat elements are introduced a little too slowly, and the game mercilessly punishes you for not having a strategy guide. Seriously, the Zodiac Spear in FFXII is NOTHING compared to the shit that you can miss in Vesperia.
Follow Gamefaqs closely if you're the OCD type. KADFC's guide is pretty good about not spoiling the unholy shit out of everything if you're following along.
Tales of Vesperia is probably your best option. That's not to say it's good, it's story and characters are as unremarkable as the ones featured in every other Tales game. But, if you're new to the franchise, you'll probably find the novelty of the battle system interesting enough to move through the game. Tales definitely isn't a foul game, just occasionally absurd and consistently boring.
:?
I'll agree that the story is unremarkable, and pretty much is in all Tales games. But I don't recall ever being bored by it, and the characters were mostly great.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, though. I'm sure there are people out there who outright hated ToV.
Maybe I'm a little hard on it... I do recommend it over any other 360 JRPG. But every story segment made me want to stop playing. That definitely speaks to the strength of the combat system, because I did play quite a bit of ToV, but I usually play JRPGs for the story, so maybe it just lacked in what I look for in a JRPG. I'm not sure.
I'm surprised everyone liked the characters, though. I found them really bland.
Beck on
Lucas's Franklin Badge reflected the lightning back!
I should stay out of here. Thinking about having paid full price for SO4 makes me ill. It was truly shit from a butt. The combat was OK I guess. But that's like saying the in-flight snacks on the Hindenburg were OK.
The thing that stings the most is that I have great memories of playing SO2 way back when on PS1. God I loved that game.
I ranted about this for a good fifteen minutes in a podcast one time, but two was awesome in large part because it sidestepped most problems with RPGs. Everybody but the main two characters was optional, though a lot of them were fun to bring along anyway. People tended to drone on during cutscenes but that petered out around the 1/3 mark. Almost nobody had a personal stake in what was going on besides just being in the neighborhood at the time, and were largely free of closeted skeletons or any other surprise revelations.
It just... had a surprisingly low amount of bullshit. I mean, the script was laughable (the PSP version fixed that for the most part) and the story was just kind of there, but on the upside that meant I didn't have to listen to the main dude bitch for an hour and a half because he screwed up. There was no existential nonsense, it was just a good old-fashioned "bad guys are over here with a doomsday weapon, good guy doesn't have anything else to do, here's the cheapest sword in the game, there's your token love interest (which you can ignore if you like) now get crackin'."
SO4 was basically the complete opposite of this.
Also, it was before they gimped the skill system.
Granted, it's a little better in 4, but nothing like the awesome spamfest of SO2 with 10 or 11 skills activating at once.
Really the only bad thing about SO2 was the voice acting. They seem to have redone it for the PSP version and made it even more terrible compared to how I remember it being, too.
Really the only bad thing about SO2 was the voice acting. They seem to have redone it for the PSP version and made it even more terrible compared to how I remember it being, too.
I liked the voice acting for the PSP version for all cases except for Ashton and maybe Celine. In my opinion, the voice changes were worth it simply because it made Precis bearable.
Really the only bad thing about SO2 was the voice acting. They seem to have redone it for the PSP version and made it even more terrible compared to how I remember it being, too.
I liked the voice acting for the PSP version for all cases except for Ashton and maybe Celine. In my opinion, the voice changes were worth it simply because it made Precis bearable.
The secondary cast was either phoned in or overacted, but I liked most of the playable characters. No real standouts, but I have a soft spot for Chisato. In fairness, I played 2redux after 4, so my standards were a wee bit lower.
Actual nails on a chalkboard would've sounded better than Sarah.
Man, one of the best things about the Playstation SO2 was the horrible, horrible voice acting.
I have to say...you and I agree on a lot of stuff.
Pear into peaches!
I can't get into SO2 anymore (maybe if I had a PSP, but I got a little ill looking at the PSX version after so many years) since I 100%'d it, but I still love the hell out of the game.
korodullin on
- The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
0
DragkoniasThat Guy Who Does StuffYou Know, There. Registered Userregular
edited June 2009
Yeah, same. Back when I was like 14(and too poor to afford more than one game every few months) I played the crap out of that game. Just at the point now that I can't really go back and play it again.
As for Vesperia vs. Star Ocean. I'll say this. Vesperia has been one of my favorite JRPGs in the last few years. Star Ocean...while not completely terrible, had me rolling my eyes. It's like Enix doesn't understand how terrible they are at writing stories, yet they take it very seriously. I still beat it because I kind of liked the battle system(though it was half finished like a lot of people said...and the targeting system ancient).
Vesperia's story is pretty average flair itself, but at least it doesn't take itself too seriously. Sans a heroic speech every now and then, but it is still light-hearted enough for me not to care.
Yeah, same. Back when I was like 14(and too poor to afford more than one game every few months) I played the crap out of that game. Just at the point now that I can't really go back and play it again.
As for Vesperia vs. Star Ocean. I'll say this. Vesperia has been one of my favorite JRPGs in the last few years. Star Ocean...while not completely terrible, had me rolling my eyes. It's like Enix doesn't understand how terrible they are at writing stories, yet they take it very seriously.
Squeenix didn't make the game, Tri-Ace did. All squeenix did was publish it.
Did anyone else like Eternal Sonata? I got it a cheap used copy of it a few weeks ago and have been rather enjoying it despite a few flaws (repetitive enemies & overly long cutscenes being the biggest at this point).
I have mixed feelings about it overall. Combat becomes extremely boring once you get all the party upgrades. They manage to keep it "kinda" fresh up until that point, but once there it's basically just echo building -> unleash mega combo after mega combo. Money was almost completely pointless because you could sell Beat photos of like the first boss and be set FOR LIFE the rest of the game. It was silly.
Story was kinda cheesy but I really liked the little Chopin real life interludes. I'm sort of a classical music nut though so meh.
I enjoyed it at first. But then the combat system started to get a little repetitive and the story started to make me jump out a window:
A cutscene with flashbacks to itself. Really?
Explaining everything and repeating it like I'm a 5-year old. Really?
That being said, there were some redeeming qualities:
The music was great.
The visual style is incredible.
Alegretto, Chopin , Falsetto, and Claves had some awesome battle quotes.
The level of imagination is stellar and the strong musical theme felt perfect. This a game where one of the protagonists tells the others that they're hallucinations of his suffering mind.
And he's right. Tripping while dying and escaping into an arcane musical world? Awesome.
It's unfortunate the dialogue and voice acting is often insipid and frequently becomes irritating. The combat, while interesting, loses most of its charm by the end (hit, hit, hit, combo extreme damage to the max).
Nevertheless, I'm glad I played it. It was a unique experience. Also, Jazz was awesome.
Two hours into Eternal Sonata and I ran into a palette swapped monster. I thought that was a little ridiculous. And the fights weren't all that fun. I stopped after about 4 hours. The music was great, and so were the visuals... I just couldn't take it.
Two hours into Eternal Sonata and I ran into a palette swapped monster. I thought that was a little ridiculous. And the fights weren't all that fun. I stopped after about 4 hours. The music was great, and so were the visuals... I just couldn't take it.
You loved blue dragon and are complaining about a palette swapped monster?
Two hours into Eternal Sonata and I ran into a palette swapped monster. I thought that was a little ridiculous. And the fights weren't all that fun. I stopped after about 4 hours. The music was great, and so were the visuals... I just couldn't take it.
Yeah, by the end of Eternal Sonata it seemed like the battle system was there just to keep the pacing of the story.
Too bad the story was godawful.
Still one of the prettiest and most colorful games I've played to date. Only really nice thing I can say about it though.
Two hours into Eternal Sonata and I ran into a palette swapped monster. I thought that was a little ridiculous. And the fights weren't all that fun. I stopped after about 4 hours. The music was great, and so were the visuals... I just couldn't take it.
You loved blue dragon and are complaining about a palette swapped monster?
/boggle
Two hours in and I got one. Then just about everything after that was a palette swap. At least it was by disk 2 that you run into the other poo snakes. :P Plus the battles for BD were infinitely better than ES.
Two hours into Eternal Sonata and I ran into a palette swapped monster. I thought that was a little ridiculous. And the fights weren't all that fun. I stopped after about 4 hours. The music was great, and so were the visuals... I just couldn't take it.
You loved blue dragon and are complaining about a palette swapped monster?
/boggle
Two hours in and I got one. Then just about everything after that was a palette swap. At least it was by disk 2 that you run into the other poo snakes. :P Plus the battles for BD were infinitely better than ES.
Depends on whether or not you're a fan of the boss music.
Two hours into Eternal Sonata and I ran into a palette swapped monster. I thought that was a little ridiculous. And the fights weren't all that fun. I stopped after about 4 hours. The music was great, and so were the visuals... I just couldn't take it.
You loved blue dragon and are complaining about a palette swapped monster?
/boggle
Two hours in and I got one. Then just about everything after that was a palette swap. At least it was by disk 2 that you run into the other poo snakes. :P Plus the battles for BD were infinitely better than ES.
Depends on whether or not you're a fan of the boss music.
In all seriousness, yes the battle system of BD is awesome.
I liked the song
I totally broke the last half of the game by using field barrier 3 to farm SP in the laser fields and get all of the shadow classes to 99 without even playing the game. (Rubber bands around the thumbsticks + regen MP on my barrier user)
Mx. QuillI now prefer "Myr. Quill", actually...{They/Them}Registered Userregular
edited June 2009
I never finished SO4 (think I got up to the last disc before losing all interest in finishing it); in comparison, I've beaten Vesperia. So you can kinda get an idea of where I'm going with this.
My contrasts between Vesperia and SO4 are, unsurprisingly, pretty much the same as my comparisons between Symphonia/Abyss and SO3. To me, the side-scrolling battle system of the Tales series works better than a 3D battle environment in real-time RPGS, since it's easier to line up your targets when you can only move left and right, jump, and block. The option of walking around in 3D appeared in Abyss and Vesperia, but it mainly used to dodge attacks, and, as I said, is an option. You aren't forced to deal with it at all.
I never really cared for the Blindside part of SO4, mainly because it was a stupid excuse to remove blocking attacks in favor of jumping away. And the Rush meter was pretty mediocre as well, it's not as awesome as some of its competition's Mystic Artes like Rita's and Yuri's.
Also, Yuri's one of the best RPG protagonists (right up their with Ramza and Vivi), while Edge Maverick is a cookie-cutter immature kid who spends a good third of the game absorbed in his own angst.
And really, when it comes down to it, your choice is thus:
Badass Pipe Dog from Vesperia
Or tiny mage girl who gives people nicknames and has a voice that is comparable to a hundred chalk boards being scratched from SO4
Also, Yuri's one of the best RPG protagonists (right up their with Ramza and Vivi)
This is one of the reasons why I'm confused when the rare person complains about Vesperia's characters. Yuri was the best main character I've seen in an RPG since Vyse.
AshtonDragon on
0
DragkoniasThat Guy Who Does StuffYou Know, There. Registered Userregular
Also, Yuri's one of the best RPG protagonists (right up their with Ramza and Vivi)
This is one of the reasons why I'm confused when the rare person complains about Vesperia's characters. Yuri was the best main character I've seen in an RPG since Vyse.
Well, as much as I like Yuri, he does come off as a hypocrite sometimes.
Dragkonias on
0
Mx. QuillI now prefer "Myr. Quill", actually...{They/Them}Registered Userregular
edited June 2009
Oh man, Vyse was the best. I hate how so many RPG characters give up and get angsty so easy; whenever there was a problem in SoA that people said was impossible, Vyse just replied, "'It's impossible 'cause I haven't done it yet."
I don't get the hate either. I mean, even Karol, the stereotypical little kid who tags along on the crazy trip to save the world, is a pretty decent character and isn't all that annoying.
Mx. Quill on
0
DragkoniasThat Guy Who Does StuffYou Know, There. Registered Userregular
Probably because they all had barely any more personality than the dog.
And the dog was the very epitome of extraneous.
And for the record, I still take umbrage with Yuri's raging hypocrisy through the entire game. I think I would have preferred some insipid ethics lesson instead of everybody just completely ignoring it and then giving him a backrub and a handjob behind the counter. The villains were also just... ugh.
So... yeah... My opinion is that Raven was the only decent character of the lot.
Star Ocean 4 got boring for me, due to the combat. It looks nice, but it has no depth at all. There is no concern for using different attacks and the tactics just dont change at all. You essentially just use the blindside technique and chain combo with your hardest hitting stuff. I wont talk about the story or characters because its already said that they were bad... the main problem is the combat and character building is just so damn shallow.
After about 8 hours into the game, I wondered if the combat ever got any better... so I looked up some youtube videos, and some of the final bosses look just like the earlier stuff, gameplay wise. I have no problem with JRPGs that are slow to develop, but it just looked like the same nonsensical button spamming through the whole thing. I didnt stop at 8 hours even, I got to the final disk just with lack of anything else to play... it just never gains any depth at all.
That said, if you want depth and combat that requires thinking, Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon wont dissapoint. The story in both is decent, nothing really amazing with twists, but well written for what they are and they will keep your interest. The combat though will really make you think in Lost Odyssey, and if you get the harder mode DLC for Blue Dragon it will as well. In Lost Odyssey, the biggest thing you will notice is the mob weaknesses and the big focus on defensive abilities you need to be using. You cant just grind out levels if you have trouble with a boss. The experience points drop off once you are at the right level for an area... and each boss has a very specific weakness and strategy. Blue Dragon is just fun with the amount of flexibility you have in the job system, and mixing abilities from each.
But, if you want JRPGs and you didnt play alot of them on PS2... then thats the place to look. Especially if story is really important. There arent any next-gen JRPGs yet with really epic stories. But PS2 is just packed with them... and of course the games are like 10-15 bucks so you got nothing to lose.
As for the original question of the thread... Tales of Vesperia all the way.
Posts
I ranted about this for a good fifteen minutes in a podcast one time, but two was awesome in large part because it sidestepped most problems with RPGs. Everybody but the main two characters was optional, though a lot of them were fun to bring along anyway. People tended to drone on during cutscenes but that petered out around the 1/3 mark. Almost nobody had a personal stake in what was going on besides just being in the neighborhood at the time, and were largely free of closeted skeletons or any other surprise revelations.
It just... had a surprisingly low amount of bullshit. I mean, the script was laughable (the PSP version fixed that for the most part) and the story was just kind of there, but on the upside that meant I didn't have to listen to the main dude bitch for an hour and a half because he screwed up. There was no existential nonsense, it was just a good old-fashioned "bad guys are over here with a doomsday weapon, good guy doesn't have anything else to do, here's the cheapest sword in the game, there's your token love interest (which you can ignore if you like) now get crackin'."
SO4 was basically the complete opposite of this.
Also, it was before they gimped the skill system.
Granted, it's a little better in 4, but nothing like the awesome spamfest of SO2 with 10 or 11 skills activating at once.
I haven't played SO4, but nothing about it comes across as interesting to me. SO: Til the End of Time and SO2 were both great, so it has a wonderful pedigree, but that isn't everything.
Personally I did not enjoy Lost Odyssey or Blue Dragon, they were both populated with bland characters and their combat systems were not at all interesting. They are, however, two very massive games and if you are looking for depth and somewhere to throw several hours of your life, both games deliver on that front.
Really though, if you're looking for a JRPG, just do yourself a favor and go get Digital Devil Saga 1 and 2. Even if you have to buy a PS2 to play them, it will be the best money you ever spend as a fan of JRPGs.
I liked Lost Odyssey more, but having said that, LO jumps the shark after the 2nd disc. The entire tone of the game changes, and it moves from generic story with potential to something completely inane. If story and characters aren't particularly important to you, I would say go for it, but at the same time, Tales of Versperia is a much better game when played with that same level of forgiveness.
Whatever you pick, I hope you like it.
Zeboyd Games Development Blog
Steam ID : rwb36, Twitter : Werezompire, Facebook : Zeboyd Games
:?
I'll agree that the story is unremarkable, and pretty much is in all Tales games. But I don't recall ever being bored by it, and the characters were mostly great.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, though. I'm sure there are people out there who outright hated ToV.
You might have to go through the game with a little mini-guide for all the missable sidequests, but nearly everything about ToV follows the theme of "all those annoying JRPG tropes, except they're not that annoying anymore!"
I enjoyed it quite a bit as well.
The Pipe Vault|Twitter|Steam|Backloggery|3DS:1332-7703-1083
I have mixed feelings about it overall. Combat becomes extremely boring once you get all the party upgrades. They manage to keep it "kinda" fresh up until that point, but once there it's basically just echo building -> unleash mega combo after mega combo. Money was almost completely pointless because you could sell Beat photos of like the first boss and be set FOR LIFE the rest of the game. It was silly.
Story was kinda cheesy but I really liked the little Chopin real life interludes. I'm sort of a classical music nut though so meh.
BTW, someone mentioned infinite undiscovery... I'm playing it now and wow, it's just really unfun. I'm not too far in (just beat Lester at the first chain?) but I have basically no desire to keep playing it. Characters are annoying (I want to kill those 2 kids) and combat basically devolves into me button mashing. I hate the "heal" system, the crafting system, and every side-quest I've come across (why must the rewards be so fucking useless?). At some point, I'll probably grab a guide and just blast it out but blah. Of all the JRPG's on 360 I've played, this is the worst... and I've played Enchanted Arms.
And I still wouldn't say Vesperia's the best of the Tales games, but it's a very solid game that just drags on about 8 hours after it should have ended and ranks up the stupid Tales competionist nonsense more than it has any business doing. Symphonia and Abyss were bad enough in some of their "drop everything and go to the other side of the planet now or you'll miss an entire line of sidequests" shit, but Vesperia somehow manages to trump that.
Follow Gamefaqs closely if you're the OCD type. KADFC's guide is pretty good about not spoiling the unholy shit out of everything if you're following along.
Maybe I'm a little hard on it... I do recommend it over any other 360 JRPG. But every story segment made me want to stop playing. That definitely speaks to the strength of the combat system, because I did play quite a bit of ToV, but I usually play JRPGs for the story, so maybe it just lacked in what I look for in a JRPG. I'm not sure.
I'm surprised everyone liked the characters, though. I found them really bland.
Really the only bad thing about SO2 was the voice acting. They seem to have redone it for the PSP version and made it even more terrible compared to how I remember it being, too.
3DS: 1607-3034-6970
The secondary cast was either phoned in or overacted, but I liked most of the playable characters. No real standouts, but I have a soft spot for Chisato. In fairness, I played 2redux after 4, so my standards were a wee bit lower.
Actual nails on a chalkboard would've sounded better than Sarah.
I have to say...you and I agree on a lot of stuff.
Pear into peaches!
I can't get into SO2 anymore (maybe if I had a PSP, but I got a little ill looking at the PSX version after so many years) since I 100%'d it, but I still love the hell out of the game.
- The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
As for Vesperia vs. Star Ocean. I'll say this. Vesperia has been one of my favorite JRPGs in the last few years. Star Ocean...while not completely terrible, had me rolling my eyes. It's like Enix doesn't understand how terrible they are at writing stories, yet they take it very seriously. I still beat it because I kind of liked the battle system(though it was half finished like a lot of people said...and the targeting system ancient).
Vesperia's story is pretty average flair itself, but at least it doesn't take itself too seriously. Sans a heroic speech every now and then, but it is still light-hearted enough for me not to care.
Squeenix didn't make the game, Tri-Ace did. All squeenix did was publish it.
The Pipe Vault|Twitter|Steam|Backloggery|3DS:1332-7703-1083
I enjoyed it at first. But then the combat system started to get a little repetitive and the story started to make me jump out a window:
A cutscene with flashbacks to itself. Really?
Explaining everything and repeating it like I'm a 5-year old. Really? Salsa's hat. Really?
That being said, there were some redeeming qualities:
The music was great.
The visual style is incredible.
Alegretto, Chopin , Falsetto, and Claves had some awesome battle quotes.
The level of imagination is stellar and the strong musical theme felt perfect. This a game where one of the protagonists tells the others that they're hallucinations of his suffering mind.
It's unfortunate the dialogue and voice acting is often insipid and frequently becomes irritating. The combat, while interesting, loses most of its charm by the end (hit, hit, hit, combo extreme damage to the max).
Nevertheless, I'm glad I played it. It was a unique experience. Also, Jazz was awesome.
You loved blue dragon and are complaining about a palette swapped monster?
/boggle
The Pipe Vault|Twitter|Steam|Backloggery|3DS:1332-7703-1083
Yeah, by the end of Eternal Sonata it seemed like the battle system was there just to keep the pacing of the story.
Too bad the story was godawful.
Still one of the prettiest and most colorful games I've played to date. Only really nice thing I can say about it though.
Two hours in and I got one. Then just about everything after that was a palette swap. At least it was by disk 2 that you run into the other poo snakes. :P Plus the battles for BD were infinitely better than ES.
Depends on whether or not you're a fan of the boss music.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Ptitlethsq3mffp09i?from=Main.SoBadItsGood
In all seriousness, yes the battle system of BD is awesome.
I liked the song
I totally broke the last half of the game by using field barrier 3 to farm SP in the laser fields and get all of the shadow classes to 99 without even playing the game. (Rubber bands around the thumbsticks + regen MP on my barrier user)
The Pipe Vault|Twitter|Steam|Backloggery|3DS:1332-7703-1083
My contrasts between Vesperia and SO4 are, unsurprisingly, pretty much the same as my comparisons between Symphonia/Abyss and SO3. To me, the side-scrolling battle system of the Tales series works better than a 3D battle environment in real-time RPGS, since it's easier to line up your targets when you can only move left and right, jump, and block. The option of walking around in 3D appeared in Abyss and Vesperia, but it mainly used to dodge attacks, and, as I said, is an option. You aren't forced to deal with it at all.
I never really cared for the Blindside part of SO4, mainly because it was a stupid excuse to remove blocking attacks in favor of jumping away. And the Rush meter was pretty mediocre as well, it's not as awesome as some of its competition's Mystic Artes like Rita's and Yuri's.
Also, Yuri's one of the best RPG protagonists (right up their with Ramza and Vivi), while Edge Maverick is a cookie-cutter immature kid who spends a good third of the game absorbed in his own angst.
And really, when it comes down to it, your choice is thus:
Badass Pipe Dog from Vesperia
Or tiny mage girl who gives people nicknames and has a voice that is comparable to a hundred chalk boards being scratched from SO4
Well, as much as I like Yuri, he does come off as a hypocrite sometimes.
I don't get the hate either. I mean, even Karol, the stereotypical little kid who tags along on the crazy trip to save the world, is a pretty decent character and isn't all that annoying.
He was Presea from ToS with a goddamn utility belt (bag) and actually came off as realistically written for a kid.
Sure this meant he was annoying at points but Yuri's nonstop torturing of him balanced that out.
And the dog was the very epitome of extraneous.
And for the record, I still take umbrage with Yuri's raging hypocrisy through the entire game. I think I would have preferred some insipid ethics lesson instead of everybody just completely ignoring it and then giving him a backrub and a handjob behind the counter. The villains were also just... ugh.
So... yeah... My opinion is that Raven was the only decent character of the lot.
Umbrage is a fun word.
After about 8 hours into the game, I wondered if the combat ever got any better... so I looked up some youtube videos, and some of the final bosses look just like the earlier stuff, gameplay wise. I have no problem with JRPGs that are slow to develop, but it just looked like the same nonsensical button spamming through the whole thing. I didnt stop at 8 hours even, I got to the final disk just with lack of anything else to play... it just never gains any depth at all.
That said, if you want depth and combat that requires thinking, Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon wont dissapoint. The story in both is decent, nothing really amazing with twists, but well written for what they are and they will keep your interest. The combat though will really make you think in Lost Odyssey, and if you get the harder mode DLC for Blue Dragon it will as well. In Lost Odyssey, the biggest thing you will notice is the mob weaknesses and the big focus on defensive abilities you need to be using. You cant just grind out levels if you have trouble with a boss. The experience points drop off once you are at the right level for an area... and each boss has a very specific weakness and strategy. Blue Dragon is just fun with the amount of flexibility you have in the job system, and mixing abilities from each.
But, if you want JRPGs and you didnt play alot of them on PS2... then thats the place to look. Especially if story is really important. There arent any next-gen JRPGs yet with really epic stories. But PS2 is just packed with them... and of course the games are like 10-15 bucks so you got nothing to lose.
As for the original question of the thread... Tales of Vesperia all the way.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯