Blackdragon
09-14-2008, 02:35 AM
**Note: I have yet to see any of the DLC for this game and this post is based on all included material as is.**
So I've beaten the game twice now, have pretty much beaten it 100%. (Obtained every skill, arte, monster entry, titles, costumes, items book.) Just need to work on the last two achievements for beating the game in under 15 hours and defeating Barbos under level 15.
Compared to the last two Tales games I've played (Symphonia and Aybss) I believe this one has taken the top spot for me. I have little gripes with the game besides what seems to be a wasted character slot with Repede (I mean he's a dog, he can't talk.) and the pretty much empty ending. I'll elaborate on a few other points further down.
The game is fun enough to make me grind up to level 200 and play a total of 170 hours and even play an additional playthrough for the last couple of achievements. The characters I find to be quite likeable. Estelle is at least less of a ditz than Collete was and Yuri isn't your typical clueless optimistic hero from the other two games and has taken a #1 spot of best heroes.
I can't really say much about the music. It's there, it's not bad, but it just doesn't stand out too much to me.
The story starts out a bit slow. Almost 1/4 through the game and you really don't even know who the main antagonists are and what is in store for this world. It isn't until you meet Phaeroh that things really start to come into focus. Yuri and Co. spend most of the time in the beginning looking for the same blastia thief the game's opening scene started with. Character development is pretty good. Even Repede gets some time in the spotlight, but the moments are brief and almost hidden unless you're the kind of person to search every town after every major event. I feel like they could have did a little more with Rita. Her development seemed to peak almost halfway through the game. She does seem to lighten up and befriend the other characters to a degree, but nothing else seems to change about her. Judith who had much less actual game time progressed quite well throughout most of the game almost up until the end. Karol and Raven I believe had the most development. Karol with his whole trying to find himself and working to becoming a man delimma, and Raven with trying to find more meaning in his life after pretty much being reborn and working dual lives.
Now for my complaints. I loved this game to death, but there are just somethings that I could not ignore:
Sidequests: A REAL pain in the ass. Seriously, if you don't have a guide or frequent some kind of message board you can miss out on a huge portion of the game. Things like missing out on a whole secret dungeon by not revisiting Phaeroh's Crag before going to Zaude. And by missing that, you miss the chance to do the 200 man arena which nets you some unique items and titles for everyone. Then the sidequests that are sort of presented before you are not executed very well. One example which I had problems with was the Giganto monsters. Before you kill one, which is a mere valley away from where you officially can start the quest, you have to backtrack to the Travelling Inn and have a conversation with Rich or you miss the entire sidequest. And don't get me started on all the random events leading up to finding Judith's spear. Just stupid stuff you'd never find on your own.
Battle: Not so much the battle system itself as a whole, just small things. Such as staggering while in Overlimit mode, while enemies in the same state don't stagger. This can mess up your attempt to do a burst arte, or mystic arte when in Overlimit lvl 3. The only way you don't stagger is by using all 4 bars, which is no easy task to fill up enough to safely perform a flawless mystic arte in the same battle. Then there's some of the bosses. I can probably off the top of my head name 3-4 of them that have the same attack pattern. "Spin attack then some sort of ramming attack that does stupid amounts of damage." I know after a while ideas are hard to come by, but when it comes to bosses I don't see how developers could get so lazy.
Misc: There should be another human character in the party. Repede is a pretty decent member, he does well in battle, but contributes nothing to the story. If you took him out, not many changes would have to take place. I'm not saying he should have been done away with completely. There should have been another playable character to use, with Repede as an out of battle party member like Mieu was in Tales of The Aybss. Mieu was a part of the team and was part of the storyline, but just didn't take part in battle. At least Repede makes a decent battle character I just feel there should have been someone else to pick up the slack.
I also miss the team arena from Tales Of Symphonia. Singles are fine, but being able to beat it with others was pretty cool as well. Plus it sets up some pretty nice cameos at the end. But that's a really small gripe and can be overlooked. It just bothered me for a few minutes when I realized it wasn't present in this game.
All in all, this is a very good game, and I'd recommend any RPG fan to pick up this title. No random encounters is always a plus and the fighting system keeps you coming back for more, leaving grinding to be a not so daunting and boring task.
A solid 9 in my book. Post your own thoughts of the game here, or about my rant if you want.
So I've beaten the game twice now, have pretty much beaten it 100%. (Obtained every skill, arte, monster entry, titles, costumes, items book.) Just need to work on the last two achievements for beating the game in under 15 hours and defeating Barbos under level 15.
Compared to the last two Tales games I've played (Symphonia and Aybss) I believe this one has taken the top spot for me. I have little gripes with the game besides what seems to be a wasted character slot with Repede (I mean he's a dog, he can't talk.) and the pretty much empty ending. I'll elaborate on a few other points further down.
The game is fun enough to make me grind up to level 200 and play a total of 170 hours and even play an additional playthrough for the last couple of achievements. The characters I find to be quite likeable. Estelle is at least less of a ditz than Collete was and Yuri isn't your typical clueless optimistic hero from the other two games and has taken a #1 spot of best heroes.
I can't really say much about the music. It's there, it's not bad, but it just doesn't stand out too much to me.
The story starts out a bit slow. Almost 1/4 through the game and you really don't even know who the main antagonists are and what is in store for this world. It isn't until you meet Phaeroh that things really start to come into focus. Yuri and Co. spend most of the time in the beginning looking for the same blastia thief the game's opening scene started with. Character development is pretty good. Even Repede gets some time in the spotlight, but the moments are brief and almost hidden unless you're the kind of person to search every town after every major event. I feel like they could have did a little more with Rita. Her development seemed to peak almost halfway through the game. She does seem to lighten up and befriend the other characters to a degree, but nothing else seems to change about her. Judith who had much less actual game time progressed quite well throughout most of the game almost up until the end. Karol and Raven I believe had the most development. Karol with his whole trying to find himself and working to becoming a man delimma, and Raven with trying to find more meaning in his life after pretty much being reborn and working dual lives.
Now for my complaints. I loved this game to death, but there are just somethings that I could not ignore:
Sidequests: A REAL pain in the ass. Seriously, if you don't have a guide or frequent some kind of message board you can miss out on a huge portion of the game. Things like missing out on a whole secret dungeon by not revisiting Phaeroh's Crag before going to Zaude. And by missing that, you miss the chance to do the 200 man arena which nets you some unique items and titles for everyone. Then the sidequests that are sort of presented before you are not executed very well. One example which I had problems with was the Giganto monsters. Before you kill one, which is a mere valley away from where you officially can start the quest, you have to backtrack to the Travelling Inn and have a conversation with Rich or you miss the entire sidequest. And don't get me started on all the random events leading up to finding Judith's spear. Just stupid stuff you'd never find on your own.
Battle: Not so much the battle system itself as a whole, just small things. Such as staggering while in Overlimit mode, while enemies in the same state don't stagger. This can mess up your attempt to do a burst arte, or mystic arte when in Overlimit lvl 3. The only way you don't stagger is by using all 4 bars, which is no easy task to fill up enough to safely perform a flawless mystic arte in the same battle. Then there's some of the bosses. I can probably off the top of my head name 3-4 of them that have the same attack pattern. "Spin attack then some sort of ramming attack that does stupid amounts of damage." I know after a while ideas are hard to come by, but when it comes to bosses I don't see how developers could get so lazy.
Misc: There should be another human character in the party. Repede is a pretty decent member, he does well in battle, but contributes nothing to the story. If you took him out, not many changes would have to take place. I'm not saying he should have been done away with completely. There should have been another playable character to use, with Repede as an out of battle party member like Mieu was in Tales of The Aybss. Mieu was a part of the team and was part of the storyline, but just didn't take part in battle. At least Repede makes a decent battle character I just feel there should have been someone else to pick up the slack.
I also miss the team arena from Tales Of Symphonia. Singles are fine, but being able to beat it with others was pretty cool as well. Plus it sets up some pretty nice cameos at the end. But that's a really small gripe and can be overlooked. It just bothered me for a few minutes when I realized it wasn't present in this game.
All in all, this is a very good game, and I'd recommend any RPG fan to pick up this title. No random encounters is always a plus and the fighting system keeps you coming back for more, leaving grinding to be a not so daunting and boring task.
A solid 9 in my book. Post your own thoughts of the game here, or about my rant if you want.