Tales Series

[Himuro]

I saw Tales of Zetria on Steam and couldn't but think "I wish I could play Vesperia on steam".

It's the only one I want to replay or play, period. There's only one Tales worth playing a decade, anyways. Tales is a spotty series in terms of quality, for one thing. I think only its hardcore fans think it's consistent.

[AnimeGamer183]

Seems like the Tales series is hit or miss with just about every release, I was pretty disappointed with Xillia 2 and never finished it, despite really enjoying the first Xillia. I never got that far in Hearts for Vita, although it did seem interesting. The scale and beauty of Zestiria is what has me so interested right now. My gut tells me it will be a great game, also the reviews seems to be in the 7-9 range which is perfectly suitable. BIggest gripes I have seen is that it still kinda seems like a PS2 game in certain ways, JRPG creators really need to learn the advanced techniques of motion capture, seen a few ppl talk about frame rate dips. Also heard good story/characters, good combat, good music (thats about all I need really). And my amazon status says "Not yet shipped" lol i have a feeling it could be a while.

[Himuro]

I want to give it a shot. It looks like a good game, much better than Xillia, which I never played. Haven't played a Tales since Vesperia. I'm hoping it's not a dud because I'm jumping in.

[OL]

I saw Tales of Zetria on Steam and couldn't but think "I wish I could play Vesperia on steam".

It's the only one I want to replay or play, period. There's only one Tales worth playing a decade, anyways. Tales is a spotty series in terms of quality, for one thing. I think only its hardcore fans think it's consistent.

^^Eh, I think as I mentioned, it's just that it's become almost Final Fantasy-esque, not just in its fanbase, but in the size of the series itself. There are enough releases that everyone has their favorites along with those they don't particularly like. I wouldn't call it spotty, just subjective.
It is a consistent series in terms of gameplay and technical quality, it's just the stories and collections of characters that become utterly divisive (that always seems to be the major stuff people complain about, anyway), and I can't honestly say that it's necessarily a case of one story being "better" than the others. Each release just aims at a certain audience, a certain age group, etc. Tons of people still think Symphonia is the best, for example, while I find it a tiny bit too "kiddy" for my own tastes (I like it well enough, it's just not a favorite). I agree Vesperia is among the best, absolutely, but then it's also one of the most mature. I think Abyss is still probably my favorite though. And among all of those, you could honestly swap out the gameplay between them and it wouldn't really change my opinions.
Plus, almost the entire series (barring one or two) is still better than the grand majority of half-assed JRPGs that get made these days.

Oh, and Xillia was pretty great. Not quite Vesperia-levels, but a great game all the same.

JRPG creators really need to learn the advanced techniques of motion capture...

Naaaaaahh. Personally, I appreciate a good bit of quality hand-manipulated animation more than I do motion capture. I'd almost call motion capture the lazy man's answer to actual animation.
Sure, if you're aiming for a realistic style, then mo-cap is a must, but for a cartoony art style, I appreciate the manual stuff. Games like the Jak or Ratchet series wouldn't be quite as gorgeous as they are without the cartoonishly-expressive work their animators did, which is all by hand. If anything, I kind of wish the Tales series would do more of that in particular (they actually do utilize mo-cap quite a lot in modern JRPGs, which I've always thought looked a bit odd with their anime-style character models).

[Himuro]

Xillia's good, eh? Hmm.

Well, yeah. It's subjective. I liked Symphonia when it came out but I was a teenager (16 or 17, forgot) and the target audience. I didn't like Abyss comparatively. I found its characters obnoxious beyond Tear (who's great), and hated the story and didn't find the battle system compelling. Vesperia clicked with me on all levels. I really want to replay it. Maybe I'll give Xillia a whirl. Sigh.

[OL]

...and didn't find the battle system compelling.

The battle system for Abyss was practically the same as Vesperia's, while Symphonia's was actually more restrictive (lacking a free-run button and all). I think you may just be remembering it badly because of the other things you didn't like about the game.

[Himuro]

It's not the same as Vesperia's.

I could almost never get FOF's to work. I also found Vesperia unloaded more battle features at a better pace. Even at hour 50 the game was unlocking new battle features. I found it much more compelling. I can't articulate why, because this was in like 2008 and I've only played it once.

All I can say is that I thought Abyss' battle system was boring to my recollection, with a lot of fluff features like FOFs and a bunch of other stuff that didn't work half the time, and a relatively easy difficulty. Vesperia had a lot of excellent battles.

I'm not remembering anything badly. I went back to Abyss soon after Vesperia and still thought its battle system sucked. One thing I loved about Vesperia was its emphasis on defense. You couldn't button mash because Yuri had a large recovery window, and you'd get wiped if you were flailing, so you had to make even move count. You could mash and mash and mash in Abyss. Whereas in Vesperia you had to block on a regular basis. It just appealed to me due to its larger emphasis on defense.

[AnimeGamer183]

Xillia is the first Tales i played all the way through, and it was a great game, i cant really be bumped into hardcore tales fan because I have only beaten one of them. I gave up on Tales a while back, sold my Tales Collection like an idiot... (although it was with good intentions, so I cant regret it). I had Tales of Destiny 1 and 2 for PSX, and Symphonia for Cube, never quite got into them like I should have, I still wanna go back and play Eternia on PSP properly.

My love for Tales stemmed solely from Xillia, and I bought all the Tales releases since then (Xillia 2 and Hearts). TBH if I could take back Xillia 2, I probably would, its just not as good and its a lazy sequel with alot copy and pasted over from the first game but most of all I couldnt get into the story and new characters. This is the main problem I see with Tales, the inconsistency in quality from game to game, and with a sequel as lazily done as Xillia 2 it just makes me think that even more. But I absolutely loved the first Xillia game, and I think I am gonna feel similarly about Zestiria.

[Himuro]

For reference, I've played a majority of Tales games and found Abyss to be easily the worst. So going from what I consider the worst (Abyss) to the best (Vesperia) was quite a head scratcher.

[AnimeGamer183]

That reminds me I still need to get an Xbox 360 at some point and hope to god by the time I do that Vesperia, Lost Odyssey, and Fable 2 arent expensive af cause thats basically my only reason to buy a 360, maybe a couple more games.

[Himuro]

In general, though, especially with the Tales series, it's hard to trust certain fans' tastes, because just like with anime, you NEVER trust just any weeb's opinion on anime. Especially if they're the type that think Love Plus is good. I am highly selective when I trust anyone who has taste in Japanese media - especially games or anime - on what's good or not, and with a lot of Tales fans, there's the feeling they'd think it's good whether that is or isn't actually true. The end result are games like Tales of Graces F being touted as worth playing despite everyone with taste saying the battle system is good but the characters and story are dog shit and to not play it for more than that. Weeaboo gamers cannot always be trusted, and I buy every Tales game with a frown because I never fucking know what I'm gonna get.

[AnimeGamer183]

Well, im no "weeaboo" when it comes to anime and games, and im still new to Tales myself. I used to play and watch just about anything, but I have refined what I subject myself too over the years, and basically just go with the top notch quality stuff (to me of course). There are certain things I look for, visual appeal, entertaining combat, story. I used to say I basically played RPGs for the story, but I eventually realized I really enjoyed them for a good battle system too, which I think are the 2 main qualities to look for in a RPG, followed closely by appealing visuals and character customization.

[Himuro]

So far my biggest issue with this game is the main characters design. It's just lame and boring especially compared to that main chick in the armor. I admit the story does sound appealing so I'm willing to give it a shot. The story sounds neat. Monsters that eat humans fuck yes. Digital Devil Saga forever.

This article convinced me to buy it. I love series shake ups.

http://kotaku.com/tales-of-zestiria-tak ... 1691856311

[AnimeGamer183]

Tales of Zestfully Clean Soap Pitch Contest

http://www.rpgamer.com/news/Q4-2015/102115a.html

When Tales of Zestiria was revealed, the RPGamer staff had a bit of a hard time taking the name of the game seriously. Why? Well, in the 1990’s, there was a brand of soap called “Zest,” and let’s just say when Zestiria got referenced on the site, we joked about how the game was “Zestfully Clean.”

Here’s where you guys come in. Want to win a copy of Tales of Zesitira? We want you to come up with a soap related slogan for Tales of Zesitira. It can be a radio or video advertisement, fanart, Photoshop, anything creative as long as the game is featured in some way with a soap related slogan. You can be as crafty or cheeky as you like, but avoid potential NC-17 content or crude jokes, it should be tasteful in some way.

Want an example of what we mean? Check out what Tabletop Columnist and ATB Host, Scott Wachter came up with:

http://rpgamer.com/features/2015/tozcon ... aclean.mp3

The grand prize winner will recieve a Collection's Edition of Tales of Zesitira, and runners up will receive a standard edition of the game. Once you've created your entry, tweet it to @RPGamer, using the hashtag #Talesof, and you're qualified to enter. Enteries must be reiceved by 8am EST on October 28. Good luck!

First Zesty Italian Dressing, now this

[Raithos]

LOL I think of that every time I eat a chicken salad now. If I'm at a restaurant, I smile when they ask me what kind of dressing I want.