LogFAQs > #899140269

trdl23 posted...

One of the themes GTA4 captured that I havent really seen elsewhere is the inversion of the American Dream. Its tragic to see Niko continue to go deeper and deeper underwater in crime while Roman acts as his conscience and what Niko could have been instead.

If that's the case it was incredibly subtle. I also thought Roman was less of a conscience and more of a nuisance. The guy was the reason Niko got involved in the shady gang stuff in the first place, and continued to get himself in trouble throughout. But yeah, I can see that.

51. Tales of Xillia
Original Release: 2013
Developer: Namco Bandai
Platform: PS3

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Tales of Xillia was a moderately successful Tales title which ended up spawning a terrible sequel full of recycled assets of the worst kind. The original game is actually decent but has its fair share of problems. Namco Bandai was pressured to release this in time for the Tales anniversary, and so they rushed it out to meet that deadline. It shows, because most of the second half or last third of the game seems clearly rushed.

On the other hand, the first half of the game is incredible. The pacing is absolutely impeccable. You'll explore an awesome, lore-filled world and slowly learn about its secrets as well as the many characters you meet throughout during your progress. It keeps the town, dungeon, town, dungeon formula but does a great job of luring you in a large, interesting world once you're spirited away from Fennmont. The battle system is fun and allows you to link with other characters to power your attacks, something I felt was a big improvement over Graces f and Abyss (not as good as Vesperia). The towns look amazing, with Xian Du and Fennmont being standouts.

It's not until the halfway point that the storyline suddenly goes into overdrive. While interesting at first, it goes turbo mode in that half, with scene after scene and plot point after plot point with no real sense of progression. It's obvious there should have been a break - a dungeon perhaps - in some areas but instead we're treated to a Xenogears style hodgepodge of events. It doesn't help that there's a ton of backtracking in the last chapter, as well. Also in the last chapter is a brand new world to explore! Except it's underutilized. Why did Namco Bandai create an alternate second world only to drop you off in the final dungeon soon after you enter it? There's only one town and a few fields there, and unfortunately Xillia 2 does little to build upon it, turning it into a "what could have been" outcome. With these things in play, I stopped paying attention to the storyline because it was getting too difficult to follow, and surfed the Internet on my phone while the ending played out because I just didn't care anymore. The final dungeon and bosses were also disappointing. Oh, and in true Tales fashion, there's a shit ton of terminology you have to keep track of in order to understand the plot, so taking a break from the game for a bit is detrimental as you'll likely forget the difference between spirits, spiria, spirit power, greater spirits, etc.