Current Events > I hope the next Tales game is really fun

(+) Yeah! (+)

I wanted to like Arise so bad but I just didn't. The combat against bosses sucked and so did the story and characters.

Do you think they will do anything differently for the next game?

Furthest I got to before stopping was recruiting Dohalim. The story didn't keep me engaged enough to keep going and neither did the characters. I liked the combat, but the bosses were a goddamn chore! I've been meaning to go back and complete it. The backlog grows, unfortunately.

I never tried Arise. It seemed like it flamed out pretty fast, and I felt like I'd start and lose interest.To be honest the only ones I really liked were Phantasia and Abyss at times. Well Berseria is easily the best one imo I guess I just felt like I resonated with how dark that game was.

I haven't tried them all but even Vesperia for some reason while certainly has its moments I expected to freaking love it.

I just want them to port Tales of Graces to Steam.

I actually liked Arise's story before the final arc. Gameplay was pretty great to me. Also bring back multiplayer. Tales was one of the rare game I could play with my boyfriend in a coop story

NocturnalLight posted...

Furthest I got to before stopping was recruiting Dohalim. The story didn't keep me engaged enough to keep going and neither did the characters. I liked the combat, but the bosses were a goddamn chore! I've been meaning to go back and complete it. The backlog grows, unfortunately.

Then you missed out on arguably the best chapter in most tales games. The second last chapter deals with that hooded character you've been seeing now and then and its extremely dark. Probably one of the darkest stories they have ever told. Sadly, you never recruit him.

I want to point out to anyone who stopped after Dohalim that the 2 chapters that follow are actually really good. At the very least you should try and finish those 2 chapters. The game falls apart after that.

It was a weaker title compared to Berseria and made some questionable changes, but it wasn't as bad as some of the worst Tales entries out there.

I hope the next one is fun too. Big changes to combat and dialing back on the endgame exposition dump are what I most want lol

I just want online co-op. Why can't we have nice things?

bring back graces combat

would also love to play xillia 1&2 re-releases on pc

My main issue with the game is the HP sponge bosses. It made combat not fun at all

I enjoyed Arise overall. My only issue really was the way skits looked. Annoyed me so much lol

It's an absolute tragedy how much it fell apart. Something clearly happened in development.

That would be a first

Tales of Arise really came and went hard. It was getting nothing but praises the first couple of weeks and then all of a sudden I started seeing more criticisms of the actual game and how flawed it was. I want to try it out eventually, but I can't help but feel I might be disappointed like the many others.

Arise was such a massive disappointment, as someone who really likes most of the rest of the series.

The plot starts strong, quickly becomes a boring nothing, and then goes off the rails hard. The cast also sucks. Everyone sans Dohalim is either boring, annoying, or both.

Don't worry it won't be

NoxObscuras posted...

I enjoyed Arise overall. My only issue really was the way skits looked. Annoyed me so much lol

I love skits, but there are times where I had a ridiculous amount in a row and it was getting annoying

Same, TC. Same.

Prestoff posted...

Tales of Arise really came and went hard. It was getting nothing but praises the first couple of weeks and then all of a sudden I started seeing more criticisms of the actual game and how flawed it was. I want to try it out eventually, but I can't help but feel I might be disappointed like the many others.

A better way to think about it is that the experience isn't a complete disappointment, but that it has an extreme disparity between its good and bad parts. Like, its core battle system is arguably the best in the series, but after a while the bosses become stupidly spongy to the point that it just becomes maddening (and then the final dungeon makes *everything* unreasonably bulky). Its story is good in a conceptual sense, but it quickly becomes apparent that they have no interest in actually doing anything with it before completely soiling itself halfway through.

Basically it's one of those that it isn't so much disappointing as it is deeply flawed. People will still put it as the #1 Tales game even now, it's just that once you actually get down to brass tacks most of what people will talk about in the grand scheme of things are its flaws. It's definitely worth playing, but it isn't worth really taking a deep dive into its mechanics or story as there just isn't the depth there to really make it valuable to view the game from anything more than popcorn.

Also they leaned way too hard on making Shionne a tsundere to the point that she was just awful for most of the game

arise stripped out all of the charm i love about the tales of games

and its plot removed the deconstruction elements the series is known for

BlackOmnimon posted...

I just want them to port Tales of Graces to Steam.

Kaiganeer posted...

bring back graces combat

would also love to play xillia 1&2 re-releases on pc

EXACTLY

AceMos posted...

arise stripped out all of the charm i love about the tales of games

Agreed, felt like there was no love at all. And the characters were so flat, not the usual party interactions. The skits just felt like recaps of what we just watched play out. The near-end-game skits were so good and fun I wish they were all like that.

What also pissed me off was the trophies not working correctly on PS5 so I missed some of them even though I should have gotten them (i'm talking plot beats)

Scintillant posted...

Agreed, felt like there was no love at all. And the characters were so flat, not the usual party interactions. The skits just felt like recaps of what we just watched play out. The near-end-game skits were so good and fun I wish they were all like that.

and it was just so bleak in tone

yes tales of games get very fucking dark but they start off more light hearted

even berseria still made sure to have plenty of comedic moments with its darker plot "ACT LIKE A DOVE"

epik_fail1 posted...

I actually liked Arise's story before the final arc. Gameplay was pretty great to me. Also bring back multiplayer. Tales was one of the rare game I could play with my boyfriend in a coop story

https://github.com/EusthEnoptEron/arise-multiplayer/blob/main/README.md
I used this and it worked alright. I'll be honest without it, I wouldn't have finished Arise. The game is not too difficult (I did play on the hardest difficulty and turned it down for bosses because they really did have TOO much HP), but having multiplayer and playing with my brother is what allowed us to trudge through the whole game.

ellis123 posted...

Like, its core battle system is arguably the best in the series, but after a while the bosses become stupidly spongy to the point that it just becomes maddening (and then the final dungeon makes *everything* unreasonably bulky).

Is this true? Combat is somewhat fun against normal enemies, but when you get to bosses that are functionally immune to knock downs or stuns it's obnoxious. Is this really "the best." In graces you could stun lock bosses and combo them with your friends if you did it right. That...doesn't exist AT ALL. You're kind of playing bullet hell going in getting a couple attacks and out. If I wanted that I'd go play some souls game. I'm here for combos not for sponges.

Scintillant posted...

The near-end-game skits were so good and fun I wish they were all like that.

This is true, some of the skits were pretty good and got a good laugh out of me, but not like most of the tales of games. Really the skits make or break the game and focus should be put on those. But, thinking about it, that's probably for hard core fans maybe? I imagine they do statistical analysis on how many people remember tales games for the skits and do an analysis about how many new players get engaged by them. Odds are the skits are literally extras for fans of the games but new players won't give a fuck about them and probably skip them. Which is a shame to think about but is probably the reality.

It reminds me of a clip I made of my brother and me making fun of a skit because the subject has been talked about SO GOD DAMN MUCH.
Law and Alphen are talking about Law's dad and about how strong and powerful he is and how Law has to keep up with it or whatever. This subject happens so much in the series and I get that Law is younger than Alphen and looks up to him but it gets OLD fast. The conversation happens so much that I'm completely disengaged from the skit and my brother makes a joke about how the conversation occurs so often that Alphen is just using a thesaurus to talk to Law about how great/strong/powerful/respectable his dad was.

Arise had such a strong beginning, but it fell off so hard. And the boss fights weren't fun at all. I can't even remember the area where I stopped. That said, I would like to finish it, but I rarely finish Tales games anyway lol.

Ivynn posted...

Arise had such a strong beginning, but it fell off so hard. And the boss fights weren't fun at all. I can't even remember the area where I stopped. That said, I would like to finish it, but I rarely finish Tales games anyway lol.

berseria if you have not finished that one is absolutely worth finishing

I liked Arise cause it felt like the first time they actually tried in years. The graphics and engine was a huge step up from Berseria and I liked the combat, though the bosses were a pain.

Graces was peak of the recent games, Abyss was peak of the older ones.

BlackOmnimon posted...

I just want them to port Tales of Graces to Steam.

That would be pretty cool. I beat the main game on the PS3, but I never did the extra post game stuff. The battle system was a lot of fun.

i want a HD remaster of abyss

Man people really liked Graces? That game was a piece of trash. Combat was good, but everything else was abysmal. The music, the dungeons, the characters, the story, all of it was bottom of the barrel.

I liked arise until the last few chapters.

The final dungeon is the worst i have played in the whole series

With couch co-op gone they might as well retire the series.

Ivynn posted...

Arise had such a strong beginning, but it fell off so hard. And the boss fights weren't fun at all. I can't even remember the area where I stopped. That said, I would like to finish it, but I rarely finish Tales games anyway lol.

Ganabelt fight was fun and quite the spectacle, with the build up between Law and him being great. BUT, the difficulty of the fight took away all the enjoyment of the surmounting drama between the two and the resolution of the conflict.

It's a tightrope walk to show emotion and DIFFICULTY. Plot wise the lords are supposed to be difficult if not near impossible to defeat, they have the odds stacked in their favor you know. So it's a discrepancy between story reasons for the fight being hard and gameplay reasons being hard. How do you make a boss seem imposing gameplay wise in order to keep his relevance as being difficult story wise?

If everyone says big bad evil guy is the strongest dude ever and then you get into a fight and one round him you kind of lose that immersion you know? I kind of get what they were trying to go for, for the lords. There IS a reason why they give you caution messages hundreds of times before you fight a lord. They were aiming for that super strong guy story wise needs to be super strong gameplay wise and just...failed. I don't know how to fix that. The only consideration I have is make the fight long maybe qtes? do something with cutscenes mid battle? (WHICH THEY DID DO) cinematic moves maybe (but then you have that issue of Sephiroth Super Nova doing 200 damage to you but blew up Jupiter...). The intent was there it's pretty obvious and the game WAS half baked. It needed more time. QA fell off MASSIVELY in the second half which no one bothers to mention. Maybe if they had more time the bosses would've been more satisfying.

AceMos posted...

berseria if you have not finished that one is absolutely worth finishing

That's one of the ones I did actually! Others being Symphonia, Xillia, and Graces f.

Prior to Arise the only Tales game I'd played was Symphonia, which I love.

Arise burned me so badly I'm not sure I could ever pick up the franchise again. I don't want to buy a game that screams at me to buy its DLC again.

apolloooo posted...

I liked arise until the last few chapters.

The final dungeon is the worst i have played in the whole series

Even worse than Xillia 2? That's gotta take some genuine talent to make something even shittier than Xillia 2's final dungeon. Can someone gimme the deets on Arise's final dungeon in spoiler tags?

Ivynn posted...

That's one of the ones I did actually! Others being Symphonia, Xillia, and Graces f.

nice

if you ever get a chance make sure to play abyss

AceMos posted...

nice

if you ever get a chance make sure to play abyss

I did. It's one of the unfinished ones. :(

Ivynn posted...

I did. It's one of the unfinished ones. :(

shame you should give it another go as abyss is one of my fave games of all time

badjay posted...

Is this true? Combat is somewhat fun against normal enemies, but when you get to bosses that are functionally immune to knock downs or stuns it's obnoxious. Is this really "the best." In graces you could stun lock bosses and combo them with your friends if you did it right. That...doesn't exist AT ALL. You're kind of playing bullet hell going in getting a couple attacks and out. If I wanted that I'd go play some souls game. I'm here for combos not for sponges.

Yes. The enemies being awful does not mean that the system is bad. It has the most fluid movement, the best controls, etc. It is a case where the battle system is really the best, it's just the context that lets it down.

ellis123 posted...

Yes. The enemies being awful does not mean that the system is bad. It has the most fluid movement, the best controls, etc. It is a case where the battle system is really the best, it's just the context that lets it down.

I think I'd have to see it against a boss that isn't stun immune to make this determination. Fighting normal enemies with the combat system also gets excessively repetitive at the 3rd biome or so.

i loved the battle system in berseria it was so fun flowing threw combos as velvet fighting hordes of enemies

BurmesePenguin posted...

I think I'd have to see it against a boss that isn't stun immune to make this determination. Fighting normal enemies with the combat system also gets excessively repetitive at the 3rd biome or so.

That's fair. It's why I make a reference to specifically its core system because it really doesn't manifest well. It really makes it awkward overall.

AceMos posted...

berseria if you have not finished that one is absolutely worth finishing

I stopped after beating the ice area for some reason.

Im really disturbed by the sudden nostalgia people have for Graces F. That was such a low-effort game, with zero creativity and the worst of anime tropes. Treated players like they were braindead slobs. Battle system was interesting, but why bother when there are only so manh enemy types, battles all play out the same, and the story is so trash that there is little reason to see more?

There are better Tales games. Im pretty sure there are better RpG Maker games too. Im sure there are better Newgrounds games. Please dont encourage lazy games like Graces F.

I just want all of them to get remade or rereleased. I never had a PS3 or PS4 so I haven't been able to play them.

Berseria is the best one I played by far. The battle system with Velvet was so visceral and even at low health you can I think become immune to damage as long as you keep your chains going and just stn lock enemies too. The cast of characters in general ruled too.

Back when it was new I remember Graces F being praised for some good combat and that was literally it. I can't imagine it being one of the better ones still.