At 11/13/09 01:37 AM, knuxrouge wrote: That's really common for Tales games, it's not a surprise in the slightest for someone who knows the series as well as I do--and I'm a common Tales fan in that respect. If anything, it'd be a surprise if they didn't have it.

Yeah, I've never gotten into the Tales series.

I tried to find Tales of Symphonia for a while after I got my Wii, but I can't find it anywhere. Then when I got my Xbox 360 I played the demo of Tales of Vesperia, but based on that the dialogue was very awkward so I wasn't interested. I might check that out when it's cheaper, but as it stands it's still ridiculous in price.

And I did have Tales of Eternia for my PSP. I played that for a little while and liked the look of the sprites. I don't remember why I stopped playing that. Maybe I should pick it up again.

Why can't it be, "oh, I read about this, I wonder how it'll be--oh wow, this is pretty cool!"?
If it ends up being a disappointment, it wouldn't really matter if you read about it prior. It's the gameplay that counts and hearing about it beforehand logically shouldn't ruin that.

Well, I'm just going to give an example here. When I played Jade Empire, I thought it was hilarious when I first went into one of those shmup missions for the first time. If I had read that Jade Empire included shmup missions before I played the game, I would not have found that to be nearly as neat.

That's personal taste and standards, I trust a Tales game to give me at the very least an above average plot. I personally haven't been disappointed yet.

Yeah, but with a game that asks so much of your time to watch the story play out, an above average plot usually doesn't cut it and I will get disinterested towards the end.

There are only a few JRPGs that I've been consistently enthralled in the stories of throughout the ridiculous amount of time you tend to have to play one for (mostly coming from the Final Fantasy series, though there have been others). Most JRPGs tend to play out like generic anime.

The game is 70 hours of plot alone, the sidequests, battles, grinding, skits and minigames are all up for grabs on the surprise bus...

I'm not sure I've ever played a game that advertised itself as being 70+ hours, and actually played it for 70+ hours.

To each it's own...

On the 70 hours comment, we'll never really know until we play it for ourselves.
But...

At 11/13/09 02:03 AM, knuxrouge wrote: To each it's own...

It? Are you trying to imply something?

But...

With regard to Tales of Graces, I took a look at a trailer of it and, while the trailer included no gameplay footage, here are my impressions:

The trailer was all in Japanese so I could only understand a bit of it, but the story looked like it could be interesting enough. Or at the very least, it presented its story sequences better than most JRPG trailers I've seen. I'm still not sure what I think about anime cutscenes in video games, since they tend to feel very separate from the actual game. Though they were done very well in Persona 3 and 4, so I'm not feeling all that skeptical.

The game seems to have that trait all too common in JRPGs where all the main characters dress in ridiculous impractical outfits in order to give themselves individuality, while the rest of the populace dress in more reasonable styles.

It seems to be set in generic JRPG fantasy land, where everything just looks like England in various centuries in the past, only with a crazier fashion sense and maybe a few monsters and steampunk robots. I'm guessing that all the Tales games look like this.

I'm guessing the battle system, for better or for worse, will be basically the same as all the other Tales games.

I really disliked the irritating song that was playing over the trailer.

I may get it if it gets good reviews, since there's been a pretty significant RPG drought lately. However, I'm much more interested in Fragile: Farewell Ruins of the Moon at this point. I've been wanting to play that game for a while. I hope it's good.

At 11/13/09 02:40 AM, Aigis wrote: It? Are you trying to imply something?

Nothing at your expense, I assure you.

With regard to Tales of Graces, I took a look at a trailer of it and, while the trailer included no gameplay footage, here are my impressions:

Oh, if you want gameplay footage.

The game seems to have that trait all too common in JRPGs where all the main characters dress in ridiculous impractical outfits in order to give themselves individuality, while the rest of the populace dress in more reasonable styles.

So, the cliche is that they all dress original?
Oxy moron much? Would you prefer that they dressed like a common civilian?

It seems to be set in generic JRPG fantasy land, where everything just looks like England in various centuries in the past, only with a crazier fashion sense and maybe a few monsters and steampunk robots. I'm guessing that all the Tales games look like this.

This universe is specifically set to resemble Mid-evil Europe.
Not all Tales game look like this.

I'm guessing the battle system, for better or for worse, will be basically the same as all the other Tales games.

That's a cruel generalization, the main spice of the Tales games is that they all have individual features unique to that specific game, although the foundations are similar, everything else has their own taste to it, generally why Tales of Legendia didn't go so well, because it didn't have it's own individual feature.

I really disliked the irritating song that was playing over the trailer.

I may get it if it gets good reviews, since there's been a pretty significant RPG drought lately. However, I'm much more interested in Fragile: Farewell Ruins of the Moon at this point. I've been wanting to play that game for a while. I hope it's good.

Well, I never intended to get you interested in the game, I just wanted to show you where the announcement of the 70 hour story was placed.
Personally, I'm psyched about it, as well as another member of the crew.

At 11/13/09 06:53 PM, knuxrouge wrote: So, the cliche is that they all dress original?
Oxy moron much? Would you prefer that they dressed like a common civilian?

The cliche is that they all dress in fucking ridiculous ways in the name of originality. The characters would stick out like a sore thumb in that world

If the game had any interest in realism, the only response that you'd get from the NPCs of the world is "why are you wearing that stupid jacket. It looks ridiculous. Seriously, it has like twenty buckles in places where nobody has ever needed a buckle."

This universe is specifically set to resemble Mid-evil Europe.
Not all Tales game look like this.

Fair enough. I really wasn't basing that on much more than a few memories of things that I've seen from Tales games.

That's a cruel generalization, the main spice of the Tales games is that they all have individual features unique to that specific game, although the foundations are similar, everything else has their own taste to it, generally why Tales of Legendia didn't go so well, because it didn't have it's own individual feature.

I'm just saying that it lacks the evolution of, say, the Final Fantasy series.

Well, I never intended to get you interested in the game

Gasp!

At 11/13/09 10:44 PM, Aigis wrote: If the game had any interest in realism--

Stop there, please. It's fantasy land.

I'm just saying that it lacks the evolution of, say, the Final Fantasy series.

Not true. It has plenty of evolution and it's has refined itself quite greatly.
It's another thing that you can only really establish a true opinion on if you know of the series.
It transitioned quite well from different systems and features.

There is more evolution than it Final Fantasy has, which only really started changing patterns around 10 or 12.

At 11/13/09 11:39 PM, knuxrouge wrote: Stop there, please. It's fantasy land.

I was using that statement as a means to prove the point that the character designer went way too crazy in trying to make his characters look unique that he moved beyond what was reasonable, even in a fantasy land.

It's the same in most other RPGs where you wonder "why does nobody act surprised when they see these guys? They all look weird as hell."

No one said shit about Seymour from FFX.
It's not only the main characters.

At 11/15/09 05:57 PM, knuxrouge wrote: No one said shit about Seymour from FFX.
It's not only the main characters.

Every person in Final Fantasy X had a ridiculous fashion sense.

It was a common trend in Spira.

At 11/15/09 06:01 PM, Aigis wrote:

At 11/15/09 05:57 PM, knuxrouge wrote: No one said shit about Seymour from FFX.
It's not only the main characters.

Every person in Final Fantasy X had a ridiculous fashion sense.

It was a common trend in Spira.

Seymour was in a league of his own.
In a game of universal fashion that makes the 1980s look like the Renaissance, you know the cake is taken when even through all that, you point and yell at Seymour's wardrobe--not Seymour.

Tales of Updates

The Tales of Graces official site has been updated today with two new character videos for Asbel Lhant and Sophie. In addition, we are treated to a short preview of the Dramatic DVD pre-order bonus contents, namely the "Yappari Tales of in TGS09 Digest" and the Special Drama "You Want to Be an Adult?". The latter videos mentioned have no audio for some reason. The last video is an interview with Takahiro Sakurai, Asbel's voice actor, where he talks about his character and various other topics. Said video has been up in the net for a while now, actually.

Sweet update, but no real info that can be considered awesome was found. :l

After really seeing Sophie's character design, it just makes me hope that they don't make her a really dark character. ToS and ToS2 had great character development, Lloyd and Colette had an awesome relationship and so did Emil and Marta (even though Marta was a freak when it came to Emil). Asbel just seems really serious (after reading his backstory) and Sophie just seems dark (from character design).

At 11/8/09 04:11 PM, Aigis wrote: I ordered the game yesterday.

It should arrive in two weeks or something.

I have not got this game yet.

I'm feeling high fantasy deprived. The only RPG I've got to play is Persona 4.

I too was hoping SoPhie wasn't just another Presea, but it seems that she does have emotion, I think she'll turn out pretty well.

At 11/21/09 09:10 AM, knuxrouge wrote: I too was hoping SoPhie wasn't just another Presea, but it seems that she does have emotion, I think she'll turn out pretty well.

Oh, that's a relief. I would prefer an energetic team of heroes to a serious one any day...

And Aigis, how is Persona 4? My friend is giving me the chance to borrow it, and I'm not sure if it's gonna be worth my time. I've heard some great things about the Persona series though.

At 11/21/09 08:06 PM, ikool wrote: And Aigis, how is Persona 4? My friend is giving me the chance to borrow it, and I'm not sure if it's gonna be worth my time.

Why on Earth not? It's one of the most critically acclaimed RPGs on PS2 (behind Final Fantasy X and XII, and Dragon Quest VIII).

It's good. It's like an improved version of Persona 3, with a lot less frustrating aspects. I don't know enough about the story yet to comment on it because I haven't gotten close to the explanations. At the point I'm on, it's more about character than narrative.

The only real problems are the voice acting, which is very underwhelming, and the grindy nature of the game, though the fast paced battle system more than makes up for that.

I'm sure it would be especially great if you'd never played Persona 3, considering how fresh Persona 3 felt when I played it.

You might as well play it and find out.

Going over a few screens from Dragon Age, I have only noticed just now that it seems rather much like an MMORPG. Not that it bothers me that much, I guess it would take a bit getting used to though.

The latest Tales of Graces commercial.

Tales of Updates

A bunch of new costumes for the Vesperia gang are up in the Japanese PlayStation Network today, featuring cameos of the Tales of Series' prominent characters. They are calling this the "Strong Ones Compilation", which is pretty much the best description for these characters, though I won't mention because it might spoil some people who haven't played the other games. The costume titles are now up for download from the Japanese PSN for 300 Yen each costume.

Yuri: Creed Graphite (Tales of Hearts)
Estelle: Shizel (Tales of Eternia)
Karol: Milhaust Selkirk (Tales of Rebirth)
Rita: Walter Delques (Tales of Legendia)
Raven: Van Grants (Tales of the Abyss)
Judith: Richter Abend (Tales of Symphonia: DotNW/KoR)
Repede: Asras (Tales of Innocence)
Flynn: Lukius Bridges (Tales of the Tempest)
Patty: Mithos (Tales of Symphonia)

At 11/24/09 09:10 AM, Corky-D wrote: Going over a few screens from Dragon Age, I have only noticed just now that it seems rather much like an MMORPG. Not that it bothers me that much, I guess it would take a bit getting used to though.

I believe it's only the interface that's like an MMO.

Other than that, it seems like the standard turn-based affair that you see in most Bioware games.

At 11/25/09 03:52 PM, Aigis wrote:
Other than that, it seems like the standard turn-based affair that you see in most Bioware games.

According to the official website it's real time, which is a relief for me, as I'm not a huge fan of turn based games.

Does anyone have dragon age yet? I really like the look of it, and I'd like to hear from someone who's played it whether all the hype is true.

At 11/25/09 04:09 PM, DizzeeRascal wrote: According to the official website it's real time, which is a relief for me, as I'm not a huge fan of turn based games.

I assume it's real-time in the same way KOTOR is real-time, and in the same way Baldur's Gate is real-time.

Where it looks like it's real time, but in actual fact everyone is taking turns.

At 11/25/09 07:11 PM, Aigis wrote:

At 11/25/09 04:09 PM, DizzeeRascal wrote: According to the official website it's real time, which is a relief for me, as I'm not a huge fan of turn based games.

I assume it's real-time in the same way KOTOR is real-time, and in the same way Baldur's Gate is real-time.

Where it looks like it's real time, but in actual fact everyone is taking turns.

Not quite.

It is real time, but you can pause and select actions to take.
Then again, I haven't played KOTOR or Baldur's Gate.

At 11/25/09 08:38 AM, knuxrouge wrote: The latest Tales of Graces commercial.

Damn... If only there were subs... It would have made my day...

At least the video shows that Sophie isn't a depressed little girl... That made it all worthwhile to watch :D

I just noticed that we haven't had any talk on Final Fantasy 13, how come?

At 11/26/09 05:34 AM, Corky-D wrote: I just noticed that we haven't had any talk on Final Fantasy 13, how come?

Because it's so obvious that Final Fantasy XIII will be great that there's nothing to discuss about it.

Unless you want a club full of people going:
"Final Fantasy XIII will be so great."
"How great will it be?"
"Probably pretty great. I mean, Square haven't let me down so far with regards to single player Final Fantasy games in the main series. Sure there have been a couple that weren't quite so good, but that's only compared to other Final Fantasies and they are still very good games in their own right."

There's very little that's going to persuade me from buying it as soon as I can. I'm confident enough that I'll like it that I haven't even bothered to read anything about it.

At 11/26/09 05:52 AM, Aigis wrote: Because it's so obvious that Final Fantasy XIII will be great that there's nothing to discuss about it.

Unless you want a club full of people going:
"Final Fantasy XIII will be so great."
"How great will it be?"
"Probably pretty great. I mean, Square haven't let me down so far with regards to single player Final Fantasy games in the main series. Sure there have been a couple that weren't quite so good, but that's only compared to other Final Fantasies and they are still very good games in their own right."

There's very little that's going to persuade me from buying it as soon as I can. I'm confident enough that I'll like it that I haven't even bothered to read anything about it.

True.
Talking about it would be pointless until it actually gets released.
Even then the discussion would end with everyone agreeing that it's the holy grail.

I actually don't care for FFXIII, as I've never cared about the franchise in general.
Graces has all my nerd juices right now.

Does that mean I'm not going to buy/play it?
50/50, I might get it, but it's in no way a priority on my 2010 list.

However, I have a friend who used to be a huge FF fan until he was betrayed by FF 8, 9, 10, and 10-2 and by then gave up, he's hoping this will restore the arguably shattered name of Final Fantasy.

At 11/25/09 08:43 PM, Corky-D wrote:

At 11/25/09 07:11 PM, Aigis wrote:

At 11/25/09 04:09 PM, DizzeeRascal wrote: According to the official website it's real time, which is a relief for me, as I'm not a huge fan of turn based games.

I assume it's real-time in the same way KOTOR is real-time, and in the same way Baldur's Gate is real-time.

Where it looks like it's real time, but in actual fact everyone is taking turns.

Not quite.

It is real time, but you can pause and select actions to take.
Then again, I haven't played KOTOR or Baldur's Gate.

Excellent news. Not that I don't like KOTOR, which has to be one of my favourite ever games, but when real time RPGs are well exxecuted, they always seem to be more enjpyable than turn based ones.

At 11/26/09 10:02 AM, knuxrouge wrote: I actually don't care for FFXIII, as I've never cared about the franchise in general.

I've never quite understood how people can like JRPGs but not like Final Fantasy.

I mean, JRPGs are all fundamentally the same.

But the Final Fantasy series seems to be one of the only series in JRPGs that tries anything particularly interesting with the storyline.

At 11/26/09 10:02 AM, knuxrouge wrote: However, I have a friend who used to be a huge FF fan until he was betrayed by FF 8, 9, 10, and 10-2 and by then gave up, he's hoping this will restore the arguably shattered name of Final Fantasy.

Wait, he liked Final Fantasy VII and then didn't like the later ones?

I thought that when it came to hating the later entries in the series, people only did that when they thought it stopped being good at FFVI.

I'd expect that if he didn't like the 3D Final Fantasies, he probably won't like Final Fantasy XIII. As far as I can tell, Final Fantasy XIII is just going to be another extension of what they've been trying to do with the series in the post-SNES era.