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[SantaC]

As many others, I got into the Tales of series with Symphonia for Gamecube. I thought it was fantastic with real time battle system along with an engrossing overworld and funny skits. It continued with Tales of the Abyss, Tales of Vesperia, Tales of Graces F. I even enjoyed Tales of Xillia. Then it kinda started to slow down a bit, but it went back into form with Berseria.

Then comes the drought. I was really hyped for Tales of Arise, but it didnt really feel like Tales for me. The skits sucked, and the game took itself way to serious. The sense of humor the series was known for was dropped. I suspect that the game development was hit hard by covid and I am hoping that we will get some new game announcement soon. I am hoping for a new fresh start.

 

[SF Kosmo]

I've been a fan of the Tales games since the very beginning, with Phantasia on Super Famicom and Destiny on PlayStation, back when the series wasn't very known or popular in the US. I remember importing Symphonia because I was too excited to wait for a US release.

Once the audience for the series blew up after Symphonia, the series started to get oversaturated, with what felt like one to two games per year, and the quality was all over the place, with high points like Abyss and Vesperia checkered with low points like Legendia and Tempest.

Little by little a lot of what I loved about the series was pushed aside. Dungeons became simple hallways devoid of puzzles or intrigue, world maps and exploration went away, and the games started to look and play very dated.

Arise fixed the problem of dated visuals and the general oversaturation of releases, but unfortunately didn't improve the gameplay much and also disappointed on story and characters.

But there is a silver lining. Translation groups have been really aggressively tackling some of the series best Japanese exclusives and are trying to get the entire series translated. They already finished Destiny Director's Cut, and we should get Tales of Rebirth and Tales of Destiny 2 by the end of the year. Those are probably going to be the best "new" Tales games you'll play for a while, so that's where I'll spend my time.

 

[Astral Dog]

Tales of Arise was a surprise for me, the new visuals look gorgeous, combat and the animation quality is very high, i like how they streamlined the design to focus on the action rather than bloat , the plot/writting kinda sucks , but its somewhat salvaged because i like the characters, there still plenty of humor and charm ,the music is ok but could have been better.


Its not flawless,but the jump in quality is noticeable,i like what they did

 

[kevm3]

I actually thought Tales of Arise was a great game

 

[ShirAhava]

After how bad Arise was I think they need to take a long break. That game had no heart they damn near phoned it in

 

[jshackles]

Tales of Arise would have been a great Tales game if it had ended about 2/3rds of the way through.

 

[SF Kosmo]

Tales of Arise was a surprise for me, the new visuals look gorgeous, combat and the animation quality is very high, i like how they streamlined the design to focus on the action rather than bloat , the plot/writting kinda sucks and its annoying , but its somewhat salvaged because i like the characters, there still plenty of humor and charm ,the music is ok but could have been better.


Its not flawless,but the jump in quality is noticeable,i like what they did

A game like that really lives and dies on its story and characters, though, and they really recycled a lot of story elements from past Tales games in a way that was really eye-rolling for long-time fans. I could see liking it more if you didn't play many of them before though.

Also for as much as they improved the graphics, they really need to work on how they deliver dialog in cutscenes, the stiff chadacters-taking-turns-talking thing with a 3 second pause between every line just doesn't work in 2024.

 

[Pedro Motta]

I've been a fan of the Tales games since the very beginning, with Phantasia on Super Famicom and Destiny on PlayStation, back when the series wasn't very known or popular in the US. I remember importing Symphonia because I was too excited to wait for a US release.

Once the audience for the series blew up after Symphonia, the series started to get oversaturated, with what felt like one to two games per year, and the quality was all over the place, with high points like Abyss and Vesperia checkered with low points like Legendia and Tempest.

Little by little a lot of what I loved about the series was pushed aside. Dungeons became simple hallways devoid of puzzles or intrigue, world maps and exploration went away, and the games started to look and play very dated.

Arise fixed the problem of dated visuals and the general oversaturation of releases, but unfortunately didn't improve the gameplay much and also disappointed on story and characters.

But there is a silver lining. Translation groups have been really aggressively tackling some of the series best Japanese exclusives and are trying to get the entire series translated. They already finished Destiny Director's Cut, and we should get Tales of Rebirth and Tales of Destiny 2 by the end of the year. Those are probably going to be the best "new" Tales games you'll play for a while, so that's where I'll spend my time.

Dude I played Tales of Rebirth and Tales of Destiny 2 following translation guides on the internet. Will play them again when the translation is done haha

 

[Lokaum D+]

thats not my Final Fanta... ops my Tales

 

[Werewolf Jones]

Zestiria killed the series.

 

[DeVeAn]

Berseria, I played this a year ago and it started off super interesting. It became so boring I skipped every skit, cutscene, and powered through. Tales of Arise was similar for me. Loved the demo but main game bored me. Seems like Tales of games have so much filler recently. Vesperia is my favorite Tales game.

 

[Black_Stride]

Zestiria killed the series.

Funny cuz the followup prequel was great.

 

[Boss Mog]

As many others, I got into the Tales of series with Symphonia for Gamecube. I thought it was fantastic with real time battle system along with an engrossing overworld and funny skits. It continued with Tales of the Abyss, Tales of Vesperia, Tales of Graces F. I even enjoyed Tales of Xillia. Then it kinda started to slow down a bit, but it went back into form with Berseria.

Then comes the drought. I was really hyped for Tales of Arise, but it didnt really feel like Tales for me. The skits sucked, and the game took itself way to serious. The sense of humor the series was known for was dropped. I suspect that the game development was hit hard by covid and I am hoping that we will get some new game announcement soon. I am hoping for a new fresh start.

You may not have liked it but Arise is the best selling game in the franchise.

 

[LakeOf9]

I have never really played a Tales game that I thought was better than average, so I can't say I identify with the sentiment. For your sake and the sake of other fans, I hope they share information on the next game soon.

 

[Icymanipulator]

Funny cuz the followup prequel was great.

Best game in the series imo, loved every second of it and all the characters, which is rare for me.

 

[SlimeGooGoo]

.

 

[SlimeGooGoo]

.

 

[mayham2199]

As many others, I got into the Tales of series with Symphonia for Gamecube. I thought it was fantastic with real time battle system along with an engrossing overworld and funny skits. It continued with Tales of the Abyss, Tales of Vesperia, Tales of Graces F. I even enjoyed Tales of Xillia. Then it kinda started to slow down a bit, but it went back into form with Berseria.

Then comes the drought. I was really hyped for Tales of Arise, but it didnt really feel like Tales for me. The skits sucked, and the game took itself way to serious. The sense of humor the series was known for was dropped. I suspect that the game development was hit hard by covid and I am hoping that we will get some new game announcement soon. I am hoping for a new fresh start.

Berseria and Vesperia seemed pretty serious to me also. Especially Berseria. I started at Vesperia and I’ve enjoyed them all but Zesteria. Berseria fell off midway. Other than the difficulty spike and info dump at the end of the game I really liked Arise.

 

[StereoVsn]

Tales of Arise would have been a great Tales game if it had ended about 2/3rds of the way through.

Yep, the last part of the game just lost the plot. It was awful and I just dropped the thing.

Not that first 2/3 were a masterpiece, but no worse than most usual Tales of games.

 

[Fbh]

Yeah the characters and story really hurt the experience in Arise.
The main story just wasn't that interesting and went on for too long, but more importantly the characters were pretty boring and lacked chemistry. I agree it took itself too seriously, the skits in particular used to be these short and mostly funny interaction that created a sort of fun team dynamic, and here most of them were boring exposition with the characters repeating their one 1 trait over and over.

I hope the next one keeps the visual style but improves the writing and boss battles.

 

[Skifi28]

Never understood what the fuss was about. Berseria aside that was nearly ok, every other older Tales game has had some of the worst combat systems I've ever experienced in a JRPG. Extremely simplistic yet at the same time very complicated for no real reason with very awkward movement. The best way I can describe it is if someone tried to make their own JRPG combat system from scratch without having ever played any game before while also trying to figure out combat in three dimensions for the first time.

 

[taylor34]

Tales of Arise would have been a great Tales game if it had ended about 2/3rds of the way through.

Yes this exactly. Great game for that first part, then was really bad that last part. I don't know exactly what happened there. I was like wow this is awesome and then I came too "I just wish this would end already"

 

[ShadyAcshuns]

As many others, I got into the Tales of series with Symphonia for Gamecube. I thought it was fantastic with real time battle system along with an engrossing overworld and funny skits. It continued with Tales of the Abyss, Tales of Vesperia, Tales of Graces F. I even enjoyed Tales of Xillia. Then it kinda started to slow down a bit, but it went back into form with Berseria.

Then comes the drought. I was really hyped for Tales of Arise, but it didnt really feel like Tales for me. The skits sucked, and the game took itself way to serious. The sense of humor the series was known for was dropped. I suspect that the game development was hit hard by covid and I am hoping that we will get some new game announcement soon. I am hoping for a new fresh start.

Arise was a super disappointment compared to the likes of Symphonia and Vesperia, and nowhere near as good as Berseria, Xillia, Graces f and Abyss. Arise just didn't feel like an adventure or a legit journey, and more like an on-rails script.

 

[SF Kosmo]

By the way, what's your top 3 Tales games?

My favorites, purely by my subjective attachment and in no particular order:

Tales of Eternia: The best playing game in the series, thanks to the deep, combo-crazy combat, and really fun and clever dungeon design. Beautiful looking, too. The story is mid, but everything else is great.

Tales of Phantasia (PS1 remake): Best characters, not just the main cast but also Dhaos is such a compelling villain. Also I think the best soundtrack in the series.

Tales of Symphonia: Not necessarily the best in any one way, but really great all around, fantastic art direction, great soundtrack, memorable cast, good story.

 

[SF Kosmo]

Berseria and Vesperia seemed pretty serious to me also. Especially Berseria. I started at Vesperia and I’ve enjoyed them all but Zesteria. Berseria fell off midway. Other than the difficulty spike and info dump at the end of the game I really liked Arise.

Yeah Berseria was pretty grimdark by Tales standards but it also had some fresh story ideas and good characters. If it wasn't for the dated graphics and design I would have really liked it.

 

[Danjin44]

I'm not the biggest Tales fan, there some I did liked like Tales of Vesperia but I really didn't liked Zesteria....I feel same way with Star Ocean series.

Currently playing Trials of Mana, the combat is way more simple and clunky compare to Tales of and Star Ocean but for some reason I like Trials of Mana better.

 

[Madflavor]

I remember getting suckered into buying Tales of Arise. I think everyone who was saying it was great and a return to series form, were only 10 hours in. That game nosedives in quality in it's 2nd half.

 

[NotMyProblemAnymoreCunt]

By the way, what's your top 3 Tales games?

Tales of the Abyss
Tales of Vesperia
Tales of Berseria

 

[Dirk Benedict]

Funny cuz the followup prequel was great.

Compare this to Phantasia, which, btw.. I feel was the best. Especially the PSX remake.
Your thoughts?

 

[sigmaZ]

I moderately enjoyed Arise as it had a more mature feel and the Japanese dialogue was legit hilarious at times, but other than that and the original back in the day (remake actually) and Symphonia I haven't really loved the series and though having basically played them all, I've only finished three or four of them. They've always come off to me as a sort of Wish JRPG series to me. Just extremely tropey and generic, which is not always bad, but the more generic cozy anime aspects it incorporated over the years the more it got to the point I just couldn't stomach it anymore. Still curious to see what they'll do next as Arise showed a lot more potential in my eyes despite its third act blunder and inflated HP pools to sell DLC.

 

[darth.shrimp]

By the way, what's your top 3 Tales games?

Symphonia, still pure magic to this day. Was the first game I got with my own money after high school, played it a lot, bought it again some years ago on Steam during a deep sale and I wasn't even bothered by the 30 fps, it is still the GOAT.
Vesperia, great soundtrack, great characters, probably my favourite combat system, only held up by how slow it comes online (even something as basic as back-stepping needs to be unlocked by weapon skills).
Eternia, best 2D Tales by far. Everything was almost perfect.

 

[drganon]

Arise was okay. Wasn't as good as berseria or vesperia, but still way better than Zestiria. That game was trash.

 

[Hudo]

Tales, Star Ocean, Ys, Trails, Mana...

all of these seem like "second row" JRPGs. And I can't decide which out of these I like the most. All of these series have their flaws. But also something that has "heart". But I guess Tales is the most successful/"AAA" one.

Edit: I don't mean "second row" as a derogatory term or something. Rather, I was trying to say that they are not as popular and often mid to low budget (except for Tales games).

 

[Doom85]

Tales of the Abyss
Tales of Vesperia
Tales of Berseria

Switch Vesperia and Berseria‘s spots (unless you weren’t ranking them in order) and this would be my top 3 as well (Symphonia coming in at a respectable 4th).

I really love how each game has a unique approach to an anti-hero (spoilers for Abyss, Berseria, and Vesperia):

Spoiler

-Luke from Abyss is an anti-hero in the sense he’s only doing heroic things for his own benefit. Once shit gets real and he at first is in denial about the grimness of what’s happened, he proceeds to own up to his shortcomings and think of others as well and evolves into the classical hero type.
-Yuri from Vesperia is a chill guy who will do the right thing even if it means technically breaking the law…..and then he reveals he will take that even further by straight up murdering assholes who might otherwise have gotten away with their horrific crimes. He doesn’t even really change his views that much IIRC, rather he and Flynn learn to respect each other‘s way of seeking justice even if they disagree with the other’s methods.
-Velvet is all, “I don’t care if my brother-in-law made the world a supposedly better place, for the horrific way he accomplished that, I’m going to murder the fuck out of that shithead!”, but eventually reaches the point where she realizes she needs to see this through not out of revenge (especially once she knows the full details and motivations of certain individuals on that tragic night) but because she believes it is the right thing to do.

Each cast has other great characters in them too, but they really nailed the main leads for each of those three games.

 

[Roman Empire]

Wait, Tales of Arise was actually good. I don't have any problems with the new direction for the series.

 

[AmuroChan]

I was a big fan of the older Tales games (ie. Destiny, Phantasia, Xillia). The last one that I really enjoyed was Berseria. Arise just didn't click with me. The production values were great, but the story and characters were uninteresting. The game also dragged on for too long. It's unfortunate because Tales used to be a top 3 JRPG franchise for me. Now it's not even in my top 5.

 

[cireza]

I tried the series back then on GC with Symphonia, and found the characters and writing so bad I simply never cared for the series. Tried the Arise demo and thought it was still bad.

This series has had tons of entries anyway, it's not like there is nothing to play or replay.

 

[MadchesterManc]

Not for me. Played most over the years, but outside of Bersaria, found it to be pretty mid. Started Arise not too long ago and it seemed fine, kinda got buried under several reviews and haven't made it back since tho unfortunately. Maybe I'll take this thread as a reminder to fire up Arise again.

 

[Astral Dog]

Wait, Tales of Arise was actually good. I don't have any problems with the new direction for the series.

Idk if they were actually inspired by, but the difference i noticed with ToA compared to previous games is that the older games were trying to emulate classic Final Fantasy, while Arise is closer to Kingdom Hearts,it trims the fat to be closer to an action game with RPG mechanics, less focus on backtracking,menu customization, fetch quests or tedious dungeons/puzzles

But im sure the next game will bring those things back anyways

 

[NT80]

A game like that really lives and dies on its story and characters, though, and they really recycled a lot of story elements from past Tales games in a way that was really eye-rolling for long-time fans. I could see liking it more if you didn't play many of them before though.

Also for as much as they improved the graphics, they really need to work on how they deliver dialog in cutscenes, the stiff chadacters-taking-turns-talking thing with a 3 second pause between every line just doesn't work in 2024.

To me they live and die by the combat, enemies and bosses. The only Tales game I've played so far where I liked the characters/story was Vesperia the rest of the time I haven't liked them much at all but the combat usually saves it. I like the fact that they are also pretty challenging too so you have to think about your tactics.