InfiniDragon
Member
Wait, they gave that dickhead Hubert Flynn's awesome battle theme? Get the fuck out, Namco. He's not worthy of it.
Oh, and on Abyss talk, Guy is the boss, Anise is rubbish, and long haired Luke is best Luke.
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Tales of Graces |OT| Gracing the PS3 with the Best RPG Combat
- Thread starter kayos90
- Start date
Wait, they gave that dickhead Hubert Flynn's awesome battle theme? Get the fuck out, Namco. He's not worthy of it.
Oh, and on Abyss talk, Guy is the boss, Anise is rubbish, and long haired Luke is best Luke.
Around-Step sucks because they tell you "Oh you can just quickly hit a direction and the character will do it", but then they don't. You have to use the Square+direction button.
Uh no, I've had this av for like a year plus, well before they put character avs on the OT/hype thread where you claimed yours (I even made a comment saying I had the Asbel av before it was cool lol).
The stick method works. IIRC the game says to partially move it to the side, not fully.
AlphaDragoon
Member
What I'm saying is that I found it to be so iffy and unreliable that I end up just doing the Square+direction to ensure it works.
Yeah, you have to be consciously aware to not push the stick the whole way so it might cause slower dodges. I think the button + direction feels natural though.
The only issue I'm having with combat is when a boss goes into that ether burst and does a mystic arte. The AI keeps trying to fight it normally and gets screwed up, only way I can seem to stop this is manually go into strategies and make everyone always guard and be passive. Then when it runs out I have to swap them back. I hope there's a better way to dealing with that!
lucablight
Member
Any word on sales?
Not that I'm aware of.
Cornbread78
Member
So what is the overall pulse on this game? Good? Bad? Meh?
I actually have no trouble sidestepping that way but it's pretty awful compared to just Square+Direction.
And I still can't wrap my head around a TP-based system that is better than CC. It's just illogical to me. I mean, the primary difference is one punishes you for using your Artes and the other lets you go wild with them. To each their own, I suppose.
Gald is like ... my nemesis in Tales games. I never have any until suddenly I never need it again oh god Gald everywhere.
Just blew through my 100k because I still never actually check dualize prices :|
RPGCrazied
Member
It's good. It's Tales!
Some of the voice acting is flat though. Some of Asbel's lines is decent, other times it seems like he is about to fall asleep. I do like Maliks voice though, he did a good job.Once you get your eleth mixer decently leveled, it's fairly easy to get some decent gald every 30-40 minutes. What I did on my first run, was use the eleth mixer to create Puffpetal Downs, Hazardous Liquid and Venomous Needles (Or was it Venomous Fangs? I forget at the moment.) This works even better once you have the book that creates 2 items at once instead of 1.
Hazardous Liquid + Venomous Needles(or Fangs) = Caustic
Caustic + Puffpetal Down = Balloon Cloth
Balloon Cloth + Puffpetal Down = Stuffed Doll
Stuffed dolls sell for 6.5k each, and after you figure dualizing costs you're still looking at a 5kish profit per doll.
michaelius
Banned
Guys check Siliconera they found some clues to Xilia coming to west.
RPGCrazied
Member
Link? I heard its incomplete. Maybe they have a Directors Cut almost ready.
That's actually what I've been doing since the Desert. I get ~600-ish Gald a fight, though, so that's basically faster. Just wish I had more Titles for all this SP I'm getting :/ Just grinding skill use for my Master titles, I guess.
One of the best battle systems this gen, story is bad, characters range from good to meh, music sucks, graphics are pretty, effects are flashy, game is pure fun. I'd say a solid 8/10 at the end of the day. Battle system is 12/10 though.
InfiniteNine
Rolling Girl
I will buy it so they can bring over the next Team Destiny game.
About that...
I'd like to chime in.
I'm not finished with the game but I feel like maybe I'm a third or halfway through and so far I really like it. This is my first Tales game so I'm coming to it totally fresh. Lets say I like it a lot better than FF XIII-2.
Anyways, there are things I do dislike, I find the combat system was a tad hard to "get" with their wording in the game. First "boss" enemy you have to use the O button on was painful for me because I just didn't "get" what the fuck I was supposed to press. I think this is just a communication problem however. In battle you can switch your skills and do have control over what direction you need to push to activate those skills so it's not like it's hard I just felt the explanation during that fight was lacking which led to some massive headaches on that one boss. Since then I've had a lot less problems and have finally just now figured out what the fuck I'm doing, hours and hours after that fight mind you, but I got it now. Lol I don't know if I'd say this is the best combat in an RPG but it's definitely not bad although I'm leaning towards liking how FF XIII and XIII-2 did it better but that's preference. Either way, the combat system works, is fine and isn't shit I just don't think it's the best.
The first arc went on longer than I'd have liked. Not that it was just too damn big or anything, if I wanted I could probably have beaten that arc in an hour or two but I needed these Soul Orbs. Or I think I did. Actually, I don't know what the hell these Soul Orbs are even for, I just know that almost every enemy drops them and for the game told me I should try and collect them so I fought each enemy until I got one. Hope it's for more than some silly trophy but oh well. Anyways, if I just played like normal I think it would have gone faster but the game hints to you that you should be collecting these so I am and because of that things take longer.
I think the story sucks and will end sucky. The story's classic JRPG cheese here, it's not going to win any awards. That said I don't feel it's presented too awkwardly and since the game doesn't ask me, the player, to pick from a selection of cheesy lines or bad choices I actually find it more enjoyable in that regard than Final Fantasy XIII-2 was. Instead of me feeling like I'm forced to play as a moron I'm merely following one around which to me is a lot better even if it's just an illusion. Actually, Tales of Grace's story isn't the illusion, the illusion was in thinking FF XIII-2 had choice but that's a different thread. Anyways, standard Japanese power of friendship theme, standard fantasy setting, if you've played any JRPGs you know more or less what to expect.
I think the game shines in character though. Whereas Final Fantasy XIII-2 turned me off by making about every choice a valid, thoughtful choice in that universe, despite it actually being the opposite, this games calls out characters saying stupid shit. It's got a decent sense of humor and is actually almost endearing to play. There's not really a character I hate in the game at all. After battle dialog does, admittedly get old after you've seen a certain one the 40th time, but there is a lot of variety and it changes accordingly to who you have in your party so there's a lot of different after battle dialog , more so than any game I can recall. The game also has these "skits" where when you are at certain spots, usually spots you need to be so you don't miss too many, that an indicator will pop up and tell you to press select and if you do you're rewarded with a short skit between the characters. These are actually usually good. In fact, I don't know why they're optional, they should just pop the fuck up damnit! But because of them I find myself hitting the major spots, saves, landmarks, and the like and checking to see if a new one pops up before I move to a new location, further extending the time I've spent in the game. These skits aren't necessary and you can miss them, as I said, so if you wanted to go through faster you could ignore checking for them and just progress through the story.
The game seems to be packed with shit. I told you about the Soul Orbs that I have no idea what to do, right? Well there's crafting, there's discoverable landmarks, there's of course the skits, there's locked treasure chests with passwords hidden elsewhere that you will feel obligated to open, requests at inns(basically silly fetch quests) that net you rewards and sometimes story elements, there's alchemy in the form of the mixer, the battle system is involved, the title system, which is in a way like leveling is sort of like FF XIII-s role levels except there's like a fucking shit ton of them and they unlock for myriads of reasons urging you to further do various things and books that keep track of them all. Honestly, it feels like there's always something I want or need to do. The story itself is essentially on rails, at least where I'm at and yet, even though the game doesn't have the most realized world with shitloads of sidequests, NPCs or the player having free roam of the whole map I still spend a ton of time in every area, whether it's trying to get a drop, trying to get something in the mixer, trying to get a title, checking for skits, it hides the fact that it's linear and straightforward very well and in a way that's rewarding to the player.
Technically, there's some silliness here. Audio levels throughout different parts are not normalized so some parts are louder other's softer, the graphics aren't that hot, it's not going to wow anyone if you want an RPG to show off the capabilities of your PS3 or stereo, not that I care, they work and they're not bad.
And back to the charm, I freaking love it. I mean, the Rockgagong shit was amusing. I liked it. I don't care how old I am.
If I rated FF XIII-2 a 6 or 7 this would be like an 8. Yeah, there's always things that can be better but so far it's been very enjoyable.
I'm guessing I wasn't supposed to fight
at my current level. Man, that battle took almost half an hour.
What do I do with the item I get from it?
It feels pretty natural doing it with the Square+direction, and it's pretty damn rewarding if you time it just before an enemy is about to hit you since you get CC from doing that. It's especially useful once I "run out" of CC after a combo, and the enemy is about to attack. I don't really get how it sucks.
Good read. I agree with most of your impressions, and this part especially.
the "fire dragon" boss at the valkines in Zahvert
What do I do with the item I get from it?
It feels pretty natural doing it with the Square+direction, and it's pretty damn rewarding if you time it just before an enemy is about to hit you since you get CC from doing that. It's especially useful once I "run out" of CC after a combo, and the enemy is about to attack. I don't really get how it sucks.
Good read. I agree with most of your impressions, and this part especially.
RPGCrazied
Member
I only did the green one, and even with an all-divide, was hard. Got a nice weapon for Malik, which he is still using.
The red though I couldn't do. I probably can now at 66, but I'm in F arc, so I can't try.
The red though I couldn't do. I probably can now at 66, but I'm in F arc, so I can't try.
Nope. He's 110 lol. Try again way later.
They're each worth 1 Grade which you use to purchase what you're carrying over to NG+.
Edit: Wait, 1 not 10, I think? Shit. I forget :x
Yeah the green one was much easier, but still pretty damn hard. I beat the red one at 65 on Moderate (had to actually tone the difficulty down). The red one starts casting some dangerous spells which forced me to solo the last 1/3 of its HP since I ended up running out of life bottles. Eleth bursts would revive the others when I got it, but they still died pretty quickly even with the damage reduction titles and Cheria's Veil of Faith/healing/reviving.
StunandStab
Member
Well I just started this game yesterday and I'm having fun so far but I kinda hate the CC system.
I started on Hard, which was fine for the most part until I hit the Nova Wolf, on which I died many many times. After I FINALLY beat that stupid wolf, it was again fairly easy. I later unlocked Evil difficulty, which I switched to immediately and didn't notice much of a difference, but then I got stuck at a stupid battle with 3 soldiers... that's it. It was like, the hardest thing ever... and then the game was easy again after that.
So other than those weird as fuck difficulty spikes (maybe I shouldn't be playing on Evil?), game is pretty fun so far, but yeah, I really do hate the CC system.
Most of the time I only have enough CC to chain 3 artes together... then I have to get it back.
I really, really just want to combo the fuck out of my enemies, but that isn't possible, and that makes the game less fun.
Not a bad battle system, though, I do like it aside from that gripe.
I started on Hard, which was fine for the most part until I hit the Nova Wolf, on which I died many many times. After I FINALLY beat that stupid wolf, it was again fairly easy. I later unlocked Evil difficulty, which I switched to immediately and didn't notice much of a difference, but then I got stuck at a stupid battle with 3 soldiers... that's it. It was like, the hardest thing ever... and then the game was easy again after that.
So other than those weird as fuck difficulty spikes (maybe I shouldn't be playing on Evil?), game is pretty fun so far, but yeah, I really do hate the CC system.
Most of the time I only have enough CC to chain 3 artes together... then I have to get it back.
I really, really just want to combo the fuck out of my enemies, but that isn't possible, and that makes the game less fun.
Not a bad battle system, though, I do like it aside from that gripe.
It gets a lot better later into the game once you're able to have 20+ CC at your disposal for some of your characters. Plus you can work on dualizing to get more CC.
StunandStab
Member
I figured as much. I look forward to having that much CC
I think the progression towards having the CC to 4, 5, 6, etc. Arte combo from the start of combat is a better tradeoff than TP per fight. And it's not like the TP system lets you infinite combo until a bit into the game anyway. You'll eventually have so damn much CC, and so many ways to restore it (on certain Arte hits, faster regen, on Evasion or Guard, etc.) that combat flows a lot better. Most my sitting to wait for CC just happens as I'm moving from one target to the next.
That said, are you dualizing enough? By the point in the game you're mentioning, I think I had 10+ starting CC (e.g., enough to 4-Arte combo at the start of combat) on every character. It was kind of my goal early on to reach that point since, yeah, you really do feel limited at lower CCs.
I had no problem with owning enemies on random but bosses were still insane. Maybe I'm a nub but I always went Hard for bosses (two even Moderate
I regretted it though, I would be salty after losing only once lol). So yeah, don't be alarmed. Plus some groups of enemies are more difficult. The enemies I most hate in this game are, surprisingly, the human ones haha. And harpies, fucking hate Harpies.The human enemies really do seem to do tons more damage than other enemies. Grinding for Soul Orbs recently and I just noticed that the non-humans in the mountains were actually hitting sub-100 (sans Harpies, how the fuck are they hitting for 1k?) while the Trappers were shot-stun locking for like 600+ a hit :/
Evil/Chaos first run aren't so bad given that you transition into them early enough. You really do get so much more out of it that the gap between Normal all game and Chaos all game is huge.
StunandStab
Member
Asbel has 6-8 CC right now. I just
fought Malik at Wallbridge
I did notice I had a couple of gems in my inventory that give +1 CC when dualized so I should probably use those.
The process sounds confusing but it really isn't once you start doing it. It's rather streamlined in a way. Basically, when you dualize a Shard with your equipment, you get two bonuses:
1) A bonus effect based on the type of shard (e.g., Attack Shard, Mind Shard, Defense Shard, Rise Shard, etc.). The value of the bonus effect is determined by the shard's value in the brackets (e.g., Attack Shard [1] is +10 P.ATK while [2] is +17).
2) A bonus to the stats of the weapon based on the quality of the shard (e.g., Cool, Oily, Wicked, Barbed, etc.). The value of the bonus stats is determined by the quality type only; you can see a list of these in the Library -> User's Guide -> Qualities menu.
After a few fights, the equipment will become tempered and gain an extra effect of +Damage% Dealt (Weapons) or -Damage% Taken (Armor); the amount of this tempering bonus is also determined by the quality of the shard.
When you dualize two tempered equipment together, you'll extract their bonus effects and make a gem with the two effects on them. These effects are lost on the equipment you took them from but the bonus stats will remain. You can then dualize a new shard with the equipment and repeat the process. Because of this, I don't really suggest using shard types that you actually want on your equipment if you plan to dualize over and over for the bonus stats.
Additionally, you can dualize together Gems with the same bonuses and they'll get stronger (e.g., ATK-MIND + an ATK-MIND will get you a better ATK-MIND Gem). They don't have to match identically but it's easier to example; just select two and see what kind of output you get, really. You can see the result before actually combining them so it's just easiest to try things out.
What I did early game was I dualized, say, Attack Shards on two people's equipment and Rise on two others. After they were tempered, I'd dualize one of the Attack Shard ones with a Rise and would make an ATK-RISE Gem. I'd then dualize together the two Gems to make a better one. Swap in Mind over Attack for characters I wanted +C.ATK on instead of +P.ATK so I could make some MIND-RISE Gems.
It probably sounds complicated because I'm terrible at describing things but just ... try it out. The game does show you the results of everything before you actually combine things so it's not really that hard once you start doing it. But doing this let me get +2 or +3 Min CC on most my characters: +1 from Weapon, Armor, and Gem; I ran out of Rises eventually so some got some +Max CC instead but you get the idea. Makes combat a lot better when you can start "affording" your full combos from the start of combat.
Edit: Basically:
1) Dualize shard with equipment, get bonuses based on Type of shard (Determines effect) and Quality of shard (Determines stat boost)
2) Fight battles until equipment becomes Tempered; Tempered bonus value is dependent on the Quality of shard.
3) Dualize two Tempered equipment together to extract their effects and make a Gem; the effect on the equipment are lost but the stat boost remains.
4) Dualize two Gems together to combine/improve them.
5) Repeat.
You should be "getting it back" while you're spending it. If you're constantly running yourself out of CC and then have to stop and worry about how to get all of it back quickly, you're not playing optimally. You should also be paying mind to your critical gauge so that you can raise your maximum CC in battle.
I haven't played Graces in about three days, and am suffering withdrawals. The last thing I was doing was a side quest that brought me to Wallbridge Ruins.
Are there more than one entrance to the ruins from Wallbridge itself? I used the Northeast entrance in the bridge, and I was getting nowhere in the ruins. Found a crapload of useful (or would have been earlier) items, though.
Hopefully I'll get some time with it today.
Are there more than one entrance to the ruins from Wallbridge itself? I used the Northeast entrance in the bridge, and I was getting nowhere in the ruins. Found a crapload of useful (or would have been earlier) items, though.
Hopefully I'll get some time with it today.
Off-hand, there's three (four, I guess?) entrances. North and South of Wallbridge itself and the two within it. The sidequest that sends you the ruins
just needs you to go to where the boss was
cpp_is_king
Member
I don't understand why people complain about the story. It's one of the less generic / cheesy stories I've seen in a JRPG in quite some time. The friend / protect thing is a little overdone, but the overall premise, and the story that plays out involving the primary antagonist and Sophie is above average IMO
I mean I see complaints that the story is "classic JRPG cheese", but... it's a JRPG. Of course a JRPG is going to have a JRPG story, by definition. But in that department, I feel it's better than most.
Finished the kid section last night (didn't last as long as some people were making it out to be) and started the adult stuff. Love the combat now, but still trying to get the hang of it (less button mashy and more reflex countering and careful attacks)
Few questions though. Is the only way to refill the mixer to buy a refill at a Turtlez shop? And I get the food part of it, but didn't exactly understand what adding something like an Appel Gel to the mixer would do.
Few questions though. Is the only way to refill the mixer to buy a refill at a Turtlez shop? And I get the food part of it, but didn't exactly understand what adding something like an Appel Gel to the mixer would do.
-Pyromaniac-
Member
you can refill the mixer at turtlez shops, and inns, and also using some item that I'm forgetting the name of.
adding items to the mixer increases the chances of randomly finding that item while adventuring around. When you get an item it will say at the top of your screen that you got it. It tells you the % chance of getting one at the mixer screen.
aliencowz7
Member
Later in the game there are potions that restore eleth to the mixer but other then that its pretty much using a shop to refill it. putting items in the eleth mixer gives a % chance to make that item while walking around.
There's three things you can do with the Mixer:
1) Put in food items that will be created and used when their conditions are met.
2) Put in items that will have an X% chance to be created and placed in your inventory after some amount of steps.
3) Put in books that will give some kind of bonus dependent on the book.
Jazzy Network
Member
I wanna play Symphonia again but Im not sure if I can get over the fact that the skits won't have VA.
chickdigger802
Banned
So with the whole CC system... wtf is the point in inns now besides doing sidequests?
Healing without using items, I suppose. But basically just sidequests.
Ah ok, so no point in having an Apple Gel in the mixer when I have 15 of them anyways. Understood.
And I really like the title system, kinda similar to a "Job" system, just with so many more things to choose from. Just wish enemies would respawn quicker to make farming a tad bit easier
Disgaeamad
Member
Almost died there. Oh 教官, no one will ever call you by your real name anymore.
Well... the closer would be DotNW, you get to choose a female for Lloyd (from the old cast of course) to have a romantic relationship with.
Raine: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OU1PzRxJ3I
Presea: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rf6LqVz4iE0
Colette: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgZNhOSxxKA
Sheena: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgtwB7UThTw
Ah ok, so no point in having an Apple Gel in the mixer when I have 15 of them anyways. Understood.
And I really like the title system, kinda similar to a "Job" system, just with so many more things to choose from. Just wish enemies would respawn quicker to make farming a tad bit easier
You'll be able to make Dark Bottles, which increases the respawn rate, in the near future. I don't remember what the shops had at the start of the adult arc so I don't know if you can buy them just yet.