Future is so much better in terms of story and character interaction/development.
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Tales of Graces |OT| Gracing the PS3 with the Best RPG Combat
- Thread starter kayos90
- Start date
Future is so much better in terms of story and character interaction/development.
I agree with this! I'm finding the skits to be far more entertaining as well.
cpp_is_king
Member
Well I just beat the game and I guess put me in the "I didn't really like the ending crowd". Asbel is just such a fucking tool of a protagonist, that even when he does something right it ends up being wrong.
cpp_is_king
Member
She gets a few good ones later.
After just beating the game, overall I think I like almost everything about the game except Asbel (voice + character) and Richard (voice). Richard's voice is just atrocious. I actually though many of the other voices were fairly decent, I liked Hubert's and Malik's in particular. I usually dont' care about VO so much but Richard's was so awful that it felt like I was watching a B-movie or something.
Cheria in Rita's costume makes her more likable, at least to me. Rita's costume is silly looking in general, but it's still better than her default costume.
The Praiseworthy
Member
After almost 10 days I started the game yesterday and played for 4 hours.... Can't belive how much I'm loving the story and the characters which is something I didn't felt strongly about since the PS2 era, can't wait to play more later today 
Suikoguy
I whinny my fervor lowly, for his length is not as great as those of the Hylian war stallions
I liked Asbel's voice, reminded me of Baten Kaitos 2's lead.
I agree though about Richard, Richard's voice choice was a mistake.
Real spoiler ahead:
Thankfully he is absent through over half the main game
Almost done with Chapter 6 now.
This game has me hooked, I can't remember the last time i've been "addicted" to an RPG like this. I did with Skyrim to an extent, but not this much.
I agree. The only time here face looks good is in the skits. It's something about her eyes. Maybe it's the spacing of them.
Dark Schala
Eloquent Princess
*nibbles on toast* After two playthroughs and this one being my third, I'm about done with the music now. Turning the music all the way down and playing other music on my laptop now. Going through Barona Catacombs with that shitty 3-note theme again is something I don't want to experience again. Kinda sick of all of the battle themes too, so it's best that I use an alternative. Did some grinding to Un-Gravitify, Inevitable Struggle (Zero no Kiseki Arrange Ver), Go Straight, and Live and Learn, and it was nice.
...I also got lost in Wallbridge despite this technically being my fifth time through it (because of the sidequest you do there, so I went through there twice on each playthrough). On that note, I never really liked a lot of Team Destiny's dungeons. I usually preferred Team Symphonia's. *shrug*
I guess I'll play through some more later today if I have time.
As for Richard... I'm not sure about him. I keep having mixed feelings about his English voice, but it's been a while since I've heard his JP voice (since I put my second playthrough on hold and thus
) so I don't have much of a base to compare him with at the moment. There are some points where I think English Richard is okay. And then there are others that I feel weird about.
Now Sophie in English is amazing. Miles better than her JP counterpart, imo.
It's Sophie's default design that bothers me so much.
...I also got lost in Wallbridge despite this technically being my fifth time through it (because of the sidequest you do there, so I went through there twice on each playthrough). On that note, I never really liked a lot of Team Destiny's dungeons. I usually preferred Team Symphonia's. *shrug*
I guess I'll play through some more later today if I have time.
I didn't dislike Asbel in my JP playthroughs, though Sakurai voiced that character rather well and endeared him a little to me despite Asbel's decision-making/mamoru mamoru makenai business. Not a huge fan of English Asbel, tbh...cpp_is_king said:
As for Richard... I'm not sure about him. I keep having mixed feelings about his English voice, but it's been a while since I've heard his JP voice (since I put my second playthrough on hold and thus
didn't start Future Arc to hear lengthier streams of Richard's speech on that one
Now Sophie in English is amazing. Miles better than her JP counterpart, imo.
She gets much better ones later on and through DLC. Though I don't mind her design in general.Dresden said:
It's Sophie's default design that bothers me so much.
PixyJunket
Member
The other day I was daydreaming of a Tales game with a Tatsuro Udo battle system and a Go Shiina soundtrack.
ShockingAlberto
Member
The problem with the voice acting in this game is that lines were delivered as if they had no context. Emphasis was often placed on the completely wrong words so they didn't make much sense said that way in the conversation.
I understand the realities of voice acting don't allow everyone to be in the same room and act off each other, but it didn't even seem like there was consistent voice direction or even full scripts for every voice actor.
The voice actress for Pascal really delivered her lines like a champ, though.
I understand the realities of voice acting don't allow everyone to be in the same room and act off each other, but it didn't even seem like there was consistent voice direction or even full scripts for every voice actor.
The voice actress for Pascal really delivered her lines like a champ, though.
Dark Schala
Eloquent Princess
Is Udo still part of... uh, whatever Namco is calling the body that Tales Studio got absorbed into? I certainly hope so!
It's too bad that Shiina seems to be just composing for God Eater and Tekken (and Idolm@aster, I think?) now. As much as I liked how Xillia's soundtrack turned out after this game's, I'd like Tales to mix up its composition crew every now and then for variation in sound across the series.
It really does sound that way sometimes. It's "Aha, is this our chance?" all over again in some cases. Perhaps not to that extent, but it's a little jarring sometimes.
In-battle everyone sounds different, as if those lines were either done first or last out of the entire game's script. Granted, I'm not too far in the English version, so I don't want to judge the voiceovers overall yet.
Man, I'd love to hear how English Pascal does the Toro Victory quote, but they probably won't bring that over. :/ Actually, I wonder how one scene in the future arc went in English, now that I'm thinking about it (the one where she (
sings all off-key
PixyJunket
Member
I don't know! We can hope/pray though. In my mind, he's the most important man involved with Tales.
Second would be Inomata.
I think his work on Tekken and Idolmaster is more like guest work, even. That reminds me, I still need to play God Eater some day. Maybe one day it'll go on sale on PSN. Or, I guess I could just buy the disc and screw my Vita contingency plan.
As much venom as I've been know to send out towards Tamura/Sakuraba's shoddy work on the series, it HAS to be a pain to compose a full RPG soundtrack every six or eight months. Given how many development teams Namco had working on the series at times, it always baffled me they had the same two guys doing the soundtracks to every game.
I wonder if their work is reviled in Japan as it can sometimes be over here? And what did Japan think of Legendia's soundtrack?
Even Sakuraba himself "would have preferred to do something that differs more from previous games". In any case staff changes are most certainly happening as we speak (the combined Bandai Namco Studio will officially go live in a little over a week), we just don't know what areas are affected and what continuity will be kept there.
AlphaDragoon
Member
Yeah. It looks really bad, and is the only character face in the game that looks like a bad representation of the artist for Team Destiny's work, or like art that he fucked up (like the Sophie on the cover with eyes spaced so far you could build a football field between them).
I didn't mind the romance itself, but the clueless hero stereotype killed that subplot for me. I hate that trope.
There a romance I found very strange and out of place though (Future Arc spoilers) :
Hubert and Pascal. It just pops out of nowhere during Future Arc. In the main plot there's clearly nothing between the two of them and there's even a strong hint at Hubert actually having a crush on someone else in Yu Liberte. Comes Future, he's head and heels over her, wat.
That felt terribly forced, as if the writers suddenly thought they needed to make Pascal be more relevant. Like "Hey, let's put her in Hubert's plot even if it doesn't make a lot of sense!".
That felt terribly forced, as if the writers suddenly thought they needed to make Pascal be more relevant. Like "Hey, let's put her in Hubert's plot even if it doesn't make a lot of sense!".
Paracelsus
Member
Actually the same thing is more or less done in Tales of Eternia with
Meredy and Keele
It was there in the main quest, it was just very small. It was mostly in the easy to overlook skits though.
RPGCrazied
Member
The music is average. Not bad, not good, though I wish the tracks were longer. Some of them don't even last like 20 seconds, and it just loops over and over again.
Haha, got Cheria's Level 3 Mystic Arte before her second one. Somehow. My skill progression on her is all over the place :|
Grinding skill use is so tedious.
Edit: ...I just remembered you can Mystic Arte without Bursting. Wish I remembered that before getting all the Combo Master titles, though I guess only Cheria's was rough and the free ~15 hits from Asterism Line would've made the 50 hit cutoff easier (plus guaranteeing her the kill shot). Oh well :|
Grinding skill use is so tedious.
Edit: ...I just remembered you can Mystic Arte without Bursting. Wish I remembered that before getting all the Combo Master titles, though I guess only Cheria's was rough and the free ~15 hits from Asterism Line would've made the 50 hit cutoff easier (plus guaranteeing her the kill shot). Oh well :|
Disgaeamad
Member
All you need to remember about JP Richard is that he's voiced by Daisuke "Master of FABULOUS" Namikawa. So he's pretty much perfect for the job.
Better costume? Her get-up's hot man. Now Sophie, her costume's horrendous as is Asbel's, well, and Hubert and Pascal's too for that matter. Pascal's awesome though regardless of her shitty clothes.
cpp_is_king
Member
Speaking of VA, i think i liked Hubert's almost as much as Pascal. Pascals delivery was excellent, no doubt, but the character itself was just annoying by design. She grew on me a little by the end, but sometimes she was still just a little too annoying for me
Sushen
Member
Just started to play, I mean, inserted the disc only to be stuck at firmware update and then disc installation. 10 mins later, I'm posting this still waiting. Seriously, is this what they want us to experience as the first impression? I'm too used to iPad where I just turn it on and start playing...
BassForever
Member
I just beat
How much longer left is the main campaign?
Emerade, she really wasn't as difficult as everyone made her out to be, I thought Richard 3 was far more annoying
Is there a possibility of screwing up Wallbridge? I got through to the end of the dungeon where you could go to Graylshyde (?), but I circled back because of some treasure chests. I worked back to the beginning, but now there are just two panels available for me to travel, but it just loops around and it seems like I can't proceed back through. Did I glitch something, or am I just overlooking something obvious?
Suikoguy
I whinny my fervor lowly, for his length is not as great as those of the Hylian war stallions
I don't think so, but if returning to here, you need to enter by the way you last exited.
I thought the main arc ending was pretty shit. Was that really how it ended on Wii version, with the flowers? Barf.
Future Arc starts off way better than the Main Arc right from the start.
Very disappointing conclusion. He becomes friends with Lambda? Jesus, it's like a sunday afternoon special.
Future Arc starts off way better than the Main Arc right from the start.
cpp_is_king
Member
What level do you think one should be before farming there?
Also, few more random questions (for anyone who feels like answering):
- What qualities of shards are people dualizing onto their endgame gear during the levelling up process to get the best possible stats?
- What "final" shard are people dualizing onto their endgame gear when they're done levelling it up and want to complete it?
I'm at the point where I'm ready to start grinding dualize, but I don't want to screw up anyone's unique equipment since I won't be able to get another one.
Don't know. I'm barely able to kill some of the fights at Level 60 (Chaos) :/ The Violent Scorpions hit for 20k unblocked. Even with Titles and Guarding properly, I can't actually survive that yet :x
But combo loops kind of makes it not really matter too much. I'd just say give it a shot and see if you can kill them, honestly.
Dark Schala
Eloquent Princess
I agree. And I don't generally dislike Inomata's designs either. I like some of them. It's a little too bad that they don't put out those illustrations books for Inomata's games like they did with Abyss, Symphonia, Xillia, etc. I'd get them.I don't know! We can hope/pray though. In my mind, he's the most important man involved with Tales.
Second would be Inomata.
I think his work on Tekken and Idolmaster is more like guest work, even. That reminds me, I still need to play God Eater some day. Maybe one day it'll go on sale on PSN. Or, I guess I could just buy the disc and screw my Vita contingency plan.
As much venom as I've been know to send out towards Tamura/Sakuraba's shoddy work on the series, it HAS to be a pain to compose a full RPG soundtrack every six or eight months. Given how many development teams Namco had working on the series at times, it always baffled me they had the same two guys doing the soundtracks to every game.
I wonder if their work is reviled in Japan as it can sometimes be over here? And what did Japan think of Legendia's soundtrack?
With regards to Sakuraba, iirc, he composed Graces at the tail end of the time when his name was everywhere and his music was being used in everything. It's probably a case of being overworked.
As for Legendia, I was curious about that so I checked the PS2 mk2 site for it. It has a D rank, and the sound was the highest rated quality out of everything else, though not by much. Seems like the reactions to the soundtracks were mixed, though. Most seemed to like it while others disliked it.
I guess the sound isn't wholly Sakuraba's decision, then (especially noting that he can do some good stuff like with VP, BtL, ES, and Dark Souls). It's a little too bad since the series really needs that sort of variation (though let's be clear--I do like Tales scores in general, but I don't deny that some scores are lacking). I hope there's some continuity, especially with regards to Udo. He's done a ton with the LMBS and I sincerely hope he stays there in that sort of role. Udo being this game's lead planner was a good thing, imo.
It's really too bad that ToG doesn't seem to have a Negative Holder-type of skill (you hit for 1 damage against an enemy so it's very easy to combo), unless I forgot about it. Seems like you might have to turn up the difficulty on this one. Don't leave it until too late otherwise you might 1-shot the enemy by then.
Remember, Asbel's skills to steal are on his CC2 (Stagger Strike)/CC3 (Wolfwind Fang). That item that you want to get has a 6% steal rate. Keep trying until you get it or use a character who doesn't hit as hard as he does. Sophie's Eagle Dive/D. Drive string can steal, and she can also steal with Elegant Flash. Pascal can steal with Vicious Circle/Sudden Impact, but you might not have the titles for those yet--or any of these guys maybe, except for Asbel.
Music gets tiresome halfway through the second playthrough given that it's incredibly average and not one of the best Tales series scores.
It's kinda like how I got tired of Blinded by Light halfway through my English playthrough of Final Fantasy XIII. And then really started to dislike it during my platinum run (let's bear in mind that by the end of it, I'd played 200 hours worth of FFXIII in both JP and English, so overexposure really killed it for me). At least Nier has a custom soundtrack option so when I'm grinding for drops in that game, I won't get sick of the wonderful soundtrack.
Oh yessss, now I remember. I should look up a few scenes to compare/complete my second JP playthrough to compare. I remember liking JP Fabulous Richard a lot.
I like English Hubert so far (though I had originally warmed up to JP Hubert during battle because of Instant Valse and a few of his other attacks and blast calibers), so I want to hear how he sounds in battle.
Hmmm... I actually didn't do a ton of dualization on final equipment towards the end because my level was high enough that I didn't really need it outside of the CC boost. I'd stick with Keen, Sharp, Rigid, Wild, Plain, etc attributes when dualizing gear, though. The best thing to do is look at the dualization book and see which qualities you want the characters' weapons to have based on the bonuses they give.
As for the Unmapped desert with all the hard enemies, I'd be level 80-100 given that some of the enemies there--iirc--were around lv 60-90 or so. But you could switch the difficulty to Simple and grind there for a while for cash or something.
DarknessTear
Banned
Normal is kinda hard, honestly. Having to use gels in normal fights isn't something that I'm used to, or the damage they deal. I'm not complaining, though. I at least haven't been game over'd so far.
I wish this game had healing skills that weren't spells. For all the good they did with the combat system in this game, it still falls into the old Tales pitfall where if your healer(s) get overwhelmed, you're pretty much screwed since there's really no reliable way to keep enemies away long enough for them to cast, especially if you've got one or two characters on the ground.
dakkumauji
Member
Hubert does get a form of Center that is quite a pain to use being able after a 3 CC A-arte move or whatever.
There is a lot of passive healing in the game in hitting enemies, criticaling enemies, getting eleth rise or even having 60 seconds pass in the game.
Okay so I'm nearing the end of the F Arc and I have to say that the conversations that Asbel and
have are some of the most cringe-worthy dialogue I've experienced in the game by far. Asbel comes off like a naive fool in those dialogue sequences and if Asbel was exactly like that the entire game, I'd probably not like him as much. Overall, the skits and interactions are definitely improved and the pacing is much better than the main plot. Hopefully the ending is better than the one in the main plot, because while I found the ending for that completely unoffensive and sort of heartwarming; it felt incomplete.
Also, I'm finding the main F Arc antagonist,
to be much more interesting than
.
Lambda
Also, I'm finding the main F Arc antagonist,
Little Queen
Lambda
cpp_is_king
Member
There's also a book you can put in your mixer that doubles item steal success rate.
The combat is easily the best of the series, everything else though is meh.
DarknessTear
Banned
I think the only reason I was able to stand platinuming that game was because of the music, honestly.
I disagree.
The cast is, in my opinion, better than Vesperia's (I said it.) and Abyss'. They just play off with each other better than just about 99% of the localized Tales titles (with the exception of Legendia). The story is not anything to write home about, but the pacing is pretty good for the most part and is largely inoffensive. Also there isn't that much incoherent jargon (fonon fonon fonon fonon fonon) and long, drawn out explanations. The only thing remotely "meh" about the game is the music (battle themes can be changed anyhow, simply equip a Costume that changes the theme) and dungeon design.
It's Tales of You Must Buy This Game f.