Funny you mentioned Arc Rise Fantasia because it's the first game I thought of when I booted up Graces and watched its intro. Grant it, the voice acting isn't NEARLY as obnoxious or embarrassing as ARF, but the scenario isn't much different from what I've played of the two games. Most of the cringe worthy shit comes from whenever Pascal is talking. Other than that the rest of the game is a dry as the Strahta Desert. It's TOO boring for my tastes. I've been still trucking along for about 43 hours on Chaos and nothing significant has happened in the plot.
Here's my half ass pitch for a better/more interesting scenario for Tales of Graces. Asbel wakes up at the bottom of Warrior's Roost and realizes he might be the only person left in the world. His goal is to climb the battle tower. There's one boat mysteriously docked outside of Warrior's Roost which you can use to travel around the world. All towns are deserted/ruined where only enemies remain. Each of the main dungeons have an artifact that needs to be brought back to Warrior's Roost to access higher/more difficult floors of the battle tower. You are free to travel to any land completely out of order. Some areas will be naturally more difficult than others, but you can choose to venture into these lands if you are strong enough. Enemies would not scale. In each region you meet up with one of other dumb ass characters and they don't know what's happened either, but they join your cause to climb the tower and find answers. DONE.
Funny you mentioned Arc Rise Fantasia because it's the first game I thought of when I booted up Graces and watched its intro. Grant it, the voice acting isn't NEARLY as obnoxious or embarrassing as ARF, but the scenario isn't much different from what I've played of the two games. Most of the cringe worthy shit comes from whenever Pascal is talking. Other than that the rest of the game is a dry as the Strahta Desert. It's TOO boring for my tastes. I've been still trucking along for about 43 hours on Chaos and nothing significant has happened in the plot.
Here's my half ass pitch for a better/more interesting scenario for Tales of Graces. Asbel wakes up at the bottom of Warrior's Roost and realizes he might be the only person left in the world. His goal is to climb the battle tower. There's one boat mysteriously docked outside of Warrior's Roost which you can use to travel around the world. All towns are deserted/ruined where only enemies remain. Each of the main dungeons have an artifact that needs to be brought back to Warrior's Roost to access higher/more difficult floors of the battle tower. You are free to travel to any land completely out of order. Some areas will be naturally more difficult than others, but you can choose to venture into these lands if you are strong enough. Enemies would not scale. In each region you meet up with one of other dumb ass characters and they don't know what's happened either, but they join your cause to climb the tower and find answers. DONE.
look at how many people complained about the last game that had no npcs. also I am just before the last dungeon, is there any essential side quest stuff or should i just complete the game and do the post content after
look at how many people complained about the last game that had no npcs. also I am just before the last dungeon, is there any essential side quest stuff or should i just complete the game and do the post content after
I wish it were more possible or convenient to cast and schedule some of the central/east coast VA's that do the Funimation/ADV dubs. I have a guy in mind that I think would be perfect for Asbel, but oh well. I'm not sure how the process works, but since I rarely see those guys voice games I'm guessing it would be a pain to get them on board.
Bryce as Asbel took gettting used to as well. Some of the dramatic moments I think Bryce didn't do a good job in selling it. Sounded forced and unnatural. Don't know if I should blame him too much though, because the writing, especially near the end of the main game, wasn't all that good. Lack of facial expressions on the characters doesn't help those angry moments either.
Sakurai sold the character better, imo. It's a little too bad because it seems like something Papenbrook would've been able to pull off too--since he did Jack in Radiata Stories. I've seen the English version's ending already and I didn't really like it as much as the JP ending since it was kinda weird for me. Anyway, I've said this a lot in the thread so I won't elaborate, lol.
Barring the healing, some Graces bosses seem to do this. Or maybe some A-Artes don't actually combo. I drop a lot of combos on bosses that I just can't figure out why short of boss voodoo magic
or I need to lrn2play
Maaaaan, I'm having a blast on Graces Chaos. It's not hard enough to warrant a NG+ playthrough with all the bonuses to carry over. Is Xillia's extra difficulties at least "oh shit" levels of stuff to warrant it?
It's kind of different, though. With Xillia, it's kind of harder to combo a boss into submission (Graces at least lets you have a chance since I've done 200 hit combos before). Comboing gets much easier on subsequent playthroughs since you know how to time, so don't sweat it.
Graces Chaos is so much fun, and the extra difficulty facilitates the battle system. Xillia Unknown can sometimes get boring because it just feels like the battles are just longer. Plus by the time you're doing Xillia Unknown, you'll be on your second playthrough. Unknown Difficulty enemies' HP is multiplied by 4, TP is doubled, and all their stats are doubled. You can counter it by getting stuff from the Grade Shop. And you can also counter this because Xillia's combos--in regular battles--are a joke to get. Just regularly attack a few times, use Milla's Negative Holder or Rowen's Splash and then combo again when the AC resets to get to a high combo no problem. You get EXP bonuses by getting higher bonuses, so people exploit this to get all of the character trophies (you get trophies when characters hit level 99).
You have to level up shops to get new equipment. So you know all those drops you're finding in Graces now and how they're being used in the Eleth Mixer for synthesis? You don't use drops for stuff like that in Xillia at all. You use your drops to level up your shops (max level 99, and you get trophies for levelling up shops). You can easily level your shops up a lot in early game (which is what I've done on my second playthrough) by grinding in the swamp next to an early-game village, and thus way higher-level armour, accessories, weapons, items, and foods becomes available to you earlier than it should (and you have to keep levelling up your shops if you want to get better armour/weapons/items throughout the game unless you're doing a no shop playthrough or something).
btw, Xillia has no cooking. You buy the food from restaurants and use it as an item outside of battle. Its effects stay on for a certain amount of battles.
Kudos to you guys playing on Chaos. Wow. I've had a very hard time getting through hard. Now I got some good nice new weapons. Guess I should dualize like A LOT. Like +50 or however high you can go. Maybe the lack of doing that has been my problem. Two of the bosses were an epic pain --
kurt and emeraude
. Used an all-divide on the last boss in the main game too. I'm impatient and wanted to see the scenes after the fight. Every other fight went well eventually and was very satisfying when I finally won.
Yep. Dualization will help you out a lot on Chaos. And the highest level is +99.
Those two bosses you mentioned, I've heard, were much easier in the Wii version, but they beefed up the difficulty here. For example, that Chapter 5 boss fight you mentioned--the lackeys never came back after you defeated them in the Wii version.
Barring the healing, some Graces bosses seem to do this. Or maybe some A-Artes don't actually combo. I drop a lot of combos on bosses that I just can't figure out why short of boss voodoo magic
Xillia doesn't take after Graces in this regard though, it's on a completely different level and took after Hearts which was similarly annoying with its anti-combo/stagger bosses.
I did do the handkerchief quest, I just don't know why it'd disappear post game though, lol. If I wanted to grind, is the final dungeon a good place for it?
Pascal is annoying. Her touching "joke" is unfunny, she has no motivation to even be wih the cast 99% of the time, she doesn't gel well with the rest of the cast, and her actions are almost always cringe worthy in the airhead/spaz type of way. At least she's voice well for what her character is suppose to be.
Hubert and Malik are great though. And the rest of the cast is inoffensive at the worst. Just Pascal... ughh (still not nearly the worst Tales of character overall, of course).
That said, I'm still loving the game. Addictive gameplay and a story & cast that I've been finding way more interesting than I ever thought I would be. Though it might be 2013 by the time I put the game down with how evil bosses are on chaos lol
Xillia doesn't take after Graces in this regard though, it's on a completely different level and took after Hearts which was similarly annoying with its anti-combo/stagger bosses.
I wonder when we'll get word with regards to Tales Studio's dissolution and who's still there, and who'll inevitably be in charge of the next game in the series since Hearts staff pretty much did Xillia.
I did do the handkerchief quest, I just don't know why it'd disappear post game though, lol. If I wanted to grind, is the final dungeon a good place for it?
Sandshroud Ruins at that point in the game might be fine for XP grinding, but the enemies can be rather difficult at that point too. You need the Amarcian Key to get in, though (you find this in
Bathus Citadel
. Otherwise, if you find that the final dungeon's enemies are too difficult (because they're pretty good for grinding too), you can always go back to
I wonder when we'll get word with regards to Tales Studio's dissolution and who's still there, and who'll inevitably be in charge of the next game in the series since Hearts staff pretty much did Xillia.
The staff listing (either in the trailer or in-game) for the next new major Tales game will be telling. Both previous team's leads are overdue for a new game, so who's not there either left for good or is working on a non-Tales game (together with Higuchi perhaps). I don't expect any word earlier than that, unless there's some surprise developer interview in viva tales of magazine or something.
I just realized how much I hate stupid save points. I keep forgetting to save and just put it off and I finally die after 2 hours worth of playing and lose it all. ARGGG WHY?!
Wait, isn't that what I said? It's what caused me to like Sophie; her skits and win quotes vs the story presentation of her. Which, on that note, I'd probably dislike more of the cast if not for the skits and win quotes possibly. They're fleshed out so much more in the skits.
Clint Bickham. Played the english version of Renji from Ef- a tale of memories (ep. 1 of the dub is streamed for free on that anime network site.) Tried to find a cool clip of his voice.... but I bumped into this:
Clint's the guy in black with a tie and black hair.
Dark Schala said:
Those two bosses you mentioned, I've heard, were much easier in the Wii version, but they beefed up the difficulty here. For example, that Chapter 5 boss fight you mentioned--the lackeys never came back after you defeated them in the Wii version.
I wonder when we'll get word with regards to Tales Studio's dissolution and who's still there, and who'll inevitably be in charge of the next game in the series since Hearts staff pretty much did Xillia.
Sandshroud Ruins at that point in the game might be fine for XP grinding, but the enemies can be rather difficult at that point too. You need the Amarcian Key to get in, though (you find this in
Bathus Citadel
. Otherwise, if you find that the final dungeon's enemies are too difficult (because they're pretty good for grinding too), you can always go back to
Laevatain for Asbel, but you have to beat Veigue at the top of the Riot Peak tower to get it. You can also get Excalibur for Asbel, it's part of a side quest.
I can't remember the name of Hubert's weapon in the final dungeon but he has one. You have to use those cores you found in treasure boxes to activate and fight golem optional bosses found throughout the place.
I saw a video of an extremely cheap way to kill him. Hubert has some titles (not sure if anyone else does) that adds the damage inflicted to him onto his damage output. In the video the guy was pretty low level, so one hit instantly killed his Hubert, pork curry or something revived him, then he used one hit to kill the monster lol.
At first, I didn't like Pascal, but for some reason, after getting her swimsuit (and subsequently watching various scenes with her in it) I started to really like and appreciate her character. lol
That might sound a little pervy if you don't know what Pascal's swimsuit looks like.
One thing I don't like about the Future arc is that it seems some of the characters have changed a lot.
Malik, Richard, and Hubert
specifically. Can't find the best way to describe it, but it seems like
Malik
tries to be funny more,
Hubert
is put in more awkward situations for comedy, and
Richard
is quiet and calm and doesn't get worked up about anything except atoning for mistakes. The other characters are more or less similar.
It's kind of different, though. With Xillia, it's kind of harder to combo a boss into submission (Graces at least lets you have a chance since I've done 200 hit combos before). Comboing gets much easier on subsequent playthroughs since you know how to time, so don't sweat it.
Well, I don't have any trouble normally. It's every now and then versus bosses where 2CC -> 3CC A-Arte, for instance, will just flat out not combo yet all signs point to it working. Boss still flinches and eats the hit but the counter doesn't increment and a new one starts. But eh, maybe it is just lrn2play :x
Interesting, I suppose. Lack of cooking is a little bizarre and grindan isn't exactly a bad thing to me. I guess we're still in hoping for localization mode, though...
The thing about Evil/Chaos is that they're harder if you haven't been on them for awhile. Once you are, the bonuses you get basically make up the difference. Chaos rewards you for playing better (hitting weaknesses is a larger damage bonus) as well so that is something to keep in mind. My view on it is that playing on Hard, Evil, or Chaos for a long time are all roughly the same difficulty level just that the emphasis on how well you perform grows with each difficulty (and/or the margin of error shrinks).
To be fair, you could attribute it to the fact that
he was interested in Cheria in the main arc, but he's thinking about marriage more because of his mother. Hubert was put into a similar situation, but his overall character has changed.
I shouldn't have started maining Cheria or Hubert since I got a slew of new titles of them... which has led me to putting off progressing through the game again. It's the usual thing with this game!
Clint Bickham. Played the english version of Renji from Ef- a tale of memories (ep. 1 of the dub is streamed for free on that anime network site.) Tried to find a cool clip of his voice.... but I bumped into this:
I don't like using the All Divide because it halves your damage too. Actually I don't really know why I hoard them even though I don't use them. :/
As for the rock gagan, I used Asbel, Malik, Cheria and
a Narikiri Doll Cheria
the first time around. So they were doing the damage (because I picked ranged characters for the entire thing, and since I was controlling Asbel, I could do whatever I wanted with him). Generally you want people to stay away from him, especially when he opens his mouth and tries to consume a character (and they'll be gone for the rest of it). So when he animates to do that, set everyone to passive and defend/heal at 100%, and get away from him. The second time around, I tried it with Asbel, Hubert, Cheria and
another Hubert
which was pretty fun and I got higher combos as a result of that. Hubert's titles like the damage infliction ones come in really handy since his combos are so nice.
Honestly, if you tell your characters to stay away from by picking defensive or passive (and issuing commands manually), there's less of a likelihood that he'll OHKO you or hit you. Also playing on Easy might help since his HP's reduced so low so that it's reasonable to beat him in 20 minutes.
Well, I don't have any trouble normally. It's every now and then versus bosses where 2CC -> 3CC A-Arte, for instance, will just flat out not combo yet all signs point to it working. Boss still flinches and eats the hit but the counter doesn't increment and a new one starts. But eh, maybe it is just lrn2play :x
Interesting, I suppose. Lack of cooking is a little bizarre and grindan isn't exactly a bad thing to me. I guess we're still in hoping for localization mode, though...
Ohhh, yeah, some bosses do that in this game, though in Xillia, it takes cues from Hearts for anti-combo bosses and makes it somewhat irritating. What's nice about comboing in Tales is that it feels like there's party synergy and you're trying to work up to a higher combo by resting between your other characters' shots and then going in while they're resting up... but Xillia didn't always have that same feeling for some bosses for me.
I don't mind the shop grinding, tbh, since I ended up grinding to complete the lillial orbs (that's how you level up and get new skills/artes) so I got drops anyway. A few people in the OT sorta did because it--understandably and I completely see where they're coming from--takes away from the experience of going to a new town and getting new gear, and makes the entire thing feel really streamlined. The platinum and grade acquisition are considerably easier since it's all... like... grinding items, grinding link artes, grinding certain character special techniques (each character has a special technique and you need to use them 150 times), grinding everyone to lv 99 (which is easy if you know the trick), etc.
Titles are unfortunately reduced to being things you chase for/grind for to get grade or trophies. So you get titles for clearing x amount of battles (and getting grade for that), using link artes a certain amount of time, eating certain amount of times, etc. It's kinda boring since they don't give you stat bonuses, new artes, etc like Graces does.
Ultimoo said:
yeah for some reason the sandshroud enemies have so much hp and give so little sp. don't know why.
That's because they're trying to advise you to get the 'beat x in 60 seconds' trophy, but if you don't care for that...
When he goes into Eleth Break, get the heck away from him--far away, and set your characters to Passive/Guard+Heal when HP falls under 100% until Eleth Break finishes, and then reset the AI to Offensive and pound on him. If you do care for the trophy, you could use an hourglass whenever he's in Eleth Break so that'll stop him from using the Blast Caliber (clever strategy on Sagitario's part).
That's because they're trying to advise you to get the 'beat x in 60 seconds' trophy, but if you don't care for that...
When he goes into Eleth Break, get the heck away from him--far away, and set your characters to Passive/Guard+Heal when HP falls under 100% until Eleth Break finishes, and then reset the AI to Offensive and pound on him. If you do care for the trophy, you could use an hourglass whenever he's in Eleth Break so that'll stop him from using the Blast Caliber (clever strategy on Sagitario's part).
Go into the option menu every 45 seconds or so and change the AI? That sounds incredibly cumbersome. and I'm typically mid-combo when his water breaks so turning around and running is usually no an option.
edit: I watched a video of the fight and their eleth goes up way slower than in my game, what the hell
I don't understand why Tales of Symphonia, a 9 year old game, has AI shortcuts, while this game does not. It was nice being able to make allies defend with the touch of a button.
I just realized how much I hate stupid save points. I keep forgetting to save and just put it off and I finally die after 2 hours worth of playing and lose it all. ARGGG WHY?!
Ohhh, yeah, some bosses do that in this game, though in Xillia, it takes cues from Hearts for anti-combo bosses and makes it somewhat irritating. What's nice about comboing in Tales is that it feels like there's party synergy and you're trying to work up to a higher combo by resting between your other characters' shots and then going in while they're resting up... but Xillia didn't always have that same feeling for some bosses for me.
I don't mind the shop grinding, tbh, since I ended up grinding to complete the lillial orbs (that's how you level up and get new skills/artes) so I got drops anyway. A few people in the OT sorta did because it--understandably and I completely see where they're coming from--takes away from the experience of going to a new town and getting new gear, and makes the entire thing feel really streamlined. The platinum and grade acquisition are considerably easier since it's all... like... grinding items, grinding link artes, grinding certain character special techniques (each character has a special technique and you need to use them 150 times), grinding everyone to lv 99 (which is easy if you know the trick), etc.
Yeah, I love comboing bosses with party synergy and avoiding boss's artes by skillful dodging/free run/whatever the specific Tales game has. Graces makes this even more fun with "Moon Selector" basically being on the D-Pad, accessible at all times without going into the menu, allowing me to switch to different characters to help continue the combo. Xillia and Hearts's combo breaking bosses makes it really aggravating and not as much fun at all.
I didn't mind the shop grinding too much either honestly. The Lilial Orb for leveling is pretty cool though.
Just started the game with my little brother. We're just cracking up at these characters at the child arc. They're adorable and annoying in a funny kind of way xD
VA doesn't bother me so far...
The battle system is great, though. Can't wait for the advance stuff.
To be fair, you could attribute it to the fact that
he was interested in Cheria in the main arc, but he's thinking about marriage more because of his mother. Hubert was put into a similar situation, but his overall character has changed.
he liked her in general, I meant the intensity in which it came on all of a sudden. The entire game he's oblivious to her feelings and doesn't act any differently around her than he would anyone else, and then Future Arc hits and suddenly he's acting like a crazy person around her to the point where she was going "WTF is up with him" when they met up at the castle for the first time. It's like they replaced real Asbel with a pod person just because Japanese players (read; Cheria fanboys and fangirls) were salty that they didn't explicitly show them getting together in the main game.
Go into the option menu every 45 seconds or so and change the AI? That sounds incredibly cumbersome. and I'm typically mid-combo when his water breaks so turning around and running is usually no an option.
edit: I watched a video of the fight and their eleth goes up way slower than in my game, what the hell
But it's fine, imo, to cease your comboing to avoid him since that Blast Caliber seems to be causing an issue. Don't run. Use Around-Step and Backstep to avoid. Running is slow as hell. Or you could instantly switch to another character further away and do something else with him/her during your current character's attack animation. Up to you.
I usually like toying around with the AI, so that's generally what worked for me since I'm playing on Chaos. But if you don't want to use them (and I apologize for suggesting it since it seems like the idea is incredibly off-putting to you and it seems like I sorta hit a nerve), then make sure the character that you're controlling gets away from him quickly. He can whack on whomever he wants, but as long as you survive, that's fine (and then you can use a Life Bottle if you want to revive the fallen ally, but it's up to you really). He should just go down in just one Eleth Break if you stick to using skills like Phantom Pulse with Asbel (CC3 right A-arte) since that's strong against humans.
I don't understand why Tales of Symphonia, a 9 year old game, has AI shortcuts, while this game does not. It was nice being able to make allies defend with the touch of a button.
That's definitely one of the criticisms I have with regards to this game's AI setups. Lack of shortcuts, and a lack of options isn't very great. When you go back to Vesperia or move onto Xillia, you'll have a ton of options at your disposal.
Yeah, I love comboing bosses with party synergy and avoiding boss's artes by skillful dodging/free run/whatever the specific Tales game has. Graces makes this even more fun with "Moon Selector" basically being on the D-Pad, accessible at all times without going into the menu, allowing me to switch to different characters to help continue the combo. Xillia and Hearts's combo breaking bosses makes it really aggravating and not as much fun at all.
I didn't mind the shop grinding too much either honestly. The Lilial Orb for leveling is pretty cool though.
The lilial orb system looks nice, and I can choose whatever parameters I feel like are necessary first and foremost (and thus unlock certain skills I want faster). I get why people don't really like it since it's rather streamlined.
I usually felt that while you're linked with someone, you can't really pull off the cool synergy combos off through teamwork sometimes (and I guess that's why so much emphasis was placed on Link Arts). Still, the bosses breaking out of combos or being anti-stagger half the time removes the fun out of the battles, particularly because Tales seems like it's a combo-driven system (and your skills with said system are usually put to the test during bosses).
Wow, the final dungeon was such a bitch... why do they make these dungeons so damn LONG?! It's not just long either, but really frustrating for all the wrong reasons with all the stupid "puzzles" you have to do, memorizing which warp takes you where etc. Not fun at all
I started the future arc last night, and just a comment on the overall story, I didn't mind it, some good points some meh points but overall it was AIIGHT nahmean.
One comment though, the one thing that always bothered me was how clueless Asbel can be sometimes. It's beyond something I can suspend my belief on.
Well:
-I did battles until Asbel and Sophie leveled up once (from 29 to 30).
-Mastered Concussive something and Infernal whatever (I am having such a hard time learning the artes names, seriously -_-).
-Tried to improve Cryas Attack
-Used the Critical x2 recipe
-Hourglass during the enemy Arles Break
-Plus other adjustments to the AI artes and strategy
The thing about Evil/Chaos is that they're harder if you haven't been on them for awhile. Once you are, the bonuses you get basically make up the difference. Chaos rewards you for playing better (hitting weaknesses is a larger damage bonus) as well so that is something to keep in mind. My view on it is that playing on Hard, Evil, or Chaos for a long time are all roughly the same difficulty level just that the emphasis on how well you perform grows with each difficulty (and/or the margin of error shrinks).
he liked her in general, I meant the intensity in which it came on all of a sudden. The entire game he's oblivious to her feelings and doesn't act any differently around her than he would anyone else, and then Future Arc hits and suddenly he's acting like a crazy person around her to the point where she was going "WTF is up with him" when they met up at the castle for the first time. It's like they replaced real Asbel with a pod person just because Japanese players (read; Cheria fanboys and fangirls) were salty that they didn't explicitly show them getting together in the main game.
Me too. I'd take it a step further and say this is one of my favorite RPG casts in quite awhile. They all seem to just mesh well together. And I can say this is the only RPG I've ever played that there isn't at least one character that rubs me the wrong way. In most RPG there always seem to be that character that you just want to bitch slap for some reason. Right now I'm playing Tales of the Abyss 3D and I would love to do that to Luke so bad.
Got the game a few days ago , have a few side quest to do then i will beat the last boss to play the future arc.
Won't do much extra stuff since i normally do that during my 2nd run in tales games.
Cast okay and the combat is great still i have to say i much rather the TP system.
Can't wait for my second run where i normally max out stuff and unfair the game.
the beat x boss in 60 seconds reminds me a lot of SO3 BTs. I only got the bryce one so far, I guess getting those on higher difficulty settings is kind of hard.
