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Tales of Series | Community Thread | Localizing more games than Square Enix

A

Aeana

Member
Seda said:
This is what I was thinking too, heh.

I don't know which game is my favorite. Probably Symphonia (my first) or Vesperia but there are a lot of things I dislike about both of those. I've played all the localized releases except Destiny.
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I don't like Symphonia. Let's fight about it.
 
W

Wazzy

Banned
I like Abyss and Symphonia. They're also the only two I've played. :( I will be trying Graces soon though!
 
K

kierwynn

Member
Whoo, a Tales series thread! I absolutely love the Tales series.

I'm currently playing Tales of Xillia right now- I'm probably going to end up owning this game three times over. lol (Japanese because I never thought we'd get it here, NA version, and EU version so I can play it in Spanish.) Luckily, I'm the type that can play something over and over again and never get tired of it.
 
R

Rpgmonkey

Member
Cool.

There's too much else I have to get through for the rest of this year so I don't think I'll be buying or playing any Tales games (this year doesn't have any all-new experiences for me anyway), but I'll follow along.
 
F

FSLink

Banned
Aeana said:
Tales of Legendia has the best soundtrack in the series by far.
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Xillia and Xillia 2 are pretty good runner ups too.

I like Symphonia's soundtrack, but it's not as great once you realize it's just worse remixes of Phantasia's OST + Fatalize (which is an awesome track by itself).
 
S

Seven Force

Banned
Seda said:
This is what I was thinking too, heh.

I don't know which game is my favorite. Probably Symphonia (my first) or Vesperia but there are a lot of things I dislike about both of those. I've played all the localized releases except Destiny.
Click to expand...

I can't decide between Vesperia, Graces, or Rebirth (Which I only recently finished.)

Granted, I didn't really know what was going on in Rebirth, but as far as I'm aware, that's probably for the better. Great combat mechanics, though.
 
S

Stuart444

Member
Seda said:
This is what I was thinking too, heh.

I don't know which game is my favorite. Probably Symphonia (my first) or Vesperia but there are a lot of things I dislike about both of those. I've played all the localized releases except Destiny.
Click to expand...

You should play Destiny. It's a great game.

Seriously, I loved the whole Swordian concept that game had. I also loved (>_>) the localized name for Demon Fang in that game. "Missle Sword".
 
A

AzureSkies

Member
This thread reminds me that I need to first finish The Last of Us and then finish my playthrough of Vesperia before the sixth.
 
C

CielTynave

Member
Even though Symphonia was my first, I don't really get all nostalgic about it like some people do and when later games came out most of them easily surpassed it in my opinion. It does kind of irk me a bit when people do admit to some other being better but still prefer Symphonia because of nostalgia, although I suppose that's just because I'm not really a sentimental person at all.
 
B

Bladenic

Member
Vesperia and Rebirth are my top 2 undoubtedly, Graces has the best combat though and an amazing lineup of mystic artes.

Excluding Legendia and Dawn, my bottom two are Abyss and Hearts.
 
S

Seda

Member
Stuart444 said:
You should play Destiny. It's a great game.

Seriously, I loved the whole Swordian concept that game had. I also loved (>_>) the localized name for Demon Fang in that game. "Missle Sword".
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I'm in the process of playing through a lot of older games I missed out on. Destiny is on the list. What's the cheapest way to play it though? :/
 
S

Shahed

Member
Aeana said:
Tales of Legendia has the best soundtrack in the series by far.
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I'd disagree, but I can't remember Legendia all that well. I remember the game as a haze for some reason. It wouldn't exactly be the fairest of judgements...
 
R

Rhapsody

Banned
Hm... Well it's either Legendia, Tempest, or Rebirth that I need to start/near the beginning. I'm still progressing in Hearts and DotNW.

Seda said:
I've played all the localized releases except Destiny.
Click to expand...

You're not missing much. Out of all the Tales games, it aged the worst for me. Doesn't help that the game was the easiest out of the series with the 2nd most highest encounter rate. :(
 
A

Aeana

Member
Shahed said:
I'd disagree, but I can't remember Legendia all that well. I remember the game as a haze for some reason. It wouldn't exactly be the fairest of judgements...
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The music is by Go Shiina who is just honestly a better composer than Sakuraba.
 
M

matmanx1

Member
Yay! It's a Tales thread! I like!

I played, enjoyed and beaten Tales of Vesperia, Tales of The World: Radiant Mythology and Tales of Graces f.

I got bored with Tales of the Abyss, Tales of Eternia (PSP) and Tales of Legendia and didn't finish either of them.

I've dabbled with Tales of Rebirth (PSP) and Tales of Xillia in Japanese but my language ability was hampering my enjoyment do I didn't play either of them as much as I would have liked to. Tales in Rebirth in particular was extremely fun to play but I've heard bad things about the story.

I look forward to Xillia and Symphonia HD later in the year. It's actually a good time to be a Tales fan in America. Who would have thought?
 
N

Negator

Member
I had dabbled into Phantasia in the past, but I didnt get into the series until Vesperia. Since then I've played every subsequent Tales game released, aside from ToS2.

Super hype for Xillia.
 
P

PlanetSmasher

Banned
Aeana said:
The music is by Go Shiina who is just honestly a better composer than Sakuraba.
Click to expand...

I honestly don't remember any of the music from Legendia, but I just remember hating so much of that game that it's entirely possible my mind has blanked out the soundtrack as well.

I still love the original Destiny soundtrack, myself. It's pre-shittening Sakuraba.
 
C

CielTynave

Member
I definitely agree that Shiina is better than Sakuraba, but I am looking forward to what he does for the series from now on since it seems he's going solo instead of with Tamura, his work on Star Ocean 3 is definitely my favorite of his.
 
G

Gartooth

Member
Vesperia is easily my favorite, my first Tales game and it got me into the series.

Only other games I've played are Abyss (3DS port) and Graces f. I'm not sure which I would rank higher because I actually disliked both, probably Graces just for the sake of the combat being pretty fun even though I prefer Abyss' cast. (which isn't saying much because Graces has incredibly horrible characters)

Looking forward to Xillia but at the same time really worried, the whole dual storylines thing in particular because it sounds like a way just to waste time if I really have to play through the game twice just for some bonus scenes. (at least that's what it sounds like)
 
S

Stuart444

Member
Seda said:
I'm in the process of playing through a lot of older games I missed out on. Destiny is on the list. What's the cheapest way to play it though? :/
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Ideally borrowing it off a friend, if you don't have that option, I don't know :/

Glad Destiny is on the list though :)
 
A

aliencowz7

Member
Bladenic said:
Vesperia and Rebirth are my top 2 undoubtedly, Graces has the best combat though and an amazing lineup of mystic artes.
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I didn't really like the battle system in Graces F that much, I liked the title system but the actual battle system was painfully easy even on the hardest difficulty. Removing all traces of resource management really irked me as well.

My brain works heavily on efficiency so the whole CC system and super long low damage combos like what people put in combo videos have zero appeal to me so I think alot of what people enjoyed about Graces F's battle system is lost on me and not what I look for out of tales of games battle systems.

The dodge was one of the worst things they could have possibly done to a battle system for me considering it made the difficulty a total snooze fest even playing through on the hardest difficulty the entire game.
 
M

MoogPaul

Member
Graces F is one of, if not the, best battle system ever to grace mankind.

That being said, I wish we got the Vita games.
 
B

Bladenic

Member
PlanetSmasher said:
I honestly don't remember any of the music from Legendia, but I just remember hating so much of that game that it's entirely possible my mind has blanked out the soundtrack as well.

I still love the original Destiny soundtrack, myself. It's pre-shittening Sakuraba.
Click to expand...

The thing about Legendia's OST, IMO, is that it isn't really memorable. But it's incredibly well done. Some tracks are really amazing.
 
S

Shahed

Member
Aeana said:
The music is by Go Shiina who is just honestly a better composer than Sakuraba.
Click to expand...

Sakuraba has definitely gone downhill. I loved his earlier works like Valkyrie Profile and a few other odd tracks, but I'm finding the music he composes recently to get more and more forgettable. Maybe he's burned out with too much work or something
 
R

Rhapsody

Banned
I feel like Sakuraba doesn't even try on Tales games. Too many songs sound similar to each other. Especially one of the songs in Destiny 2 with Golden Sun (I'd have to search which one it was).

I still like Go Shiina over Sakuraba though.
 
G

Gartooth

Member
I always forget that Symphonia HD is coming, want to try that too because I remember a lot of people raving about it when it came out on Gamecube way back when... though it has probably aged poorly and won't be nearly as fun as Vesperia having played that first.
 
M

Memento_Mori15

Member
Nice banner. I used to really love the tales of series but it's slowly dying(like any other game series). Last Tales of game I was playing was Vesperia(PS3) but I still didn't beat it even though I only need to fight the last boss. I felt like there were too many things to do in the game that I kept pushing it off. However, I must say I really like all the characters in Vesperia, even Karol.

Looking forward to Xillia and then probably import Xillia 2. Depends on money and time.
 
B

BassForever

Member
Vesperia best overall game
Graces f best gameplay
Abyss best story

This is only for English Tales and the few fan translated ones out there except Tempest which I've been sitting on :X
 
P

PlanetSmasher

Banned
Seven Force said:
Allow me to refresh your memories.
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Yeah, I don't remember this at all. I'm not kidding, I really don't.

Shahed said:
Sakuraba has definitely gone downhill. I loved his earlier works like Valkyrie Profile and a few other odd tracks, but I'm finding the music he composes recently to get more and more forgettable. Maybe he's burned out with too much work or something
Click to expand...

I think Sakuraba's definitely out of ideas. Valkyrie Profile, Star Ocean 2 and Tales of Destiny were all amazing scores out of him, but he just never made the jump into the PS2 era all that well.
 
E

ED Cantu

Member
Great OP, finally a Tales community thread.

This series is one of my favorites, I've played 10 Tales of games between Mothership titles and escorts, now I can hardly wait for Xillia so of course I'll subscribe to this thread.
 
S

Shahed

Member
MoogPaul said:
Graces F is one of, if not the, best battle system ever to grace mankind.

That being said, I wish we got the Vita games.
Click to expand...

While I do want the Vita games, at a guess I'm near 100% I wouldn't like playing them on a handheld. For example I recently played Ninja Gaiden Sigma Plus on Vita, and despite liking the console versions, I quickly gave up on the game in disgust. The last thing I want to be doing is playing a fast paced action style combat on a handheld. Sure the problem wouldn't affect Tales to the same extent as something like Ninja Gaiden, but I can see the problem still being there

Seven Force said:
Allow me to refresh your memories.
Click to expand...

That's pretty good even if I can't recall it for some reason. messing around with a few other songs seem like the quality is there. Problem is I find it hard to identify with video game music by simply listening. It has a much greater effect if I hear it alongside playing the game itself. that way I associate something more when hearing certain tracks
 
F

FSLink

Banned
Out of the games I played, they're in relative order within each tier, but may not be 100% exact:

Top tier:
Destiny/Destiny Director's Cut (PS2)
Vesperia (PS3)
Graces f (PS3)

High tier:
Xillia 2 (PS3)
Vesperia (360)
Xillia (PS3)
Graces (Wii)
Rebirth (PS2/PSP)
Phantasia Narikiri Dungeon X (PSP)
Destiny 2 (PS2/PSP)
Hearts (DS)

Mid tier:
Eternia (PS1/PSP)
Symphonia (GC)
Abyss (PS2/3DS)
RadiMyth 2, 3 (PSP)
Innocence (DS)
Phantasia X (PSP)

Low tier:
Dawn of the New World (Wii)
Phantasia (SFC, PS1, and Full Voice Edition on PSP)
RadiaMyth 1 (PSP)
Legendia (PS2)
Symphonia (PS2)
Destiny (PS1)
Narikiri Dungeon 2-3 (GBA)
Narikiri Dungeon (GBC)
Summoner's Lineage (GBA)

VS and Tempest tier:
Tempest
VS
Phantasia (GBA)


I haven't played the recent Innocence or Hearts remakes to judge them. >_>

EDIT: Forgot Eternia.
 
A

aliencowz7

Member
Shahed said:
Sakuraba has definitely gone downhill. I loved his earlier works like Valkyrie Profile and a few other odd tracks, but I'm finding the music he composes recently to get more and more forgettable. Maybe he's burned out with too much work or something
Click to expand...

I have always enjoyed his work on other game series alot more then his work on Tales of, such as VP, Star Ocean and Baten Kaitos. I'm not sure if he isn't interested in the tales series anymore or if management makes him stick to a certain style or what but his other stuff has remained alot more interesting to listen to for me.
 
F

FSLink

Banned
aliencowz7 said:
I have always enjoyed his work on other game series alot more then his work on Tales of, such as VP, Star Ocean and Baten Kaitos. I'm not sure if he isn't interested in the tales series anymore or if management makes him stick to a certain style or what but his other stuff has remained alot more interesting to listen to for me.
Click to expand...

I believe there's an interview that states that he has to stick to this style.

That being said, his work in Xillia 1/2 is pretty decent. I also liked his Rebirth OST even if the battle themes sound like something out of his work in Mario Golf/Tennis.
 
R

Rpgmonkey

Member
aliencowz7 said:
I have always enjoyed his work on other game series alot more then his work on Tales of, such as VP, Star Ocean and Baten Kaitos. I'm not sure if he isn't interested in the tales series anymore or if management makes him stick to a certain style or what but his other stuff has remained alot more interesting to listen to for me.
Click to expand...

IIRC, he has stated that they want a particular "Tales style" from his Tales music. Other companies seem to be more lax about what he can do.

When your ability to experiment is limited and you have to make soundtracks for 1-2 Tales games every year in addition to all the other games you compose for, it doesn't help to slow down the fatigue and staleness. I'm not sure why they do that when it doesn't seem like most recent Tales games are universally praised for their music or anything.
 
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