Support NeoGAF

[Bebpo]

I thought Tempest was ok, haha.

I mean it was what it was, a short little early era 3d DS version of Tales. It was sort of ok in the way that some of the dumbed down GB/GBA/PSP/Vita games are of their console franchises.

Xillia's story was interesting, but yeah the battles were kind of just ok and the field design was what really killed it for me. So bland + the shop system (>_<), but Aeana has gone into that a thousand times over and this is a ToX2 thread.

I'll probably pick this up eventually, especially if you all say it's really good and improves on the weak areas of ToX. Then maybe I'll play them back to back or something next year.

 

[encephalon]

Am I crazy if I liked Xillia's battle gameplay more than Vesperia? Xillia was often too easy, but when it was challenging it was great. Vesperia felt clunky to me ...

 

[Mieu]

Has everyone whose playing this finished Xillia 1? Or are some of you all skipping into this one?

This is the first Tales game I'm not buying/playing at launch in the history of the franchise (well, since I got into it at ToD2) because I dropped Xillia 1 at around 10 hours in and don't really want to play a direct story continuation for a story I haven't seen through.

I kind of wonder if this will impact sales because of people like me who got bored playing Xillia and won't jump on a direct sequel without finishing the prior game.

Played this and mostly the veterans are the ones hyped up for the sequel. I don't think it would beat the initial sales mark of first one.

Hmm, strange. Namco is not boasting about the pre-orders exceeding their expectations.

 

[A.E Suggs]

Has everyone whose playing this finished Xillia 1? Or are some of you all skipping into this one?

This is the first Tales game I'm not buying/playing at launch in the history of the franchise (well, since I got into it at ToD2) because I dropped Xillia 1 at around 10 hours in and don't really want to play a direct story continuation for a story I haven't seen through.

I kind of wonder if this will impact sales because of people like me who got bored playing Xillia and won't jump on a direct sequel without finishing the prior game.

It won't there's probably enough people who will buy this game because it looks better than Xillia. Also there's enough people who don't play tales for the story anyway even in japan so it'll probably pull regular console tales numbers.

 

[Shouta]

Am I crazy if I liked Xillia's battle gameplay more than Vesperia? Xillia was often too easy, but when it was challenging it was great. Vesperia felt clunky to me ...

It's definitely a much better battle system than people give it credit for. It's not perfect but it's much more energetic compared to the ones by Team "Symphonia.'"

 

[R_thanatos]

Am I crazy if I liked Xillia's battle gameplay more than Vesperia? Xillia was often too easy, but when it was challenging it was great. Vesperia felt clunky to me ...

i feel the same way ..vesperia felt like a dumbed down version of abyss overall to me ..

Sure the fatal strikes were a cool idea but if i've got to replay one it would be xillia because it's faster and more dynamic..
I've talking battle system here ( since vesperia is loaded with like 15 times the content xillia has )

 

[Dark Schala]

As I posted in the Xillia OT a while ago:

Xillia has quite a bit of design problems, but it's still a fun game to play, imo. Like, whenever people criticize Xillia--for me at least--I'm criticizing some design flaws, some system flaws, one of the characters, the execution of the boss battles, and the lack of variety in terms of subquests in the game. I also feel like the endgame and Act 4 itself was rushed. It's not like I hate the game, and apparently acknowledging flaws and expressing things you dislike about the game = you really hate the game and you're consistently bashing it when you say stuff like that. But that isn't true at all. I like it; I like 5/6ths of the cast, the scene direction, the anime cutscenes, the music, etc. I just don't like that it seems to have fallen short in some areas. It seems like it was supposed to be an ambitious game but fell victim to perhaps stuff like dev time or something? You can't help but to not feel like it was rushed along, especially by the time you get to the end. Like Final Fantasy XIII-2, Xillia 2 is attempting to rectify the problems that the original game had. Let's hope it goes smoothly.

I also have to add that I don't like how the bosses in this game were executed at all.

Balancing in boss battles have always seemed to be a weird thing with Tales. It's even more obvious on higher difficulties, where a lot of the stuff you use in battle seems to be thrown out the window for the bosses in an attempt to challenge the player. This would be all fine and dandy if it weren't for the fact that there are sometimes hitches in boss battles (ex: bosses would call in reinforcements, bosses would swim through the battlefield, bosses break out of combos easily, bosses go into OVL often or use hi-ougis often, etc). Tales really needs to get that sort of thing together for bosses to be enjoyable on any difficulty.

I do think that they should modify how the difficulty works, though. Making bosses hit sponges with higher stats only isn't an adequate difficulty modification.

The usual thing with Tales happened in this game: normal battles are perfectly fine and fun, especially when you experiment with other characters. But I've already expressed that I liked using everyone in this game. You can use all the tools that the game makes available to you easily to have a fun time in battle. It's just that the boss battles can be a little... inconsistent, I guess. It feels like a lot of the tools you're given prove to be somewhat useless at times in boss battles, so rather than stepping up your game with the tools you have been trying to use proficiently in normal battles, you're trying to scramble to overcome some of the bosses' weird attack patterns and end up not using the full potential of the battle system.

I watch Divorce Court like every day, lol. She's ridiculously hot for 52.

I would welcome a Lin Tolar.

Wow, I thought she was in her late 30s/40s. :O

 

[Aeana]

Has everyone whose playing this finished Xillia 1? Or are some of you all skipping into this one?

This is the first Tales game I'm not buying/playing at launch in the history of the franchise (well, since I got into it at ToD2) because I dropped Xillia 1 at around 10 hours in and don't really want to play a direct story continuation for a story I haven't seen through.

I kind of wonder if this will impact sales because of people like me who got bored playing Xillia and won't jump on a direct sequel without finishing the prior game.

I went back to it right after Xillia 2 was announced and beat it. My opinion of it now is a little higher than before, but admittedly not much. Still, I think 2 should be better than 1, so maybe it was worth it. We'll see.

Am I crazy if I liked Xillia's battle gameplay more than Vesperia? Xillia was often too easy, but when it was challenging it was great. Vesperia felt clunky to me ...

I don't know anybody who doesn't feel that way. Xillia's combat is better than all of the Team Symphonia games' combat by far. It just doesn't measure up to systems like Rebirth and Graces.

 

[encephalon]

One particular thing that was aggravating for me in Vesperia (PS3 ver), was when you're selecting a target if you start moving immediately after letting go of the trigger, the selecting target thing is still engaged for half a second so you'll switch targets as you started moving. Took me a while to figure out why my characters weren't going where I wanted them to.

Rebirth, huh. Maybe I'll look into that one.

 

[raven777]

I had 3 problems with Xillia's battle system.

1. It lags when there is a lot of enemies. It makes it really annoying to link enemies, and it happens even when I don't link enemies later on.

2. Link-Arts was a good idea, but there is not much variety other than Jude-Mila links. Still neat, but would have liked more variations for other characters.

3. Hi Ougi looked terrible compared to other series. Vesperia had better ones, and Graces F seems to have a lot better ones.


But I still liked Xillia's battle system overall. Hopefully Xillia 2 has some of those fixed/improved.

 

[kayos90]

I had 3 problems with Xillia's battle system.

1. It lags when there is a lot of enemies. It makes it really annoying to link enemies, and it happens even when I don't link enemies later on.

2. Link-Arts was a good idea, but there is not much variety other than Jude-Mila links. Still neat, but would have liked more variations for other characters.

3. Hi Ougi looked terrible compared to other series. Vesperia had better ones, and Graces F seems to have a lot better ones.


But I still liked Xillia's battle system overall. Hopefully Xillia 2 has some of those fixed/improved.

2 words. Expendable Pride.

 

[Dark Schala]

1. It lags when there is a lot of enemies. It makes it really annoying to link enemies, and it happens even when I don't link enemies later on.

It's even worse when you have several spellcasters in your party and it's towards the end of the game in the EX Dungeon with the enemies that use that one attack which stuns you for a while... forget what it's called. I like calling it Lightning Dome.

The slowdown is reeeeaaaally bad.

2 words. Expendable Pride.

That's just one out of 7 party hi-ougis. Using Graces as an example again, Graces had several per character and they looked like they hurt.

To be fair, though, Supreme Elements kinda looked nice. Grand Finale had that 'cool dudes don't look at enemies getting killed by explosions' sorta thing.

 

[kayos90]

Xillia 1 Hi-Ougis tried to mimic the fast paced style of BCs while maintaining that Symphonia-esque punch but it was executed rather oddly I will say that. Though Expendable Pride and Byaku-Majinouken are awesome.

 

[Aeana]

Rebirth, huh. Maybe I'll look into that one.

Just be prepared for one of the worst stories ever told in any medium.

 

[Jubern]

Just be prepared for one of the worst stories ever told in any medium.

Racism!

 

[Kincaido]

KUREAAA!!

 

[Dark Schala]

KUREAAA!!

But that's actually one of the best parts of Rebirth...

Link shouting things all over the place in that game.

 

[A.E Suggs]

Racism!

Shoved down our mouths.

 

[raven777]

KUREAAA!!

The only thing I have watched about Rebirth is compilation of all the "KUREAAA!!"s in youtube.

 

[Rpgmonkey]

Am I crazy if I liked Xillia's battle gameplay more than Vesperia? Xillia was often too easy, but when it was challenging it was great. Vesperia felt clunky to me ...

I think I'd say I enjoyed Xillia's combat mechanics more than Vesperia's, but I thought Vesperia had a more natural feeling of speed and weight to its animations. Jude in particular I felt got too fast. After a certain point his animations become so light and fast that he looks really strange.

Now that they're back to a traditional leveling system and there's 200 levels instead of 99, maybe the agility stat will become more normalized and tuned to prevent crazy animation speeds, but we'll see.

 

[FSLink]

Am I crazy if I liked Xillia's battle gameplay more than Vesperia? Xillia was often too easy, but when it was challenging it was great. Vesperia felt clunky to me ...

Yeah, Xillia's battles are tons of fun, but it definitely felt that Vesperia's was better "balanced" in how the battle system opened up progression wise. I know for the last half of the game I pretty much used the same party and artes for awhile....Mystic Artes are pretty useless too outside of just wanting to be flashy. And I agree that boss battles have some real balance issues. I seriously had no fun at all in Xillia's bosses, while I enjoyed a lot of Vesperia's boss battles.

 

[Torraz]

I disliked the regular TP system in Vesperia, at least until the -TP cost rings/items started pouring in.

 

[demidar]

I think I'd say I enjoyed Xillia's combat mechanics more than Vesperia's, but I thought Vesperia had a more natural feeling of speed and weight to its animations. Jude in particular I felt got too fast. After a certain point his animations become so light and fast that he looks really strange.

Now that they're back to a traditional leveling system and there's 200 levels instead of 99, maybe the agility stat will become more normalized and tuned to prevent crazy animation speeds, but we'll see.

Agility control animation speed (only in Xillia)? I wish there was a proper explanation of stats and which stats feed into what attacks. Is that too much to ask for? It's endemic of amongst almost every single RPG and it's one of the very few things Dragon Age 2 did right.

 

[Netto-kun]

People in Japan are already getting their copies.

- Trophy list (click on own risk, it's in Japanese)
- As for the bonus stuffs you get in-game if you have Vesperia, Graces F and Xillia clear save files (spoiler tag just in case):

Spoiler

Yuri, Sophie, Jude and Milla doll attachments. Similar to the attachments Repede could get in Vesperia PS3.

 

[Dark Schala]

I don't mind looking at the trophy list.

(skill trophies; not story trophies in here--I didn't want to look at those, really)

Spoiler

the damn collect all this shit trophies are back. A few trophies for maxing your relationships with other characters, it seems. I think there are some for maxing out your Arousal Orbs? I'm not sure what those are; unless they're "acquire the ultimate skills!" for each character. There's a "Gambler" trophy. There's a trophy for getting max level.

So they're basically the same basic trophies as Xillia with friendship stuff added in the mix.

The trophy names are pretty fun, though. Better than Xillia's names.

c'mon son

 

[InternHertz]

There are 3 or 4 trophies I don't understand the unlock conditions because they must be related to story progression. Other than that I saw one I'm quite happy about :

Spoiler

a silver trophy for maxing all characters' affection levels. I guess it's gonna take at least a NG+ to do so though. But at least I know it's possible.

I really would want to know how Grade Points are handled now. I really hope it's more like Vesperia in that regard than the latest entries. Farming them suits me more than making compromises on unlocks.

 

[Dark Schala]

Grade via title acquisition was such a silly thing in the first game. -_-

And the max was only 10000.

 

[kayos90]

Pretty psyched!

LIVESTREAM: http://www.twitch.tv/j_jirou

EDIT: The following is a cameo.

Spoiler

Cless and Stahn

 

[InternHertz]

Grade via title acquisition was such a silly thing in the first game. -_-

And the max was only 10000.

Yeah, even with all titles unlocked I still had problems getting everything I wanted in the Grade Shop ^^

Pretty psyched!

LIVESTREAM: http://www.twitch.tv/j_jirou

GAH! I need to steel myself and not watch it...but I can't! A few hours only then I'll stop >_<

Ludger not talking is WEIRD O_O

 

[Dark Schala]

Pretty psyched!

LIVESTREAM: http://www.twitch.tv/j_jirou

I just opened it in another tab to listen to, and yaaay, I don't mind them reusing the Triglaf theme since it's one of the best ones.

fake edit: neko neko neko neko neko neko neko neko neko neko neko neko neko neko neko neko

closing stream now.

Yeah, even with all titles unlocked I still had problems getting everything I wanted in the Grade Shop ^^

They probably didn't want you to outright break the game even more than you could, lol. But man the stuff in the grade shop was pretty expensive. The stuff I wanted anyway.

 

[CielTynave]

Hilarious wanted posters are back lol. (spoiler?)

 

[kayos90]

Hilarious wanted posters are back lol. (spoiler?)

My name is Ivar and I'm a FUCKING BADASS!

 

[demidar]

Hilarious wanted posters are back lol. (spoiler?)

This is amazing.

 

[Dark Schala]

So, uh...

They didn't end up renovating the ports, huh?

 

[kayos90]

So, uh...

They didn't end up renovating the ports, huh?

Seems like the game is a slow burner. It starts out super slow. Or so it seems. Also, DOCTOR MATHIS!!!!!!!

 

[CielTynave]

Wow, that was kind of lazy of them reusing Vesperia's music for Giganto monsters.

 

[Dark Schala]

This new town theme sounds pretty good.

It's so weird that Ludger's not talking in skits... Like, I don't see it as a negative at the moment, but it is a little out of the ordinary.

 

[kayos90]

Can't wait to import costumes. YEAH!

 

[Stuart444]

I wonder when Yesasia will send out my copy... ah well, tomorrow I'll start AC3 which should keep me plenty busy until ToX2 arrives.

On a related note, I also ordered the Dengeki PS mag with the ToX2 cover on it. But I couldn't afford express shipping so I'll have it later than ToX2 :/ ah well

 

[CielTynave]

Loved how he stopped playing just to go buy costumes lol.

And immediately tries looking up her skirt after resuming playing lmao.

 

[kayos90]

Loved how he stopped playing just to go buy costumes lol.

Yup. School costumes for Leia.... -_-'''

 

[LuuKyK]

Loved how he stopped playing just to go buy costumes lol.

Seriously. lmao so random.

The new city is amazing btw.

 

[kayos90]

Seriously. lmao so random.

The new city is amazing btw.

Triglav? It looks boring to me.

 

[Dark Schala]

Seriously. lmao so random.

The new city is amazing btw.

Xillia 1 spoilers

Spoiler

Triglaf was in the last game, but you couldn't explore it willy-nilly.

 

[LuuKyK]

Triglav? It looks boring to me.

Looks like a mix of Venice and Nepal to me. lol yeah >_>

Xillia 1 spoilers

Spoiler

Triglaf was in the last game, but you couldn't explore it willy-nilly.

Well, I didn't play the first one yet (waiting for the english version), so every city I'm seeing is new. lol

 

[kayos90]

Looks like a mix of Venice and Nepal to me. lol yeah >_>



Well, I didn't play the first one yet (waiting for the english version), so every city I'm seeing is new. lol

WHY SPOIL YOURSELF?!!!

 

[Aeana]

WHY SPOIL YOURSELF?!!!

If you're reading anything at all about Xillia 2, you're pretty much already spoiling parts of Xillia 1.

 

[kayos90]

If you're reading anything at all about Xillia 2, you're pretty much already spoiling parts of Xillia 1.

Yeah. That's what I meant.

 

[kayos90]

The OP is hidden in my post. Quote to see it.

BLARG

 

[Torraz]

The OP is hidden in my post. Quote to see it.

BLARG

Mrglmrgl. To watch or not to watch, that is the question :[.

Well, that made the wait a lot more excrutiating. Hope it doesnt take a lot longer than the usual 7-8 days after shipping...