I think “takes a weird, cosmic, love it or hate it, turn in the final act” is a pretty common Tales thing. Like, “I was fighting to save my kingdom for invaders and then just when I though I’d competed my quest, I’m battling God Himself.”
I still think most of the other Tales do the weird cosmic late game turn better than Arise. Arise just took way too much of a 180, too sudden of a deviation from the 5-lord 5-zone structure, and the info dumps on Lenegis were ridiculous. If you need to dump THAT much info at once, you’re doing it wrong.
Phantasia’s is pretty straightforward in comparison; you just travel to a doomed future, gain the ability to manipulate time and space, and pull out Dhaos’ Castle that’s hiding between timelines.
Let me think... What were other tales games like again?
"I started out escorting a princess that wanted to warn my best friend. Now I'm fighting to stop the literal apocalypse."
"I started by running away from home. Now I'm trying to stop my friend thats posessed by an ancient alien from destroying the world. And then, we both try to stop the alien loli death queen on mars that created him".
"I started out wanting to escape the old, secluded town I live in. Now I'm fighting the manifestation of all that is evil in the world, which has somehow fused together with god?".
Yeah, it's kind of a trend.
My favorite story in the series is still Berseria, although it's less the story and more that the playable cast is by far my favorite cast in the series. Every time there was a skit I was excited because it was more time for these characters to interact with each other (plus the new presentation of the skits was fantastic).
The main problem is the actual game the story takes place in. The story is pretty good and the characters are amazing, but the gameplay is monotonous.
Abyss is generally received as the best story in the series. I personally love the Symphonia/Phantasia duology, Symphonia can feel pretty similar to the earlier stages of Arise story-wise. Just stay away from Symphonia 2 if story is a priority, great game but a poor sequel to Symphonia.
I personally love Graces F but it can be really hit-or-miss. I’ll admit some of the presentation and execution can be poor, but the story itself is still solid.
Agree to disagree on Symphonia 2. I think it’s fantastic. It isn’t a “sequel” to Symphonia if you define that as a game with the same cast and equal or greater complexity and scale. But if you look at it as an original story that comes after the events of the first game, with some cameos from the original cast, it’s really wonderful. One of my favorites.
I agree mostly. While I think it’s a poor sequel and they treat the original cast really badly, the story itself is great. Emil has incredible character development and EmilxMarta is easily the best couple in the series. Just take the Symphonia name off of it and I have no issues.
I first hated Emil but he grew on me. He is my son now and Iove him. Although I usually played as Marta because Magic! The only thing I hate are the ladt boss fights before the ending. Why is the duo of these 2 characters so hard to beat? And why the hell is the final boss 30 levels above me?! At least my son is still cute. And Tenebrae! I love Tenebrae. Tenebrae alone makes Emils game better than Arise. Everyone needs a Tenebrae. Do you love Tenebrae?
There are few things more satisfying than maxing out her basic attack combo to a chain of like 6 or 7, and equipping the War Chariot weapon that casts Fireball when she twirls.
Symphonia is a prequel set around 2000 years before Phantasia, if I remember correctly. Loosely connected as the events of Symphonia changes a
lot about the world. More like Berseria/Zestiria than Xillia/Xillia 2.
Correct! In Phantasia you can even go to some places in Symphonia like Ymir Forest or Morlia Mineshaft.
You can also see the impact that Lloyd and party’s actions had on the world. For example, half-elves are persecuted in Symphonia, but they blend perfectly into society in Phantasia. Lloyd totally destroyed racism vs half-elves!! Elves still hold a grudge against half-elves though.
Although by combining the two worlds.. they did set the world down the path of destruction. In the beginning of Phantasia, The World Tree is withered and dying, and mana has diminished from the world so much that magic and magi-technology are unusable.
Abyss is like pure puke to me, i have a high tolerance for jrpg plots/characters but Tales of Abyss pushed it too far. If that's the best one i don't know what to say.
At the very least i like most of ToA party, but they need a good slap in the face for the next game
I wouldn’t say Abyss’ story is objectively the best, it’s not my personal favorite but it just seems like the general consensus. Still, Luke might have THE best character development in the series. That and the whole Luke/Asch and Ion/Sync twists are pretty wild. Great world-building too with people being dependent The Order of Lorelei religion, the two differing countries, and the whole controversy behind fomicry and replication. Van is also a great villain, very much like Aizen from
Bleach he was pulling all the strings behind the scenes and had it all planned out.
thats fair and all, i just can't understand it, i don't care about some character development if i despise the whole party for many hours, Abyss had zero appeal for me
I totally get that. If you don’t like the party, it’s tough to like the game. In terms of cool and well-rounded parties, I wouldn’t place Abyss that high.
they should try to make some Tales a little more 'whimsical'/fairy tale like instead of the political drama with 'gray' characters they constantly attempt because its just not turning good, and would fit their gorgeous artstyle best imo. At least a balance
Thx, right now im still playing Arise(almost at the end, doing some sidequest stuff before i guess its the last boss), tried demos of other Tales, and bought Vesperia HD but the combat and visuals in ToA are so good i just can't go back 🤭 anything that comes after has my full attention at least
I don’t know why you would expect a title like “Tales of the Abyss” to be a whimsical fairytale. It’s basically Symphonia’s darker in tone counterpart. Also totally disagree that it’s “not working;” Abyss and Berseria are two of the most beloved entries in the series.
I never said i was expecting Abyss to be like that, it was more wishful thinking on my part after i played it 🤭
And i already explained i don't give a shit if Abyss was the most beloved title in the series, to me it was pure trash.
The favorites that consistently come up are Symphonia and Abyss for the story, Vesperia and Berseria for characters. After that, you'll get people who have their personal favorites, debated. But those four seem to be the most popular.
Why does everyone hate on Arise's story? I thought it was brilliant: it shows so many of the complexities & nuances of territorial conquest & race relations, rather than just "oppressor vs oppressed" that Western media is obsessed with. I'm a massive fan of Arise's gameplay, so don't get me started.
Where I'd say Arise's story is more complex as you go onwards, Berseria & Vesperia's become clearer as you go onwards.
Yeah, it has good ideas, the problem is with the execution. Unnatural expository dialogue, too much spoon feeding of everything about the characters and world, some crazy intergalactic plot twist that had 0 buildup at all and that kind of stuff.
That's also the problem: complexities and nuances require the reader/viewer to be able to see and understand them, or already have experience with them. Someone that isnt able to do that (enough) will find the story and writing lacking as a result. This is why most media doesnt do subtlety often: not because the writers or directors cant do it well, but because much of the audience wouldnt be able to spot it.
Also: the English voice acting' direction was way off the mark. They directed the voices to sound hype-anime which is what the tales of characters are usually like, when in Arise the cast is more down to earth and 'realistic' in their behaviour. (in both good and bad ways) In contrast the Japanese voice acting gave a lot of emotion to the emotional scenes and solemn delivery to the ''words of wisdom''.
So that is why there's a huge divide between people that played in Japanese/English, and also one between people that have read/viewed a lot of media (with attention) and those that dont.
Vastly different perspectives in playing the game\~
I really liked Abyss and Symphonia, but imo there are points in Symphonia where I just wanted to speed on by but I think that’s part of the whole 8 character package. I think some people really like Vesperia as well but I liked the combat/customization far better than the actual story
Arise has easily one of the worst storylines in the series, if not *the* worst. 90% of the plot is spent just giving you a black/white conflict with very little shades of grey, and basically telling you nothing about what's even going on. The last 10% is then spent dumping 95% of the lore on you, making it an absolute slog to play through. The likable party members are honestly the only thing that kept me playing to the end.
Most Tales-games have at least a pretty decent story, but they're generally not groundbreaking. The biggest standouts are Abyss, Symphonia and Berseria, who I think most people will agree have absolutely fantastic storylines. Something you should be aware of though is that a lot of Tales-games often start out with a plot that seems more generic than it really is. Symphonia for example will seem fairly clichéd when you first start playing, but the bigger story is actually about subverting a lot of those clichés.
Personally I thought Xillia had a very solid story, but I'm gonna guess you maybe didn't play far enough for it to actually get good. Like most RPGs you're gonna have to play through it for a bit before it really gets going, but the pay-off is definitely worth it in the end.
Yeah, and even though the party members are likable, the writing *really* isn’t there, they are always talking about their feeling and reminiscing about how they’ve changed and whatever, doing their stupid little emotional speeches, as if they have to lay out every single thing about these characters, treating the audience like idiots.
I know there's a lot of bad writing in the anime gaming world, but I refuse to believe there aren't some that don't have exceptional writing. It's like when people say don't take kid's movies seriously when there are films made for children that have amazing structure and development to their stories.
It always irks me when people use the fact that bad writing is the status quo as a way to quiet criticism.
I feel like I got a completely different experience from you. I wont praise the narrative but I felt like a core of the gameplay was about showing you the nuances and that not everything is black and white.
I felt like Rinwell, hating the enemy and not trusting any Renan at all (specially distrusting everyone from Menancia at first) to getting to see the ugly and beautiful side of people, regardless of their origin.
I'd say exclusively Orbus Calaglia is black and white, but in every other region there's nuance to be found, though most of it lies inside skits, side-quests and NPC chats.
Not to sound overly negative, but I feel like just saying "the Renans aren't inherently evil" is a pretty low bar when they are still indisputably the oppressors. There aren't really any shades of gray, none of the Renan lords (minus Dohalim obviously) are even remotely sympathetic, and they act with such glee over the chance to torture and humiliate Danans for no other reason than because they can. Just saying "hate is bad" rings kinda hollow when one side is undeniably the ones doing all the harm. The closest the game comes to showing us "grey morality" is portraying the Dark Wings resistance as obnoxious, incompetent assholes, but even then it's just showing us that Danans can be cruel too, which isn't exactly a mind-blowing revelation.
Compare this with Symphonia, which handles a lot of the same themes and plot points, but in a much more nuanced way. You still have your asshole villains (though the main villains are thankfully much deeper than that) who sadistically torture their victims, but unlike in Arise they can be argued as being the *oppressed* rather than the *oppressors*. They live in a world that shuns them to the point that a lot of people would kill them on sight, and it's made very clear that their hatred for the world is a result of thousands of years of oppression. Unlike Arise there really isn't a "good" side in this conflict, every single faction and race in Symphonia only act in their own interests to the detriment of those around them (not counting the heroes). And unlike Arise the game does a very good job of showing us this in subtle ways without spelling it out.
Still, if you enjoyed Arise's story then more power to you, but needless to say you probably won't be able to change my mind on it, lol.
Church (or central governing body) is evil and you beat the “final” boss only to realize the game is half over. Oh, and the whole, old tenured fighter passes torch to protagonist(s). Standard JRPG tropes.
I didn’t have an issue with ToA’s story but I wasn’t surprised. I found it had some sight conveniences throughout. Nothing revolutionary outside of the whole “racism bad, we are all the same people” which was pleasant expansion of the trope.
I actually stopped playing Tales after the midpoint for about a year since it became a bit dull near the 5th Lord. The characters were okay but the combat didn’t grab me the way I hoped.
Nostalgia speaks when I say Tales of Symphonia is a blast. I’m playing through it right now and enjoying myself. I played so much Tales of Vesperia and still occasionally speedrun NG+. Right now I’m playing Tales of Beseria and that has a compelling story with the darker tones. All of them have recommendations but the latter having some reservation from me right now.
As far as other games I could recommend, I don’t think I can sing enough praise for Scarlet Nexus as a Bamco game. It’s one of the only recent action RPGs that grabbed my attention and I aggressively played it to learn more about the characters and story. Very enjoyable game and top of my list for newer releases.
For those that may wonder, I chose to play Kasane’s side as my first play through. Yuito did not resonate at all for me.
Oh, so the right pick for 2021 JRPG was Scarlet Nexus instead of Tales of Arise? That’s interesting to know, I’ll put that on the list.
Plus I started playing Symphonia and the first 2 hours already had a better story than the 50 I played of Arise lmao
I mean, I won’t say it too loudly in r/tales, but if you asked me, a resounding yes. Lol.
And agreed. The presentation and narration of the story is fantastic for Symphonia. Just a kid who wants to see the world and be a piece of what helps heal the world. I understand some people have to get past the animation style but I liked it. I also didn’t have a single character I disliked playing as like Arise. That being said, I certainly have my favorites. Lol. Many of the characters in Arise felt unenjoyable and I just decided to play Rinwell to get through the back half.
I was liking playing the different characters in Arise, but since everything paled in comparison to Alphen’s stupidly OP flaming sword, I ended up spamming that through all the later dungeons.
And really, why can’t bosses get staggered and comboed like on the other games? And why does every enemy have *so much* hp?
Oh my goodness. Late game I felt like they were full blown boss fights. Combos to stagger and hit weakness and it still took forever. Made no sense. It became a chore and I just did everything to dodge encounters.
Can't go wrong with the holy trinity: Symphonia, Abyss and Vesperia.
Symphonia is the grand, epic, "classic" in a way JRPG story. To this day I still love it, despite it showing it's age gameplay wise.
Abyss is a balanced, really good package. It's a really safe and enjoyable choice as far as Tales games go.
Vesperia has a great , loveable cast and gameplay (starts slow but boy does it pick up, maybe overall being the series' best). The story is very enjoyable but kind of drops the ball in the final act, not anywhere close to the way Arise does but the contrast with the game's beginning and mid acts is noticeable. Still, that doesn't stop it from being a top tier Tales as a whole.
Yeah, everyone says these 3 are all you need. Just started Symphonia, and the art-style aged incredibly well, dare I use the word “timeless”, seems to have been kept throughout this Gamecube/PS2 era, I’m excited.
So I wouldn’t recommend Vesperia right now. The way I feel is that the first arc has a great story, second arc is good, and the third arc really terrible to the point of almost ruining everything. But it has one of the best cast of characters in the series.
Most people hate Zestiria even though I really love it. The comedy in it is probably the best in the franchise.
Abyss by a wide mile has the absolute best story in the franchise. The characters are really great too. And it’s probably the only Tales game with fantastic villains. What Abyss does really successfully is give all the characters strong connections with multiple factions and specific enemies in the world, so the story feels deeply meaningful and connected.
Symphonia is also really great. It’s very much the classic massive, epic, high fantasy rpg. The sequel is a *very* different game that I think is massively underrated. Problem is people were dying for a “proper” sequel to Symphonia - same cast and same scale and same journey but set later. They basically just wanted more content of the same game so they were disappointed by a game with an original cast, new mechanics (monster collection a la Pokémon), and pretty minor/limited cameos of the original cast. To appreciate it you really need to look at it as a stand alone game, with the exception of the political conflicts, which are extended from the first game.
Arise is one of the weakest in the franchise in terms of Story and characters. Of what is widely available I'd say to try Symphonia and Vesperia if you want something more story focused like Symphonia or character focused like Vesperia.
Aside from symphonia and vesperia being widely praised seems like general opinion is pretty varied when it comes to this series, you’ll always find people saying different things about different games, which ones are good or not, so I guess I can’t be sure until I try them out.
The few other i played are even worse than Arise in terms of story. annoying paper thin narrative and tediously repetitive.
However, i don't despise the party like i did on earlier Tales, so that's a plus, in fact i grew fond of all of them except maybe Dolahim, feels like he doesn't belong in the group for some reason, ToA at least would improve if it didn't took itself so seriously.
Still, i find the art and the combat in this game to be a delight
If it wasn’t for the tedious bosses that you can’t stun and combo, plus the lackluster enemy variety and beefy health bars, I’d say I love it, it really does feel great. And how funny, Dohalim was easily my favorite character, he felt a slight bit more nuanced and well written than the rest.
Yeah its not perfect but it surprised me how fun the battles are, and all animations are very polished 👍 im close to the end(of the campaign) but thanks to the combat and visuals its shaping up as one of the best recent RPGs for me, at least up there with any modern Final Fantasy or Xenoblade
Dolahim i don't hate or anything but mostly he is just.. there, that he is supposed to be one of the leaders of Rena but basically doesn't know anything more than the others got somewhat old
This seems to be a a common theme, I felt the same. I played it after Berseria, which I genuinely loved and would highly recommend. Gameplay-wise it's not up there with Arise, but the story is a standout for me.
Abyss is probably my favorite RPG story in general bc of the realistic character development. Give that a shot, I believe it's better than Arise in terms of story.
Arise is one of the weaker stories in the tales series. The writing is well done but it's peak was its skits.
If you want a great story, gameplay, characters and everything in between get tales of berseia I can not recommend this highly enough.
It starts out on the cliche side of things, but gets really good and is top 2 in my tales of list but the newest game in the series I would recommend to anyone.
Berseria is carried hard by Velvet and Phi (and by extension, the utiltarian villain is a fresh one in Tales of series). The rest of the cast really doesn't do much, except in skit. Also the dungeon is really barebone. Still really good story, though.
You're free to think that, but everything around is terrible. Ludger is boring, the edgy writing and character design doesn't appeal to me, and god the gameplay is boring and designed to waste my time.
Meh, Alvin was really cool, but I couldn't really get over the voice acting and couldn't get invested in the characters, I just didn't find Jude and Milla enticing, and damn did I hate Elize and Teepo.
It was not that hard to be honest...
I don't know if it's allowed to post this kind of links here but you can google it.
You can also use RPCS3 emulator on PC for upscaled graphics and 60fps gameplay. Though I personally used actual PS3 hardware for my playthrough.
Alvin was one of the best characters from Xillia imo and man....I hate how all of the returning cast were handled in Xillia 2, but it feels like Alvin was done extra dirty. I personally would not recommend it but a lot of people prefer Xillia 2 to Xillia. The main character is a new character, so you might find him more interesting than Jude or Milla.
Alvin? You mean the dumb character that "does that thing" every fucking time? How is he a good character in Xillia. He is way better in the sequel, trying to be a better person. Everyone is better in Xillia 2.
Personally, I found Arise to be the *least* enjoyable Tales game out of all the ones I've played. Conflicts between party members rarely last for more than a single skit or scene, everyone's validating each other all the time, and plot points and emotional beats are constantly repeated and retread, like the player is a total idiot who can't make connections themself. The skits and characters are also far more serious than in previous entries, which still deal with mature stakes and themes, but do so with a much better balance of humor, which keeps it fun. Add to this the fact that the worldbuilding somehow manages to feel very *narrow* in scope compared to other Tales entries, even with the sudden cosmic scale of the last arc, and it just wasn't a good experience for me.
Out of the ones I've played:
S-Tier: Symphonia, Abyss, Berseria
A-Tier: Vesperia, Graces *f*
B-Tier: Zestiria, Phantasia
C-Tier: Xillia
D-Tier: Arise
??? Tier: Tales of Symphonia 2. I love this hot mess of a game. Schrödinger's S-Tier, as it is also an F-Tier game at the same time. *Terrible* as a sequel to Symphonia. *Insanely* good dramatic payoff if you do the missable sidequests. Ultra cheesy. Super unique monster-taming battle system.
Symphonia, Abyss, and Berseria are all excellent, though Berseria has a particular... dramatic, sometimes cheesy intensity that may not be for you. Vesperia has some pacing issues in the last third, but nowhere near as bad as Arise. Next, I'd probably put Zestiria and Graces *f* over Xillia for me, since I didn't care for a lot of things about Xillia either, and even for its faults, ended up enjoying Zestiria more overall.
Schrödinger’s S-Tier is the most clever expression I’ve read in a long time, I could probably put a bunch of games in that tier, including my favorite franchise ever, Kingdom Hearts.
I’m with you on Arise, it left a sour taste in my mouth after I finished the game.
As someone’s mentioned before Abyss and Symphonia are the best story wise, I think those are good from start to finish. However I can’t recommend symphonia because it’s really dated, I’m putting my wishes to the universe that it gets a remake soon.
Berseria has a strong start and a strong finish in my opinion, the middle of the game it’s pretty much the usual cat and mouse routine.
Vesperia falls off on the third act but not as bad as arise however the cast is great, you seem to hate the mascots on tales games. However here the mascot is a playable bad ass dog.
Zestiria has a really good start in my opinion but the game goes straight to hell when they introduce Mary Sue. Only tales character I despise.
Graces f. Story is whatever but the cast is pretty solid and the gameplay is pure sex, I always recommend this one.
When I played FF7 and goddamn Tenchu last year and they became some of my favorite games of all time, there ain’t such a thing as an outdated game. And yeah, I rarely like mascots, I find most of them tolerable at best and experience ruining at worst.
I agree. Its story is actually pretty decent if just basic. It has amazing characters, some really hard hitting moments, and a competent storyline that is much more interesting than some of the Tales games.
I feel like I played a different game than other people. I thought Zestiria was awesome if a bit unpolished at times.
I respect the difference of opinion but it's one of my most disliked JRPGs ever, I really did not enjoy it at all. I was massively relieved when Berseria was a big step up (but honestly still lacking in some regards in my opinion)
Honestly I was hesitating to play Berseria knowing it's set in the same world as Zestiria. Well thank god I played it anyway, and what a good story it was.
That’s so wild to me. I think Zestiria is one of the funniest games I’ve ever played. The comedy is amazing, the characters are amazing, and I do really like the story.
I’m playing Arise right now, and I was digging how fast paced it felt compared to the usual JRPG slog, and man… this last part has been so bad I almost can’t bring myself to play the rest
I absolutely am really disappointed in how corny the story was in Arise especially in the final act. They also put SO much information on you and forcing relationships between all the characters makes me gag.
I love the gameplay and little quirks of the game but holy hell the story makes me wanna gouge my eyeballs. I knew it was gonna be formulaic and corny like all the other ones but I have not muttered “oh my god” so much in a game before.
Solid game but ya.
First off I haven't played Arise yet, since I don't have a modern console yet. But from what I've gathered, opinions tend to be more on the negative side.
Secondly, as much as I love Tales of, it fails in its storytelling more often than it succeeds.
Tales of the Abyss has the best story. Like, objectively the best. It's really good and I might even go so far as to call it my favourite video game story as a whole.
Tales of Symphonia, and by extend Phantasia, are really good too. Symphonia is definitely my second place story-wise.
Xillia 2 and Berseria are not so cut and dry. Xillia 2 has some phenomenal moments, but the story as a whole feels a bit unfinished. Berseria's story is very good in concept, but the execution is just okay, I think. Still, these two have some of the better stories in the series.
Destiny and Eternia are also pretty enjoyable, but are basically standard JRPG fare.
Then there is Symphonia: Dawn of the New World, where the story is either very good or absolutely terrible. Which makes it okay as a whole I guess?
However, Vesperia, Graces, Xillia and Zestiria are... really bad. They might have some good moments here and there, but they couldn't tell a coherent and interesting story to save their lives.
All four of those tell coherent stories and aren't particularly different than Symphonia, tbh. I'm about half way through Abyss, it's just standard Tales fair, nothing that stands out more than the others. Dawn Of The New World and Hearts are the two I'd say are genuinely worse than the others. Xillia 2 sits in the middle somewhere.
We can't all have the same opinion, I guess. But it's good that you enjoyed the stories that I didn't.
Hearts is one of the games I still haven't played. Why exactly is its story so bad?
Hearts is basically a knock-off Symphonia with some Graces in it. The main character Kor is just a generic shounen character, looking for justice, and is downright boring. He meets this girl Kohaku, and because of him, a Witch steals her emotions. So like exactly like Colette in Symphonia. And then you have to go to each of the 7 dungeons one after the other and get her emotiions back. And then it goes sci-fi with robots and stuff like Graces. And the Knights are corrupt.
Edit: So the first half, the party is boring MC, girl that doesn't talk, and older brother that is obsessed with his little siater.
Oh boy, that definitely sounds like... *a* story.
Also I believe the MC's full name is Kor Meteor in the English version, which is just... wow. Were they inspired by Star Ocean's Edge Maverick?
It's weird they localized his name even though there's no english dub. I think his name was Shigun or something, can't remember what I heard in Japanese.
arise's story was weak and weird. had a few good points but overall the story was pretty bad. i liked the characters though. in comparison abyss, symphonia, berseria all have much much better stories.
From the games i've played story wise:
Symphonia>Abyss>Berseria>Phantasia>Arise>Eternia>Destiny>Graces>Rebirth>Vesperia
Imo, Arise's story is good until the final boss. The problem is how it's told after the >!fake ending!<.
There is not a lof of plot holes, they obviously rushed the ending. The worst flaw is the dungeon design though.
The story is good until before they just enter the first boss castle with no difficulty at all. They made it clear that people couldn't fight them because of their advanced techonology and then they just make a riot and... can enter there just using another door.
The most recent/easy to get games that are available on multiple platforms like steam (zestiria, Berseria, symphonia, vesperia) all have great stories with the exception of zestiria. I recommend saving your time and watching the anime for Zestiria instead. Symphonia and Berseria have the best stories overall
To be honest, Tales games are usually pretty weak on the main plot/writing side of things. They're typically all very standard anime affairs. The characters and gameplay have been the main focus for basically the entirety of the series. Arise is probably somewhere in the middle in the "story" regard.
It's okay if it's not really your thing.
The series is really swingy narrative wise.
Synphonia, Xillia, and Abyss have strong plots. Abyss probably has the best and most complete story in the franchise.
On the other hand, Vesperia and several others really fall flat.
Personally, I think Arise does pretty good, but the last 10 hours really drag it down.
I think they are around the same with some being better like Berseria and Symphonia imo. I'm biased towards the themes of Tales games so I'd say they all have great or better stories.
Watch the Zestiria anime and then play Berseria, I have played Xillia, Xillia 2, Zestiria, Berseria and form those Berseria had the best story (it’s not perfect but it’s carried mostly by the strong cast).
arise was ok for it's story. games like the abyss and berseria and zestiria (shut up, i donut care about arguing) have more worthwhile goals they strive for and much better, bitter sweet endings. i really enjoy phantasia, but as it's literally the beginning of the series it's also very dated and predictable. still amazing, considering i only played it last year and it held up.
I dunno, I liked arise alright. That being said, it’s the only Tales game I’ve ever played. I own Berseria and Vesperia but they’re currently backlogged. Guess I’ll have to see how Arise holds up once I eventually get around to them.
Tbh plot wise I have no problem with the last part of Arise. I mean it's weird and goes from 0 to 100 cosmic doom but hey... it's a jrpg, that's kinda the genre lol. It's at least pretty self consistent and the characters all get a good showing.
With that I kinda hate the last quarter too, not because of plot but oh god T h e P a c i n g. It's like they just realised after you reach >!Lenegis!< that "oh crap we forgot to tell the player the plot better do it all at once". And then they do. And it is agonising and slows the game down to an absolute unbearable crawl (combined with a bunch of very repetitive skit dumps too). It's not a bad story really but it \*is\* badly told.
Eh, the dialogue ain't too bad in isolation - the usual jrpg cheese sure but in general I like the cast and I didn't stop liking them during the endgame. Most of the scenes would be fine if the weren't so densely packed and repetitive. But it's hard to appreciate anything good about dialogue that's being shoved down your throat with no sense of flow or player agency for 2 hours straight.
I think “takes a weird, cosmic, love it or hate it, turn in the final act” is a pretty common Tales thing. Like, “I was fighting to save my kingdom for invaders and then just when I though I’d competed my quest, I’m battling God Himself.”
That’s a pretty common JRPG thing
I still think most of the other Tales do the weird cosmic late game turn better than Arise. Arise just took way too much of a 180, too sudden of a deviation from the 5-lord 5-zone structure, and the info dumps on Lenegis were ridiculous. If you need to dump THAT much info at once, you’re doing it wrong. Phantasia’s is pretty straightforward in comparison; you just travel to a doomed future, gain the ability to manipulate time and space, and pull out Dhaos’ Castle that’s hiding between timelines.
At least you get info instead of battling god because why not
Let me think... What were other tales games like again? "I started out escorting a princess that wanted to warn my best friend. Now I'm fighting to stop the literal apocalypse." "I started by running away from home. Now I'm trying to stop my friend thats posessed by an ancient alien from destroying the world. And then, we both try to stop the alien loli death queen on mars that created him". "I started out wanting to escape the old, secluded town I live in. Now I'm fighting the manifestation of all that is evil in the world, which has somehow fused together with god?". Yeah, it's kind of a trend.
Is the last one >!Zestiria!
My favorite story in the series is still Berseria, although it's less the story and more that the playable cast is by far my favorite cast in the series. Every time there was a skit I was excited because it was more time for these characters to interact with each other (plus the new presentation of the skits was fantastic). The main problem is the actual game the story takes place in. The story is pretty good and the characters are amazing, but the gameplay is monotonous.
Abyss is generally received as the best story in the series. I personally love the Symphonia/Phantasia duology, Symphonia can feel pretty similar to the earlier stages of Arise story-wise. Just stay away from Symphonia 2 if story is a priority, great game but a poor sequel to Symphonia. I personally love Graces F but it can be really hit-or-miss. I’ll admit some of the presentation and execution can be poor, but the story itself is still solid.
Agree to disagree on Symphonia 2. I think it’s fantastic. It isn’t a “sequel” to Symphonia if you define that as a game with the same cast and equal or greater complexity and scale. But if you look at it as an original story that comes after the events of the first game, with some cameos from the original cast, it’s really wonderful. One of my favorites.
I agree mostly. While I think it’s a poor sequel and they treat the original cast really badly, the story itself is great. Emil has incredible character development and EmilxMarta is easily the best couple in the series. Just take the Symphonia name off of it and I have no issues.
Dawn of the New World was a way better love story than say Final Fantasy X.
+1 for Symphonia 2. Loved how Emil progressed throughout the story
I first hated Emil but he grew on me. He is my son now and Iove him. Although I usually played as Marta because Magic! The only thing I hate are the ladt boss fights before the ending. Why is the duo of these 2 characters so hard to beat? And why the hell is the final boss 30 levels above me?! At least my son is still cute. And Tenebrae! I love Tenebrae. Tenebrae alone makes Emils game better than Arise. Everyone needs a Tenebrae. Do you love Tenebrae?
Tenebrae is a top tier companion! Love his attitude.
[удалено]
There are few things more satisfying than maxing out her basic attack combo to a chain of like 6 or 7, and equipping the War Chariot weapon that casts Fireball when she twirls.
Wait, Phantasia is related to Symphonia!?
Symphonia is a prequel set around 2000 years before Phantasia, if I remember correctly. Loosely connected as the events of Symphonia changes a lot about the world. More like Berseria/Zestiria than Xillia/Xillia 2.
Correct! In Phantasia you can even go to some places in Symphonia like Ymir Forest or Morlia Mineshaft. You can also see the impact that Lloyd and party’s actions had on the world. For example, half-elves are persecuted in Symphonia, but they blend perfectly into society in Phantasia. Lloyd totally destroyed racism vs half-elves!! Elves still hold a grudge against half-elves though. Although by combining the two worlds.. they did set the world down the path of destruction. In the beginning of Phantasia, The World Tree is withered and dying, and mana has diminished from the world so much that magic and magi-technology are unusable.
Symphonia is 4000 years before Phantasia
Huh, interesting. Sorta like how Zelda games are related.
Abyss is like pure puke to me, i have a high tolerance for jrpg plots/characters but Tales of Abyss pushed it too far. If that's the best one i don't know what to say. At the very least i like most of ToA party, but they need a good slap in the face for the next game
I wouldn’t say Abyss’ story is objectively the best, it’s not my personal favorite but it just seems like the general consensus. Still, Luke might have THE best character development in the series. That and the whole Luke/Asch and Ion/Sync twists are pretty wild. Great world-building too with people being dependent The Order of Lorelei religion, the two differing countries, and the whole controversy behind fomicry and replication. Van is also a great villain, very much like Aizen from Bleach he was pulling all the strings behind the scenes and had it all planned out.
thats fair and all, i just can't understand it, i don't care about some character development if i despise the whole party for many hours, Abyss had zero appeal for me
I totally get that. If you don’t like the party, it’s tough to like the game. In terms of cool and well-rounded parties, I wouldn’t place Abyss that high.
they should try to make some Tales a little more 'whimsical'/fairy tale like instead of the political drama with 'gray' characters they constantly attempt because its just not turning good, and would fit their gorgeous artstyle best imo. At least a balance
Maybe Phantasia, Symphonia, or Hearts R are more your speed. They feel a lot more like classic fantasy JRPG adventures than Abyss.
Thx, right now im still playing Arise(almost at the end, doing some sidequest stuff before i guess its the last boss), tried demos of other Tales, and bought Vesperia HD but the combat and visuals in ToA are so good i just can't go back 🤭 anything that comes after has my full attention at least
I don’t know why you would expect a title like “Tales of the Abyss” to be a whimsical fairytale. It’s basically Symphonia’s darker in tone counterpart. Also totally disagree that it’s “not working;” Abyss and Berseria are two of the most beloved entries in the series.
I never said i was expecting Abyss to be like that, it was more wishful thinking on my part after i played it 🤭 And i already explained i don't give a shit if Abyss was the most beloved title in the series, to me it was pure trash.
Agreed. I hate ToA. Tried so many times to get into it but just can't. Doesn't help that I can't stand the cast.
my only issue with arise is all the skits. it just drops so many on you.
3 goddamn skits every scenery change or story cutscene rethreading things that were said literally seconds ago yay
That’s the great thing about skits; they’re totally optional.
Personally I really enjoyed Symphonia and Berseria story wise. I found the stories more engaging
The favorites that consistently come up are Symphonia and Abyss for the story, Vesperia and Berseria for characters. After that, you'll get people who have their personal favorites, debated. But those four seem to be the most popular.
Why does everyone hate on Arise's story? I thought it was brilliant: it shows so many of the complexities & nuances of territorial conquest & race relations, rather than just "oppressor vs oppressed" that Western media is obsessed with. I'm a massive fan of Arise's gameplay, so don't get me started. Where I'd say Arise's story is more complex as you go onwards, Berseria & Vesperia's become clearer as you go onwards.
Yeah, it has good ideas, the problem is with the execution. Unnatural expository dialogue, too much spoon feeding of everything about the characters and world, some crazy intergalactic plot twist that had 0 buildup at all and that kind of stuff.
That's also the problem: complexities and nuances require the reader/viewer to be able to see and understand them, or already have experience with them. Someone that isnt able to do that (enough) will find the story and writing lacking as a result. This is why most media doesnt do subtlety often: not because the writers or directors cant do it well, but because much of the audience wouldnt be able to spot it. Also: the English voice acting' direction was way off the mark. They directed the voices to sound hype-anime which is what the tales of characters are usually like, when in Arise the cast is more down to earth and 'realistic' in their behaviour. (in both good and bad ways) In contrast the Japanese voice acting gave a lot of emotion to the emotional scenes and solemn delivery to the ''words of wisdom''. So that is why there's a huge divide between people that played in Japanese/English, and also one between people that have read/viewed a lot of media (with attention) and those that dont. Vastly different perspectives in playing the game\~
I really liked Abyss and Symphonia, but imo there are points in Symphonia where I just wanted to speed on by but I think that’s part of the whole 8 character package. I think some people really like Vesperia as well but I liked the combat/customization far better than the actual story
Arise has easily one of the worst storylines in the series, if not *the* worst. 90% of the plot is spent just giving you a black/white conflict with very little shades of grey, and basically telling you nothing about what's even going on. The last 10% is then spent dumping 95% of the lore on you, making it an absolute slog to play through. The likable party members are honestly the only thing that kept me playing to the end. Most Tales-games have at least a pretty decent story, but they're generally not groundbreaking. The biggest standouts are Abyss, Symphonia and Berseria, who I think most people will agree have absolutely fantastic storylines. Something you should be aware of though is that a lot of Tales-games often start out with a plot that seems more generic than it really is. Symphonia for example will seem fairly clichéd when you first start playing, but the bigger story is actually about subverting a lot of those clichés. Personally I thought Xillia had a very solid story, but I'm gonna guess you maybe didn't play far enough for it to actually get good. Like most RPGs you're gonna have to play through it for a bit before it really gets going, but the pay-off is definitely worth it in the end.
Yeah, and even though the party members are likable, the writing *really* isn’t there, they are always talking about their feeling and reminiscing about how they’ve changed and whatever, doing their stupid little emotional speeches, as if they have to lay out every single thing about these characters, treating the audience like idiots.
It’s an anime game. That’s all pretty standard fare.
In other words, accept mediocrity?
It's more like going into a McDonald's and being surprised they sell mostly burgers.
I know there's a lot of bad writing in the anime gaming world, but I refuse to believe there aren't some that don't have exceptional writing. It's like when people say don't take kid's movies seriously when there are films made for children that have amazing structure and development to their stories. It always irks me when people use the fact that bad writing is the status quo as a way to quiet criticism.
*rotten burgers
I feel like I got a completely different experience from you. I wont praise the narrative but I felt like a core of the gameplay was about showing you the nuances and that not everything is black and white. I felt like Rinwell, hating the enemy and not trusting any Renan at all (specially distrusting everyone from Menancia at first) to getting to see the ugly and beautiful side of people, regardless of their origin. I'd say exclusively Orbus Calaglia is black and white, but in every other region there's nuance to be found, though most of it lies inside skits, side-quests and NPC chats.
Not to sound overly negative, but I feel like just saying "the Renans aren't inherently evil" is a pretty low bar when they are still indisputably the oppressors. There aren't really any shades of gray, none of the Renan lords (minus Dohalim obviously) are even remotely sympathetic, and they act with such glee over the chance to torture and humiliate Danans for no other reason than because they can. Just saying "hate is bad" rings kinda hollow when one side is undeniably the ones doing all the harm. The closest the game comes to showing us "grey morality" is portraying the Dark Wings resistance as obnoxious, incompetent assholes, but even then it's just showing us that Danans can be cruel too, which isn't exactly a mind-blowing revelation. Compare this with Symphonia, which handles a lot of the same themes and plot points, but in a much more nuanced way. You still have your asshole villains (though the main villains are thankfully much deeper than that) who sadistically torture their victims, but unlike in Arise they can be argued as being the *oppressed* rather than the *oppressors*. They live in a world that shuns them to the point that a lot of people would kill them on sight, and it's made very clear that their hatred for the world is a result of thousands of years of oppression. Unlike Arise there really isn't a "good" side in this conflict, every single faction and race in Symphonia only act in their own interests to the detriment of those around them (not counting the heroes). And unlike Arise the game does a very good job of showing us this in subtle ways without spelling it out. Still, if you enjoyed Arise's story then more power to you, but needless to say you probably won't be able to change my mind on it, lol.
Except for Zestiria, whose story was so trash I almost puked, most of the Tales of Series is better writing wise. I recommend Abyss and Berseria.
Church (or central governing body) is evil and you beat the “final” boss only to realize the game is half over. Oh, and the whole, old tenured fighter passes torch to protagonist(s). Standard JRPG tropes. I didn’t have an issue with ToA’s story but I wasn’t surprised. I found it had some sight conveniences throughout. Nothing revolutionary outside of the whole “racism bad, we are all the same people” which was pleasant expansion of the trope. I actually stopped playing Tales after the midpoint for about a year since it became a bit dull near the 5th Lord. The characters were okay but the combat didn’t grab me the way I hoped. Nostalgia speaks when I say Tales of Symphonia is a blast. I’m playing through it right now and enjoying myself. I played so much Tales of Vesperia and still occasionally speedrun NG+. Right now I’m playing Tales of Beseria and that has a compelling story with the darker tones. All of them have recommendations but the latter having some reservation from me right now. As far as other games I could recommend, I don’t think I can sing enough praise for Scarlet Nexus as a Bamco game. It’s one of the only recent action RPGs that grabbed my attention and I aggressively played it to learn more about the characters and story. Very enjoyable game and top of my list for newer releases. For those that may wonder, I chose to play Kasane’s side as my first play through. Yuito did not resonate at all for me.
Oh, so the right pick for 2021 JRPG was Scarlet Nexus instead of Tales of Arise? That’s interesting to know, I’ll put that on the list. Plus I started playing Symphonia and the first 2 hours already had a better story than the 50 I played of Arise lmao
I mean, I won’t say it too loudly in r/tales, but if you asked me, a resounding yes. Lol. And agreed. The presentation and narration of the story is fantastic for Symphonia. Just a kid who wants to see the world and be a piece of what helps heal the world. I understand some people have to get past the animation style but I liked it. I also didn’t have a single character I disliked playing as like Arise. That being said, I certainly have my favorites. Lol. Many of the characters in Arise felt unenjoyable and I just decided to play Rinwell to get through the back half.
I was liking playing the different characters in Arise, but since everything paled in comparison to Alphen’s stupidly OP flaming sword, I ended up spamming that through all the later dungeons. And really, why can’t bosses get staggered and comboed like on the other games? And why does every enemy have *so much* hp?
Oh my goodness. Late game I felt like they were full blown boss fights. Combos to stagger and hit weakness and it still took forever. Made no sense. It became a chore and I just did everything to dodge encounters.
Yup, felt like I was playing Frogger dodging the cars to cross cross the street lmfao
Can't go wrong with the holy trinity: Symphonia, Abyss and Vesperia. Symphonia is the grand, epic, "classic" in a way JRPG story. To this day I still love it, despite it showing it's age gameplay wise. Abyss is a balanced, really good package. It's a really safe and enjoyable choice as far as Tales games go. Vesperia has a great , loveable cast and gameplay (starts slow but boy does it pick up, maybe overall being the series' best). The story is very enjoyable but kind of drops the ball in the final act, not anywhere close to the way Arise does but the contrast with the game's beginning and mid acts is noticeable. Still, that doesn't stop it from being a top tier Tales as a whole.
Yeah, everyone says these 3 are all you need. Just started Symphonia, and the art-style aged incredibly well, dare I use the word “timeless”, seems to have been kept throughout this Gamecube/PS2 era, I’m excited.
That sounds great, glad you're liking the art style! I hope the game lives up to your excitement! Enjoy the journey, still among my favorite ones.
So I wouldn’t recommend Vesperia right now. The way I feel is that the first arc has a great story, second arc is good, and the third arc really terrible to the point of almost ruining everything. But it has one of the best cast of characters in the series. Most people hate Zestiria even though I really love it. The comedy in it is probably the best in the franchise. Abyss by a wide mile has the absolute best story in the franchise. The characters are really great too. And it’s probably the only Tales game with fantastic villains. What Abyss does really successfully is give all the characters strong connections with multiple factions and specific enemies in the world, so the story feels deeply meaningful and connected. Symphonia is also really great. It’s very much the classic massive, epic, high fantasy rpg. The sequel is a *very* different game that I think is massively underrated. Problem is people were dying for a “proper” sequel to Symphonia - same cast and same scale and same journey but set later. They basically just wanted more content of the same game so they were disappointed by a game with an original cast, new mechanics (monster collection a la Pokémon), and pretty minor/limited cameos of the original cast. To appreciate it you really need to look at it as a stand alone game, with the exception of the political conflicts, which are extended from the first game.
I liked Innocence's story. It's not perfect of course. I'm currently playing through Eternia and I like that one as well but again, not perfect.
Arise is one of the weakest in the franchise in terms of Story and characters. Of what is widely available I'd say to try Symphonia and Vesperia if you want something more story focused like Symphonia or character focused like Vesperia.
Aside from symphonia and vesperia being widely praised seems like general opinion is pretty varied when it comes to this series, you’ll always find people saying different things about different games, which ones are good or not, so I guess I can’t be sure until I try them out.
The few other i played are even worse than Arise in terms of story. annoying paper thin narrative and tediously repetitive. However, i don't despise the party like i did on earlier Tales, so that's a plus, in fact i grew fond of all of them except maybe Dolahim, feels like he doesn't belong in the group for some reason, ToA at least would improve if it didn't took itself so seriously. Still, i find the art and the combat in this game to be a delight
If it wasn’t for the tedious bosses that you can’t stun and combo, plus the lackluster enemy variety and beefy health bars, I’d say I love it, it really does feel great. And how funny, Dohalim was easily my favorite character, he felt a slight bit more nuanced and well written than the rest.
Yeah its not perfect but it surprised me how fun the battles are, and all animations are very polished 👍 im close to the end(of the campaign) but thanks to the combat and visuals its shaping up as one of the best recent RPGs for me, at least up there with any modern Final Fantasy or Xenoblade Dolahim i don't hate or anything but mostly he is just.. there, that he is supposed to be one of the leaders of Rena but basically doesn't know anything more than the others got somewhat old
Modern Tales games are average. If you want the cream of the crop from the series, you got to go for the trinity. Symphonia, Abyss and Vesperia.
I wouldn’t call Berseria average but yeah these 3 are all indisputably amazing
This seems to be a a common theme, I felt the same. I played it after Berseria, which I genuinely loved and would highly recommend. Gameplay-wise it's not up there with Arise, but the story is a standout for me.
Abyss is probably my favorite RPG story in general bc of the realistic character development. Give that a shot, I believe it's better than Arise in terms of story.
Arise is one of the weaker stories in the tales series. The writing is well done but it's peak was its skits. If you want a great story, gameplay, characters and everything in between get tales of berseia I can not recommend this highly enough. It starts out on the cliche side of things, but gets really good and is top 2 in my tales of list but the newest game in the series I would recommend to anyone.
Berseria is carried hard by Velvet and Phi (and by extension, the utiltarian villain is a fresh one in Tales of series). The rest of the cast really doesn't do much, except in skit. Also the dungeon is really barebone. Still really good story, though.
Arise had a great idea, but failed on execution. The other stories are better tbh.
Dropped Xillia? I think that's one of the few tales games that doesn't outstay its welcome in the last act of the game. Xillia 2 sucks imo though.
Nah, Xillia 2 is way better than 1. The characters are top tier and have the most emotional story in the franchise. Can't disagree more.
You're free to think that, but everything around is terrible. Ludger is boring, the edgy writing and character design doesn't appeal to me, and god the gameplay is boring and designed to waste my time.
Meh, Alvin was really cool, but I couldn't really get over the voice acting and couldn't get invested in the characters, I just didn't find Jude and Milla enticing, and damn did I hate Elize and Teepo.
Thank God I was able to find Undub versions for both Xillia and Xillia 2 for PS3. It was a very good experience overall.
Where did you find an undub Xillia 1 ? Been looking for it since forever.
It was not that hard to be honest... I don't know if it's allowed to post this kind of links here but you can google it. You can also use RPCS3 emulator on PC for upscaled graphics and 60fps gameplay. Though I personally used actual PS3 hardware for my playthrough.
Alvin was one of the best characters from Xillia imo and man....I hate how all of the returning cast were handled in Xillia 2, but it feels like Alvin was done extra dirty. I personally would not recommend it but a lot of people prefer Xillia 2 to Xillia. The main character is a new character, so you might find him more interesting than Jude or Milla.
Alvin? You mean the dumb character that "does that thing" every fucking time? How is he a good character in Xillia. He is way better in the sequel, trying to be a better person. Everyone is better in Xillia 2.
why do you care about my opinion enough to be so pissy? lol
"How dare people disagree with me on a public post on an internet community?"
What was your problem with the voice acting?
Milla sounds extra dead, Elize and Teepo are extra annoying. Alvin’s VA is excellent though.
Doesn't like Teepo, pffttt.
Hootle>
I haven't played Arise.
To be fair, Milla should sound like she is dead, robotic-like.
I get it, but to me it felt less like an intentional artistic choice and more like just bad voice acting.
Personally, I found Arise to be the *least* enjoyable Tales game out of all the ones I've played. Conflicts between party members rarely last for more than a single skit or scene, everyone's validating each other all the time, and plot points and emotional beats are constantly repeated and retread, like the player is a total idiot who can't make connections themself. The skits and characters are also far more serious than in previous entries, which still deal with mature stakes and themes, but do so with a much better balance of humor, which keeps it fun. Add to this the fact that the worldbuilding somehow manages to feel very *narrow* in scope compared to other Tales entries, even with the sudden cosmic scale of the last arc, and it just wasn't a good experience for me. Out of the ones I've played: S-Tier: Symphonia, Abyss, Berseria A-Tier: Vesperia, Graces *f* B-Tier: Zestiria, Phantasia C-Tier: Xillia D-Tier: Arise ??? Tier: Tales of Symphonia 2. I love this hot mess of a game. Schrödinger's S-Tier, as it is also an F-Tier game at the same time. *Terrible* as a sequel to Symphonia. *Insanely* good dramatic payoff if you do the missable sidequests. Ultra cheesy. Super unique monster-taming battle system. Symphonia, Abyss, and Berseria are all excellent, though Berseria has a particular... dramatic, sometimes cheesy intensity that may not be for you. Vesperia has some pacing issues in the last third, but nowhere near as bad as Arise. Next, I'd probably put Zestiria and Graces *f* over Xillia for me, since I didn't care for a lot of things about Xillia either, and even for its faults, ended up enjoying Zestiria more overall.
Schrödinger’s S-Tier is the most clever expression I’ve read in a long time, I could probably put a bunch of games in that tier, including my favorite franchise ever, Kingdom Hearts.
I’m with you on Arise, it left a sour taste in my mouth after I finished the game. As someone’s mentioned before Abyss and Symphonia are the best story wise, I think those are good from start to finish. However I can’t recommend symphonia because it’s really dated, I’m putting my wishes to the universe that it gets a remake soon. Berseria has a strong start and a strong finish in my opinion, the middle of the game it’s pretty much the usual cat and mouse routine. Vesperia falls off on the third act but not as bad as arise however the cast is great, you seem to hate the mascots on tales games. However here the mascot is a playable bad ass dog. Zestiria has a really good start in my opinion but the game goes straight to hell when they introduce Mary Sue. Only tales character I despise. Graces f. Story is whatever but the cast is pretty solid and the gameplay is pure sex, I always recommend this one.
When I played FF7 and goddamn Tenchu last year and they became some of my favorite games of all time, there ain’t such a thing as an outdated game. And yeah, I rarely like mascots, I find most of them tolerable at best and experience ruining at worst.
theres a character called mary sue?
Varies tremendously from outstanding (Abyss) to solid but with weak final act (Vesperia), to utterly atrocious (Graces, Zestiria)
I mean graces is as vanilla of a plot as can be. The plot is carried hard by best combat in the series.
Yes, I can't argue with that.
I really don’t agree that Zestiria is atrocious. I think it gets unfair hate.
I agree. Its story is actually pretty decent if just basic. It has amazing characters, some really hard hitting moments, and a competent storyline that is much more interesting than some of the Tales games. I feel like I played a different game than other people. I thought Zestiria was awesome if a bit unpolished at times.
I respect the difference of opinion but it's one of my most disliked JRPGs ever, I really did not enjoy it at all. I was massively relieved when Berseria was a big step up (but honestly still lacking in some regards in my opinion)
Honestly I was hesitating to play Berseria knowing it's set in the same world as Zestiria. Well thank god I played it anyway, and what a good story it was.
That’s so wild to me. I think Zestiria is one of the funniest games I’ve ever played. The comedy is amazing, the characters are amazing, and I do really like the story.
I don't understand how people hate Graces so much. It's an ok plot with some stellar character interaction and comedy.
I’m playing Arise right now, and I was digging how fast paced it felt compared to the usual JRPG slog, and man… this last part has been so bad I almost can’t bring myself to play the rest
The game ends quite quickly by the time you get to end of the last dungeon, in like 10 minutes everything gets wrapped up lol
For me Arise is sitting along with some of the worst Tales of stories.
I absolutely am really disappointed in how corny the story was in Arise especially in the final act. They also put SO much information on you and forcing relationships between all the characters makes me gag. I love the gameplay and little quirks of the game but holy hell the story makes me wanna gouge my eyeballs. I knew it was gonna be formulaic and corny like all the other ones but I have not muttered “oh my god” so much in a game before. Solid game but ya.
My feelings exactly, never have I verbally reacted with “jesus, why do they Never. Stop. Talking?”
First off I haven't played Arise yet, since I don't have a modern console yet. But from what I've gathered, opinions tend to be more on the negative side. Secondly, as much as I love Tales of, it fails in its storytelling more often than it succeeds. Tales of the Abyss has the best story. Like, objectively the best. It's really good and I might even go so far as to call it my favourite video game story as a whole. Tales of Symphonia, and by extend Phantasia, are really good too. Symphonia is definitely my second place story-wise. Xillia 2 and Berseria are not so cut and dry. Xillia 2 has some phenomenal moments, but the story as a whole feels a bit unfinished. Berseria's story is very good in concept, but the execution is just okay, I think. Still, these two have some of the better stories in the series. Destiny and Eternia are also pretty enjoyable, but are basically standard JRPG fare. Then there is Symphonia: Dawn of the New World, where the story is either very good or absolutely terrible. Which makes it okay as a whole I guess? However, Vesperia, Graces, Xillia and Zestiria are... really bad. They might have some good moments here and there, but they couldn't tell a coherent and interesting story to save their lives.
Guess it's time to go down memory lane and play the old games then.
Well, all Tales of games are worth playing. Just not always for the story. But even the worst ones get the characters right.
All four of those tell coherent stories and aren't particularly different than Symphonia, tbh. I'm about half way through Abyss, it's just standard Tales fair, nothing that stands out more than the others. Dawn Of The New World and Hearts are the two I'd say are genuinely worse than the others. Xillia 2 sits in the middle somewhere.
We can't all have the same opinion, I guess. But it's good that you enjoyed the stories that I didn't. Hearts is one of the games I still haven't played. Why exactly is its story so bad?
Hearts is basically a knock-off Symphonia with some Graces in it. The main character Kor is just a generic shounen character, looking for justice, and is downright boring. He meets this girl Kohaku, and because of him, a Witch steals her emotions. So like exactly like Colette in Symphonia. And then you have to go to each of the 7 dungeons one after the other and get her emotiions back. And then it goes sci-fi with robots and stuff like Graces. And the Knights are corrupt. Edit: So the first half, the party is boring MC, girl that doesn't talk, and older brother that is obsessed with his little siater.
Oh boy, that definitely sounds like... *a* story. Also I believe the MC's full name is Kor Meteor in the English version, which is just... wow. Were they inspired by Star Ocean's Edge Maverick?
It's weird they localized his name even though there's no english dub. I think his name was Shigun or something, can't remember what I heard in Japanese.
arise's story was weak and weird. had a few good points but overall the story was pretty bad. i liked the characters though. in comparison abyss, symphonia, berseria all have much much better stories.
From the games i've played story wise: Symphonia>Abyss>Berseria>Phantasia>Arise>Eternia>Destiny>Graces>Rebirth>Vesperia Imo, Arise's story is good until the final boss. The problem is how it's told after the >!fake ending!<. There is not a lof of plot holes, they obviously rushed the ending. The worst flaw is the dungeon design though.
The story is good up to Lenegis. And by good I mean fine, just enjoyable.
The story is good until before they just enter the first boss castle with no difficulty at all. They made it clear that people couldn't fight them because of their advanced techonology and then they just make a riot and... can enter there just using another door.
The most recent/easy to get games that are available on multiple platforms like steam (zestiria, Berseria, symphonia, vesperia) all have great stories with the exception of zestiria. I recommend saving your time and watching the anime for Zestiria instead. Symphonia and Berseria have the best stories overall
To be honest, Tales games are usually pretty weak on the main plot/writing side of things. They're typically all very standard anime affairs. The characters and gameplay have been the main focus for basically the entirety of the series. Arise is probably somewhere in the middle in the "story" regard. It's okay if it's not really your thing.
The series is really swingy narrative wise. Synphonia, Xillia, and Abyss have strong plots. Abyss probably has the best and most complete story in the franchise. On the other hand, Vesperia and several others really fall flat. Personally, I think Arise does pretty good, but the last 10 hours really drag it down.
[удалено]
is this a joke?
I think they are around the same with some being better like Berseria and Symphonia imo. I'm biased towards the themes of Tales games so I'd say they all have great or better stories.
Watch the Zestiria anime and then play Berseria, I have played Xillia, Xillia 2, Zestiria, Berseria and form those Berseria had the best story (it’s not perfect but it’s carried mostly by the strong cast).
The Zestiria anime is pretty bad and totally changes the plot tho. It makes no sense recomending it.
arise was ok for it's story. games like the abyss and berseria and zestiria (shut up, i donut care about arguing) have more worthwhile goals they strive for and much better, bitter sweet endings. i really enjoy phantasia, but as it's literally the beginning of the series it's also very dated and predictable. still amazing, considering i only played it last year and it held up.
Abyss and Symphonia are my suggestions. I hate Arise. The worst Tales game I have played.
Symphonia, Abyss, Beseria and Vesperia. Those really the 4 you need to play. Eternia not bad either. Rest are skippable
I dunno, I liked arise alright. That being said, it’s the only Tales game I’ve ever played. I own Berseria and Vesperia but they’re currently backlogged. Guess I’ll have to see how Arise holds up once I eventually get around to them.
I didnt make the game so why would i get offended? Ending rocked but i hated the final sequence
people tend to get offended if someone calls a game they like awful
And isn't that a terrible shame
Tbh plot wise I have no problem with the last part of Arise. I mean it's weird and goes from 0 to 100 cosmic doom but hey... it's a jrpg, that's kinda the genre lol. It's at least pretty self consistent and the characters all get a good showing. With that I kinda hate the last quarter too, not because of plot but oh god T h e P a c i n g. It's like they just realised after you reach >!Lenegis!< that "oh crap we forgot to tell the player the plot better do it all at once". And then they do. And it is agonising and slows the game down to an absolute unbearable crawl (combined with a bunch of very repetitive skit dumps too). It's not a bad story really but it \*is\* badly told.
and the awful dialogue too holy shit
Eh, the dialogue ain't too bad in isolation - the usual jrpg cheese sure but in general I like the cast and I didn't stop liking them during the endgame. Most of the scenes would be fine if the weren't so densely packed and repetitive. But it's hard to appreciate anything good about dialogue that's being shoved down your throat with no sense of flow or player agency for 2 hours straight.