The Story is the best part of the game, but it's not enough to recommend. Gameplay is terrible, and the game wants you to engage with it, since the random encounters are so frequent that makes progression just tiresome.
The weirdest Tales Of game in the mainline series. I think this game has some rough edges, mainly the combat, but the world it sells is incredibly unique. The music is a cut above, and the characters designs + interactions are standouts. I think if there's a game other than Tempest that deserves a remake, this is my #1 pick.
Pretty weak for a Tales game - it is interesting that they tried to bring some very light fighting game mechanics into the Tales system, but it doesn't end up working too well. But by far the biggest drawback is that a full half of the game is essentially character sidequests, none of which is voice acted in an absolutely baffling decision.
I've always been fascinated by Tales of Legendia. Not developed by the usual Tales Studios but instead Project MelFes, a team combined of both Tales and Tekken/SoulCalibur devs, it has always been a strange black sheep among the Tales family post-Phantasia. It spent over four years in development, in which time the normal Tales team released both Tales of Rebirth and Tales of Destiny 2, and the time clearly spent trying to remedy the growing pains encountered when trying to blend a more fighting game-like combat system with the normal Tales styles does shine through. That said, I still enjoyed it quite a lot, and would peg it at one of the higher B-tier entries in the series. It took me 67 hours to play through it on the normal difficulty on the American version.
This review is a BIT on the long side, so for simplicity's sake I'm going to spoiler the two main parts just so the page is easier to navigate:
Story & Presentation:
The story and localization are things immediately worth mentioning, as most Tales games are 30-ish hours, and the reason to why Legendia isn't is mostly an answer of "but it is (kinda)" x3 . A bit like the original Zelda's Second Quest, there is effectively another whole game's worth of content in Legendia once the first credits role that reuse the same dungeons and maps but with a whole new story and (much) tougher monsters. Legendia calls this section its "Character Quest," I guess because it's more focused on the characters development themselves, but I just call it "second quest" for simplicity's sake. The main quest took me about 30 hours, and then the character quest and some side quests took me another 37.
The Character Quest does not actually have any voice work in it outside of the animated cutscenes (of which there are quite a few, but hardly enough to pop up more than half a dozen times over 30 hours), but this isn't exactly a bad thing. Compared to sister games Tales of Symphonia or Tales of the Abyss released around the same time, the VA work in Legendia is terrible, especially for a Namco game. Outside of one member of the main cast (who actually is also Kratos in Symphonia) and one of the main bad guys, the main cast's VA ranges from acceptable to downright awful. The Character Quest actually has all of its story lines (of which there are MANY) voiced in the Japanese version, but not in the English version. This isn't even RE-style of "so bad it's good," it's just poor acting.
The bad voice cast really drag down a story that already really drags its feet for the first half of the main quest, which is such a shame because the second half of the main quest and the character quest all had the best story bits by far for me. Never has a game had such tender, human moments to bring me to tears so many times, but I could totally understand most people never even reaching those points because of how rough the first half of the main quest is.
The story itself is quite good, with the main quest's overall plot being better than the overall plot of the character quest, but the pieces that make up the character quest better than those of the main quest. It also has a very noticeably sillier element to it than other Tales games, at least at first. For example, the first town you go into has you meeting with the town guard who proceed to sing at you about how bad you are for breaking the town rules by fighting in town. The sillier moments really help flesh out the characters relations to one another and make the main town feel far more homey, and it was a welcome change of pace from the more purely character driven comedy that a lot of the other games rely on in skits. This game has virtually no skits, so basically all of its comedy and character-building moments are done through the main story, which I thought worked quite well (even though I really would've liked more kits because I like skits).
In my opinion, what really boosts up this game's narrative beyond its bad voice work is the absolutely stellar soundtrack. While looking online a bit about this game, I saw it mentioned on some list of "Underwhelming RPG's with Overwhelming Soundtracks," and that couldn't've hit the nail on the head better. The soundtrack does a ton of the heavy lifting for setting the proper atmosphere for story moments in the main quest, and the lack of VA in the character quest allows it to effectively do all of it. It really stands out, and really kicks in when it needs to, and really brings up the narrative from the bad VA and occasionally less than stellar translation dragging it down.
Mechanics & Design:
Even in its main design, Legendia is a bit of an odd-ball among Tales games. Instead of a large series of towns over a world map, you never actually leave the "continent" you're on. The game takes place on a giant ship made of land (it's complicated), and there is really only one main town with an inn, shops that get updated every now and then, and where most all NPC's live. This means there are no teleportation spells or even any kind of vehicles, but instead a "duct" system that allows you to teleport between the main town and the dungeons you'll go to. It means you can easily zip back to town before going to most dungeons, and you can zip right back to a dungeon whenever you may feel the need. I'm not sure I prefer it to a more typical on foot -> boat -> airship style of terrain progression and content gating in an RPG, but it's not bad.
What is bad are the dungeon designs. Dungeons are effectively all corridors with occasional branching paths for better loot. The branching paths of often very clearly marked by being blocked with a "chaos zone," where a dungeon-specific more powerful version of a normal monster will spawn for you to fight. It means most dungeons really aren't memorable past the scenery, which while nice to look at, is really the only real difference between most dungeons other than the monsters.
There are some 50 or so enemy types in the game with most boss monsters taking the form of more scary/powerful versions of those enemies. Some are HORRIBLY annoying to fight because of how short they are, how they recoil when hit, or because they're fast and can fly. Some dungeons are an absolute nightmare because they're a perfect storm of very annoying to hit casters and flyers that systematically hunt down your casters. They're alright for the most part, though, even though most dungeons are really just re-assortments of somewhat differently powered but familiar enemy types.
The combat is also somewhat of a mixed bag. Now I haven't played that much of other Tales games with 2D-plan battle systems, but the combat in this, by design, is much faster and combo focused. Especially when you try and coordinate with your party members hits, you can get some crazy combos going when you start to stagger even a boss enemy, and it just feel so awesome. The physical spell users in your party can even unlock new spells by using "base" spells 50 times and unlocking new spells that are combos of previously mastered ones, meaning your physical attackers get a ton of special moves to choose from, but that are handed out to you in a very reasonable pace. Unfortunately, this fun, quick combat is hampered by dumb AI, lack of special move hotkey functions, and an annoying targeting system.
The AI is just not very bright. The amount of times that I wished my allies would just protect themselves by running away from the giant monster trying to kill them or would actually run towards the allies they're supposed to be protecting was innumerable. However, a lot of this problem I think is down to the bad targeting system. Sure, like most Tales games, you can press R1 to re-select an enemy to target. However, if an enemy hits you, you'll target them. If you TURN AROUND, you'll target the enemy you're facing and your next button commands will be directed at them, and if you play on semi-automatic play like I do, this means a lot of running far away from the enemy you're trying to focus on because your character ran across the field to the new shiny he just saw. Particularly with shorter enemies and flying enemies this can be an absolute nightmare, and there were several encounters I had where the party nearly wiped just because my character was having so much trouble actually attacking what was in front of him. This could be remedied a bit with specific hotkeys to trigger allies moves, but you only get two: The R2 and L2 button. This game doesn't use the right control stick AT ALL in battle, which absolutely baffles me, since plenty of other Tales games use up, left, right, and down on the right stick as an additional four special move-hotkey commands. It just feels like this game wasn't developed with dualshock in mind (which is certainly possible considering that development started in 2000, but this game came out in 2005!).
All of this adds up for a combat system that frequently revolves between being very fun and quick to being very irritating and annoying due to some very obvious problems.
Verdict: Hesitantly Recommended. I really liked this game, but I also really didn't like it at times. It really reminded me of Symphonia in that it has some really prevalent problems that are impossible to ignore, but also some really great things that are exemplary for the genre. This all adds up to a game I can really only recommend to people really fanatic about Tales that just want to play them all (like me), or to people who just really wanna play every PS2 RPG out there. There are enough other Tales games in a similar style out there that you can very safely pick for a more reliably fun experience than Legendia, even though there is plenty of potential fun to be had with Legendia.
This review is a BIT on the long side, so for simplicity's sake I'm going to spoiler the two main parts just so the page is easier to navigate:
Story & Presentation:
The story and localization are things immediately worth mentioning, as most Tales games are 30-ish hours, and the reason to why Legendia isn't is mostly an answer of "but it is (kinda)" x3 . A bit like the original Zelda's Second Quest, there is effectively another whole game's worth of content in Legendia once the first credits role that reuse the same dungeons and maps but with a whole new story and (much) tougher monsters. Legendia calls this section its "Character Quest," I guess because it's more focused on the characters development themselves, but I just call it "second quest" for simplicity's sake. The main quest took me about 30 hours, and then the character quest and some side quests took me another 37.
The Character Quest does not actually have any voice work in it outside of the animated cutscenes (of which there are quite a few, but hardly enough to pop up more than half a dozen times over 30 hours), but this isn't exactly a bad thing. Compared to sister games Tales of Symphonia or Tales of the Abyss released around the same time, the VA work in Legendia is terrible, especially for a Namco game. Outside of one member of the main cast (who actually is also Kratos in Symphonia) and one of the main bad guys, the main cast's VA ranges from acceptable to downright awful. The Character Quest actually has all of its story lines (of which there are MANY) voiced in the Japanese version, but not in the English version. This isn't even RE-style of "so bad it's good," it's just poor acting.
The bad voice cast really drag down a story that already really drags its feet for the first half of the main quest, which is such a shame because the second half of the main quest and the character quest all had the best story bits by far for me. Never has a game had such tender, human moments to bring me to tears so many times, but I could totally understand most people never even reaching those points because of how rough the first half of the main quest is.
The story itself is quite good, with the main quest's overall plot being better than the overall plot of the character quest, but the pieces that make up the character quest better than those of the main quest. It also has a very noticeably sillier element to it than other Tales games, at least at first. For example, the first town you go into has you meeting with the town guard who proceed to sing at you about how bad you are for breaking the town rules by fighting in town. The sillier moments really help flesh out the characters relations to one another and make the main town feel far more homey, and it was a welcome change of pace from the more purely character driven comedy that a lot of the other games rely on in skits. This game has virtually no skits, so basically all of its comedy and character-building moments are done through the main story, which I thought worked quite well (even though I really would've liked more kits because I like skits).
In my opinion, what really boosts up this game's narrative beyond its bad voice work is the absolutely stellar soundtrack. While looking online a bit about this game, I saw it mentioned on some list of "Underwhelming RPG's with Overwhelming Soundtracks," and that couldn't've hit the nail on the head better. The soundtrack does a ton of the heavy lifting for setting the proper atmosphere for story moments in the main quest, and the lack of VA in the character quest allows it to effectively do all of it. It really stands out, and really kicks in when it needs to, and really brings up the narrative from the bad VA and occasionally less than stellar translation dragging it down.
Mechanics & Design:
Even in its main design, Legendia is a bit of an odd-ball among Tales games. Instead of a large series of towns over a world map, you never actually leave the "continent" you're on. The game takes place on a giant ship made of land (it's complicated), and there is really only one main town with an inn, shops that get updated every now and then, and where most all NPC's live. This means there are no teleportation spells or even any kind of vehicles, but instead a "duct" system that allows you to teleport between the main town and the dungeons you'll go to. It means you can easily zip back to town before going to most dungeons, and you can zip right back to a dungeon whenever you may feel the need. I'm not sure I prefer it to a more typical on foot -> boat -> airship style of terrain progression and content gating in an RPG, but it's not bad.
What is bad are the dungeon designs. Dungeons are effectively all corridors with occasional branching paths for better loot. The branching paths of often very clearly marked by being blocked with a "chaos zone," where a dungeon-specific more powerful version of a normal monster will spawn for you to fight. It means most dungeons really aren't memorable past the scenery, which while nice to look at, is really the only real difference between most dungeons other than the monsters.
There are some 50 or so enemy types in the game with most boss monsters taking the form of more scary/powerful versions of those enemies. Some are HORRIBLY annoying to fight because of how short they are, how they recoil when hit, or because they're fast and can fly. Some dungeons are an absolute nightmare because they're a perfect storm of very annoying to hit casters and flyers that systematically hunt down your casters. They're alright for the most part, though, even though most dungeons are really just re-assortments of somewhat differently powered but familiar enemy types.
The combat is also somewhat of a mixed bag. Now I haven't played that much of other Tales games with 2D-plan battle systems, but the combat in this, by design, is much faster and combo focused. Especially when you try and coordinate with your party members hits, you can get some crazy combos going when you start to stagger even a boss enemy, and it just feel so awesome. The physical spell users in your party can even unlock new spells by using "base" spells 50 times and unlocking new spells that are combos of previously mastered ones, meaning your physical attackers get a ton of special moves to choose from, but that are handed out to you in a very reasonable pace. Unfortunately, this fun, quick combat is hampered by dumb AI, lack of special move hotkey functions, and an annoying targeting system.
The AI is just not very bright. The amount of times that I wished my allies would just protect themselves by running away from the giant monster trying to kill them or would actually run towards the allies they're supposed to be protecting was innumerable. However, a lot of this problem I think is down to the bad targeting system. Sure, like most Tales games, you can press R1 to re-select an enemy to target. However, if an enemy hits you, you'll target them. If you TURN AROUND, you'll target the enemy you're facing and your next button commands will be directed at them, and if you play on semi-automatic play like I do, this means a lot of running far away from the enemy you're trying to focus on because your character ran across the field to the new shiny he just saw. Particularly with shorter enemies and flying enemies this can be an absolute nightmare, and there were several encounters I had where the party nearly wiped just because my character was having so much trouble actually attacking what was in front of him. This could be remedied a bit with specific hotkeys to trigger allies moves, but you only get two: The R2 and L2 button. This game doesn't use the right control stick AT ALL in battle, which absolutely baffles me, since plenty of other Tales games use up, left, right, and down on the right stick as an additional four special move-hotkey commands. It just feels like this game wasn't developed with dualshock in mind (which is certainly possible considering that development started in 2000, but this game came out in 2005!).
All of this adds up for a combat system that frequently revolves between being very fun and quick to being very irritating and annoying due to some very obvious problems.
Verdict: Hesitantly Recommended. I really liked this game, but I also really didn't like it at times. It really reminded me of Symphonia in that it has some really prevalent problems that are impossible to ignore, but also some really great things that are exemplary for the genre. This all adds up to a game I can really only recommend to people really fanatic about Tales that just want to play them all (like me), or to people who just really wanna play every PS2 RPG out there. There are enough other Tales games in a similar style out there that you can very safely pick for a more reliably fun experience than Legendia, even though there is plenty of potential fun to be had with Legendia.
meh. it's not terrible but just listen to the ost or something on youtube and save yourself the wasted time
INNECESARIO
Le podría perdonar las carencias a este juego si hubiese sido el primer Tales of en 3D, pero saliendo después de Tales of Symphonia y EL MISMO AÑO que Tales of the Abyss esto es imperdonable.
Del precioso estilo visual de Symphonia y su combate que empezaba a ser 3D se pasa a unos modelos que parecen de plastilina y un combate 2D como el de Eternia.
No obstante ese no es el único problema, el ritmo de la historia es otro problema grave puesto que toda la intro equivale a tener que buscar a la hermana del prota hasta encontrarla, y la vuelven a secuestrar, la encuentras, y la vuelven a secuestrar....
El cast de personajes tampoco ayuda puesto que, a diferencia de lo que nos ofrece esta saga con personajes interesantes que son más de lo que sus roles clásicos ofrecen, aquí se sienten ultra estereotipados.
Sigo sin entender por qué salió este juego sabiendo que, ese mismo año, Tales of the Abyss iba a celebrar los 10 años de la saga Tales of.
Le podría perdonar las carencias a este juego si hubiese sido el primer Tales of en 3D, pero saliendo después de Tales of Symphonia y EL MISMO AÑO que Tales of the Abyss esto es imperdonable.
Del precioso estilo visual de Symphonia y su combate que empezaba a ser 3D se pasa a unos modelos que parecen de plastilina y un combate 2D como el de Eternia.
No obstante ese no es el único problema, el ritmo de la historia es otro problema grave puesto que toda la intro equivale a tener que buscar a la hermana del prota hasta encontrarla, y la vuelven a secuestrar, la encuentras, y la vuelven a secuestrar....
El cast de personajes tampoco ayuda puesto que, a diferencia de lo que nos ofrece esta saga con personajes interesantes que son más de lo que sus roles clásicos ofrecen, aquí se sienten ultra estereotipados.
Sigo sin entender por qué salió este juego sabiendo que, ese mismo año, Tales of the Abyss iba a celebrar los 10 años de la saga Tales of.
segundo jogo da série Tales Of que eu joguei e eu digo como fã dessa franquia desde 2O13 esse é o jogo mais fraco de Tales Of Series
a jogabilidade é igual á todos os Tales Of, porém a história é meio blé
a jogabilidade é igual á todos os Tales Of, porém a história é meio blé
Tales of Legendia is one long-ass piece of game following the traditional Tales of formula down to a tee.
The chibi artstyle is cute and the voice acting was pretty ace with cast members like Cam Clarke and Shiloh Strong. A fairly enjoyable cast, although some gags got pretty repetetive and I have no idea why everyone had to pick on Moses the entire fucking game.
The second half of the game however cuts the entire voice acting and goes on with individual character subplots while pulling a bravely default ala recycling the entire game. You're basically playing the same game twice, although the post game story at least had a more interesting plot going on, though it got very monotonous.
The Forest of No return dungeon sucked ASS. And the other dungeons were basically the same tunnely designs with an okay 2D battlesystem. I liked the flanking mechanic although some enemies at late game got ridiculously spongy and it was more button spammy and stiff, moreso than timing your movement and spacing like in other tales of games.
The first 30 hours or so comprises the main story chapters until the credits while following a longwinded damsel in distress plot. Though there's some good moments and you always went forward to new areas.
The orchestrated soundtrack definitely helped the experience.
The main story easier to recommend than the 40 + hour postgame following after the credits. It's a decent run if you want some traditional tales of, even if it's not the best one, it still packs some charm.
The chibi artstyle is cute and the voice acting was pretty ace with cast members like Cam Clarke and Shiloh Strong. A fairly enjoyable cast, although some gags got pretty repetetive and I have no idea why everyone had to pick on Moses the entire fucking game.
The second half of the game however cuts the entire voice acting and goes on with individual character subplots while pulling a bravely default ala recycling the entire game. You're basically playing the same game twice, although the post game story at least had a more interesting plot going on, though it got very monotonous.
The Forest of No return dungeon sucked ASS. And the other dungeons were basically the same tunnely designs with an okay 2D battlesystem. I liked the flanking mechanic although some enemies at late game got ridiculously spongy and it was more button spammy and stiff, moreso than timing your movement and spacing like in other tales of games.
The first 30 hours or so comprises the main story chapters until the credits while following a longwinded damsel in distress plot. Though there's some good moments and you always went forward to new areas.
The orchestrated soundtrack definitely helped the experience.
The main story easier to recommend than the 40 + hour postgame following after the credits. It's a decent run if you want some traditional tales of, even if it's not the best one, it still packs some charm.
Tengo bastantes issues con los diseños, pero bueno
This game is tied with Zestiria for one of my least favorites in the series. I legit can't think anything I like about this game outside the music and Chloe. The gameplay sucks ass, the story is dogshit, and the main cast outside of Chloe and I guess Senel are either forgettable or Shirley. Also this game is really ugly. I know PS2 graphics aren't amazing, but Tales of the Abyss released in the same year and looks miles better than Legendia
This review contains spoilers
Tales of Legendia es un título muy extraño. Un Tales of extremadamente raro. Es al mismo tiempo la oveja negra de la franquicia y, de cierto modo, un clásico de culto. Especialmente siendo un título tan temprano de la saga (siendo el séptimo juego apenas, con Arise en el horizonte ya enmarcando el número diecisiete, solo si contamos entregas principales), me sigue sorprendiendo lo osado que llega a sentirse.
ToL está dividido en dos mitades, con la primera siendo una versión considerablemente más débil de tu típica estructura de Tales of. Es fácil encontrar un montón de semejanzas con Symphonia, desde la presencia de una raza prominentemente aria con poderes divinos que desarrolla un complejo racista a propósito de una cadena histórica que les ha llevado a la segregación y pasando por la necesidad de atravesar diferentes templos marcados cada uno por un elemento en concreto, solo que aquí se siente todo mucho peor llevado. Hay menos tiempo para establecer sus temas, los giros son menos llamativos y los personajes apenas tienen espacio para mostrar facetas más allá de su característica definitoria. Está demasiado centrado en Senel y Shirley, la segunda siendo una de las chicas más blandas que podrás encontrarte en JRPG alguno. Villanos como Vaclav o Maurits están en la mitad baja de la franquicia en lo que a mí respecta, y la presencia de Walter ocupando el rol de 'traidor', un tropo muy común dentro de la franquicia, se siente desaprovechada, con un conflicto que no termina de llamar la atención y que resulta insatisfactorio si lo comparas a personajes previos que ocuparon dicho concepto.
Y sin embargo, de golpe, los créditos aparecen. Mucho antes de tiempo que en cualquier otro Tales of. La historia ha terminado, acabas de salvar el mundo. Y sin embargo, no estás ni cerca de haber acabado. De hecho, si acaso estás en el límite del 40% de la aventura total.
Lo que hace a Legendia un JRPG tan único es que su quest principal tarda muchísimo menos de lo habitual. Sí, es una trama decepcionante, pero a partir de este momento el enfoque cambia por completo, pasando a centrarse en temas nuevos, agarrando una estructura que prácticamente ningún otro título del género siquiera se ha planteado en considerar. Tu JRPG promedio acaba con una lucha contundente que marca el final del viaje, sin embargo el post no parece existir jamás. Se trata de aquello que se intuye, de lo que podemos esperar de nuestros personajes ahora que su mundo se encuentra a salvo.
Tales of Legendia es la historia de ese post.
Toca ver a cada uno de los personajes encontrar paz, tanto para con ellos mismos como con el resto. El viaje no les ha unido como cabría esperar, precisamente por haber sido tan breve. Tienen que aprender a quererse realmente, encontrar qué espacio ocupan en el grupo ahora que ya no hay un mundo al que salvar.
Todos esos dilemas arrojados en la primera mitad, casi sin explorarse y sin llegar a ningún lado, toman primer plano y, desde ahora, el juego enfatiza individualmente en cada uno de estos. Les da espacio para enfrenarse a conflictos sorprendentemente humanos, que rebasan por completo las tragedias habituales que podrían estar perfectamente contenidas en el arco general, blablá el mundo está en riesgo. Desde una paternidad fallida, la coacción y el matrato a los hijos, la búsqueda de una venganza que te motiva a apartarte de la gente que amas, el rol que ocupas al verte en la obligación a apoyar a alguien que ahora es visto con malos ojos por el resto, la duda de no poder estar a la altura, no cumplir las expectativas ni los sueños de quienes ya no están entre nosotros.
Para Legendia la historia no acaba con un combate que salva al mundo, no, esto es solo el inicio para un proceso de reconstrucción, tanto del mundo, en tanto sus conflictos políticos y raciales a larga escala, como para sus personajes, pues la vida no acaba con un momento que unifica todo, sino que es apenas un paso para la tranquilidad, para ahora poder enfocarme en el yo, en qué es lo que necesito para poder seguir viviendo.
Una historia sobre la maldición de los mares, aunque la propia estructura de su segunda mitad encamina a un conflicto que, como JRPG, deberá concluir en un último combate, su sentido aquí es mucho más metafórico, es apenas la última excusa para afrontar todas estas historias individuales que hacen al título algo irrepetible. Que ambas caras del juego, de esta primera mitad, Senel y Shirley, pasen a tomar un rol de soporte, que sean ahora ellos quienes se permitan contemplar las tragedias del resto del cast, marca un relevo de enfoque muy importante que hace de este juego algo excepcional que, por sí mismo, merece ser la pena vivido.
Sin embargo, el título de oveja negra no se lo quitará nadie, y es que efectivamente el juego sufre en todo lo que no respecta a la narrativa de su segunda mitad. En la aspiración desmedida de Namco por, si acaso llegaba a ser posible, sacar hasta dos títulos de la saga en un mismo año, el desarrollo de Legendia se revela como evidentemente desatroso, teniendo decisiones de diseño que solo le juegan en contra, y que no consiguen más que entrometerse en cualquier posible disfrute del mismo.
Contando con muy probablemente el peor sistema de combate de la franquicia, dungeons desquiciadamente tediosos, un recorrido monótono aplastado en batallas aleatorias insufribles que solo acrecientan su caducidad en un mapa del mundo terriblemente planteado, con puzzles que rozan en lo lamentable y una falta de foco gigantesca de cara a cómo utilizar las mecánicas para hacer más llevadero el viaje, Legendia no se deja jugar tranquilamente, especialmente considerando que se trata de uno de los títulos más largos de la franquicia, y aún peor, que la segunda mitad no solo casi no agrega niveles nuevos, sino que te obliga a recorrer todos los de la primera otra vez, solo cambiando el contexto y las escenas que allí acontecen.
A Legendia, como a sus personajes, le pesa existir, especialmente por haber sido desarrollado en el peor contexto de explotación de su saga. A su lado, lanzado el mismo año, tienes a Tales of the Abyss, todavía hoy considerado el mejor de la franquicia, quien sufre de práticamente los mismos problemas de diseño propios de un juego de Tales of, solo que solventados de muchísima mejor manera. Ambos son juegos diseñados con amor, especialmente en la escritura se puede ver un cuidado prácticamente a la par, pero uno es claramente el título abandonado por la casa madre. Siendo 'ese' Tales of que no hizo Namco Tales Studio, quizá estaba destinado a ser relegado como el raro, el más imperfecto, al que más le pesan las formas.
Sin embargo, en lo que a mí respecta, eso también lo hace uno de los más bellos. Me es imposible recomendárselo a nadie, el juego llena todas las casillas posibles para dificultar su propio consumo. Pero qué puedo decir, me sigue alegrando y entregando aquello en lo que la gran mayoría de sus contemporáneos fallaban.
Debo hacer una mención especial a la banda sonora. No solo soy fan de Go Shiina, mi amor por el sujeto va mucho más allá - es mi compositor favorito en general. A pesar de contar con trabajos increíbles a lo largo de las décadas, fue con este título que logró ponerse en el radar. Algo que jamás nadie podrá quitarle a Tales of Legendia es que cuenta con muy seguramente la mejor musicalización de la franquicia, es un secreto a voces, incluso entre sus detractores.
Pero en mi caso, me gustaría ir un paso más allá. Creo que Tales of Legendia tiene mi banda sonora favorita. No de Tales of, no de los JRPGs, sino de videojuegos en general. Pocas colecciones de piezas me resultan tan encantadoras, tan llenas de energía, tan experimentales y propias al mismo tiempo, jamás en busca de posar o pecar de exceso de complejidad, sino de mezclar leitmotifs en las formas que le sean más conmovedoras, más evocadoras.
Es normal que el primer gran trabajo de un autor sea una base sobre la que mejorar a futuro. Pero a veces ocurre lo contrario, que el primer intento sea el mayor despliegue posible de identidad y talento. Creo que este es uno de esos casos. Go Shiina siempre seguirá sorprendiendo, pero su Tales of Legendia es, muy seguramente, aquel trabajo que jamás pasará desapercibido por nadie.
ToL está dividido en dos mitades, con la primera siendo una versión considerablemente más débil de tu típica estructura de Tales of. Es fácil encontrar un montón de semejanzas con Symphonia, desde la presencia de una raza prominentemente aria con poderes divinos que desarrolla un complejo racista a propósito de una cadena histórica que les ha llevado a la segregación y pasando por la necesidad de atravesar diferentes templos marcados cada uno por un elemento en concreto, solo que aquí se siente todo mucho peor llevado. Hay menos tiempo para establecer sus temas, los giros son menos llamativos y los personajes apenas tienen espacio para mostrar facetas más allá de su característica definitoria. Está demasiado centrado en Senel y Shirley, la segunda siendo una de las chicas más blandas que podrás encontrarte en JRPG alguno. Villanos como Vaclav o Maurits están en la mitad baja de la franquicia en lo que a mí respecta, y la presencia de Walter ocupando el rol de 'traidor', un tropo muy común dentro de la franquicia, se siente desaprovechada, con un conflicto que no termina de llamar la atención y que resulta insatisfactorio si lo comparas a personajes previos que ocuparon dicho concepto.
Y sin embargo, de golpe, los créditos aparecen. Mucho antes de tiempo que en cualquier otro Tales of. La historia ha terminado, acabas de salvar el mundo. Y sin embargo, no estás ni cerca de haber acabado. De hecho, si acaso estás en el límite del 40% de la aventura total.
Lo que hace a Legendia un JRPG tan único es que su quest principal tarda muchísimo menos de lo habitual. Sí, es una trama decepcionante, pero a partir de este momento el enfoque cambia por completo, pasando a centrarse en temas nuevos, agarrando una estructura que prácticamente ningún otro título del género siquiera se ha planteado en considerar. Tu JRPG promedio acaba con una lucha contundente que marca el final del viaje, sin embargo el post no parece existir jamás. Se trata de aquello que se intuye, de lo que podemos esperar de nuestros personajes ahora que su mundo se encuentra a salvo.
Tales of Legendia es la historia de ese post.
Toca ver a cada uno de los personajes encontrar paz, tanto para con ellos mismos como con el resto. El viaje no les ha unido como cabría esperar, precisamente por haber sido tan breve. Tienen que aprender a quererse realmente, encontrar qué espacio ocupan en el grupo ahora que ya no hay un mundo al que salvar.
Todos esos dilemas arrojados en la primera mitad, casi sin explorarse y sin llegar a ningún lado, toman primer plano y, desde ahora, el juego enfatiza individualmente en cada uno de estos. Les da espacio para enfrenarse a conflictos sorprendentemente humanos, que rebasan por completo las tragedias habituales que podrían estar perfectamente contenidas en el arco general, blablá el mundo está en riesgo. Desde una paternidad fallida, la coacción y el matrato a los hijos, la búsqueda de una venganza que te motiva a apartarte de la gente que amas, el rol que ocupas al verte en la obligación a apoyar a alguien que ahora es visto con malos ojos por el resto, la duda de no poder estar a la altura, no cumplir las expectativas ni los sueños de quienes ya no están entre nosotros.
Para Legendia la historia no acaba con un combate que salva al mundo, no, esto es solo el inicio para un proceso de reconstrucción, tanto del mundo, en tanto sus conflictos políticos y raciales a larga escala, como para sus personajes, pues la vida no acaba con un momento que unifica todo, sino que es apenas un paso para la tranquilidad, para ahora poder enfocarme en el yo, en qué es lo que necesito para poder seguir viviendo.
Una historia sobre la maldición de los mares, aunque la propia estructura de su segunda mitad encamina a un conflicto que, como JRPG, deberá concluir en un último combate, su sentido aquí es mucho más metafórico, es apenas la última excusa para afrontar todas estas historias individuales que hacen al título algo irrepetible. Que ambas caras del juego, de esta primera mitad, Senel y Shirley, pasen a tomar un rol de soporte, que sean ahora ellos quienes se permitan contemplar las tragedias del resto del cast, marca un relevo de enfoque muy importante que hace de este juego algo excepcional que, por sí mismo, merece ser la pena vivido.
Sin embargo, el título de oveja negra no se lo quitará nadie, y es que efectivamente el juego sufre en todo lo que no respecta a la narrativa de su segunda mitad. En la aspiración desmedida de Namco por, si acaso llegaba a ser posible, sacar hasta dos títulos de la saga en un mismo año, el desarrollo de Legendia se revela como evidentemente desatroso, teniendo decisiones de diseño que solo le juegan en contra, y que no consiguen más que entrometerse en cualquier posible disfrute del mismo.
Contando con muy probablemente el peor sistema de combate de la franquicia, dungeons desquiciadamente tediosos, un recorrido monótono aplastado en batallas aleatorias insufribles que solo acrecientan su caducidad en un mapa del mundo terriblemente planteado, con puzzles que rozan en lo lamentable y una falta de foco gigantesca de cara a cómo utilizar las mecánicas para hacer más llevadero el viaje, Legendia no se deja jugar tranquilamente, especialmente considerando que se trata de uno de los títulos más largos de la franquicia, y aún peor, que la segunda mitad no solo casi no agrega niveles nuevos, sino que te obliga a recorrer todos los de la primera otra vez, solo cambiando el contexto y las escenas que allí acontecen.
A Legendia, como a sus personajes, le pesa existir, especialmente por haber sido desarrollado en el peor contexto de explotación de su saga. A su lado, lanzado el mismo año, tienes a Tales of the Abyss, todavía hoy considerado el mejor de la franquicia, quien sufre de práticamente los mismos problemas de diseño propios de un juego de Tales of, solo que solventados de muchísima mejor manera. Ambos son juegos diseñados con amor, especialmente en la escritura se puede ver un cuidado prácticamente a la par, pero uno es claramente el título abandonado por la casa madre. Siendo 'ese' Tales of que no hizo Namco Tales Studio, quizá estaba destinado a ser relegado como el raro, el más imperfecto, al que más le pesan las formas.
Sin embargo, en lo que a mí respecta, eso también lo hace uno de los más bellos. Me es imposible recomendárselo a nadie, el juego llena todas las casillas posibles para dificultar su propio consumo. Pero qué puedo decir, me sigue alegrando y entregando aquello en lo que la gran mayoría de sus contemporáneos fallaban.
Debo hacer una mención especial a la banda sonora. No solo soy fan de Go Shiina, mi amor por el sujeto va mucho más allá - es mi compositor favorito en general. A pesar de contar con trabajos increíbles a lo largo de las décadas, fue con este título que logró ponerse en el radar. Algo que jamás nadie podrá quitarle a Tales of Legendia es que cuenta con muy seguramente la mejor musicalización de la franquicia, es un secreto a voces, incluso entre sus detractores.
Pero en mi caso, me gustaría ir un paso más allá. Creo que Tales of Legendia tiene mi banda sonora favorita. No de Tales of, no de los JRPGs, sino de videojuegos en general. Pocas colecciones de piezas me resultan tan encantadoras, tan llenas de energía, tan experimentales y propias al mismo tiempo, jamás en busca de posar o pecar de exceso de complejidad, sino de mezclar leitmotifs en las formas que le sean más conmovedoras, más evocadoras.
Es normal que el primer gran trabajo de un autor sea una base sobre la que mejorar a futuro. Pero a veces ocurre lo contrario, que el primer intento sea el mayor despliegue posible de identidad y talento. Creo que este es uno de esos casos. Go Shiina siempre seguirá sorprendiendo, pero su Tales of Legendia es, muy seguramente, aquel trabajo que jamás pasará desapercibido por nadie.
Tales music will never be this good again. Sakuraba absolute dogshit compared to my boy Go Shiina
50%
i'm very grateful for this game because it taught my younger self very important lessons like how series loyalty is stupid and that putting yourself through bad games like this just because you like one aspect is a waste of time. the most important thing about a game is that it is FUN and pretty much everything here from the story, characters, and combat is NOT.
after the insufferable protag said some stupid garbage for the millionth time and encountering the fifth random encounter in three minutes i was sitting there and thinking "why the efffffffff am i still playing this when i would have more fun doing my homework"
thank you legendia
after the insufferable protag said some stupid garbage for the millionth time and encountering the fifth random encounter in three minutes i was sitting there and thinking "why the efffffffff am i still playing this when i would have more fun doing my homework"
thank you legendia
The character epilogue is bullshit after all that happens in the game, but hey, the soundtrack is incredible, the characters are a bunch of lovable dumbasses and the story goes on and on smoothly. The battle system is not that great, but at least it didn't become a level grinding mess like other games of the franchise (looking at you Abyss)
how do people gas up this game i don't get it this shit is fucking trash, like you already failed with combat if it doesn't feel satisfying to play, and the music is the most overhyped shit ever, there are some bangers yeah but no where near the best ost in the series. The tales game ever
Volver a tocar este juego ha sido un poco tortura y un poco alegria por igual
Puedo entender a la gente que no quiera acabarse este juego al tener una primera mitad muy poco atractiva y los demas elementos del juego parece que no ayudan al paquete, pero la magia de Tales of Legendia es para mi su segunda mitad, hacer un juego donde el "post" la aventura principal es igual o hasta mas importante que la "historia principal" sigue pareciendo uno de los mejores conceptos que he visto en un rpg y es gracias a esta narrativa que podemos ver arcos de personajes muy buenos y a la altura otras entregas
Mis favoritos siendo
Chloe
Jay
Norma
Pero en general todos son destacables a su manera y la batalla final real del juego me parece de las mejores de la franquicia hablando de el concepto de la misma, puesto que en lugar de ser la tipica batalla de jefe de bueno contra el malo, es una batalla mucho mas metaforica que me cierra bastante bien.
Tales of Legendia es un juego que de verdad tiene corazon detras, pero entre cosas como el combate que se vuelve monotono a la larga, sus mazmorras las cuales son poco interesantes y se vuelven aburridas de recorrer dos veces hacen dificil siquiera llegar a la parte que hace que de verdad quieras al juego.
Destacare el soundtrack de Go shiina que para alguien que se encuentra un poco aburrido de Motoi Sakuraba ahora mismo es genial tener un soundtrack unico de verdad, con tonadas que recordare de una u otra forma.
La verdad de cierta forma fue lindo revisitar el juego y recordarme que
Aun con nuestros problemas,debilidades, ciclos abusivos, ambiciones etc.
Nuestra fuerza de crecer y mejorar mos recuerda lo valiosos que somos los humanos y todos valemos y podemos vencer cosas como el estancamiento.
Puedo entender a la gente que no quiera acabarse este juego al tener una primera mitad muy poco atractiva y los demas elementos del juego parece que no ayudan al paquete, pero la magia de Tales of Legendia es para mi su segunda mitad, hacer un juego donde el "post" la aventura principal es igual o hasta mas importante que la "historia principal" sigue pareciendo uno de los mejores conceptos que he visto en un rpg y es gracias a esta narrativa que podemos ver arcos de personajes muy buenos y a la altura otras entregas
Mis favoritos siendo
Chloe
Jay
Norma
Pero en general todos son destacables a su manera y la batalla final real del juego me parece de las mejores de la franquicia hablando de el concepto de la misma, puesto que en lugar de ser la tipica batalla de jefe de bueno contra el malo, es una batalla mucho mas metaforica que me cierra bastante bien.
Tales of Legendia es un juego que de verdad tiene corazon detras, pero entre cosas como el combate que se vuelve monotono a la larga, sus mazmorras las cuales son poco interesantes y se vuelven aburridas de recorrer dos veces hacen dificil siquiera llegar a la parte que hace que de verdad quieras al juego.
Destacare el soundtrack de Go shiina que para alguien que se encuentra un poco aburrido de Motoi Sakuraba ahora mismo es genial tener un soundtrack unico de verdad, con tonadas que recordare de una u otra forma.
La verdad de cierta forma fue lindo revisitar el juego y recordarme que
Aun con nuestros problemas,debilidades, ciclos abusivos, ambiciones etc.
Nuestra fuerza de crecer y mejorar mos recuerda lo valiosos que somos los humanos y todos valemos y podemos vencer cosas como el estancamiento.
Ça vaut le coup juste pour Chloe (l'OST est incroyablement bon aussi)
The only thing keeping me from giving it that 4th star is the gameplay (and Will). Personally I can look past that and focus on the most amazing soundtrack and fantastic character writing and world building. Maybe a remake could fix the combat issues I have
Very disappointed with this game after coming off the great experience I had with Tales of Symphonia...
This game felt half-baked, and literally unfinished... everything took a huge step back from its previous iteration, and I mean everything!
Best part of the game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGO3yf4d3oc
This game felt half-baked, and literally unfinished... everything took a huge step back from its previous iteration, and I mean everything!
Best part of the game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGO3yf4d3oc
i always describe tales games as "anime if it weren't a mistake," but this is the tales game that is at its most anime, and as such, is at its most mistake as well. awful game with a bad combat system, horrendous characters with terrible interactions with one another, and to top it all off, a pseudo-incest plot. sometimes the ost do be slapping tho
So I'm not big on Tales to begin with, but if anything that might be why I'm being nicer to this than I would otherwise.
I liked this game more than other Tales games I played, but ultimately I grew wary of it. I got through the main story and 2 and 3/4ths of the character quests before deciding I'd had enough, but hey I got through the main story and saw the credits that's good enough in my book. I kinda don't care about these characters enough to learn more anyway.
I liked this game more than other Tales games I played, but ultimately I grew wary of it. I got through the main story and 2 and 3/4ths of the character quests before deciding I'd had enough, but hey I got through the main story and saw the credits that's good enough in my book. I kinda don't care about these characters enough to learn more anyway.
Average fare Tales with a very dull cast and poor combo or enemy stun feedback which are all these games have going for them. Maybe killed 2D LMBS forever lmaoo.
Emulated.
Boring game, had a good start but then I just got tired playing it. At least it was fairly short, excluding the post game content.
I'd have more fun watching paint dry 0,5 / 5 play trails from zero instead it's fun.
Boring game, had a good start but then I just got tired playing it. At least it was fairly short, excluding the post game content.
I'd have more fun watching paint dry 0,5 / 5 play trails from zero instead it's fun.
This is probably one of the most exhausting games I've played in my entire life. The game its self is pretty weak, a really weak cast with some exceptions, a pretty boring story in the first half and the worst character in the franchise getting driven to a whole new level of awful in the second. The combat is pretty much just the bare basics too, and it gets SUPER repetitive too. And then the credits roll.
...And the game then goes on and doubles its length. And because of dumb localization, the second half of the game isn't even dubbed, so yeah, say goodbye to voice acting outside of special situations. The story honestly improves a bit since now at the end of the game it decides the characters should start to actually have things going on now, but I hope you enjoy backtracking to previous dungeons ONLY outside of the final one, which is just a boss rush of recolored enemies. I don't think any of this game is worth playing, even for Tales veterans, it's boring at best and exhausting at worst. Soundtrack is pretty solid though.
...And the game then goes on and doubles its length. And because of dumb localization, the second half of the game isn't even dubbed, so yeah, say goodbye to voice acting outside of special situations. The story honestly improves a bit since now at the end of the game it decides the characters should start to actually have things going on now, but I hope you enjoy backtracking to previous dungeons ONLY outside of the final one, which is just a boss rush of recolored enemies. I don't think any of this game is worth playing, even for Tales veterans, it's boring at best and exhausting at worst. Soundtrack is pretty solid though.
The story was decent but the gameplay was just... really inconsistent. It worked sometimes but sometimes the difficulty felt harder than it needed to be due to how stiff the characters moved around and did moves.
With Namco's in-house development team in command, Tales of Legendia missed the point entirely. The near-complete removal of the Skit System, the largely uneventful return to side-scrolling combat, shrill, irritating voice acting, and pathetic dungeon design paint an overall inconsistent mess.
bleh