846niko
2016
2009
2005
i really wish i liked this one more, but still pretty cool concept but the ending felt not as great as i'd want despite the rest of the story being relatively strong. i think the combat is definitely a step up from symphonia era but still nothing crazy, but fof changes are a pretty cool addition. most of end game was just walking back and forth and sometimes there were WAY too many skits
2010
2022
2020
2011
2024
phenomenal game phenomenal story the things they changed from fes were all mostly positive and qol and felt so incredibly good they did really good making the cast even more intimate than the og and yeah this was one of the best experiences ever play this please
please let me release personas from the velvet room
please let me release personas from the velvet room
2012
genuinely one of the most frustrating games i've ever played, story is super convoluted and the emotional beats albeit good are spoiled by the realization that they just could have made the game that good. the cast from xillia 1 seems to be set aside in favor of a lame self insert and i don't like being hit with 18 status ailments every combat. combats feel like they're DESIGNED to be annoying, unfortunately . debt mechanic sucks, though the premise was promising
1995
the game was pretty solid and i think the story had a degree of depth, but nothing too crazy. it definitely shows its age in quality of life areas and dungeon design (especially encounter rate) but plays pretty well considering it came out 30 years ago.
it's pretty cool to see a game take place in the same universe as symphonia, even though that game out a while after. the time travel thing was pretty cool, and though characters lack a degree of depth, i think that's partly because they are actually like 3x3 pixels with mostly combat focus
it's pretty cool to see a game take place in the same universe as symphonia, even though that game out a while after. the time travel thing was pretty cool, and though characters lack a degree of depth, i think that's partly because they are actually like 3x3 pixels with mostly combat focus
2016
really good game, one of the strongest of the series for sure. story and character development are great, and the tone is pretty good absent a couple things that feel out of place towards the ending. narrative is one of the stronger points, combat is also pretty good. don't like the stun/soul mechanic sometimes combats feel too polarizing, either dominating or just dying. map feels incredibly linear and dungeons are repetitive, they made open world tales games over 10 years before this came out but this just feels a bit claustrophobic. overall a great game with way more strong points than weak points, would recommend as a first tales game if you're not into going back to the older, jankier stuff
2015
shelving this because it is honestly the most unbearable tales game i've played yet, and i even sat through the entirety of xillia 2. not only is the combat extremely linear and straightforward, the story is about as simple as you can get with the emotional beats and "sad" parts being super predictable........granted, there is probably some more towards the end that i haven't seen yet, but i'm not going to collect 11 remnants of something scattered all over the map in previous dungeons i've been in and new dungeons i haven't been in just to progress the story. that is both lazy storytelling and bad game design, and should have killed the series on the spot
the ONLY redeemable thing about this game is that i do enjoy some characters quite a bit, and i do really want to complete this at some point to get the full picture of how the game shakes out. i've played games with bad gameplay, story, combat, character design, progression, etc. but hard walling progression behind backtracking for items behind sidequests (therefore, not making them SIDEquests anymore) field bosses, and dungeons is where i draw the line. if the game wants to inhibit my progress that badly - i will do what it wants and stop playing
i'm sure others CAN have a positive experience with this game, but being ~85% of the way through the main story and hungry for more and not being able to progress it is horrible.
UPDATE: put my head down and got to work. made it all the way to the final phase of final boss, turned on cheat engine, saw the ending, yup ! upset no characters got closure. convoluted ending, like they were lost
the ONLY redeemable thing about this game is that i do enjoy some characters quite a bit, and i do really want to complete this at some point to get the full picture of how the game shakes out. i've played games with bad gameplay, story, combat, character design, progression, etc. but hard walling progression behind backtracking for items behind sidequests (therefore, not making them SIDEquests anymore) field bosses, and dungeons is where i draw the line. if the game wants to inhibit my progress that badly - i will do what it wants and stop playing
i'm sure others CAN have a positive experience with this game, but being ~85% of the way through the main story and hungry for more and not being able to progress it is horrible.
UPDATE: put my head down and got to work. made it all the way to the final phase of final boss, turned on cheat engine, saw the ending, yup ! upset no characters got closure. convoluted ending, like they were lost