Ultimately, I think my problems with this game simply comes down to seeing a better way they could have done it, and being annoyed they didn't go with that. I'm not in full agreement with the way Tales of Hearts R uses it's main villains or the way it paces it's plot points either. Basically, it just feels to me that they tried to course correct a lot of the original Tales of Hearts story for this remake, but simply couldn't iron out all the problems while doing that. So Tales of Hearts R kinda feels like a longer winded yet under cooked story with strong gameplay mechanics and characters.This isn't to point out that Tales of Hearts R is bad because I'm mostly just frustrated that the rest of the game is quite honestly good.
All the characters feel like they are explored well enough to the degree most Tales games feel. I like the way most interactions with this group are handled, and it honestly felt like a proper group of rag tag friends trying to save the world in the end. While there is some romance in this game, largely it doesn't effect the main cast of characters in a way that's jarring, and each character has enough motivation to be where they are at by the end. Honestly, it feels like one of the tighter cast of characters despite some of them being kinda forgettable. A lot of that has to do with the way that certain tropes play out, bias focus on certain characters story wise, and just how some characters are blatantly taken from you during the adventure. In some ways, the remake seems to try to give more things for each character to work out better dynamics, but it's just not enough to make them remember able compared to characters that already have their arcs in the game.
That's kinda just Hearts R's main problem though, it just feels like a blatant remake of a game with the way it shoehorns things in or paces itself. While I personally haven't played the original, I can tell there is at least 1 of two things that happened within certain scenes. Either it was left in because it was in the original and they didn't know how to make it better, or it feels like it was there to give characters more time. I'm not really broken at this; just more so I rather have a better game that is unfaithful to the original compared to sticking so close to it that it feels off when you add something in. I'm not exactly happy about the game's consistent shift between villains that it does in the beginning either. It's like the game settled on a villain they wanted, and kept changing their mind. It left for a lot of unexplored plot points, and some really big misses that kinda knock the game down a peg in my eyes. Then there's kinda a feeling like they made certain areas or dungeons kinda basic. A lot of the early game dungeons feel far too linear, short, and simple for their own good. Even the ports of the game have next to nothing in terms of how they look samey. In other words, this remake just feels like it needed to cook a little more with the way they seemed to be working with things.
Hearts R is a Tales Of game at it's core, and while a lot of the game can be described as shaky, the gameplay certainly is not. I'll admit that I didn't use a lot of the vita's features for this game, but the basic barebones fighting style of each character was still incredibly fun to use. Nearly every character feels good to use to some degree, and while that is always a highlight in each Tales of game, it's still super impressive. Getting 8 characters to not only play different, but be fun to use really is a tall order, and even more so for this Vita handheld game. That's kind what makes me super wow'd with the way the game feels as it does seem to have the original core philosophy that the PSP was made for, having a console game in your pocket.
If I were to acquaint this to anything, I honestly think Tales of Hearts R feels like a game made for the Dreamcast that some how got on the Vita. Sure, it has it's faults and perhaps could have been a better remake, but I think Tales of Hearts R is a fine representative to what a good game on the Vita looks like.
All the characters feel like they are explored well enough to the degree most Tales games feel. I like the way most interactions with this group are handled, and it honestly felt like a proper group of rag tag friends trying to save the world in the end. While there is some romance in this game, largely it doesn't effect the main cast of characters in a way that's jarring, and each character has enough motivation to be where they are at by the end. Honestly, it feels like one of the tighter cast of characters despite some of them being kinda forgettable. A lot of that has to do with the way that certain tropes play out, bias focus on certain characters story wise, and just how some characters are blatantly taken from you during the adventure. In some ways, the remake seems to try to give more things for each character to work out better dynamics, but it's just not enough to make them remember able compared to characters that already have their arcs in the game.
That's kinda just Hearts R's main problem though, it just feels like a blatant remake of a game with the way it shoehorns things in or paces itself. While I personally haven't played the original, I can tell there is at least 1 of two things that happened within certain scenes. Either it was left in because it was in the original and they didn't know how to make it better, or it feels like it was there to give characters more time. I'm not really broken at this; just more so I rather have a better game that is unfaithful to the original compared to sticking so close to it that it feels off when you add something in. I'm not exactly happy about the game's consistent shift between villains that it does in the beginning either. It's like the game settled on a villain they wanted, and kept changing their mind. It left for a lot of unexplored plot points, and some really big misses that kinda knock the game down a peg in my eyes. Then there's kinda a feeling like they made certain areas or dungeons kinda basic. A lot of the early game dungeons feel far too linear, short, and simple for their own good. Even the ports of the game have next to nothing in terms of how they look samey. In other words, this remake just feels like it needed to cook a little more with the way they seemed to be working with things.
Hearts R is a Tales Of game at it's core, and while a lot of the game can be described as shaky, the gameplay certainly is not. I'll admit that I didn't use a lot of the vita's features for this game, but the basic barebones fighting style of each character was still incredibly fun to use. Nearly every character feels good to use to some degree, and while that is always a highlight in each Tales of game, it's still super impressive. Getting 8 characters to not only play different, but be fun to use really is a tall order, and even more so for this Vita handheld game. That's kind what makes me super wow'd with the way the game feels as it does seem to have the original core philosophy that the PSP was made for, having a console game in your pocket.
If I were to acquaint this to anything, I honestly think Tales of Hearts R feels like a game made for the Dreamcast that some how got on the Vita. Sure, it has it's faults and perhaps could have been a better remake, but I think Tales of Hearts R is a fine representative to what a good game on the Vita looks like.