General Tales of thread

[Shadow 43]

So yeah, I thought It's time the Tales of franchise got more love.

Here you can discuss anything related to the Tales of franchise. For the people who don't know what I'm talking about: the Tales of games are Japanese action RPG's which are focussed on both awesome characters and story, while having a great gameplay mechanic too.

I have played a lot of Tales games, but... I can't really tell me favorite. It's quite difficult. So I split them up in two: 2D and 3D Tales games.

My favorite 2D Tales game is either Eternia or Phantasia. Actually, there is something that I wanted to mention. Eternia has what Phantasia lacks and vice versa. Phantasia had a great story and characters, while Eternia had the best gameplay.

My favorite 3D Tales game is either Abyss or Graces F. Both have great gameplay (Had to get used to Graces F though) and a great story of course.

Oh, and the first person who can find my avatar in the picture above gets a cookie.

[Lena Stan Account 60]

I found him ;P

Now gimme mah cookie!

On the topic...I'm playing Tales of Eternia. I first thought the fighting is like any other RPG game out there but it exactly was like Summon Night : Sword Craft Story 2 for GBA. Now going to "king" to see him for the first time. I have bad feeling about it since more than 99% of games I played when you get to the king they get you to jail and are a total JERK. The game has been good so far.

[Shadow 43]

I won't spoil anything, but I'll go more detailed in my experience with Eternia:

For me, Eternia has the best gameplay out of any 2D Tales game. Unfortunately the story and characters, while still great, are less impresive than it's predecessors. Still though, Tales games have a better story than most other RPG's, though I'm not sure if this game will convince you with that. But it's still a great game. I once made a whole post thingy about Phantasia and Eternia. If you have nothing to do for the rest of the day, feel free to read it :3

(Oh, and let me note something before we move on: Tales game were the first games out there that used this battle system. Sooo... thank grandfather Namco Bandai for giving us this gift of Valhalla and indirectly more games that used this battle system!)

While I was surfing the internet, I came upon something very... interesting. The writer of the article mentioned that Phantasia lacks what Eternia has, and vice versa. And with that, I'd say he wouldn't be too far off.

Phantasia had a great roster of characters which I immediately fell in love with. Heck, Cless Albein (or whatever, misstranslations so he has more than one name) became my favorite protagonist, kicking Yuri Lowell off the throne! (Talking about main protagonists here by the way). The story was also pretty good, and so was the gameplay. But it should be obvious that later installments progressed even further and did an overall better job on the gameplay. On that note, I haven't played Phantasia X yet (It's Japanese only but since I know the story already, it doesn't matter to me) but I surely will somewhere in the future.

Eternia is probably the best example gameplaywise. It might have been the third game, and while several 2D games followed, I'd still say that Eternia had the best gameplay out of the 2D games. The story and characters were, while still nice, a step back from Phantasia and Destiny. Another advantage Eternia had over Phantasia was the overworld. (Small spoiler)

Phantasia's overworld consisted of 3 different timezones. The Present, Past and Future. Things change, but the structure remains the same. You don't really get to explore the Present too much, and you obtain new means of travel in the Future, the last overworld, in the form of Rhea Birds. Eternia however, had 2 (3 if you count the Orbus barrier/final level) overworlds which were all completely different. You had Inferia and Celestia, two world who were on the brink of annihilation due to the Grand Fall. Another advantage Eternia had was it's means of travel. Sure, you can only obtain flying vehicles in a sidequest, but you didn't only have a ship (Van Eltia, best ship in the entire series and fully customizable) but also submarines, which can be used in BOTH worlds.

If Namco were to make another 2D game, they should make a mix of those two. I firmly believe that it might be the best 2D Tales of game. Probably even the best Tales of game to exist and, if it's really that good, my favorite game of all time. Because both Eternia and Phantasia are somewhere in my top 25 (not saying where because I'm an A**hole)

The gameplay has only been better ever since Eternia, especially the 3D games. A special mention to Graces F, which has for me the best battle system in any rpg ever. This guy sums it up best.

[Lena Stan Account 60]

Where is mah cookie?

I'm in the slyph or whatever cave. Dunno how to get past that gust of wind in the cave. Any tips?

Forget it. I figured it out.

Edited 3 Sep 2014 by NMS