The "Tales of" Series

[Sylthia]

Unfortunately, I do not have an HD TV, kinda wish there was a low-def mode.

[Airk]

Unfortunately, I do not have an HD TV, kinda wish there was a low-def mode.

They're pleasantly inexpensive these days, and new Tales games really do look gorgeous on them.

I feel your pain though - ToV was a pain in the ass on the old CRT TV that I first played it on. Text was readable, but all of the D-pad indicators were completely smudged out of readability, so it was like "Push to go into overlimit, push to do this other thing, push to use ALL your overlimit bars! Rar!"

@_@

A low def mode is an interesting concept; It probably wouldn't even be that much work if it only adjusted the text, but I'm afraid you, my friend, are representative of a rapidly dwindling slice of the market.

[CoffeeIncluded]

Okay, raise your hand if you also figured (spoilers!)

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that Alvin was the Designated Tales Traitor.

Though it really doesn't look like hell be let off as easily as in other games. I don't know for sure yet, I just fought Presa and Wingul.

Also, I don't think they're all the way human. And is anyone else getting Abyss God-generals vibes from them?

[Sylthia]

Okay, raise your hand if you also figured (spoilers!)

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that Alvin was the Designated Tales Traitor.

Though it really doesn't look like hell be let off as easily as in other games. I don't know for sure yet, I just fought Presa and Wingul.

Also, I don't think they're all the way human. And is anyone else getting Abyss God-generals vibes from them?

Not there yet, but suspected heavily once I saw a certain skit.

Darn Teepo, why do you have to be so annoying? Guess there's also a near-mandatory annoying character per Tales game.

In a completely unrelated topic, does anybody have a Tales character that resembles them in real life? For me, Malik fits the bill pretty well. (At least before my receding hairline took over.) Blond hair and I even had the same beard style for quite a while.

[Zevox]

You should probably give an indication of when it's safe to open that spoiler, Coffee. What little you said outside of it leaves me with no idea about that. I know you're further than me though, since I just today reached the fort you mentioned a few days ago, so likely not safe for me now.

I will say though, it doesn't look to me so far like there's likely to be much difference between picking Jude or Milla as your main character at the start. They meet up so early and so far stick together. I just recently reached a point where they're separated, but only briefly. Unless that becomes a lot more common later on, I'm not seeing what the point of that feature was, really.

[CoffeeIncluded]

You should probably give an indication of when it's safe to open that spoiler, Coffee. What little you said outside of it leaves me with no idea about that. I know you're further than me though, since I just today reached the fort you mentioned a few days ago, so likely not safe for me now.

Sorry. You can open the spoiler after you finish the fort. It should be fairly obvious what's inside at that point though.

I will say though, it doesn't look to me so far like there's likely to be much difference between picking Jude or Milla as your main character at the start. They meet up so early and so far stick together. I just recently reached a point where they're separated, but only briefly. Unless that becomes a lot more common later on, I'm not seeing what the point of that feature was, really.

I think I'm almost done with chapter 3 of 4 (the party's level 46ish; I'm powering through the game since i want it done when I get back to college), and while they do spend much of the game together, there are definitely quite a few scenes where they're split up. And I'm going to replay the game as Milla just to see what happened in those scenes I missed. In fact, just a couple hours ago I played through a sequence where Milla and Jude were separated; very different things happened on each side.

Say, what's everybody's preferred party? Mine is Jude, Milla, Alvin, and Leia.

[Zevox]

Sorry. You can open the spoiler after you finish the fort. It should be fairly obvious what's inside at that point though.

Damn it, should have been more specific. I meant your most recent one, not the one about the fort. Couldn't avoid seeing that first sentence.

Though yeah, I had guessed that may be the case earlier, given the events at the Seafalls and a certain line from the villains afterward. Well, and

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all the mystery carrier-pigeon letters on top of that.

Say, what's everybody's preferred party? Mine is Jude, Milla, Alvin, and Leia.

I haven't met Leia yet, but recently I've been using Milla, Jude, Rowen, and Elize. I doubt I'll drop Milla (who has been the character I've used personally the most) or Elize (healer), but the others I expect I'll rotate, to keep everyone's level mostly even.

[CoffeeIncluded]

Oh crap, I'm sorry about that, Zevox.

It's kinda funny though. The past couple of games I haven't been using the mages as much (Pascal rotated with Cheria and Sophie for the remaining two spots since Asbel and Hubert NEVER left the party, and I don't use Rowan as much here) in the later tales games, while earlier Tales games? Arche, Genis, Jade, and Rita never ever ever left the main party unless there was a plot event. And if that happened, it was Oh Crap I've Lost The Mage Time.

Then again, Milla's a spellcaster too, so it's not like I have no mage in the party.

[Zevox]

Oh wow, just had a really difficult battle (shortly after the fort).

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Jude's duel with Ivar (Milla's handmaiden). I'm still playing on hard, and damn, he was rough. In part because it was hard to find a safe moment to heal, even with items, but more so because he gets armor that seems to kick in at random. Even in the middle of the combo it would pop back up and let him hit me. Had to be very careful about my actions to beat him, use that backstep-teleport of Jude's a lot, and I still barely managed it.

In other words, it was a good fight.

Edit: Ugh, one good boss, followed by one very bad one.

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That goddamn giant rock worm boss has got to be the worst boss battle I've seen in quite a while - easily the worst in a Tales game. The way it can just spend so much time attacking us from underground, where we can't even try to touch it, and remains completely invincible for its entire recovery animation when emerging from the ground to stop that attack, just makes fighting it one long headache. Especially since your AI allies are not smart enough to block when it's doing the underground attacks . And since it can go right back into those attacks after emerging for just a split second, sometimes giving you only enough of a window to land a couple of normal attacks before it's already invincible again.

And the worst part was that you have to beat it twice, and the second time around it's much harder, even though you have Milla to help. I am so glad I had earth resistance skills and items on Jude and Milla, because otherwise I might have lost, and I seriously never want to have to do that again. If I ever replay this game, I am definitely dropping the difficulty to easy for that boss, just to breeze past it as quickly as can be.

It's kinda funny though. The past couple of games I haven't been using the mages as much (Pascal rotated with Cheria and Sophie for the remaining two spots since Asbel and Hubert NEVER left the party, and I don't use Rowan as much here) in the later tales games, while earlier Tales games? Arche, Genis, Jade, and Rita never ever ever left the main party unless there was a plot event. And if that happened, it was Oh Crap I've Lost The Mage Time.

Then again, Milla's a spellcaster too, so it's not like I have no mage in the party.

I really like how they handled Milla, allowing her to fight both as a regular mage and as a melee character quite well, but still using magic when in close. Kinda makes me feel like the only reason to have Rowen around is to have two mages, really.

As for previous games, I did typically keep Genis and Jade in my party at all times. Actually, in Symphonia I tended to pick four characters and use them at all times ignoring the rest - typically Lloyd, Kratos, Genis, and Raine, with Presea filling in for Kratos when he was unavailable. (Yes, I know Zelos was basically the same as Kratos combat-wise. I just didn't like him.) I only ever used Lloyd in that one, because I didn't figure out you could use the others outside the arena until I'd played through the game several times, and was so comfortable with Lloyd that switching to the others felt like it just made things frustratingly hard.

Similarly, in Abyss I basically ignored Guy and Anise, and always used the other four, with me controlling Natalia, or Jade when she wasn't available.

In Vesperia I usually brought Rita as well (and was even playing as her during my second time through; first time I was strictly Yuri), though I rotated the party much more in that one.

In Graces my stable party members were Sophie (who I used, substituting Hubert when she wasn't available) and Cheria (healer), and the others rotated I rotated - though I always had one physical character (Asbel or Hubert) and one magical one (Malik or Pascal) in the remaining slots.

[Lord Raziere]

GITP, no fun allowed zone

A-Friggin-GREED.

like, you have no idea. I go into a thread about a subject I actually like, and its eventually nit-picking, nit-picking, nit-picking, which ruins the whole deal for me. always have to ruining everything by pointing it out, can't just leave it be...

[Sylthia]

I have to say, I'm a big fan of being able to quick jump just about anywhere in Xillia. Especially having it available so early in the game. It makes the back-tracking they often expect you to do in RPGs a lot more tolerable.

[Zevox]

I have to say, I'm a big fan of being able to quick jump just about anywhere in Xillia. Especially having it available so early in the game. It makes the back-tracking they often expect you to do in RPGs a lot more tolerable.

It is nice, though I kinda of wish they had put it in as a spell, like other JRPGs do, rather than as an unexplained and arbitrary mechanic on the world map.

And damn, I've run into a brutal boss. (Not really a spoiler, it's just a random monster.) A giant warthog called the Brutaur. Damn thing does ridiculous damage, seems able to ignore hitstun from anything but water attacks (its only weakness, which I have very few moves for, and no linked artes, at least with Milla), and barely takes any damage from anything but water attacks. My first time against it I used a ton of items, including one that fully restores the entire party's hp and sp (even from KO), and still only took it down to about half health. I think I might have to drop the difficulty to pass it.

[CoffeeIncluded]

I just started chapter 4 of 4. I don't think my jaw has left the floor for the past 45 minutes. Admittedly I was able to guess some of it, but the rest? Holy ****!

[Zevox]

How do you tell where these "chapters" start and end, by the way? I could probably figure it out in retrospect after finishing the game, like I could with Vesperia, but in the middle of it, it's not so clear.

[Teutonic Knight]

About the mages and not-mages, I believe that in Xillia they made everyone balanced in the way that even mages can run into the melee. Not stats-wise, but each mage has enough melee skills that they can be played by the player as a melee character. Coupled with the fact that linking makes the mage run into the fray and flanking/guard, and the fact that you can freely swap around party members in battle, I don't think you necessarily need to have "a mage" and "a healer", which is cool.

As for party combinations:

Symphonia: Lloyd, Genis, Raine, swappable 4th

Abyss: Luke, Guy, Tear, Jade

Vesperia: Yuri, Rita, Estelle, swappable 4th that was mostly Judith

Graces: I was title grinding the entire game, so I kept swapping out party members to finish leveling their titles.

@^ above discussion: Tales games are usually split into three arcs, I believe. Such as Abyss:

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Akzeriuth, Van, Van

and Vesperia:

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Barbaros, Alexei, Duke

[Sylthia]

I feel silly. I had gotten all the way to the fort before realizing I had been playing the whole game up to that point without having any skills equipped.

I'm liking Jude as a protagonist. He's showing his intelligence in practical situations pretty well. I haven't even gotten close to finishing yet, but he does seem to suffer a bit from tag-along protagonist syndrome a bit.

I do like the way they portray med school/clinics, it seems pretty close to real life, or as close to it as you'll get in a fantasy RPG. I still think Jude's a bit young for med school, but that's neither here nor there.

For parties: I switch quite a bit, but for the most part...

Phantasia: Cress, Mint, Klarth, Arche
Symphonia: Lloyd, Raine, Kratos/Zelos, Rotate
Legendia: Senel, Chloe mostly, Rotate, Rotate (I didn't really have a concrete party at all)
Abyss: Luke, Tear, Jade, Guy/Natalia (Never Anise unless I had to)
Symphonia 2: Emil, Marta, Whatever human NPC was available at the time
Vesperia: Yuri, Estelle, Rita, Rotate
Graces: Asbel, Cheria, Rotate for the last two, but we used Richard whenever he was available

I think I got all the games I've played, but I might have missed one.

[Zevox]

Whew, well, I managed to beat the Brutaur without dropping the difficulty. But it took a lot. I had to completely change my party - I switched to controlling Rowen, so I could spam water spells (Milla only has splash, but he has that and a second-tier one, and he has a water linked arte with Jude that Milla doesn't have), and the rest of my team was Jude and Alvin because they're the toughest front-liners, and Elize for healing.

Worked pretty well for the first half, but I swear that boss becomes even stronger in the second. He was able to nearly wipe the party on multiple occasions, and I used up all my life bottles and several more precious revival items to beat him. Doesn't help that he started summoning friends, who of course were resistant to water, so the spells I was lobbing at the Brutaur itself were little help in clearing them out.

Still, I managed it, if barely, which is far more than I expected after never getting past the halfway point earlier.

[CoffeeIncluded]

Whew, well, I managed to beat the Brutaur without dropping the difficulty. But it took a lot. I had to completely change my party - I switched to controlling Rowen, so I could spam water spells (Milla only has splash, but he has that and a second-tier one, and he has a water linked arte with Jude that Milla doesn't have), and the rest of my team was Jude and Alvin because they're the toughest front-liners, and Elize for healing.

Worked pretty well for the first half, but I swear that boss becomes even stronger in the second. He was able to nearly wipe the party on multiple occasions, and I used up all my life bottles and several more precious revival items to beat him. Doesn't help that he started summoning friends, who of course were resistant to water, so the spells I was lobbing at the Brutaur itself were little help in clearing them out.

Still, I managed it, if barely, which is far more than I expected after never getting past the halfway point earlier.

Ah, my strategy was linking with Alvin and spamming Sharp Current.

Another good way to tell when the chapters or parts end is when the battle music changes! Though the battle music doesn't change between chapters 2 and 3 in Xillia, you KNOW when the second chapter ends and the third chapter begins.

Anyway, I actually stopped at a good place today. And I can't wait to finish the game. Or Xillia 2.

[Sylthia]

I'm pleasantly surprised with the amount of in game attachments for the characters that are not DLC. I wish there were more free costumes, but it's a step up from Graces, where I think there were 3 you could actually get without shelling out money on DLC.

[CoffeeIncluded]

Same here!

Say, for attachments, do you go for silly or subtle? I prefer subtle attachments that I feel add to the character's appearance--for example, those thin glasses for Jude or the sheathed dagger of Milla or the backpack for Leia.

Also, I've got to say that one of the scenes that was in the middle of my jawdrop sequence was quite disturbing.

[Sylthia]

Same here!

Say, for attachments, do you go for silly or subtle? I prefer subtle attachments that I feel add to the character's appearance--for example, those thin glasses for Jude or the sheathed dagger of Milla or the backpack for Leia.

Also, I've got to say that one of the scenes that was in the middle of my jawdrop sequence was quite disturbing.

We've gone for the elf party, and put the elf ears on every character, which makes it looks almost like a Zelda game or some Elf RP. Other than that, I put Sunglasses on Jude and Alvin, and the straw hat I got from Milla's swimsuit DLC onto Elize. We have the alternate colors for Alvin and Elize as well.

The only DLC we've got so far is the swimsuit costume for Milla, since we didn't really care for what she had available in game.

[Zevox]

Another good way to tell when the chapters or parts end is when the battle music changes! Though the battle music doesn't change between chapters 2 and 3 in Xillia, you KNOW when the second chapter ends and the third chapter begins.

Ah. I honestly don't really notice the battle music. I mean, I assume I finished chapter 1 back at the fort and am now in chapter 2, yet I can't say I even noticed a change in battle music.

Say, for attachments, do you go for silly or subtle? I prefer subtle attachments that I feel add to the character's appearance--for example, those thin glasses for Jude or the sheathed dagger of Milla or the backpack for Leia.

I don't actually use attachments, personally. I tried a few of them early in the game, and briefly in Vesperia if memory serves, and I just don't like them. I'd rather just stick with the appearance the designers gave the characters in the first place.

[CoffeeIncluded]

I don't actually use attachments, personally. I tried a few of them early in the game, and briefly in Vesperia if memory serves, and I just don't like them. I'd rather just stick with the appearance the designers gave the characters in the first place.

Yeah, that's why I prefer the subtle ones. It ruins the dramatic scenes if the characters are in swimsuits and bunny ears, you know?

But yeah, I'm still pretty surprised over what happened in the game last night. I'm really interested where this will take his character development and I can't wait for Xillia 2.

Vague spoilers, spoiled just in case.

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After all, when you hit rock bottom and have absolutely nothing left, where else do you have to go but up?

[Airk]

Ah. I honestly don't really notice the battle music. I mean, I assume I finished chapter 1 back at the fort and am now in chapter 2, yet I can't say I even noticed a change in battle music.

Yeah; This method doesn't do me any good either - I will eventually notice that "Hey, the battle music has been different for a while now." but I NEVER notice when it happens.

I don't actually use attachments, personally. I tried a few of them early in the game, and briefly in Vesperia if memory serves, and I just don't like them. I'd rather just stick with the appearance the designers gave the characters in the first place.

It really depends on the attachment. Some of them can be very cute and character appropriate (Estelle's glasses in Vesperia come to mind), some of them are cool but relatively unobtrusive (most of the arm/hip attachments, like the canteens in Vesperia, or the Ba'uul doll in Xillia) and some of them help fix otherwise terrible character designs (Karol's pipe & moustache in Vesperia (together with his absurd 'lumberjack' costume) transformed him from "God I hate you so much" to "Well, at least now you're ridiculous.")

I'm really displeased with the apparent number of free costumes in Xillia though. It's apparently a step DOWN from Graces, which was already sadly lacking.

[CoffeeIncluded]

Exactly! I think Jude looks good with glasses, and a backpack is appropriate for Leia because of her item stealing and use mechanics.

As for Karol's design, did you get his warehouse costume title? The one with the bomber jacket? I thought that was a nice design.

I also liked the glasses on Estelle, and the little green charm on Rita.

[Airk]

As for Karol's design, did you get his warehouse costume title? The one with the bomber jacket? I thought that was a nice design.

I think that's actually the one I'm laughing at. It was an improvement, I guess, but the hat made it silly.

And yeah, to clarify my "worse than Graces for costumes" apparently Xillia has 4 ingame costumes. Not 4 SETS. 4. Two for Milla, one each for Jude and Alvin. And that's IT.

[CoffeeIncluded]

Where and how do you get those?

[Airk]

Where and how do you get those?

One each for beating the Jude/Milla storylines.
The other two are bought from the Black Feather vendor for 100 feathers each, I believe.

[CoffeeIncluded]

One each for beating the Jude/Milla storylines.
The other two are bought from the Black Feather vendor for 100 feathers each, I believe.

Oh, I should probably take a look when I get home. Thanks! Ugh, but now I need to get 200 more black feathers. I had that many and spent them all without realizing I could get the costume.

Say, how far into the game are you?

[Sylthia]

I'm not a fan of the lack of costumes either, but at least we got lots of attachments. Unfortunately, it seems to be the way games are headed with DLC.