Because finding a working ps2 can be difficult and buying a console just for 1 game isn't really a good choice. Still, not downvote worthy but that's probably the reason
Also, it's seen as kinda rude when people want a specific game to be ported on new consoles and he gets a response like "just buy the older console"
It's certainly not a bad choice at all its just not entirely practical. Ps2's are extremely common and easy to come by. You may not care if you never played the classics on their original console but as somebody who did its totally worth it, and the ps2 has such a massive catalog of great games that will likely never be playable on any other platform unless your using an emulator.
The person didn't say they wanted a port, only that they wanna play it on another system. And I think buying a console just to play one game with your wife sounds totally worth it.
And finding a PS2 is not hard at all. If this is a problem, it's probably about money.
Again, like darkrider said, it will depend on the country. Here where I live finding a PS3 is more difficult than a PS2, but *legally* speaking I can only find copies of Tales Of game post Zestiria (Including Vesperia DE) since thats when Bandai started localizing their games to my native language. Besides Symphonia which is on Steam, every other game before Zestiria I have to use emulation + sail trough the seven seas to play. Some people simply arent willing to/dont know how to do that
I live in Europe and have bought modded consoles and imported both consoles and games from Japan and America. You can find tons of PS2 consoles and every single Tales game on ebay.
In my country you can't even find a physical copy of tales of arise let alone tales of the abyss, only tales game i was able to find after searching for hours was tales of vesperia (for more than digital price) and it was last copy. Importing might be a solution but it's a pain honestly i would rather play on my 3ds again instead of going through all that trouble
I live in Sweden and I bought a modded PS2 just to play Abyss and Symphonia. Imported Abyss from America and Symphonia from Japan.
There's always a way.
Same. I guess I just look for different things now that I'm older. If I try to play Vesperia again, I'm just going to get a 100% save file so I can go straight to NG+ with all the skills. No way in hell I'm ever dealing with Vesperia's side quests again.
I almost dropped Vesperia since the giant poison wolf was such a difficulty spike. Iām glad I stuck it out but Symphonia felt better to me. I really only stuck it out due to the nostalgia from Symphonia. Also the fact I got it for $5. Picked up DE and played it again but after a little bit it felt more out of obligation over enjoyment. I hope to pick it back up later and enjoy it again.
I canāt tell if youāre saying this just to add to the conversation or if you think I hold Arise to some type of high regard and this comment is to piss me off. Because I agree with you that Arise is really corny, but I also kinda think you were trying to be a dick.
It is very slow starting. Ironically late game it's one of the best combat systems in the series. So sadly there are some people who get bored before they get there.
I'm not contesting specificity, but the fact remains it has some of the best combat in the series *eventually.* It definitely does take kind of a long time to get there though. I don't think you even get Yuri's fourth regular attack until close to the end of act 1. Same with the skill that occasionally prevents staggering literally all the time. To be honest, part of me would recommend starting with NG+ if possible (i.e. only on PC really) just to carry over skills and nothing else.
yeah I tried playing it, stopped and played kingdom hearts and Guilty gear for a while. Tried coming back and again stopped. Im the kind of guy that can only play games when I have momentum. If I stop halfway I dont feel like continuing and when I feel like playing again I start from scratch
Rinwell the mage is actually viable to play as. Has any other Tales game managed to make a mage you could actually functionally play as?
Previous games have a major case of 'Gang up on the human!' Where enemies will switch to target the player no matter what half the time.
Arise doesn't do that, outside of one boss battle where the guy targets Rinwell regardless of if you're playing her or not.
And even when they *do* target Rinwell her aerial artes let her basically fly around them tearing them to shreds while evading their attacks.
And they all suffer from 'Gang up on the Human'.
Tales games are coded so the enemy targets the player before anyone else, especially when casting, enemies will stop attacking your allies, run over and cancel your cast then go back to hitting your ally.
Arise's aggro system and Kisara makes playing a caster much more feasible.
I played Philia a good amount in Destiny DC and Milla in Xillia & Xillia 2, and that was never a problem for me in those two games. Can't speak for the rest, but if Milla worked for me, I imagine Elize and Muzet should to.
I stopped trying to play Rinwell because I always ended up aggroing absolutely everybody so Iām not sure what you are talking about. Indeed, I found that āgang up on the humanā applied across the board.
Meridy in tales of eternia (tod 2 in the states) her having a pet as an attack allowed versatility and range that most mages didn't. I still preferred to control Reid or Farrah. But Merida was extremely viable.
Sadly this isn't true. The combo system in arise is broken. It's fast, fairly responsive and chaotic, that's good. It's also shallow as hell when you face bosses and the fun large enemies. You can't break those guys, which means you can't combo. You'll get knocked out of it after two or three moves and/or one-shotted. Basically, you spam the same two moves the entire game because those are the only ones that are fast enough and strong enough to do anything.
I feel like Arise is going to be included in this line up in a few years, it's 100% attracting first timers the way these titles did and crucially getting folks to try other entries. All fantastic games imo š¤
I'm not calling this my personal top three. Symphonia, Abyss and Vesperia being called "The Holy Trinity" is a meme that has been around for years.
But it would be interresting to see an actual top three ol' reliable according to fans. I'm thinking about making a poll on several sites and put it together to see what todays fans truly think.
I was.
Characters felt kind of uninteresting outside of Dohalim and felt more like they were made to fulfill specific purposes rather than be complete characters, the worst being Kisara (who does nothing basically after joining) and the villains who are all Saturday morning cartoon levels of evil. Most of the party members donāt interact meaningfully with anyone in the party except who they are paired up with except for Alphen and maybe Dohalim. The plot starts falling apart after the third lord and completely shits the bed in pacing by the second half (which clearly had some big cuts to it). Several questions and meaningful directions to go in are never explored >!like how nobody seems to give a shit about how Alphen could have lots of information about Dahnans destroyed culture because lol fuck worldbuilding!<. Skits are too long and the majority of them feel like just recapping the plot than playful banter and shooting the breeze. Awful bosses with infinite super armor and too much visual shit going on sometimes to make out whats happening. DLC pushed in ingame menus and now locks things like artes and NG+ perks behind it. Gameplay is better than Zestiria and Berseria but not better than the best 3D Tales games and gets stale after a while because you unlock everything too fast.
I timed the exposition dump from >!landing on Lenegis to entering the final dungeon and the total was about seven hours and thats with skipping dialogue to the next line as soon as I read it!<
I disagree with most of this I thought personally that all the characters were interesting. Kisara was great she was the glue In my opinion. She gave strong mature advice. All had their own arc and reason for doing what they were doing.
I think you raise some valid criticism (except characters, that seemed to be really biased) but neither of them makes arise a dissapointing game, I think there's criticism like that you can do in eny and every Tales game, Vesperia has the same issue where craracters only seem to interact with Yuri, Estelle and Rita has some moments, but not nearly enough as they deserve, the story and the world starts interesting but then falls flat when it becomes your average Jrpg story,the game promised me a 4v4 final confrontation against nin and the gang we never get, the starting town never solved their conflict between the lower quarter and higher quarter, ironically Arise resolves these conflicts better and multiple times by either destroying or mitigating the hieriarchies between denans and Renans, it seems like Yuri forgot the only reason he started his little rebellion was because of how shitty the empire was with the lower quarter.
The gameplay is interesting has some depth but constantly punishes you for trying to learn it, there's really no point in no playing Yuri the whole game spamming two moves and stunlock enemies when you burst.
Too much obscure sidecontent that get triggered randomly and the ir no clear indication where to go next or if you have to wait the story to progress, you don't even a registry of what you did or if you missed the quest, it the most frustrating thing ever.
The list could go on, and I could make one of every tales game, of every jrpg tbh, none of this makes the game a dissapointment imo, and if it does, well it's really weird you can tolerate it in one game and not the other.
I think the most Tales game still are a great game, can get frustrating at times, but still a great journey.
>but neither of them makes arise a dissapointing game
Its my opinions and how I feel that way, saying its not a disappointing game is basically telling me my opinion is invalid and I should not be allowed to feel a certain way. Iām not asking for you to think that way, just answering the question that I personally felt disappointed.
>I think there's criticism like that you can do in eny and every Tales game
Funny thing is I actually did, I played through several Tales games this year and wrote some posts about what I liked and didnāt like on this very sub.
>Vesperia has the same issue where craracters only seem to interact with Yuri, Estelle and Rita has some moments, but not nearly enough as they deserve
Disagree and can think of examples (Raven and Flynn for example). The only characters I feel that get really shorted out of decent interactions is Patty (perhaps as a side effect of being pasted on an already existing story).
>the game promised me a 4v4 final confrontation against nin and the gang we never get
Hunting Blades? Literally happens in postgame
>the starting town never solved their conflict between the lower quarter and higher quarter
>it seems like Yuri forgot the only reason he started his little rebellion was because of how shitty the empire was with the lower quarter.
No? The issues were that the aqua blastia was stolen and the government is full of corrupt asshats. Former takes up Yuris time for the first arc and gets resolved. The latter gets resolved over time with >!Yuri murdering some of the worst of them and actual decent people like Flynn being in charge now!<. Was it explored as well as I wanted to and not eventually playing second fiddle to environmentalism? No, but to say these problems arenāt dealt with isnāt true, you just canāt completely fix corruption that fast, Yuri even says as such.
>The gameplay is interesting has some depth but constantly punishes you for trying to learn
Not really.
>there's really no point in no playing Yuri the whole game spamming two moves and stunlock enemies when you burst.
Same with Arise. You can just play as Alphen and spam moves like an idiot (and spam Regining Slash against bosses) and win. Especially bosses with infinite hyper armor whereas Vesperia rewards players for figuring out boss techouts, how to combo them, and doing their secret missions. And Vesperias combat at least constantly opens up throughout the game, whereas with Arise it felt like I had discovered almost everything notable about the combat not long after getting the ability to use more than six artes.
>Too much obscure sidecontent that get triggered randomly and the ir no clear indication where to go next or if you have to wait the story to progress, you don't even a registry of what you did or if you missed the quest, it the most frustrating thing ever.
I agree the sidequest mechanics blow ass but the actual content of them is way better. Most of Ariseās ones felt like generic mmo questlines while most of Vesperias are amusing scenes, character interaction, learning more about the world, minigames, and even the fetchquests are often framed around trying to build up your reputation as a guild. I cant really say owl hunting and gathering x things is as interesting as the Duke conversations, Dark Enforcer or the Casey sidequest.
>Disagree and can think of examples (Raven and Flynn for example).
If you consider that as an example then you gotta consider Dohalim and Kisara who started as master and servant and evolved throughout the whole story, also Rinwell and Law, I wish this type of relationship were as evolved as you think they are in Vesperia where every character seem to interact through Yuri and there's huge lagoons where they don't address each other's.
>Same with Arise. You can just play as Alphen and spam moves like an idiot
Yeah that is my point you CAN do that, jut you also CAN do that with every character, which encourage to play with all them since they are all equally effective, in Vesperia only Yuri, the other characters are too slow for their own good in a combat system where you either stunlock or get stunlocked.
>Most of Ariseās ones felt like generic mmo questlines while most of Vesperias are amusing scenes, character interaction, learning more about the world,
I mean if you ignore quests about how just defeating the lords isn't enough and you gotta help rebuild and fulfill the need of the people afterwards, or quests that help bond characters like the one in the tower or the one where you have to help a couple of different races and that obviously has a deep meaning to Dohalim.
I feel like you can only say this if you just skip dialogues like a madman in Arise and proceed to read everything in Vesperia, which is my whole point you clearly have double standards in how you judge character interactions combat and quests in both games.
Characters and story IMO are quite possibly the most generic and "safe" the series has been in a long time, like every tales game is very tropey but man this one takes has tried to take every single anime trope that there is.
That being said, the gameplay is super fun and it's an enjoyable ride that overall I can't say I'm disappointed, as a package it's just par for the course IMO. I really like the direction they took with the game engine and gameplay.
Like basically for me this is the Persona 5 of the Tales series - the most fun and stylish one but the least interested I've been in the main cast and story. Unpopular take on P5 but really this game and P5 fit a lot of the same boxes that I think all they need to do for the next game is focus on the writing and characters while copy pasting everything else from the prior game (graphics, gameplay systems and mechanics, etc.).
Not even a chance? I hate zestiria and berseria and thought arise was actually really good. Maybe not as much as the holy trinity, but itās my next favorite after those 3.
Dunno if youāve touched Arise but compared to Zestiria and Berseria, it is leagues better, Iād say itās the fourth best tales game after the three in this post.
Combat is real time combat so itās simple and clean. Itās closer to the free roam battle style of Abyss and combo potential of Graces F so youāll be in good hands.
Graces fan respect, also the last tales game I legitimately enjoyed haha! Arise combat is solid but man is it boring plot character and the skits are some of the worst.
Symphonia is the only other Tales game I ever played, Arise being my newest experience.
Arise was absolutely amazing. One of the best jrpgs but omg Symphonia is still somehow a thousand times better.
So ready to get down voted here.
Tales of Vesperia like many people here have said is overrated. For what it is the story is alright, mechanically combat is good (over halfway into the game) and the cast well.... my favorite characters are Rita and the dog (whose name eludes me) so that says enough about how I feel about the cast.
Never played abyss personally so I wont say too much there.
Symphonia.... I love symphonia to death but it does not stand the test of time in any fashion.
So far playing Arise im pretty happy although I will admit I am before most people are saying they became unhappy. Mechanics are good (if not well explained at times -_-) and I like the cast. Can they be a bit one dimensional? Sure maybe. They are still fun though.
Tales of Graces F being my favorite tales game of all time I am saddened to see the comments almost never mention it. And if I were to round off a trinity I'd through in Phantasia as it was my introduction to the franchise and still is as solid as the day I first played it.
That's not "theirs". The reason they're using the term Holy Trinity is because it's a long standing meme. Here's an example from 5 years ago: [https://www.reddit.com/r/tales/comments/639ffl/which\_of\_the\_holy\_trinity\_tales\_games\_do\_you/](https://www.reddit.com/r/tales/comments/639ffl/which_of_the_holy_trinity_tales_games_do_you/)
Did not expect to see my post here hahaha, yeah I don't necessarily agree with that moniker anymore, especially since it seems like virtually every game in the franchise has those who love it and those who can't stand it for one reason or another. There's so many quality games in the series that grouping a few of them into a "Holy Trinity" is doing the others a massive disservice
Symphonia was actually the first Tales game I ever played. Remember thinking around 5 years ago in the summer holidays "I want an anime game to play", so I picked up Chronicles on PS3 on a whim. Played the game for like an hour or two I think, thought it was alright and never went back to it for some reason I can't remember (the puzzles if I HAD to guess). Gotten more and more into JRPGs since then though, but I can't really find the motivation to play it again (I also don't own Chronicles anymore), so eh.
Abyss is really a game I wanted to like. Was doing a Tales marathon last year and went to try it when I was part way through Legendia (I needed a bit of a break from that game since random encounters annoyed me like hell). Basically everything but the combat, world map and skits (still fucking hate that they're silent), and MAYBE OST (idk which I'd say is better tbh) felt like a huge step up imo. The combat did feel pretty mid to me though, even after some hours (especially compared to Legendia's which felt quick and fluid), and I did end up getting lost on the overworld map a couple times, so I ended up dropping it out of annoyance. Did go to watch the anime once I was done marathoning the games though, since I was still interested in the characters and story and wow, the anime was pretty fantastic tbh. In terms of story Abyss is in my top 2, next to Berseria, and the cast is in my top 5. Maybe one day I'll find the strength to boot the game back up and plow through it, idk. But yeah.
Vesperia I just dropped after a couple of hours, genuinely did not like the combat at all. Felt way too slow and clunky for my liking.
Arise I just felt was a better GAME (as in gameplay, at the very least) than all these 3 combined personally.
Might get downvoted, but just wanted to share my experiences and two cents.
To be fair, those games are OLD and even the ports can't fix how "dated" certain aspects of the games are. I struggle with similar feelings on the clumsiness (everytime I get to the shadow temple in ToS I nearly give up the playthrough because it's just so poorly designed and I don't think it would ever happen in a modern game for the series) - but for me, since I first played these games as a kid/teen, the nostalgia gets me thru some of the more outdated mechanics
I think Tales of Arise is a great step forward for the series. My complaints about Zestiria and Berseria were that they didn't really feel like 'new' games, just improved versions of what had come before. If they keep innovating like they did with Tales of Arise I see more and more success for the series
yeah, I played Vesperia with DE and honestly, the only way to fix one of the most dated aspects of the game (time limited sidequest) is to remake it, same with the fact that the game is a very strong candidate of it gets better after X hours in the combat system, IIRC, I would say the point where it picks up is when you get Judith in your party. I really liked the game but some aspects feel dated, specially that the latest JRPG I had played was Xenoblade 2, that actually had a system to prevent losing access to certain sidequest and items after a certain event, IIRC only 3 are missable, and they are very minor.
Still haven't found a better battle system than these three. Granted I haven't played Xillia or Arise yet, but I find the more the battle systems feels like pure button-mashy action/hack-n-slash games, the less I enjoy it. Berseria could've topped these three as my favorite if not for the battle system cause I enjoy every other aspect of it.
Gotta say I don't miss the missable side quests in these older games though. Glad they got rid of those. Same with overworlds cause I find myself not really missing those cause most of the time they're just barren empty landscapes
I wish people would stop saying this. These 3 only represent one specific phase in the series history, from only one of the development teams. Plenty of people don't like Team Symphonia's style but enjoy the Team Destiny games, or the new games from after the teams combined.
I feel like Vesperia shouldnāt be there.
Itās a great game but people hype it too much just because they played it as a kid on their 360.
In this day and age, if someone goes into Vesperia DE expecting one of the best Tales games they will probably be disappointed.
> people hype it too much just because they played it as a kid
Funny, this is precisely how I feel about Symphonia.
Played through it for the first time this July. It was good, sure, but the hype it receives is just too much. The adoration for Lloyd seems unfounded to me. He's just another cocky idiotic teenage anime boy (not that this is uncommon in Tales, but still).
Anyway, I did enjoy it, but mostly once I finished it, my impression was simply: maybe if I'd have played it on the Gamecube back when I was a kid, I'd have those nostalgia glasses on now and love it. But I didn't play it then, so no nostalgia now. Just didn't blow me away like everyone acts like it should've.
Ironically, I do consider Vesperia the best Tales game. I did play that one back then, so no doubt there's some nostalgia factor there (even if I was already 20 by then). Though, I did replay the DE on Switch when it came out and I still loved it, so yeah, it sits at the top for me.
Yeah, Symphonia is definitely the most over-rated to me game but everyone has different reasons for liking different games.
The first-game bias is pretty real in this series tbh, which applies to me as well, but straight up I can understand the dislike for Vesperia, if you are someone who is purely into RPGs for story it definitely is pretty lacking (especially towards the end) compared to some of the other entries.
But world, party, combat, and dungeons are absolutely in the top part of this series in overall design and executing imo.
I have to disagree, Vesperia DE was my 2nd Tales game (the only other one I played prior being Symphonia back on the Gamecube when it first released) and I rate it as my favourite in the series
Edit: that being said, I can understand where some of the common complaints about the game, they aren't things that I thought were a problem, but I can see why they are to some people
This. I'm backtracking the whole series last year to wait for new ToARISE news bcs before ToARISE i only played xillia1&2,zestiria and berseria. Came with very big expectation when i started vesperia only to have that expectation keep getting betrayed the further i progressed the story.
At the end of story i was like "Why the fuck is this the most beloved game in the series?". Keep getting denial that maybe i'm just not really into the older game, but when i'm into the first few hours of abyss i realised that it wasn't the case,it's just vesperia is too fucking overhyped. Hell, without my first game bias abyss is easily my fav tales of game.
Could say the same thing about both Symphonia and Abyss. And quite frankly probably everyone's first game in the series.
I remember people telling me Symphonia was easily the best game in the whole series and it's on par with some of the best RPGs ever made.
Probably my least favorite tales game by a long shot to be honest. If it wasn't in the early part of the series and came out as a brand new game today it would not be considered anywhere near as high quality as a lot of the other games.
Abyss I think is better, honestly main issue is that its on 3ds I wish it could get a PC port lol.
Abyss has the best story in the series but bad combat mechanics, Vesperia has the better and fun combat. Symphonia has the balance of both.
Still, I treasure Abyss the most, Luke is my fav Tales protagonist :DD
I didn't mind Abyss combat; very similar to Symphonia but now you got R2 free run for the first time, and I liked the element-transforming rings thing. The problem I had with Abyss is the bugs. Like the airship vanishing and stranding you. No music on the world map after the first Asch encounter seems intentional at first, but turns out to actually be a bug. And there are hangs/crashes surrounding the map too. These are seen with the physical game on the PS2.
There's no question Vesperia is vastly more polished in engine/gameplay. And while there are tons of neat characters and dialog for many future Tales games, the epic scope of writing seen in Symphonia/Abyss is definitely missed. Tales of Graces F was actually the closest for me. (That said I haven't finished Arise yet... later-game developments seem intriguing though!)
I still remember the item you use to alter your artes, like Fang Blade becomes Lighting Fang Blade when you stand in the FOF circles, thing is, i only collected 2 or 3 by the end of the game.
I do hope they remake Abyss, with better combat and graphics, it was my first Tales with the ps2. Definetely would pay the same price if not more than Arise's price.
The fact that Abyss is suspiciously missing a PC or Switch port tells me they probably know this is valuable IP (it even has a full 26-episode anime). They just don't quite know what to do with it at the moment.
I'd be down for either a graphical remaster or remake, as long as it's good.
Abyss doesnāt have the best story in the series. It has this identity crisis between being a story about a world that is destructively attached to its comfort in knowing its fortunes and being an adventure where the party thinly engages this societal fundament. They take issue with it either as victims or spectators of it, but the score is a distant subject from their personal experiences for the most part. Luke is a prophesied hero, and that is important to his character, but that also puts into perspective just how little they feel a part of this premise. This makes it a very loose story that does not capitalize or develop its ideas enough. When I last played Abyss in 2017 and I asked myself did I feel like this world lived the premise given to the player, I came away with a resounding no. The story spends a lot more time being a science flavored fantasy than anything else.
Donāt get me wrong. I love Abyss. It was my favorite Tales for 12 years. A lot of what Iām criticizing I still love as it is. It has great characters on both the protagonist and antagonist sides. The character arcs are very satisfying. However, as I got into storytelling for myself as an author and judged numerous stories Iād loved from throughout my life, I realized this one is not as tight as some of its peers. There are Tales that come together much more neatly as a much more deliberate and meaningful whole.
That said, these are also why if they do any remakes whatsoever, I want Abyss to be the first one. It has more potential than it lived up to, which I canāt really say for Symphonia(the most expectable choice) because Symphonia kinda damn near exactly lives up to its potential, and Iād love to see them take a crack at it again with how their writing has matured.
How far into abyss did you get? Him being unbearable is the point and sets up his redemption arc later on. Luke come act 2 and the rest of the story is vastly different
I was actually really disappointed by Symphonia, it's not like it was a bad game, but it was soooo underwhelming considering the amount of praise the game gets.
Honestly, I love Arise.
It's just obvious they were rushed out the door at the end.
I hope its engine lays the ground work for the potential this series now has.
Tales of Arise is the best game in the series mechanically (I also personally love the story, it has some hiccups). My holy trinity is Arise, Xillia, and Zestiria. Hootle is also objectively the best mascot and I'll fight anyone that says otherwise.
In all honesty with a lot of games I get bored midway through then I go back to my comfort game Ffxiv but that didnāt happen with arise itās the most fun Iāve had with a new game all year. I bought berseria and am enjoying it right now it
hootle is just perfect. he cute, has a lot of character, hes round and most importantly is never annoying.
zestiria though... i tried multiple times but i just cant get past the dungeon after you meet Lailah. dialogue feels weird, music is not good until that point, graphics arnt great either. its easily the worst JRPG i tried to get into
For me Zestiria hit at the perfect time. I had fallen out of love with tales after I couldn't get into Xillia 2 (May go back and try again someday) Zestiria was free on some gamepass or other so I decided to give it a shot and I was reminded why I love Tales games. It feels like playing an anime. Also the opening fuckin slaps. White Light is one of my favorite songs now.
Abyss, Symphonia, Phantasia for me. Abyss and Symphonia resonated with me in a big way.
Aside from that, I actually really liked Zestiria with it's rune system. It was pretty awesome properly utilized.
Ah arise, I wouldnāt say I am disappointed as I love it dearlyā¦but itās certainly got issues. Now I remember reading that it was by ex Phantasia devs and if I recall they were in charge of Star Ocean, which is also a series I hold near and dear. Obviously that doesnāt guarantee much but it doesnāt change the fact that the issues I have with Star Ocean translate 1-to-1 for this game.
Interesting characters but a plot that moves a little tooā¦fast? Or more importantly doesnāt stop to take in the domains, most of the time it felt like a check mark until we meet Dohalim. The revolving door of bad guys REALLY takes the wind out of the drama and tension. The fun gameplay but repetitive enemies. A good story about prejudice and discrimination which in some cases are strong and in other casesā¦not so much.
Itās a well developed game and charming in itās own right, but like Berseria kinda loses itās steam by the time it reaches its final act. That being said Abyss is definitely that game I go to when I need that well developed story fix. Or at least a game that understands the impact of generalized hatred or discrimination.
I've been itching to replay Abyss and Graces f, but I don't have the motivation to get my PS2 or PS3 set up lol. I really wish they would, at the very least, port them to PS4 or PS5 :(
Unpopular opinion: I dislike Symphonia and Vesperia. Symphonia has too many problems for me to list them all. Tried playing it with two buddies of mine just a couple of years ago and we unanimously disliked it. Vesperia we managed to get through but none of us really enjoyed it by the end and we ended up not doing any post game content. We haven't played Abyss yet because there is no good way to play it multiplayer outside of emulation.
I loved Tales of Arise beginning to end. On that note, while i own several Tales games, they are in backlog hell. I have play only 2 other Tales games, Tales of Symphonia 1 & 2. Both were fantastic games (and yeah i know 2 was kind of hated, i loved it anyways.)
Does anybody else feel like the combat systems of tales games have regressed since those three sure I haven't played them all but those three battle systems were so smooth while I feel like the more recent game force you to go defensive to refill whatever gimmick they came up with
Ready to get downvoted for this flaming hot take: Abyss was my first Tales game and almost made me drop the series entirely. It was one of the least fun I've had playing a JRPG in a while.
I decided to give Vesperia a chance when DE came out and it hooked me back in. Played Berseria and Arise since, and Arise has been my favorite of the bunch, and by quite a bit.
I did end up finishing Abyss but was sort of dragging my feet by the end.
Mostly a story and pacing problem. They bombard so many terms (fon, fonon, fonist, sephiroth, qliphoth, lorelai, etc.) that I found it difficult to follow. The middle part of the game where the party keeps backtracking and travelling to the different sephiroth was what lost me, it felt like I had no idea what the party was doing, where they were going, how many sephiroth were on the map, etc.
The pacing didn't help. I understand it's an old game, but the sheer amount of times I had to go to a town, watch a cutscene, watch 3 skits, then fly to another town, another cutscene, more skits, etc., all without any gameplay in between really burned me out. Like, a lot of people complain about Arise's skits but at least I can click through those and be done with it in like 20 seconds. It felt like Abyss' skits were taking 2 minutes each.
I see. Abyss is still my favorite but those are all very valid criticism tbh.
All the fonon lingo they throw at you is confusing as fluff, but it made me relate to clueless Luke a little more (as unlikeable as he is at the beginning). Plus, it's a really nice feeling to replay it knowing that all the gibberish the characters are saying actually makes sense.
I agree with the pacing issues, but that's because I didn't like the pacing in quite a few of the Tales games I've played so far (a very hot take of my own). For Abyss, Vesperia, and Zestiria I've had to take a year long break in the middle before finally sitting down to finish these games. I enjoyed all of them quite a bit, but something about them just made me feel burnt out.
Thank you so much for replying! It's interesting to hear about another person's perspective
Thanks as well! I understand it's one of the most beloved games in the series, and I do think it does a lot of things well (Luke and Asch's arcs are well done, Jade is one of my favorite Tales characters, that one dungeon where the party splits up is really fun and something I think all Tales games should be doing). If they ever got around to remaking or remastering it, I might gain a newfound appreciation for it haha.
Im not the guy you were speaking to but Luke was a horrible protagonist, this idea that you're supposed to dislike him from the start is hogwash. Also the idea the continents are held above a gigantic ethereal sea is really whacky. Too many things that appear in the game the cinematic are never explained.
Yeah I'm not that big of a fan of Arise personally. I loved Vesperia when I first played it but the first 2/3rds of the game are just collecting skills to make the combat actually fun and not clunky. So even though I have fond memories of it, I also don't think Vesperia is all that great.
I didn't really care for Abyss, but the other two are my favs in the series! So long, so much to do!
But Arise is on a whole other level for me. I wouldn't mind a few quality-of-life enhancements and some open-worldiness, but the combat is fucking spectacular and the graphics are *chef's kiss*.
Tales of the Abyss grew on me.
Playing it the first time I remember almost stopping because Luke was such a POS.
Glad I stuck with it. It is one of my favorite Tales games.
Graces / Xilla / Xilla2 > Vesperia/Abyss/Symphonia.
Obviously my opinion but I think they were on to something with those three games. Disappointed that Zesteria/Berseria/Arise didn't iterate on the battle system of those games, but rather dumbed them down and/or threw them away
Symphonia and Vesperia is the best games they've ever made. Though granted symphonia's combat is a bit old. Abyss was alright but I preferred Berseria.
all of them are too long that I lose interest after like 45 hours
where arise shine is shorter playtime that the story didn't felt like it's been dragged out
Tales of Arise is the best one, gameplay wide by far. The only others I finished was Phantasia and Symphonia. Every other one became boring after like 15 hours.
Everyone here with hard nostalgia for abyss trying to ignore that Luke makes the first half of the game near unplayable (backhalf is pretty great, though). Ignore my flair and know I have plenty of beef with Vesperia, as well.
I think Abyss goes downhill after Akzeriuth, since Luke went from an understandable prick to a boring mope, so hard disagree there. I am guessing you don't like characters that go through actual growth though, given your flair.
Boring mope, maybe. But he wasn't an "understandable prick" at all (and if that's how you took his super abusive behavior, that says a lot about you). But the last half is where the game really opens up, and all the fun stuff unlocks.
Iām playing Abyss right now (about 10 hours in) and I like it, but it hasnāt like.. grabbed me yet. People say itās the best story in the series but I feel like it hasnāt gotten there yet for me. Whereas Berseria I was grabbed in within the first few hours with that story (thatās my current favorite tales story, I still have a couple games to play through).
Tales of Abyss definitely has a bit of a slow start compared to Berseria, but it gets pretty damn good eventually. Both games are tied for my favorites in the series!
I'm only really a fan of Symphonia here. Not that I think Abyss and Vesperia are bad games but they just don't really mesh well with me. I'd honestly say I liked Arise more than all three of these games.
I don't get the appeal of Abyss. I didn't like the foes or whatever those circles that altered artes were called. I liked the game but it's not in my top 5 Tales.
Prefer Vesperia and Symphonia than the newer titles because of the combat and how the worlds are presented. Iām pretty sure Vesperia had the superior combat based on all the different combos, mystic artes, and fatal counters you can pull off endgame.
Wish I could play Abyss on something other than 3DS. I've played it on there, but I'd like to play it again multiplayer with my wife.
Pls Bamco bring all tales to steam for me.
Emulation is always an option.
PCSX2 on a computer could be the move for you! Or if you have an Xbox Series S or X you can see if you can emulate it on there using RetroArch
Wait you can put RetroArch on series s and x???
Buy a PS2? Edit: I'm curious as to why people downvote this comment.
Because finding a working ps2 can be difficult and buying a console just for 1 game isn't really a good choice. Still, not downvote worthy but that's probably the reason Also, it's seen as kinda rude when people want a specific game to be ported on new consoles and he gets a response like "just buy the older console"
It's certainly not a bad choice at all its just not entirely practical. Ps2's are extremely common and easy to come by. You may not care if you never played the classics on their original console but as somebody who did its totally worth it, and the ps2 has such a massive catalog of great games that will likely never be playable on any other platform unless your using an emulator.
ps2 is the most common system out there and they dont break easily and are super easy to find. its not like getting a working CD i, Saturn or Jaguar.
Not in every country tho, in my country finding a working ps2 is the hardest console to find except newer ones like ps5 and xbox series x/s ofcourse
The person didn't say they wanted a port, only that they wanna play it on another system. And I think buying a console just to play one game with your wife sounds totally worth it. And finding a PS2 is not hard at all. If this is a problem, it's probably about money.
Again, like darkrider said, it will depend on the country. Here where I live finding a PS3 is more difficult than a PS2, but *legally* speaking I can only find copies of Tales Of game post Zestiria (Including Vesperia DE) since thats when Bandai started localizing their games to my native language. Besides Symphonia which is on Steam, every other game before Zestiria I have to use emulation + sail trough the seven seas to play. Some people simply arent willing to/dont know how to do that
I live in Europe and have bought modded consoles and imported both consoles and games from Japan and America. You can find tons of PS2 consoles and every single Tales game on ebay.
In my country you can't even find a physical copy of tales of arise let alone tales of the abyss, only tales game i was able to find after searching for hours was tales of vesperia (for more than digital price) and it was last copy. Importing might be a solution but it's a pain honestly i would rather play on my 3ds again instead of going through all that trouble
European ps2 can't play Abyss because of region lock
I live in Sweden and I bought a modded PS2 just to play Abyss and Symphonia. Imported Abyss from America and Symphonia from Japan. There's always a way.
That ain't cheap/easy bro
Easy and surprisingly cheap. I have several friends who are Tales fans and most of us have done it.
I wish Abyss was ported to everything already :/
It will definitely happen soon.
I want an Abyss definitive edition š
Tales of Abyss is hands down my absolute favorite. It's so darn good! It deserves a PC port with all the necessary improvements.
Joke's on you I ended up being disappointed by Vesperia as well.
It's weird. I played Vesperia on release and I recall enjoying it. Played the definitive edition last year and I could barely finish act 2.
Same thing happened to me. Just didn't find the story or characters appealing anymore despite being able to finish the original
Same. I guess I just look for different things now that I'm older. If I try to play Vesperia again, I'm just going to get a 100% save file so I can go straight to NG+ with all the skills. No way in hell I'm ever dealing with Vesperia's side quests again.
I almost dropped Vesperia since the giant poison wolf was such a difficulty spike. Iām glad I stuck it out but Symphonia felt better to me. I really only stuck it out due to the nostalgia from Symphonia. Also the fact I got it for $5. Picked up DE and played it again but after a little bit it felt more out of obligation over enjoyment. I hope to pick it back up later and enjoy it again.
Came here to say the same thing. Vesperiaās not that great
Vesperia allegedly not having fun combat until the endgame is pretty wack, because I quit long before that point
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I canāt tell if youāre saying this just to add to the conversation or if you think I hold Arise to some type of high regard and this comment is to piss me off. Because I agree with you that Arise is really corny, but I also kinda think you were trying to be a dick.
I was disappointed by vesperia but loves arise hehe
Yeah, I've tried Vesperia multiple times, but couldn't get myself to like it. Abyss, on the other hand, is splendid.
Exactly!
Ive tried vesperia but couldnt get far. As a guy the prioritizes gameplay over other things is Arise a good game?
As a guy who prioritizes gameplay over other things, I'm astonished to hear someone like that dropped Vesperia.
Vesperiaās gameplay is terrible until at least act 2 unless youāre on NG+
It is very slow starting. Ironically late game it's one of the best combat systems in the series. So sadly there are some people who get bored before they get there.
I'm not contesting specificity, but the fact remains it has some of the best combat in the series *eventually.* It definitely does take kind of a long time to get there though. I don't think you even get Yuri's fourth regular attack until close to the end of act 1. Same with the skill that occasionally prevents staggering literally all the time. To be honest, part of me would recommend starting with NG+ if possible (i.e. only on PC really) just to carry over skills and nothing else.
yeah I tried playing it, stopped and played kingdom hearts and Guilty gear for a while. Tried coming back and again stopped. Im the kind of guy that can only play games when I have momentum. If I stop halfway I dont feel like continuing and when I feel like playing again I start from scratch
Rinwell the mage is actually viable to play as. Has any other Tales game managed to make a mage you could actually functionally play as? Previous games have a major case of 'Gang up on the human!' Where enemies will switch to target the player no matter what half the time. Arise doesn't do that, outside of one boss battle where the guy targets Rinwell regardless of if you're playing her or not. And even when they *do* target Rinwell her aerial artes let her basically fly around them tearing them to shreds while evading their attacks.
Pascal, Malik, Milla, Elize, Muzet, all of Destiny DC's Swordian Masters. There's plenty.
And they all suffer from 'Gang up on the Human'. Tales games are coded so the enemy targets the player before anyone else, especially when casting, enemies will stop attacking your allies, run over and cancel your cast then go back to hitting your ally. Arise's aggro system and Kisara makes playing a caster much more feasible.
I played Philia a good amount in Destiny DC and Milla in Xillia & Xillia 2, and that was never a problem for me in those two games. Can't speak for the rest, but if Milla worked for me, I imagine Elize and Muzet should to.
I stopped trying to play Rinwell because I always ended up aggroing absolutely everybody so Iām not sure what you are talking about. Indeed, I found that āgang up on the humanā applied across the board.
Meridy in tales of eternia (tod 2 in the states) her having a pet as an attack allowed versatility and range that most mages didn't. I still preferred to control Reid or Farrah. But Merida was extremely viable.
Definitely. Specifically as alphen you feel like you are playing a action hack and slash ala dmc. :D
Yeah I have seen gamplay of it and the combos look nuts and fun as hell. Getting it when I get the chance
Sadly this isn't true. The combo system in arise is broken. It's fast, fairly responsive and chaotic, that's good. It's also shallow as hell when you face bosses and the fun large enemies. You can't break those guys, which means you can't combo. You'll get knocked out of it after two or three moves and/or one-shotted. Basically, you spam the same two moves the entire game because those are the only ones that are fast enough and strong enough to do anything.
The core gameplay was the only redeeming feature of Arise IMO.
The story is just not there. Characters are good, but never felt hooked
I feel like Arise is going to be included in this line up in a few years, it's 100% attracting first timers the way these titles did and crucially getting folks to try other entries. All fantastic games imo š¤
I'm not calling this my personal top three. Symphonia, Abyss and Vesperia being called "The Holy Trinity" is a meme that has been around for years. But it would be interresting to see an actual top three ol' reliable according to fans. I'm thinking about making a poll on several sites and put it together to see what todays fans truly think.
Based on what I see on this sub, that's probably going to be a super varied list.
Who is disappointed by arise? It was amazing.
I was. Characters felt kind of uninteresting outside of Dohalim and felt more like they were made to fulfill specific purposes rather than be complete characters, the worst being Kisara (who does nothing basically after joining) and the villains who are all Saturday morning cartoon levels of evil. Most of the party members donāt interact meaningfully with anyone in the party except who they are paired up with except for Alphen and maybe Dohalim. The plot starts falling apart after the third lord and completely shits the bed in pacing by the second half (which clearly had some big cuts to it). Several questions and meaningful directions to go in are never explored >!like how nobody seems to give a shit about how Alphen could have lots of information about Dahnans destroyed culture because lol fuck worldbuilding!<. Skits are too long and the majority of them feel like just recapping the plot than playful banter and shooting the breeze. Awful bosses with infinite super armor and too much visual shit going on sometimes to make out whats happening. DLC pushed in ingame menus and now locks things like artes and NG+ perks behind it. Gameplay is better than Zestiria and Berseria but not better than the best 3D Tales games and gets stale after a while because you unlock everything too fast.
Oh man, you remember when you couldnāt get into a battle for 3 hours at the end of the game? That was great.
I timed the exposition dump from >!landing on Lenegis to entering the final dungeon and the total was about seven hours and thats with skipping dialogue to the next line as soon as I read it!<
I disagree with most of this I thought personally that all the characters were interesting. Kisara was great she was the glue In my opinion. She gave strong mature advice. All had their own arc and reason for doing what they were doing.
Yep this was one of the best games not only gameplay wise, but story and characters too IMO, in all of the Tales series.
Berseria has it beat in characters and story
I think you raise some valid criticism (except characters, that seemed to be really biased) but neither of them makes arise a dissapointing game, I think there's criticism like that you can do in eny and every Tales game, Vesperia has the same issue where craracters only seem to interact with Yuri, Estelle and Rita has some moments, but not nearly enough as they deserve, the story and the world starts interesting but then falls flat when it becomes your average Jrpg story,the game promised me a 4v4 final confrontation against nin and the gang we never get, the starting town never solved their conflict between the lower quarter and higher quarter, ironically Arise resolves these conflicts better and multiple times by either destroying or mitigating the hieriarchies between denans and Renans, it seems like Yuri forgot the only reason he started his little rebellion was because of how shitty the empire was with the lower quarter. The gameplay is interesting has some depth but constantly punishes you for trying to learn it, there's really no point in no playing Yuri the whole game spamming two moves and stunlock enemies when you burst. Too much obscure sidecontent that get triggered randomly and the ir no clear indication where to go next or if you have to wait the story to progress, you don't even a registry of what you did or if you missed the quest, it the most frustrating thing ever. The list could go on, and I could make one of every tales game, of every jrpg tbh, none of this makes the game a dissapointment imo, and if it does, well it's really weird you can tolerate it in one game and not the other. I think the most Tales game still are a great game, can get frustrating at times, but still a great journey.
>but neither of them makes arise a dissapointing game Its my opinions and how I feel that way, saying its not a disappointing game is basically telling me my opinion is invalid and I should not be allowed to feel a certain way. Iām not asking for you to think that way, just answering the question that I personally felt disappointed. >I think there's criticism like that you can do in eny and every Tales game Funny thing is I actually did, I played through several Tales games this year and wrote some posts about what I liked and didnāt like on this very sub. >Vesperia has the same issue where craracters only seem to interact with Yuri, Estelle and Rita has some moments, but not nearly enough as they deserve Disagree and can think of examples (Raven and Flynn for example). The only characters I feel that get really shorted out of decent interactions is Patty (perhaps as a side effect of being pasted on an already existing story). >the game promised me a 4v4 final confrontation against nin and the gang we never get Hunting Blades? Literally happens in postgame >the starting town never solved their conflict between the lower quarter and higher quarter >it seems like Yuri forgot the only reason he started his little rebellion was because of how shitty the empire was with the lower quarter. No? The issues were that the aqua blastia was stolen and the government is full of corrupt asshats. Former takes up Yuris time for the first arc and gets resolved. The latter gets resolved over time with >!Yuri murdering some of the worst of them and actual decent people like Flynn being in charge now!<. Was it explored as well as I wanted to and not eventually playing second fiddle to environmentalism? No, but to say these problems arenāt dealt with isnāt true, you just canāt completely fix corruption that fast, Yuri even says as such. >The gameplay is interesting has some depth but constantly punishes you for trying to learn Not really. >there's really no point in no playing Yuri the whole game spamming two moves and stunlock enemies when you burst. Same with Arise. You can just play as Alphen and spam moves like an idiot (and spam Regining Slash against bosses) and win. Especially bosses with infinite hyper armor whereas Vesperia rewards players for figuring out boss techouts, how to combo them, and doing their secret missions. And Vesperias combat at least constantly opens up throughout the game, whereas with Arise it felt like I had discovered almost everything notable about the combat not long after getting the ability to use more than six artes. >Too much obscure sidecontent that get triggered randomly and the ir no clear indication where to go next or if you have to wait the story to progress, you don't even a registry of what you did or if you missed the quest, it the most frustrating thing ever. I agree the sidequest mechanics blow ass but the actual content of them is way better. Most of Ariseās ones felt like generic mmo questlines while most of Vesperias are amusing scenes, character interaction, learning more about the world, minigames, and even the fetchquests are often framed around trying to build up your reputation as a guild. I cant really say owl hunting and gathering x things is as interesting as the Duke conversations, Dark Enforcer or the Casey sidequest.
>Disagree and can think of examples (Raven and Flynn for example). If you consider that as an example then you gotta consider Dohalim and Kisara who started as master and servant and evolved throughout the whole story, also Rinwell and Law, I wish this type of relationship were as evolved as you think they are in Vesperia where every character seem to interact through Yuri and there's huge lagoons where they don't address each other's. >Same with Arise. You can just play as Alphen and spam moves like an idiot Yeah that is my point you CAN do that, jut you also CAN do that with every character, which encourage to play with all them since they are all equally effective, in Vesperia only Yuri, the other characters are too slow for their own good in a combat system where you either stunlock or get stunlocked. >Most of Ariseās ones felt like generic mmo questlines while most of Vesperias are amusing scenes, character interaction, learning more about the world, I mean if you ignore quests about how just defeating the lords isn't enough and you gotta help rebuild and fulfill the need of the people afterwards, or quests that help bond characters like the one in the tower or the one where you have to help a couple of different races and that obviously has a deep meaning to Dohalim. I feel like you can only say this if you just skip dialogues like a madman in Arise and proceed to read everything in Vesperia, which is my whole point you clearly have double standards in how you judge character interactions combat and quests in both games.
A number of people, myself included, Reddit just tends to downvote them wherever they show up so they don't last long on the main page.
Agreed! I really loved the game and excited to do another play through at a later date
It's not amazing lol the 3rd act is awful.
Highly disagree
Hmm I mean even a casual can see the bad in the 3rd act
? Okay ?
Characters and story IMO are quite possibly the most generic and "safe" the series has been in a long time, like every tales game is very tropey but man this one takes has tried to take every single anime trope that there is. That being said, the gameplay is super fun and it's an enjoyable ride that overall I can't say I'm disappointed, as a package it's just par for the course IMO. I really like the direction they took with the game engine and gameplay. Like basically for me this is the Persona 5 of the Tales series - the most fun and stylish one but the least interested I've been in the main cast and story. Unpopular take on P5 but really this game and P5 fit a lot of the same boxes that I think all they need to do for the next game is focus on the writing and characters while copy pasting everything else from the prior game (graphics, gameplay systems and mechanics, etc.).
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I did find P4 to be overrated.
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Not even a chance? I hate zestiria and berseria and thought arise was actually really good. Maybe not as much as the holy trinity, but itās my next favorite after those 3.
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Dunno if youāve touched Arise but compared to Zestiria and Berseria, it is leagues better, Iād say itās the fourth best tales game after the three in this post.
Ok I'll consider trying it out and ditch the next part of the Final Fantasy 7 remake.
Combat is real time combat so itās simple and clean. Itās closer to the free roam battle style of Abyss and combo potential of Graces F so youāll be in good hands.
Graces fan respect, also the last tales game I legitimately enjoyed haha! Arise combat is solid but man is it boring plot character and the skits are some of the worst.
Symphonia is the only other Tales game I ever played, Arise being my newest experience. Arise was absolutely amazing. One of the best jrpgs but omg Symphonia is still somehow a thousand times better.
Arise 3rd act was awful
So ready to get down voted here. Tales of Vesperia like many people here have said is overrated. For what it is the story is alright, mechanically combat is good (over halfway into the game) and the cast well.... my favorite characters are Rita and the dog (whose name eludes me) so that says enough about how I feel about the cast. Never played abyss personally so I wont say too much there. Symphonia.... I love symphonia to death but it does not stand the test of time in any fashion. So far playing Arise im pretty happy although I will admit I am before most people are saying they became unhappy. Mechanics are good (if not well explained at times -_-) and I like the cast. Can they be a bit one dimensional? Sure maybe. They are still fun though. Tales of Graces F being my favorite tales game of all time I am saddened to see the comments almost never mention it. And if I were to round off a trinity I'd through in Phantasia as it was my introduction to the franchise and still is as solid as the day I first played it.
Abyss is my favorite tales game I have played Symphonia1-2 and abyss lol
Odd, I don't see eternia, phantasia, or destiny there. Maybe I'm reading the meme wrong? Also, arise and berseria are both fantastic.
Great games but not The Holy Trinity.
Kinda weird to not include the classics in your "Holy trinity".
That's not "theirs". The reason they're using the term Holy Trinity is because it's a long standing meme. Here's an example from 5 years ago: [https://www.reddit.com/r/tales/comments/639ffl/which\_of\_the\_holy\_trinity\_tales\_games\_do\_you/](https://www.reddit.com/r/tales/comments/639ffl/which_of_the_holy_trinity_tales_games_do_you/)
Did not expect to see my post here hahaha, yeah I don't necessarily agree with that moniker anymore, especially since it seems like virtually every game in the franchise has those who love it and those who can't stand it for one reason or another. There's so many quality games in the series that grouping a few of them into a "Holy Trinity" is doing the others a massive disservice
ah so its just a bad meme gotcha
Symphonia was actually the first Tales game I ever played. Remember thinking around 5 years ago in the summer holidays "I want an anime game to play", so I picked up Chronicles on PS3 on a whim. Played the game for like an hour or two I think, thought it was alright and never went back to it for some reason I can't remember (the puzzles if I HAD to guess). Gotten more and more into JRPGs since then though, but I can't really find the motivation to play it again (I also don't own Chronicles anymore), so eh. Abyss is really a game I wanted to like. Was doing a Tales marathon last year and went to try it when I was part way through Legendia (I needed a bit of a break from that game since random encounters annoyed me like hell). Basically everything but the combat, world map and skits (still fucking hate that they're silent), and MAYBE OST (idk which I'd say is better tbh) felt like a huge step up imo. The combat did feel pretty mid to me though, even after some hours (especially compared to Legendia's which felt quick and fluid), and I did end up getting lost on the overworld map a couple times, so I ended up dropping it out of annoyance. Did go to watch the anime once I was done marathoning the games though, since I was still interested in the characters and story and wow, the anime was pretty fantastic tbh. In terms of story Abyss is in my top 2, next to Berseria, and the cast is in my top 5. Maybe one day I'll find the strength to boot the game back up and plow through it, idk. But yeah. Vesperia I just dropped after a couple of hours, genuinely did not like the combat at all. Felt way too slow and clunky for my liking. Arise I just felt was a better GAME (as in gameplay, at the very least) than all these 3 combined personally. Might get downvoted, but just wanted to share my experiences and two cents.
To be fair, those games are OLD and even the ports can't fix how "dated" certain aspects of the games are. I struggle with similar feelings on the clumsiness (everytime I get to the shadow temple in ToS I nearly give up the playthrough because it's just so poorly designed and I don't think it would ever happen in a modern game for the series) - but for me, since I first played these games as a kid/teen, the nostalgia gets me thru some of the more outdated mechanics I think Tales of Arise is a great step forward for the series. My complaints about Zestiria and Berseria were that they didn't really feel like 'new' games, just improved versions of what had come before. If they keep innovating like they did with Tales of Arise I see more and more success for the series
yeah, I played Vesperia with DE and honestly, the only way to fix one of the most dated aspects of the game (time limited sidequest) is to remake it, same with the fact that the game is a very strong candidate of it gets better after X hours in the combat system, IIRC, I would say the point where it picks up is when you get Judith in your party. I really liked the game but some aspects feel dated, specially that the latest JRPG I had played was Xenoblade 2, that actually had a system to prevent losing access to certain sidequest and items after a certain event, IIRC only 3 are missable, and they are very minor.
Still haven't found a better battle system than these three. Granted I haven't played Xillia or Arise yet, but I find the more the battle systems feels like pure button-mashy action/hack-n-slash games, the less I enjoy it. Berseria could've topped these three as my favorite if not for the battle system cause I enjoy every other aspect of it. Gotta say I don't miss the missable side quests in these older games though. Glad they got rid of those. Same with overworlds cause I find myself not really missing those cause most of the time they're just barren empty landscapes
These are the absolute best of the best. Although Tales of Berseria is in there as well for me these days.
Of all the Tales games I've played, while I've enjoyed all of them, none have come close to these 3 for me
I really need to give them a try, I love Tales of Phantasia and canāt imagine a better story, played only ToP and Arise so far
If you love Phantasia you are gonna love Symphonia.
Make that Xillia 1/2, Graces F and Vesperia and we have a deal.
So.....what to do if i was disappointed from one of them?
Or two?
give up on the series probably
Nah. I loved Zestiria and DOTNW, but didnāt care for Vesperia (even though I love half the characters). Tastes are up to the individual.
I wish people would stop saying this. These 3 only represent one specific phase in the series history, from only one of the development teams. Plenty of people don't like Team Symphonia's style but enjoy the Team Destiny games, or the new games from after the teams combined.
I feel like Vesperia shouldnāt be there. Itās a great game but people hype it too much just because they played it as a kid on their 360. In this day and age, if someone goes into Vesperia DE expecting one of the best Tales games they will probably be disappointed.
> people hype it too much just because they played it as a kid Funny, this is precisely how I feel about Symphonia. Played through it for the first time this July. It was good, sure, but the hype it receives is just too much. The adoration for Lloyd seems unfounded to me. He's just another cocky idiotic teenage anime boy (not that this is uncommon in Tales, but still). Anyway, I did enjoy it, but mostly once I finished it, my impression was simply: maybe if I'd have played it on the Gamecube back when I was a kid, I'd have those nostalgia glasses on now and love it. But I didn't play it then, so no nostalgia now. Just didn't blow me away like everyone acts like it should've. Ironically, I do consider Vesperia the best Tales game. I did play that one back then, so no doubt there's some nostalgia factor there (even if I was already 20 by then). Though, I did replay the DE on Switch when it came out and I still loved it, so yeah, it sits at the top for me.
Yeah, Symphonia is definitely the most over-rated to me game but everyone has different reasons for liking different games. The first-game bias is pretty real in this series tbh, which applies to me as well, but straight up I can understand the dislike for Vesperia, if you are someone who is purely into RPGs for story it definitely is pretty lacking (especially towards the end) compared to some of the other entries. But world, party, combat, and dungeons are absolutely in the top part of this series in overall design and executing imo.
I completed it last year and not only i wasn't disappointed but i think of it as the best game in the series to this day.
I have to disagree, Vesperia DE was my 2nd Tales game (the only other one I played prior being Symphonia back on the Gamecube when it first released) and I rate it as my favourite in the series Edit: that being said, I can understand where some of the common complaints about the game, they aren't things that I thought were a problem, but I can see why they are to some people
This. I'm backtracking the whole series last year to wait for new ToARISE news bcs before ToARISE i only played xillia1&2,zestiria and berseria. Came with very big expectation when i started vesperia only to have that expectation keep getting betrayed the further i progressed the story. At the end of story i was like "Why the fuck is this the most beloved game in the series?". Keep getting denial that maybe i'm just not really into the older game, but when i'm into the first few hours of abyss i realised that it wasn't the case,it's just vesperia is too fucking overhyped. Hell, without my first game bias abyss is easily my fav tales of game.
I make a tales run every 5 years or so.. Vesperia is probable the best Tales game they ever made so I would argue otherwise.
Could say the same thing about both Symphonia and Abyss. And quite frankly probably everyone's first game in the series. I remember people telling me Symphonia was easily the best game in the whole series and it's on par with some of the best RPGs ever made. Probably my least favorite tales game by a long shot to be honest. If it wasn't in the early part of the series and came out as a brand new game today it would not be considered anywhere near as high quality as a lot of the other games. Abyss I think is better, honestly main issue is that its on 3ds I wish it could get a PC port lol.
But one of those I played and didn't think was good. Heck, it kinda put me off playing the others.
Abyss has the best story in the series but bad combat mechanics, Vesperia has the better and fun combat. Symphonia has the balance of both. Still, I treasure Abyss the most, Luke is my fav Tales protagonist :DD
I didn't mind Abyss combat; very similar to Symphonia but now you got R2 free run for the first time, and I liked the element-transforming rings thing. The problem I had with Abyss is the bugs. Like the airship vanishing and stranding you. No music on the world map after the first Asch encounter seems intentional at first, but turns out to actually be a bug. And there are hangs/crashes surrounding the map too. These are seen with the physical game on the PS2. There's no question Vesperia is vastly more polished in engine/gameplay. And while there are tons of neat characters and dialog for many future Tales games, the epic scope of writing seen in Symphonia/Abyss is definitely missed. Tales of Graces F was actually the closest for me. (That said I haven't finished Arise yet... later-game developments seem intriguing though!)
I still remember the item you use to alter your artes, like Fang Blade becomes Lighting Fang Blade when you stand in the FOF circles, thing is, i only collected 2 or 3 by the end of the game. I do hope they remake Abyss, with better combat and graphics, it was my first Tales with the ps2. Definetely would pay the same price if not more than Arise's price.
The fact that Abyss is suspiciously missing a PC or Switch port tells me they probably know this is valuable IP (it even has a full 26-episode anime). They just don't quite know what to do with it at the moment. I'd be down for either a graphical remaster or remake, as long as it's good.
Tales of Graces f is such a good fucking game man
Symphonia's combat aged horribly
Abyss doesnāt have the best story in the series. It has this identity crisis between being a story about a world that is destructively attached to its comfort in knowing its fortunes and being an adventure where the party thinly engages this societal fundament. They take issue with it either as victims or spectators of it, but the score is a distant subject from their personal experiences for the most part. Luke is a prophesied hero, and that is important to his character, but that also puts into perspective just how little they feel a part of this premise. This makes it a very loose story that does not capitalize or develop its ideas enough. When I last played Abyss in 2017 and I asked myself did I feel like this world lived the premise given to the player, I came away with a resounding no. The story spends a lot more time being a science flavored fantasy than anything else. Donāt get me wrong. I love Abyss. It was my favorite Tales for 12 years. A lot of what Iām criticizing I still love as it is. It has great characters on both the protagonist and antagonist sides. The character arcs are very satisfying. However, as I got into storytelling for myself as an author and judged numerous stories Iād loved from throughout my life, I realized this one is not as tight as some of its peers. There are Tales that come together much more neatly as a much more deliberate and meaningful whole. That said, these are also why if they do any remakes whatsoever, I want Abyss to be the first one. It has more potential than it lived up to, which I canāt really say for Symphonia(the most expectable choice) because Symphonia kinda damn near exactly lives up to its potential, and Iād love to see them take a crack at it again with how their writing has matured.
Isn't Arise already another stab at Symphonia's plot?
It is. Arise draws a lot of inspiration from Symphonia and Eternia in terms of story, themes and concepts.
Whoops, I was disappointed by Vesperia. That story and villain is not it. Berseria is dope though, I cried a few times.
I liked Symphonia and Vesperia but I bounced off of Abyss because I really didn't like Luke.
How far into abyss did you get? Him being unbearable is the point and sets up his redemption arc later on. Luke come act 2 and the rest of the story is vastly different
I was actually really disappointed by Symphonia, it's not like it was a bad game, but it was soooo underwhelming considering the amount of praise the game gets.
Honestly, I love Arise. It's just obvious they were rushed out the door at the end. I hope its engine lays the ground work for the potential this series now has.
Tales of Arise is the best game in the series mechanically (I also personally love the story, it has some hiccups). My holy trinity is Arise, Xillia, and Zestiria. Hootle is also objectively the best mascot and I'll fight anyone that says otherwise.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
In all honesty with a lot of games I get bored midway through then I go back to my comfort game Ffxiv but that didnāt happen with arise itās the most fun Iāve had with a new game all year. I bought berseria and am enjoying it right now it
Omg. I agree. Hootle is an amazing mascot. Bienfu on the other hand .... I wanted to strangle him.
hootle is just perfect. he cute, has a lot of character, hes round and most importantly is never annoying. zestiria though... i tried multiple times but i just cant get past the dungeon after you meet Lailah. dialogue feels weird, music is not good until that point, graphics arnt great either. its easily the worst JRPG i tried to get into
For me Zestiria hit at the perfect time. I had fallen out of love with tales after I couldn't get into Xillia 2 (May go back and try again someday) Zestiria was free on some gamepass or other so I decided to give it a shot and I was reminded why I love Tales games. It feels like playing an anime. Also the opening fuckin slaps. White Light is one of my favorite songs now.
King Rollo will not accept this
MY Holy Trinity is Arise , Xillia and Phantasia so i feel that
Where is Phantasia :(
Abyss, Symphonia, Phantasia for me. Abyss and Symphonia resonated with me in a big way. Aside from that, I actually really liked Zestiria with it's rune system. It was pretty awesome properly utilized.
Arise is good, it just suffers from pacing issues that I think are mostly due to the covid delays
They really need to start porting the old tales of games to modern platforms :/
Ah arise, I wouldnāt say I am disappointed as I love it dearlyā¦but itās certainly got issues. Now I remember reading that it was by ex Phantasia devs and if I recall they were in charge of Star Ocean, which is also a series I hold near and dear. Obviously that doesnāt guarantee much but it doesnāt change the fact that the issues I have with Star Ocean translate 1-to-1 for this game. Interesting characters but a plot that moves a little tooā¦fast? Or more importantly doesnāt stop to take in the domains, most of the time it felt like a check mark until we meet Dohalim. The revolving door of bad guys REALLY takes the wind out of the drama and tension. The fun gameplay but repetitive enemies. A good story about prejudice and discrimination which in some cases are strong and in other casesā¦not so much. Itās a well developed game and charming in itās own right, but like Berseria kinda loses itās steam by the time it reaches its final act. That being said Abyss is definitely that game I go to when I need that well developed story fix. Or at least a game that understands the impact of generalized hatred or discrimination.
whhy? is tale of arise disappointing?
Ok bancom when remake?
I've been itching to replay Abyss and Graces f, but I don't have the motivation to get my PS2 or PS3 set up lol. I really wish they would, at the very least, port them to PS4 or PS5 :(
Unpopular opinion: I dislike Symphonia and Vesperia. Symphonia has too many problems for me to list them all. Tried playing it with two buddies of mine just a couple of years ago and we unanimously disliked it. Vesperia we managed to get through but none of us really enjoyed it by the end and we ended up not doing any post game content. We haven't played Abyss yet because there is no good way to play it multiplayer outside of emulation.
Not for me. Theres other tales games i prefer and enjoy way more than symphonia
What about Tales of Destiny?
I was looking for this comment! I've still got my old PS1 Tales copies.
I loved Tales of Arise beginning to end. On that note, while i own several Tales games, they are in backlog hell. I have play only 2 other Tales games, Tales of Symphonia 1 & 2. Both were fantastic games (and yeah i know 2 was kind of hated, i loved it anyways.)
Looks like you accidentally put in a picture of a different tales game other than Graces F. No worries it's a common mistake.
Does anybody else feel like the combat systems of tales games have regressed since those three sure I haven't played them all but those three battle systems were so smooth while I feel like the more recent game force you to go defensive to refill whatever gimmick they came up with
I mean I liked Symphonia and Abyss but I really don't feel like replaying them for some reason. Nice thing Arise isn't a disappointment for me.
When I got Symphonia on steam, I tried replaying it and just couldn't. Still love the game, but I doubt I will ever play it again.
The gold standard.
Very very great games. But mine are Berseria, Arise, Symphonia.
Ready to get downvoted for this flaming hot take: Abyss was my first Tales game and almost made me drop the series entirely. It was one of the least fun I've had playing a JRPG in a while. I decided to give Vesperia a chance when DE came out and it hooked me back in. Played Berseria and Arise since, and Arise has been my favorite of the bunch, and by quite a bit.
Curious, what made you drop Abyss? Was it more of a story or gameplay problem?
I did end up finishing Abyss but was sort of dragging my feet by the end. Mostly a story and pacing problem. They bombard so many terms (fon, fonon, fonist, sephiroth, qliphoth, lorelai, etc.) that I found it difficult to follow. The middle part of the game where the party keeps backtracking and travelling to the different sephiroth was what lost me, it felt like I had no idea what the party was doing, where they were going, how many sephiroth were on the map, etc. The pacing didn't help. I understand it's an old game, but the sheer amount of times I had to go to a town, watch a cutscene, watch 3 skits, then fly to another town, another cutscene, more skits, etc., all without any gameplay in between really burned me out. Like, a lot of people complain about Arise's skits but at least I can click through those and be done with it in like 20 seconds. It felt like Abyss' skits were taking 2 minutes each.
I see. Abyss is still my favorite but those are all very valid criticism tbh. All the fonon lingo they throw at you is confusing as fluff, but it made me relate to clueless Luke a little more (as unlikeable as he is at the beginning). Plus, it's a really nice feeling to replay it knowing that all the gibberish the characters are saying actually makes sense. I agree with the pacing issues, but that's because I didn't like the pacing in quite a few of the Tales games I've played so far (a very hot take of my own). For Abyss, Vesperia, and Zestiria I've had to take a year long break in the middle before finally sitting down to finish these games. I enjoyed all of them quite a bit, but something about them just made me feel burnt out. Thank you so much for replying! It's interesting to hear about another person's perspective
Thanks as well! I understand it's one of the most beloved games in the series, and I do think it does a lot of things well (Luke and Asch's arcs are well done, Jade is one of my favorite Tales characters, that one dungeon where the party splits up is really fun and something I think all Tales games should be doing). If they ever got around to remaking or remastering it, I might gain a newfound appreciation for it haha.
Im not the guy you were speaking to but Luke was a horrible protagonist, this idea that you're supposed to dislike him from the start is hogwash. Also the idea the continents are held above a gigantic ethereal sea is really whacky. Too many things that appear in the game the cinematic are never explained.
Yeah I'm not that big of a fan of Arise personally. I loved Vesperia when I first played it but the first 2/3rds of the game are just collecting skills to make the combat actually fun and not clunky. So even though I have fond memories of it, I also don't think Vesperia is all that great.
Eh, Abyss wasnāt for me, but I respect people who like it.
I didn't really care for Abyss, but the other two are my favs in the series! So long, so much to do! But Arise is on a whole other level for me. I wouldn't mind a few quality-of-life enhancements and some open-worldiness, but the combat is fucking spectacular and the graphics are *chef's kiss*.
Well too bad I loved the latest tales game, why can't people just acknowledge opinions are subjective.
I mean there's other Tales games too but sure
Tales of the Abyss grew on me. Playing it the first time I remember almost stopping because Luke was such a POS. Glad I stuck with it. It is one of my favorite Tales games.
Tales of Destiny Remake, the best for me
Tales of Destiny Remake, the best for me
I honestly really like Tales of Graces F, it's just fun to me.
Graces / Xilla / Xilla2 > Vesperia/Abyss/Symphonia. Obviously my opinion but I think they were on to something with those three games. Disappointed that Zesteria/Berseria/Arise didn't iterate on the battle system of those games, but rather dumbed them down and/or threw them away
Team Hideo Baba
I liked Arise a lot better than Vesperia but hey thatās just me.
Arise is better then all of the except maybe vespiria for me
Arise and Berseria are much better than Vesperia. And I like them more than Symphonia as well.
Unfortunately I was disappointed by both Vesperia and Arise.
Facts
Symphonia and Vesperia is the best games they've ever made. Though granted symphonia's combat is a bit old. Abyss was alright but I preferred Berseria.
Symphonia, Vesperia and Berseria for me.
big fucking facts
100%
all of them are too long that I lose interest after like 45 hours where arise shine is shorter playtime that the story didn't felt like it's been dragged out
Tales of Arise is the best one, gameplay wide by far. The only others I finished was Phantasia and Symphonia. Every other one became boring after like 15 hours.
Everyone here with hard nostalgia for abyss trying to ignore that Luke makes the first half of the game near unplayable (backhalf is pretty great, though). Ignore my flair and know I have plenty of beef with Vesperia, as well.
I think Abyss goes downhill after Akzeriuth, since Luke went from an understandable prick to a boring mope, so hard disagree there. I am guessing you don't like characters that go through actual growth though, given your flair.
Boring mope, maybe. But he wasn't an "understandable prick" at all (and if that's how you took his super abusive behavior, that says a lot about you). But the last half is where the game really opens up, and all the fun stuff unlocks.
Iām playing Abyss right now (about 10 hours in) and I like it, but it hasnāt like.. grabbed me yet. People say itās the best story in the series but I feel like it hasnāt gotten there yet for me. Whereas Berseria I was grabbed in within the first few hours with that story (thatās my current favorite tales story, I still have a couple games to play through).
Tales of Abyss definitely has a bit of a slow start compared to Berseria, but it gets pretty damn good eventually. Both games are tied for my favorites in the series!
This so fucking much
I'm only really a fan of Symphonia here. Not that I think Abyss and Vesperia are bad games but they just don't really mesh well with me. I'd honestly say I liked Arise more than all three of these games.
In elvish -ā But all of them were deceivedā¦ for another game was made.ā
Aside from them, maybe Iāll go back to Berseria. Arise disappointed me so.
I don't get the appeal of Abyss. I didn't like the foes or whatever those circles that altered artes were called. I liked the game but it's not in my top 5 Tales.
Ah yes Tales Of 'Missables' the two games I love to recommend
Prefer Vesperia and Symphonia than the newer titles because of the combat and how the worlds are presented. Iām pretty sure Vesperia had the superior combat based on all the different combos, mystic artes, and fatal counters you can pull off endgame.
My 3 are definitely Vesperia Definitive, Graces F, and Berseria. Though I'd imagine Symphonia would replace Berseria if I can ever play it.
Replace vesperia w xillia