The Official TALES Thread (Sword Rain Alpha) - Tales of Berseria Coming!

Yeah, Yuri is one bad ass. You got to have the black hat on when he does the deed too, makes it extra gangsta. He is one of my favorite rpg main’s already. :rock:

Haven’t started Vesperia yet as I was away. Going to play it with my bro and cousin, probably starting tomorrow. Reviews and impressions have been highly positive so I’m looking forward to it, and the demo voice acting was quite good.

I have a question: does each player log in with their own 360 profile (to earn achievements and the like) or does the game allow only one sign-in? I’m assuming the latter given that neither Dynasty Warriors Gundam nor Soul Calibur 4 allow for multiple profiles (which is silly, considering most XBLA games like Castle Crashers allow for it and they aren’t even full releases).

According to the internetz there really is no other control method for Symphonia 2 other than nunchuk + Wiimote. Which means I either:

a) Buy the game, two more nunchuks (three if I want an occasional fourth party member), another Wiimote (two for the same reason), and another battery pack/charger, all the while staring at my four perfectly good, less-than-six-months-old GC controllers wondering “why,” or…

b) I don’t buy the game and read about what happens online. Which may be what I do. Which is a damn shame because Emil is a fun character; he plays like Reid, Farah, and Luke fused together. =(

I’m wondering whether I should buy another pad for my brother, so I can get 3 player. I’d get a wired pad, they’re still expensive but at least this way I do not need to care about charging a battery at all, even though i already have 2 wireless pads and the quick charger.

Same here. Normally the main characters piss me off in all other rpgs, but in TOV the main character is probably my favorite out of the whole cast. Not to mention, I dont think they could have gotten a more perfect voice actor for him. “I am soooo gonna kick your ass!”

I’ve used pretty much every character so far. Rita seems the best on overbreak, pretty much decimating bosses within seconds. Estella or whatever her name is, is too slow to really attack and doesn’t really seem to heal very well, at least thus far. Yuri seems to have pretty good combos. I thought the wolf was better at the beginning, and I still keep him on the team, but he does seem to have some range and TP management problems. The kid I expect to become really good towards the end of the game, but right now he attacks a bit too slowly. The healing move is really good though.

I’m like 6-7 hours into the game. This is putting LO on the backburner, and I’ve suspended my replay of Enchanted Arms for now. NG2 I’m not going to start, SCIV I’ve messed around with a bit, and I think i’ll just keep playing that a little bit. But mainly, I’m going to be playing Vesperia for months most likely, with occasional breaks. This feels like a really good game.

Also the game seems a bit harder than the other Tales games. I only had the wolf and Rita against that big wolf monster, and just barely won it. That’s also pretty much where I realized the wolf’s range is problematic. I was going to put this game on Hard, but I’ll probably have to keep it on Normal this play through. I’ll probably jump past hard on the replay though, especially if I’m playing with my brother as well. 3 Human controlled chars is an incredible advantage.

If it helps your decision making, a wired pad can be plugged into a Windows XP/Vista machine and used as a controller with zero fuss. So you’re kinda killing two birds that way.

Beaten the game, final comments; read at your own discretion

[details=Spoiler]So, yeah, I beat the game. This had to be one of the most anti-climatic games I’ve ever played. I kept playing expecting something amazing/shocking to happen (because the game leaves a lot of story related things untouched) and no, it didn’t happen. They cocktease you thinking you can finally fucking use Flynn and he has the classics like “Beast” and “Sword Rain Alpha” and I start salivating. Nope. Fuck you the game says.

I went up to fight the Final Boss and nothing really felt Final about it. It just seemed like another boss and since I’d been doing some side-quests, Rita brought the rape and it felt even less climactic. I just kind of feel really empty right now. So they saved the world. Nothing else. No epilogue, no character development, nothing. I’m actually pretty damn shocked right now. Abyss had a way more powerful last few hours of gaming. Fuck.[/details]

I’m a little too irked to say more but once people finish the game we can continue this discussion.

BTW, if you didn’t read the spoiler, Rita + Estelle = Auto-Win.

Yeah, the story really seems to be much better in Abyss. Vesperia’s is really good at the start but gets kinda meh towards the end.

Whereas Abyss had that horseshit portion known as Akzeriuth (and Anise in general)…but the story near the end got REALLY good.

The parry is so fucking good. The window is like 2 seconds, and it reduces everything (I’ve been hit by so far) to 1!

My issue at this point is how linear it feels. You get access to a lot of stuff once you advance the story, but I got the boat and I can’t go anywhere, except fighting a few new types of enemies.

So, if Tales of Hearts comes to North America, I might ACTUALLY get a DS.

But, fuck spending 900,000 Gald for 6 titles. =(

…and it’s still getting to me. Flynn must’ve made history. He’s on the BOX for the damn game and he’s a fucking NPC. Whack. :shake:

Just beat it. So the only let down about the game was the ending. Every thing else was tooooo good.

This was such BULLSHIT. Fuck free levelups and Gald, Flynn NEEDS to be DLC.

I wound up getting the controller. I’ll be getting Eternal Sonata eventually so it’ll make sense for 2 games.

I’m about 9 hours in. I doubt I’ll be able to find most of the sidequests or costumes on this playthrough, especially since there won’t be any faqs up detailing them and a lot are usually on second playthrough.

Nah, it’s pretty easy to get most of the sidequests done if you like to search the world during your free time. If you’re an RPG player, which it appears you are, these free times to roam the world should be brutally obvious to you. I pretty much have my favorite costumes for all the characters.

HOLY FUCK.

Secret Dungeon

[details=Spoiler] I was in no position to fight the secret dungeon (Labyrinth of Memories) of the game, but I walked in anyway. I started pummeling the first few bosses and I was like, yeah, maybe I can do this. Mind you I was only level 63 when I first went inside and it’s still my first playthrough. Then I run into that clear Adephagos Boss monster and it heals itself like 35555 HP if you don’t knock him out of it, which is very hard and it also changes its weakness/strength. Fuck. I still can’t get over this. If I fucking died I would’ve been SO pissed 5 hours of struggle lost. But after another 2 hours of fierce boss battles I saw the light of the end of tunnel.

Duke. So I like I used up all my items and shit and I remember that Duke’s Mystic Arte does Full Life leaving 1 damage. So i’m getting pummeled and I’m like fuck, I AM NOT ABOUT TO LOSE NOW. I throw out an All-Divide. At this point, I have no life bottles and Duke is down to like 30000 HP. Rita and Judith are KOed and I’m switching to Estelle and running for my damn life. DON’T DIE PLEASE, I scream. RUN FASTER BITCH! But then Duke basically silences Estelle and she can’t use artes. Oh no. Yuri and Estelle vs Duke. I use my remaining limit bottles and get an overdrive. I mystic arte him to like 10000, Duke overdrives me to 1 HP. I start slashing for my life. Luckily I have 6 attacks and each slash does like 2000, I stun him and I’m like PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE DON’T COUNTER ATTACK, I get the straight 6 combos and he dies. Then I see an orb that let me escape. Then I type this. Holy shit.[/details]

I’m finally getting power back and able ot play again, I’m playing on hard mode and couldn’t beat the stone boss right after you get rita. Dude whooped me like 8 times. (is there no way to skip cut scenes?) Finally I played rita as main and spammed magic and beat him. Hard isn’t as bad now, but i fear to see whats coming…

Sofar i’m loving the game, rita is my fave as of now.

Getting through Vesperia slowly (scheduling with three people isn’t always easy). Playing on Hard. Just got past the second Zagi fight (on the boat).

The game is okay, but really if I wasn’t playing multiplayer I’d have stopped a while ago. I’m playing as Yuri, my brother as Repede, and my cousin as Estelle (she wanted to play Flynn, but… well, you know; she’s probably moving on to the spear chick, unless she’s also not playable). Yuri recovers slowly; I hate that even after his fast thrust attacks he still can’t always put up his guard to prevent a rebuttal.

The wolf boss was tough (we never beat him in the demo) but we managed here after our third try. I don’t know if this is a Hard thing but he, as well as Zagi and other bosses, have this shield and prevents some attacks (the first Zagi, for instance, would shield anything that wasn’t a thrust or a Free Run attack).

Otherwise, meh. This is yet another derivative of the “male swordsman and his girl” story that every other Tales game is about, and the story has so far been rather predictable (though Yuri is pretty cool). Hoping for it to pick up. Abyss had great moments and a great main lead, though ultimately that game’s flaws added up. Hoping Vesperia does the good without all the bad.

You do get Judith (the aforementioned “spear chick”) and she’s fucking awesome.

Let’s just say, if you like MAHVEL, you’ll love her. Air combos like mad.

the wolf is killing me and i beat the demo a couple times

How does one perform air combos in this game? I tried it the same way I did with Emil at PAX but a simple up slash from Yuri won’t do it.