Well, things seem to be looking up so far in my impromptu Tales rampage. I managed to tear my way through the last few bits of Legendia without a whole lot of bother. I still find it hilariously awesome that you can craft a special move with the express purpose of throwing around a goddess of entropy and despair.
Overall, the experience worked out rather well, though there were some hiccups along the way, and inheriting the little 'skit' cutscenes turned out to be something of a mistake, making the characters' development seem a little more dry and contrived somehow. It's a bit odd to feel like this, since I can't say I've seen anything quite like the skits outside of this series (except maybe the personal events in Star Ocean) but now that I know they're there, the absence is noticeable. But all in all, good times were had by all and I put the game away on a very high note.
After working my way through the nerdiest fear of commitment ever, and waffling on the idea of a Rune Factory game (until I realized there were some dating sim mechanics, NO), I went ahead and popped in Tales of Graces f for the Playstation 3. Holy crap, New Game Plus is awesomeness here. Thanks to inheriting titles, the Eleth Mixer (still the coolest item crafting helper this side of Atelier), and my herb bonuses (!) I wound up with a crew of badass li'l munchkins totally wrecking the monster's faces right out of the gate.
But that was just the tip of the iceberg, since I went ahead and picked the enhancements for the Mixer and to inherit all the recipes I gained. With the help of some luck, I started cranking out crafting goodies pretty quickly, I can only see things getting even better in the future. For the uninitiated, the Eleth Mixer is pretty much a magical version of Star Trek's replicator, with consumes eleth (this game's word for mana) to produce just about any non-equipment item that has been in your inventory (like the replicator, it needs a pattern to work with) at random while you're wandering around outside of battle. It can produce curatives and other consumables, but it's true strength lies in cooking meals in mid-battle (each meal has a specific effect and trigger) and producing crafting materials to use in the game's 'dualize' system. It's fairly complex but also fairly straightforward.
Basically, what I'm trying to say is that New Game plus for Tales of Graces f can start you off with what you need to commence a crafting rampage rarely seen outside of open-world RPGs, and I enjoy it so. The Harvest Has Triumphed, and Unleashed Once More.
Showing posts with label tales of legendia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tales of legendia. Show all posts
Saturday, March 4, 2017
Thursday, February 23, 2017
Piledrive the Ocean!
As could be expected, matters are well in hand for Tales of Legendia. I've handled the 'main' quest and now moved on to the 'character' questlines. The final series of boss battles proved to be just plain mean this go-around, to the point that I believe that my party wound up underleveled somehow. This wasn't that much of a problem, but thanks to the GRADE scoring system, I managed to get punished pretty good for daring to use healing items in combat, on top of being punished for succumbing to Final Boss Death Moves of Cheese. But I got to throw and body slam the embodiment of the damn ocean, so it's all good.
The character quests...well, they're far from bad, but they feel like they've been tacked on more than anything else. I've heard the reasoning. They didn't have the budget to get everything polished just right. They didn't think this was going to be primary plot material for a while. They had deadlines. Yadda yadda. But what is comes down to that the character quests are by and large a series of sidequests, with attendant sidequest characteristics. They're primarily unvoiced (outside of nice little animated cutscenes at the end of each). They take you the all the same dungeons and locations you've already harvested your way through for often flimsy reasons. While the final payoff is worth it, I can understand why a lot of player frustration comes from here.
It takes a wonderful, quirky and thoughtful PS2 RPG and reduces it to a dungeon crawl from two or even three consoles generations prior with PS2 production values. I happen to like old-school dungeon crawling, and I'm still getting my fun out of it, but I admit that it cheapens the experience somewhat. At least I get all sorts of sweet shinies to play with and eventually get to beat the snot of out a goddess of despair. The Harvest Never Rests!
The character quests...well, they're far from bad, but they feel like they've been tacked on more than anything else. I've heard the reasoning. They didn't have the budget to get everything polished just right. They didn't think this was going to be primary plot material for a while. They had deadlines. Yadda yadda. But what is comes down to that the character quests are by and large a series of sidequests, with attendant sidequest characteristics. They're primarily unvoiced (outside of nice little animated cutscenes at the end of each). They take you the all the same dungeons and locations you've already harvested your way through for often flimsy reasons. While the final payoff is worth it, I can understand why a lot of player frustration comes from here.
It takes a wonderful, quirky and thoughtful PS2 RPG and reduces it to a dungeon crawl from two or even three consoles generations prior with PS2 production values. I happen to like old-school dungeon crawling, and I'm still getting my fun out of it, but I admit that it cheapens the experience somewhat. At least I get all sorts of sweet shinies to play with and eventually get to beat the snot of out a goddess of despair. The Harvest Never Rests!
Tuesday, February 7, 2017
That Bed Is Clearly Evil, Power Slam It!
Just a quick post this time. After some minor shenanigans deciding on which game to unleash the Harvest upon, I went ahead and trotted out my copy of Tales of Legendia.
This game is a bit special to me since it helped kickstart my resurrected passion for RPGs and started the longest and most consistent string of video game victories, plus it introduced me to the wonders of the Tales series; a bit ironic since this supposedly one of the black sheep installments among fans.
Legendia is still proving to a blast to play. The graphics and sound are absolutely gorgeous, using bright, almost toy-like pre-renders and some of the most serene and outright delicate scores I've ever encountered. That's no to say there's no tunes to get your blood flowing; this game is home to In Pursuit/Pursuing Shirley, one of the funkiest pieces I've ever encountered (and the track seller, by the way), or locations that are awe-inspiring and crazy-awesome.
The combat is also still pretty fun, especially with a main character that actually tears around beat the snot out of the local freaks with martial arts. The throw mechanics are especially amusing, leading to situations where you unleash the judo on things like dragons, whales, freaky battleship tortoise things, and giant maneating canopy beds. That's not even going into the boss line-up, which includes the personification of a water-worlds entire freakin' ocean and a death goddess. Yeah, welcome to Tales. The Harvest Never Rests!
This game is a bit special to me since it helped kickstart my resurrected passion for RPGs and started the longest and most consistent string of video game victories, plus it introduced me to the wonders of the Tales series; a bit ironic since this supposedly one of the black sheep installments among fans.
Legendia is still proving to a blast to play. The graphics and sound are absolutely gorgeous, using bright, almost toy-like pre-renders and some of the most serene and outright delicate scores I've ever encountered. That's no to say there's no tunes to get your blood flowing; this game is home to In Pursuit/Pursuing Shirley, one of the funkiest pieces I've ever encountered (and the track seller, by the way), or locations that are awe-inspiring and crazy-awesome.
The combat is also still pretty fun, especially with a main character that actually tears around beat the snot out of the local freaks with martial arts. The throw mechanics are especially amusing, leading to situations where you unleash the judo on things like dragons, whales, freaky battleship tortoise things, and giant maneating canopy beds. That's not even going into the boss line-up, which includes the personification of a water-worlds entire freakin' ocean and a death goddess. Yeah, welcome to Tales. The Harvest Never Rests!
Friday, September 4, 2015
A Legendary Tale
The Interwebs are not rid of me yet, haHA!
It's been a wild ride in my personal life, but that IRL for you, eh?
In nerdy news, I managed to put Tales of Legendia on my kill list, adding another notch on the RPG belt. That was definitely a fun time. Four Stars, Would Smite Again. Hell, the ending (the actual ending, not the first one) actually got me all teary-eyed. It's been something like a decade since a game did that to me.
The combat was fun, giving me all the awesomeness of a 2D fighter while letting stats and tactics get a good role as opposed to just reflexes and fighting game skills (I suck at fighting games that aren't Soul Calibur 3), and was just fluid enough to keep me going. The story has some good twists, the characters were actually memorable (all hail Will Reynard the JRPG Muscle Wizard), the loot was plentiful, and the enemies were a hoot.
Unfortunately, the New Game Plus this game offered really didn't do much for immediate replay value, though I freely grant that later on it will be a fine catalyst for going back and thug-punching bears while Will The Awesome fries them with lightning and honking big hammer.
I was actually pleased that I found a new RPG series without having to sacrifice organs on the black market to get installments (dammit Suikoden) or live with playing less than half the series ever without controller flinging (dammit SaGa).
On a final note, there will not be a Wreckonomics post about Tales of Legendia. The cash is very plentiful, with the only notable sinks linked to the cooking system. The only real barrier is that you can only carry 15 of any given item (NG+ has options for 20 or 30 if you so choose), which is a mild inconvenience if you're like me and grab a wad of curatives when you can. I wound up having to leave full chests behind in dungeons since I had the maximum amount of Panacea Bottles very quickly, and rarely needed them to begin with.
Anyway, off to Tale of the Abyss!
It's been a wild ride in my personal life, but that IRL for you, eh?
In nerdy news, I managed to put Tales of Legendia on my kill list, adding another notch on the RPG belt. That was definitely a fun time. Four Stars, Would Smite Again. Hell, the ending (the actual ending, not the first one) actually got me all teary-eyed. It's been something like a decade since a game did that to me.
The combat was fun, giving me all the awesomeness of a 2D fighter while letting stats and tactics get a good role as opposed to just reflexes and fighting game skills (I suck at fighting games that aren't Soul Calibur 3), and was just fluid enough to keep me going. The story has some good twists, the characters were actually memorable (all hail Will Reynard the JRPG Muscle Wizard), the loot was plentiful, and the enemies were a hoot.
Unfortunately, the New Game Plus this game offered really didn't do much for immediate replay value, though I freely grant that later on it will be a fine catalyst for going back and thug-punching bears while Will The Awesome fries them with lightning and honking big hammer.
I was actually pleased that I found a new RPG series without having to sacrifice organs on the black market to get installments (dammit Suikoden) or live with playing less than half the series ever without controller flinging (dammit SaGa).
On a final note, there will not be a Wreckonomics post about Tales of Legendia. The cash is very plentiful, with the only notable sinks linked to the cooking system. The only real barrier is that you can only carry 15 of any given item (NG+ has options for 20 or 30 if you so choose), which is a mild inconvenience if you're like me and grab a wad of curatives when you can. I wound up having to leave full chests behind in dungeons since I had the maximum amount of Panacea Bottles very quickly, and rarely needed them to begin with.
Anyway, off to Tale of the Abyss!
Wednesday, August 26, 2015
Off Ramp To Punchytown
Blogging, like a targ, awakens hungry after a sleep...
I've been busy as usual, a lot of personal issues decided to explode in my face, and things are still pretty much on fire, but I'm at a point where I can take something of a breather.
I've been tearing my way across Tales of Legendia for the PS2, and everytime I'm about to get bored, things actually start shaking themselves up and I'm having a blast again. I'm currently in the final dungeon, and probably will not pick up the controller again for a while, since I know a boss rush is coming up, and I won't have three hours where I'm coherent for a good few days.
It's still a fun game, and I'm amazed I didn't hear and start on this series sooner. A more in-depth discussion will be posted later, since I'm still gushing (this is a game where you can suplex divine beings, dragons, tank-sized behemoths, but sadly not trains) and I don't want to get too crazy until after I beat the game entirely.
I also do not plan in a Wreckonomics post, simply because this game hands out cash like crazy and doesn't stint on other loot. Bring on the swag!
Wandering off for now, and remember that only in death does booty end.
I've been busy as usual, a lot of personal issues decided to explode in my face, and things are still pretty much on fire, but I'm at a point where I can take something of a breather.
I've been tearing my way across Tales of Legendia for the PS2, and everytime I'm about to get bored, things actually start shaking themselves up and I'm having a blast again. I'm currently in the final dungeon, and probably will not pick up the controller again for a while, since I know a boss rush is coming up, and I won't have three hours where I'm coherent for a good few days.
It's still a fun game, and I'm amazed I didn't hear and start on this series sooner. A more in-depth discussion will be posted later, since I'm still gushing (this is a game where you can suplex divine beings, dragons, tank-sized behemoths, but sadly not trains) and I don't want to get too crazy until after I beat the game entirely.
I also do not plan in a Wreckonomics post, simply because this game hands out cash like crazy and doesn't stint on other loot. Bring on the swag!
Wandering off for now, and remember that only in death does booty end.
Tuesday, August 4, 2015
Chasing Tales
As ever, the spambots have failed in their struggle to keep me from posting!
Since I can't do online stuff with my BorderlandsBox, I've decided to jump back into my original gaming specialty, the old-school JRPG. A month or so ago, I decided to go ahead and get into the Tales series. This foray met immediate resistance due to my insipient DAR Syndrome deciding to manifest. In English, I bought Tales from The Abyss and then a guide for Tales of Legendia by mistake. After realizing what happened, I had to choose between shilling $40-70 (!) for an Abyss guide, or just grabbing Legendia for $20-$30.
I bought Legendia. And it's a fun little JRPG. It's got lots of old time flavor: The endless random battles, the angsty hero, ridiculous stuff to use as weapons, inexplicably cute things trying to murder you, evil empires and magitek, the list goes on.
Some of the fun stuff included a real-time battle system built like an RPG take on 2-D fighting games. It's actually somewhat refreshing, and helps a lot that it's not built for the dexterous finesse fighting games usually required (the only fighting series I don't suck at is Soul Calibur). Another nice thing is that your protagonist is a martial-artist monk type instead of a swordsman. Unfortunately, while you can suplex all sorts of huge monstrosities, trains are not on the list.
Unfortunately, there are some bits I don't like, mostly characters I don't really think much of. The main love interest is your typical high-pitched bubblehead with an addiction to getting captured. It would have help immensely if she didn't sound like Pinkie Pie on helium. I've been given to understand once she becomes Calypsophiroth, she's much more enjoyable, so we'll see. The early villains really come across as lame (except for the first Big Bad), and one minor villain really come across like a crappy Pokemon villain knockoff.
The good news is that we get Will Reynard in return. He's the closest thing JRPGs will get to the muscle wizard. He's this built dude that hauls around a hammer usually reserved for industrial machinery and fries fools. He even gets to dope-slap the other characters when they're being too JRPG-ey to stand. He gets this game's awesomesauce award, and need a fic where he and Space Elf Robocop and Iron Bull tear about the multiverse in the name of manly nerds everywhere.
Well, I need to wander off, but more inanities about this game are incoming, so beware!
Since I can't do online stuff with my BorderlandsBox, I've decided to jump back into my original gaming specialty, the old-school JRPG. A month or so ago, I decided to go ahead and get into the Tales series. This foray met immediate resistance due to my insipient DAR Syndrome deciding to manifest. In English, I bought Tales from The Abyss and then a guide for Tales of Legendia by mistake. After realizing what happened, I had to choose between shilling $40-70 (!) for an Abyss guide, or just grabbing Legendia for $20-$30.
I bought Legendia. And it's a fun little JRPG. It's got lots of old time flavor: The endless random battles, the angsty hero, ridiculous stuff to use as weapons, inexplicably cute things trying to murder you, evil empires and magitek, the list goes on.
Some of the fun stuff included a real-time battle system built like an RPG take on 2-D fighting games. It's actually somewhat refreshing, and helps a lot that it's not built for the dexterous finesse fighting games usually required (the only fighting series I don't suck at is Soul Calibur). Another nice thing is that your protagonist is a martial-artist monk type instead of a swordsman. Unfortunately, while you can suplex all sorts of huge monstrosities, trains are not on the list.
Unfortunately, there are some bits I don't like, mostly characters I don't really think much of. The main love interest is your typical high-pitched bubblehead with an addiction to getting captured. It would have help immensely if she didn't sound like Pinkie Pie on helium. I've been given to understand once she becomes Calypsophiroth, she's much more enjoyable, so we'll see. The early villains really come across as lame (except for the first Big Bad), and one minor villain really come across like a crappy Pokemon villain knockoff.
The good news is that we get Will Reynard in return. He's the closest thing JRPGs will get to the muscle wizard. He's this built dude that hauls around a hammer usually reserved for industrial machinery and fries fools. He even gets to dope-slap the other characters when they're being too JRPG-ey to stand. He gets this game's awesomesauce award, and need a fic where he and Space Elf Robocop and Iron Bull tear about the multiverse in the name of manly nerds everywhere.
Well, I need to wander off, but more inanities about this game are incoming, so beware!
Monday, July 20, 2015
Rated A for Angst
HaHA! You still have not been rid of me!
I've been busily unleashing the harvest in Tales of Legendia. It's given me the chance to scratch that JRPG itch I've had going since I wound up with a HaloBox (of course, for me its more of a BorderlandsBox). The ride thus far has been pretty fun, though admittedly I can't seem to binge on it like I used to. Maybe I'm growing up.
Nah. It's probably just too much caffeine. Which is crap, since coffee for me is like dakka for orks. NEVAH ENUFF!!!
This game has brought out my bad habit of screaming advice at the screen, however. Then somebody gets dope slapped, and I am appeased. "Grow a synapse, dammit!!" *bonk* "Thank you, Will!" If that has actually happened in Star Ocean 4, preferably to that blasted fluffbrain Sarah, I would have loved that game a lot more. It took Space Elf Robocop to redeem that character line-up, I can tell you.
Anyway, what is with Japanese games and angst? I know life isn't all sunshine and rainbows and ponies. Well, maybe it is if you're a pony. But they seem to just love piling on the emo, I swear. At least I know that everybody will be mostly well-adjusted or dead by the time the game is over. Unless your name is Cloud. Damn Advent Children taking a perfectly good badass away from character growth and keeping him an emotional cripple in perpetuity. What we need for that is authentic Bulgarian Miak. Great for trolls.
Well it's time to go back to wrecking monster faces! The harvest begins anew!
I've been busily unleashing the harvest in Tales of Legendia. It's given me the chance to scratch that JRPG itch I've had going since I wound up with a HaloBox (of course, for me its more of a BorderlandsBox). The ride thus far has been pretty fun, though admittedly I can't seem to binge on it like I used to. Maybe I'm growing up.
Nah. It's probably just too much caffeine. Which is crap, since coffee for me is like dakka for orks. NEVAH ENUFF!!!
This game has brought out my bad habit of screaming advice at the screen, however. Then somebody gets dope slapped, and I am appeased. "Grow a synapse, dammit!!" *bonk* "Thank you, Will!" If that has actually happened in Star Ocean 4, preferably to that blasted fluffbrain Sarah, I would have loved that game a lot more. It took Space Elf Robocop to redeem that character line-up, I can tell you.
Anyway, what is with Japanese games and angst? I know life isn't all sunshine and rainbows and ponies. Well, maybe it is if you're a pony. But they seem to just love piling on the emo, I swear. At least I know that everybody will be mostly well-adjusted or dead by the time the game is over. Unless your name is Cloud. Damn Advent Children taking a perfectly good badass away from character growth and keeping him an emotional cripple in perpetuity. What we need for that is authentic Bulgarian Miak. Great for trolls.
Well it's time to go back to wrecking monster faces! The harvest begins anew!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)