Tales of Series

[Jordan]

I've been playing Tales of Xillia-2 on the Playstation 3 and enjoying the hell out of it. I also liked the first game. I think these are really fun action rpgs. Anybody else like these games?

[Kong Wen]

Am I a bad person if I admit to owning several but never actually having played any?

[VictorViper]

If you enjoyed Xillia, definitely try to get a copy of Vesperia... for less than the cost of a black market liver. Xillia didn't keep me interested, but Vesperia hooked me for back-to-back playthroughs. The combat is super engaging, though the story is bubbly stupidness (par for the series).

[Sharecrow]

I loved Tales of Symphonia. Its sequel was boring and disappointing to me. I have Xillia 1 and it was somewhat disappointing to me, too. It's tough for me to look past the silliness. But, I am still playing it despite having over 70 hours into it so that's something (am working on the platinum and also it bugs me that there are some super-powerful monsters I haven't encountered). I wonder if Symphonia was really that much better to spoil my taste for the rest of the series or if they're all pretty much the same and I got saturated with the first one. I don't think I'll play another Tales game for a long time once I wrap up Xillia though. I enjoy them in a way but have had my fill...

[Jordan]

I do feel that Xillia and Xillia-2 get repetitive. This is not helped by the games having standard JRPG problems like palette swapped, nearly identical enemies (a major problem in both Xillia and Xillia-2, in my opinion).

I've heard Tales of Vesparia was really good. Unfortunately, I don't own a 360 and don't really feel like bothering to import.

I actually like the characters in Xillia and Xillia-2. However, by the end of Xillia I was rolling my eyes at the dumb overall plot. Xillia-2's is no better in this regard, but once again I find myself liking the characters and cheesiness in spite of the goofy main storyline.

Am I a bad person if I admit to owning several but never actually having played any?

I'm not much of a collector, but I've done this with a few games. Sometimes I buy things on an impulse and then have no motivation to play them because I'm playing other things/doing other things.

I've played Tales of Symphonia as well, but it was a long time ago.

[Kong Wen]

I'm not much of a collector, but I've done this with a few games. Sometimes I buy things on an impulse and then have no motivation to play them because I'm playing other things/doing other things.

I've played Tales of Symphonia as well, but it was a long time ago.

I definitely have every intention of playing them, as they sound like they'd be up my alley, but I wanted to snag them in advance since the earlier games in the series became quite rare after a while.

[Kiwi the Tortoise]

Ok.. here my rundown.

I played Tales of Phantasia (GBA port, originally SNES) and while it was a pretty game for it's time (pixle art with quite some detail and even reflections on water/mirrors) it had some notable balancing issues and a combat system that just wasn't very good.
I also played Tales of Eternia (PSP port, originally Ps1) which uses the same combat system with the same problems and also features sudden peaks in difficulty. Also a very dull plot with some odd twists. Not very good.

Tales of Symphonia was the only one I kinda liked so far, mostly thanks to the combat sytem and general gameplay. The story is more like a best/worst of other games incl. split world (FF5) hidden ninja villages *yawn* and the not so nice major religion *eyeroll*. The characters are fun enough, but nothing you haven't seen before (I could swear they were trying to rip off Wild Arms 2 in some places, of all games..).

Since I am just looking for a replacement after finishing Suikoden 1&2 I also looked at the Tales games and would really like to try Vesperia, alas it is 360 only in the west. The other games in the series just seem to blur into a mess for me. All look very similar generic and have outlandish names like Tales of Graces f (wtf is that title supposed to tell me).

Recommendations are welcome.

[Kong Wen]

Is Symphonia still considered the game I should start this series with?

[Jordan]

Ok.. here my rundown.

I played Tales of Phantasia (GBA port, originally SNES) and while it was a pretty game for it's time (pixle art with quite some detail and even reflections on water/mirrors) it had some notable balancing issues and a combat system that just wasn't very good.
I also played Tales of Eternia (PSP port, originally Ps1) which uses the same combat system with the same problems and also features sudden peaks in difficulty. Also a very dull plot with some odd twists. Not very good.

Tales of Symphonia was the only one I kinda liked so far, mostly thanks to the combat sytem and general gameplay. The story is more like a best/worst of other games incl. split world (FF5) hidden ninja villages *yawn* and the not so nice major religion *eyeroll*. The characters are fun enough, but nothing you haven't seen before (I could swear they were trying to rip off Wild Arms 2 in some places, of all games..).

Since I am just looking for a replacement after finishing Suikoden 1&2 I also looked at the Tales games and would really like to try Vesperia, alas it is 360 only in the west. The other games in the series just seem to blur into a mess for me. All look very similar generic and have outlandish names like Tales of Graces f (wtf is that title supposed to tell me).

Recommendations are welcome.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZoOCXdfUV4

[Kiwi the Tortoise]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZoOCXdfUV4

The explanation for Xillia is hilarious