Tales of symphonia

[Shashakiro]

Re: Tales of symphonia

i played abyss and i admit their characters are not 100% cliche but the story doesn't hold any water compared to others, the characters are my favorite thing of it, but every other part is just ok in my opinion.

TotA has the best storyline of any game I've ever played, and I have no idea how it "doesn't hold water to others", but you're entitled to your opinion.

ohhh yes you played them.... you played so many final fantasy games that you can judge the whole franchise... no i mean the whole company.

I've played four, although admittedly I've only actually finished FFX. I'm sure Squeek has played more than just one. Four is more than enough to get a good sense, I think.

By the way, I'm not biased against Square--for example, I personally think that the Kingdom Hearts series is amazing and one of the best non-RPG (I absolutely do not consider it an RPG), non-music game games I've ever played. But for the popularity it has, the FF series isn't nearly as good as it seems it ought to be IMO--too much emphasis on flashy/realistic graphics, and not enough on fun and engaging gameplay.

Also, as Squeek said, Raine (and Genis) will, at rare times, go up and attack the enemy with every single strategy option (even L-Range Magic) except for Hold Position. If I was super srs about a battle I could simply keep her on that setting and manually input all her healing spells, but eh.

[zidart]

Re: Tales of symphonia

No, I haven't played all of them. I've said that so many times now.

I played one and that one game convinced me not to play the others because it was really, really bad. My Square bias comes from not liking any of the games I've played from them (except Super Mario RPG). It's as simple as that.

And I just remembered that I've played two Final Fantasy games actually. Crystal Chronicles. Which was HORRIBLE.

First impressions are lasting. I can't remember ever playing a sequel to a game that I didn't like. Why would anyone want to do that?

I didn't like Metal Gear Solid. I didn't buy MGS2 or MGS3.
I didn't like Resident Evil 0. I didn't play Resident Evil 4 (despite owning it).
I didn't like Animal Crossing. I won't be buying Animal Crossing Wii.
I didn't like Pikmin. I didn't buy Pikmin 2 and I probably won't buy Pikmin 3 unless they fix what I hated about the first two.

See that last line? Fixing what I don't like? Final Fantasy never did that. I realized after playing Symphonia and Baten Kaitos that most turn-based systems are boring. I was excited to hear Final Fantasy 12 would have a real-time battle system, but that was a lie. It was just a horrible attempt at making a real-time battle system. I don't have a PS3 or a 360 so I'm not even worrying about FF13, but let's hope they can make a working battle system.

Also, I state my opinions this way. That's just what I do. It's up to you to realize when I'm speaking with facts and when I'm speaking with opinions.

crystal chronicles WAS NOT developed by square-enix.

woow you do realize that most of those sequels actually changed the gameplay? (except pikmin and animal crossing)

please understand it already, try to LEARN how to do a written opinion is a basic skill you learn in English 4, you mention everything as if its a fact, if you write like that you are only going lower than trolls.

again the turn based systems, i understand some people might not like them but that doesn't mean they are completely broken, horrible or don't work at all...

well the thing i have with abyss' story is that i was expecting a whole lot more plot twists like Symphonia had, sure it was ok i enjoyed it, is one of my favorite games ever (again can't decide between this and symphonia) and it has Jade on it XD, but i just expected a whole lot more of the story-line,i think is not bad but is not great but again the characters make up for it.

[Shashakiro]

Re: Tales of symphonia

Plot twists are a double-edged sword.

SO3 is pretty widely recognized (as far as I've seen) for having one of the most painfully terrible, story-ruining plot twists in all of gaming.

[zidart]

Re: Tales of symphonia

Plot twists are a double-edged sword.

SO3 is pretty widely recognized for having one of the most painfully terrible, story-ruining plot twists in all of gaming.

well, i meant the good type of plot twists, like the ones in FF games, other tales of games, baten kaitos, phoenix wright, metal gear etc etc etc.

i do understand there's bad plot twists but i was expecting the good ones XD

[tsugomaru]

Re: Tales of symphonia

Unless they added plot twists to the FF games after FFVI, I haven't seen one.

EDIT: Squeek, I can't argue with you about the stories of any Tales game yet because I have yet to play them, but the same goes for you and most Final Fantasy games. You don't know enough about the stories or characters to make generalizations based on one other game.

~Tsugomaru

[zidart]

Re: Tales of symphonia

Unless they added plot twists to the FF games after FFVI, I haven't seen one.

~Tsugomaru

they have, and FF III,IV and VI had some suprises to keep you glued to the story.

[tsugomaru]

Re: Tales of symphonia

I've played FFI-VI and to be honest, IV and VI both had decent stories. The rest were simple and the only way I can really appreciate the other 4 games is if I compared them to games during their time.

Stories without plot twists aren't necessarily bad and in fact, they can be quite good sometimes.

And no, there are no plot twists. Just wacky plot-hole filled explanations for some of the wackier moments of the story.

~Tsugomaru

[Squeek]

Re: Tales of symphonia

crystal chronicles WAS NOT developed by square-enix.

Says Square-Enix on the box. I know because I stupidly bought the game. There's this cute little caption in the bottom left corner on the back that reads "Developed by Square-Enix Co. Ltd. (c) 2003, 2004"

woow you do realize that most of those sequels actually changed the gameplay? (except pikmin and animal crossing)

I like how "most" ends up being 2/4, which isn't "most".

Metal Gear Solid didn't change at all. I've seen enough of the sequels to understand this.
Resident Evil 4 fixed everything that was wrong with the series and I intend to play it someday but just remembering how horrible Resident Evil 0 was makes me not want to. I did buy Umbrella Chronicles as you probably noticed from the Wii thread. Didn't finish that, but I did enjoy that presentation of the game much more than the standard Resident Evil gameplay.

please understand it already, try to LEARN how to do a written opinion is a basic skill you learn in English 4, you mention everything as if its a fact, if you write like that you are only going lower than trolls.

It is my opinion that what you think 4th grade English taught me is incorrect. It is my opinion that saying "it is my opinion" before every sentence with my opinions in them is stupid. It is my opinion that I should leave it up to the reader to distinguish between when I am stating my opinions versus when I am citing factual evidence.

"Halo sucks" carries more weight than "It is my opinion that Halo is a bad video game." It's obvious that it's just my opinion that Halo sucks because I am not supreme dictator of what video games are good and what video games are not good. If anyone is, it's the compilation of all video game media, who nearly unanimously say Halo is a fantastic game.

again the turn based systems, i understand some people might not like them but that doesn't mean they are completely broken, horrible or don't work at all...

It's funny that the only Final Fantasy game I played was X, because that was one of the only ones with a normal turn-based system. I absolutely abhor the Active Time Battle System, which is the reason I never got very far in Chrono Trigger.

As for turn-based battles, I just really don't find them realistic. They're incredibly slow-paced and make the game drag on for hours more than it would if it were real-time. The longest battle in Tales of Symphonia or Abyss took me half an hour in real-time. The longest battle in Baten Kaitos took me nearly four hours to beat. Seriously. FOUR HOURS. I'm glad I didn't lose at any point in the match lest I need to restart that entire thing. However, the battle system in Baten Kaitos was fun and I never fell asleep mashing A to get Player 1, Attack, Target, Player 2, Attack, Target, Player 3, Attack, Target, Player 4, Attack, Target, Accept, End Turn.

If I'm ever super, super bored I will play Final Fantasy VI. But looking at my RPG list for SNES that I still haven't played, I still have Secret of Mana, Earthbound, and Tales of Phantasia to play. Yes, believe it or not, I haven't played Tales of Phantasia. Well, that's not exactly true. I played about an hour of it before the game crashed. I never bothered to get an updated version and I refuse to get the GBA version as that ruined the game.

[Shashakiro]

Re: Tales of symphonia

squeek: I thought you approved of disgaea? that has 100% turn-based battles

also if Nebilim on Unknown takes you less than a full hour or two you have spent too much time stat leveling, but I assume you never tried that stupid battle. even at max level you can't damage her worth ****.

[Squeek]

Re: Tales of symphonia

squeek: I thought you approved of disgaea? that has 100% turn-based battles

also if Nebilim on Unknown takes you less than a full hour or two you have spent too much time stat leveling, but I assume you never tried that stupid battle. even at max level you can't damage her worth ****.

I beat it.

It wasn't hard.

I do approve of Disgaea, because even though it was turn-based, it had a real story. And you can't help but have turn-based combat in SRPGs.

[MrRubix]

Re: Tales of symphonia

Can someone explain to me in their own words what makes this game so great? What do you like about the battles? Graphics? Story? Gameplay? Sidequests? Development? Music? Other bells and whistles?

[Shashakiro]

Re: Tales of symphonia

I beat it.

It wasn't hard.

Did you carry over Cores in the playthrough you beat it in? Because when I tried it with my max-level characters (without carried-over cores, though, this was only my second playthrough), they were doing less than 100 damage a hit, and there's no way you can take off over a million HP in less than an hour at that rate, especially with the plethora of dodging you're required to do.

Rubix: I wouldn't attempt to describe why I like Symphonia in terms of "this aspect is good, and so is this, and so is this", because that's not why I love it (although all those things are solid at least in both IMO)...hard to explain without typing up several paragraphs about it >_>

[COTMFreak]

Re: Tales of symphonia

Lol cool debates.

I'm gonna sit that one out and say that my party consisted of Lloyd, Kratos (Collette), Raine, and Genis. And I was usually controlling either Kratos or Collette.

In Tales of the Abyss I mostly used Luke, Tear, Anise, and Jade. I usually used Luke, but after the point were creating FOF were a lot easier, I used Jade. I swear, Tales of the Abyss made controller the magic caster a lot of fun.

Also: Level 75 and Hard mode equals the most fun I had on a final boss ever. I still have yet to clear Unknown mode. ;_;

[Shashakiro]

Re: Tales of symphonia

Unknown in TotA is a complete waste of time unless you use 10x EXP. On 1x you will never do more than 1 damage to any enemy and the first boss will take DAYS (literally).

I find it unfortunate that the higher difficulties raise the Defense stat--I'd have LOVED it if they just raised HP and damage output of all enemies, a la ToS. Raising the Defense stat makes it impossible for Unknown to be fun unless you use 10x, whereas without that it would be an insanely badass challenge.

[zidart]

Re: Tales of symphonia

I've played FFI-VI and to be honest, IV and VI both had decent stories. The rest were simple and the only way I can really appreciate the other 4 games is if I compared them to games during their time.

Stories without plot twists aren't necessarily bad and in fact, they can be quite good sometimes.

And no, there are no plot twists. Just wacky plot-hole filled explanations for some of the wackier moments of the story.

~Tsugomaru

true but after playing ToS i was expecting something similar, but again i don't think the story of the game is bad, the characters surely make up for it.

and i do agree that those stories are great because they have big suprises here and there that make them interesting.

squeek don't waste your time with VI is obvious you will keep your mind closed and not even like it (example RE4), and doing that attack sequence is not what turn-based RPGs are all about, strategy is a huge thing of it as well.

like i said before i understand how can someone not like turn-based combat but that doesn't exactly make it bad, worthless and in need to be fixed.