I know Halo just came out, and Guitar Hero, and a couple of other things, but I'm a little surprised nobody's talking about this gem. I find the game surprisingly good. The Tales team seems to be mostly divided into two groups these days, as this game appears to be more like Graces, while the next game looks a lot more like Xillia. And I adored Xillia, and not so much with Graces. I didn't have very high hopes for this game. But it's actually really good
Unlike most Tales games, I don't feel like I'm playing a teenager. I imagine if I look up character ages, i'll probably be disappointed to find them all to be 16 or some garbage, but there isn't any talk of school, or adult life, or anything along those lines. So without in depth character info you can pretty much draw your own conclusions, and consider them whatever
I also don't find much to be very cliché in the character archetypes. I mean, it's Japan, and a heavily anime influenced series, so archetypes still exist, but they're not played as cliché stereotypes. They're frequently played straight. The main character isn't bombastic, naïve, idiotic, or annoying like most would be in his situation (basically the chosen one, which itself isn't played as cliché or stereotypical as it could have been, he's chosen by circumstance, not destiny).
The child(like) and mascot(like) characters don't grate on my nerves, and much like Xillia, the characters seem more realistic than the typical stereotypes. So good on Namco and the Tales of Team to be a bit more progressive than I'd expect
And of course, they took a page out of Xillia's book on combat, which is typically insanely fast an enjoyable. And on top of that, there is no load between battle and overworld. In fact, battles take place on the world screen. There's just a pause while people jump into combat position and status info pops up, and then you just run in and tear hell. Battles are very frequently over in a matter of seconds, and without the load time, they're not annoying and barely detract from whatever progress you're making. And just like in Xillia, they're almost so much fun, it's worth grinding and enjoying the battle system. Which until Xillia I never thought I'd say about a JRPG
I regret assuming it was going to have a fluffy pastel atmosphere with forgettable characters in the vein of Graces. I opted out of getting the limited edition. And now I wish I had. The game feels like a SNES JRPG brought into the future, and done really well, with modern sensibilities. So it's like enjoying an old game, without the need of nostalgia goggles. I'm about 11 or 12 hours in, and can't get enough. Really well done
If anyone was sitting on the fence, I'd say take the plunge, or at the very least, if you haven't already, it's probably a good time to check out Xillia, since it's less than half price these days, and then if you like that game, you'll almost definitely like this one
It also helps that it's a PS3 release as well as PS4 (which I should note, I'm going off the PS4 version, so there might be load times in the PS3, but I doubt it)
Anyone else playing or interested in this game?
