SO: TTEoT

[LunarWeaver]

But Tales games are devoid of strategy.

In Tales games, I can at least tell them to stop using TP at a certain point and to avoid the enemy. Tales of the Abyss and Legendia even let me precisely monitor it at all. I can also turn on and off all their abilities, and all are always at their disposal unless I want otherwise. They're also just innately smarter. In Star Ocean, everybody just pulls a Quina and does whatever the smurf they feel like. Plus, in a Tales game I can freeze the game to lock on to somebody and actually hit them, not have them move and make my character swing in place like a moron.

Any way you cut it, having to level up the AI's intelligence is a ludicrous concept. It's like having a "Glitch" stat and making the game really buggy until you put points into it and make the glitches go away. It doesn't make any sense! Why not just make it good to begin with? IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE *chokes nearest object*

Oh, that's all pish-posh anyway. Tri-Ace just can't figure out how to make a blocking animation, so they introduced Fury to take care of it for them.

The game isn't bad, I just think it does a lot of things for the sake of being annoying. Like keeping Sophia out of my party until the real plot starts 80 hours into the game. Then making her level 1 when everybody else is 5,000. It's a little thing that doesn't break the game but just stacks up. Like the map system-- it's not broken but it's not good either. All these things add up in every tri-Ace game I play and it frustrates me.

You know I'm not going to stop trolling Star Ocean topics until you admit Xenosaga is better. Ban me now and save yourself. I hope you ache from the mass hypocrisy since Xenosaga games are also flawed and also went through development hell.

[Zeromus_X]

Is it OK if I tell my allies to "Act In A Well Balanced Manner" and they run to the corner and do NOTHING!? I had fun killing Luther with Maria...

"Act in a Well-Balanced Manner" means that when either the character's HP or MP hits the danger zone, they'll back off and start acting defensively. If you set them to "Attack with All Your Might!" they'll attack and use cancel combos, etc. without regards to HP or MP.

However for some characters like Cliff, where their maximum MP is so ludicrously disproportionate to their maximum HP, they'll back off even if both their HP or MP is fully recovered. Usually this stops when you max out HP and MP on the Status Skill screen.

FYI, "Conserve Fury" means they won't use so much Fury and "Don't Use Coup de Graces!" means they won't activate any Battle Skills.

Yeah, it is annoying that Sophia/Peppita/Adray start off at their beginning levels, but it is realistic. (SPOILER)Sophia was kidnapped for all that time, Peppita was with her troupe trying to get a job before they went to Moonbase, and Adray was on an investigation before the party left Elicoor. I don't see many opportunites for fighting experience in any of those scenarios. Besides, leveling up is easy in this game.

Maybe if I can make it through the long, boring cutscenes without falling asleep I'll get back to you on that.

[Lawr]

However for some characters like Cliff, where their maximum MP is so ludicrously disproportionate to their maximum HP, they'll back off even if both their HP or MP is fully recovered. Usually this stops when you max out HP and MP on the Status Skill screen.

Yeah, thats basically what happens, but I don't think you'll need to cover your spoilers. (2003-2004 Game) =P

[Zeromus_X]

That's true, but just to be safe.

[LunarWeaver]

It's more that Sophia was standing right there. I mean, it's logical with her out of the party, but why take her out at all? All she had to do was climb into the same escape pod as Fayt and she could have been in the entire game. Same with Pepita. Same with Maria maybe landing 20 hours earlier than later. Although in the case of Maria, that probably would have ruined the excuse to have you stranded forever. Only tri-Ace would be like "Let's keep her out until the end lololol." Can you imagine FFIX having Garnet there yet not usable until you were on Disc 4? This is not the stuff a game should do to my organs.

Star Ocean does have good points, too. Like Fayt's hair is blue and he continues to run in place when you stop for a few seconds and it's funny. It also produced a lot of FaytxCliff yaoi for me to look at.

Oddly enough, I did not mind the "twist" at all. That was the main breaking point for so many, but my troubles were with the game's design and not the plot. I liked the twist, actually... >_>

Maybe if I can make it through the long, boring cutscenes without falling asleep I'll get back to you on that.

Don't you even start rubbing my noggin on this business. Episode I has slightly less time than Final Fantasy X, so if you can play one you can play the other.