The greatest games - A Personal list of Neocracker~

[Ultima Shadow]

I just don't see it, while the Tales of series certainly have some exceptions to the rule I feel overall the franchise is a mediocre series that dips all too often into both the Big Book or RPG cliches and Big Book of Anime cliches which largely leaves me feeling every game I've played as being a "been there, done that" kind of feel.

I can agree with cliches being used often. However... they almost always have an unusual take on these cliches one way or another, or they are simply better done than cliches of the same categories in other games. The characters in the Tales of games usually have very well-defined personalities that separate them from the more flat and overly generic counterparts you see in a whole lot of actually mediocre RPGs out there.

Asbel from Graces, for example, fits into just as many typical "hero cliches" as... say, Edge from SO4. Yet at the same time, he is quite possibly the only main character of his kind that I actually like a lot. The game doesn't try to blow his goodie two-shoes ways out of propotions, and the other characters can see his ideals as a burden at times, rather than blindly clinging to him like he's some kind of messiah. There are even parts that makes fun of him for being a hero cliche. Yet he has more depth and better reason for ideals than pretty much all other MC's of his kind.

He uses a sword, fights for justice and stuff, wants to protect everyone and all that crap... all those things you've seen before in every RPG ever, yet he still manages to stay different from those typical RPG heroes. And perhaps even more importantly, he's set on his naive ideals to the point where he can actually come to a mutual conclusion with the villain(s) rather than "destroying the source of evil" - which is something fresh that you really don't see much in other RPGs.

And when it comes to main villains, the FF series uses far more cliches. The Tales of series uses many cliches, but they use them well.

...so I absolutely disagree with the "been there done that" feel. Especially when compared to so many half-decent RPGs.

While Tales of Symphonia and Tales of the Abyss are certainly high marks, its hard to say the same thing about the rest of the franchise who often gets more publicity when Namco-Bandai decided not to release the newest entry outside of Japan. Honestly, I just don't feel the franchise has what it takes to push the medium like FF, DQ, and other fan favorite JRPGs have. Hell, the Tales franchise has not even had the real clout to seriously take over the JRPG market this generation after Square-Enix practically handed this generation over to them by releasing what many fans consider the weakest entries in some of their flagship franchises, having others end up as a no show, and even alienated others by jumping genre. Even with all the hate the recent FF titles get and the lavish praise thrown on the Tales games, FFXIII has out-sold every Tales of game this generation combined...

Tales of Vesperia and Tales of Graces, while not quite as great as Symphonia and Abyss, are still really good games too. And sales are totally irrelevant to the subject. Sales does not equal quality.

...and after reading your second post with the clarification: "taking the throne" and "leading the genre to a new future" are not really relevant to the quality of the series either. A game doesn't have to be revolutionary to be great.

Its a fun series which is why I called it junk food cause people love and often crave junk food, but in its current state I don't feel the Tales of franchise will ever reach the same clout as some series have.

So tell me, what exactly separates a fun junkfood game from a fun non-junkfood game to you?


Comparing Tales of to FF, I gotta say that on a whole:

Tales of has better character design.

Tales of has far superior gameplay.

FF has better music.

FF has better storylines.

...and to me, the first two both outweight the later two.

Also, not trying to trout-talk FF. I love the FF games. But if you ask me, the Tales of main series still has better titles than the FF main series.