JRPGs that Aren't Final Fantasy Catch-All 2.0

Completely forgot about this. Cyber Connect is not my favorite dev, but they have some smaller titles coming out that were the result of internal game jams. Self published also, as the video mentions.

Also, Game Informer's cover story is Tales of Arise. If anyone has a sub I'd be interested in a copy of the mag since my sub ended months ago.

Whelp, Blue Reflection: Second Light is getting an official Western release on Nov. 9th, which is... a lot sooner than I had anticipated.

ccesarano wrote:

Whelp, Blue Reflection: Second Light is getting an official Western release on Nov. 9th, which is... a lot sooner than I had anticipated.

That is quick! Guess I have to clear up some time for it this fall...

Have to wait for the anime to start making sense first though! It keeps flirting with explaining how it fits in with the first game!

Anyone have seven hours? Google suggested this video to me, but, uh, seven hours might be a bit too long for me.

......wasn't it just two games? And no one cares about or remembers the second?

JohnKillo wrote:

Paper Mario: Origami King. It has such a cool style to it. I know Nintendo has done this with Kirby but wow they just crushed it. Everything fits so well and nothing is glaringly off. The combat is meh to me. I like the whole combat arena with the Toads but I could go without the fights. If they went more puzzles I would like it more.

You don't really need to do it other than the forced fights.

The music though is so good and smooth. It is catchy and a little bassy at times. The writing is fantastic and punchy. They made a Another M reference in this game?

Thumbs up

You could replace Origami King with Color Splash and most of those comments would still stand. Some of the rendered real world objects are incredibly convincing, especially for a Wii U game.

mrtomaytohead wrote:
JohnKillo wrote:

Paper Mario: Origami King. It has such a cool style to it. I know Nintendo has done this with Kirby but wow they just crushed it. Everything fits so well and nothing is glaringly off. The combat is meh to me. I like the whole combat arena with the Toads but I could go without the fights. If they went more puzzles I would like it more.

You don't really need to do it other than the forced fights.

The music though is so good and smooth. It is catchy and a little bassy at times. The writing is fantastic and punchy. They made a Another M reference in this game?

Thumbs up

You could replace Origami King with Color Splash and most of those comments would still stand. Some of the rendered real world objects are incredibly convincing, especially for a Wii U game.

Hmm... I own it but never booted it up. Maybe I will take a look.

With Tales of Arise looking quite nice...Um, can anyone give me an ultra-quick and dirty summary of the series?

I've played Tales of the Abyss to completion years ago when it was one of the only 3DS games I had. I found it thoroughly "okay". Combat was pretty simple, story was tropey yet comfy. I played an hour of Symphonia on PC and I just bounced off immediately because the combat didn't feel good to me.

Does the series get much more intricate than those two? That style of real-time combat system has a lot of potential but it's been pretty repetitive and mindless from my short exposure to it. I own Tales of Berseria and a number of PS3 games (maybeone Vita game?) from cheap sale buys years ago. Is it worth me trying more in the series?

tl;dr does Tales of get harder/more engaging past Tales of the Abyss and Symphonia?

As of the PS3 era, the combat feels a lot weightier. A bit less button mashy. It’s hard for me to go back to those earlier games now even though many seem to consider Symphonia and Abyss classics.

Xillia and Berseria are considered the best of the more recent entries. They'll feel closer to what Arise plays like, but with the fairly antiquated design of the levels and world. The world and level design are what Arise is supposed to be improving to bring the series a more modern feel.

Symphonia is considered easy, but I'm not sure about Abyss.

ccesarano wrote:

......wasn't it just two games? And no one cares about or remembers the second?

The first Tales of Symphonia, originally released on GameCube, was self-contained; but there was a sequel (Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World), originally released on the Wii. The sequel was not as well-liked; I played the original and enjoyed it very much, but the reviews turned me off trying the sequel.

Presumably the "complete, unabridged timeline" simply covers those two. There was an anime adaptation of the first, but I don't think that it added any original story.

The Playstation 3 "Tales of Symphonia Chronicles" release collects HD remasters of both games.

beeporama wrote:

Presumably the "complete, unabridged timeline" simply covers those two. There was an anime adaptation of the first, but I don't think that it added any original story.

And that requires seven hours?!

Man what is up with YouTubers...

ccesarano wrote:
beeporama wrote:

Presumably the "complete, unabridged timeline" simply covers those two. There was an anime adaptation of the first, but I don't think that it added any original story.

And that requires seven hours?!

Man what is up with YouTubers...

I was hoping someone would explain it to me, honestly. The beginning of the video he covers some info not present in the games, but alluded to. Something like that.

Seven hours is epic and I don't know why it exists.

No one's curious enough?

Xillia is still my favorite. And I thought we had a Tales... Thread around here somewhere.

EDIT: Xillia thread is all I can find.

Atleier Ryza. Is there any reason to make more than two items? Should I be selling extras or worse quality stuff? I don't want to be manufacturing stuff if it doesn't help.

Stele wrote:

Xillia is still my favorite. And I thought we had a Tales... Thread around here somewhere.

EDIT: Xillia thread is all I can find.

No one is ever able to find the supposed Tales catch all. I just tried myself, to no avail.

Xillia thread shows how far we have fallen. Deeper discussion of mechanics and such is long gone around here for the most part. We're all much too busy, eh?

Go read the end of that thread. I still haven't played Xillia 2, that I was definitely going to play right after a palette cleanser. Haha.

My Tales backlog has Graces F, Xillia 2, Zestria, and Berseria.

Graces F was good too. I have Berseria in the pile as well. I just keep not buying Zestria every time it's $7.50 because I need to beat at least one other first. Eventually one of you will give me a Zestria spare copy from a bundle or something haha.

Tales of Arise demo dropping on the 18th for all systems other than PC (and Switch, since it isn't on Switch).

THIS IS NOW THE TALES CATCH ALL THREAD! BOW BEFORE ME!

Second part of Fantasian is coming out Friday, if you're one of the two people who have access to Apple Arcade:

I'm thinking I might jump in after I'm done with Trails to Azure.

Been meaning to finish part one...

I have a free trial of Apple Arcade right now. After about an hour of Fantasian… I don’t know. It’s pretty, but kind of boring?

Like all of Sakaguchi's games!

j/k

garion333 wrote:

Like all of Sakaguchi's games!

j/k

I mean, you joke, but... if there's ever a "all style, no substance" award, it's in the running alongside Tokyo RPG Factory.

False.

All style, no substance is a perfect descriptor for Tetsuya Nomura. While I'm certainly biased in favor of Sakaguchi, man did at least try some stuff with the games he made. Nomura is emotionally tone deaf and wait what thread is this?

I enjoyed the first half of Fantasian and I'm happy part two is coming while I still have my Apple Arcade trial. It's laid back and looks great and makes some clever design choices for mobile. (It's no Lost Odyssey, but what is?)

I'm not sure if it's a symptom of having too many other cool games I want to play, or there's something actually wrong under the surface...but I just can't get into Bravely Default 2. Falling off Bravely Second (these names are dumb) should have been a clue not to buy in, but I did anyway.

I really love the varied job system, a LOT. I just can't seem to get into the core brave/default mechanic though! There are other things bothering me like quirks in the UI and some odd graphical quibbles but I'm surprised how much I'm struggling to like it because it *should* be 100% my sort of game.

I'm just met with an overwhelming sense of "it's okaaay" and I can't make myself care. I'm just shy of 5 hours, should I cut my losses?

In my case I'm wondering if it's just that I played not one but two demos set in that flooded desert city. I got to the same area in the full game and sighed, "oh, this place again." Maybe I just need to push through it, but I have other games to play.

A_Unicycle wrote:

I'm not sure if it's a symptom of having too many other cool games I want to play, or there's something actually wrong under the surface...but I just can't get into Bravely Default 2. Falling off Bravely Second (these names are dumb) should have been a clue not to buy in, but I did anyway.

I really love the varied job system, a LOT. I just can't seem to get into the core brave/default mechanic though! There are other things bothering me like quirks in the UI and some odd graphical quibbles but I'm surprised how much I'm struggling to like it because it *should* be 100% my sort of game.

I'm just met with an overwhelming sense of "it's okaaay" and I can't make myself care. I'm just shy of 5 hours, should I cut my losses?

Cut for now. You can always come back with a different mindset later. I did that for Slay the Spire and Persona 3.