Tales of
Running out of Q&A Titles
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| March 23rd, 2012 |
03/23- 12:00PM EST
Welcome to another episode of Q&A! It is
a bit short this week but we've got some
funny audio clips, and more! Hope you're all
still enjoying Tales of Graces F.
Let's get right to it...
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EricRPG from twitter here, hope I'm not too
late! I got caught up in alot of stuff on
Saturday, but's here are two audio
recordings I made doing impressions of
Chester with a relevant link and position
where the lines were grabbed from in Ys III
for Turbo CD
Wheels
No
worries! I'm looking forward to
hearing these crazy impressions,
and was really glad to see
someone decided to give it a
try.
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first
clip: First meeting with meeting
Chester in the Tigre/Tigray Mine. Also a
Minor is in this scene,14 seconds in
Wheels
It's
a good thing I wasn't drinking
anything when listening to this
as the ensuing laughter would
have caused me to spit all over
my computer screen...
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second
clip: An exchange with Chester at the
Ruins before getting kicked into the Volcano
around 12m 40s
At the very least it was worth a laugh.
-EricRPG
Wheels
Fantastic!
Well done sir! I'm sure this is
going to provide readers with
some good laughs.
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Where are all the
sailors?
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Hey Wheels
Before I get into the main reason for my
email, I thought I would mention that I have
just finished listening to your Shenmue episode
of the RPG Backtrack. I thought you
may find it amusing/horrifying to learn that
I have completed the first game no less that
five times, and the second one three
times. For the longest time they were
my "comfort blanket" games - those titles I
returned to whenever I needed to be cheered
up. I think it is a bit of a shame
that you didn't have anyone on the Backtrack
who actually liked the game, but having said
that I can't honestly say I disagree with
any of the issues raised on the
podcast. The games haven't exactly
aged gracefully, but having sunk so much
time into them I can't help feeling gypped
that I never got to find out how Yu Suzuki
intended the story to end.
Wheels
Sorry
we were so harsh! They tried to
get someone who was a fan of the
series on the show, but I guess
whoever it was couldn't make it.
To be fair there were a few good
things we did point out,
including the quality of the
combat and the quality of
elements of the story (when it
gets to them). Had the series
just compressed the story down
to a more manageable length
(i.e. tell the whole story in
one to three games) things might
have turned out better. As much
as I disliked the series, I'm
hoping that you fans get the
ending to the series you've been
waiting for!
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Anyway, onto the main reason for sending
this email - Tales of Graces f.
My copy arrived fresh from Canada on
Saturday, but I didn't get to into it until
Sunday due to Mass Effect 3. I am not
very far into the game - a short way into
the second chapter, but from what I've seen
so far I like the battle system and think
the graphics look really good, despite it
being an upscaled Wii game. Some of
the plot details so far have been a bit
cliched to put it mildly (the mysterious
girl with anmesia and magical powers - good
grief) and right now I don't like Asbel as
much as Luke von Fabre or Yuri Lowell, but
that could change over time. What are
your thoughts on the game so far, and also
did you mention this particular version of
the battle system has been used before?
Wheels
Well,
this particular version of the
battle system is brand new,
though it is an evolution of the
battle system used in games like
Tales of Destiny
PS2 and Tales
of Hearts that we never
got translations of. The battle
system nixes the outdated TP
stat, making combat faster paced
and more interesting, since
regular battles no longer
revolve around preserving TP for
more difficult encounters. I'd
love to see more action based
RPGs use this model.
Now then, at first glance I
would have agreed with you about
the story. However, I just feel
like the characters end up being
so well written and entertaining
that eventually the
clichés hardly seem to
matter. I expected this game to
be a case of gameplay over
story, but so far I've found
both to be fantastic. So, stick
with it! I don't think Asbel is
as loveable as Luke and Yuri
are, but he's still quite good.
Stick with the game and I think
you'll be loving the cast soon
enough!
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Next up, I have been getting back into
playing RPG's on the PSP. My current
job involves a four hour commute so I need
something to while away the hours, and it is
the perfect time to pick up some of the
classics from the back catalog.
Despite not being very adept at Tactical
RPG's, I have just picked up Valkyria
Chronicles II, Jeanne D'Arc and
Tactics
Ogre: Let Us Cling Together.
I have started with VCII,
and I am loving it so far, though I hear the
immaturity of some of the characters can
start to grate compared to the more serious
tone of the PS3 original. I have some
concerns that I will be able to get into Tactics Ogre
given the size of the manual and my past
experience with Final Fantasy Tactics, but
I really like the fact that you can return
to certain points in time in a similar
fashion to Radiant Historia, and also
rewind battles up to 50 turns. These
functions should prove immensely helpful to
a TRPG newbie such as myself.
Wheels
Valkyria
Chronicles II was a
great choice to start with for
someone not all that adept at
Tactical RPGs. It's a bit easier
to get into (like the Shining
Force series was back
in the day), while not being
overly simple. I don't care much
for the story, but it is easy to
skip it and just focus on the
gameplay. How are you enjoying
the story?
Jeanne D'Arc I've
yet to play, though I've heard
fantastic things about it. I'd
like to know what you think of
it!
You will likely find
Tactics Ogre to be a
much tougher game to get into
than VCII. It's a
brilliant game, with multiple
story paths, but no doubt it is
a lot more complex than VCII.
My advise would be to take it
slow, be very careful about the
abilities you learn for
characters, and use plenty of
archers. This is the best and
most accessible version of the
game, so if you play it
carefully you should be able to
have a lot of fun with it,
especially given you level
classes instead of individual
characters.
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Finally I want to say just what a godsend
PSN is - at this stage in the game XSEED and
Atlus would never consider releasing games
like Trails
in the Sky and Persona 2
as physical products in Europe, yet they are
available as digital downloads on the
PlayStation Network. Europe seems
incredibly blessed right at the moment, with
things such as this and getting all three of
the Operation Rainfall games many months
ahead of the US.
Wheels
There's
no doubt PSN has been one of the
best digital market places for
niche games. The wealth of
content there is fantastic,
including many good PSN classics
(most from Square-Enix). Europe
seems to be becoming a really
good market for niche games, and
there were actually physical
versions for those games in
Europe (at least there was for Trails
in the Sky). Given the
precedent set by the Operation
Rainfall games and others,
there's no doubt that Europe is
no longer a void for the niche
games.
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That's all I have to say this time, apart
from "Do you know where I can find sailors?"
Cheers!
Wibblefish
Wheels
Haha,
that is a perfect way to end it!
Glad to hear from a Shenmue fan,
I hope to hear from you again!
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Arch-Duke of Content (Part
1)
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Mr Hell on Wheels! Shall we?
Wheels
We shall! I'm going to split this
between two weeks however, as I'm a
bit short on time this week.
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Okay, this 3DS thing feels more substantial
than the DS Lite, at least in terms of
thickness and the shoulder buttons. I
have to say the thing's amazingly finicky
cartridge slot isn't making me happy
though. Have we regressed back to the
days of the NES? You remember, I'm
sure, how blowing into the cartridge seemed
to help register that the system did indeed
have a game inside. This 3DS thing is
alarmingly similar.
Wheels
I think I have seen a few instances
where the 3DS was finicky. I think
it was all with DS games, and I'm
not so sure blowing on the cartridge
actually did anything, but it
certainly brought back some bad
memories! There's no way its as bad
as the NES however, do you recall
how awful that could get? I remember
renting a Mega Man game in
decent condition and having to blow
on the cartridge a bunch of times
just to get it to work. They really
needed to get that better
top-loading NES out much quicker
than they did.
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The story of me playing Tengai Makyou
IV was a fairly expensive
one. Not for the game itself, which is
relentlessly cheap by any means you might
seek to acquire it. The problem comes
when switching between discs, because unlike
many others this one doesn't have a save
point there. The result is that if
you're using, say, an Action Replay Plus to
make your Saturn play imports, you're out of
luck. I ended up mailing my Saturn off
to get a mod switch installed. Said
thing is a mighty handy device, but a little
beyond the potential ability of most to
install without paying some money. In
Tengai
Makyou's case it enabled the game
to do something I wish more multi-disc games
would: by swapping the discs you can go back
to areas now passed by the story.
Wheels
I had actually considering doing the
same thing, though it was for more
nefarious reasons. Thankfully I
finally got a copy of Panzer
Dragoon Saga and that kept
me in line. More proof that region
locks are really awful! Based on
your previous Tengai
Makyou stories I'm guessing
it was worth the trouble. I also
agree on your main disc swapping
point. Games like Final
Fantasy VII where they have
the same world assets on every disc
seem like a waste of space. Imagine
how much more they could have done
if they hadn't wasted space like
that!
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As for actually playing it, there's a fair
amount of kanji to surmount, but the fact
that every line of the story is voice acted
may be helpful. Combat won't be a
problem - you can see the enemies, and if
you've ever picked up a turn-based battle
system some experimentation will clue you in
on what to do. All so you can
participate in a showdown at the OK Corral
and face off against Madame Appetit, the
fiendish pig-woman forcibly fattening
everyone in Arizona, of course!
Wheels
Sounds like an interesting game to
play, but as I don't know if I want
to get my Saturn modded, I'll have
to skip it for now. Perhaps there
will be a remake or port at some
point?
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What do you know about Front Mission?
Getting my PS2 to play imports is a nasty
job, but I'm thinking about taking the
second game out for a spin soon. The
third game is supposedly quite good also,
but that'll be easy to play.
Wheels
That is the one Square Enix
franchise I've never really dug
into. I'm not sure why, given my
love of Tactical RPGs. I did play
the recent action game in the
franchise, which wasn't very good. I
also have a copy of Front
Mission 4 lying around, I
guess its time to actually play it?
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So not long ago I played Devil Survivor
2. It was my introduction to
the voluminous Megami Tensei world, and I
enjoyed it immensely for quite awhile.
The characters were interesting, the battles
fast and somewhat demanding of genuine
thought, the scenario distinct, and the
aesthetics arresting. I stayed more
interested than aggravated until the seventh
day, at which point the really
nasty battles started to appear. I
spent a few hours dealing with a joker who
only got faster as I took down his allies on
the field and automatically revived any of
his team I managed to slay at full strength,
then got onto the eighth day, whereupon I
discovered that the neutral course
apparently takes me into the meanest final
boss of the game. Sorry, but I just
don't enjoy a game that has kept everything
in a single phase before this suddenly
making the final battle a three-phase ordeal
which expects me to pull out a victory
without any replenishment between the
phases, especially when the true final boss
is just a jerk with infinite range and an
attack that doesn't even go into the battle
screen before ripping a team apart.
Probably once I've forgotten some of this
experience I'll try another in the series,
but it won't be soon - the anger is still
too fresh.
Wheels
Well, the series is known for having
some brutally difficult bosses at
times, but that just sounds
excessive. Persona 3 had a
particularly tough final boss with
something like twelve phases, but
that may have only been crazy due to
playing the game on hard. I wouldn't
let this sour you on the series
however. Most of the games, while
having difficult encounters, are
much more balanced. Perhaps you
should give the original Devil
Survivor and Strange
Journey a try?
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What does it say that I liked Tales of
Phantasia on GBA enough to finish
just about everything in the game (meaning I
racked up over 70 hours on the thing) and
ripped Dhaos apart without much trouble due
to almost never running from fights?
Also, that's my sole experience with a Tales
game.
JuMeSyn
Wheels
As you know I despise that game, but
given how much you dug into it, I
think you should give some other
entries in the series a try. Since
you are comfortable with importing
games, I'd highly recommend giving Tales
of Hearts a try. It has a
more modern and fast paced
implementation of the classic 2D Tales
combat, and
is quite cheap if you get the CG
movie version. I'm not sure if
you'll like the 3D based games as
much, but for those I would start
with Tales of the Abyss
now that you can play it on that
3DS.
In case you were wondering I've
split this letter up between two
weeks, so...
TO BE
CONTINUED...
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That's it for this week!
Next week we've got more from the King of
Content and lots of other great content!
-Wheels
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