Tales of...

[Anonymous]

Tales of Symphonia was probably the best in my opinion. I played Legendia, but it wasn't great. As in, I didn't like the battle system or the story. But I didn't play it for too long - It was at a friend's house. And as for Tales of Phantasia, (the original Japanese version) that was... NO. Arche... NO. No intercourse for 24-pixel tall chibi characters.

 

[The Cry of Fallen Angels]

Tales of Symphonia I'd say, regardless of the crap story, it had some good characters, and more important, the battle system was awesome. Game was a bit on the easy site though, except for the collesuem challenge against Faroe and such, which I did very underleveled with Lloyd, Genis and Raine :x Yet, that was the best fight in the entire game.
But it featured variation, had neat little puzzles, and the graphics style was quite unique too.
The story still wasn't a masterpiece, more like somewhere close to the opposite if you count the voice acting too. However, it didn't take itself too seriously. Take Lloyd for example, he's not a character with a dark past, he has many obvious flaws, and yet he's enjoyable. That was agreat strenghth for ToS. The characters.

Also, the chibi characters are awesome. ToP wasn't very well playable though, yet it was nice for me to see ToS' roots.

 

[Opt7ons]

The 'Tales of' series were pretty good in my opinion. Especially the battle system. However, they kind of ruinded muitiplayer in the earlier ones by requireing silly items to be equiped. Not only that, but in ToDestiny, you could swap characters around and control other ones (Well, you sorta could when you had 5 members or more). And the battle system need to have 'Manual' as a option and not as an 'item option' (You needed a special item equiped in To Destiny to have full manual control).

 

[Strayko]

Tales of Symphonia. Only ~40 hour game that I've beaten more than 3 times.

One of the main reasons it's my favourite is the battle system. I feel that it's the best in the series thus far. The cell-shaded graphics were great, and aside from Collette, the voice acting was above average(Scott Menvell > All other male voice actors).

The storyline was also pretty good, until it started driving 'Stop discrimination!' into your skull.

:O
I completed it in 23 hours.

Didn't like it that much though.
I didn't think the story was that good... Then again, I just completed Baten Kaitos before I played this game.

 

[The Cry of Fallen Angels]

Then again, I just completed Baten Kaitos before I played this game.

I'd like to point out the following, as I tend to think I see you praising Baten Kaitos.
Baten Kaitos' story was fucking horrible. It was not "cool", the characters were utter crap (even though they were well designed outfit-wise), and people came to conclusions that were simply not logical. It was even more predictable than ToS. And I'm not even starting about the playability of the game.

Baten Kaitos looked nice, but it's content was a dissapointment. In fact, it's the only game I never finished because I seriously detested playing it any longer.

 

[Strayko]

I'd like to point out the following, as I tend to think I see you praising Baten Kaitos.
Baten Kaitos' story was fucking horrible. It was not "cool", the characters were utter crap (even though they were well designed outfit-wise), and people came to conclusions that were simply not logical. It was even more predictable than ToS. And I'm not even starting about the playability of the game.

Baten Kaitos looked nice, but it's content was a dissapointment. In fact, it's the only game I never finished because I seriously detested playing it any longer.

Not praising Baten Kaitos.
But Baten kaitos' story was stunning, with other words:
Tales of Symphonia's story couldn't match Baten Kaitos' and that's why I wasn't impressed.

But everybody's got their own opinion, and we respect that, right?
And Baten Kaitos IS a game which you like, or don't like.
I personally enjoyed it very much, more than ToS. Not saying ToS was bad, not at all. I enjoyed playing it too. :D

 

[Triddy]

I'd like to point out the following, as I tend to think I see you praising Baten Kaitos.
Baten Kaitos' story was fucking horrible. It was not "cool", the characters were utter crap (even though they were well designed outfit-wise), and people came to conclusions that were simply not logical. It was even more predictable than ToS. And I'm not even starting about the playability of the game.

Baten Kaitos looked nice, but it's content was a dissapointment. In fact, it's the only game I never finished because I seriously detested playing it any longer.

I agree with everything you just said 100%.

 

[Strayko]

I think you guys need to play it and finish it. Cause I see you didn't get the full story since you quit before it even unfolded.

You're missing out on something great. Truly.

 

[Shun Goku Satsu]

I've only played three.

1. Tales of Symphonia (10/10 By far the best one I've played. One of my favorite games of all time)
2. Tales of Phantasia (5/10 The GBA version is nothing to be appreciated)
3. Tales of Eternia (9/10 Hmm...now this is definitely something to work with)

Also, I like your sig and avatar, Strayko.

 

[The Cry of Fallen Angels]

I think you guys need to play it and finish it. Cause I see you didn't get the full story since you quit before it even unfolded.

You're missing out on something great. Truly.

Spoiler: just in case, if someone still wants to play this...

I played till they ressurected the ancient god. And I think that's near the end. And There were about 0 surprises. So what if Kalas betrayed the party, Melodia was a obviously important, as if a magnus was found you heard her voice. The emperor would obviously not be able to control a God. Kalas would surely get back to his sense when Xelha talked to him. He also was obviously a traitor, I mean, pretending to be so focused on it. He didn't want to fight the empire, or so he said, he could've escaped when Xelha and the big guy were sleeping, he's sneaky enough.

But lemme guess what happens, they find a legendary card or such, and beat malpercio, and then there's some random crap about the ocean and the whale.

Tales of Symphonia, on the other hand (keeping ontopic), was also predictable. But the major difference was; it was presented in a proper way. The characters were likeable, and had good communication. They denvelopped throughout the story. Yggdrassil did a decent enough job as a antagonist too. He fought for what he found to be right, but Lloyd and co. disagreed with his ideals. Of course, Mithos didn't always use nice methods to get his way, but that's because his goal drove him insane. His character is simply so much deeper.

 

[Dopples]

@at all the people who didn't play Legendia through:Legendia takes time to get into. It starts off boring and linear, but it starts getting VERY interesting right around the time you find out about

Spoiler

how the Nerifes Cannon is powered by the lives of the Ferines/elves. You also find out about Senel's past and why he was the only Orerines/human to live in the village with Shirley and Stella.
Since he started as a spy from Vaclav's army to capture the Merines, he snuck his way into the village. But as he lived there, waiting for the time to take Shirley away, the kindness of the villagers, and his love for Stella made him stay, until Vaclav attacked the village, supposingly killing Stella

And I liked the battle system a lot. It was a lot more direct, when you tell your spell casters to conserve TP, they ACTUALLY conserve TP, unlike in ToS. There's tiny little things about it that make it good too, like how, depending on who's in the party, the characters say different things (Like if Will is in the party with Chloe and Senel, he'll tell them to "Not go too far." or "Senel/Chloe! I need this monster off of me!) during and after battle. Also, they made the end of battle report much more uniform, and you could actually see how you got that certain amount of GRADE or what items you got.

 

[Hisuwashi]

The only one I've played is ToS but it's damn awesome, so yeah. That one.

 

[Strayko]

Spoiler: just in case, if someone still wants to play this...

I played till they ressurected the ancient god. And I think that's near the end. And There were about 0 surprises. So what if Kalas betrayed the party, Melodia was a obviously important, as if a magnus was found you heard her voice. The emperor would obviously not be able to control a God. Kalas would surely get back to his sense when Xelha talked to him. He also was obviously a traitor, I mean, pretending to be so focused on it. He didn't want to fight the empire, or so he said, he could've escaped when Xelha and the big guy were sleeping, he's sneaky enough.

But lemme guess what happens, they find a legendary card or such, and beat malpercio, and then there's some random crap about the ocean and the whale.

Tales of Symphonia, on the other hand (keeping ontopic), was also predictable. But the major difference was; it was presented in a proper way. The characters were likeable, and had good communication. They denvelopped throughout the story. Yggdrassil did a decent enough job as a antagonist too. He fought for what he found to be right, but Lloyd and co. disagreed with his ideals. Of course, Mithos didn't always use nice methods to get his way, but that's because his goal drove him insane. His character is simply so much deeper.

I personally disagree with that.
And I can tell you you missed half of the game :P
I thought it was over too but the biggest part was yet to come.

I think the characters in Baten Kaitos were worked out better than the ones in ToS, I got to know more about them.
You also missed out on all the backgrounds of the characters, cause they get unveiled 1 by 1 in the 30 hours after the part u stopped.

I really recommend you to finish it.

I agree that "the bad guy's role" in ToS was worked out better than the one in Baten Kaitos.

And again, finish the game, there's so much more to it. Really.

PS: Don't show the hidden part the cry of fallen angels wrote, if you're still playing the game.

 

[The Cry of Fallen Angels]

Well then, I'll give it a try, but if those 30 minutes don't do what you say they will, expect a rant

Also, ToS' characters didn't all have dark histories. It can be little things that have huge influence over people's personalities. They don't need a dark past to be interesting. Simply that most didn't have as much of a past as Baten Kaitos' characters. But just a single event. Yet, especially with Regal, it was easy to see how it shaped his personality. And you may know how Raine was so worried about Genis at so many times? She still feels she is the only 1 to protect her brother, as there isn't a mother for them anymore. If the writers would have written that out just a bit more, and just a bit better, it would have kicked the shit out of Lady Death.

 

[Strayko]

Well then, I'll give it a try, but if those 30 minutes don't do what you say they will, expect a rant

Also, ToS' characters didn't all have dark histories. It can be little things that have huge influence over people's personalities. They don't need a dark past to be interesting. Simply that most didn't have as much of a past as Baten Kaitos' characters. But just a single event. Yet, especially with Regal, it was easy to see how it shaped his personality. And you may know how Raine was so worried about Genis at so many times? She still feels she is the only 1 to protect her brother, as there isn't a mother for them anymore. If the writers would have written that out just a bit more, and just a bit better, it would have kicked the shit out of Lady Death.

Well, not 30 minutes, 30 hours

You'll see how everything falls together in the end.
It'll be fun. :P

 

[jdollimount]

Tales of symphonia is the bed one yet i love it to death i got it for ps2 and gamecube and both are special editions aha:lol:

 

[Namine]

Umm...Tales of Symphonia!
Tales of Phantasia was too...challenging. And you couldn't get to know the characters as much as in symphonia! Heh!

 

[Anonymous]

Symphonia was the first console RPG I've played that I didn't automatically think was crap in a pretty long time. Phantasia was a good game too, but I really couldn't get into it too much.

 

[Dopples]

I'm guessing you played the crappy GBA version Tel? They're releasing it on PSP with better graphics, and most of the dialog intact (The GBA one was heavily censored)

 

[lorddonk]

I personally disagree with that.
And I can tell you you missed half of the game :P
I thought it was over too but the biggest part was yet to come.

I think the characters in Baten Kaitos were worked out better than the ones in ToS, I got to know more about them.
You also missed out on all the backgrounds of the characters, cause they get unveiled 1 by 1 in the 30 hours after the part u stopped.

I really recommend you to finish it.

I agree that "the bad guy's role" in ToS was worked out better than the one in Baten Kaitos.

And again, finish the game, there's so much more to it. Really.

PS: Don't show the hidden part the cry of fallen angels wrote, if you're still playing the game.

My favorite game is Tales of Symphonia by far. The battle system is just awesome and it makes every battle different. Tales of Phantasia which I haven't beaten yet, is so repetive, the random battles are so frequent and the character AI is way off. They either go use all their spells and skills or use none. There's no in-between. I'm not to far into it but the plot just isn't going together well so far either.

Baten Kaitos, I LOVE that game but I'm real far but I never get around to beating it. My mouse really wanted to click that ^^ but I forced myself not to. Someday... someday... Everyone's always talking about how bad the voice acting is, I never notice it. In the beginning I remember thinking, okay, this girl sounds really weird, but now I sorta like her voice and it seems to fit the character. I dunno...