This is the first tales of game that i have finished. I did try symphonia and beseria but i dropped them because i wanted to play other things at the time, but i did enjoy what i played of both. And i thought the game was great overall but the story and characters were lacking a little.
So to start of with the combat. It was fantastic and one of the most fun jrpg combat systems that i have used. I love the combo system this game has and all the moves you can use feel really satisfying to combo into each other. It all just felt really smooth to use and i was very impressed. The combat is the main reason i think this game is great but that isn´t to say that it doesn´t have problems that i think the next game should adress. The enemy veriaty isn´t the greatest, there are maybe 15 enemy types that get reskinned over and over which is dissapointing. I think the enemies are well designed overall but there are just too few of them. I also think some enemies and bosses have a little too much health, they can kinda drag out a little too long. I think the bosses are well designed in their mechanics and very fun to fight but are just slightly too long. It can get kinda repititive also but it isn´t that big of a problem. So, like i said the combat is amazing it just needs a few tweaks here and there to make it my favorite combat in a game.
The Voice acting is fantastic in this game, some of the best i have heard. I was impressed by basically everybody but especially Ray Chase as Alphen, he was incredibly good. And i also want to mention the music which i thought was alright, there were some good tracks but most of it was kinda forgettable imo.
The story was enjoyable i guess but it just feels lazily put together with a lot of unexplained things and not that many satisfying moments. But the biggest problem with this story is how the villains are handeled. They are all just really evil with basically no depth what so ever but that could be fine for some of the villains i guess but the problem is that every villain is poorly developed and are basically just evil just for the sake of being evil. The main villain is one of the worst i have seen and they try to give a reason for why its doing what its doing but that´s right before the final boss so by that point it´s already too late and i didn´t care at all. There were some good twists i guess but this villain problem is such a big problem that it brings down the stoy a lot, especially when the game starts questioning if killing these villains is even right but at the same time the villains literally have killed thousands and act like the most evil people in history, kinda ruins that whole part of the story. And i also think the game mishandled the final area, i was excited to explore this location the entire game but it just ends up being a long dungeon with a bunch of enemies to fight and very little story.
And then we get to the characters. I don´t think the main characters are bad (except for maybe Law) but they definitely feel underdeveloped despite how much they talk with each other. I think Alphen and Shionne are the exceptions though and i liked them both quite a bit. The relationship those two had i also thought was very well done and shows that these writers can write interesting characters that develop interesting relationships with others but it´s only those two. The other ones just feels so basic. The game just seems to think that if the characters have a lot of dialogue they are suddenly deep but a lot of that dialogue in this game is just the characters reapeting the same information over and over and over again. It also doesn´t help that about 90% of the skits are either repeat infomation from what was already stated in the main story or just don´t add anything at all to the characters. I was surprised how little the skits in this game actually added to the characters, i don´t know why i even listened to so many as i did, it just felt like a waste of time.
So overall, as a gameplay experience i loved this game a lot and it´s one of the best jrpg gameplay experiences i have ever had. At the same time though i only thought the characters and story was ok. I think game is still great however, that´s how good i thought the gameplay actually was, saves the entire game.
So to start of with the combat. It was fantastic and one of the most fun jrpg combat systems that i have used. I love the combo system this game has and all the moves you can use feel really satisfying to combo into each other. It all just felt really smooth to use and i was very impressed. The combat is the main reason i think this game is great but that isn´t to say that it doesn´t have problems that i think the next game should adress. The enemy veriaty isn´t the greatest, there are maybe 15 enemy types that get reskinned over and over which is dissapointing. I think the enemies are well designed overall but there are just too few of them. I also think some enemies and bosses have a little too much health, they can kinda drag out a little too long. I think the bosses are well designed in their mechanics and very fun to fight but are just slightly too long. It can get kinda repititive also but it isn´t that big of a problem. So, like i said the combat is amazing it just needs a few tweaks here and there to make it my favorite combat in a game.
The Voice acting is fantastic in this game, some of the best i have heard. I was impressed by basically everybody but especially Ray Chase as Alphen, he was incredibly good. And i also want to mention the music which i thought was alright, there were some good tracks but most of it was kinda forgettable imo.
The story was enjoyable i guess but it just feels lazily put together with a lot of unexplained things and not that many satisfying moments. But the biggest problem with this story is how the villains are handeled. They are all just really evil with basically no depth what so ever but that could be fine for some of the villains i guess but the problem is that every villain is poorly developed and are basically just evil just for the sake of being evil. The main villain is one of the worst i have seen and they try to give a reason for why its doing what its doing but that´s right before the final boss so by that point it´s already too late and i didn´t care at all. There were some good twists i guess but this villain problem is such a big problem that it brings down the stoy a lot, especially when the game starts questioning if killing these villains is even right but at the same time the villains literally have killed thousands and act like the most evil people in history, kinda ruins that whole part of the story. And i also think the game mishandled the final area, i was excited to explore this location the entire game but it just ends up being a long dungeon with a bunch of enemies to fight and very little story.
And then we get to the characters. I don´t think the main characters are bad (except for maybe Law) but they definitely feel underdeveloped despite how much they talk with each other. I think Alphen and Shionne are the exceptions though and i liked them both quite a bit. The relationship those two had i also thought was very well done and shows that these writers can write interesting characters that develop interesting relationships with others but it´s only those two. The other ones just feels so basic. The game just seems to think that if the characters have a lot of dialogue they are suddenly deep but a lot of that dialogue in this game is just the characters reapeting the same information over and over and over again. It also doesn´t help that about 90% of the skits are either repeat infomation from what was already stated in the main story or just don´t add anything at all to the characters. I was surprised how little the skits in this game actually added to the characters, i don´t know why i even listened to so many as i did, it just felt like a waste of time.
So overall, as a gameplay experience i loved this game a lot and it´s one of the best jrpg gameplay experiences i have ever had. At the same time though i only thought the characters and story was ok. I think game is still great however, that´s how good i thought the gameplay actually was, saves the entire game.