2010-01-06, 12:57 PM
I ran into a glitch a bit back. It's near the end of the game, where there's an "invisible" wall. It's noticeably wavy, as if it were made of water, etc. You're supposed to walk into it, and then "aaarghh, my head hurts" screen goes white. It was supposed to load a cut scene, but it crashed my Wii and just stayed white so I had to force my Wii off. I only lost about 10 minutes of data, and five of that was fighting an easy miniboss thank God. It worked the second try.
Otherwise, I think I had one more glitch once where everyone in my party kept DODGEing. AUGH it was so annoying because that's all they would do, and dodging uses CC...
Anyways, so far, my opinion is that it's a great Tales game. I don't think the story is as good as Symphonia. I really liked the story in that, minus the corniness. And then there's the typical Tales "sympathise with the bad guy" theme. Airship could have been better. You don't get to fly it. You just select the location off a list from the world map.
The skill system is really awesome. In total, you get 9~12 "A" skills, 3 for each link. CC1 -> CC2 -> CC3 -> CC4. CC1 is your basic first swing that you can directionalise. CC2~CC4 are all skills that take CC (Chain Combo points) to use and deal more damage and are really flashy and awesome. There's Neutral, Up/Down, Left, and Right. Yeah, instead of Forwards/Backwards being linked together in the skill menu, it's Up/Down on the Wii Mote, and Left and Right are their own directions.
The Title System is really confusing. You get a crap load of them (100+). Each title has 5 levels. You gain SP from battles to master the skills they provide; and by skills, it ranges from "A" skills, to "B" skills, to passive stat bonuses, and other stuff that I can't possibly read. What's particularly interesting is that you learn your skills from these titles. Get X number of SP (hundreds to thousands, usually in the hundreds until the last level) to learn the skill. If you don't already have the skill, next to it in the description will say "New Skill" or whatever. If you do already have the skill, it will tell you the bonus the title provides for "relearning" the skill. i.e. Damage +5%, Accuracy +15%, Cast Time etc. Bonuses from Titles are kept as passive when you learn them. Mastering a title doubles the special effect the title gives or something like that, but that bonus is only in effect when the title is worn, so it's stupid. Don't master titles unless you need it for another title is what I'm getting from this game.
So far, my favourite characters in terms of personally playing as are Asbel > Hubert > Pascal > Sophie > Cheria > Malek.
As far as personality Cheria > Pascal > Sophie > Asbel > Hubert > Malek.
I just don't like Malek. He has some really stupid flashy "A" attacks that are slow to finish, and otherwise his strength is in his massive spell arsenal. Ice Spine, and the other Ice skills are pretty grande though.
Cheria is still great, I think. She has area of effect Healing magic, and Light Magic. (Divine Saber is awesome, and Flash Tear is just one of my favourite spells ever.) Her "A" Skills aren't much to talk about since they start up a bit slow but there's some nifty stuff in there.
Sophie is pretty cool. I'm sure she's by far the fastest character. She can dodge like no body's business. She also has Single Target Healing spells, so she's important if you want someone healed fast. She has a few "B" Skill attacks, but I only use two since I find the other ones not very useful.
Pascal is interesting. Her spells almost always require her to be point-blank. They're area of effect, but the spell is either centered on or directly in front of her. Her "A" Skills are pretty awesome though, blasting everything away with ridiculous range. Coliseum with her is major fun, but she can be a bit slow.
Hubert is a pimp. GUNS. SCARLET is awesome. His "A" skills are pretty damn flashy and strong, and GUNS. DAMN SON. Also, for some reason he knows Healing Wind and Antidote or some other weak recovery spell. Turn them off if you have other healers, he just wastes time casting it slowly to heal very little.
Asbel is also a pimp. That is all.
It's a fairly balanced game, and I think any party would work except ones without Cheria and Sophie; i.e. lolHubert casting his lolHealing Wind to lolheal everyone.
In terms of difficulty... Anything with extreme range will rape you a while. Specifically, Archers. Late in the game there's these monsters that cast a Super Defense skill on themselves. They glow red, take 1 damage from everything, and don't flinch. You need to use a Light(ning) based spell on them to break it, luckily Asbel learns those. Otherwise, they do like 500+ damage a hit, cast lots of magic, and I only had 2000 HP around that point.
Otherwise, I think I had one more glitch once where everyone in my party kept DODGEing. AUGH it was so annoying because that's all they would do, and dodging uses CC...
Anyways, so far, my opinion is that it's a great Tales game. I don't think the story is as good as Symphonia. I really liked the story in that, minus the corniness. And then there's the typical Tales "sympathise with the bad guy" theme. Airship could have been better. You don't get to fly it. You just select the location off a list from the world map.
The skill system is really awesome. In total, you get 9~12 "A" skills, 3 for each link. CC1 -> CC2 -> CC3 -> CC4. CC1 is your basic first swing that you can directionalise. CC2~CC4 are all skills that take CC (Chain Combo points) to use and deal more damage and are really flashy and awesome. There's Neutral, Up/Down, Left, and Right. Yeah, instead of Forwards/Backwards being linked together in the skill menu, it's Up/Down on the Wii Mote, and Left and Right are their own directions.
The Title System is really confusing. You get a crap load of them (100+). Each title has 5 levels. You gain SP from battles to master the skills they provide; and by skills, it ranges from "A" skills, to "B" skills, to passive stat bonuses, and other stuff that I can't possibly read. What's particularly interesting is that you learn your skills from these titles. Get X number of SP (hundreds to thousands, usually in the hundreds until the last level) to learn the skill. If you don't already have the skill, next to it in the description will say "New Skill" or whatever. If you do already have the skill, it will tell you the bonus the title provides for "relearning" the skill. i.e. Damage +5%, Accuracy +15%, Cast Time etc. Bonuses from Titles are kept as passive when you learn them. Mastering a title doubles the special effect the title gives or something like that, but that bonus is only in effect when the title is worn, so it's stupid. Don't master titles unless you need it for another title is what I'm getting from this game.
So far, my favourite characters in terms of personally playing as are Asbel > Hubert > Pascal > Sophie > Cheria > Malek.
As far as personality Cheria > Pascal > Sophie > Asbel > Hubert > Malek.
I just don't like Malek. He has some really stupid flashy "A" attacks that are slow to finish, and otherwise his strength is in his massive spell arsenal. Ice Spine, and the other Ice skills are pretty grande though.
Cheria is still great, I think. She has area of effect Healing magic, and Light Magic. (Divine Saber is awesome, and Flash Tear is just one of my favourite spells ever.) Her "A" Skills aren't much to talk about since they start up a bit slow but there's some nifty stuff in there.
Sophie is pretty cool. I'm sure she's by far the fastest character. She can dodge like no body's business. She also has Single Target Healing spells, so she's important if you want someone healed fast. She has a few "B" Skill attacks, but I only use two since I find the other ones not very useful.
Pascal is interesting. Her spells almost always require her to be point-blank. They're area of effect, but the spell is either centered on or directly in front of her. Her "A" Skills are pretty awesome though, blasting everything away with ridiculous range. Coliseum with her is major fun, but she can be a bit slow.
Hubert is a pimp. GUNS. SCARLET is awesome. His "A" skills are pretty damn flashy and strong, and GUNS. DAMN SON. Also, for some reason he knows Healing Wind and Antidote or some other weak recovery spell. Turn them off if you have other healers, he just wastes time casting it slowly to heal very little.
Asbel is also a pimp. That is all.
It's a fairly balanced game, and I think any party would work except ones without Cheria and Sophie; i.e. lolHubert casting his lolHealing Wind to lolheal everyone.
In terms of difficulty... Anything with extreme range will rape you a while. Specifically, Archers. Late in the game there's these monsters that cast a Super Defense skill on themselves. They glow red, take 1 damage from everything, and don't flinch. You need to use a Light(ning) based spell on them to break it, luckily Asbel learns those. Otherwise, they do like 500+ damage a hit, cast lots of magic, and I only had 2000 HP around that point.