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KDavisJr posted:Destiny was the second Tales game, and the first released state-wide. I'm not saying that it doesn't MAKE SENSE why everything is so unpolished, it's just... well, it shows that professionally released JRPGs from the turn of the PSX didn't really age well. (This is, of course, ignoring how hit-and-miss Namco is with giving any attention to their Tales games over here.) It's actually kind of humbling; this is the game that got me into the entire Tales series, and it's kind of astounding how... well, bland the writing is, looking at it now.
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Oct 26, 2013 01:02
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 22:28 |
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The graphics themselves carry plenty of charm, though. Hell, I remember when Eternia came out and how people were kind of annoying they went for slightly more realistic, less "chibi" style. (Of course, I remember people being pretty hard on Eternia at the time. I really don't know why...)
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Oct 26, 2013 06:51
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I really, truly wish this game would get a 3DS release.
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Oct 26, 2013 16:53
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Mezzanon posted:I really, truly wish this game would get a 3DS release. Considering that they ported (and improved!) Abyss to the 3DS, it's even entirely possible that they could even port the spruced up PS2 remake of the game that we never got. And then Namco would fail to bring it out over here, citing poor sales.
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Oct 26, 2013 23:22
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I would kill someone for an English version of the PS2 remake, no lie.
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Oct 27, 2013 03:08
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Alright I'll have an update by this time next week and I'll save the changes to the scene as a bonus update later on.
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Nov 12, 2013 19:44
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Chapter 31  Honestly we're quite lucky that this cave is here. The houses and trees all block you from re-entering the town. Many a helpless kids have died in their own backyards. Frozen and barred from ever returning. You'd think they'd at least build a path or something.   "Where are we?"  "This is the underground passageway created by a king in the past. It's connected to the castle." "So if we follow this path..." He's so close to figuring it out. Almost got it. Almost... "Yes but there is a problem." Garr knows the others understand so he's not going to wait for Stahn to connect the dots. "What?" "There's been stories of ghosts haunting this area." "And they say you can hear their hook hands dragging on the stones as they walk."  "P, please stop it! I don't want to hear about that!" "Philia?"  "Calm down, it's just stories." "But, but..." "As Leon just said, don't worry." "But don't whisper 'Bloody Mary' into a mirror anytime soon"  "Ayieeee! The ghost...the ghost! It's here!" "Philia, calm down!" "Identify yourself!" I thought you needed a Ouija board for that.  "That voice. That must be master Garr!" And the ghost want's revenge!   "It's Darzen, master Garr. I'm glad you're safe." "Darzen! What are you doing here?" "I thought we hanged you" "In the midst of all the chaos during the attack, I led some town people down here to escape." "I see, excellent work. I'm glad all of you are safe." "The entrance area is dangerous. We're incapable of helping you much, but please come inside." Well we don't need that kind of help, Darzen. "Can we trust him?" "He pledged loyalty to my father. That's enough for me to trust him." "Hah, so you say."  If you look closely enough, Rutee is still carrying Dalis. It's a nice touch.   I have to admit, for a haunted cave this place is pretty accommodating. "How is he?"  "I think he's okay." "Good." "But it'll take him a while to make a complete recovery. Mary, you've got to be strong."  "I understand." "Mary, you should stay here." "Rutee!" Do you know how much I spent upgrading her sword and armor?! I need that poo poo!  "Time will eventually heal his physical wounds." "Because I'll be damned if I'm wasting TP to heal some one who just tried to kill us." "But you're the only one who can treat the wound in Dalis' soul." "Rutee..." "So stay with Dalis, okay?" "But then..." Even now Mary has to fight the urge to monster slay. "Don't worry. We'll take care of Lydon by ourselves. Right?" "Of course." "That's a foregone conclusion." "Don't worry about us." "You can count on me!" "Everyone..." "...is going to die with out me to protect you." "So as I said, there's something you can do that other people can't." "Rutee, I'm sorry..." "...that they won't find enough left of you to bury after the first fight you run into." "Hey, don't cry. We'll visit you when everything settles down. So take care of yourself until then." "Yes. Dalis and I will look forward to that." "Well, let's get going."  Stahn and his party were never heard from again. 
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Nov 18, 2013 20:57
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Welp, that was a fun LP.  This game needs to learn that you never split the party. Much less do it every five minutes.
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Nov 19, 2013 21:43
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Having characters just suddenly drop out of your party would hurt in a game like this even if they didn't have separate XP totals and equipment, just because you might be used to having them around in battle and their moveset isn't something you can replace.
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Nov 20, 2013 21:44
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Glazius posted:Having characters just suddenly drop out of your party would hurt in a game like this even if they didn't have separate XP totals and equipment, just because you might be used to having them around in battle and their moveset isn't something you can replace. From what I remember of Tales of Destiny, you're about 2/3rds of the way through the game before your party is finally stable enough to not wuss out right when you need them to.
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Nov 21, 2013 02:38
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KataraniSword posted:From what I remember of Tales of Destiny, you're about 2/3rds of the way through the game before your party is finally stable enough to not wuss out right when you need them to. It's more like, in the first two games (Phantasia/Destiny), your party AI is poo poo at everything except spells/skills, so as you get more abilities your party starts to be more helpful. I think it's a vestigial thing from Phantasia mostly, since you spend most of that game as a melee character stuck with a bunch of mages.
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Nov 21, 2013 05:01
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Chapter 32  Like I said, I'm sure you guys aren't going to vote Leon in so I just slotted in Garr and carried on.  Garr gets some strange move lists. Like Mary, he can use a variation of weapons. Swords, spears, bows and arrow. And he'll get move lists for the melee weapons and moves for the bows.    A cave under the coldest country in the game means there's a bit of an ice theme. You can imagine that Stahn's Fire moves are still pretty boss.  It is also the first drat time that the upped encounter rate started to piss me off this play through.  As you can see though, the ghost stories were right. They were more than right, every single encounter has a lot of these.  The disturbing thing is that the Ghoul's fall down and stay down when they die much like human enemies. It leaves some horrifying implications about their origins.  I know what you're thinking.  You're thinking "this is a lot of battle screens." Well it's a lot of battles here.  The Specters can cast "Silence" on your party. Rutee learns this spell as well and it actually has some uses.  The issue is that there's no indication if it succeeded or not.  Not until you or the enemy goes to cast a spell and catches that little message instead.  Oh, hello! What's this?  This is wall of fire that we got way back on the pirate ship level.  "The breath of the demon blows across the ground like a missile. What is it's name?" Missile sword from way back in update 1. "The rising torrent of flame is truly the demon's breath."  A saucy new move that I end up spamming the hell out of in an effort to power through these never ending battles.     It's got a short range but it keeps enemies stunned blocked and can hit flying enemies so it's not to bad.  In my last play through I could have sworn I remembered that Specter enemies didn't drop any lens. And I couldn't wait to get here and be all "What a neat touch guys! Since they aren't monsters changed by lens you don't get lens!" But I was wrong they do drop lens, just not money.  So now all I got is a joke about ghosts being boo-roke.  There's also some more ice for you to slide on. You can use the ring Garr gave you to melt those ice blocks and a few have treasures but it's nothing grand. If you bump into that ugly dude up top though...   You get into a boss fight. The real dick part is that he's off screen when you first hit the ice floor. So if you don't know he's there it's possible to step onto the ice and slide right into him unprepared.    If you keep your distance he'll just cast Ice Wall on you but his real strength is his steamrolling physicals.      He manages to shove Stahn around like a rag doll for most of the fight.  With some convenient timing of Acid Rain to make Stahn's last hit really count we bring him down.   A new record! Next Time:  We make some yellow snow Ride The Gravitron fucked around with this message at 22:58 on Nov 21, 2013 |
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Nov 21, 2013 22:55
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Oh boy, Sorceror Ring puzzles! Never seen those in a Tales game before. 
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Nov 21, 2013 23:53
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They were newish at the time!
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Nov 22, 2013 00:00
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neongrey posted:They were newish at the time! And it gets old before this game is even over.
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Nov 22, 2013 07:50
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Chapter 33  You might have thought that by beating that boss and opening up the super secret door we were done with the dungeon.  Well you're wrong.   For the moment Garr's Speed tech is rather unimpressive   He shoots two arrows fairly quickly and that's about it. The amount of arrows he shoots should go up with his level so remind me down the line to look into it again when it actually looks cool.  Despite his Bon Jovi Hair though, Stahn never has much of a problem looking cool.   I really do like the Ghoul's face when it gets hit. You can feel the pain.   And of course we need the pose at the end while the camera's flash and the fan girls go wild.   The fact that you can move the bed from the super secret passage makes me wonder if the criminals they locked up here always escaped.  The bed does slide back in place by it self but if you go to take a nap in it the bed slips out from under you.  Sending you back down into the hands of waiting skeletons.  You get a nice little break from random battles but with no inn or chests with healing items it amounts to nothing more than a little change of pace.  We do however manage to make it into the castle proper.  If you try to leave out the front entrance you get this cliched line. I still think it would have been easier to take them down then do the crazy shenanigans we just did.   I did always like this little throne room. The clock in the back gives it a nice touch.  That door is useless but to the left of the throne room we get a nice little treat.   There's not much else in the castle except for this suspicious dead end.   I'm pretty sure I got stuck at this part in my last play through. It had been so long that I totally forgot I had to use the ring for this.  With that out of the way though we open up more castle, more sorcery ring puzzles and more random encounters!  Leon get's slotted in to show off a move he picked up while on the sidelines.  I know it's hard to see him but I picked this set because of how he rips through the entire enemy line.    Bonus: You can see that Garr actually takes time to aim his bow instead of just shooting forward.  I'm pretty sure the Clay Demons are new. Strong hitters and stronger magic casters.  The Ghoul's also make a comeback. I don't know if they get a boost in the castle or I just got lucky in the under ground passage but from here on out their hits were paralyzing my party on a regular basis.   Which is ok because it gives me a chance to show off Rutee's Recover spell.  It even shows up outside of battle. I thought that was kind of neat.  I know I showed off Fear Flare before but this time it's Phila who learned it.  Rutee also picked up a new powerful healing spell. Now I don't know if this is a glitch or some random event that can happen but something happened here.  Notice that one of the nurses has a red hat and an angry face? Much later on in the game enemies will start casting this spell as well. When they do their version of the nurse is the one with the red hat. Rutee's are suppose to be all white and nice.  Like this! I don't know if when the evil nurse appears she just doesn't heal your party member or maybe damages them but I do know it happened at least twice during my visit in this castle.  I smell another sorcerer's ring puzzle.  It just stops being clever when you jam them in every other room.  But when you throw a twist like that maybe you liven things up a bit. Luckily this isn't some God of War puzzle where you gotta race and roll in before it closes, it's just another puzzle that needs an under utilized mechanic.  It's hard to tell in the screenshots but that other statue has a flame on top. Slapping it right in front of the the first one brings the door down and keeps it down.  Alright, Lydon, let's do this!  gently caress!
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Nov 26, 2013 21:23
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Yet another dungeon? Does this one at least have a boss at the end?
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Nov 26, 2013 22:34
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Stabbey_the_Clown posted:Yet another dungeon? Does this one at least have a boss at the end? Well not to be all spoilery but, uh, no.
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Nov 27, 2013 00:00
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Get out of my game, bro. 
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Nov 27, 2013 00:55
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Spiffo posted:Get out of my game, bro.
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Nov 27, 2013 04:26
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Yes, and I would think a dude with a Sword of Extra Cripsy would be more welcome in an attempt to cleave through a castle full of undead.
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Nov 27, 2013 07:31
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Volume posted:Is this a Castlevania game? Super Castlevania IV, in fact. The Clock Tower portrayed there seems a bit less sewer-like than what you just walked into, though.
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Nov 27, 2013 08:17
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Glad I'm not the only one who immediately jumped to thinking about Castlevania when they saw this dungeon for the first time. And it's got pretty rad music, too.
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Nov 27, 2013 15:25
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Phantasium posted:Glad I'm not the only one who immediately jumped to thinking about Castlevania when they saw this dungeon for the first time. It's not just the dungeon though, that dude looks just like Stahn. He's even got the purple cape! KataraniSword posted:Super Castlevania IV, in fact. The Clock Tower portrayed there seems a bit less sewer-like than what you just walked into, though. It's more tower than sewery though. You'll see.
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Nov 28, 2013 03:29
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Volume posted:It's not just the dungeon though, that dude looks just like Stahn. He's even got the purple cape! Well yeah I inserted Stahn's sprite onto the platform so that the joke would be funny. The actual playable character is that duder jumping over the gears. Super Castlevania 4 is a good game.
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Nov 28, 2013 04:11
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Oh drat, now I feel stupid.
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Nov 28, 2013 04:44
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Specifically, that's Stahn's sprite from the GBA Narikiri Dungeon games, which were basically vehicles for cameos. Although ND3 had some weird pseudo-RTS stuff going on.
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Nov 28, 2013 07:54
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Bonus Update 2 I thought you all might appreciate a small break from dungeon crawling to see how that scene with Dalis changes.  Something's remain the same, such as us kicking his candy-rear end.  Because I made a promise to the readers of this LP that I would show off as much as I can. If that means you have to die, so be it. "Dalis, do you remember now?"  "I thought I saved you..." "Don't say anything."  The whole first half is pretty much the same but I promise, there are changes.  "Yes, enemies." "Run quickly! The reinforcements are coming..." "I have to treat you." "Don't waste your time. I won't survive."  I want you all to appreciate the fact that the script I cribbed from Gamefaqs doesn't include this variation of the scene. So the rest of this scene is transcribed by hand. "I'm sorry, Mary." "Dalis, don't die! Are you abandoning me again?!" "..."The classic Tales of Destiny ellipses of death. "Answer me, Dalis!"Mary, trust me, I've stood over many corpses in this game. They never change their answer.  I guess Mary's tears made Rutee forget all about her healing spells "Mary." Maybe now that you have nothing holding you back you can go full berserker. "No, I'm staying here." "Mary, the enemy is coming."And she'll kill them all! "I'm not going anywhere. I'm staying here with Dalis." "Mary, stand up!" "Come on, snap out of it! I won't let you die! It's never going to happen if I can help it!" Sure she's selfish and annoying at times but Rutee's got a big heart. "Let's go." "Okay, Rutee." "Hurry!" "Stahn, let's go up on the roof!"Whoa, deja-vu. "Yes!"I like to imagine that at this point Stahn is having some kind of Donnie Darko experience where his future self is telling him what a bad idea this is but he can't quite place the feeling.  "..." "Mary?" "What?"Can't a girl just have a moment? "You forgot this." "Oh, thanks." The next bits are all the same so I'm just going to fast foward. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzO4BSTnkgg&t=7s  Never get's old.  "Hey, are you leaving Mary Behind here?" "She's not fit for battle right now." "I agree." "I think I understand Mary's sorrows." "I cannot allow Mary to die needlessly in battle, so we'll leave her here." "She's fought along side us until now! And we're abandoning her here?!" "We can't have any one or anything jeopardizing our mission." They just talk about her like she's not even there.  "Rutee, that's enough." "Stahn! You too?" "You know Mary the best among us."I was so excited to come to this line in the LP. 'Yeah, even the game tells you that Mary is the best!' but then I read it closer.  Still no one bothers to ask Mary what she thinks. "I just..." "It's hard for me too! But if you're really part of our group, try to understand!"I don't know if I trust your words, Stahn. I know you've been trying to get rid of Mary since day one. You're jealous of her hair. "Stahn... Mary..." "You should go back to your home in Cyril." "Yes, I guess I should." I'm not crying, it's just really dusty in here. "We'll visit you soon. Take care of yourself." "You too, Rutee.""The rest of you can get hosed though." "Mary..."  It's really dusty and it's messing with my allergies! Shut up!  
Ride The Gravitron fucked around with this message at 20:58 on Dec 2, 2013 |
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Dec 2, 2013 20:55
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I forget: later on, if you let Dalis die does that mean you're locked out of getting Mary back? I actually thought you could get Mary back sooner, because I recall when I had Dalis live I was annoyed how long it took to get her back. But that still doesn't sound right. Is there a benefit to letting Dalis live, other than not feeling like poo poo?
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Dec 2, 2013 21:06
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Camel Pimp posted:I forget: later on, if you let Dalis die does that mean you're locked out of getting Mary back? I actually thought you could get Mary back sooner, because I recall when I had Dalis live I was annoyed how long it took to get her back. But that still doesn't sound right. Is there a benefit to letting Dalis live, other than not feeling like poo poo? Actually If you let him die you can get Mary back sooner than if you had let him live.
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Dec 2, 2013 21:11
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Volume posted:Actually If you let him die you can get Mary back sooner than if you had let him live. Ah, so I did remember correctly. Huh. Well, gently caress that guy, then.
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Dec 2, 2013 21:19
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Chapter 34  I hope you enjoyed that little break in dungeon crawling because we are finishing this castle in the next update. Probably  I will give this to Tales of Destiny, despite making this bit a bit of a slog with how long it is (and not a save point in sight) the game does mix it up.  See? Now we got switch puzzles instead of laser puzzles. Variety!  Of course we still have fights every three steps to deal with and with time stopping spells, it makes it all the more longer.   Not to mention dead ends that lead to lovely treasures that were so not worth the hassle.  It get's frustrating enough that Philia actually ran in and sniped my kill just to get this over with.  If only we could put 2 and 2 together here...  I know what you're thinking, "We saw vortex already!"  But this time it's Garr who's doing it and that makes it cooler.  Not that Stahn didn't pick up a trick of his own.  How that is a tornado I will never know.  If only it didn't involve back tracking.  Remember that petrification status I said doesn't even exist in this game? Poor Rutee suffers from my mistake. Sadly there's no over world icon to show that your character is stoned.  Oh no! I have to lose a vital and important member of my party? This is such a difficult choice I don't know what I'll do. It's like an anime Sophie's Choice.   "Hmph. Don't slack off while I'm not watching you."   "Don't yell! I'm not deaf, I can hear you!"  I just like to imagine Stahn making some awkward small talk with his party in the Elevator. "Ha, so crazy dungeon design huh? Where do you think those stairs go to?"  "Leon, wait a minute. We're coming to get you" "Hurry up!"  I could hurry up, after all I just have to blast that ice on the pulley with the Sorcerer's Ring but this is my chance to get rid of that twerp once and for all!  But we can! We can!   Yeah we got distracted day dreaming of a game with out you. "Sorry, sorrrrry" "Come on let's get moving."  I want you all to appreciate something right now. We explored the first floor of the castle, found it's secret doors and never once hit any stairs.  In the clock tower sewer part we climbed chains.  We took an elevator up three screens and climbed even more chains. So you can imagine one's surprise if one were to go through that south door in that screen shot...  ...only to wind up back on the first floor. and locked out Next time: 
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Dec 8, 2013 08:49
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Spiffo posted:Get out of my game, bro. I wanted to do this earlier but I also wanted to show the dungeon proper. Added to the second post as fan art.
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Dec 8, 2013 08:50
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Wait, the game seriously makes you go through all that bullshit again? Man old RPGs were assholes with dungeon design.
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Dec 8, 2013 10:08
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What a tremendous dick move.
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Dec 8, 2013 10:40
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It's been something like twelve years since I played this game and I still clearly remember falling for that one.
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Dec 8, 2013 12:06
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God this game is awful sometimes. One thing I can distinctly remember is how loving awful the dungeons in this game are. Tales games in general have pretty lovely dungeons, but the old games were really dickish about it. I'm torn on which had worse dungeons: Phantasia, Destiny, or Eternia.
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Dec 8, 2013 16:09
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Camel Pimp posted:One thing I can distinctly remember is how loving awful the dungeons in this game are. Tales games in general have pretty lovely dungeons, but the old games were really dickish about it. I'm torn on which had worse dungeons: Phantasia, Destiny, or Eternia. On one hand, Destiny only has one dungeon that can kill you with ludicrous amounts of passive overworld damage without any warning whatsoever. On the other, Phantasia doesn't have any dungeons that have one-way exits halfway through like Volume just demonstrated. Compared to those two, Eternia was downright tame in dungeon design; where it really shone was in rear end in a top hat bosses. UNDINE!  Also, as a final point to argue that Destiny is worse: I would do the extended Morlia Gallery a million times over compared to the endgame bonus dungeon in this game. KataraniSword fucked around with this message at 17:04 on Dec 8, 2013 |
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Dec 8, 2013 17:01
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Hellioning posted:Wait, the game seriously makes you go through all that bullshit again? To it's credit, at least Destiny always puts a save point right before those doors. So if you saved it's simply a matter of re-loading the save. If you didn't save I wouldn't blame you for breaking the disc in half. Tales of Destiny is the reason I am OCD about saving in games now. I can never let a single save point pass untouched and I always save right after huge dialogues and key items. Because gently caress that bullshit.
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Dec 8, 2013 17:56
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 22:28 |
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Camel Pimp posted:One thing I can distinctly remember is how loving awful the dungeons in this game are. Tales games in general have pretty lovely dungeons, but the old games were really dickish about it. I'm torn on which had worse dungeons: Phantasia, Destiny, or Eternia. It might be because I'm too used to it, but what was so bad about Eternia's dungeons?
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Dec 8, 2013 18:22
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