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Blackbelt Bobman posted:was Legendia any good? I haven't heard much about it.
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Nov 30, 2008 09:27
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Blackbelt Bobman posted:was Legendia any good? I haven't heard much about it. It's considered the worst Tales game from what I've read. It also looks like a last-generation PS1 game. I just beat Tales of Vesperia and fought the Fell Arms boss. Got really lucky. Girlfriend and I managed to pull off Estelle's Eternal Support + Force Field combo so that battle was a joke. What a great game. Loved the ending. Loved all the cartoony scenes of people inventing technology, Rita creating fuels, Witcher harnessing electricity, the Schwann Brigade still doing their thang, Estelle effectively writing the Tales of Vesperia, Karol adding the Brave Vesperia symbol to the Don's chambers... it's all so complete All in all, a satisfying ending.
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Nov 30, 2008 09:29
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Legendia is basically the game everyone forgets about when they think of the Tales series. For good reason: backwards combat, weirdly paced story, and characters who are just not at all appealing (note how they never went back to that particular designer). It'd be the black sheep of the series if not for Tales of the Tempest's existence.
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Nov 30, 2008 09:44
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Yeah, Legendia had a couple things going for it: some drat good songs, a really interesting (imho) setting, and some pretty cool scenes. Unfortunately, just about every good thing was balanced out by something bad. Awkward combat, the worst (and slightly creepiest) main character/love interest (Captain Uninteresting and his sister/girlfriend More-Annoying-Than-Collette), the dungeons were just long winding back and forth paths (picture the velvet-rope line things at the bank, but with random battles). It did have a unique structure: half the game is the main storyline, while the second half is a sort of extended epilogue focusing on character development and tying up loose ends in the main plot. At least, I assume it did. Never finished that second part. See, due to some miscommunication/incompetence, they forgot to do voice acting for it. That's right, the entire second half of the game has no voice acting. Really though, I'm sure it can be picked up on the cheap nowadays, and it does have some bright spots... So if you're really hard up for a Tales game, you might find some enjoyment in it. Just don't expect much.
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Nov 30, 2008 10:06
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MacBook Air Gamer posted:I'm playing Vesperia and I'm really enjoying it now (but these Secret Missions are gonna drive me insane probably). I've seen Tales of Abyss sitting in my GameStop's used section. Is it that much similar to Vesperia that I would like it? Yes. Although some posters disagree, I feel that they're pretty much equal in terms of complexity and storylines, and I'd go so far as to say that, once Abyss gets going (seven hours in) it has one of the best jRPG storylines around. Then again, I'm only fifteen hours into Vesperia, in the desert looking for a talking dragon thing, so maybe the plot epics up a bit.
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Nov 30, 2008 17:15
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Syvalion posted:Legendia is basically the game everyone forgets about when they think of the Tales series. For good reason: backwards combat, weirdly paced story, and characters who are just not at all appealing (note how they never went back to that particular designer). It'd be the black sheep of the series if not for Tales of the Tempest's existence. Well Tales of the Tempest is now considered an "escort" Tales, so it's no longer in the "main" Tales series. Tales of Symphonia 2 is also an escort Tales game. Tales of Legendia is still a main Tales game. I consider Abyss a bit below Vesperia, but only because of the combat system. The skills system in Abyss is pretty cool, it allows for customization of your guys. If you want Jade to be more physical, you can give him a core with higher P. Atk growth. If you just want him to nuke things to death, give him an A. Atk core. I liked all the characters except for Natalia. She's just annoying. The only thing I dislike about Abyss is, you really have to work pre-game if you plan to have an Unknown playthrough. There's no option to transfer armor/weapons so you're starting out with weak equipment, and the only way to feasible beat the bosses at the beginning is to save up about 4 million gald and buy some ridiculously overpowered weapons in a town about 6-7 hours in. Unlike Vesperia, there's no real incentive to ever use old weapons since they only have stats and elemental attributes on them, no skills. These overpowered weapons totally break regular encounters though, so I only equipped them when I needed to fight bosses. Otherwise, enjoy dealing 1 damage per hit on a 30,000hp boss while getting hit for 3x your hp by their Mystic Arte.
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Nov 30, 2008 17:49
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Syvalion posted:Legendia is basically the game everyone forgets about when they think of the Tales series. For good reason: backwards combat, weirdly paced story, and characters who are just not at all appealing (note how they never went back to that particular designer). It'd be the black sheep of the series if not for Tales of the Tempest's existence. Hey, at least his characters looked different. All of Keisuke Fujishima's characters look pretty much exactly the same.
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Nov 30, 2008 19:12
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Calaveron posted:Hey, at least his characters looked different. All of Keisuke Fujishima's characters look pretty much exactly the same. It worked for Dragon Quest! Hell, Dragon Quest VIII even featured some super saiyans.
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Nov 30, 2008 19:16
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Calaveron posted:Hey, at least his characters looked different. All of Keisuke Fujishima's characters look pretty much exactly the same. As a huge fan of his, I can tell you that you're absolutely right.  Click here for the full 1000x1441 image. Hey Guy, Anise. What's up? Regardless, even if his character designs are all similar, his clothing differs pretty greatly from game to game, and always in logical (to the characters' respective locales) way. And, this may be hypocritical, but the art in ToL looked EXACTLY like Samurai Champloo - especially the guy with the hammer and glasses.
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Nov 30, 2008 19:49
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Skychrono posted:
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Nov 30, 2008 19:51
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Eddain posted:It worked for Dragon Quest! Hell, Dragon Quest VIII even featured some super saiyans. I feel Toriyama's strength lies in his ability to design some original looking monsters; be they cute or mean-looking.
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Dec 1, 2008 04:14
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Calaveron posted:I just beat Tales of Vesperia and fought the Fell Arms boss. Got really lucky. Girlfriend and I managed to pull off Estelle's Eternal Support + Force Field combo so that battle was a joke. I just played through Vesperia again with a friend as Yuri, and me playing Rita, and I don't give her nearly enough credit for being as broken as she is. Any non-humanoid boss gets completely locked down by Overlimit + Ground Dasher. Since it downs any enemy it can't lift, you're basically just beating the poo poo out of this boss that can't even stand up. Meanwhile, my friend on Yuri is just standing there preforming fatal strikes every three seconds as it's bouncing around. So awesome. 
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Dec 2, 2008 14:21
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SpazmasterX posted:I just played through Vesperia again with a friend as Yuri, and me playing Rita, and I don't give her nearly enough credit for being as broken as she is. Any non-humanoid boss gets completely locked down by Overlimit + Ground Dasher. Since it downs any enemy it can't lift, you're basically just beating the poo poo out of this boss that can't even stand up. Meanwhile, my friend on Yuri is just standing there preforming fatal strikes every three seconds as it's bouncing around. So awesome. Rita in Overlimit spamming Tidal Wave with Yuri in High Tension Overlimit spamming Shining Fang works on both crowds AND bosses. Versus crowds, they can't move at all due to the Tidal Wave spam, and versus bosses, Yuri is keeping them locked via Shining Fang.
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Dec 2, 2008 18:33
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Does anyone know what the special gift you get at the beginning of Tales of Symphonia 2 if you beat Tales of Symphonia? I beat it a long time ago and it said I didn't have a cleared save state, and when I looked at it it is a save before the final boss. I don't remember being able to save afterwords, but I do remember the screen that let you buy stuff with Ex Levels and I guess I never did that. Is it worth going through the ending again? Thanks.
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Dec 5, 2008 20:02
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It's randomized. There are a few different packages you could possibly get. The one I got was synthesis materials. There's also a Gald and gels package, there's a jewels package, and there's a spellbook package.
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Dec 5, 2008 21:07
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Eddain posted:It's randomized. There are a few different packages you could possibly get. The one I got was synthesis materials. There's also a Gald and gels package, there's a jewels package, and there's a spellbook package. I'm just glad it's nothing that would affect the storyline or somehow make the game harder. I ended up redoing the ending of ToS anyway and saving the game afterwords (can't believe I didn't do this the first time to be honest).
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Dec 6, 2008 00:54
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EngineerSean posted:I'm just glad it's nothing that would affect the storyline or somehow make the game harder. I ended up redoing the ending of ToS anyway and saving the game afterwords (can't believe I didn't do this the first time to be honest). Of all the possible packages, the synthesis one is probably the most gamebreaking. Having access to high-end materials so early into the game means you can synthesize a medium/high weapon early on and kill everything easily. The game isn't very hard either way, though. It just has frustrating AI.
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Dec 6, 2008 04:59
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TOS2: I got the gel pack. Having access to lemons and pineapples for the early fights made playing on hard (first playthrough) a lot easier until I could actually afford to buy them. I've been having a lot of fun with Symphonia 2, but I also love Pokemon and it really is Tales+Pokemon. They drag out the "LLOYD!!!!" crap too long, but things start to make sense in chapter 5, and it's actually gotten a lot faster plot-wise. Also, Richter is cool and Tenebrae is a hilarious dick.
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Dec 6, 2008 10:48
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Yay, someone else in the thread with an overall positive impression of TOS2. At least I'm not the only one anymore. 
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Dec 6, 2008 11:23
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Lakitu7 posted:Yay, someone else in the thread with an overall positive impression of TOS2. At least I'm not the only one anymore. All I've taken away from the first hour is that Emil is such a lovely character that he apparently needed to make a pact with the devil to grow a set of balls.
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Dec 6, 2008 14:09
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Samurai Sanders posted:Same character designer. And yeah, I wish famous Japanese character designers like Fujishima and Toriyama and such even OCCASIONALLY try to make a really different looking character. I guess that's not what the Japanese market demands though. I've noticed that Japanese game artwork seems to lean more toward consistency than originality. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but that's where we get the protagonists of 30% of Square-Enix's repertoire looking identical. Edit: Even Kazuma Kaneko is guilty of this Tatsuya vs. The Hero from SMT1 for example. Heath fucked around with this message at 16:12 on Dec 6, 2008 |
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Dec 6, 2008 16:08
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EngineerSean posted:All I've taken away from the first hour is that Emil is such a lovely character that he apparently needed to make a pact with the devil to grow a set of balls. Even I admit the first hour is loving terrible.
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Dec 6, 2008 20:42
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Heath posted:I've noticed that Japanese game artwork seems to lean more toward consistency than originality.
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Dec 6, 2008 20:43
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EngineerSean posted:All I've taken away from the first hour is that Emil is such a lovely character that he apparently needed to make a pact with the devil to grow a set of balls. I'm now ten hours in and I can say that a lot of things are confusing, which isn't necessarily bad but I feel like I'm lost about the story. I thought that the Lloyd thing would be resolved already, and it's clear that Emil is not who he says he is or that being possessed by Ratatosk has fundamentally changed his appearance. Also, Ratatosk and Tenebrae are such Pokemon names and are said at least once per skit. I swear I've heard the phrase "Ratatosk is the lord of all Centurions" in some form or another at least twenty times in this game.
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Dec 10, 2008 17:44
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Ratatosk is actually part of Norse mythology (a squirrel or something that lived in Yggdrasil, the tree of life), as is Ginuungagaap, which will always make you laugh. Don't know about Tenebrae, but I assume it's Norse as well. Also, the Lloyd thing won't get resolved until the beginning of the final chapter. Until then, he'll just act like a huge douche to his friends 
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Dec 10, 2008 18:58
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Cliff posted:Ratatosk is actually part of Norse mythology (a squirrel or something that lived in Yggdrasil, the tree of life), as is Ginuungagaap, which will always make you laugh. Don't know about Tenebrae, but I assume it's Norse as well. Pretty sure Tenebrae is latin for "creepy" or somesuch. The word "tenebroso" exists in spanish and means just that.
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Dec 10, 2008 19:41
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Tenebrae is Latin or Greek for "dark," I think.
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Dec 10, 2008 20:03
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According to Wikipedia, Tenebrae is Latin for "shadow" or "shadows." Maybe all the Centurions are the Latin terms for their elements.
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Dec 10, 2008 20:05
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Actually I like the name Tenebrae a lot more now that I know it's not just made up, and I probably should have figured out that Ratatosk was Norse since it sounds similar to Ragnarok.
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Dec 10, 2008 20:36
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For the most part, RPGs don't make up a whole lot of original names/terms for things. Mythology is generally at least some part of their storylines (see names of Final Fantasy summons).
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Dec 10, 2008 20:41
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The amount of Norse Mythology present in the Tales games is enormous. The entire creation story in Tales of Symphonia, with the giant tree, is pretty much directly Norse, as are a lot of the names (as mentioned earlier) I'm in chapter 6 of ToSII, and I must say the monster system is great, although I kind of wish the characters you got from the first game weren't completely inept, because I really love the banters they have at the ends of battles. Also I wish they still had their original voices, because as much as Regal and Sheena's voices are okay, they're not Crispin Freeman and Jennifer Hale, drat it. Anyway, back to monsters. If you level up a Harpy in a Fenia, they are a loving spell casting monster, who can teleport out of danger. Mine is level 70 and has 2000+ A.Atk. It learns some really loving great fire spells, too, and of course you can teach it other good spells with grimoires. Other favorites I have are my frog, who is also a great spell caster, mantis who hacks and slashes the poo poo out of everything, and a Moon Rocks, the higest form of Axe Beak, who looks retarded but has really high Dex and can steal from enemies. I'm also working on getting the highest form of Lamia, and a Sword Dancer. I think I'm too strong, though, because even with battles set on hard, I am completely dominating all the enemies, to the point that I beat an A rank quest (recommended level is over 50) at level 38. Where do I get more philosopher's stones, I want to make more statues so I can get a freaking Hippogriff.
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Dec 10, 2008 21:14
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Blackbelt Bobman posted:Anyway, back to monsters. If you level up a Harpy in a Fenia, they are a loving spell casting monster, who can teleport out of danger. Mine is level 70 and has 2000+ A.Atk. It learns some really loving great fire spells, too, and of course you can teach it other good spells with grimoires. Other favorites I have are my frog, who is also a great spell caster, mantis who hacks and slashes the poo poo out of everything, and a Moon Rocks, the higest form of Axe Beak, who looks retarded but has really high Dex and can steal from enemies. I'm also working on getting the highest form of Lamia, and a Sword Dancer. I think I'm too strong, though, because even with battles set on hard, I am completely dominating all the enemies, to the point that I beat an A rank quest (recommended level is over 50) at level 38. Chest-wise: There's 1 Philosopher Stone in that Cape Fort or something the one with those colored floor panels that control the gates. The rest are in the secret dungeon on 2nd playthrough or after. Quest-wise: S-rank quests tend to have a Philosopher's Stone in the last chest of the area. Drop-wise: I know a certain Slime drops it, but don't bother. It's near impossible to get. Instead, do the Party Special Rank coliseum battle and stack as many "Item Finder" skills as possible. That weird bat/demon thing in the 2nd or 3rd fight drops them on a decent basis. As for good monsters, all you really need is a Sword Dancer and a Ravenous (final path of a Ghost). Both monsters require a special stone (made via Philosopher's Stone) to get, but they're absolutely worth it. They both max out at level 200, making them incredible lategame monsters, and their skills are amazing. My level 96 Ravenous had nearly 6000 A. Atk. Combine that with Meteor Swarm or Bloody Howling and you've got a pure killer. I just hated how you can't get Unknown difficulty on your 2nd playthrough. You can only get it on your 3rd. To unlock it you have to play on Manic difficulty your entire 2nd playthrough. I can't picture myself playing through this game another time just to play on Unknown.
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Dec 10, 2008 21:34
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is unknown mode just harder than Mania, or is there something different about it?
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Dec 10, 2008 23:33
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Blackbelt Bobman posted:is unknown mode just harder than Mania, or is there something different about it? For difficulty modes, Tales games tend to just have harder monsters. I don't remember any Tales game that had extra features on harder difficulties. This is probably the first Tales where you couldn't unlock Unknown for your 2nd playthrough though.
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Dec 10, 2008 23:43
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Tales of Destiny PS2 had hidden moves for the main character that could be earned by beating certain bosses on a harder difficulty 
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Dec 10, 2008 23:45
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BurningCourage posted:Tales of Destiny PS2 had hidden moves for the main character that could be earned by beating certain bosses on a harder difficulty See now that's a great mechanic. I love discovering new artes, it's what's so fun about Tales games. In Phantasia you had to search the world to find sword manuals or pay swordsmen to teach you, in Symphonia you had a Technical Tree and Strike Tree, and in Vesperia you have Altered Artes and that crazy Dhaos Cape.
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Dec 11, 2008 00:15
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Abyss had a bunch that were from very-missable events and sidequests, too. The best thing about Symphonia's system was learning one during a battle. "Demon Fang! Demon Fang! I MUST BE A GENIUS!!! DOUBLE DEMON FANG!" 
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Dec 11, 2008 00:44
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Lakitu7 posted:Abyss had a bunch that were from very-missable events and sidequests, too. that's why Symphonia is such a great game, the ability and battle systems were incredibly kick rear end. Why couldn't they have kept the same battle system in the sequel?! And why does Emil stand so far away from enemies that my poo poo misses half the time? And why does Emil learn all kinds of air combat skills when the air combat is awkward? The only good thing about the artes in ToSII is being able to turn them into elemental artes with skills. However, I feel like they're really spread out and you barely get any until like chapter five. Ugh I can't believe they managed to gently caress up a sequel to such a great game.
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Dec 11, 2008 00:49
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I especially liked glitching the tree system so I could have almost all the skills from both sides
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Dec 11, 2008 00:49
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Blackbelt Bobman posted:that's why Symphonia is such a great game, the ability and battle systems were incredibly kick rear end. Why couldn't they have kept the same battle system in the sequel?! And why does Emil stand so far away from enemies that my poo poo misses half the time? And why does Emil learn all kinds of air combat skills when the air combat is awkward? I hate how half the base artes and half the arcane artes couldn't connect to each other just because of the game's terrible aiming system. The only good air combo I found was Sky Attack 1/2/3 + Havoc Strike (Fire) + Roaring Tiger? The Havoc Strike puts up just below the enemy and in a good position for Roaring Tiger or whatever it's called, it's the one where you spin like Tempest and end with Raining Fangs. The other skills tend to attack as the enemy is falling so you'll miss the first base arte. At least with Havoc Strike you drop down first to ensure the arcane arte connects. If the air combat was as polished as Vesperia's (Judith) it would've been great. I liked the overall speed of Symphonia II, but couldn't handle the rest of the combat mechanics.
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Dec 11, 2008 04:31
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