What Games are you playing 2015?

[Grefter]

You are off on your Zenny psychology there again, he (like myself) would play the game because he wants his own negative opinion of himself validated.  I am a bad person, see how even the games tell me that I am bad?

Payday 2 - this is still fun and infuriating when things just don't go right.  It will probably be on sale in a couple of weeks if anyone wants to play a really fleshed out 4 player coop shooter.

KotOR 2 - replay of this started and just hit Telos.  I had forgot how much higher the lace curve in this is compared to 1.  Level 7 by the time you leave Peragus and Telos is still when the game is on rails.  I had also forgot how goddamned high level so many power unlocks are. 1/3 of the way through your basic D20 progression and 2 powers have unlocked the second tier skill.  Crazy.

[The Duck]

Fen, I wonder how you would react to a similar setup as Undertale, keeping what's there with the world except without fourth wall breaking or as much explicit melodrama, so instead of actively commenting on what you're doing, the world just depopulates and becomes more and more desolate (the basic theme of genocide runs is "but no one came"), so the result of killing everything is that you get fewer and fewer opportunities to interact with the world at all because there's nothing to interact with. I think this could be done in a Dark Souls-y way, since that Dark Souls doesn't comment at all on what you're doing (although there is sin) but it can show the consequences of killing an NPC (or the consequences if you don't help them), usually in an indirect way. So, if you play pacifist, you are able to interact most fully with the world/Papyrus/silly puzzles but killing everything obviously closes your ability to do so, and at the end of killing everything, you're on your own and there's nothing left to do. It's a very different work and it's still not particularly subtle but it still talks about how different players engage with a game's content without its characters being accusatory towards you or telling you how to feel.

The game's biggest flaw for me is the lack of subtlety in writing and it does a lot of telling and not showing in its themes (although it does a really good job in showing a lot of subtle touches and details within the world itself), so I can easily see your point of view, but I just wonder if you are more bothered by the message or its delivery.

[Cotigo]

Hm. I'm holding off on a thorough response until I actually finish my Pacifist playthrough, because that may well change my opinion of it, but at the very least in Genocide mode, this conflict between doing the pacifist thing and doing the genocidal thing and how characters reacted to it, even the other meta characters, always seemed to be the opinions of CHARACTERS in the narrative more than an explicit word-of-god coming down from the Dev. And, as the opinions of characters, the berating makes a lot of sense. "You just murdered all of my friends. You are a dick." "You just murdered all of his friends. See? You're just like me." Maybe it is more heavy-handed when trying to restart from a pacifist playthrough, and maybe that will color my opinion. I'll revisit this probably later today after I get through it.

That said, ASIDE from Sans and Flowey calling you out at the end, in Genocide mode it kinda does exactly what Gourry just outlined. The world slowly depopulates, you're shown consequences, the remaining NPCs get more and more desperate, and there's honestly very little commentary about your actions until the very end.

And regardless, even if it does get a heavy handed word-of-god "don't replay my game even though I designed it to be replayed a lot," honestly it's still a more interesting take on the Hitler/Jesus mode than, say, Mass Effect's, as entertaining as Mass Effect's was.

[Ranmilia]

Yeah, the specific thing in question here is the end of the true pacifism ending.  After you've done everything and the credits roll, the game pops up and directly says "This is the happiest possible ending for everybody, please don't ever reset your save to play again or you'll destroy this happiness as though it never existed."  It is uh... pretty hit or miss.  As Fenrir said.  This was not a part that hit for me.  Mostly.  I'm still honoring it because there's not much reason not to, but... ehn.

[VySaika]

And now for something completely different.

Celestian Tales: Old North

Someone linked this indy steam RPG in chat awhile back, I forget who, but thumbs up to that person since I put it on my wishlist then and finally got around to picking it up(same time I got undertale, actually). So far it's a good classic style rpg(turn based, I'm not seeing anything in the way of double turns happening so it's probably not CTB). I'm up to chapter 6 and enjoying the writing, particularly the dialogue, quite a bit. The gameplay is also good, if...hmm. Simple isn't the right word, becuase the game is not easy. But there's also nothing particularly complex about it.

To talk about the gameplay a bit, I suppose what it really revolves around is managing Stamina and Threat while trying to kill the enemies. You have 3 of the 6 PCs in your party at any given time(can swap them outside of battle freely, also levels are gained as a Party. Everyone is always the same level, nobody loses out on shit because they died/etc), and you've got the classic Attack/Skill/Defend/Item commands here. Stamina is your MP, you start with 3, can hold up to 8 max. You gain +1 by using a basic attack, +2 by using defend, and can spend them on your skills. Basic stuff. This is where it gets interesting. Skill use increases your Threat, making enemies more likely to attack that character. The more Stamina a skill costs, the higher it increases your threat. Some skills specifically increase/decrease your threat as part of their function as well, of course. This...is actually FAR more effective at controlling who the enemies attack than I'm used to seeing in games with this kind of mechanic(note: I don't play MMOs, but I hear they're quite effective there). I have yet to see enemies attack anyone but Luce after I have her use her skill that boosts her defense and increases her threat. Also the threat increase from even using a 1sp skill is pretty large. When a fight starts, and say Camille gets the first turn, if I use her skill that does damage and inflicts bleed, the enemies pretty much WILL target her if I do nothing to draw it away(or if enemies go after her but before the other PCs, etc).

I guess what I'm getting at is that there doesn't feel like a lot of randomness here. Except for when I've gone back through previous areas for one reason or another(like, oh, I was dumb and sold all my monster drops instead of realizing there was probably a crafting system of sorts, so I had to go get more spider legs and shit from the first area...), the fights have all been requiring strategy. Just blindly attacking and hoping for RNG to go your way...well, there's not a lot of RNG involved. Oh, yeah, and your HP refills out of battle automatically and Stamina does not carry over. So attrition between battles isn't an issue. There is a system where you take a Wound if you get KOd(even if you get revived in that fight) which lowers your max HP(and possibly other stats? Unsure) until you get healed at a church. Up to 3 wounds can stack, dunno what happens if you get KOd again after that.

This brings me to the next point of there being pretty easy encounter control. You see the enemies on the map and they are laughably easy to dodge. This was very intentional, early on an NPC talks to you about how fights are easy to avoid...but be careful or you may not have what it takes to deal with the fights you can't get around(like, oh, boss fights). I ran into a difficulty spike around chapter 4 becuase I dodged fights a whole bunch and thus got wrecked by the boss of that chapter. Then I tried to go get some levels...and got wrecked by the RANDOMS in that chapter too, since I fought like nothing that wasn't required in ch3. Oops? Could I have won those fights? Probably, but that's also the point where I realized I hadn't upgraded my weapons because I sold all my drops like a dumbass and had to go kill stuff from earlier chapters to get drops to upgrade my weapons. Herp derp.

As for the characters, like I said above, there's a pretty good balance. Everyone feels useful, and the skillsets are...both large and small at the same time. I'm about halfway through the game I think, and each person has 6-7 skills learned, as well as 3-4 passives. Buuuuut you can only have 4 active skills and 2 passive skills equipped at once. And the skills aren't straight upgrades either, it's all making the skillset wider instead of just upgrading from Punch to Punchmore, etc. Let's take Camille, the one I picked as the main. She has a 1sp shot that inflicts bleed, a 3sp self heal and Threat reduction, a 1sp Scan skill, a 2sp dispel+def down skill, a 4sp "get rekt" shot that does bonus damage on a bleeding enemy, a 5sp "get rekt" shot that I think is ITD, and a 6sp mt high damage+bleed shot. And I think she'll pick up one or two more before the game is over. Can only have 4 at once. For passives she has Immune to Blind/Silence, +chance to inflict status, +status duration, and 100% run chance. Can only have 2 at once. So you want to swap around skillset depending on what you need to deal with.

Anyway, it is a fun game so far. Definitely don't regret the price of entry, etc. And while I spent the whole post talking gameplay, I do think the writing/character interactions is also a high point of the game. Not really sure what else to say about it other than "I like it, it is good" though. <_<

[NotMiki]

Ducks should behave as such.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Re: Gate
All those words on Celestian Tales and not once did you mention how the art was fucking gorgeous? Really gives off a Valkyrie Profile vibe aesthetically. And you only just barely brought up the whole '6 possible main characters, each with their own story route' thing. Anyway, I was curious enough (and had free time) after reading your review to check it out, but these two things would have made it a more-instant 'must-buy' for me.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Yeah, it's definitely worth playing! Not perfect but I think a lot of DLers would kind of like it for what it is. It's short (e.g. Gate, you're about halfway done the game) but quite good at what it does. And replaying it for the other character paths is something I've enjoyed pretty well, you definitely gain some important new insights for each point of view. So far I've played through as Cammille, Ylianna, and Aria, and am working on Isaac. Not sure if I'll do the last two because at this point it is starting to get repetitive, past their openings. (And I don't really like Reynard much anyway.)

[DjinnAndTonic]

Playing as Lucienne. I wish I had chosen Reynard, he's my favorite by a WIIIIIIIDE margin. They are all pretty well-rounded, even this early in the game.

[Reiska]

I'm currently in the Barr mountains in SO3. I'm currently mostly using Nel, Maria, and a rotating third.


The main thing I've been playing, though is Celestian Tales - Old North. Fun little indie RPG.

It's a short game, and pretty clear part 1 of something bigger, but you can play it through multiple times to see it from the perspective of each of six main characters. Past that, the art is nice (reminds me of VP), the story is a pretty interesting little political yarn with lots of grey morality, all the major characters are distinct and memorable, and its battle system is well-done. I'll talk most about the battle system because it's me, but yeah the rest of the package is good too.

At the core of the battle system is stamina: each PC and enemy starts with 3, and can gain 1 by using a basic physical or 2 by defending. Using skills costs this resource, and obviously you can't go negative. Enemies use the system too, and the game has a bunch of skills which play with the system, like attacks which can lower target stamina or which ignore defence (and therefore defending). Both sides have lots of buffs and status options (status works on everything, so it tends not to be too debilitating) so there are lots of fun options to choose battle-to-battle. At first I was worried that the game would be too easy for any of this to matter, but after a slightly worrying start in the challenge department it definitely hits its stride. So in the end it just feels like it has a pretty good challenge curve.

It has a bunch of quality-of-life stuff I definitely approve of like healing all your HP after each fight (though there is a BoF/WA-like "max HP down" status so that you want to avoid deaths) and everyone gets full exp, whether in the party or not. Which means you can pretty much switch in the PCs you feel like using for any given fight at your discretion (does have to be between fights though).

It would certainly be nice if the game were longer or had a bit more content, but given its low price you certainly get your money's worth IMO (it costs less than half of one random item grab in FFRK, what the fuck to that...). Really the only major flaw is I feel the game's lack of sceneskip, which really bites it in the ass as the game does on one occasion put a nasty fight after a lengthy cutscene. Boooo! Otherwise the game is pretty good on polish issues.


It's hard to know exactly where to rate it since it's just part of a whole, but I definitely enjoyed it. I played as Cammile because she was described as rational (didn't disappoint as a character, though kinda underwhelming as a PC), took around 7-8 hours, finished at Level 24. Going to play through as someone else next.

Your description of the battle system reminds me a lot of MS Saga, which I've been playing through lately.  Don't have a whole lot to actually say directly about MS Saga though other than that I like it a lot and wish it had been more successful.  The writing is pretty standard peak anime bullshit really but the gameplay is neatly strategic for an RPG of its era.

[VySaika]

See, I missed that Elf did a post about this game in the flood of FFRK stuff. I think I'm definitely in favor of moving RK talk to it's own topic. So yeah, I basically spent like half an hour writing a post about the gameplay of a thing that elf already covered more coherently. <_>

Djinn: See, despite the fact that VP1 is a 10/10 game for me, the art style is not even remotely one of the reasons why. I actually dislike VP1 character art, though the in-game animations are cool. Also, art not really a priority for me. I was trying to focus on stuff about the game that you couldn't know just from looking at it's store page.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Not just the character art, but the backgrounds and sprites are quite well-done too, though the sprites are a bit stiff. Also, holy crap that ending theme is gorgeous.

Oh yeah, beat the game. Short game. Apparently setting up for a sequel hard. Looking forward to it.

Strongpoints are definitely the battle system, but also some superb character writing and good internal logic to its plot.

[Meeplelard]

I find that art-style tends to be low on the priority scale for most DLers, in the sense that it either only comes up in passing, or someone will only bring it up if the art-style is so bad that it makes the game actively hard to get through.

I for one really don't care about art; Ni No Kuni is really pretty, and I really don't care about it, as even the prettiest of game won't distract me from more prevalent qualities, positive or negative.

EDIT: And yeah, you can get a strong sense of art and visuals by just looking at the game through trailers, screen shots, etc.  It's one of the factors of a game that you really don't have to buy the game to appreciate.  Yeah, you can listen to the music too, for example, but without having someone to either recommend music or going out of your way to listen to a large part of the OST (which can be lengthy!), it's less likely you'll get a strong sense of the OST.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Re: Celestian Tales:
Stayed up too late last night finishing this. Now I'm heading to work on too-little sleep and thinking on the ending of the game and honestly, there's one thing that doesn't make sense. Why the heck was Severin so angry about Alain's ruse at the end of the game? What was he worried about? He didn't seem to have any designs on the throne before that? Alain's ruse at least makes some sense - he's doing it for his wife or something. But maybe there's something I'm missing by only playing one path? Trying to be a little vague to avoid spoilers.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Djinn:

Gareth talked to Severin about something that had Severin convinced that Alain was a traitor and/or out to get him. It isn't clear what the exact conversation is, but from Aria's path it's very clear that Gareth deliberately tried to provoke the reaction out of Severin that he got. The most obvious possibility is that Gareth told Severin that there was a ruse to keep him/Lupin* from taking over Levantine, and Severin was crushed by the betrayal of someone he considered to be so honourable and overreacted. I'm curious as to if it goes deeper than that; there are certainly hints of plenty of machinations below the surface which the squires don't really key in onto. But I suspect confirmation of any theories will have to wait for the sequel.

*Keep in mind that the realm is quite theocratic so Lupin in particular taking over Levantine would probably start a civil war.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

I picked up Celestian Tales about... a month ago.  The description was pretty good with an emphasis on a grounded story rather than magical macguffins, so that plus the art gave me a Suikoden vibe (which for all that it has magic and shit is ultimately a story driven by characters wanting power).  Overall kind of disappointed but I built it up too much in my mind.

I find that art-style tends to be low on the priority scale for most DLers, in the sense that it either only comes up in passing, or someone will only bring it up if the art-style is so bad that it makes the game actively hard to get through.

I think, more than art, what people tend to really notice is a strong sense of visual style and visual storytelling.  Part of that is that fancy visual effects don't really dazzle people anymore on their own, which is what I call Episode I Syndrome. 

[Fenrir]

I believe you cannot get true pacifism if you've done genocide before. Unless you delete your save and play offline or something.

Duck: I'm not sure that "you do terrible things = the world reacts " is particularly novel to be honest. I think what sets Undertale apart is how humane (and cutesy) characters are, so their rejection seems particularly striking.


My reaction to a beginner's guide is : "K pretty good" I've seen some extremely positive reactions to the game but don't really share them; I think this will affect you more if you're a creative type, which I'm unfortunately not.
Stanley Parable was the opposite, it talked to people who play games as opposed to people who make them. It's the only one that's going to make me a real lasting impression. (Btw it is real good, much recommended)

[Cotigo]

Undertale - Finished my Frue Pacifist runthrough.

I definitely see where Fenrir is coming from a lot on this side of the run. Tonally, the Pacifist run is a very different run from Genocide/Neutral, in many ways better (way more entertaining, for one) in many ways worse (any attempts at emotional resonance on this side... fall completely flat). Then, everything from the True Lab to the final boss ends up fitting much more in line with the Genocide/Neutral side of things, and the final battle onward... saccharine as shit. I'm not particularly bothered by it because it was nice to see things end well after I slaughtered everyone the first time around, but I must admit that I'm thoroughly less impressed with this ending than the Neutral one.  Additionally, the stuff I loved about the demo/neutral path was the whole meta-being schtickt and commentary about how your decisions differed from playthrough to playthrough, and... that was completely nonexistant here. I was expecting at LEAST for Sans to make a comment about how I came back to make things right after killing everyone the first time. Frankly, I'm more disappointed by the lack of follow through on that than I am about how saccharine and unsubtle the ending is.

Actually, what the hell. I just realized. I offed Flowey in my first playthrough, and he was back (obviously), but... no commentary about that at all, either! The fuck. That was at least present when I started the runthrough, with Flowey (faking, I suppose) being dead, and Sans being standoffish with me when I went to fight Papyrus. Ugh. That was the meat of what was interesting about the game.

And, yeah, the message about how you shouldn't replay the game because the characters are at their happiest is... trite. I suppose it is still coming from Asriel, but after seeing it in action I definitely get the reaction to it. I'm inclined to disregard it and play a genocide run anyway, because frankly whether or not the author thinks that that's the interesting part of the work he created doesn't actually have any bearing on if it actually the interesting part of the work. And I'm inclined to say it's not.

Honestly, I wonder if the marketing of this game kinda shot the project in the foot by emphasizing the Pacifist path so much? Yeah, it's there, but reaching this ending actively discourages replaying, and replaying/the game making commentary on your savescumming/replaying was what interested me so much about it.

Tl;dr: I see where Fenrir's coming from a lot better afterwards.

Re: Alex and the RPG status: Uhhh yeah, I will agree that in the pacifist run it does kinda throw out the pretense of being an RPG, especially since almost all boss battles end up being on timers, but I still disagree with you re: Neutral/Genocide path. "There aren't any options except attack/use healing items" is a pretty arbitrary line to draw in the sand there.

[The Duck]

My reaction to a beginner's guide is : "K pretty good" I've seen some extremely positive reactions to the game but don't really share them; I think this will affect you more if you're a creative type, which I'm unfortunately not.
Stanley Parable was the opposite, it talked to people who play games as opposed to people who make them. It's the only one that's going to make me a real lasting impression. (Btw it is real good, much recommended)

I played through this too, and I can see people going in blind seeing that it was from the Stanley Parable guy and thinking it was going to be something very different. The tone is very different. I do agree that it will probably resonate more with creators, and I saw a of this game not in myself but in one of my friends who writes and is sometimes deathly afraid of letting anyone read her writing, some of which is so specific and specialized that only a few people would get anything from it and much of it being more therapeutic for her. I do think that what it says about anxiety, depression, getting into a rut, self loathing, and the selfcentered way of thinking that what makes you happy would make someone else happy should be able to get through to everyone to some extent, and that was my biggest takeaway from it. Definitely worth going through for me but I don't know who I would recommend it to. I do like how honest (but not really honest) and personal it is.

Avoiding all "is it a game" discussion because who gives a shit.

Incidentally, this has been a really strong year for newly released games to me, and this is without having played MGSV or the Witcher 3 yet.

[Captain K]

FFRK:  Almost caught up on elite dungeons.  132/134 timebux.  A lot of these dungeons just test your number of hones, as bosses aren't particularly hard but have stupid amounts of hp.  Also fuck bosses that can't be hit by melee attacks.  That was a bad idea back in FF7, it's idiotic to bring it back in FF13.

I have no idea where I'm going to fit Steal abilities into Balthier's set.  He's already godlike with Celerity 4.  Tempo Flurry + Dismissal is lockdown city.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Probably not a bad idea to slap those onto Vaan or Bartz when they're released (Vaan in particular is coming next Wednesday). Speaking of which...

Final Fantasy Spanish Autobattle - Sundaily, so I'm propping up Auron, Loserface and Arc in levels a bit further. Current carry-on for L50ing is Tellah, may replace Warrior of Light with some other loser now that I got his second RM. I also finished Auron's dungeons, in which the highlight was Seymour Flux snapping out of Silence just in time to cast a Flare on himself and die. The boss rush will be quite a doozy, though: needing to Silence and Poison Seymour Flux along with preparing the typical setup for Seymour and Anima means picking up an optimal setup is quite tricky. May bring Yuna for a second cleric in order to spam Diaga and Silencega, freeing a space for Auron's breaks, since Mental and Magic Breakdown are already taken. Thankfully, both Magic and Mental BD are already R3. I may bring Shellga/Curaga instead, handing Yuna Alexander/Carbuncle, but we'll see.

[Veryslightlymad]

A couple of random stories from Sage got me to try Space Station 13.

After several rounds of hilariously failing, I spawned as a Changeling. Basically the creature from "The Thing". I was also nominally the station's medical doctor. OK. I can work with this.

I roamed the station looking for a lone victim. But I was not alone. Someone else started as a traitor boxer and was doing the same thing. Before I knew what was happening, this maniac flew down a corridor and beat me within an inch of my life. I couldn't even use any of my cool changeling abilities.

However, since no one knew I was a changeling, I called for help, the ship AI alerted everyone to my location, and the cavalry came in and drove off the scary boxer man. Another medical doctor pulled me into surgery and healed me up right quick, without me even having to use any of my abilities. I thanked him. The boxer ran into med-bay and I yelled "Save me from this maniac" and hid in the morgue while a big firefight ensued.

While I was in the morgue, I found a corpse and drained it of its precious fluids and DNA. 1/5 of my objectives done.

I heard there was a big commotion in the court house. OK. So far I got my ass handed to me in direct confrontation, but draining bodies of the already dead seemed to work just fine. Usually "commotion" means there'll be more dead dudes. And, as a medical doctor, if I drag one in the general direction of sick-bay, no one will ask any questions. I proceed to the courthouse. "That's odd. It's just char and desolation. I don't see any bodies." then I step into the courthouse and I get the message The dust explodes violently. Very nearly killing me, and blowing me into the room. The room which is, apparently, coated with explosive dust. After rolling into corners and going into a regenerative cocoon several times to regrow my legs as they got blown off violently in this courthouse, I finally escape. I have one leg but it's not bleeding, and I see another character bleeding and randomly passing out. I chase him down an empty hallway yelling "Wait, I'm a doctor!" trying to catch up to him. It's the slowest chase of cripples as my speed is about as reduced as "Having one leg" would make you think. I catch up only because he keeps blacking out. I use most of my medkit on him and successfully stabilize his wounds. He thanks me. Then he passes out again, as my neurotoxin sets in. I drag him into a dark room and consume him while he's still alive. I emerge with his stuff.

Later, I find two crew members fighting to the death in the chapel. One has been turned into a monkey, and the other has an official ID card with the job description "Monkey Abuser". Seems legit. I hide in a corner expecting to kill the winner and then eat both. (Not actually possible. Can't eat monkeys) The monkey accidentally walks into the mass driver used for ejecting coffins into space for space funerals and gets spaced himself. I pull the near-dead Monkey Abuser into confessional and start strangling him. "I'm telling", he says, but he no longer has air. Poor bastard. You should have actually told BEFORE I cut off your vocals. Oh well. I eat his DNA and assume his identity. I find a random corpse and eat that. 4/5s my objective done.

Then some OTHER traitor summons the escape pod, jumps on, and gets it to leave within 10 seconds. The normal crew did nothing productive to stop me. Every single case of touch and go was just some other traitor going about their business and assuming I was a normal person. Playing as a changeling is super fun. I think I found my calling in this game.

[Meeplelard]

FFRK:  Almost caught up on elite dungeons.  132/134 timebux.  A lot of these dungeons just test your number of hones, as bosses aren't particularly hard but have stupid amounts of hp.  Also fuck bosses that can't be hit by melee attacks.  That was a bad idea back in FF7, it's idiotic to bring it back in FF13.

Honestly, I don't even remember that mechanic being in FF13, or if it was, it was such a non-factor because Melee characters all had Ruin anyway, so it was, at worst, a damage loss for characters (and I'm pretty sure you could attack anyway because "Jump and attack!" animations are a thing that exists); why FFRK felt the need to implement that as a serious gimmick for bosses is beyond me because it very much WASN'T a notable gimmick in FF13.


Tales of Xillia: Completed!  I went in going "ho hum another Tales game, should be alright" and came out with a more positive opinion than expected.  The big thing about Tales of Xillia I found is that it doesn't fumble over all the usual Tales hiccups.  I like Tales games, but they do tend to have consistent hiccups, like being longer than they need to be, cheesy themes that they really don't do anything with other than beat you over the head with them ("FRIENDSHIP!" in Graces comes to mind), loving to waste your time with meaningless little dribble like "go to this location in another town to activate a cutscene just so we can go to ANOTHER location!", and of course, shitty villains (exceptions being Dhaos and Richter, aka the original Tales villain and that guy from the Tales sequel everyone hates, go figure)

Tales of Xillia manages to sidestep a lot of these.  For starters, one thing I noticed immediately is that until basically the last 25% of the game, dungeons are brisk and fast, and straight forward.  No Sorcerer's Ring nonsense that is pretending to be puzzles but is actually just a way to artificially inflate the length of a dungeon, no platform moving nonsense, no teleport nonsense (well, no, there is one but it has like 3 Teleporters and it's obvious where they lead to thanks to the minimap), etc.  They're a few rooms, you're in and out.  It reminds me a lot of FF7 in that regard, where most dungeons are 2-3 rooms long, fight a boss, then you're done; there are a few exceptions of course, but that's to be expected.

Branching from that, randoms handled better.  While Xillia has a lot of corridor with branch-style dungeons, the corridors are just large enough that you can avoid enemies (and the overworld is an open field so plenty of freedom).  Heck, the final dungeon I literally avoided every single encounter...oh yeah, the Final Dungeon is really short too, which is basically unheard of for a Tales game.  I appreciate that this a lot since it doesn't mean you have to resort to "Holy Bottle, keep it up to avoid enemies"; you can actually avoid them by simply navigating around them save for like 2 dungeons with small pathes.

Yeah, they aren't as pretty or awe-inspiring when you go into them...but remember what I just said before about visuals?  Yeah, I'd trade in visuals and "full of life!" in favor of things that are, you know, FUN AND NOT-DETRMINENTAL TO GAMEPLAY.  This comes up because chat was discussing how Tales of Graces has more "life" but if it's between livelier areas and better designed ones from a gameplay standpoint, the latter always wins for me.  Yeah, the prettier game might be easier to sell at first, but overall I'm going to enjoy the latter a lot more, since the latter will be fun repeatedly, the former has only the initial reaction.

The cast is shockingly not as Tales-like as I expected.  You've already heard my rants about Jude; a character who the game says is smart and actually follows through by SHOWING he's smart.  This actually has a 2nd benefit in that it avoids forceful exposition by NPCs to explain things to the team, and let's Jude figure it out on his own.  The big revelation with Milla?  Jude figured that one out simply by putting a few things that didn't quite fit together and the rest of the team is like "...huh, now that you mention it, that DOES seem to fit."  Yes, we have had non-stupid Tales protagonists, but I think this is the first one who qualifies as intelligent.  He's able to hold a conversation with the team's token strategist, after all, and it's more than "I'm the emotion side, you're the intelligent side", but rather "the honor student talking to the seasoned veteran", two different kinds of intelligence and they bounce off each other.

But I think the thing that stood out to me most is that despite how many villains the game has over the course of it, none of them really qualify as evil outside of maybe Nachtigal, and in his case, it was more him being misguided and broken, I guess.  Gaius in particular they did a good job of avoiding all the usual cliches with him, keeping it clear that "no, he's not a bad guy, he really does want what's good for the world, just his methods don't line up with Jude's."  It makes characters like Duke look all the worse because Gaius never quite reaches the extremes that go "ok, your motivations are ass, you're just an evil guy trying to destroy everyone!"  It really did come off as realist vs. idealist.  It's especially strange because Gaius is not someone I ended up hating; there are moments where you totally understand where he's coming from, he clearly has respect for Jude's resolve, vision, etc, but he just disagrees with him, and isn't willing to change from his path.  Heck, Muzet literally gives herself to Gaius, and he's reluctant to take advantage of her because it does actually go against his own code, but ultimately caves in realizing that walking away from her is meaner than enslaving her, since she has no understanding of this concept of 'freedom' at all.  I also appreciate that while Gaius survives in the end, he's not exactly happy about Jude winning; most villains who survive go into this "now I see your side, I agree with you!"  Gaius is "ok, you win, but I still think you're wrong, and I expect you to fail, but I'm not in any position to stop you.  You've won this feud of ideals, but as soon as you DO fail, I will come in and save the day with MY future."  So yes, doesn't like it, but he's not going to resist it either, more let it run it's natural course, with his own plan being a contingency if things go southwards as he expects.

Also, Ivar is pretty great now that I think about it.  He annoyed me at first...then it became slowly clear THAT'S THE ENTIRE POINT OF THE CHARACTER.  He's a pathetic arrogant individual that you can't way to just punch in the face  I feel like he's a slap in the face of Shonen Rivals everywhere.  People start saying "Shonen rivals are pathetic individuals and I hate them!" and Namco just sort of went "...you're right, here's a pathetic individual, we're not going to even PRETEND there's anything redeeming about him!"  He reminds me of Zagi of ToV in that regard, though Ivar is obviously not a homicidal psychopath, more just "Butt-monkey to everyone!" 

Other characters?  Well, Leia ended up working for a character whose motivation is "I like Jude!"  I think a big reason why is because unlike characters such as Cheria, Leia is upfront and honest about it.  She's not hiding the fact that she's here for Jude, so there's none of those awkward "call her out and she embarrassingly tries to defend herself!" moments.  It's more "yeah, but I don't think I'm doing very well."  I also approve of the fact that for once the game actually says "you can do your best and still fail" which is another theme with her character; you can do everything right, make all the right decisions, even be good at it, and things can still end up wrong, because not everything is under your control; the key is how you cope with it.  It's rare to see a game actually go against the "Do your best and anything is possible!" 

Elize and Teepo...at first I was like "oh boy, shy little girl and annoying puppet, this is going to be fun isn't it?"  It actually worked because they established that Teepo is actually Elize's subconscious speaking out which actually adds depth to Elize, since it let her remain the shy little girl but actually express herself without being out of character.  Teepo's voice was kind of annoying but I think the game was self aware about this between how the game seems to treat Teepo as being this annoying character to all BUT Elize.

Alvin's the character I'm most conflicted on.  On one hand, I do appreciate they had a character who was a mercenary through and through, and someone like him is absolutely necessary for the game's theme of  "It's not the path you choose that's important, it's just being able to choose your own path" as we have a character who doesn't bother choosing where he goes, he let's his clients do that for him; the whole trust thing got a little out of hand, because yes, he's untrustworthy, and the team lets him in anyway knowing he's untrustworthy because he's useful in combat, etc.    What gets me though is he flip flops a little too much I guess?  I felt like we could have done with a few less of those.  He does work way better than Kain simply because this is a character aspect of Alvin, as opposed "he's mind controlled, we will call this depth!" His personality is alright, because Troy Baker and such, at least.

Rowen is a bad ass UOM Magical Ninja Strategist.  Seriously, why did it take this long for us to a character like this!?

Milla's alright I guess; a little too stock "deity who gains humanity thus associates better with them!" though I suppose I do respect the game for having her be Pro-life from the outset.  She's not just "I have a mission, and if people must die so be it!" because her mission involves causing as few deaths as possible.   I guess she deserves props for avoiding that cliche.

Speaking of which, I think ToX handled the "two worlds" thing best of any Tales game with that, as they did a better job explaining how there are two worlds, what's different about them, and even though we spend all of like 10% of the game on Elympios, we learn everything necessary about it fast.  High tech, low nature world, people on it use the EVIL SPYRIX for actually rather begnin methods, most notably in medical usage, and we even see that the Civilian scientists are trying to find alternative methods that are NOT sucking the life from others in Spyrites, establishing that "Elympians are actually pretty ok."  They also show that they're self-centered, but at least the game follows up with "well that's just normal.")

Gameplay wise, this game further confirmed my suspicions that TP isn't that limiting on the gameplay.  Ok, at first it kind of was then I discovered that "oh, you have to actually EQUIP these skills you learn" and suddenly things like "Level restore" and all those TP skills kick in and yeah, I never ran out of TP unless I spammed nothing but expensive Artes.  Thing is, in most Tales games, I'm very good at mixing and matching Artes and normal attack chains, and ToX I felt more free than usual; I played primarily as Jude but mostly because he's just so easy to get the hang of and very fluent in style.  I toyed around a little with everyone, Leia and Milla's styles were both pretty good I found though Milla I started a little too late so too many moves to get use to, and Leia was a healer, kind of want her on AI!  Alvin was the one I found one of the harder to use DESPITE being a Tales Swordsmen, the charge mechanic seemed like a big deal for him, and he handles very awkwardly; the AI seemed to do an alright job with him.

The Grid system was neat though yeah, a little too samey for every character?  Got a little out of hand when it got big that I just auto-leveled.  Still, it was a competent way to have character growth with some player input, and not be "everything is levels!"  Come to think of it, not sure the last time Tales had "everything is levels!" style growth.  Link System I thought was going to be a chore but I actually found it neat because hey, combo attacks in Tales game and just a case of remembering what works well with who, which isn't so bad if you stick to a single character.   Additionally, I love how they let you equip twice as many Artes as always; I could actually play around with my skillset some!  I think this is the first game I used the short-cut analog for Artes as well but that's mostly because Jude had support moves and it worked to distinguish them immediately (albeit I only used stuff like Healer because it often had a nice strong Link Arte for healing.)  It's also another reason why TP isn't a big deal.

I think another huge addition was AUTO ITEM (though part of me is saying "IT EXISTED IN GRACES YOU DUMB ASS!" but I seriously can't remember)  Being able to set a number of items for characters to automatically use under certain conditions like FF12 Macros?  That alone makes fights much smoother.  It allows you to get away without a healer more freely since now your AI is throwing items too instead of the player having to micromanage them, means a healer dying is easier to recover from since, again, an AI character can cover that, etc.  This was really handy in the final boss fight.

SPEAKING OF THE FINAL BOSS FIGHT, I really appreciate that fight stylistically.  The Mystic Artes thing was cool, but more to the point, "Here's a boss that uses EVERY SINGLE MECHANIC the PC has been using to this point!"  I know, not the first one, as there were a few others where bosses linked up, but this one the usage of it was very obvious and you had to care, most notably because you could kill the lower HP one and the higher HP one would actually restore the partner, thereby making it not a simple case of "well, kill the support and the fight gets a lot easier!"  No, killing the support slows them down a bit, but they'll be back.  Did get a little hectic.


Overall? Pleasantly surprised with this.  Was expecting generic Tales, got something somewhat more enjoyable.  It's still a Tales game, but it managed to be quite Un-Tales like in a number of areas that made the experience better.   Not sure what I rate it, thinking 8/10.

[Grefter]

I also quite like Sphere Grid but find it gets quite same-y late in the game.

KotOR2 - I really want to go light side pretty dedicated.  On the other hand doing some drug dealing on the side unlocks a really good shop.

Grey morality at its finest!

[Fudozukushi]

Alvin's voiced by Matt Mercer actually.