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I played Dragon Age for a few hours this morning, it's wonderful.
I love every part of it so far, I'm a mage.
Definitely get this game guys.

At 11/8/09 03:36 PM, EpicFail wrote: I played Dragon Age for a few hours this morning, it's wonderful.
I love every part of it so far, I'm a mage.
Definitely get this game guys.

I ordered the game yesterday.

It should arrive in two weeks or something.

At 11/8/09 04:11 PM, Aigis wrote:

I ordered the game yesterday.

It should arrive in two weeks or something.

You're gonna have such a great fucking time playing it man, it's so good!

At 11/8/09 12:12 PM, Mendou wrote: I'd be more excited for these games if I knew they were actually coming to the west for localization. So far none of the DS/wii tales titles have been mentioned about being released here in the states. Still got my fingers crossed for a PS3 Vesperia though, lord knows the PS3 needs a good JRPG already.

Actually that only applies to the DS Tales games, there has only been 1 Wii Tales game thus far and that's Dawn of the New World, which did come stateside, and is planned for a Europe release very soon.
The only real hint to Graces' localization is the fact that an English version of the theme song is planned for release, and there really isn't any reason to make an English version unless it's to target an English-speaking demographic--i.e. America.

And check higher up this page--or last page, I think--for some good Vesperia localization news, Troy Baker is on the move.

As for RPG games: I've been playing mostly Dragonquest VIII and started back up on Xenogears. DQ8 is good, but I just don't have the time and patience for it at the moment. Doesn't help that there's essentially no real character development(aside from very small portions of the game) and the plot isn't anything terribly special. The alchemy pot feels like such a chore at times as well.

Xenogears has been alright so far.

The only new RPG I've been into is "Tales of Eternia" (or known as "Tales of Destiny 2" in America, super fun.
I was thinking of doing a log, but my Tales of Destiny log failed (and not even epically), so I'm not gonna waste my time on it.

At 11/8/09 06:58 PM, EpicFail wrote:

At 11/8/09 04:11 PM, Aigis wrote:

I ordered the game yesterday.

It should arrive in two weeks or something.

You're gonna have such a great fucking time playing it man, it's so good!

Feel free to elaborate, it's gonna be some time before I buy it.

At 11/8/09 11:03 PM, Corky-D wrote:

Feel free to elaborate, it's gonna be some time before I buy it.

I honestly don't even know where to start.
I'm about 4 hours in to the game only, 13% discovered the world, blah blah.
I don't know how to explain it though, I am in love with it, I plan on playing it all day tomorrow, all night tonight, I don't want to stop. not for a bit.

I'm doing my first sort of dungeon on Dragon Age, it's insane. Fucking sweet. And there's some weird dude, it's fucked. Get this game god damn it.

Also, DDO (Dungeons and Dragons Online) is now 100% free, check it out.

Tales of Updates

Today, Rikiya-san has edited his blogpost that had caused all the rumors, adding this line to the end of the earlier paragraph:

Translated: "When I mentioned being on sale for the Wii, I meant Tales of Graces, and not Tales of Vesperia! I truly apologize to everyone for the misunderstanding!!!!"

So there we have it, false alarm....

At 11/9/09 11:17 AM, knuxrouge wrote: Tales of Updates

Today, Rikiya-san has edited his blogpost that had caused all the rumors, adding this line to the end of the earlier paragraph:

Translated: "When I mentioned being on sale for the Wii, I meant Tales of Graces, and not Tales of Vesperia! I truly apologize to everyone for the misunderstanding!!!!"

So there we have it, false alarm....

And with this, I declare this man teh stupidest voice actor out there. How the hell do you screw up what the hell you are working on?! It's like working at KFC and making a McChicken...

worst analogy ever

Well, considering the way the Japanese language works, it's an understandable misunderstanding.

At 11/9/09 10:08 AM, EpicFail wrote: I'm doing my first sort of dungeon on Dragon Age, it's insane. Fucking sweet. And there's some weird dude, it's fucked. Get this game god damn it.

What I really want to know about this game is how the origin stories affect the rest of the game.

Is it just like the profiles in Mass Effect where a few characters make reference to it and then you get a sidequest or two, or is it something deeper than that?

ill join you

At 11/9/09 05:16 PM, Aigis wrote:

Is it just like the profiles in Mass Effect where a few characters make reference to it and then you get a sidequest or two, or is it something deeper than that?

I haven't gotten in to Mass Effect, bought it, wasn't a fan.
But from what I did play, this game is a lot more in depth, there is a lot of side quests, and the story so far seems fucking huge.
Eventually with all the DLC though I'm positive there will also be a lot of dungeons and a shit load of sidequests, probably other maps with more storyline, who knows.

At 11/9/09 08:55 PM, EpicFail wrote: Eventually with all the DLC though I'm positive there will also be a lot of dungeons and a shit load of sidequests, probably other maps with more storyline, who knows.

I've never cared for DLC.

There are very few games that once I've beaten them I've decided that I need more outside of the storyline. In addition, DLC tends to be ridiculously expensive in RPGs considering what you get for them. I paid $75 for a 40-60 hour game, and I have to pay $10 for another hour? I could just put that money towards buying a brand new game.

At 11/10/09 03:07 AM, Aigis wrote:

There are very few games that once I've beaten them I've decided that I need more outside of the storyline. In addition, DLC tends to be ridiculously expensive in RPGs considering what you get for them. I paid $75 for a 40-60 hour game, and I have to pay $10 for another hour? I could just put that money towards buying a brand new game.

Yeah, you are right. I paid... 6.99 maybe for a small dungeon on Dragon Age, I have a feeling it was more than that, but my brother says it was $6.99. Not too bad, but still, for a 45 minute thing to do in a game, it's not really worth the money.

The only reason I get DLC is because I put no money in to it, and got a PSN $50 gift card. So I had some money to burn online I guess.

Tales of Updates

A new Tales of Graces trailer/PV has been posted up on the Japanese Nintendo Channel. Due to the video having a long part of BoA's Mamoritai ~White Wishes~ in the video, YouTube has muted all uploads of it by other users.

The PV shows us more of the scenes that occur during the time Asbel and the rest were still young. This includes battles of the kids as well. Other new things include new anime and game cutscenes. The opening theme is playing in the video, at the length I believe to be the game's actual opening version. The song translations are courtesy of Yume Hanabi.

You can download the video from here.

A new Tales of Graces scan from Famitsu reveals to us a certain cameo character and battle from Tales of Rebirth; the availability of costume titles for the characters, specifically swimsuit costumes; a card-based mini-game; and about the game's transportation availabilities.

Within the game will be an area by the name of Riot Park which works like a survival game for the characters. There are multiple floors that your chosen characters will explore. According to the scan, in one of the floors is Veigue Lungberg from Tales of Rebirth, ready to fight your team. Riot Park even has a reception area, giving it the feel of the game's battle arena.

The scan confirms the availability of in-game costumes, specifically swimsuit costumes for the whole party (...except Richard). The most amusing ones are Pascal's snorkel and Malik's speedos, in my opinion. Sophie and Cheria are looking lovely in their swimsuits.

A new card-based mini-game, named Carta, will be available in the game. No news yet on exactly how the mini-game itself works, but the cards themselves are considered items to be collected in the game. The cards have illustrations and descriptions of Tales of Series characters. Upon collecting 10 of one kind of card in Graces, you can now use it for the actual Carta mini-game.

Lastly, the contents of the pre-order DVD, Dramatic DVD ~otona ni naritai? hen~ have been confirmed. The DVD will contain a Special Skit Drama, voice actor interviews, an image gallery, the previously released game trailers, and a documentary of the events that took place last Tokyo Game Show 2009.

Tales of Updates

Three new magazine scans have surfaced, revealing Blast Caliber cut-ins for Cheria, Hubert, Malik, Pascal and Richard. They look really wonderful if I do say so myself. Click the thumbnails above to view the scans.

These are the Blast Calibers of all the characters that have been revealed so far. They are mostly from Nore's blog, based on what he was able to play of the game during Tokyo Game Show 2009.

Asbel: Juuha Goushozan
Sophie: Critical Blade {kuritikaru bureedo}
Cheria: Asterism Line {asuterizumu rain}
Hubert: Instant Valse {ansutan varusu}
Malik: Calamity Rondo {karamiti rondo}
Pascal: G Sword Cross {"G" soodo kurosu}
Richard: Vertex/Vortex? Rose {vaatekusu roozu}

Bandai has put up another upcoming RPG countdown site.

At 11/12/09 11:01 AM, knuxrouge wrote: Tales of Updates

Whatever happened to being surprised when you finally play a game you've been waiting for?

At 11/12/09 05:22 PM, Aigis wrote:

At 11/12/09 11:01 AM, knuxrouge wrote: Tales of Updates

Whatever happened to being surprised when you finally play a game you've been waiting for?

That's called "The Story", not gameplay elements.

At 11/12/09 05:30 PM, knuxrouge wrote: That's called "The Story", not gameplay elements.

Gameplay elements were exactly what I was talking about.

How will the gameplay elements in their purest form surprise you?

Personally, I'd better like knowing of them so I can know what to expect instead of buying the game, ignorant of it, just to end up not liking what I find.
The real surprise in the gameplay elements are the things that the individual player find out to exploit not the basics of the game, like using 3 character for one FOF in Tales of the Abyss, or Yuri's Hi Ougi loop (on 3 enemies at the very least) in Tales of Vesperia.

Shameless Tales of fan....

Besides, most of my anticipated shocks I expect to get from the story, a compelling story is a huge staple to RPGs in my opinion.

At 11/12/09 08:45 PM, knuxrouge wrote: How will the gameplay elements in their purest form surprise you?

You're clearly not just investigating the basics of the gameplay. From the small amount that I've skimmed of your updates, you've got stuff like 'this game has a place called Riot Park which is like an arena' and 'the characters look great in swimsuits'.

That's the sort of thing that I like to find out while I'm playing a game, otherwise it just ends up a series of "oh, I read about this part".

The only things I want to know about before I play a JRPG is whether or not the story is good, what sort of battle system it has, and what the art style is like. There are a few more things I like to know before I play a Western RPG but that's not important here.

Besides, most of my anticipated shocks I expect to get from the story, a compelling story is a huge staple to RPGs in my opinion.

Unfortunately it tends to be very difficult to find a story in an RPG that really grips you.

At 11/13/09 12:15 AM, Aigis wrote: You're clearly not just investigating the basics of the gameplay. From the small amount that I've skimmed of your updates, you've got stuff like 'this game has a place called Riot Park which is like an arena' and 'the characters look great in swimsuits'.

That's really common for Tales games, it's not a surprise in the slightest for someone who knows the series as well as I do--and I'm a common Tales fan in that respect. If anything, it'd be a surprise if they didn't have it.
Same thing for Cameo Boss Fights and those playful kind of places that have absolutely no impact on the story or vise versa.

If it was a new feature, then the surprise factor would be even greater, and really, there isn't any story related surprises that have ever been announced outside the plot base, so it's natural to believe that it still doesn't play a big part in the plot should they have any news on it.

That's the sort of thing that I like to find out while I'm playing a game, otherwise it just ends up a series of "oh, I read about this part".

Why can't it be, "oh, I read about this, I wonder how it'll be--oh wow, this is pretty cool!"?
If it ends up being a disappointment, it wouldn't really matter if you read about it prior. It's the gameplay that counts and hearing about it beforehand logically shouldn't ruin that.

The only things I want to know about before I play a JRPG is whether or not the story is good, what sort of battle system it has, and what the art style is like. There are a few more things I like to know before I play a Western RPG but that's not important here.

Well, that's you, I'd like to know whatever they give me, as the Story is the real shock I'll ever get, that and the exploits I'll find in the battle system--and the multiplayer experience.

Unfortunately it tends to be very difficult to find a story in an RPG that really grips you.

That's personal taste and standards, I trust a Tales game to give me at the very least an above average plot. I personally haven't been disappointed yet.

To conclude, when a game company gives out news, they naturally wouldn't spoil everything, there will be plenty of other things outside of what they announced that will properly raise an eyebrow in intrigue.

The game is 70 hours of plot alone, the sidequests, battles, grinding, skits and minigames are all up for grabs on the surprise bus...

At 11/13/09 01:37 AM, knuxrouge wrote: That's really common for Tales games, it's not a surprise in the slightest for someone who knows the series as well as I do--and I'm a common Tales fan in that respect. If anything, it'd be a surprise if they didn't have it.

Yeah, I've never gotten into the Tales series.

I tried to find Tales of Symphonia for a while after I got my Wii, but I can't find it anywhere. Then when I got my Xbox 360 I played the demo of Tales of Vesperia, but based on that the dialogue was very awkward so I wasn't interested. I might check that out when it's cheaper, but as it stands it's still ridiculous in price.

And I did have Tales of Eternia for my PSP. I played that for a little while and liked the look of the sprites. I don't remember why I stopped playing that. Maybe I should pick it up again.

Why can't it be, "oh, I read about this, I wonder how it'll be--oh wow, this is pretty cool!"?
If it ends up being a disappointment, it wouldn't really matter if you read about it prior. It's the gameplay that counts and hearing about it beforehand logically shouldn't ruin that.

Well, I'm just going to give an example here. When I played Jade Empire, I thought it was hilarious when I first went into one of those shmup missions for the first time. If I had read that Jade Empire included shmup missions before I played the game, I would not have found that to be nearly as neat.

That's personal taste and standards, I trust a Tales game to give me at the very least an above average plot. I personally haven't been disappointed yet.

Yeah, but with a game that asks so much of your time to watch the story play out, an above average plot usually doesn't cut it and I will get disinterested towards the end.

There are only a few JRPGs that I've been consistently enthralled in the stories of throughout the ridiculous amount of time you tend to have to play one for (mostly coming from the Final Fantasy series, though there have been others). Most JRPGs tend to play out like generic anime.

The game is 70 hours of plot alone, the sidequests, battles, grinding, skits and minigames are all up for grabs on the surprise bus...

I'm not sure I've ever played a game that advertised itself as being 70+ hours, and actually played it for 70+ hours.

To each it's own...

On the 70 hours comment, we'll never really know until we play it for ourselves.
But...

At 11/13/09 02:03 AM, knuxrouge wrote: To each it's own...

It? Are you trying to imply something?

But...

With regard to Tales of Graces, I took a look at a trailer of it and, while the trailer included no gameplay footage, here are my impressions:

The trailer was all in Japanese so I could only understand a bit of it, but the story looked like it could be interesting enough. Or at the very least, it presented its story sequences better than most JRPG trailers I've seen. I'm still not sure what I think about anime cutscenes in video games, since they tend to feel very separate from the actual game. Though they were done very well in Persona 3 and 4, so I'm not feeling all that skeptical.

The game seems to have that trait all too common in JRPGs where all the main characters dress in ridiculous impractical outfits in order to give themselves individuality, while the rest of the populace dress in more reasonable styles.

It seems to be set in generic JRPG fantasy land, where everything just looks like England in various centuries in the past, only with a crazier fashion sense and maybe a few monsters and steampunk robots. I'm guessing that all the Tales games look like this.

I'm guessing the battle system, for better or for worse, will be basically the same as all the other Tales games.

I really disliked the irritating song that was playing over the trailer.

I may get it if it gets good reviews, since there's been a pretty significant RPG drought lately. However, I'm much more interested in Fragile: Farewell Ruins of the Moon at this point. I've been wanting to play that game for a while. I hope it's good.

At 11/13/09 02:40 AM, Aigis wrote: It? Are you trying to imply something?

Nothing at your expense, I assure you.

With regard to Tales of Graces, I took a look at a trailer of it and, while the trailer included no gameplay footage, here are my impressions:

Oh, if you want gameplay footage.

The game seems to have that trait all too common in JRPGs where all the main characters dress in ridiculous impractical outfits in order to give themselves individuality, while the rest of the populace dress in more reasonable styles.

So, the cliche is that they all dress original?
Oxy moron much? Would you prefer that they dressed like a common civilian?

It seems to be set in generic JRPG fantasy land, where everything just looks like England in various centuries in the past, only with a crazier fashion sense and maybe a few monsters and steampunk robots. I'm guessing that all the Tales games look like this.

This universe is specifically set to resemble Mid-evil Europe.
Not all Tales game look like this.

I'm guessing the battle system, for better or for worse, will be basically the same as all the other Tales games.

That's a cruel generalization, the main spice of the Tales games is that they all have individual features unique to that specific game, although the foundations are similar, everything else has their own taste to it, generally why Tales of Legendia didn't go so well, because it didn't have it's own individual feature.

I really disliked the irritating song that was playing over the trailer.

I may get it if it gets good reviews, since there's been a pretty significant RPG drought lately. However, I'm much more interested in Fragile: Farewell Ruins of the Moon at this point. I've been wanting to play that game for a while. I hope it's good.

Well, I never intended to get you interested in the game, I just wanted to show you where the announcement of the 70 hour story was placed.
Personally, I'm psyched about it, as well as another member of the crew.

At 11/13/09 06:53 PM, knuxrouge wrote: So, the cliche is that they all dress original?
Oxy moron much? Would you prefer that they dressed like a common civilian?

The cliche is that they all dress in fucking ridiculous ways in the name of originality. The characters would stick out like a sore thumb in that world

If the game had any interest in realism, the only response that you'd get from the NPCs of the world is "why are you wearing that stupid jacket. It looks ridiculous. Seriously, it has like twenty buckles in places where nobody has ever needed a buckle."

This universe is specifically set to resemble Mid-evil Europe.
Not all Tales game look like this.

Fair enough. I really wasn't basing that on much more than a few memories of things that I've seen from Tales games.

That's a cruel generalization, the main spice of the Tales games is that they all have individual features unique to that specific game, although the foundations are similar, everything else has their own taste to it, generally why Tales of Legendia didn't go so well, because it didn't have it's own individual feature.

I'm just saying that it lacks the evolution of, say, the Final Fantasy series.

Well, I never intended to get you interested in the game

Gasp!

At 11/13/09 10:44 PM, Aigis wrote: If the game had any interest in realism--

Stop there, please. It's fantasy land.

I'm just saying that it lacks the evolution of, say, the Final Fantasy series.

Not true. It has plenty of evolution and it's has refined itself quite greatly.
It's another thing that you can only really establish a true opinion on if you know of the series.
It transitioned quite well from different systems and features.

There is more evolution than it Final Fantasy has, which only really started changing patterns around 10 or 12.

At 11/13/09 11:39 PM, knuxrouge wrote: Stop there, please. It's fantasy land.

I was using that statement as a means to prove the point that the character designer went way too crazy in trying to make his characters look unique that he moved beyond what was reasonable, even in a fantasy land.

It's the same in most other RPGs where you wonder "why does nobody act surprised when they see these guys? They all look weird as hell."