Random Gaming Thoughts

[Segata]

Tokyo Xanadu EX+ feels like someone dipped Persona 4 in Trails of Cold Steel.

[BoneSnapDeez]

This looks badass:

Squeenix should use the Amano art for all game covers, to keep some cool continuity going.

Not the it would help the content of the games themselves, but still, it's something.

[Segata]

After this year Yasunori Nishiki will be one of Japans most sought-after composers in gaming. Bank on it. The music in Octopath Traveler in just the demo is some outstanding stuff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3eGUN7zPwQ

[Segata]

Senku no Ronde 2 is still in stock with 32% stock left. Mecha fighting game with Virtual On guest characters. Also 30% left of the LE
https://limited-run-games.myshopify.com ... 4198652981

[PartridgeSenpai]

I thought it was a bit weird that Tales of Legendia, the last mainline Tales game to use a 2D combat engine, came out a whole two years after the one with the first 3D combat engine Tales of Symphonia. Looking at the Wikipedia for it, the reason for that seems to be that it started development in 2000, right after Tales of Eternia came out, and right alongside Tales of Destiny 2. But Tales of Destiny 2 came out in 2002, and then that team's NEXT game, Tales of Rebirth, came out in 2004, while Tales of Legendia came out in 2005.

It was in production for damn near five years, and I just can't find any detailing as to why, not even on the Japanese Wikipedia article. The only reason I can guess as to why would be due to the goal of Legendia being to kind of make this ARPG that was a meeting of the story that fighting games were missing and the deeper combat that their ARPG's were missing (hence the incorporation of members of the SoulCalibur and Tekken dev-teams).

[Xeogred]

So confusing, not to mention the renaming and different releases of Tales of Eternia and Tales of Destiny 2 depending on the territory. lol

Is the combat really that different in Legendia? The Tekken/Soul Caliber teams being involved sounds interesting.

Abyss sounds like the most popular PS2 one.

[PartridgeSenpai]

So confusing, not to mention the renaming and different releases of Tales of Eternia and Tales of Destiny 2 depending on the territory. lol

Is the combat really that different in Legendia? The Tekken/Soul Caliber teams being involved sounds interesting.

Abyss sounds like the most popular PS2 one.

The way we get around the confusing naming is that the US release of Tales of Eternia is technically named "Tales of Destiny II", while the actual sequel to Tales of Destiny is spelled with a '2'. That's how I tell them apart anyways

I'm probably going to play Rebirth after this, to try and get a feel of how other 2D entries on the PS2 play, but it really does feel like you can string together combos a bit easier in this. Not that I'm usually trying particularly, but it FEELS that way to this person who basically plays no proper fighting games, at the very least

Abyss is, for all intents and purposes, an actually mechanically sound Tales of Symphonia, so it doesn't surprise me that it's so popular. It's literally the same engine as Tales of Symphonia and basically the same dev-team as well, but Abyss added free-running during combat, so being in a 3D-space is actually helpful/meaningful to combat instead of being actively annoying like it is in Symphonia where enemies can free-run but you can't. I'm of the opinion that Symphonia really doesn't deserve to be as lauded as it is. If it's voice cast weren't so stellar, it'd be remembered as just another somewhat mechanically flawed ARPG on that gen like Legendia is, tbh.

It's been like 6 years since I've played Abyss, actually. I've been meaning to replay it on my 3DS someday just to get a real feel for how well the story is done. The most easy way to check which Tales games have been the most popular/heavily promoted is just to check which ones have had anime adaptations, so I generally see Symphonia, Abyss, and Vesperia as seeming to be the most popular. A similar metric is to see how many of their main cast of characters make it into the crossover games compared to other entries, and judging from who've I've seen in the tactics game on 3DS I've been playing, those 3 still hold up as most apparently popular

One thing I saw on the American Wikipedia page for Legendia was that it made some list of "Underwhelming RPGs with Overwhelming Soundtracks," and I wouldn't really disagree with that so far. The VA is pretty rough for a Namco/Bandai-published game, but the soundtrack really makes up for it as far as providing the atmosphere for story moments goes. It also helps that I haven't exactly seen the themes it deals with dealt with in many/any other RPG's I can think of, and it does them pretty damn well. If the VA and dungeon design were both a bit better, this would be a real forgotten classic on the PS2. As it is, it's a bit more of a rough hidden gem (at least that's how I feel so far about a chapter or two from the end of the game).

[marurun]

Do they call it Des2ny?

[PartridgeSenpai]

Do they call it Des2ny?

They don't actually have the "too" sound in Japanese, at least not traditionally, so I can't really imagine they do, as fun as that would be. Maybe if it'd come out in the 90's then it'd be spelled that way

[Segata]

Shenmue and Yakuza both on PS4. I believe this is the first time these series have been on the same system. What a time to be a gamer.