What about Tales of Hearts on the Vita?

Ya so much was bad and making only half the party controllable. Tales is about FREEDOM dont wall off half the party and make the other half play the exact same.  Honestly, Tales should just stay away from transformations only Berseria’s worked and that was because it was a berserker option, it had drawbacks.

I agree with all of this, especially Zestiria. Not because of its story, but because of it’s stupid RNG equipment skill system. Actually no, this in itself wouldn’t be so bad, but the combination system of random equipment skills - like, since when did JRPGs became roguelikes?

It was so obviously a rush job to capitilize on the success of Xillia it hurt. Also I agree with only one exception (I liked Muse’s story in Xillia 2) it added almost nothing to the characters. Also a silent choose your own story protagonist was kind of dumb. Tales is a playable anime, I dont want to put my feet in a…

Graces F had a superb combat system. One of the best in the genre.

Those are all fairly modern, in the grand scheme of things. No love for the older games? Tales of Phantasia or Tales of Destiny?

I would say Xillia is my favorite out of the most recent games (past 10 years). 

I’m glad to see Vesperia on your list. I love it, but people seem to hate it online 

I’m glad western audiences seem to appreciate Abyss’s story... I’ve never been as moved by any of the other Tales games stories, though Symphonia characters always hold a special place in my heart. It’s been super depressing hearing the reaction in Japan being mostly just memes about how shitty Luke was in the…

Xillia had a great cast, good story, was beautiful, had complex villains, and played great. Xillia 2 reused a lot of assets giving it a samesy feel, largely retread familiar ground, and the inclusion of the new MC who had exclusive transformations made him OP as hell. To the point you couldn’t beat certain encounters…

My first Tales game years and years and yeeeears ago, Tales of Legendia, left a bad taste. The voice acting (there was no Japanese dialogue track) and story were all so shockingly bad I couldn’t believe it - I was laughing during one of the game’s most tragic points (partly because one of the main characters is named…

Abyss best story but dragged down by not best systems. Vesperia best all around but not the best in any one area. Symphonia... it shows its age. Xillia I love, its sequel is shit. Graces F has the best combat bar none (I will fight you on this one) but the worst story and cast, except for the REALLY bad Tales of games…

What is amusing is that most people in Congress were alive for that shit and still clutch their pearls at this. As though that word holds nearly the potency it did back then.

Afraid I’ll have to disagree that Instrumentality was cowardly. It was achieving the ultimate empathy across everyone. Gendo messed with it (and everyone else) so he could see his wife.

I’ve stuck with Allison’s work, and although I don’t think Bad Machinery is is best, I’m still enjoying it. I’m also looking forward to the first collection of his new Boom! series, By Night.

I just did a full re-read of Allison’s webcomics, from early Bobbins (which is pretty damn raw) through Bad Machinery and I think it’s a great body of work, especially once it shifts into the fantastical stuff of Scary Go Round. His dialogue is slacker Wodehouse and I can’t really imagine someone else writing his…

Fuck, even an adult would scoff at the idea. “Wouldn’t I need like 50,000 hours in that to be any good at piloting a mech?”

The ending is this sort of odd calm after the cacophony of the belly and tail end of the series. Shit flies wildly off the rails, into a fiery train wreck, but the end is ultimately hopeful and optimistic. It feels like a triumph because of how discordant everything was leading up to it.

To be fair End of Eva’s ending also was up lifting in a way.  As Shinji decided to choose life and existence with all the pain that entailed rather then the numb bliss of instrumentality.  

*Son prevents singularity, realizes he’s worth more than what others and his dad thinks, gets over himself; but is still horrified it took the world ending for him to grow up.

This is exactly my argument. Like, ok tough guy, your dad who abandoned you just shows up one day and says go save humanity in this giant piece of machinery, you’d just do it? Get outta here.

I guess people forget what it’s like to be a teenager.