I’m happy to see the PS2 still has something good coming to it. I only got to play a few hours of the original PSX game, so I’m happy.
Has anyone said anything about this coming out in English?
I have a bad feeling this won’t come to the U.S. since there are already quite a few tales games that never made it over here–but I can still hope.
Here’s hoping it gets ported to the Wii
I’m not sure how excited I am about this. The first game was really bad by Tales standards. Maybe if the rewrite the scripts a bit and remove the groan-inducing dramatic dialogues (Seriously, the entire treck through Aetherspehere was plagued by these) it’ll be somewhat better.
That said, there’s already a PS2 remake that came out in 06 and we never saw, so don’t get your hopes up.
It sort of looks like Leon gets his own story mode or something… surprising for a character that gets killed off halfawy through.
I dunno…is this enough remakes of JRPGs already? I mean, Tales of Destiny wasn’t terrible by any means, but I’d rather see entirely new entries in the series rather than yet another remake with “Director’s Cut” slapped on it.
Unless, of course, it’s like the Richard Donner cut of Superman II, in which case it will be awesome if it makes its way here!
I have to agree that Tales of Destiny was one of the worst games I’ve played (in terms of gaming, not the story.) The graphics were crappy even for the time it came out, the dungeons were boring, as were most of the Bosses, the game was WAAAY too long, and I could never get the handle of the stand-in-line combat system. About the only feature I liked was the Food system (which I found both logical and original) and the fact the game chastised you every time you wanted to do naughty things like steal things from people’s houses. 
On the other hand, I did like the story, even if (again) it took forever to get anywhere. I found the fact that main character was lovably clueless refreshing, and it’s also the only RPG I can think of where the Bad Girl ends up the winner of the romantic triangle. And I actually liked it that way! 0_0 )
You know, there’s quite a few old games that really deserved better production values, and I for one don’t mind if they remake them as long as they are a true improvement. Wild Arms 1 was a good example; they should also remake the original Saga Frontier.
No they shouldn’t. The original SaGa Frontier should die an ignominious death somewhere.
I think we aren’t really sure how much of the remake is, well, remaking. Quite possibly they’re fixing a good chunk of the things you don’t like.
The same could be said about SaGa, Cid. (SF is one of my favorite games ever, though it had awful graphics and plot holes due to being rushed out unfinished.) Certainly, if the ToD remake ever gets here, I would seriously consider giving it a try.
Frankly, there was very little I liked about SGF. I traded it in at my earliest convenience.
On the other hand, ToD at least had very likeable characters and a sort of interesting story. And the Tales games have come a long way, so they could easily reuse the upgraded battle system and graphics toolkits they’ve developed since then.
Cid: I really should try more of the Tales series; at first I avoided it because of my experience with ToD, and later because money and time were limited and there were other things ahead in my game buying list (like FF ) On the other hand people like Val and Omega have been on my case to try them, so, I guess I eventually will.
Offhand, what exacty didn’t you like about SF? Personally, I liked most of the characters, found them original (especially when compared to other SaGa games’), found its setting truly original and quite enjoyed the crossovers and sidequests. The music rocked too. Ironically, I never got the"special reward" for finishing all Seven Quests, as I was unable to finish Riki’s (the Ring Lord battle required a specific Combo Chain and I never quite got the handle of how to do that.) Regardless, with better art and more balanced play, it would make a great game today. IMHO.
I found the gameplay consisted mainly of randomness and mindless grinding, and the battle system really didn’t appeal to me. I found the graphics dated and most of the sidequests pointless. Many of the seven chapters had you doing common sidequests over and over again just to be strong enough to beat the main boss.
As for Tales: Play Tales of the Abyss. Seriously, I was totally blown away by that game; it really surprised me. Unfortunately not every game in the series is that good, but it was really something.
I actually sat down and listed the SF Quest-specific missions versus the Optional Sidequests and found out that they were pretty much balanced (with Lute being the exception; of course, he has but one specific quest, and was obviously intended to be a character you could do all the optional stuff with if you didn’t feel like doing it in the other Characters’ quests. But I think that was a mistake because it makes him look poorly developed in contrast to the other PCs.) I made sure to spread the sidequests evenly (I tackled the Laboratory only in Lute’s quest, for example) so as to make each Quest as unique as possible. I never had to grind to beat any of the Bosses, so I guess my doing so also helped with that.
Also, from reading about the “Essence of SaGa” book online, I found out more about how all the quests were connected, in particular the fact that Fuse was meant to have his own Quest but it was cut out at the last minute (while puzzlingly still leaving clues to it in the other Quests.) The game definitely needed better editing, but overall I felt the stories were good and that they did mesh into a tapestry describing their fictional universe well.
One thing that did undermine my gameplay was that the guide I bough for the game had very limited information on important facts such as how to develop combos, how to get your Monster to evolve up and not down, etc. I have found such info on Gamefaqs and now I intend to replay the whole game again, and see how much of a difference it makes.
Yeah… see, I played the game without any guides whatsoever. In fact, it’s arguable that any game which requires you to use FAQs to enjoy it is not intuitive and not enjoyable.
Maybe if the story is unbelievable (like Vagrant Story) I would forgive that, but SGF just had nothing to offer me.
QFT
I second that. I personally think that TOA has much more characterization than TOD. Also, the battle system is very different. In TOA, you have much more control of your character.
Edit: Tales of the Abyss and Tales of Symphonia are made by Team Symphonia. I personally enjoy the Team Symphonia games way more than the other tales games. Team Symphonia just seems to bring out the best in the series.
SF didn’t really require a guide to beat (the fact I beat it despite the guide not pointing certain facts like the ones I mentioned proves it.) In fact, I find several more modern games (like FF12) to be more truly the “buy the guide or you’ll miss things” kind; there’s WAY too much optional stuff in 12 I wouldn’t even know to look for without its guide (the Kjin subquest being an example). Heck, the very fact that the License system is so unintuitive proves it.
Maybe if the story is unbelievable (like Vagrant Story) I would forgive that, but SGF just had nothing to offer me.
I haven’t played VS so I cannot compare, but I found the stories in SF, particularly Red’s and Asellus’s, to be outstanding in both originality and involvement among all those of the RPGs I’ve ever played.
FF12 requires an FAQ to get optional stuff, yes, but you can easily make your way through the game without one.
I literally found it impossible to continue in SGF without an FAQ. Everything is just way too random and there are few to no indications of what to do to trigger things.
(the fact I beat it despite the guide not pointing certain facts like the ones I mentioned proves it.)
No it doesn’t. You still had 95% of the guide helping you. O_o
The stories were original, yes, but they lacked depth; everything was too cartoony to be taken seriously.
I’m sure you can beat FF12 without a guide, but DAMN would I be missing on things if I did. And that’s NOT what I want to do with an RPG. Heck, according to the guide there’s 100 (!) secrets (things like hidden scenes, conversations etc.) in the game BESIDES the Hunts, Sidequests, etc.!
And I must admit, SF lacked a kind of central information source -like Old Dalan is in FF12, to a degree- so I can see how it might be confusing. But again, other than that stupid Ring Lord battle, I’m fairly sure I would’ve beaten it even without the guide.
And I’ll be the first to admit that the graphics were TERRIBLE- worst superdeforms I’ve seen, and the backgrounds tended to be confusing in places. Which is precisely why I think it should be remade with decent graphics (and better editing.) But the stories WERE worth it; I found Asellus story both moving and even scary in places, for example. I guess I just get into it more than you do.
Apparently there’s also going to be a Lilith mode. I’ve also heard (but cannot verify) that there have been a large amount of preorders for the Director’s Cut in Japan. Shame this most likely won’t be officially translated, I’d buy it (being in a PAL region sucks, the only Tales games we got were Symphonia, Phantasia GBA, Eternia PSP and Radiant Mythology).