So What Are YOU Playing II: Electric Boogaloo

[Zealot]

Time to start Triple Triad.

If I remember correctly, this has some kind of mini game attached where you level up kids to save the world, but I never got too into that part, felt very superfluous.

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[Krandor]

Gonna be honest about Sea of Stars, I thought it was mostly just ok.

Yeah.

I certainly enjoyed it, but it never really kicked into the next gear and just stayed consistently at the level of good not great.

[Yuri-G]

the Vampire Survivors guy made a roguelike deckbuilder pseudo-first-person-rpg version of the game? you don't say...

[Hitou]

Gonna be honest about Tales of Arise, it was mostly just okay.

[Starby]

Friend recommended me Vaporum since I loved Legend of Grimrock and so far it was a great recommendation. Grid based dungeon crawler.

Only issue is the fan on the SteamDeck(lcd version) sounds like a jet engine taking off. Gonna have to tinker with the settings a little

[Yuri-G]

Gonna be honest about Tales of Arise, it was mostly just okay.

I have heard nothing but okay things about that game

I think my next Tales will be either phantasia psx or vesperia... have not decided which vibe I want yet. and those are two very different vibes

[Tyrath]

I have not played a better Tales game than Vesperia so that would be my vote. But also, I've only played about half of them

[Zealot]

From the ones I've played, Vesperia and Abyss are S tier, Symphonia below that, then Arise, then Zestiria.

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[Julian]

Tales of Arise is hot garbage

[Starby]

Vesperia has *great* in person multiplayer, had a great time playing 4 player couch co op with friends on the xbox.

[Tyrath]

I think a lot of those older (not the oldest) Tales games did

[Krandor]

I'd personally put Berseria right near the top tier. If for no other reason because of some interesting shades of gray in the story compared to the generally vanilla good vs evil.

[Tyrath]

I loved Berseria. Was especially great after being disappointed by Zestiria

[Hitou]

Berseria, The Abyss, and Vesperia are all S tier to me. Symphonia somewhere below that. Hearts is ok. Arise is ok. Symphonia 2 (dawn of the new world?) was borderline awful, but had some interesting ideas. Zestiria gets a lot of hate but I think it was ok too. Definitely below Arise. However, Rose if awful. I have Graces but haven't gotten around to playing it yet so can't saw how that is. And I think that's all the tales games I've played.

[Zealot]

I rate Zestiria below Arise for two reasons:

1. The gear upgrade system is ridiculous and bad

2. I don't remember any of the characters names because none of them are memorable

Being boring is worse than being mediocre.

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[Tyrath]

Also the core combat mechanic made you lose 2 characters in battle due to the combining

[Kaisha]

Had a Metroidvania itch again, so I played F.I.S.T. and Nine Sols and 100%'d both. FIST I cleared first, it was 'eh/completely average, and I don't feel like talking about it.

Nine Sols, I dumped my last week of gaming time into, and it'd have probably been my 2024 GOTY if I had played it year of release. People seem to liken it to 2d Sekiro, but I haven't played Sekiro. Parry heavy game being the reason I guess. I'm used to stories being throwaway/tied-to-lore in this genre, but the one here was actually unexpectedly half-decent. Great artwork, some fucked up moments, minibosses/bosses that repeatedly kicked my shit in until I got the parry/perfect-parry timings down, especially the final one.

Overall I enjoyed it far more than I did Hollow Knight, even though Hollow is more focused on exploration, while Nine Sols is more about the arrangement of enemy encounters, both the trash and the bosses.

When I get in the mood for more in the genre, I got an inprogress PoP: Lost Crown save kicking around, along with Blasphemous 2 & Rabi-Ribi lined up.

the Vampire Survivors guy made a roguelike deckbuilder pseudo-first-person-rpg version of the game? you don't say...

My only mistake was I kept my save from the demo, and when I loaded the full game up, I had 90 achievements unlocked back-2-back lol. Been enjoying it, but I haven't quite figured out how you're supposed to make yourself more powerful for future runs/harder difficulties, beyond maxing out the Might upgrade in the village, and adjusting the gem rarities so you have a higher odd of x2/free/dupe/etc appearing.

Friend recommended me Vaporum since I loved Legend of Grimrock and so far it was a great recommendation.

I keep forgetting I picked that up for a couple bucks awhile back, and hadn't gotten around to still.

From the ones I've played, Vesperia and Abyss are S tier

I really need a modern port of Abyss. I had it on 3DS, and I stopped using it entirely at some point with a 15hr'ish save on it.

[6souls]

FIST I cleared first, it was 'eh/completely average, and I don't feel like talking about it.

[Kaisha]

I will say I am curious how their next game, Zoopunk, ends up being since it's a hack'n'slash game this time around. Even though some of the animations still look a little stiff/lack impact like they did in FIST, from what we've seen in their promo trailer, but that could still be polished before release. Thing doesn't even have a Steam page at present.

[Ayn]

I have heard nothing but okay things about that game

I think my next Tales will be either phantasia psx or vesperia... have not decided which vibe I want yet. and those are two very different vibes

I've played a good many of them. Probably unpopular opinion, I liked Vesperia a lot (and keep putting off another playthrough on the 'complete edition), but aside from the main character, I thought it was one of the more boring casts (and yes, I played Legendia), which is what holds it back for me. In that respect, it's quite similar to Eternia for me (really great game, meh cast).

Agreed Abyss is S-Tier and it's a crime we don't have a modern port of it. I'd rank Berseria up there as well too, actually.

If you're able to get a hold of it and apply the translation patch, Rebirth is a unique one and a shame we never got it.

Arise is decent. Putting one of the characters in sunglasses gets you some hilarious interactions.