SO4, Infinite undiscovery, Tales of Vesperia

[Julian]

Maybe its just me but I felt the combat in SO3 was step back for the series. I really enjoyed the more freeform combat in SO2 and I hope that SO4 is more in that vein. I did enjoy the story of SO3, maybe its because I was just got done playing Tales of Symphonia when I picked up SO3. TOS had a much smoother combat system. I havent had a chance to play through VP2 yet but VP1 was excellent. I did enjoy the Lenneth fight in SO3, kinda nice suprise.
I'm really pumped for the new Tales game. The 2 NA PS2 releases sucked hardcore, but TOS was one of the greatest next gen RPGs.

I'm sure this is old news but I saw SS for the sequel to TOS in the new GI... for Wii... I want it to be good but I can't how it could be.

Tales of the Abyss was awesome.

[Campbellkid]

Yeah it was a cool twist, almost matrix-ese. It was the only thing that kept me playing... combat was pretty weak and the craft system wasnt nearly as cool as SO2.

Abyss was ok, but it was no TOS.

[Charismatic]

SO3's combat system was weak?

Man, I want to know what you were on... sounds like some good shit because it must have fucked you all-the-way up.

[Campbellkid]

It was weak compared to TOS or SO2. Thought next gen RPGs are supposed to be a step forward, not backwards.

[Charismatic]

I don't understand how it was backwards in anyway from SO2.

You'll have to explain what about it set it back, I've played all 3 of the SO games and it seems to me like the combat has gotten a lot... and I mean a LOT better with each one.

[Krandor]

I can't really explain it personally, but SO2 is far and away the best combat system I've ever encountered in an RPG, SO3 just felt "off." I didn't like that doing moves drained you of HP, MP deaths, or the entire rage bar system. Broken or not, half the fun of SO2 was being able to completely lock down your opponents. While removing that may have been great to some people, it was what made SO2 fun on successive playthroughs for me.

[Julian]

I can't really explain it personally, but SO2 is far and away the best combat system I've ever encountered in an RPG, SO3 just felt "off." I didn't like that doing moves drained you of HP, MP deaths, or the entire rage bar system. Broken or not, half the fun of SO2 was being able to completely lock down your opponents. While removing that may have been great to some people, it was what made SO2 fun on successive playthroughs for me.

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[Charismatic]

Well, if you like broken combat systems that's just fine, nothing wrong with that.
That doesn't make them good.

[Krandor]

Balanced combat systems are boring. Alot of the RPGs that people have really loved over the years usually have huge gaping holes in their combat system just ripe for exploiting/taking advantage of.

[Kaylia]

I can't really explain it personally, but SO2 is far and away the best combat system I've ever encountered in an RPG, SO3 just felt "off." I didn't like that doing moves drained you of HP, MP deaths, or the entire rage bar system. Broken or not, half the fun of SO2 was being able to completely lock down your opponents. While removing that may have been great to some people, it was what made SO2 fun on successive playthroughs for me.

You havent played enough if you can't lock someone in SO3...and fuck..you werent locking thing in SO2, you were one shotting them. If it wasn't one shotted, it was imune to lock most likely.

[Elcura]

I remember trying to keep Indalacio (can never spell his name right) locked, that bitch wouldn't stay still. I could lock Gabriel and Isis really easily though, but if they got out of it someone would die...

Personally I think SO3 was better, even though MP death is annoying it kinda makes sense. It also becomes a lot more favourable if you have characters/skills with strong MP damage against bosses with low MP. I would rather do 1mil MP damage than 10mil+ HP damage (what boss was that again? maybe I just made that up...)

Character's like Nel and Maria (however annoying Maria was) make MP kills easy.

[Charismatic]

God, I loved Maria... Aiming Device and Energy Burst *fap* *fap* *fap*

[Elcura]

Energy Burst was beyond godly. Could rape the whole game solo on 4D pretty comfortably. But taking out damage/usefulness, I think Cliff and Nel had some of the best looking attacks in the game. Mirage as well when her attacks were different. Also, Ethereal Strike looked cool as well.

God I love SO3.

[Exoduso]

SO3 was fun, but why'd they have to ruin a perfectly good story with that dumbass plot twist?

[Krandor]

I couldn't play SO3 past the plot twist, so I guess yeah, I didn't play it enough. It was so mind numbingly stupid it instantly killed the game for me.

[Genosync]

I couldn't play SO3 past the plot twist, so I guess yeah, I didn't play it enough. It was so mind numbingly stupid it instantly killed the game for me.

^ this is another good point against SO3.

A big part of why I really didn't like SO3 is because of the clunkiness of the battle system. I'm sorry, but it is not right to put weak presses and strong presses of buttons in a game that is supposed to include more elements than direct 1v1 (or in the case of Smash-esque games 4p) fighting.

I'm trying to kill these enemies, I want to do this kind of move, all of a sudden another move happens because I get excited and I press the button too hard, and someone dies. Fuck that, no thanks.

Not only that, but the game does not transition well. There's way too much downtime between actual gameplay and stupid, Xenosaga-esque running around bullshit and cutscenes/story. It's an aRPG, make it act like one. Namco has the formula down to a near perfect state at the moment, and rarely, rarely fucks it up (only thing I can think of is Tales of Legendia).

You can find many numerous anti-SO3 posts of mine on the board; I don't tend to hold back my hatred/anger at games, people, or the internets. I'll play a game for like, 10 hours to get to an amazing point where the game just goes insane and is one of the best things of all time (like Wild Arms: XF, several other examples available upon request). I'm not going to play a game for fourty to fifty hours of utter bullshit to get to amazing content--just give me a fucking save file or something.

[Exoduso]

I couldn't play SO3 past the plot twist, so I guess yeah, I didn't play it enough. It was so mind numbingly stupid it instantly killed the game for me.

^ this is another good point against SO3.

A big part of why I really didn't like SO3 is because of the clunkiness of the battle system. I'm sorry, but it is not right to put weak presses and strong presses of buttons in a game that is supposed to include more elements than direct 1v1 (or in the case of Smash-esque games 4p) fighting.

I'm trying to kill these enemies, I want to do this kind of move, all of a sudden another move happens because I get excited and I press the button too hard, and someone dies. Fuck that, no thanks.

Not only that, but the game does not transition well. There's way too much downtime between actual gameplay and stupid, Xenosaga-esque running around bullshit and cutscenes/story. It's an aRPG, make it act like one. Namco has the formula down to a near perfect state at the moment, and rarely, rarely fucks it up (only thing I can think of is Tales of Legendia).

You can find many numerous anti-SO3 posts of mine on the board; I don't tend to hold back my hatred/anger at games, people, or the internets. I'll play a game for like, 10 hours to get to an amazing point where the game just goes insane and is one of the best things of all time (like Wild Arms: XF, several other examples available upon request). I'm not going to play a game for fourty to fifty hours of utter bullshit to get to amazing content--just give me a fucking save file or something.

Something awesome happens past the dumbass plot twist? Cus that's pretty much where I stopped, too.

[MisterBob]

Not only that, but the game does not transition well. There's way too much downtime between actual gameplay and stupid, Xenosaga-esque running around bullshit and cutscenes/story. It's an aRPG, make it act like one. Namco has the formula down to a near perfect state at the moment, and rarely, rarely fucks it up (only thing I can think of is Tales of Legendia).

This isn't really true. I've been playing Tales of the Abyss lately, and there have been multiple 1-2 hour stretches of "Run to Baticul, cutscene, Run to Daath, go through 15 rooms in the cathedral to find a guy for cutscene, go back to Baticul, cutscene, go to Chesedonia, cutscene, ok, now we need to talk to the leaders of both nations, go back to Baticul, cutscene, cutscene, oops, we forgot to include that noble guy in Chesedonia, cutscene, now backtrack to a Sephiroth, but all the monsters are the same low level monsters from 10 hours ago, cutscene"

I can spend an entire playing session backtracking and in cutscenes, it drives me nuts.

[Charismatic]

A big part of why I really didn't like SO3 is because of the clunkiness of the battle system. I'm sorry, but it is not right to put weak presses and strong presses of buttons in a game that is supposed to include more elements than direct 1v1 (or in the case of Smash-esque games 4p) fighting.

So, the reason you didn't like it was because you weren't good at it?
Honestly... after playing it for a couple of hours the strong/weak thing shouldn't have been a problem.

I never accidentally executed a move after reaching the planet Nel & Co. are on.

[Genosync]

A big part of why I really didn't like SO3 is because of the clunkiness of the battle system. I'm sorry, but it is not right to put weak presses and strong presses of buttons in a game that is supposed to include more elements than direct 1v1 (or in the case of Smash-esque games 4p) fighting.

So, the reason you didn't like it was because you weren't good at it?
Honestly... after playing it for a couple of hours the strong/weak thing shouldn't have been a problem.

I never accidentally executed a move after reaching the planet Nel & Co. are on.

I played it for like over 10ish? idr really, all I remember is it not being able to hook me