So What Are YOU Playing?

[Kiarax]

Harder difficulty doesn't really increase the grade you get, it just increases the grade cap. Most you can get in random battles is 4 on normal, 6 on second, 8 on hard and 10 on mania iirc. And yeah if you ever get a skit when trying to leave it just means you're missing a cutscene or something, can be a pain sometimes but usually pretty simple to work out wtf to do.

[Yuri-G]

ok. I got 6 grade a few times, it felt good. I like how the victory poses change; 6 grade gave me a very triumphant-looking Kyle.

did you read the story before you played it? part of me wants to read it as I go along but I might just read the whole thing so I'll have at least some idea of what's going on as I go through it. the lack of a completely translated script (the one I've found only translates the first ten minutes and a bunch of skits) kinda cinches it.

[Kiarax]

I knew the basic gist of it beforehand, never bothered to follow a script or look any deeper in to it. Mostly just in it for the gameplay honestly.

[Hitoshura]

I usually at least play with a translation script. When I first played Innocent Sin in 07', (before I even knew a patch was being worked on) I had just borrowed my friend's laptop while I was over to read the script whenever storyline came up. With Tales.. you also have all the ridiculous amounts of skits to deal with. I think I am just going to wait on a patch for ToD2 and ToD:R unless someone has a full script translation. (not that I play Tales games for story, but I would honestly rather get that out of the way now)

[Julian]

I honestly can't be assed to play a game in moonspeak with a translated script next to me. It just takes so much out of the game. -_-

[Kiarax]

I'd rather just ignore the story and play it in moonrunes at that point! I can enjoy the story if and when a translation patch comes out, gameplay is more than enough for me until then.

[Hitoshura]

Yeah.. Innocent Sin was the one and only game I did that with, only because the failure of not ever bringing it stateside, and my undying love for the MegaTen series. The translation script was neatly sorted in sections of the game which made it a lot simpler to navigate when I continued. My neck did hurt from constantly turning over to the laptop and the screen, which is why I will always consider doing this kind of thing as a last resort. I'm just hope the translation teams do finish Soul Hackers, ToD2, ToD:R, and whatever else I might have forgotten.

[Yuri-G]

I tried that with Tales of Hearts and I have mixed feelings about it. having to constantly go back and forth was annoying, but it was nice to have some idea of what was going on, for story reasons and simply to have a better idea of where I'm going and what I'm doing.

there is no completely translated script for ToD2 that I'm aware of though; the walkthroughs I've don't give out too many plot details either. I just read the wiki entry though, and I don't feel like I'm missing out on much... lol

[Charismatic]

I honestly can't be assed to play a game in moonspeak with a translated script next to me. It just takes so much out of the game. -_-

Yep.

I still played the fuck out of ToD2 though, completely worth it.

[Julian]

I'd rather just ignore the story and play it in moonrunes at that point! I can enjoy the story if and when a translation patch comes out, gameplay is more than enough for me until then.

Difference is, I play for gameplay and story, so yeah. I fully agree on games where you play mostly for the gameplay (Like, say, Pokemon), but actual games with a story, not really my cup of tea.

[Hitoshura]

True, could always play on a harder or hardest difficulty once an English patch hits. If I wasn't already playing a fuckload of games I missed out on for not having net for over a month, I would def play ToD2 and the remake.

Currently playing:
Rage
Battlefield 3 (campaign)
Deus Ex (save data corrupted, have to start over FFFF)
Crysis 2 (mid campaign)
Fallout New Vegas
Ys Origin
Dead Space 2 (chapter 6)
Dead Rising 2
Bastion
Umineko (lolnotagame)
Amnesia
Just Cause 2
SMT: III Nocturne on Hard, first person only, Hitoshura only, True demon ending, final destination.

[Charismatic]

Also, for anyone playing ToD2 you may find this video to be insanely helpful... I wish I'd have remembered that it existed when I was doing my playthrough a while back.

[Kaisha]

There really needs to be a Tales General thread one of these days....


As for me, trying to get back into playing Dissidia 012 after finding a plugin that let me force the PSP to read my data which it thought was 'corrupted' that worked dandy. I still don't get where exactly I need to go on the world map and what not, still fairly early in it with Vaan, and I'm not liking his handling or attacks so far.

[Hiryo]

Atlus thread, Tales thread, may as well call it the jprg or weaboo thread! (Jk i <3 you guys)

[Kiarax]

I want no part in any Atlus thread, we need segregated communities here.

[Hitoshura]

I want no part in any Atlus thread, we need segregated communities here.

Admit it, you love FATLUS

[Charismatic]

I want no part in any Atlus thread, we need segregated communities here.

^

[Hitoshura]

The world would be a much better place if more people played Atlus games, (lol ya right) well particularly SMT III: Nocturne. That game kicked my ass so fucking hard when it came out, at the time..(2004) I thought that I could breeze through any RPG game, this one gave me such a brutal reality check. But I kept wanting to come back for more and more. At one point I even bought a fucking game shark for the PS2 $30. It didn't help at all, maxing out my HP to 999 just seemed to make the boss angry enough to hit me for 1.2k and kill me immediately. To add more injury to insult, the game gave me every item on the item list including all the Magatama, which isn't suppose to be listed. Under the info note on each magatama, it said "YOU CHEATER". I'm glad the game beat enough sense into me to start over from scratch, I ended up completing everything including the True Demon Ending.

Nocturne pretty much prepared me for anything in any RPG game.

[Yuri-G]

Nocturne is pretty much the most hardcore awesome RPG of all-time. and it doesn't cheat by making things arbitrarily difficult either; despite being one of the hardest RPGs I have ever played it is also one of the most well-balanced. I got into a big debate with some loser over on gamefaqs about that game when he claimed it was "cheap" because of back attacks (there's a skill that prevents those), insta-death attacks (there are multiple skills as well as magatama that protect against them), and enemies that abuse your weakness with the press turn system (every. single. weakness has at LEAST one magatama that protects against it, as well as multiple skills that do the same. on top of that, guess what? you can abuse press turns too!). and the bosses? yes, they will kill you. expect it. the first attempt on any boss is a trial run to learn their attacks and weaknesses. once you die, reload your save, shuffle your team around, grind a bit if you must, fuse some new demons, and go teach that boss the meaning of the word "demi-fiend."

seriously. love. that. game. I would kill for a HD remake, too... it was the first thing I tried out on my LCD TV when I got it, and I wanted to return the TV lol. I didn't realize how ugly 480p looks on a high-def screen... what a shame.

[Kiarax]

I don't know if I'd call trial and error completely fair. I suppose you can walk around with anti-death skills (or whatever) on full time but the SMT games I've played make it a case of picking and choosing what you can resist, not everything at once (for obvious reasons). Walking into a random battle and getting instantly owned in the first turn is fucking retarded.