The battle system gets so much better the more you play. It's eventually the flashiest, deepest, and most fun battle system in a Tales game, imo. But it does take a while to warm up. And of course the plot is really slow, which is normal for a Tales game. On the other hand, I actually liked all the main characters, which is a first for any Tales game. Cheria took a while, but by the end of the game I even kind of liked her. Going to try to get a review up in the next few days but it might go on hold since I have a shitton of stuff to do for school and work. >_>
Are there differences in the battle system between the games? I've played Symphonia, Vesperia, and now I'm playing Abyss and it all seems the same too me. ToS2 was different because of the monster-aspect. Haven't played others though
Graces is still action-oriented, but it's pretty significantly different from past Tales. It doesn't use TP, instead using CC points which regenerate by blocking or sidestepping enemy attacks or simply not attacking. Artes are now divided into A-artes and B-artes, both of which operate differently. A-artes become increasingly more powerful as you string them together, and B-artes are more of the magic-type stuff. There's a lot more emphasis on stringing together combos with your teammates as well, and you really have to guard and dodge a lot more than in previous Tales - especially with boss fights.
I'm used to guarding and dodging, but it's so different in this game that it's thrown me off a lot. xD; Still, battles are the only thing I like. I find the A-Artes stuff way too confusing so I'm just trying to stick with magic now, which is faster but is taking a lot of getting used to since it works so differently (and I have to think a lot faster about it... and I only have one offensive spell sfkldjsldf >:|). I also keep accidentally switching my character mid-battle because I keep trying to use the d-pad as my arte directional rather than the L-stick. XD; That's so annoying.
She reminds me way too much of annoying yaoi fangirls at anime cons. :( I probably would have loved her when I was 14 but now I just find her abrasive. I still can't believe you like her.
I've known about it for a long time, my first interest was because I have three other Tales of Games. Second was when I found out that one of the characters has a boomerang as their weapon, as I love boomerangs. It is a must have on my list!
Technically a "bladerang", but close enough. I think someone needs to make a game that consists solely of staring at a picture of a boomerang. Hotspot would buy it. XD And wow, I just realized I never reviewed ToGf. I might want to revisit that at some point.
So I finally forced myself to get into this and I don't understand how I like it so much. I only really like one character who's barely in the game, really, and any time I go into a dungeon or something I can't help but repeat "I hate this place" over and over. The plot's terribly underwhelming and the epilogue goes full-on annoying with the forced romances and turning characters into plot devices left and right but... but I still loved the game and I'm really antsy to do another playthrough. I guess I just really like the party dynamics. I may not like everyone in the party but their interactions are so great and they all have pretty unique playstyles so it's actually interesting to shift your character around. Not that I did much since I just stuck to Richard or Malik but I think most of my roommates and I are at least slightly proficient with almost all the characters. (Although I never did get the hang of Asbel or Pascal. D:) also I like how one of my previous posts in this thread was whining about a character reminding me too much of my previous fangirl days and wow did this game ever toss me back into them. I haven't shipped a pairing this hard in years. 8D;;
