Scythe
Task Mage
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Posts: 533
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Post by Scythe on Jul 6, 2004 11:09:40 GMT -5
Any of you guys checked this game out yet? It's gonna be one of the best RPGs EVA! Anime cutscenes, real-time battle system as opposed to selecting moves from lists, hugely customizable charaters, etc. Official site tales.namco.com/ Check it out!
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MasamuneZ
Parlor Mage
"My deck is good...the problem is that I am sh*t!"
Posts: 72
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Post by MasamuneZ on Jul 8, 2004 18:47:40 GMT -5
Looks pretty good. Though it seems too cutesy-wutesy for my liking. Plus it's only for Gamecube.
If I want some anime RPG, I'll wait for Xenosaga Episode 2, or Star Ocean: Till End of Time....
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Post by devo2 on Jul 12, 2004 13:50:35 GMT -5
well Scythe, do tell, how is it?
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Scythe
Task Mage
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Posts: 533
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Post by Scythe on Jul 12, 2004 14:11:53 GMT -5
I think it's pretty good! Once you get past the Cel-shaded graphics, (which i like but some others find it childish) its a solid RPG. Its got an involved storyline and good music. It has random battles like most RPGs, but this one is unique because instead of selecting attacks from a list, its done in real-time and you directly control one character and either set the others' AI or have up to 3 other players join in. Lots of good quality voice acting, anime cutscenes at a few parts of the game, and don't forget the no less than 9 playable and highly customizeable characters. I'd rate it at about a 9 to 9.5, but I'm a biased RPG/Nintendo freak, so I'm not the best person to be rating games. Its only for GC and it appears to be staying that way. I'd suggest it.
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Post by devo2 on Jul 12, 2004 14:15:26 GMT -5
so the battle system is similar to Kingdom Hearts?
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Scythe
Task Mage
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Post by Scythe on Jul 12, 2004 15:31:20 GMT -5
I'm not sure. I've never played kingdom hearts. It sounds similar though, from what I've heard. It's sweet because you can time your characters' attacks and pull off cool combo effects and such. Also, there's Unison attacks, which makes the whole party (up to 4 members at a time are active) attack all together by just pressing Z. It's a lot of fun, and I prefer it to menu move-selection any day because it doesn't get old as fast.
To anyone interested, I'd suggest at least renting the game and seeing if it's your style or not. Its a two disk game, so it'll probably cost a little more than a 1 disk game, but what I've seen indicates that the price is worth it.
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Post by devo2 on Jul 18, 2004 13:16:42 GMT -5
So I went out and bought this game. I wanted to rent it but Blockbuster said they wouldn't have it for another month or so and I have far too little patience for that. Anyway, I'm about 15 hours into this game and I really, really like it.
For PS2-only people-they're going to release it for PS2 in a couple of months, and if it's similar to the GC version, I'd buy it!
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Scythe
Task Mage
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Quite Possibly Mad
Posts: 533
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Post by Scythe on Oct 8, 2004 15:39:26 GMT -5
yeah, I've done a bit of looking into the PS-2 version. Supposedly, the battles and framerates are going to be slower, which means more tedious and not quite as eye pleasing.
Upsides are that there's some new goodies being added. new mini-games, titles, costumes, and maybe items and sidequests. There's rumors that you'll be able to buy a Playboy-ish bunny outfit for Raine, but there's little evidence to confirm or deny that.
So who else on here has this game? Devo (see above) and SC (see his sig/avatar/personal text) and me (duh) are all I know of.
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Post by Soulcatcher on Oct 8, 2004 16:13:13 GMT -5
this game rocked!!!! It's on par with star Ocean. they're making a PS2 version? Sweet, might look into that. as for characters... Lloyd=1 major badass in battle, Genis=only useful character who can use magic, Raine= necessity in your team, Collete= can die for all I care, Kratos=you need him whenever you can use him esspecially for the final bosses, Zelos= I laughed when I got to kill him due to his suckiness in battle, Regal= ok in battle, Presea= never bothered to use her.
so basically my team was almost always, Lloyd, Genis, Raine, and Kratos
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Scythe
Task Mage
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Post by Scythe on Oct 8, 2004 16:26:47 GMT -5
I usually use Lloyd, Raine, Genis, and Presea. She does sweet damage with those crazy huge axes. Sometimes, I rotate Regal in in exchange for Genis when I feel like having more physical attacking power on the field. Regal chains special attacks really well if you can get the hang of it. BTW nebilim sword = da bomb. Use it for a few battles, then beat Abyssion. After that, we're talkin 800 damage per normal swing here.
As far as Kratos goes, he is the coolest character ever. I dont use him in battle much though, especially on the higher difficulties.
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Post by Soulcatcher on Oct 8, 2004 16:50:40 GMT -5
I could do 1000 per hit with the Nibilim. And Kratos, was a powerhouse if you could get him the demonspear, and a few other beefcake moves. He was definatly alot better than Zelos too. Zelos was horrible! I used him for 3/4 of the game too until I found out the true potential of Regal. Prism Stars has got to be one of the best if not the best Unison Attacks. Then there's firey Beast, which was also a beef cake attack, esspecially with Nebilim. 5000 per hit!!! that equals 15000-20000 damage
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Scythe
Task Mage
Awesomely Cool Member Guy
Quite Possibly Mad
Posts: 533
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Post by Scythe on Oct 8, 2004 17:02:27 GMT -5
yeah firey beast and prism stars rule! The rising falcon tech and advanced versions are pretty sweet too. I'll try some more with Kratos. Yeah, Zelos isn't that good, but at least he learns the same attacks as kratos does... The only reason I don't have kratos often towards the end of the game is because I like to see the different endings for the other characters.
Which characters do you like best when you compare their storylines and character development?
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Post by Soulcatcher on Oct 8, 2004 17:17:25 GMT -5
WARNING>>>SPOILER ALERT!!!!
I liked Lloyd, because, hell he could kick some major ass. I also liked that if you didn't kill Zelos, that him and Collette decide to go on a journey to find all the exspheres and destroy them. That was cool. The best character by far in the game though was Mithos/Yggdrasil. That little kid ended up being a total Psycho. Even though he was the villian, he thought he was doing good for the world by attempting to end discrimination through making everyone lifeless beings. And it wasn't his fault he ended up like it either. And he was one damn good boss fight every time you fought him. Which was like 7 times.
Theres one thing I don't understand about the storyline though. They kept saying Lloyd's exsphere was special. What was so special about it? All i can remember is that someone mentioned it was evolving...
edit by devo2: added spoiler alert
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Scythe
Task Mage
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Post by Scythe on Oct 8, 2004 20:01:19 GMT -5
Spoiler Alert thingy!!!!
The only thing that happens that I think is due to the special exsphere is the part at the end when Lloyd sprouts those wings and flies off after the great seed. It's also special for emotional reasons, because its host body was Lloyd's mom and Kratos' wife, but as far as it being special in a practical way, that was the only thing I remember.
Yeah, i agree about Yggdrasil. He isn't your typical "Oooh, I must rule the world!!!" villain, which makes his character very unique and a really cool part of the storyline. My favorite character is Raine though.
I'm not sure if you knew this, but at the snowy night scene in flanior, whoever you talk to (except for kratos) is the one that promises to go on the exsphere collecting journey with Lloyd, not just colette. The Zelos version is so sad...i felt so bad for him after seeing it.
As far as party members go, Raine is definately my favorite storywise. Aside from the fact that she's a total fox ;D I just like her character's story and concept best for some reason.
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Post by Soulcatcher on Oct 8, 2004 20:52:35 GMT -5
Slight Spoiler!
About what you said about the sprouting of the wings, i don't believe that was the exsphere, that was Mithos' Cruxis crystal, because you notice when you defeat mithos, the crystal breaks into many pieces, and enters his exsphere, then the pieces eminate around him later to create the wings. But the rest of what you said is true. I also will probably only be able to see Collete's and Genis' storylines then since I tend to do the same things over and that will just create the smae relationships. So Collete and Genis will always be my top 2 unless I pay really good attention to emotions.
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Scythe
Task Mage
Awesomely Cool Member Guy
Quite Possibly Mad
Posts: 533
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Post by Scythe on Oct 9, 2004 18:55:11 GMT -5
Yeah, I guess the wings could be the fault of Mithos cruxis crystal. Maybe it's a combination of the two: as Lloyd fights, it evolves, and defeating Mithos pushed its evolution to the point of making Lloyd able to sprout wings. About getting the different endings, the best way to get other characters, just do a thorough search of both worlds and do all the shining circle skit things scattered around the map. Answer in a positive fashion only to the ones you want to be up there as far as relationship level. Choosing parties when splitting up, whoever you have cook for that gnomelette in the Earth dungeon, and whoever you have compete in the coliseum when you go to rescue Kate are factors too, Meesa thinks. Dang, that game rocks. Must...replay...again!!! ;D
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Post by Soulcatcher on Oct 9, 2004 23:47:29 GMT -5
Your theory of the mix of the exsphere and the cruxis crystal makes sense. Might have to look into that.
*Remembers the good times had while playing ToS* *Remembers how he didn't have the patience to complete the book secret dungeon with 30 floors>_<*
What was the final boss down there, I got to the first and accidentally left and was too impatient to do it again
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Scythe
Task Mage
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Posts: 533
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Post by Scythe on Oct 10, 2004 21:12:12 GMT -5
Something called the Living armor. It was pretty bad-arse, about as hard as abyssion. he does meteor storm and stuff without any charging time, which gets old real fast.
When i did it, I put all the characters on auto and put them where an enemy respawned and just let the ai do most of the work. that built up plenty of extra soulfire for the book burning. That dungeon was fwiggin boring though. Levels and levels of monotonous, 3x3 grids of non-descript glowing platforms...It just makes you want to go find something more fun to do, like play some Tales...oh wait. ;D
I think you get a few good items out of it...not sure what they were though.
Such an awesome game tho. I could just watch the ending over and over. it never gets old.
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Post by Soulcatcher on Oct 12, 2004 16:08:53 GMT -5
I played and beat it 2 times through. Then stopped. had just as much fun the second time through too. Oooooo thats right! What did Lloyd ever name that tree? Did he call it the Linkite tree as I suspected? He said it's the tree that Links the two worlds so I'm guessing thats the name.
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Scythe
Task Mage
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Post by Scythe on Oct 12, 2004 16:50:28 GMT -5
Actually, I'm not sure what he calls it. A lot of the people I know complain that it was a crappy ending because it never tells us, but I don't really think so.
Hmm, the Linkite tree? Thats an interesting idea, I never noticed that before...link, linkite, Linkite tree...hmm. The one thing about that is that I thought that tree they resurrected and called aska at was the linkite tree...
the idea of calling it the "Tree of Life" would seem appropriate to me. there's speculation that ToS is supposed to be a prequel to Tales of Phantasia (not released in the US), and the mana-producing tree in that game is called the Tree of Life. it's kind of a generic name for a magic tree though...its way overused, like Yuan's cliches. "Man, do you ever say anything original?" -Zelos, to Yuan
BTW I watched a came clip from the PS2 version, and the framerate is terrible. Some new costumes though. (Raine in bunny outfit, Colette in lloyd's outfit, etc...)
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