Operation Backlog Completion 2026

Tales of the Abyss: Another Excellent Tales Journey

 Reviews, Video games  2 Responses »  Tagged with: , ,
Jul 052021
 

I’m a big fan of the Tales series, but there are still a lot of Tales games I haven’t played.

Among the most notable ones were Tales of the Abyss and Tales of Vesperia, often considered alongside Tales of Symphonia to be the best of the best.

Well, the winner of this year’s Celebrating All Things Romantic contest picked a game for me to play & review as his prize – Tales of the Abyss.

I played the 3DS port, although it looks like it might be easier to find the original PS2 version nowadays.

Tales of the Abyss is one of those games that comes up whenever people discuss protagonists who are unlikeable at first and change over time, because the main character is a young man named Luke who starts out as an obnoxious, self-centered jerk, but goes through a huge amount of character development as the game continues and ends up as a good person and a genuinely likeable protagonist.

The rest of the cast took a little while to grow on me as well (with the exception of Jade, whom I liked from the start and remains my favorite), but I ended up liking most of them.

Oh, and bonus points for having a mascot that didn’t annoy me. Mieu is actually cute.

The story is interesting and has some pretty intense moments, with a lot of humor throughout the game as well. It has a really well-developed world, with a lot of detailed worldbuilding and many little details I appreciated. There’s also a lot of side content and easily missable optional scenes – which I kind of like, aside from one side quest that let me get partway through even though I’d started it too late to finish it.

All of those little details, with optional scenes and mini-game and lore books about the world, make me think once more about how sometimes it feels like older games have more of a soul than their newer counterparts.

Combat has an interesting mechanic where elemental artes created essentially little elemental fields to appear briefly, and performing an arte within one of those can cause you to perform a more powerful arte instead. That confused me at first, but I liked it once I got used to it.

Now, the ending is a bit ambiguous, and apparently this is intentional. Instead of getting clarification when I looked it up, I discovered a massive debate among fans about it, so I’ll stick with my personal interpretation of the ending.

Anyway, Tales of the Abyss safely secured the #2 spot in my Tales rankings so far. It didn’t beat Symphonia for me, but what can? Tales of the Abyss is an excellent game with a great story, and I was happy to go on such an incredible journey with Luke and the other characters to watch them grow and change.

Tales of Arise: Combat Details, Skits Confirmed, and More

 Video games  2 Responses »  Tagged with: , ,
May 242021
 

After the Tales of Arise release date trailer and gameplay footage, there were still a lot of questions, but a recent interview in Weekly Famitsu has revealed more information.

Translated here by Frontline Gaming Japan, producer Yusuke Tomizawa goes into more detail about the combat system in this interview.

A new feature in battles is the Boost Attack, a support action party members will use when you reach certain conditions. There are also Boost Strikes, powerful finishing moves performed by two characters.

It sounds like working together with party members is going to be a big part of combat, and so is dodging. It’s a fast-paced combat system that encourages the player to watch for enemy tells, dodge the attack, and counter. They’ve included difficulty modes and auto-battle options to help fans who aren’t as good at action games.

Traditional combat elements will also return, including Mystic Artes, although they’re activated in a new way.

Now, when the combat footage was revealed, the lack of victory screens (and therefore victory screen banter) stirred some fans up. Here, Tomizawa makes it clear that post-battle conversations occur on the field after the battle, so it really sounds like the usual banter is still present, just not on a distinct screen.

Another thing fans have been wondering about is the presence of skits. Skits are confirmed to be returning, but “in another form.”

I’m not really sure what that means or why they can’t be revealed yet. Are they going to be field conversations? Animated scenes? The party member conversations in skits are a big part of Tales, so I hope they still feel like skits in whatever form they take.

Tales of Arise also has more anime cutscenes than any previous Tales game.

The interview also confirms Hootle as the game’s mascot and a sign of the lighter elements the series usually has, and repeats the fact that there are still party members who haven’t been revealed yet.

Tales of Arise’s themes deal with division and friction between races and the two worlds of Dahna and Rena, which personally makes me think about Tales of Symphonia, so that’s a plus. The characteristic genre name for Tales of Arise is “an RPG to speak of the dawn of the heart.”

I’m really looking forward to Tales of Arise, and I have high hopes for it! I’m currently playing Tales of the Abyss, but I should be able to finish that without getting too close to Arise’s September 10 release date.

(Meanwhile, I’m also pretty excited about those new Final Fantasy rumors, but now I’m trying to avoid reading too much about rumors and supposed leaks ahead of E3, since surprises are often the most fun part.)

Anyway, what do you think about the latest Tales of Arise details? Are you looking forward to it?

Tales of Arise Release Date, Great Ace Attorney Chronicles Confirmed

 Video games  3 Responses »  Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,
Apr 212021
 

I’d intended to blog today about Sony reversing its decision to shut down the PS3 and Vita stores, but we have some exciting announcements to discuss instead!

Tales of Arise got a new trailer today, as well as a release date!

Yes, it’s still coming out this year, on September 9 in Japan and September 10 worldwide.

It will be released for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and PC (Steam).

The new trailer revealed two of the game’s party members, one of whom is accompanied by an owl that appears to be this game’s mascot character.

(I tend to find mascots annoying, but the owl is cute enough that I might like it. Maybe. We’ll see.)

A Famitsu interview, translated by Gematsu, confirmed that there are still unannounced party members as well. It also confirmed that there is no more victory screen after battles, which means no more victory screen banter, but there will be post-battle party banter on the field.

That’s not all! In addition to the trailer, we also have a 7-minute gameplay footage video!

Some fans were concerned the combat system would be completely different from past Tales games, but the gameplay footage gives a good look at some basic battles and it seems pretty Tales-like after all.

Tales of Arise looks fantastic! I’m so excited to play this on September 10…

…but even as I was still reeling from the thrill of Arise getting a release date at last, what popped up on my Twitter feed but a casual announcement of The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles!

That’s right, it’s really happening!

The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles includes both The Great Ace Attorney and its sequel, and it will be out on July 27 for the Switch, PS4, and PC (Steam) for $39.99.

It also includes bonus content, including 8 mini-episodes, that was originally DLC.

I was worried it would be digital-only, but the Switch version is actually getting a physical release in the west. There is also a $59.99 “Turnabout Collection” that bundles The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles together with the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy. That is digital-only in the west.

(I would have expected it to be the other way around, but okay.)

The official announcement has also introduced many more people to the wonder that is Herlock Sholmes. Please, please stop blaming (or praising) Capcom for that name. As goofy as it is, it’s been a time-honored tradition for avoiding Sherlock Holmes copyright issues for over 100 years.

Since The Great Ace Attorney comes out on the same day as Neo: The World Ends With You, yet another game I’m still stunned about, I’ll need to decide which to play first! If you told me a year ago I’d be trying to decide whether I wanted to play the TWEWY sequel or Dai Gyakuten Saiban in English first, I’d have laughed. And then cried.

I’m ecstatic that we’re finally getting The Great Ace Attorney and its sequel in English! And I can hardly believe we got that announcement and the Tales of Arise release date in the same morning!

Are you excited for either or both of these games? Let me know in the comments!

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