"Tales of" series has really gone downhill

[Super_Boom]

I guess we sorta had this chat a few months ago, but now that I've beaten the game and you've made a fancy new thread, I figure I'll reply (or vent) again. :P

LuckyTrouble said:

Now I know I may get some flack for not liking at the very least Xillia, but bear with me. I thought Xillia was a huge step back. The battle system was simplified to overpowered combination attacks, the story was basically a rehash of Symphonia with a few tweaks, and good god was most of the character development bad. I played over halfway through Xillia and ended up dropping it, half out of boredom material collecting in yet another large, bland field, and half because I wasn't sure how long I could go without having to harm myself just to endure the terrible characters.

This is the only modern Tales title I've played, and honestly...I agree with a lot of your complaints. I had high hopes at first, and it did a lot of things right, but towards the end...not so much.

For me, the combat wasn't bad...but I would definitely get tired of it a lot faster than the previous games, which the exception of maybe Phantasia because of how dated it is. I found myself over-using link combos to speed up battles, because they seemed to take a lot longer than I was used to. Sometimes I want to advance the story and not fight a million stupid bees. Symphonia and Abyss may have both had this problem...but I honestly don't recall it bothering me as much in those games (having played both relatively recently).

I had some serious problems with the story...though for a different reason than you. When the game started, and I had the option to choose Jude or Milla's story...and well, I decided to be unique and choose the girl's story first. I didn't read anything online ahead of time...so I had no idea her story was intended for the 2nd playthrough. Some huge scenes just felt absolutely phoned in, because the game expected me to have played Jude's story first. Cline's death just sorta happened, Muzet randomly shows up with Jude, and oh...Alvin being from Elympios was just randomly mentioned offhand. Because it's not like he's an important character or anything. It's honestly a bit ridiculous how none of the developers noticed such a horrid design flaw. If you want your fans to play the game a certain way...make sure they play it that way. Ugh.

Character development was also pretty poor for the side cast. Leia, Rowen, and Elize had some sidequests that fleshed them out a little more...but not really enough for me to care about them for the most part. Alvin really frustrated me for most of the game, because I thought his constant betrayals made the rest of the party look like idiots, but I did think his final betrayal was well done, at least in terms of writing, and I'd argue he got some solid character development before the end. Though again...I was forced to watch a lot of this on Youtube...because Milla's story completely ignores this section of the game. *facepalms*

Jude and Milla on the other hand...I thought they both were very well setup for character development...and I suppose if you're not a shipper like me, you'd probably be satisfied with the direction they went. Problem is...I AM a hardcore shipper. I was on the edge of my seat expecting them to get together. Sure they were opposites, but that's why the dynamic was so interesting to me. Over the course of the game, Milla helped Jude to mature, and Jude helped Milla become a little more human. Sounds platonic when I write it like that...and if was written that way, I wouldn't be complaining. But it wasn't written that way. There was obvious romantic development built up between the two of them, with Jude actually admitting to his feelings, and Milla beginning to react significantly different upon learning Jude's feelings. For the game to end with them being seperate for no reason other than closure was incredibly dissapointing to me. Especially considering that Milla's decision to take Maxwell's place was rendered utterly pointless by Maxwell reforming. And no...I don't consider the game's ridiculous pseudo-science as a reason at all; hell Maxwell even offered to turn Milla human before he faded away.

I had a few other complaints, like most of the costumes being DLC and an absolutely horrid dub, but past that, I didn't have too much else to complain about. I'm a big Monster Hunter fan, so I liked the collectibles and shop upgrades, which I can definitely see being an annoyance for a lot of people. The set pieces were nice, a lot of the skits made me laugh, and I liked it enough to beat all the sidequests, and even go for some extra trophies. Overall, I'd probably rate it a 7/10...just for the mostly bland side cast, poor narrative choices, and my shipping woes. It did do a lot of things right...but I just really liked Symphonia and Abyss a lot more.

Back to your OP, it's a bit dissapointing to hear your thoughts on Xillia 2 and Zestiria, as I've found I agreed with you a lot on Xillia. I still plan to play both...as I like to come to my own conclusions, so I should know for sure if I totally agree with your OP whenever I finally get around to playing them. I do think that if you like the series, you shouldn't be afraid to be critical of it, so I wouldn't worry about coming across as nit-picky or oversensitive. The series definitely deserves better than 'good enough'.