Why I fell in and out of love with the Tales Series
Ah, Tales. I am both glad and bitter that they are now successful and popular today. They're still pumping titles every now and then, and all of them are being localized, which is great for the fanbase outside of Japan. I still enjoy their older games like Rebirth, Destiny R, and Symphonia, but I hate touching anything released after Vesperia. They did so many things right and their games had elements no other JRPG had, but they were even better at going downhill and ruining their series.
This is a historical account of my experience with Tales. What I loved about it, where things started to go wrong, and where I finally let go of a series I once loved.
Like many of the western fans here, my first exposure to Tales was Tales of Symphonia on the GameCube. I walked into a GameStop with my brothers, and on their demos I saw the opening of Tales of Symphonia. My first exposure to Tales was also my first exposure to an anime RPG. As someone who enjoys both video games and anime, it was an easy choice to buy this game.
I quickly popped it in and played with my brother and it was an experience I will never forget.
Tales has a unique cast of characters in the sense that they have way more dialogue and lines than your average RPG-- and therefore come off as having more personality and life. This is thanks to a staple trademark of Tales called Skits. Skits are optional dialogues throughout the entire game-- all you do is press a button and watch them interact.
Half of the time, they react to recent events in the storyline and the other half they're having light-hearted conversations about anything. The topics of these conversations wouldn't normally be brought up in a main storyline, so you find out about your characters than an average RPG.
In most RPGs, characters don't talk as much except during cutscenes and this can sometimes make the adventure seem lifeless. But the skits are like banter you have with your friends on the way to a restaurant. It gives the feeling that your characters are hanging out during their adventures. There's a life and personality to Tales characters normally not found in other RPGs.
Skits is a concept that was ahead of its time. Most Tales characters fall into some archetype which is not a bad thing, it's just unavoidable. But skits allow Tales characters to branch away from their categories by giving them more personality, development, and background.
As a gamer, it's easy to become emotionally attached to these characters and sympathize with their struggle. It's also why fans favor Tales characters over other RPGs. Whether Tales characters are better RPG characters in the genre is something I will debate against, but I can see why many others believe so.
The absolute biggest draw of the Tales series is their battle system- characterized by their trademarked LMBS (Linear Motion Battle System). In all of their Tales games, 2D or 3D, Tales characters are controlled in real time combat.
Players can move, block, attack, or cast magic at will. This is a huge deviation in the JRPG formula, in which most of the combat is turn-based. Furthermore, Tales was way ahead of its real-time combat rivals because of how developed their LMBS are. Combos can be strung together, Skills added depth and options for each character, strategies can be set for AI-controlled characters, and guarding options all make the game more than just a button-masher.
In most of the Tales games, up to 4 party members can be deployed on the battlefield. And this meant multiplayer was possible-- which meant that for once, an RPG can be finally played with someone else! I played the early half of the series with my brother (and sometimes our cousin). It was run to riff on funny parts of the game but even more fun to play with someone else. Multiplayer made Tales even more of an enjoyable experience and I am sure many others can relate.
Unlike most video game series that upgraded the same battle system, Tales was pretty daring and significantly changed up the formula. Rebirth had 3 lines and cooldown timers for Arts, Destiny R had aerial combat, and Xillia introduced tag team combos. Even the sub-systems such as skills, learnable Arts, movement options, and combo system changed.
At the end of the day, each battle system shared the same concept of free-styled combat and that's what mattered most. The ability to string together your own combos and strategize your party members made the games endlessly fun to play.
WANTING MORE OF THE SAME:
After Symphonia, I craved for more of the same and imported the rest of the Tales games on the PS2: Destiny 2, Rebirth, Destiny Remake. I even imported the PS2 version of Symphonia because of its extras over the GC version. We imported Abyss because at the time, its localization was uncertain.
Even if I didn't understand the storyline, there were entire translated scripts of the game that we read while playing the game. But more than that, we played for the battle system and there were no regrets whatsoever.
For the first time, I joined a forum for Tales games and interacted with other people, joined in on speculations, had embarrassing (but high-level) debates, and constantly tried to keep up with the next Tales game.
Over time however, the Tales series changed in many ways and so do did my love for the series. Changes in management, business practices, and development gradually transformed the series into something else. I couldn't get into the characters anymore, or enjoy its battle system, and eventually I stopped playing the series altogether.
RECYCLING/REUSING CONTENT:
One of their earliest hallmarks of disappointment was how often they used the same material repeatedly. At first, they used to be a nostalgic reference to a classic Tales character but when you do it again for the next 3 games, it becomes obvious that it's just laziness at this point.
The earliest traces of this low budget tactic begins with Abyss. In Tales, Mystic Artes were ultimate attacks with amazing visuals. But in Abyss, many of their Mystic Artes were similar in visuals-- a circular glyph that deals a radius of damage.
Although it was not a huge deal at the time, it was the beginning of a trend. Namco re-used Abyss' aesthetics for the Radiant Mythology series, Tales of VS, and Tales of Innocence. DLC costumes that were first used in Vesperia are still being used 4 games later in Berseria. And instead of coming up with new Mystic Artes, Namco just slaps on old ones onto new characters even if they didn't suit the character.
What used to be nostalgic references to classic characters now became a cheap and lazy way to add content to their newer games. Ordinarily, there is no problem with a nostalgic cameo but when they are used repeatedly, game after game, then it's just obvious laziness at this point.
After Vesperia, their games started to become hallow in both nature and substance, riddled with poor game design, or both. Recycled content was only one of the many factors. The bigger concern was cutting out traditional content in the games and selling them off as DLC.
Although Vesperia was the first Tales to have DLC costumes, they had the most in-game costumes of any Tales game to date. DLC costumes were not a controversial issue until Graces, which only had 2-3 sets of costumes for each character. The majority of available costumes were sold as DLC. This DLC trend went into full force with Xillia, which only had 4 costumes total. The traditional swimwear set were absent from the game and with that, the staple comic relief swimsuit scenes.
To make matters worse, these costumes were developed before released but were released on a schedule. So even if players wanted to pay for DLC content, they wouldn't have access to them right away. And finally in Zestiria, they took it to the next step and made DLC out of Artes, Mystic Artes, and Skits. Rather than providing meaningful and additional content that players were willing to buy, Namco instead decided to hide in-game content behind a paywall. Nothing about these tactics are fair or justifiable. It's just a greedy money grab at the expense of fans and quality of their games.
I figured, okay fine the costumes are DLC now and there's a lot of recycled content. At least I can still enjoy the characters and story... Right? Wrong. Following Vesperia, the quality and writing of Tales took a nosedive of incoherent writing, falling deeper in cliché archetypes, becoming so full of itself as a series, and losing touch with their fanbase.
Graces marked the beginning of this trend, and thus the first steps to Tales' downfall. Let's start with the character archetypes, shall we? You have the goody-two shoes protagonist Asbel, ignorant of female affections, always wanting to do the right thing regardless of consequences, and all about protecting his friends.
This sums up 90% of your JRPG protagonists and some of the Tales protagonists can also fall under this description. But Stahn is a lazy stowaway with no ambition, Lloyd has his silly Dwarven Vows and questionable mathematics, and Senel is a loveable jerk whose lack of awareness can be attributed to his marine background.
Asbel on the other hand, has nothing other than his background that sets him apart from his archetype. His only motivation in the game is to protect his friends and nothing else. It's supposed to be beautiful and amazing because he would even sacrifice himself for his friends, but he's not that different than robot programmed for a single purpose.
Sadly, most of the characters from this point on have more or less the same amount of depth and personality as Asbel. You have some gems like Leia who fought tooth and nail to defend a hopeless Jude from Alvin, but you realize her character is wasted on Jude because it revolves around him. Instead, her character can be better spent finding someone else who deserves her.
Then you have Alvin the traitor, who is arguably the worst traitor of any JRPG series to date. At least Kratos was disguised as a mercenary. Sure he had his mysterious past, but nothing that would indicate he was a freaking Angel working with the organization that’s been chasing after you. Then you have Raven whose shadiness can be attributed to his silly antics, perverted nature, and propensity to drink. But one would never guess he was also a Captain of his own brigade!
Then you have Alvin who saves Jude from his predicament and then forces his mercenary services onto him, a wanted criminal. On top of that, he uses a gun which is technologically not possible on the planet he is infiltrating. You'd think a spy would make an actual effort blending in. So obviously, characters like Milla catch on and when confronted, Alvin makes a poor effort to refute her accusations which basically boils down to "I know you know but you can't prove anything." It's a complete mockery of the betrayal plot twist that the series has come to be known for.
So we have the same archetypes we've always had-- the oblivious protagonist, the childhood friend, and a shady traitor. Except now all they're doing is fulling a quota on a checklist. Yes, they each have their own stories and backgrounds but none of them are fleshed out with the same depth as the characters from previous games.
Now, let's talk about the incoherent writing and my gosh there are so many examples of this. Let's continue with Graces and Asbel— whose friendship with the rest of the cast is as hallow as the games. The story downplays the impact of what 7 years can do to friendships.
The game doesn't address why Asbel never kept in touch with his friends over the course of 7 years. He never wrote to them or visited, and despite being the same city as Richard, the two never crossed paths for 7 years! In fact, the only reason Asbel comes back to his hometown is because his father passed away. If he didn't, who knows when Asbel would return.... if he ever thought about returning at all. In fact, Asbel brushes off the 7 years as "Oh it went by so fast." It’s as if Asbel was playing his own game too, experiencing the time skip the same way a player would.
Under those 7 years, he trained under instructor Malik so the two have a close relationship. But that's the thing, everyone's closeness with each other is supposed to be accepted by the player. It's not unbelievable that Asbel can reconnect with his childhood friends, but at this point they have all become different people.
So in many ways, it's like getting to know someone for the first time again. But the game doesn't do any of that. It just tosses the 6 characters together with the same old banter you're used to. But you don't understand what makes any of these characters close. What makes Asbel and Malik get along beside their relationship as master and student? What makes Asbel get along with Cheria and Hubert besides being childhood friends?
In Vesperia, you can see how the irritable Rita softens up to Estelle and the others. Yuri becomes an older brother to Karol. Everyone makes fun of Raven but they love him for his antics. And Judith is the sultry woman that playfully teases everyone. None of these characters except for Yuri and his dog Repede knew each other beforehand. There are no childhood friends here—these are 7 strangers who come together and become a family. When playing the game, you can see how these characters grow close.
I don't get that from Graces, or any game that follows it. What I get instead are a cast of characters who are stuck together and make do with it. There is no emotional investment between anyone and the impression I get is that they can just walk away from each other's lives without a care in the world. Any closeness just comes off as forced, because the writers stopped putting in effort to make a convincing cast of people who are supposed to be friends.
Moving on, let's revisit Alvin the traitor. So after the party finds out he's a traitor, guess what? Nothing happens! The party is upset with him but he just worms his way back in and shrugs. The party does nothing about it, and so they carry on awkwardly.
And not awkward in a way that's amusing to the player, but awkward in that the player can't even begin to comprehend the situation unfolding in front of them. Alvin obviously still has his own agenda intact even after coming back, and the betrayals continue happening. So it's not a single betrayal, but a recurring event in the game, and it makes no sense why the party allows this to continue.
I stopped playing the series after Xillia, but the general consensus about the next game Zestiria is that it is even less comprehensible. Scenes are so poorly directed and just happen without explanation. Characters ignore a problem when an actual person would just be like "Wait, what is going on? I demand an explanation."
So we have a declining quality of storyline and characters... How can it get worse? Oh wait, what about the skits that added to the characters and background? Nope, they ruined that too, and it started with Graces.
Remember how half of the skits were about the storyline and the other half was silly banter? Well, now they have become too silly and gimmicky. You now have random splashes of images invading the skits which tries to convey the scene of the game. I thought I was listening to a skit, not reading a visual novel. If you want to make this scene cinematic, then make a cutscene instead.
The topics have changed from ordinary topics that trail off to funny banter, to nonsensical gibberish that laughs at its own jokes. It's as if they were catering to meme culture and hoping that it would spread to the internet and blow up or something. It's as if, after several Tales games and years of development, the writers are writing skits for the first time again.
On top of that, most of the skits stopped making sense in context or flow of conversation. In Graces, most of the skits are triggered by standing at a Discovery Point. Sometimes the conversations are about the actual location, in that the characters talk about something they are reminded of. But most of the time, they talk about something entirely unrelated to the Discovery Point and it makes you wonder what was the point of having skits based on location.
In Berseria, I listened to a skit between Laphicet and Magilou, except Velvet was there randomly too. Ordinarily in skits, only the portraits of the participants are shown. Even if they are not originally part of the conversation, their portrait would be off to the side, to show they are eavesdropping. And if they leave the conversation, then their portrait disappears.
In the conversation between Laphicet and Magilou, Velvet appears out of nowhere and speaks her mind. She doesn't speak for the remainder of the conversation, but her portrait remains. But the remainder of this conversation only happens between Laphicet and Magilou. You can't tell if Velvet is listening in or not. If she's not there, why doesn't her portrait disappear. And if she is there, then why isn't she saying anything?
All these annoyances about the series would be minor in their own capacity, and the games would still be bearable. But all of them are present at the same time and collectively become an unbearable experience. It just proves that the Tales series is declining as a JRPG series.
Okay, so what about the battle system? You imported a good amount of the games just to enjoy its battle system right? Yup, even that is ruined believe it or not. For some strange reason, Tales suffered a series of questionable design choices ever since Vesperia.
Traditionally, attacks have been divided between normal attacks and Artes. You attack with regular attacks and then use Artes to complete the combo. Graces changes this formula by getting rid of normal attacks and turning everything into an Arte. Normal attacks are now the new Artes button, and the Artes button is a different branch of Artes.
This sounds like a great idea at first, especially when it was originally advertised as Style Change LMBS. But in reality, only Asbel's fighting style changed between the two trees of Artes. For magic casters, their second Artes tree were just spells. For Melee attackers, they were just different Artes. In the end, it was just a different way of sorting the Arte tree that ultimately did not add anything. Graces had positive battle system changes but this was not one of them.
Xillia returned to the traditional format of attacks but they unified the Overlimit and Symphonia's Unison Gauge into a weird tag team function. In Xillia, characters can be tethered together and provide mutual support. The player can activate the Overlimit gauge to unleash devastating tag team attacks.
However, Overlimit required two characters to be tethered in order to activate and have access to Mystic Artes. In other words, a character cannot fight alone and go into Overlimit or use Mystic Artes alone. In adding a team functionality between characters, Tales marginalized the role of an individual character. It was a sacrifice that didn't need to happen, and this is because of poor game design.
Fast forward to Zestiria, which attempted to introduced seamless battles. Before, characters were transported to a field of battle upon encounter. Now, enemies are fought in the fields or dungeons encountered with no transition. Upon victory however, a transition still exists for characters' win poses. Obviously, these had to stay in Tales which only made seamless transitions pointless. In fact, seamless transitions became one of the most criticized elements of Zestiria.
First of all, Namco did not accommodate for the camera angles being obstructed by objects, walls, or other obstructions. Traditionally, battlefields took place in a flat area with no obstacles and within a large radius. The camera can zoom in or out depending on the player's settings and number of enemies son the field. The player's perspective in Zestiria however, was constantly being blocked by trees, walls, or even the enemies themselves.
Second, there were no environmental interactions which is what players were hoping for since they existed in Vesperia. For example, using hazardous flowers to stun an opponent or taking out bridge switches to prevent enemy reinforcements. One would think this primitive form of environmental interactions would be present in a game whose battlefields were shaped by terrain and geography. But this was not the case, which begs the question... why even have seamless transitions in the first place? It goes back to Namco not knowing how to use good ideas.
When discussing the flaws of the Tales series, it is impossible to leave out the story behind Alisha and Zestiria, the biggest controversy of the series. It was so serious that Hideo Baba disappeared from public appearances and ultimately left Namco. This controversy illustrates a problem bigger than any that I have mentioned thus far— which is that Namco has become so full of itself that it produces what -it- wants rather than what the fans want.
When Zestiria was revealed, the first two characters shown were Sorey and Alisha. They revealed figures for both of these characters, and there was also an Alisha cosplayer on the scene to further promote the event. JRPGs typically have a male and female lead, so these must be our hero and heroine right? And the first characters shown are always the lead protagonists, right?
Well, according to the producer Hideo Baba, if you thought Alisha was the heroine then you made an incorrect assumption. That's right folks, Alisha was never the heroine of the story and in fact, only a temporary party member for a small portion of the entire game.
Despite being part of DLC costume sets, being the first female Sorey comes across, and the character responsible for initiating Sorey's journey, she is not the heroine or a permanent party member. When fans expressed their outrage and confusion, Baba only responded with "We never said she was the heroine."
Then why was she one of the two revealed characters when Zestiria was announced? Why announce her at all, release a figure for her, and include her in DLC costume sets? This character received promotion and attention and fans were excited to play a lancer, of which there are very few of in the series. For Baba to say "we never said she was the heroine" is a mockery to all of the fans he misled up to this point.
Namco will never come out and say it but what really happened was that there were last minute changes to the story that replaced the intended heroine Alisha with Rose. It turns out that Hideo Baba was smitten with Rose’s voice actress at the time, so much that he abused his authority as producer to shift focus onto Rose. This major change in heroines affected the rest of the storyline, and writers simply did not have enough time to rewrite the story to accommodate for this change. The end product resulted in an incoherent storyline that felt incomplete and full of holes.
In an attempt to appease fans, Namco released a (temporarily) free DLC chapter focusing on Alisha after the events of the game. However, this does not change the fact that Alisha was shafted because of Baba's personal interference so the DLC chapter did very little to please the fans. And Hideo Baba was never heard from again.
This incident provides us with insight to the management responsible for calling the shots in the making of Tales games. These are people whose desire to create a Tales game are out of alignment with what fans want. Business perspective and economic thought cannot be applied to explain their behavior. The only difference between their games and fan made projects is that they are making the same garbage but within the company.
Sure there are still fans that eat up everything that Namco serves them but nobody is asking for a Tales-themed cafe, a Tales of the Abyss musical, a letter from Richard to Asbel as a bundle exclusive, or an anime of a game that was just released. These are products that Namco is throwing out there because this is what they want to exist.
It's sad how Namco is mishandling the Tales series so badly. Aside from God Eater, they don't have Go Shiina composing any music. They have a trademarked battle system that no other company can replicate. And there are so elements and quirks to the Tales games that cannot be found anywhere else. These wasted resources can be better spent giving fans what they actually want like…
Namco realizes the value of the past Tales games, that's why they ported Destiny 2 and Rebirth onto the PSP, Abyss to the 3DS, and Symphonia and its sequel to the PS3. What Namco should really be doing however, are remakes of older Tales games. Specifically, they should replicate the success they had with the popular Tales of Destiny Remake.
Destiny Remake's assets were made from the ground-up. It introduced an entirely new battle system with aerial combat and an alternative to the traditional TP system. Its story and skits were fully voiced and redone. Its graphics kept 2D sprites complete with beautiful animation and effects. It will go down in history as one of the most satisfying battle systems in a Tales game.
And yet this success has never been replicated ever since. Fans were hoping that these remakes would be the beginning of a new trend. New fans would get introduced to older games with modern designs. Older cans relive their older favorites in a new way. And fans outside of Japan could get a second chance at localization.
But instead of remaking the next entry in the series, Eternia, Namco decided to remake Innocence and Hearts on the PSVita. These titles are nowhere close to being the most popular titles in the series, but Namco wanted to remake them because the DS' hardware limitations prevented them from putting in everything they wanted. Therefore, they were remade on the VIta.
The quality of work put into these remakes comes nowhere close to Destiny R's. Although voicework and scenes were redone, the character models were mediocre and the battle system was largely the same with a few improvements. They did however, retcon in new characters— a trend that Namco seems to be fond of since it was done to Vesperia and Phantasia.
What's even more bizarre is that Namco introduced the concept of the Triverse Gate, which connects the worlds of Innocence, Hearts, and Tempest. However, this Triverse Gate is only present in the remakes, not in the original games. It's a very interesting concept to make a connection between 3 unrelated games, but it only serves as an end-game dungeon. Even in the remakes, the Triverse Gates have no bearing on the story whatsoever. So what was the point of connecting these games in the first place? The only thing the Triverse Gate has done for the series is make fans wonder why there hasn’t been a Tempest R.
Regardless, Hearts R and Innocence R performed terribly. Even their combined sales don't come close to Destiny R, which sold over a million units. In fact, both of the remakes sold less than their original releases. This failure is actually quite an accomplishment in of itself, and again proves that Namco is out of touch with their fanbase.
After reading this, I hope you can understand why I once loved Tales and why I hate it right now. It's like a relationship that worked out perfectly fine- distance wasn't a problem, money wasn't a problem, approval from friends and family wasn't a problem. But Tales just couldn't be satisfied staying the same and wanted to be something different for no reason, and in ways I could not accept.
I don't think I am asking for much here. I just want Tales to be good like it used to be. It doesn't have to take after Vesperia, Symphonia, or the legendary PS2 trinity. I just want the battle system to be fun again, for the characters to be less gimmicky and try-hard, for the content to actually be there, and for the storylines to make sense.
I don't want Tales to do open world when they can't. Or for them to make a mockery of skits and post-battle victory screens. Or to buy a Rutee and Leon for the 5th time. Just give me a complete game that's fun to play and has likeable characters like the good ole days. Please.
germansingergirl
romaincrisis
origamiaround
turnnoffyourmind
jbbartram-illu
vaporwave
kianamaiart
