Quote
Originally posted by: Athrun Zala
Quote
Originally posted by: Kairon
But the game is so mindblowingly easy. Hack 'n Slash can beat it. Whhat's the appeal of being proficient at characters then?
~Carmine M. Red
Kairon@aol.com
lol, it isn't
try to hack'n'slash the whole game and were that gets you 
Oh, Kairon doesn't believe people can have digital fun and enjoyment by exercising their own skills? Pity. I guess the non-gamer market is non-existant afterall.
SINCE WHEN, in these silly side-quest-filled, uber-levelling, collecta-thon japerneeze games, was beating the game "the end of it"?
Ever since beating ToS for the first time, did I play it like it was an RPG? HELL NAW, I PLAYED IT LIKE IT WAS A FIGHTING GAME (aka Boss fights are fun and are a joy to replay) -- A FIGHTING GAME WITH OCEANS OF TEXT I HAVE TO SKIP. I said it before, the story goes OUT THE WINDOW on subsequent play-thrus, and it's all about ass-kicking.
About Hack N Slash,
Hack N Slash gets you through the game when the game is easy. The game is easy when you've got sufficiently high levels/stats. You earn high levels/stats by filler-combat just to gain experience points. Filler-combat TAKES A LONG FREAKING TIME. OF COURSE the game is easy since your stats are so high; the enemies beyond become pushovers, especially the last battles. But if Hack N Slash (no blocking) is sufficient to get by, you've spent WAY TOO MUCH TIME leveling up, skewing your end-game experience, making you boring, like the dude who leveled Alucard to 9999 in Symphony of the Night, and I don't want to discuss games with you.
And about Lloyd, the most boring character in the game,
HE, LIKE HIS TALES SERIES PREDECESSORS, ARE KINGS OF HACK N SLASH. THEY HACK AND THEY SLASH. SETTING ONE UBER-MOVE TO THE B-BUTTON AND SHOVING ORANGE GELS DOWN HIS THROAT makes the game a breeze. But that would be kissing the first tree in front of you and not seeing the rest of the forest, when the rest of the forest is what's really enjoyable, and you're eventually sick of kissing that first tree.
Here's a crazy idea: Tales of Symphonia is FUN when it's HARD. Therefore I MAKE THE GAME HARD. How? Well one obvious way is to set the game to Hard. But I do things the other way, playing the game FAST on a blank file from scratch. How is this feasible? I USE THE BLOCK BUTTON, and apply skill & strategy, breaking the whole Hack N Slash routine/option. When playing fast, Hack N Slash doesn't get you far, particularly because you don't have the statistical advantage -- and when things are difficult, it's easy to see there's LOTS of skill & strategy to apply. It's apparent as you take Lloyd out of the picture, since he's just a walking Combo Meter with an ugly red costume. But even when you're disadvantaged, Lloyd's choppy-chop talents won't get far, and he proves to be a complete orange/apple gel sink hole in this situation.
So, take Lloyd out cuz he's boring and he breeds boring players who get bored.
Now, setup your characters with the goal of making them self-sufficient; do as much as you can to reduce their dependecies on replenishing items. Then, arrive at boss battles withi minimal leveling, realize you're getting your ass handed to you, and realize HEY, BLOCKING AND TIMING AND THE OTHER WORDS THAT START WITH "S" ARE ESSENTIAL. Really, much of the earlier bosses are way more entertaining than the final boss, especially when playing with the limitations resulting from lack of level-ups.
Why wait till AFTER you've beaten the game, after level 90 or whatever, to fight in the Colosseum and collect the titles? Cuz it's easier that way and the enemies will be pushovers and you'll get your lame rewards that are pretty useless so late in the game? FORK THAT. Finish the Latheon Gorge region, and Noishe your ass over to Meltokio at level 60 and get your titles then. NOW THAT IS DIFFICULT, and it'll force you to learn a lot of interesting gameplay nuances of your characters. And hey, when you do manage to get your titles, you'll still have so much of the game left to finish to see your character REALLY GROW WITH UBER STATS AND BUFFNESS -- without spending useless time leveling up.
--Oh, you didn't bother with the Colosseum cuz it's optional? Fine, Mr. Boring.
When you miss out on the hidden boss battles, you miss out on the best opportunities to test the fighting system -- the last battle doesn't cut it, and if the last boss was replaced with
Abyssion, I'd say people would hit a brick wall and just be shocked by the sheer level disadvantage they'd run into. [then cry and say how hard the game is and complain]. It's obvious the last boss exists for story purposes, while
Abyssion exists as a reward for people who really like spending time with the most detailed portion of the game, the combat, and give people a reason to visit gamefaqs.
Now, beat
Abyssion, at level 65, in UNDER 10 MINUTES, without the use of Hourglasses/Timestoppers (aka in-game cheats), and earning a POSITIVE grade rating -- hack n slash now only applies to that piece-of-cake Bongo Bongo boss battle in "Oakland Arena on Time" -- CUZ IT AINT GONNA HELP IN THIS TALES FIGHT. Sure, you could try to rely on Lloyd, and win, but it'll likely take 20min+ and many life bottles -- this is where getting to know your other characters, particularly Sheena, makes a difference on the speed and finesse of the battle. Use skill, and ACCOMPLISH SOMETHING COOL, or hack n slash your way to a drawn out half-hour fight that'll probably exhaust your entire inventory of health items, making you look pathetic in such an "easy" game.
Abyssion also makes for good multiplayer boss fighting. Multiplayer combo-chaining is fun. And earning high grade makes you say WOW.
Of course, none of this applies to the boring players out there.
Tales of Symphonia can be the boring drawn-out 40+ hour level-up game at your leisurely pace, or the quasi-fighting game adventure full of character customization for the peeps who enjoy skill & STRATEGERY (if enemies drop dead quickly, you're playing too slow), or the 40+ hour leisurely COLLECT-A-THON for those who like earning and organizing reward items and enemy lists. 2 out of 3 people, each of the preceding categories, were able to enjoy this game in a multiplayer capacity over many summer and fall and winter weekends -- [boring] person #1 wasn't one of them.
Pro likes difficulty and likes to maximize skill when applicable/fun/fashionable (Tales, Viewtiful Joe, SSBM, Mario Power Tennis, Metroid Prime 2).
Topic: What are the good RPG@s out there (Read 6298 times)
