PC gettings its first Tales game in Oct.

[ImpulsE69]

Probably not too many people in this particular forum care, but this is something I never thought I'd see. I've always tended to like JRPG's more than western rpgs simply due to variety and weirdness. Western RPGs almost always revolve around the same things with very little variance. There is much more imagination in JRPGs, but I realize they are quite different takes on the term "RPG" - however I use the term RPG very loosely. Those with the strict RPG idea that it has to be "this way", should just stay away from JRPG's.

Unfortunately these Tales games are hit or miss though, and the formula appears to have been changed a bit for this one so it remains to be seen how well it will do. I would like to see more of this happen (and hopefully not crap ports).

https://games.yahoo.com/news/tales-zestiria-coming-ps4-pc-183002769.html

The latest entry in the Tales series, Tales of Zestiria, is heading to PlayStation 4 and Windows PC on Oct. 2, according to a tweet from the official Bandai Namco US Twitter account. The game was previously only announced for PlayStation 3.
Tales of Zestiria launched earlier this year in Japan; it stars a young man named Sorey, who is "destined to unite both humans and the Seraphs, legendary beings that roam the earth invisible to mankind." Like previous titles, Tales of Zestiria includes real-time battles and a huge world to explore.
According to the PlayStation Blog Europe, the game comes to Europe on Oct. 16. The PC digital version will be available Oct. 20. You can watch the European trailer above.

 

[kyrax12]

Tales series are only good if you have a vested interest in Anime...

 

[ImpulsE69]

Tales series are only good if you have a vested interest in Anime...

Not at all. Pretty much every JRPG since PSX is 'anime'. If you can get over the girls always squealing and making weird noises they are enjoyable. Of course, I grew up on them, so I am used to it.

And for the record, I pretty much don't like anime.

 

[kyrax12]

Not at all. Pretty much every JRPG since PSX is 'anime'. If you can get over the girls always squealing and making weird noises they are enjoyable. Of course, I grew up on them, so I am used to it.

And for the record, I pretty much don't like anime.

The tales series have a very Anime-esque artstyle compared to a lot of JRPGs.
Not even Final Fantasy have the full blown anime character model like the Tale series.

 

[cmdrdredd]

If it's a decent game I'll consider picking it up.

 

[Eric1987]

I love the series so this is great to me! Can't wait!

 

[xantub]

Tales series are only good if you have a vested interest in Anime...

This is so very not true. I don't like Anime (as in watching it), but I love JRPGs and their anime style.

 

[futurefields]

what's the appeal of anime jrpg games?

is it the emo androgynous characters?

is it the strict paths and repetitive turn based combat?

is it the underwear?

 

[Matthiasa]

what's the appeal of anime jrpg games?

is it the emo androgynous characters?

is it the strict paths and repetitive turn based combat?

is it the underwear?

How wouldn't the things listed, other then the androgynous part since they are often still emo, apply to many and or most western style rpg as well?

 

[Red Hawk]

Tales series are only good if you have a vested interest in Anime...

The aesthetic and narrative appeal is sort of similar, but I can see someone enjoying JRPGs like the Tales series without really being all that interested in anime.

The real thing to worry about is just what kind of port this will be. JRPGs tend to not have very good PC ports. Lack of options, no mouse support, shaky keyboard support, locked native resolution.

 

[futurefields]

How wouldn't the things listed, other then the androgynous part since they are often still emo, apply to many and or most western style rpg as well?

I did some research and figured it out!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otaku

 

[cmdrdredd]

what's the appeal of anime jrpg games?

is it the emo androgynous characters?

is it the strict paths and repetitive turn based combat?

is it the underwear?

Nope it's the battle system, the characters and how they are portrayed, and the often lack of hand holding. Ever notice how elder scrolls and the witcher tells you which way to go to the next objective. Some jrpgs do not have that so you need to talk to everyone.

 

[Fenixgoon]

tales of symphonia was great.

 

[futurefields]

Nope it's the battle system, the characters and how they are portrayed, and the often lack of hand holding. Ever notice how elder scrolls and the witcher tells you which way to go to the next objective. Some jrpgs do not have that so you need to talk to everyone.

How can you say Elder Scrolls hold your hand and JRPG's don't when JRPG's often follow a completely LINEAR path with no choice in direction, and no freedom to explore, do things at your leisure. I would say the average JRPG is the definition of hand holding whereas a game like Skyrim or Witcher 3 let's you do whatever the heck you want with absolutely no hand holding?

 

[ImpulsE69]

How can you say Elder Scrolls hold your hand and JRPG's don't when JRPG's often follow a completely LINEAR path with no choice in direction, and no freedom to explore, do things at your leisure. I would say the average JRPG is the definition of hand holding whereas a game like Skyrim or Witcher 3 let's you do whatever the heck you want with absolutely no hand holding?

All RPGs are linear. The only difference you are referring to is open world vs. non open world. The stories in non open worlds tend to be deeper, complex with twists and turns. Those tend to not exist in open world games -- Even Witcher 3's story is pretty generic overall, and in TES series it is basically just a subplot, and linear in the sense you still have to do specific things to advance the story, you can just spend more time doing unrelated side quests that you discover at your leasure..granted that also exists in some non open world games. In the open world games it is more about exploration, in non open worlds it is more about the story.

In JRPGs what is meant by not hand holding is, that even though there may be a specific path you need to follow, it doesn't tell you what to do, whereas in open world games they tend to tell you exactly where to go and what to do.

There are variations and crossovers in all of this over the years, but that is the general idea.

 

[Eric1987]

How can you say Elder Scrolls hold your hand and JRPG's don't when JRPG's often follow a completely LINEAR path with no choice in direction, and no freedom to explore, do things at your leisure. I would say the average JRPG is the definition of hand holding whereas a game like Skyrim or Witcher 3 let's you do whatever the heck you want with absolutely no hand holding?

Sounds like you haven't played any recent JRPGs. IMO JRPGs are the best kind. Very rarely is a western style RPG better.

 

[Aikouka]

For anyone hating on "Anime jRPGs", did you like Chrono Trigger? Dragon Quest? The only thing that makes these "Anime jRPGs" is the fact that the character designs are heavily influenced by the anime art style vs. stuff like Amano Yoshitaka's Final Fantasy artwork. It makes since as those aforementioned games/series were all drawn by Dragon Ball-creator Toriyama Akira.

It's nice to see that we're getting more and more games coming to the PC that normally would've been stuck on consoles. One nice thing about Tales of Zestiria is that it's the first non-remake Tales game to come with Japanese audio (Tales of Symphonia HD has Japanese audio). If you watch enough anime, seeing Japanese animation visuals with English voices just looks really weird.

The only downside for me is that I've never really liked the battle system in Tales. I have Tales of Vesperia and Tales of Symphonia HD, and it's just an awkward system that a fan of Final Fantasy will have to get used to. It's a lot more like a fighting game.

 

[alcoholbob]

Kinda tired of the old PS3 graphics, and the PS3 is still where most of the RPGs are at. Can't wait to see a modern JRPG at 4K. FF13 looked bananas on the PC at 4K, made an old last-gen 720p look fantastic. Should be good if it has full options for resolutions.

 

[Aikouka]

Kinda tired of the old PS3 graphics, and the PS3 is still where most of the RPGs are at. Can't wait to see a modern JRPG at 4K. FF13 looked bananas on the PC at 4K, made an old last-gen 720p look fantastic. Should be good if it has full options for resolutions.

Just keep in mind that this uses the cell-shaded art style, so while the game doesn't look bad, it will not have the "cleaner look" of Final Fantasy XIII. If you want to get an idea of what it will look like, here's the trailer. Although, I think it's based off the PS3 version. I don't think there's any information about graphical upgrades for the PS4 and PC version, but I wouldn't be surprised to see some. From what I read, one of the complaints about the PS3 release was a bad framerate in some areas, so that should be alleviated at least.

 

[cmdrdredd]

How can you say Elder Scrolls hold your hand and JRPG's don't when JRPG's often follow a completely LINEAR path with no choice in direction, and no freedom to explore, do things at your leisure. I would say the average JRPG is the definition of hand holding whereas a game like Skyrim or Witcher 3 let's you do whatever the heck you want with absolutely no hand holding?

Cause there is no minimap with a big gold dot pointing out exactly where to go and a subtext on the HUD telling you to "talk to the merchant". The characters may instead tell you "try asking in the next town over. There was a guy who had something like that." And you have to explore the whole town and talk to everyone to find what you need to progress.

I don't really care how much there is to do when the quest tells you to go somewhere and points it out for you. There's no need to explore then, you just go to the spot it tells you to get the quest done. Plus the story in a JRPG is the focus, not how much stuff there is to do.

Go play Xenogears and tell me again how JRPGs have hand holding and don't let you explore.

 

[MustISO]

Would be awesome if more of the RPGs from PS1/PS2 were brought over to the PC with or without updates.