Community MetaSteam | July 2021 - Corporate Propaganda

Status
Not open for further replies.

Line

meh
Dec 21, 2018
1,699
2,933
113
I need help from all the anime experts of MetaSteam.

The fate of the universe is on the line

Symphonia
Vesperia
Zestiria
Berseria

You can only choose 1 to save the universe. The best of the 4?
I would say Symphonia first.
It's really old, so you will feel the difference if you start it later. The combat being on a strict 2D plane is pretty clunky, and it's slow.
On the other hand, it also has BY FAR the best level design of the 4 (arguably, the only one to have it) and a pretty nice story.

Vesperia is an evolution with better, more fluid combat but slighty worse everything else (some like the cast, even replaying it it left me pretty cold) outside of visuals. The style really holds up, and the world map is super cool. Story falls apart in the last act, but it's worth playing it.

Zestiria has actually good characters. But oh boy is it the very worse of the level design in the franchise, absolutely hideous progression systems (I think it's genuinely the worst in the genre - not only is it 100% RNG, but you need to be lucky to get drops combining together or you will not get any power boost from anything, even levelling up!), add awful pacing and only 2 chars at the time, locked long combos forcing you to use tons of attacks for almost nothing to reach the right part of the combo, as well as being just... ugly and flat? They really messed that one up.

Berseria is Zestiria but fixed. You can change your combos at will, progression is much more normal (if bland), 4 characters are back, but it still shitty level design and severe pacing issues. But on the other hand it has a nice story and good characters.
It's the best gameplay wise, and it's not bad on other fronts if you can forget the concept of dungeon and puzzle. And some awful designs.
 

Stone Ocean

Proud Degenerate
Apr 17, 2019
2,357
7,484
113
I need help from all the anime experts of MetaSteam.

The fate of the universe is on the line

Symphonia
Vesperia
Zestiria
Berseria

You can only choose 1 to save the universe. The best of the 4?
Any of them aside from Zestiria.

Zestiria is physically painful to play. Between a dull story and needlessly complex systems that throw tutorials in your face for 20 hours and still dont make sense, I bought it at launch and still haven't managed to force myself to play through it.
 

Durante

I <3 Pixels
Oct 21, 2018
4,045
19,520
113
I would say Symphonia first.
It's really old, so you will feel the difference if you start it later. The combat being on a strict 2D plane is pretty clunky, and it's slow.
On the other hand, it also has BY FAR the best level design of the 4 (arguably, the only one to have it) and a pretty nice story.

Vesperia is an evolution with better, more fluid combat but slighty worse everything else (some like the cast, even replaying it it left me pretty cold) outside of visuals. The style really holds up, and the world map is super cool. Story falls apart in the last act, but it's worth playing it.

Zestiria has actually good characters. But oh boy is it the very worse of the level design in the franchise, absolutely hideous progression systems (I think it's genuinely the worst in the genre - not only is it 100% RNG, but you need to be lucky to get drops combining together or you will not get any power boost from anything, even levelling up!), add awful pacing and only 2 chars at the time, locked long combos forcing you to use tons of attacks for almost nothing to reach the right part of the combo, as well as being just... ugly and flat? They really messed that one up.

Berseria is Zestiria but fixed. You can change your combos at will, progression is much more normal (if bland), 4 characters are back, but it still shitty level design and severe pacing issues. But on the other hand it has a nice story and good characters.
It's the best gameplay wise, and it's not bad on other fronts if you can forget the concept of dungeon and puzzle. And some awful designs.
I really strongly disagree with Zestiria. Some of the systems might be a bit too convoluted for their own good -- and admittedly I might be someone who enjoys some level of complexity for complexity's sake -- but I still find Zestiria's battle system to be easily one of the most strategic and interesting in the franchise.

Also, I think it's quite beautiful as far as Tales games go, and it has the 4 temples each of which is a more interesting dungeon than anything save post-game in Berseria or Vesperia IMHO.

Oh, and Symphonia is one of the worst Tales games I played overall (and I played and completed >80% of them). I think the reputation of that is founded almost entirely on nostalgia.
 

Stone Ocean

Proud Degenerate
Apr 17, 2019
2,357
7,484
113
I really strongly disagree with Zestiria. Some of the systems might be a bit too convoluted for their own good -- and admittedly I might be someone who enjoys some level of complexity for complexity's sake -- but I still find Zestiria's battle system to be easily one of the most strategic and interesting in the franchise.
To be fair, the battle system itself is probably the best part of the game and the reason I'll be able to stomach it until the end eventually, it just feels super stiff early on.
 
  • Like
Reactions: yuraya

Mivey

MetaMember
Sep 20, 2018
4,285
12,155
113
Erm, sorry to break it to you buddy but that's EXACTLY what my wishlist is. It's not a "Wishlist" it's a "Bookmark Folder" so i can keep an eye on games that interest me for one reason or another. I have no intention of purchasing every game that goes into my wishlist. It's got nothing to do with Festivals either. It's always been like that for me. Am i doing it wrong? Dunno, Don't care.
To be fair here, I don't think any of us represent the average customer. For the vast majority on Steam, it probably really is a wishlist.
 

texhnolyze

Child at heart
Oct 19, 2018
3,620
8,654
113
Indonesia
If a game is still in development, I don't put them in my whistlist, I just follow them instead.

"Put our game in your whistlist now, coming out in 1-2 years!!"

I feel like these indie devs and publishers are getting it wrong. There's no merit for us in whistlisting unpurchaseable games.

Early access games is a different story since I have some of them in my whistlist those that I'm really looking forward the most.
 

Mivey

MetaMember
Sep 20, 2018
4,285
12,155
113
Oh, and Symphonia is one of the worst Tales games I played overall (and I played and completed >80% of them). I think the reputation of that is founded almost entirely on nostalgia.
I don't think Symphonia is bad per se, honestly. Just very mediocre and long. The has almost no new ideas, the story beats are very typical and predictable, the writing is very boring, which earlier Tales games were actually better about, like Eternia or Destiny.
I agree that it's just nostalgia that keeps people talking about it.
 

Line

meh
Dec 21, 2018
1,699
2,933
113
I really strongly disagree with Zestiria. Some of the systems might be a bit too convoluted for their own good -- and admittedly I might be someone who enjoys some level of complexity for complexity's sake -- but I still find Zestiria's battle system to be easily one of the most strategic and interesting in the franchise.
They tried things, but I care far more about progression (else why even make an RPG eh?) and balance.
In Zestiria, it's way too likely that you will ignore gear entirely for a very long time because they don't complete your bingo card. And getting stuck with "worse" stuff because the bonuses outweighs anything you find for hours and hours is really, really broken.
And I don't know, I didn't find it very strategic. Having to really target weaknesses is a good idea, but as I said, having to easily spend 3/4 of your time using useless skills because they locked the needed ones to a specific combo chain... that feels real fake and add even more tediousness.

Also, I think it's quite beautiful as far as Tales games go, and it has the 4 temples each of which is a more interesting dungeon than anything save post-game in Berseria or Vesperia IMHO.

Oh, and Symphonia is one of the worst Tales games I played overall (and I played and completed >80% of them). I think the reputation of that is founded almost entirely on nostalgia.
I can see that being beautiful as far as tales games go, yes. But then, the free camera Tales games are also absolutely hideous. Large expanses completely void of any props (let alone life), bad textures, barely any lighting effects, empty cities... and hardly saved by the bland artstyle of the franchise. But they're also low budget PS3 games, so that's understandable. Less so when good looking PS2 games are so far above...
And I'd say the temples of Zestiria are a good example of that, they are gigantic, empty, incredibly repetitive. Hell, You could compare screenshots of different trials and not know which is which because they're identical for the most part. But again, it's certainly a weak point in Berseria too, though they actually did give it more than one tileset.
However even in Vesperia, the weakest of all fixed camera Tales of, has an immense amount of variety and don't offer hours long dungeons with one texture to look at and 2 ennemies to fight.

And that's where Symphonia utterly shits on all the others, actual different dungeons. With puzzles and fairly unique mechanics. And exploration and things hidden, not unending copy/pasted rooms with RNG stuff that you won't care about.
But the combat is really, really old for obvious reasons.
That and the characters are early 2000's anime.
 

gabbo

MetaMember
Dec 22, 2018
3,524
5,570
113
Toronto
To be fair here, I don't think any of us represent the average customer. For the vast majority on Steam, it probably really is a wishlist.
Maybe wishlists arent the best metric for a game/dev to use in the first place.
Mine is a 160 game deep mess that I just pruned 4 games from because well, I don't need them/want them like I did once upon a time.

My singular purchase (for myself) during the sale removed one other from it. The Steam Demo Festivals generally see anywhere from 3-10 games added that may sit for a decade, so good luck trying to use me for solid data
 
Last edited:

EdwardTivrusky

Good Morning, Weather Hackers!
Dec 8, 2018
7,396
12,484
113
I have 1,200 games in my "Wishlist" so yeah, at this point it's just a big bucket of games for Steam to notify me of release or sales for.
 
  • Eyes
Reactions: Tomasety and gabbo

Durante

I <3 Pixels
Oct 21, 2018
4,045
19,520
113
I don't think Symphonia is bad per se, honestly. Just very mediocre and long. The has almost no new ideas, the story beats are very typical and predictable, the writing is very boring, which earlier Tales games were actually better about, like Eternia or Destiny.
I agree that it's just nostalgia that keeps people talking about it.
Agreed, it's not really a bad game, especially for its time -- but it's still one of the worse (mainline) Tales games, since I'd argue that even the "bad" entries in the series are mostly just mediocre (and I'd also say even the best ones are not outstanding games, it's a very consistent series IMHO).
 
  • Like
Reactions: Li Kao
OP
lashman

lashman

Dead & Forgotten
Sep 5, 2018
32,035
90,214
113

fantomena

MetaMember
Dec 17, 2018
9,844
26,502
113
Uplay is fine because I only use it to launch Ubi games. Also I do like that I can get 20% off coupons by selling gold coins.
 

NarohDethan

There was a fish in the percolator!
Apr 6, 2019
9,120
25,502
113
By the way, it won't probably ever happen but an Astro's Playroom port for PC would be great, I played it yesterday and it was tons of fun plus very endearing. Astro is a great little guy.
 

Digoman

Lurking in the Shadows
Dec 21, 2018
854
2,390
93
Bought some cheap games before the sale is over, removed some other ones and now my wishlist is only 137 games I feel so... small :p

8 hours in and while you can see it's age, Mass Effect 1 first hours are still so good at introducing you to the world. I will probably enjoy the LE a lot. Just have to keep blocking the ending from my mind.

And so far, I'm following that meme to letter: Trying to take different decisions in a paragon playthrough, but failing miserably. And the big one is getting closer and closer...
Can I convince myself to finally let Kaiden survive? A cardboard is more fun than that guy.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.