(02-24-2013, 11:27 AM)taltale Wrote: Ryanti, I am glad that you are beginning to feel at home here. I am indeed a lover of Tales. Ever since I can remember I have immersed myself in them and taken them on, imagination wise, in full regard!
In reference to Tales of Vesperia, I have never played any of the Tales series before (although, I have heard of them) but after looking into it a little more, it looks like something that I would really enjoy! The music sounds like a dream. The artwork is beautiful (anime!) and the world, story, and characters it's created look really relatable.
This message goes out to everyone, not just to her, because I believe it is important enough of a message to be worth reading.
If you haven't played them before, I recommend Vesperia. It's a violent introduction to the series, but it'll effect you in the most positive way imaginable.
Each Tales name is like a Final Fantasy. They are all completely different. The only things they share is the gameplay style.
The Tales games encompass everything about my style of storytelling perfectly...
They have meditative, dreamy, romantic, idealistic, and ethereal worlds that are extremely creative in design and highly desirable to live in. Unlike most worlds in RPG's nowadays, the worlds in the Tales series are hopeful, optimistic, and actually increases your faith in humanity.
Their stories are ultra-long, enriched in detail of the backstory and history of the world. The plot itself is full of twists and turns, yet the pacing remains a delicate uphill and downhill pace, and the slice of life aspect of character development remains through the implementation of skits (which no one ever really does in any other series) therefore making character development ultra-realistic, to the point where you feel like you're living alongside the characters.
Each character in the party, in all of the series are equally strong, important, relevant, and likable. They all have deep, intricate backstories that are told in a brilliant symphony of events and situations that pull at your gut and scream at your empathy.
The villains are brilliantly well-played, each with their own motivations, philosophies, points of view, and ways of handling things that'll throw you off guard and blow your mind, yet in the end, all making sense. A good villain is someone you love to hate. A great villain is someone whom you feel sorry for. A perfect villain is someone who makes sense, who's point of view, dare you think of it, you actually agree with. Tales games somehow do all of this at once.
The games are called 'Tales of', in other words, 'The Tales and Stories of 'x''. The plot is so adventurous and everlasting, that normally people confuse the ending of the game once or twice before actually beating it.
The Director of this series is an absolute storytelling prodigy genius of a man, who's underrated in the gaming industry, even as the newest Tales game (Xilia), outsells Final Fantasy. He refuses to sell out to any major studio, including his own publishers, and his studio, the Namco Tales Studio, have their own building independent from Namco, a staff handpicked from the best of the best, with a blank check. It's an elite group, making elite games, not appealing to everyone, but appealing to two different groups of people. People who enjoy the highest standard of storytelling, and people who want to escape to worlds they'd be dying to live in.
I have seen and experienced many, many, many, many, many games/stories/anime/ish... and the Tales series stands above them all, on a whole different pedestal. Most people I refer the game to don't believe me and don't try. Or are reluctant. Every single person that has later picked up Vesperia, for example.. and took up on my offer, I literally could not get a hold of them for multiple days, and they came back to me saying 'thank you' over and over, a million times, and I would just say "Well, you trusted my word. I mean what I say."
The Tales games changed my life. Made me finally understand that all of this... information in my head, darting back and forth, spawning and fading away.. all of it, and the Tales games 'matched'. And I had that spiritual awakening. I now knew.. who I was. As a writer. I found my creative identity through those games. When I lost, it found me, and by fate I played it, and now I live it, and I wish to share it with anyone who will just.. trust me, and take the leap.
Have I convinced you? Word of mouth is the most powerful weapon the Tales games have, and it's working.