An Introduction Two Years In The Making..

[taltale]

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.

[Ryanti]

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.

[allgivenover]

I'm sorry to burst your bubble Ryanti, but the Namco Tales Studio was dissolved into Namco Bandai about a year and a half ago at this point, and while there are a few people that have worked on the franchise consistently (like the character designer), it's hardly a bastion of elite developers funded with a blank check. In fact the Namco Tales Studio was operating in the red if I recall correctly, which is why they were absorbed back into their parent company, Namco Bandai.

 

It's nothing to fret about though. It's really just a financial restructuring move on Bandai's part. We're obviously still going to get more Tales games.

 

And while Xillia is an apparently great game that I'm excited to eventually play, it certainly didn't sell nearly as much as Final Fantasy XIII, it was something like 600k copies of Tales of Xillia versus the 1.5 million or so FFXIII sold in Japan alone - don't misinterpret me there, that's not an endorsement of superiority in anyway. I really didn't like XIII myself. Either way, it's far from accurate to say it's outselling Final Fantasy.

 

Finally, I wouldn't rush to categorize people who enjoy the Tales of franchise, or any game franchise, into two different types. Yes, I certainly enjoy some of the plot that these games present, and I can appreciate the world setting without wishing I could escape and live their myself. In fact, some fans only play the games for the awesome battle system - Graces biggest selling point in my opinion.

 

Having said all that, I'm glad that you feel inspired by the franchise, but it is a franchise. Many hands have stirred the pot over the years, and the quality is sure to fluctuate as it has with any other media franchise. This will likely not be the only time you feel so strongly connected to a medium either.

[Ryanti]

I'm sorry to burst your bubble Ryanti, but the Namco Tales Studio was dissolved into Namco Bandai about a year and a half ago at this point, and while there are a few people that have worked on the franchise consistently (like the character designer), it's hardly a bastion of elite developers funded with a blank check. In fact the Namco Tales Studio was operating in the red if I recall correctly, which is why they were absorbed back into their parent company, Namco Bandai.

 

It's nothing to fret about though. It's really just a financial restructuring move on Bandai's part. We're obviously still going to get more Tales games.

 

And while Xillia is an apparently great game that I'm excited to eventually play, it certainly didn't sell nearly as much as Final Fantasy XIII, it was something like 600k copies of Tales of Xillia versus the 1.5 million or so FFXIII sold in Japan alone - don't misinterpret me there, that's not an endorsement of superiority in anyway. I really didn't like XIII myself. Either way, it's far from accurate to say it's outselling Final Fantasy.

 

Finally, I wouldn't rush to categorize people who enjoy the Tales of franchise, or any game franchise, into two different types. Yes, I certainly enjoy some of the plot that these games present, and I can appreciate the world setting without wishing I could escape and live their myself. In fact, some fans only play the games for the awesome battle system - Graces biggest selling point in my opinion.

 

Having said all that, I'm glad that you feel inspired by the franchise, but it is a franchise. Many hands have stirred the pot over the years, and the quality is sure to fluctuate as it has with any other media franchise. This will likely not be the only time you feel so strongly connected to a medium either.

 

Wow, I wasn't expecting a response like that. I kind of grew up with that studio being a separate entity. Didn't know it changed but the previous games were made in conditions like that.

 

I wasn't talking about XIII by the way, I was talking about XIII-2, which is the most recent title that came out the same year as Xilia.

 

http://www.sankakucomplex.com/2011/12/22/final-fantasy-xiii-2-beaten-by-tales-final-fantasy-is-dead/

 

Though I'm not surprised about what apparently happened to the studio. I never liked Bandai. They don't understand the concept of advertising over here.

 

I see you have less faith in it then I do but my point remains the same. Most people underestimate those games.

[allgivenover]

XIII-2 also outsold Xillia overall. That's just the first week of sales. It went on to sell something like 2.2 million worldwide. Which is pretty damn sad for a Final Fantasy game. Once again, I'm not making any statements about one game being better or worse than another. I'm certainly having more fun with Graces f than I did with XIII.

 

And you're right, they really don't value advertising here at all. Hopefully Tales of Graces f selling decently (sucks that 200k copies is decent) here in the states will convince them it's worth the effort to localize more or perhaps go through the effort of running an ad or two.

[Ryanti]

XIII-2 also outsold Xillia overall. That's just the first week of sales. It went on to sell something like 2.2 million worldwide. Which is pretty damn sad for a Final Fantasy game. Once again, I'm not making any statements about one game being better or worse than another. I'm certainly having more fun with Graces f than I did with XIII.

 

And you're right, they really don't value advertising here at all. Hopefully Tales of Graces f selling decently (sucks that 200k copies is decent) here in the states will convince them it's worth the effort to localize more or perhaps go through the effort of running an ad or two.

 

Their marketing has been the fault of everything about them not making money. They expect tons of revenue while at the same time, not spending a dime on advertising over here. I mean, what do they expect? Though with Graces, it wasn't really... like a major thing, like Vesperia was. No one in the fanbase were really jumping for joy over it.

 

Didn't Vesperia sell 500k here? I don't remember. But that's a large figure for a game with 0 advertising.

 

But anyway. You're forgetting that a good chunk of XIII-2's sales were worldwide, and Xilia hasn't been released worldwide, so while XIII-2 probably has passed Xilia by now, I wouldn't make an assumption until Xilia has also released worldwide.

 

Though beating them in the first week is a big friggin' deal too.

[allgivenover]

Depends entirely on if and how they bring Xillia over. I don't recall Vesperia sales here in NA, but I remember it being not enough for them, which is why they really dragged their feet on bringing Graces over.

 

I pretty much agree that it's mostly Bandai's fault. They don't understand the western market at all, or even how to begin marketing to it

[taltale]

I'm going to skip past the conversation about which game sold more copies. Honestly, that doesn't really make a difference to me. I know that this is an important factor that plays into determining how good the public perceives the game to be, but as long as I would be able to enjoy it, obviously, I'd be more than happy.

 

I'm just excited to hear that Tales of Vesperia is such and engaging game. Usually, I get super involved in the stories of games/anime/books, etc. It's pretty much what drives my life lol and so far, this series really intrigues my interest.

 

I think I may be sold!

 

 

I wonder though, if it is made for any additional consoles other than Xbox 360 and PS3 for the reason that I don't own an Xbox and the PS3 version seems to be a Japan import (I can't read much Japanese)..as of yet, I haven't found anything.

[Ryanti]

I'm going to skip past the conversation about which game sold more copies. Honestly, that doesn't really make a difference to me. I know that this is an important factor that plays into determining how good the public perceives the game to be, but as long as I would be able to enjoy it, obviously, I'd be more than happy.

 

I'm just excited to hear that Tales of Vesperia is such and engaging game. Usually, I get super involved in the stories of games/anime/books, etc. It's pretty much what drives my life lol and so far, this series really intrigues my interest.

 

I think I may be sold!

 

 

I wonder though, if it is made for any additional consoles other than Xbox 360 and PS3 for the reason that I don't own an Xbox and the PS3 version seems to be a Japan import (I can't read much Japanese)..as of yet, I haven't found anything.

 

There's Tales of Symphonia for the Gamecube. Which was the #1 Tales game for a very long time. In my opinion I would put it right underneath Vesperia.

 

However, older Tales games are hard to get by and might cost a bit much.. I got mine for $72 (Symphonia) in like.. 2009?

 

Hell, Vesperia still goes for $30-40 4 1/2 years later.

[taltale]

Okay thanks! I'll look into it and see what I can find.