Tales of Aravorn: Seasons Of The Wolf

Tales of Aravorn: Seasons Of The Wolf

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Kurozora Konoi Jun 23, 2017 @ 9:21am
Thoughts on my second playthrough - replayability and so on
So, I've already made a huuuge review about my thoughts on the game, so I won't go into that again, but I felt the need to actually talk and share opinions about things you won't necessarily notice or experiment on your first playthrough.


First of all, while I still like Loren more, that's no surprise considering Loren is one of my favorite games of all times. Now, I must say I like SOTW a lot more than before after playing twice. I'm not implying I didn't like it the first time I've played! But I still like it more now.
The second playthrough allowed me to see just how good the battle, traits and skills system was. One thing I DIDN'T enjoy in my first playthrough were the battles - I'm no RPG noob, but I had a hard time finding any kind of pleasure in the battle system. This time around though? I had a real blast with it, and I'm actually planning to replay on hard mode later on, so I'll get the achievements!

So, why did my opinion change so much? Well, I think this is because my mastery of the skills and traits have increased a lot. I now knew exactly the kind of skills I wanted for each character, wich are NOT the skills usually suggested by other players, actually - but well everyone has their own play style, right? Honestly, I can't stress enough how useful the traits are for my style, even more than most of the skills. That one trait that makes you recover some HP and SP after each battle was doing wonders for me! As well as some other traits too. I've reached a higher level this time around, so the ones that give you stats bonuses for each level were great.
To sum it up, I like the fact it seems to adapt very well to different play styles depending on players.
Fun thing is, I usually play with rogue/thief like character, that's why I choose Hunter on my first playthrough, but I felt much more at ease this time around with a Ranger wielding two blades and trained to be ultra fast, both attributes and gear wise.

That being said, the pleasure I found in the battles this time around is not the only thing about this game I've come to realize on this playthrough. Maybe the main point is the high replayability. And I'm not talking about the fact you can choose your MC and romantic interest, because I love Shea and I love Riley and I wouldn't want any other MC and romance anyway. But the game doesn't get boring even that way. You have so many ways to do the different missions you come across, that events may unfold in totally new and unexpected ways because of one single choice. While I stick with some of my choices from my first playthrough, I've also tried changing lots of things, so I could experiment all the variation. I find it really enjoyable. Not that many games allow you to really do your job the way you want to do it, without it being labelled as the "right/good" or "wrong/bad" way.

On a side note, in my first review I said I loved the DLC, and well, I obviously still love it, but it obviously was even more entertaining this time around since I team was better trained.


Also, if anyone had the patience to read upon this point, I also have some questions coming along with the replayability talk, but well, that contains spoilers.
On my first playthrough, I've missed the achievement for discovering all zones during summer (the act in Shacklesplit). At first, I thought it may have been because I've genuinely missed something, but I've still missed it this time, and after pondering for I while I came to the conclusion it's related to Chalassa's happy ending quest. Is that right? As far as I'm concerned, this quest implies fighting Deceit and Jul, and the fight doesn't take place in town. But I don't know if you have to go to a new location for it, or if you simply need to revisit another location, so I can't be sure. Honestly, it would be a shame if it was exclusive to people who play as Althea AND romance Chalassa, since well... I'm not planning to do that, and it doesn't matter how many times I may replay. But well, at the end of the day, I'd mainly want to know so I won't keep trying if my theory is right.

Another thing that's bothering me is the blacksmith's father. You get to free both her brother and her mother, and you learn the father was freed before, and the characters hope he'll be able to track his family down. But can I get an ever better ending for this questline, where you actually bring him back or see him come back to his family?



So yeah, my conclusion is that you can't really fully enjoy the game if you play only one time, even if your NOT planning to try the other MC and/or other romances. I'm glad I've decided to replay, and I'll replay a couple more times for sure.
Honestly, while - as told before - I still like Loren more, I sure think Loren 2 would benefit from some of SOTW's aspects, like the skill and trait system, and how attributes and battles are handled. Fun thing since it was the biggest downside for me in my first review haha!
Loren isn't necessarily superior story-wise in my opinion, but I like the characters more. Or actually, there are more characters I like, simply because there are more characters, period. I like romance visual novels, but what I like even more are hybrid games that mix romance visual novel aspects with fighting gameplay, like RPG or tactical RPG. Loren and SOTW are the perfect kind of games to me, but none is perfect. I guess in order to make a perfect Aravorn game in my opinion, it would need as many varied romance options like Loren has, but with a solid battle system and missions with multiple approaches like SOTW.
Last edited by Kurozora Konoi; Jun 23, 2017 @ 9:32am
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Franka_Scythe Jun 24, 2017 @ 2:52am 
Since I played the beta extensively, it's a little hard for me to comment on the replayability aspect. I restarted many times, and played the game in extremely different ways (doing both an über grind for ridiculous levels and a non-grind, avoid combat whenever possible game, fx.), but that was primarily done for testing purposes, to try to "break" the game and look for bugs.

I did replay the game recently, just for the nostalgia, but the only thing the game still holds "secret" from me is the DLC. I just don't like the setting or the town mini game. I was planning on giving it another chance, but then there's a Steam summer sale, and all that...

Anyway, for your spoiler question, it's not really a spoiler. It doesn't have anything to do with Chalassa. There's a "secret" grind spot that you can unlock by visiting specific locations during an extremely narrow window of time early on during Act 3. It doesn't have any quests or story associated with it, but it does count towards the map %. It's just a place to grind XP.
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