Reccomended difficulty setting in 1st playthrough...

[Fleuora]

Hi guys, need your answer...I never play tales of' games before. And here is my question
What is recommended difficulty settings in first playthrough for a newbie tales of' like me...?
And can u explain any advantage and disadvantage for playing hard probably.

[Davoodinator]

chaos mode of course, and only use one hand, or it wil be too easy

[Davoodinator]

honestly. trolling aside; tales games are not too bad in difficulty at the default setting. The real reward with tales games is that they reward skill. If you can do the harder difficulties you get rewarded with more xp and grade.

grade is a secondary type of XP introduced a few generations of games ago, that upon beating the game, it unlocks a "shop" that you can buy things with. usually newgame+ enhancements, or saved game carry overs to newgame+

[Zunnoab #931]

Don't they let you change it at will anyway, if Graces f is any indication? If I recall they actually recommend changing it as you see fit in Graces f, though I may be confusing it with Bravely Default (or both games say things like that).

[Tacred]

I always play tales games 1 setting above normal untill the monster encounters get too grindy. Then I just turn it up for bosses.

[UltraZulwarn]

Originally posted by B36Syn Fleuora:

Hi guys, need your answer...I never play tales of' games before. And here is my question
What is recommended difficulty settings in first playthrough for a newbie tales of' like me...?
And can u explain any advantage and disadvantage for playing hard probably.

You can just leave it as "normal" and everything should be fine.

But here is the catch: in pretty much all Tales games (or at least the recent ones) you can change the difficulty setting in-game, so just adjust it as you see fit for yourself i.e. find the fights so quick and boring? => turn it to harder mode; too hard and tedious? => turn it to easy.

As for the benefits of higher difficulty, IIRC you would most likely get more "bonus EXP" and "grade points" (which is mostly for bonuses for new game+);
Tales of Graces F, however, does gain more tangible rewards as you can acquire more "skill points" from higher difficulty

I know these must sound like gibberish jargons but don't worry.

The TL;DR here is: I wound recommend play at "Normal" first and see how it goes, you can then change it later in the game

[Fleuora]

Ahhh glad to hear that i can change difficulty setting in game... Need a little bit more challenging game, maybe in boss battle i'll turn it in lower difficulty :p

[Village Idiot]

The problem with Normal diffculty and below is that Tales is ment to be a combo-centric game, and lower difficulty monsters just die way too fast for you to do any combos worth a damn.

Also Grade is usually tied to combos, so the higher the combo count, the more grade you'll earn, which is used in New Game+ to unlock new features and carry overs.

That said, starting at Hard, switching to Chaos once I master the battle system.

[Flux]

You get less exp, but more gald in zesty for increasing difficulty~

[QuaziPance]

Originally posted by B36Syn Fleuora:

Ahhh glad to hear that i can change difficulty setting in game... Need a little bit more challenging game, maybe in boss battle i'll turn it in lower difficulty :p

Co-op can also make things a little easier and thus may make you want to push up the difficulty a bit. I've actually never played any of the recent "tales of" games solo and I always just put the difficulty at max.Plus grinding is fun with friends and alcohol.

[snowyonetwo]

It depends. Most of the modern Tales games will let you change the difficulty at-will and won't really punish you if you opt to play easy mode. Not to mention that some battles are just outright unfair (Bryce 2 in Graces). However playing Hard or higher usually offers better rewards or, if on a NG+, a more balanced challenge. Find the difficulty that suits you and use it.

[Leonia]

Normal mode should suffice on your first playthrough.

The only reason I can think of why you'd want to play on Hard mode right off the bat is for potential difficulty-related achievements (eg. finishing the game on Hard not only unlocks the Hard mode achievement but also Normal mode achievement at the same time).

[Zunnoab #931]

Originally posted by F/I Luna:

You get less exp, but more gald in zesty for increasing difficulty~

That sounds dangerously treading into the "make things take longer" territory, which is not the same as difficulty. The exception would be if it's very easy to over level normally.

[Ka-mai19]

Originally posted by F/I Luna:

You get less exp, but more gald in zesty for increasing difficulty~

Do you have a source for this? If that's the case I might not mess around with difficulties as much. The main reason I played on harder difficulties was to get more EXP and Grade, but if that's not how it works in Zestiria I might reconsider unless I really want a challenge.

[Antitype]

Originally posted by cae37:

Do you have a source for this? If that's the case I might not mess around with difficulties as much. The main reason I played on harder difficulties was to get more EXP and Grade, but if that's not how it works in Zestiria I might reconsider unless I really want a challenge.

http://www.gamefaqs.com/ps3/740217-tales-of-zestiria/faqs/71065

===================================================================
9. Battle Difficulty [DIF]
===================================================================

The default difficulty levels that can be chosen for the first time are Simple,
Normal, Second, and Hard. The default level is Normal.

Simple:
The game can be enjoyed even for player that is not used to action battle.
Refreshing gameplay is the main priority.

Normal:
Normal difficulty of the game.

Second:
Recommended for experienced player that is used to action battle.
Rarity of equipment drops is increased.

Hard:
For player who wants a challenge in battlefield. Gained experience is reduced
but gained gald is increased.

Evil:
For players that still feel Hard is not enough.
Gained gold and gald is a little bit higher than Hard.
How to Unlock: Win 300? battles on Hard.

Chaos:
*coming soon*

Seems like "Second" is the best difficulty for a first playthrough. From what I know gear mostly comes from drops in Zestiria, so gold is probably a bit less important than in past Tales.

[Vertanius]

Sweet! You can unlock higher difficulty outside NG+? One of my favorite things in Graces F was being able to play on the highest difficulty after only a couple hours playtime.