Length and replayability

[Azerate]

I am a big fan of JRPGs, mostly the turn based games, but I do play some arpgs from time to time too. As for the Tales series, I only played Tales of Phantasia (yes the SNES one).

I wasn't really looking forward to this game, but I saw the pop up on steam today, checked screenshots, read opinions and even went to youtube to see the gameplay and I have to say I liked what I saw very much.

The thing is, I'm what you could call a budget gamer, I guess, I rarely buy games on release/for full price and when I do I want to be completely sure that I will enjoy myself for many hours.

So yeah, after this overly long intro...I just wanna ask how many hours can I expect from this game and whether there is any point to replay it, ng+ it, or continue playing after finishing it. I know that short games can be good, and all that but I do expect at least like 30 hours from my rpgs, preferably more - especially If I'm considering the full price. Will I get it here?

[la_nague]

its more than 30 hours this much is sure.

also, you can replay by playing other chars for example, currently i play velvet and i think if i player lets say a mage instead, it would be very different.


Story would be the same though and i dont thing new game plus has any new content.

[Gennesis]

50 or 60 hours to complete the story line and maybe 100-120 hours to 100%.
There is post game stuff more boss battles extra dungeons .The new game plus you will be able to keep quite a bit of stuff or get insane bonuses like double exp and other perks.

Its really fun game way better then zestiria.Honestly i think its in top 3 from tales series.Worth the prices? hell yes.

[Eyune]

yeah i usually play thru twice to unlock the grade shop bonuses which make you insanely OP.

[Fel]

Depending on what difficulty you play on, it can vary fairly widely, as easy lets you make short work of any enemy and gives you full experience, letting you blitz through the areas to get to the story quicker, while high difficulties drastically cut the base experience you receive per enemy, in exchange for making the combat part worthwhile even when you understand how to play well.

Replayability is a bit of a hit or miss.
You will find very little to enjoy if you only played for the story and conversations, as it is fairly linear and without much in term of choices to make.

If you played for the combat systems, the new game + lets you pick among quite a variety of boosts that you pay for with the Grade you earn by completing battles (more grades by playing well basically, and higher difficulties reward you with more of it too), making it easier to challenge the extra dungeon that you can go to after finishing the story's last boss.
If you are a completionnist that wants all achievements, NG+ is more or less required, as reaching level 200 without experience multipliers would be extremely tedious work.

If you play on normal or intermediate (your basic difficulties especially for first time players), without going out of your way to grind too much for items or experience and without trying to complete the extra dungeon or NG+, you can expect 30 to 40 hours between fights, exploration (not like it's a massive open world anyway) and story.

If you get hooked and end up wanting to play high difficulties, you could very well barely finish the first run through in 60 hours, and add 30-40 more between NG+ and the extra dungeon.

If you rush in easy mode and skip all conversations and cutscenes, you could definitely rush this fairly fast, but that would also make it fairly boring to play and not really worth the money unless you just go for a 'I completed this game, that makes the total count of games I have finished at X' approach (and even then, there are cheaper and shorter games out there for that).

[Azerate]

Thanks for the input, sounds promising I will probably purchase it during the next couple days.

[Reyn]

Originally posted by GENNESIS:

50 or 60 hours to complete the story line and maybe 100-120 hours to 100%.
There is post game stuff more boss battles extra dungeons .The new game plus you will be able to keep quite a bit of stuff or get insane bonuses like double exp and other perks.

Its really fun game way better then zestiria.Honestly i think its in top 3 from tales series.Worth the prices? hell yes.

that true im on 80 hrs atm and still have long way ! "ps4"

[SenMithrarin85]

Originally posted by Azerate:

Thanks for the input, sounds promising I will probably purchase it during the next couple days.

Unless you have 4 gamepads lying around, I wouldn't.

The game's AI is seriosuly bugged right now. What remains to be seen is if bamco actually fix it.

[Fel]

vjoy takes care of it without requiring you to have most of your USB ports powering unused equipment, but yeah.

[Azerate]

Well that's interesting, do you mean playing it solo might be too hard? Haven't seen it mentioned so far

[andre]

They talk about the party AI being bugged. Your party members won't really participate in fights(use artes etc.) unless you use some external program to fix this issue. I am taking a break until they fix this issue

[Azerate]

Ok thanks, just did some research on it and it seems quite bad according to what people are saying. I will probably wait for some kind of fix for this issue. Buying a game for which I then need to install third party applications to fake multiple controllers is not something I wanna do really.

And by the way, I get that the game is in good state in general but how can the reception be so positive overall, if such a fundamental mechanic does not work properly? I guess this is what happens when people play the game for 20 minutes and rush to give it a positive review. Very glad I do tend to research stuff deeper before buying. This just boggles mind.

[Play Metaphor]

I hear you, OP. Whenever I find a fun game to play I apply this to prolong its value tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SelfImposedChallenge

[TSP]

Originally posted by Saikyo:

I hear you, OP. Whenever I find a fun game to play I apply this to prolong its value tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SelfImposedChallenge

Doing the same thing right now by not using the block feature (Either to block or dodge or use block items such as those that increase soul recharge during block)

In the next NG+ I'll probably try to beat the game using only martial artes, although that might be too hard for me personally as healing seems very important. I'll see if I can work my way around that by maximizing status effect/stun effect chances.

[Play Metaphor]

After completing the game you get access to what it's called "grade shop" and you can choose the ruleset for NG+.

Relevant thread with details here http://steamcommunity.com/app/429660/discussions/0/133255957992912013/

The "no block" actually sounds pretty legit, since you can dodge by flicking the analog/tap the key on the keyboard. Challenge accepted. I already do "no quick save, no healing items" so I'll add "evade only" on the list.

Edit: This doesn't work because the game autoguards when you're not pressing any directions.

[Ichika]

Iam there where the Demo starts (the beach) how much playtime do i have left?^^