Tales of Graces f - $20; Abyss (3DS) - $15 @ NamcoBandai

With Xillia coming out soon, I can't justify buying Graces.  That, and the fact that it's often described as a mediocre Tales game doesn't have me jumping on it.  No doubt the game was built on the Wii first; the HD overlay -- while slightly better -- still can't hide the ugliness of the game.  It wouldn't matter if it didn't play better, but the slogging Act One is just bad.  And yeah, I played a few hours of it.  Graces F is just not very good.  I'd easily recommend a Wild Arms game over it, and that's saying something ...

Vesperia, on the other hand, was a solid Tales game.  Too bad the sequel never happened.  The animated series, however, is nice.  Hoping Xillia will be a good game -- awesome we're getting both.  Vesperia is no doubt one of the better JRPGs this generation, though.

 
romeogbs19 said:
With Xillia coming out soon, I can't justify buying Graces. That, and the fact that it's often described as a mediocre Tales game doesn't have me jumping on it. No doubt the game was built on the Wii first; the HD overlay -- while slightly better -- still can't hide the ugliness of the game. It wouldn't matter if it didn't play better, but the slogging Act One is just bad. And yeah, I played a few hours of it. Graces F is just not very good. I'd easily recommend a Wild Arms game over it, and that's saying something ...

Vesperia, on the other hand, was a solid Tales game. Too bad the sequel never happened. The animated series, however, is nice. Hoping Xillia will be a good game -- awesome we're getting both. Vesperia is no doubt one of the better JRPGs this generation, though.
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Vesperia is better than Graces but Graces isn't mediocre. It's still one of the best JRPG's this generation. Of course that's not saying much with so many bad games like Star Ocean 4 and The Last Remnant.
 
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romeogbs19 said:
With Xillia coming out soon, I can't justify buying Graces. That, and the fact that it's often described as a mediocre Tales game doesn't have me jumping on it. No doubt the game was built on the Wii first; the HD overlay -- while slightly better -- still can't hide the ugliness of the game. It wouldn't matter if it didn't play better, but the slogging Act One is just bad. And yeah, I played a few hours of it. Graces F is just not very good. I'd easily recommend a Wild Arms game over it, and that's saying something ...

Vesperia, on the other hand, was a solid Tales game. Too bad the sequel never happened. The animated series, however, is nice. Hoping Xillia will be a good game -- awesome we're getting both. Vesperia is no doubt one of the better JRPGs this generation, though.
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If you're skipping Graces, it's your loss.

 
CAGMoose said:
If you're skipping Graces, it's your loss.
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I'm definitely at the point in my life where I skip or quit playing any game that's not good. IMO ToG is worth playing and any fan of JRPG's should get it. Just be aware the first 5-10 hours where they are children is pretty bad. I almost abandoned the game during that part.
 
So I'm thinking about picking this up.

But I can't remember ever playing a Tales game. Too late to get in on the action?

Do the stories interconnect in anyway?
 
Mako1215 said:
So I'm thinking about picking this up.

But I can't remember ever playing a Tales game. Too late to get in on the action?

Do the stories interconnect in anyway?
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Someone can correct me if I'm mistaken but I think all of the Tales games take place in separate worlds, unless there is a direct sequel to a specific title.

 
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Mako1215 said:
So I'm thinking about picking this up.

But I can't remember ever playing a Tales game. Too late to get in on the action?

Do the stories interconnect in anyway?
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Carta cards and costumes. No connections that are particularly relevant or interesting.

Blaster man said:
I'm definitely at the point in my life where I skip or quit playing any game that's not good. IMO ToG is worth playing and any fan of JRPG's should get it. Just be aware the first 5-10 hours where they are children is pretty bad. I almost abandoned the game during that part.
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I'm willing to agree there. I wasn't WOW'ed by the first arc of the story, but the story develops well and once you learn some intricacies of the combat, the time just slips away. I mentioned earlier that I'm 100+ hours in with my first playthrough, and I'm still not burned out on it.

 
Mine's went through rather smoothly, which is surprising, considering the Namco shop using the Digital River infrastructure.  In fact, I have to say it is the best Digital River online storefront by far.  First of all, it uses Paypal, which in my eyes, is a big plus, and none of the other Digital River shops use it.  Second, I must be lucky or have signed up at a good time, but I had no trouble registering at all.  Finally, I got a confirmation email in only 15 minutes, and this was at 4:30 in the morning of all times (yes, I'm a bit of a night owl).

Anyway, I was going to buy this on Ebay for $30 when I had the money.  But the timing of this deal was perfect.  Glad I found out about it.  I already have Tales of the Abyss and Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 for my PS2, but I figure I buy Tales of the Abyss 3DS and Persona 4 Golden for my 3DS and my PS Vita (respectively) to be able to play on the go.     

 
To weigh in on the Graces talk. It is not as good as many other Tales games, that is true. That is speaking to its story and characters, specifically. The battle system, though, is the best the series has seen--barring Xillia, as I cannot speak to that. Graces is still very much a Tales game, though, and that assertion carries a fair amount of weight. It may be slightly inferior to many other games in the series, but that is stacking it up against other very high quality experiences. This is not a Final Fantasy XIII type of scenario. It's a wonderful JRPG that is just not quite as good as some other wonderful ones in the series. Graces is a great game and any fan of JRPGs or the Tales series (especially Tales fans) will certainly end up beguiled by it.

I hope that can help to put any concerns to rest. :D

 
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Mako1215 said:
So I'm thinking about picking this up.

But I can't remember ever playing a Tales game. Too late to get in on the action?

Do the stories interconnect in anyway?
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The only games that are connected are:

ToS -> ToS2 --> very loosely ToP

ToP is very first Tales game, but set like 1000 or so years in the future of ToS. But other than sharing one or two things, it can be considered it's own world.

As for ToG, I like it more than I like ToL. I'm stuck at the very end of ToL for like 5 years now. I can't beat one of the mini bosses at the end and I rage quit. I would still recommend any Tales game though.

 
CAGMoose said:
You guys are going to have to get over your Digital River butthurtedness. If you're passing on good deals from good developers because of the fulfillment agency, then you're harming both yourself and the developer; I doubt the distributor ever sees any of the flak you guys are sending up.
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This type of thinking is exactly why so many companies think they can treat people any way they want to and get away with it: because they know we'll put up with it. There is absolutely no problem with not supporting a company because of the way it conducts business. Who they hire to do their distributing is a part of said business and if that distributor is giving so many people problems then they need to either do some major cracking down on them, or just get a new company all together.

 
Bayshun said:
This type of thinking is exactly why so many companies think they can treat people any way they want to and get away with it: because they know we'll put up with it. There is absolutely no problem with not supporting a company because of the way it conducts business. Who they hire to do their distributing is a part of said business and if that distributor is giving so many people problems then they need to either do some major cracking down on them, or just get a new company all together.
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Boom!

If more people actually stood for things that they had a problem with, then the country might not be in the shape that's in, and innumerable other things--both big and small--may not be the accepted standard and status quo. That mindset of acceptance and apathy is truly a problem in society, and I see it more and more with younger generations. It's a shame, really.

 
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Rahxephon said:
Coming from someone that works at Target and is involved with people price matching on a daily basis, the Target online price matching policy is actually very specific and very restrictive. Though, little of that information is made available to the public. The only time someone would be able to get something like the Namco website matched is either a) you get a team member that doesn't know the policy, yet has the power to manually give you the lower price, or b) you get a team member that just decides to ignore the policy and has the power to manually give you the lower price. In theory, every price match is supposed to be done at guest service using the ipad. It should be verified that the deal is legit and still listed online, and in-stock, and also target logs that information to send to corporate to determine future sales and such. The list of pre-approved websites is very short. Offhand I think its places like: Target.com, Walmart, Best Buy, Toys R Us, and items sold on Amazon.com by amazon proper, not a third-party seller. If you walk into a target store and show them that Bill'sDicountGames.com has a 3DS XL for $90, than anyone following the policy should deny you.
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well billsdiscountgames.com i can understand them refusing but the name of the company is right on the cover of the game.. NAMCO in big letters.. regardless, your right its absurdly restrictive. I just had another PM refused today. I tried to PM Project X Zone to gamestops 29.99 and was told i needed a print ad for that to work... gamestop doesn't do print ads. I told them to just look up the ad on their webpage with the ipdad but she wouldn't do it. I was told they only match walmart, Target.com (LOL really? you pricematch your own website? wow,,, amazing), and Toys R Us. The real pisser is there is a gamestop LITERALLY right next door to them. Like if i walked out the front door and took 20 steps i would be there.

Thats friggin ridiculous. I cant belive a store would claim they pricematch and be that restrictive. I have actually PM'd gamesstop in the past at my local target before, i dont know why it was such an issue

Anyone know if they actually listen to those surveys? I was gonna go back tomorow and return all the games i had bought the past month or so from there (about 6 or so) and then go ahead and buy the project x zone copy just to fill out a bad survey and return it. Maybe i'll buy the standard edition at gamestop and return that at target. Screw them

 
Zaku77 said:
Just don't price match there. Their policies suck, and it's not worth the headache.
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oh i dont really plan to anymore. In fact im kinda done shopping there in general, theyve pissed me off enough. Their game section has been getting shittier and shittier anyway

at least i got my order in for thee from the namco store

 
Before price matching at ANY store, I find its best to print out the price match policy and bring it with me. When problems arise you whip that out and they are solved. Best Buy's policy specifies only certain websites that they match.
 
I had zero issues with them? Placed my order, got tracking in two days. Got games in 4 days. Everything came perfect? Not sure why all the bad feedback on them

 
This might sound stupid, but I went ahead and bought a new copy of Graces F from Amazon for $40 since I couldn't get the Namco's link to work. I was going to buy a used copy from GameStop, but they raised their used price to $44.99 yesterday, which is atrocious since it sells for $40 new there.
 
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josekortez said:
This might sound stupid, but I went ahead and bought a new copy of Graces F from Amazon for $40 since I couldn't get the Namco's link to work. I was going to buy a used copy from GameStop, but they raised their used price to $44.99 yesterday, which is atrocious since it sells for $40 new there.
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Good luck finding a new copy from GS though. Their used price has fluctuated between $40 and $45 for the last few months.

 
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