I still need to play eventually Tales of Arise, which I bought on sale a while back. I know it’s from the same studio as Scarlet Nexus which I REALLY enjoyed.
To any who have played both, how similar is it from a gameplay perspective?
The way you use your party in combat is kinda similar, chosing one and then activating some of their skill. The difference is that we can change to any of then in Tales.
And as far as I can remember, the biggest difference is where the combat happens, since Tales you start a battle and you’ll be transported to an arena while Scarlet Nexus we fight directly on the map we’re in.
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Finished Ys X!
Full 100% playthrough on Nightmare difficulty, all “trophies” (they built an achievement system into the game, so you can still get “achievements” on Switch lol). Every bit of side content done, and all NPC dialogue exhausted (the Falcom experience! 
)
Right then, let’s get into my thoughts about the game:
The new combat gameplay is a fantastic step forward. I’ve already talked about it in above posts, but the new focus on blocking/parrying and dodging is like playing an ultra-(ULTRA)-lite From or Team Ninja game. Of all the “3D” Ys games, this one by far has the best boss fights too. The final boss fight is one of Falcom’s best ever… Finally, a Ys game where it’s just a showdown, not vs a typical JRPG monstrous being, especially awesome that it’s a 2v2, and Red vs Red and Blue vs Blue 
The same cannot be said about the ship gameplay though. It’s just not good. After upgrading your ship a little bit it quickly becomes smashing all the buttons to fire all your special ammo and just disintegrate everything. The ship is also very slow at the beginning of the game, thankfully all points of interest are marked after completing outposts, so you won’t be aimless. I really doubt ship gameplay returns in the next game, so I’m not gonna worry about how it can be refined.
The story is a usual Falcom fare, trying not to spoil too much, but it was interesting enough to keep me wondering what would happen next, even if I guessed a lot of it like that he Old Man in Adol’s “dreams” was Rolo from the Runestones you find. It’s carried by the characters, which Karja, the only ally alongside Adol this time, is intensely more interesting and developed out compared to any of Adol’s old party members in previous games (besides good ol’ Dogi of course! (who is here but sadly not playable!) 
). That said there’s usual dumb stuff like typical Falcom “forced to fight your allies!” moments and Adol being given a curse that will kill him in 3 months, this really doesn’t even come up much and ends up just being used as a tool to let him know when one of the 3 Generals are nearby, it’s pointless.
There’s several tunes from the soundtrack I really like, I mean it doesn’t live up to the Falcom of old, as usual, but I think this game has a decent soundtrack for new Falcom. Surprisingly it’s mostly the “calm” tunes I liked, like the town of Karnac’s or the sailing tunes. There’s many great field and boss songs though, and this was the first time Falcom’s newest composer, Koguchi, was able to compose the final boss theme… and he hit a home friggin run on it!
As I played on Switch, you can tell this is finally a port done by Falcom and not outsourced like Ys VIII and IX (especially bad). It (mostly) runs very well and the resolution is great. As I’ve been saying in previous posts though, the graphics can feel like some of Falcom’s cheapest yet. I thought it was kind of embarrassing really, that they pointed the camera at this:
But I mean, the character models can look pretty good, and there is some OUTSTANDING animations in some cutscenes and boss fights:
This may have been sacrificial to get the game running as best they could on Switch. Their Kuro no Kiseki games look visually WAY better, though they are now coming to Switch next year, with Kuro 3 looking to be day 1, though there is some hints that Falcom may know something about the Switch 2… So hopefully when they transition to there they don’t need to nerf the graphics as much.
I’m somewhere between an 8.5 and a 9 on what to give this game, maybe I’ll give it the infamous “8.8”! But overall, really fantastic game, great new start to a new type of Ys gameplay style and I can’t wait to see how they take it from here!
(Note: I looked at the clips I posted here, they are MUCH more choppy than how the game actually runs for some reason! I think something might be up with my Switch’s capture feature?)
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https://twitter.com/gematsu/status/1724865429120639026?t=FqhrR6dNE2sQowE1FoPesA&s=19
Please Xbox as well. Need this for nostalgia.
Edit: nvm. I thought it’s the HD Collection, but it’s probably the old PS1/2 port.
It’s part of PS Premium.
I know and I already own it on Switch, but I would love playing it on Xbox.
The smoothing on the Switch version looks so bad.
Unfortunately if Xbox got Grandia it’d probably be that version. This PS version looks like the original emulated which is better.
Even that version isn’t great though, with some textures that are way mis-aligned. Sucks that Saturn is still the best version, which is what I played for the first time in 2020.
I did buy the Switch release for Grandia 2 though, I think that’s more or less on par with Dreamcast… Haven’t actually played it yet though lol.
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Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen is on sale on gog for $4.79. I’m tempted, how is the game?
Combat is still amazing. It’s especially fun when playing the Dark Arisen DLC because it’s challenging.
No one plays it for graphics or story, but the story is actually interesting when you learn the plot.
For $4,79 it’s a steal and I would give it a try if you love action RPGs.
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Id rather have so2 and valkyrie profile 1. Grandia isnt all that great imo
That’s true, but Grandia was part of my childhood and nostalgia will sometimes win over quality.
Newest acquisitions! I was really, really trying to wait on SO for a little while… But I just had to grab it when getting Mario RPG 
! Everyone’s saying this remake is amazing. I haven’t played either of these (besides like an hour of SMRPG in 2010 or so) so I’m looking forward to both. SMRPG first because it is short and sweet.
With that I felt like doing an update to this post… Let’s see how far I’ve come since last year
Decent new chunk of games since! Also the only new digital addition since then was “Labyrinth of Refrain”. I don’t have Ring Fit Adventure anymore, gave it away to my younger brother lol. Also I forgot FE Engage somehow, so here it is just to show it lol:
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Just started with Persona 5 Tactica and clearly only Joker and Morgana went to Piccolo’s school for dodging.
Edit: nevermind.
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After playing and liking the demo, I bought the digital ultimate edition for Tales of Arise: Beyond the Dawn which includes the base game, expansion and a bunch of costumes and bonuses . Not sure when I will start this but im looking forward to it.
I also bought Star Ocean: The Divine Force for $20 from Amazon and received it today. Don’t know when im starting this either. And I just bought Star Ocean: The Second Story Remake from Amazon for PlayStation 5 which I should get on Monday.
Finally, the game that got me to look into these games and JRPG’s in general is the upcoming PC/PS4/PS5 JRPG Granblue Fantasy Relink. Looks awesome, combat looks great and im day one for it and then with FF7 Rebirth as well, I decided to start looking into JRPG’s for this generation. They can be cross-gen but must have real time combat and voice acting for at the very least, the main story because that’s simply what I prefer.
I will be playing Star Ocean: The Second Story Remake first followed by Tales of Arise and the Star Ocean: The Divine Force. Should be starting Second Story next Wednesday.
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Definitely enjoying Táctica, but man doing a 8 turn for the bonuses mission and doing it in just 3 turns felt very long.
40 minute gameplay video from a recent hands on preview event for Granblue Fantasy Relink. While it’s as of now not coming to Xbox, it does look awesome and combat seems really good as well. 22+ minutes in and thus far, all fully voiced which makes me so happy. Hopefully, damage numbers can be turned off because barring this game being a dud, it’s day one for me on PlayStation 5.
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Anyone recommend Soul Hackers 2 ? Looking to clear GP games before they leaving.
Going through a Atlus marathon of P4G, P3P and Soul Hackers 2 if it’s worth it.
Have others JRPGs in my backlog like Nier Replicant, Crisis Core, ToA DLC and Star Ocean Divine Force.
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Personally, i would not recommend it. I kinda felt bored playing it, while it does have good moments and all i felt that the gameplay was not all that it was cracked up to be in my opinion. Personally, i would try to finish both P4G and P3P as soon as possible cause i feel like they will leave during the January period to make way for P3R.
As for back catalogue, easily Nier Replicant and Crisis Core first, but if you already finished Tales of Arise i would suggest doing it’s dlc first then play the other games later.
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That what I’ve heard as well. On TA one user recommended to buy the DLC pack to finish Souls Hackers 2 faster because it was so boring lol.
Gonna skip it and play something else after P3P. Thanks
https://twitter.com/MbKKssTBhz5/status/1732933586364313743
Literally the first thing that came to mind was Kuro no Kiseki when I saw this, which also did this back in 2021
Falcom: The true behind the scenes innovators 