gamingeek said:

archangel3371 said:

First and foremost wowzers at teh hotness that is Maria Ozawa.

Secondly I only played Tales of Vesperia over the weekend. Currently at around the 20 hour mark and man is this game ever great. Really good story and cast of characters and none of them have been annoying. I'm really enjoying the battle system which seems tighter then usual and some new additions such as Fatal Strikes and Fatal Strike Chains are quite cool. I have yet to take control of other party members to try out all their moves and stuff as I'm still really just playing around with the main character's setlist and controls. The AI seems to be doing a good job controling my teammates. Setting up various different skills in conjunction with performing different artes to learn new moves is quite deep and really offers a lot to play with. Also the soundtrack is excellent and makes me wish I had picked up the Collector's Edition that came packed with a soundtrack cd which was only $10 more. The game simply looks gorgeous to boot.

Does the game have a world map? What's it like? How does it work?

Yeah there is a world map to explore and you're free to wander around like in the classic RPG sense. You have a map you can look at to see where all the towns and other locations are but the whole world isn't immediately visible. The map fills in as you explore. You can see enemies so you can avoid them if you want to so no random encounters. A neat aspect is that if you encounter an enemy and there other enemies in the immediate vicinity those other enemies will join the fight in what is called a Linked Encounter and you'll have to fight them all at once. They have to be very, very close by though so you won't get into big tough battles too often by accident.

bugsonglass said:

"But at the same time, there's a little bit more personal elements in there, and some of the themes in the game with loss, retribution and the sadness of war, I think they're coming through a lot more in this game."

Wow, who'd have thought cliffy b would turn out to be the new hideo cojima

I liked this part:

"There's still a fair amount of jock, fratboy, macho bullshit in the game. I'm not going to lie."

He just described the first game.

archangel3371 said:

gamingeek said:

Does the game have a world map? What's it like? How does it work?

Yeah there is a world map to explore and you're free to wander around like in the classic RPG sense. You have a map you can look at to see where all the towns and other locations are but the whole world isn't immediately visible. The map fills in as you explore. You can see enemies so you can avoid them if you want to so no random encounters. A neat aspect is that if you encounter an enemy and there other enemies in the immediate vicinity those other enemies will join the fight in what is called a Linked Encounter and you'll have to fight them all at once. They have to be very, very close by though so you won't get into big tough battles too often by accident.

How easy is it to avoid enemies and is there a harsh penatly if you do? i.e not levelled up enough to beat dungeons or bosses?

gamingeek said:

archangel3371 said:

First and foremost wowzers at teh hotness that is Maria Ozawa.

Secondly I only played Tales of Vesperia over the weekend. Currently at around the 20 hour mark and man is this game ever great. Really good story and cast of characters and none of them have been annoying. I'm really enjoying the battle system which seems tighter then usual and some new additions such as Fatal Strikes and Fatal Strike Chains are quite cool. I have yet to take control of other party members to try out all their moves and stuff as I'm still really just playing around with the main character's setlist and controls. The AI seems to be doing a good job controling my teammates. Setting up various different skills in conjunction with performing different artes to learn new moves is quite deep and really offers a lot to play with. Also the soundtrack is excellent and makes me wish I had picked up the Collector's Edition that came packed with a soundtrack cd which was only $10 more. The game simply looks gorgeous to boot.

Does the game have a world map? What's it like? How does it work?

Is it better than Symphonia?

edgecrusher said:

gamingeek said:

archangel3371 said:

First and foremost wowzers at teh hotness that is Maria Ozawa.

Secondly I only played Tales of Vesperia over the weekend. Currently at around the 20 hour mark and man is this game ever great. Really good story and cast of characters and none of them have been annoying. I'm really enjoying the battle system which seems tighter then usual and some new additions such as Fatal Strikes and Fatal Strike Chains are quite cool. I have yet to take control of other party members to try out all their moves and stuff as I'm still really just playing around with the main character's setlist and controls. The AI seems to be doing a good job controling my teammates. Setting up various different skills in conjunction with performing different artes to learn new moves is quite deep and really offers a lot to play with. Also the soundtrack is excellent and makes me wish I had picked up the Collector's Edition that came packed with a soundtrack cd which was only $10 more. The game simply looks gorgeous to boot.

Does the game have a world map? What's it like? How does it work?

Is it better than Symphonia?

Oh yeah it's better then Symphonia. I've played a few Tales games and ToS was the last one I played. Right now so far I would say this is the best in the series. Every aspect of the game is well done and run together quite smoothly together without any one thing that sticks out in a bad way.

I <3 that fragile screenshot of the crescent moon behind the feris wheel.  it will my new computer screen background.  thanks gg

archangel3371 said:

edgecrusher said:

gamingeek said:

archangel3371 said:

First and foremost wowzers at teh hotness that is Maria Ozawa.

Secondly I only played Tales of Vesperia over the weekend. Currently at around the 20 hour mark and man is this game ever great. Really good story and cast of characters and none of them have been annoying. I'm really enjoying the battle system which seems tighter then usual and some new additions such as Fatal Strikes and Fatal Strike Chains are quite cool. I have yet to take control of other party members to try out all their moves and stuff as I'm still really just playing around with the main character's setlist and controls. The AI seems to be doing a good job controling my teammates. Setting up various different skills in conjunction with performing different artes to learn new moves is quite deep and really offers a lot to play with. Also the soundtrack is excellent and makes me wish I had picked up the Collector's Edition that came packed with a soundtrack cd which was only $10 more. The game simply looks gorgeous to boot.

Does the game have a world map? What's it like? How does it work?

Is it better than Symphonia?

Oh yeah it's better then Symphonia. I've played a few Tales games and ToS was the last one I played. Right now so far I would say this is the best in the series. Every aspect of the game is well done and run together quite smoothly together without any one thing that sticks out in a bad way.

Its in my Gamefly Q, so I'll be checking it out in the next few weeks. Sounds good.

Morning all. Lovely, yet cold, day here in Melbourne.

Here's to another great week in news...and Vader freakouts...

Iga, your updates are so dreamy! Thank you thank you thank you! *heart*

You cum guzzling sea monkey! Gigi did most of the updates, I only did the last six. Now go read the Kirby review it is hilarious.

Is Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles any good? Saw it a couple days ago. I'm getting more GameCube games lately than Wii360 ones.

iga_bobovic said:

Not unless you have 3 friend each with a GBA and a time to play with you through the whole adventure. Do you have Paper Mario: Thousand Years Door?

Crap. Waitaminute, GBA?

No. Is it good? Will it make me stop saying: "Fuck platformers"?