RPG Progress Report

[PartridgeSenpai]

Kudos to you, the cooking system in this game killed it for me. There was so much tedious micromanagement with the skills and all that in between battles, it was exhausting. I'm not even sure if I got all the characters. Think I only got to chapter 2 or something.

This is actually the cooking system I've understood the most in any Tales game. In all the other ones, I've just fundamentally not understood how they're supposed to work, or it's just so weird that I totally forget they exist Xp

I personally didn't care for the changes in the combat system. The combination of all moves using a finite resource and the forward and backward movement on the line instead of left and right really messed with me.

I'll admit, I was really weirded out by the new battle system as well. It probably took me at least 10 or 20 hours before I REALLY knew how it worked. Now that I understand it, I LOVE it, and think it's fairly brilliant. I will admit that they do not do a good job of explaining it to you at all though Xp.

[Xeogred]

I've been wanting to try out Xilia or Zestiria next, but I have no idea which one to take the gamble on. lol

[Betagam7]

I got the Undine and Inferno spirits in Secret of Mana 2. So I have two more Mana stones to find.

Also did my first class change although I don't understand the differences between the two choices so I just chose randomly.

Angela upgraded to a Sorceress. This seemed to involve a cosmetic change ditching her purple locks for peroxide blonde. Here special tech is, even more bizarrely, baring her arse, twerking then blowing a kiss!
Sorry? I did choose Sorceress not hooker, right?

Kevin became a Bashkar. I don't know what a Bashkar is but it seems to be something equatable to the Incredible Hulk, except blue and with Guile's Flash kick.

Carlie became a Priestess. Her Heal power seems to have gotten stronger and she turned orange.

Do any of these decisions impact on the story in any way? Or are they gameplay only changes?

[MrPopo]

Gameplay only. You choose between light and dark classes; up on the tree is light and down is dark. This affects what sorts of skills you get; Angela's dark class doesn't give you the same spell variety but is higher powered on the spells you do get. Lise's light classes give stat buffs while her dark classes give stat debuffs.

[Sarge]

I usually ignore cooking entirely in Tales games. It's not necessary to succeed. I have used it a bit in Tales of Hearts R, but not consistently.

[PartridgeSenpai]

I usually ignore cooking entirely in Tales games. It's not necessary to succeed. I have used it a bit in Tales of Hearts R, but not consistently.

Same. It's usually just a last resort when you're all outta gels but are bleeding really badly Xp

Tales of Graces doesn't have a Mana/TP system of any kind though, so things like cooking or inns aren't nearly as important.

I'm 52 hours into ToGf now. I've done just about everything I wanted to achieve before I go to the final dungeon. To be honest, I thought I was already fighting the final boss a little bit before because of how crazy freaking hard it was.

This game also has some FFX-levels of crazy end-game content though. Like, STUPIDLY powerful bosses you'd need to either play very well against, or grind for ages to beat.

[Sarge]

Ugh, not what I want to hear. I've got a playthrough sitting at around 28 hours that I eventually should get back to.

[alienjesus]

I'm still plugging away at Persona 4 Golden. I'm 75 hours in at this point, and nearing the end at last. I've beaten a 'final' boss, but there's still some more in game time to go, so I'm wondering if a final surprise dungeon is in store for me soon. No spoilers though guys!

I'm at the bit where the characters are going on a weekend ski trip now.

My main team is the main character (with Trumpeter persona, because it has no weaknesses), Naoto, Yukiko and Kanji. It works quite well, all the lack of ice spells can be an issue. Everyone has their 3rd form Persona.

Until the 'final' dungeon, I had been levelling all 7 characters, but I used this team only for the final dungeon as I was underlevelled badly coming in, and now they're 20 levels above the other 3

[Stark]

Every day's great at your Junes!

[Sarge]

Every day's great at your Junes!

Baaaaarf.