I'm familiar with non-retro Tales games, but not the retro

>>2900983
there all pretty good have been playing since the ps1 never looked back

Phantasia (gba port or snes translation, both are great) and Eternia are my favorites. Didn't really like Destiny but it's been quite a while since I've played it.

Phantasia has a really long bonus dungeon though,with very few save points. It really sucks if you die.

Currently actually playing the non retro Zestiria and Xillia. Z in particularly hardly even feels like a Tales game with its ugly 'Armatization' and weird combat system . I miss 2D.

Phantasia is the only Tales game I actually enjoyed. I haven't played all of them, though.

Destiny 2 (eternia) love the multi player and all the characters and the big world adventure

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>>2901069

>>2901101
Oh yeah, I forgot they translated Ragnarok as Kangaroo. I also liked the Japanese voices on snes better, now that I think about it. Still a decent port though. I used to own it but some asshole stole it during a break-in.

DeJap's snes translation also takes some liberties ('I bet Arche fucks like a tiger! ')

>>2900983
Star Ocean 1 +2 obviously because Enix > Namco.

Retro Tales games aren't good in general. Actually more than half of the Tales games aren't very good, so that's not surprising.

Tales of Phantasia on Snes have horrible controls and spells stop the game, not to mention lazy design, Chester don't even have techniques, and the game tries to compensate this by giving him absurd attack and a bow that fires 2 arrows at once.
They fixed Chester and most of the controls in the PS version, but spells still stop the time.

Tales of Destiny is like the PS version of ToP, but worse. Enemies randomly parry your attacks, so it's impossible to consistently do combos, AI is retarded, your characters don't attack unless the enemy is right in from of them, and because of the game design, you are pretty much stuck with the same weapon during the entire game, which isn't very fun. Also the English version completely removed the skits.

Tales of Eternia is the game that pretty much fixed the battle system, and the spirits management is fun, however the plot went to shit, easily one of the worst entries in the franchise, bonus for horrible English voice acting and skits removed once again.

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>>2900983
SNES Phantasia is a bretty gud game in its own right, but the PSX version and the later PSP remaster just play, look and sound a whole lot better, avoid the GBA version like the plague though, unless you want to witness the old INDIGNAYSHUN meme that spawned from it, also Kangaroos.

PSX Destiny, I found it pretty meh, mostly because except based Stahn, Woodrow and Kongman I didn't like the cast, the PS2 R version is god tier though so check it out, also AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAITEMU NAZUUUUU, TSUKATTENJAA, NIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

Eternia is probably the best retro one in terms of gameplay and it holds up surprisingly well even today, I won't talk about characters because it's possibly my favorite one together with Vesperia and Legendia on that matters so I'm quite biased, music is good, graphics are good, lengthy enough to keep you play for a good while but not dragged out.

Eternia also has the undisputed best girl in the franchise so there's that, Reid's Manbra is pretty cool too.

These games are a lot of fun under two conditions. First, turn off all your party members A.I. so that they will not attack unless you input for them to do so manually. Second, equip the controller/combo-ring/whatever ASAP so that the main protag's offensive attacks can be input through button combos similar to a fighting game.

The game goes from bearable but annoying to seriously fun when you constantly have to juggle your parties' offense in this manner. It's a bit overwhelming at first, but quickly becomes second-nature.

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>>2900983
>Which game is your favorite?

The one you posted. Its got some quirks but I still love the hell out of it. Shockingly well done localization for the time and genre too.

Rutee is best Tales

>>2901054
Namco kind of hates US players after the PS1 with Tales anyway. It's a tossup if a new one even makes it over here.

>>2901112
I like the more recent PS1 patch done by Cless. It's kind of the best of both worlds when it comes to ToP fan translations, and has less bugs than the more literal one (only one that exists IIRC is that it crashes when you alphabetize a certain list of items).

I'm not sure if the one on RHDN has the hotfix on the main site, so keep that in mind.

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>>2901142
>They fixed Chester and most of the controls in the PS version, but spells still stop the time.

PSP version is the best

>>2901585

As far as I know, Cless never fixed that bug. That's why I prefer Absolute Zero's translation.

>>2901598
There was a hotfix that dealt with sounds repeating but the menu bug was never dealt with.

One would think it would be a small fix.

>>2901572

Namco has always hated US players; PSX Tales of Destiny has no party chat, both Tales of Phantasia releases never made it over here, party chat was also cut from Tales of Eternia (and Eternia has some glaring translation errors even I can spot).

I love that the fans are stepping up to do these games justice.

>>2901608

It would be if Cless wasn't a lazy hack who consistently under-delivers and over-promises. :)

>>2901595

That isn't a bug. Each version of ToP (besides the GBA one which we shall never speak of or acknowledge) uses a different version of the Linear Motion Battle System.

SFC/SNES: LMBS

PSX: E-LMBS (Enhanced Linear Motion Battle System, same as Tales of Destiny!)

PSP: Unsure, but likely a variant of A-LMBS (Aggressive Linear Motion Battle System, also used by Eternia!)

>>2901069

The series takes a flying fuck off a cliff after Vesperia, generally speaking. :(

>>2901112

I keep the Dejap translation around purely for historical reasons.

>>2901134

Except he didn't ask about Enix games, shit head.

>>2901142

Why is it such a big deal to you that spells stop time?

Most of your other individual points are valid, though I don't agree with your general conclusion that they "aren't very good" in the end.

>>2901645
Currently enjoying Xillia though. It's not bad and looks great.

Symphonia is my favorite of the 3D ones, particularly the first half, with the human ranches and stuff. I might buy the compilation but apparently ToS2 is awful.

>>2901595
Didn't know there even was one. Might play just because Phantasia has the best music in the series imo.

>>2901595
PSP version in't retro, even though it's just an enhanced port I avoided it because there's always an autist bitching about it.

Yeah, ToP X fixed the skills, enabled manual mode from the beginning, and now your characters actually move by themselves instead of just maintaining the most stupid fixed formation.
ToP X have one of my favorite 2D battle system. Although it doesn't look great, it's just so fluid, I like the emphasis on tanking your party, pushing the enemies and stunning them with combos, thing that even Narikiri Dungeon X, in the same fucking disc, failed to deliver.

>>2900983
Destiny is good.

Celesta is good.

thats it.

>>2901661

Not that anon, but spells stopping time made using Klarth and Arche a huge pain to me. It keeps breaking up the flow in an otherwise action-based game, and I just personally don't like that.

>>2901112
>Oh yeah, I forgot they translated Ragnarok as Kangaroo.

It's one O short of an Anagram

>>2901756

Meh. I never found it to be that big of a deal. I guess it helps that I found most of the summons to be pretty unique.

>>2901134
Except that the retro Star Ocean games and the original Tales of Phantasia were developed by the same people.

>>2901803

Mostly the same. Some of Wolfteam didn't defect.

>>2901797
It is bearable at the beginning, but later in the game when you get high MP and the Fairy Ring you will probably want to set them to cast as many spells as possible, plus with the Mystical Rune/Mystic Symbol they will do that in half of the time. And there are 2 of them, 3 if you set Mint to cast support spells.
Thanks God you can play with Mint as healer only, Chester and Suzu in the remake.

>>2901819

I wouldn't play the original except as a curiosity. The PSX remake is where it's at, though I can hardly speak ill of the PSP version as it has Narakiri Dungeon X (aka "here's the rest of the game's plot we had to cut thanks to Namco").

>>2901831
The rest of the game's plot is in Tales of Symphonia, Narikiri Dungeon and Summoner's Lineage are poorly made cash grabs.

>>2901848

Literally wrong and misleading on every goddamn level. Kill yourself immediately.

>>2901978
>Fucking faggot don't like my favorite game, kill yourself.
It was taking too long.

>>2901993

>knowing what the fuck you're talking about and having a pleasant Tales series gab

>making it up as you go along to hide the fact you know nothing whatsoever about the first Narakiri

There can only be _one_ !

>>2900983
I liked Destiny on PS1. It's got issues and is a bit rough (and the US version is missing the skits and has a somewhat important translation issue regarding a puzzle), but I liked the cast and the battles were fun. It was my first Tales game though, and the battle system is... it's not terrible, but it's the absolute bare minimum you'd recognize as Tales-style combat, so it might feel kind of janky going back from later games. Notably, spell-stop is a thing, where time freezes for just about all spells.
Eternia is pretty ace, definitely play that, probably the first "modern" feeling Tales. Spell-stop goes away here.
I don't like how fighting is in Phantasia on SNES, but the PS1 remake is nice (it has Destiny's combat system, but ever so slightly better).
DeJap's SNES translation is stupid, but makes me laugh. Ignore the GBA port.

>>2902056

Pretty much this. I do agree with those who say Eternia's plot was worse, though.

>>2902028
What there is to know about Narikiri Dungeon? It's just a melodrama about 2 kids that were from Dhaos' dying planet that reincarnated on Aselia. Other than this is just fanservice with recycled characters.

>>2902076

Most of Dhaos' backstory is in Narakiri dungeon. Symphonia recounts events long before either.

>>2901819
They do end battles a lot more quickly with METEOH STOOOOHM and stuff. But it's true, if you just want to be left alone and get big combos it's annoying to use the mages.

>>2901831
Shame it's not translated yet. I'd love to play NDX/ToPX. I guess there's no translated 'modern' version of Phantasia yet, then? In that case I'll probably wait, since I beat the SFC version twice and the GBA version once already.

>>2902062
What was wrong with Eternia's plot? I liked it. It felt like a proto-Symphonia type of thing. I also loved the early descriptions of Celestians where they say they're monsters and barbarians, but when you get there they have this whole civilization and are more technologically advanced than the Inferians. Really emphasizes that trusting authorities is not always the best thing to do, and also that your perception of people can change drastically depending on what you're told about them. It was all hyperbole, but it works well.

I also like the characters. None of the main characters felt like a waste on the team, they all had pretty good motivations as well as character flaws, which is not very common in JRPGs (particularly in Tales games). They're a lot more fleshed out than those in, say, Phantasia (although Arche is best girl fite me irl).

Only thing that bugged me was that at the end you have to press a very specific button combination at a very specific time to use a super move to counter the final boss' super move. If you don't, you die. They make it clear enough that these moves are important in this fight, but still, re-doing the battle is a bit of a chore. One time I actually lost because Reid had a status ailment and couldn't activate it.

I loved Tales of Destiny. It was my first Tales of game and I had to spend some time getting used to the battle system, but overall I really liked it. Also liked how the mostly optional character is this bald guy that wrecks shit and he's the strongest guy in the game. Also the theories that I had on Gfags about how to ressurect that one person because of some cryptic messages you can find and so on and so on.

>>2902682
Eternia was painfully boring to the point I gave up during disc 2.

>>2902740
I had the same issue with Destiny, although this was a long time ago. I'm feeling strongly inclined to retry it from reading this thread. Is there a recommended version for it? Maybe one with English text but Japanese audio?

Admittedly Eternia does share that unfortunate opening half with a lot of other Tales games where you're basically just checking elemental dungeons off your list because you need the summons.

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>>2902056
>and the US version is missing the skits

Normally Id be upset about that but given how the skits in ToD are more over world chatter than that later games cut in anime portrait style I think it's fair to point out that translating them, well, wasn't really an option.

Best case scenario they just dub them over but that would take more time and money than they probably had and given how clean the main game is in regards to grammar and writing It's actually a damn impressive effort overall

what's more is, looking at the eras contemporaries It's pretty safe to imagine that any dub would suck out load. Like Star Ocean 2 suck.

>>2902765

But from what I hear a lot of Rutee's feelings for Stahn develop in the Overworld chatter. :/

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Ha, I was just thinking about playing this again. Despite being rough and flawed, it's one of my favorite games.

There's a lot of charm to it, from the characters (Stahn's such a dope) to the sound design. Not just the music but the sound effects for flame explosions or the electricity from Indignation.

Even though they get minimal development, the characters are great. Like when Stahn starts running around with Rutee and Mary; Rutee will start bitching at Stahn or scheming something and Mary will wander around the inn with question marks above her head or start laughing at something. It's not as outrageous as later Tales of shenanigans, but it's not as obnoxious.

Also, I'd rather the series didn't focus on combo insanity as it went by. I'd prefer if they kept a more tactical or intense combat style. Hard mode is a step up, but most of the time it's just extra HP. Admittedly I never played Tales of Destiny 2 jp or Tales of Rebirth.

Thinking about it now, ToD's presentation of the scenario plays out like comedic adventure manga like Slayers. More so than later series. This opinion isn't nostalgia though because I played ToD when I was 20 after playing modern entries.

Any recommendations for games similar to it in terms of characters, presentation, or also a fun comedic adventure similar to this?

>>2901143

>Legendia

Into the trash your post goes

>>2905550
I like the combo stuff in later Tales games, but I agree that its pretty excessive to get 50 hit combos in random battles. It was kind of perfect in Eternia: a few hits where you know exactly how you're going to slash or thrust followed by one or two skills. Destiny and Phantasia have this 'hit and run' gameplay which kind of gets old after a while (although I love both games).

As for games with memorable characters and dialogue and nice humor , the first thing that comes to mind is Skies of Arcadia (I'd recommend the GameCube remake since the encounter rate apparently used to be pretty bad), although it's originally a DC title.

I'm currently playing Grandia and it also has a similar feel. Both games are turn based though.

Tales of Phantasia is the best Tales game in the entire series