Slow progress is still progress

I have dabbled a bit more with Tales of Hearts R.  After making it to the main continent, I hit a 30-trope pileup.  More discussion after the jump.

Barf me out the door!

This post's title comes from ACTUAL DIALOGUE in the game.  Yes, people got paid to write that.  A screenshot with the offending text comes after the break.

Bite-sized Dungeons, Older Characters and Some Disheartening News

I spent some more time with Tales of Hearts R.  I made my way through the next two dungeons.  The second dungeon, with cutscenes, tutorials and making sure I explored every bit took between 30 and 40 minutes.  That's pretty short, and I'm wondering if it's because of the game being made for portable systems.  The third dungeon is taking a bit more time, but that's because it has multiple paths that go back and forth.

Advancement in Tales of Hearts R

The Tales series generally has some interesting way they do character advancement.  There's the usual "experience gives you levels that improves hit points and stats" but skill acquisition is not connected to that.  In Tales of Symphonia, you gained skills depending on the different type of skills you used.  In Tales of Graces F, you simply bought them with a different form of experience points.

That brings us to Tales of Hearts R's system.  When you gain a level in the game, you are awarded a certain number of Soma Points.  These Soma Points can be spent in the Soma section of the menu, where you have 5 different traits that you can improve.  Kor has fight, belief, mettle, endurance and sincerity.  Each level takes a different amount of Soma Points (the first takes 8 or 9, the second around 15, etc.) and the character gets a minor bonus for each point put in and then a larger bonus when the level is reached (a skill, a new weapon form, a passive trait, etc.).  Some abilities are unlocked when you reach levels in traits that are next to each other (they all extend in different directions from the same starting point, so if you connected them, they'd make a pentagon).

It's an interesting system.  I have already run into the case where you need to level up more than once to get to the next level in some of the traits, but that's also because I've put multiple levels into the same trait rather than trying to level things equally.

Some discussion of Tales mechanics

I played through the first dungeon on Tales of Hearts R.  I'm not sure whether they are all designed small because the game was created as a portable game or whether it's merely tiny because it's the first dungeon and is a training ground.  Regardless, it was only three screens.

Ever since at least Tales of Symphonia, there has been some sort of on screen representation of the random encounters.  Usually, they've been some sort of blob.  However, that's not the case in Tales of Hearts R.  You're just thrown into combat.  I consider that a step back, but it's probably one of the limitations of the original DS version of the game that they decided to not alter for the Vita version.

The dungeon also reminded me why the Tales designs can bug me.  There are slightly raised areas that are completely inaccessible because they didn't want to make the room that big.  What it looks like is that our protagonists can't lift their feet the 3 or 6 inches to get up on the area.  That can be frustrating.

I did manage to restore an emotion to our heart-broken girl; now she can feel fear!  I guess I should watch out for Yellow Lanterns now.

One of these things is more important than the other

I feel I should talk a little about the distribution of Tales of Hearts R. You see, Bamco only has it available through the PSN store or as a Gamestop exclusive. Of course I am sure you can get it via a reseller now. I guess the combination of being a Vita game and from a somewhat marginal series was the reason. Still, at least it's available.

A mysterious girl is discovered on the beach and Kor helps her because that's what shonen manga protagonists do. After an introduction that fits the imagination of 13 year old boys, Kor and the girl go to get a Soma from Kor's mother's grave. That's right, less than an hour in and we're grave-robbing!

Overprotective brother shows up and then the witch from the opening movie appears to put a whammy on the girl. She is about to kill Kor when the grandfather intervenes and takes the hit.

After some heroic running away, Kor uses his Soma to enter the girl's mind to try to heal her. Of course, he makes things worse and ends up breaking her spira. So she is left emotionless, and her brother is not very happy about this. At this point the grandfather dies, but very little is made of this.

And this is where I start having problems. Overprotective brother is so upset at Kor, but he and his sister got Kor's only relative killed. One of these things is worse than the other.

So the Hearts in the name of the game not only refers to the last name of the siblings, but also to the fact that you'll be putting her heart back together.

I want to go into the mechanics a bit, but doing this on my phone is too annoying for that.

New game, Tales of Hearts R

I've been a bit hesitant to start up another game given the unsuccessful nature of the last two games.  That, and I've just been busy.  Still, I wanted to play an action RPG after the turn-based battles of Demon Gaze, so I decided on Tales of Heart R, the Vita port of a DS game.

The Tales series started back in the Super Nintendo era.  You go to a combat scene where you run back and forth hitting the enemies, using skills and blocking.  Most of the games in the mainline series have a western release, but it's never approached the heights of the Final Fantasy series.

Part of it might be due to the somewhat bland characters and stories.  The main character is Kor Meteor.  The only way you could have a more shonen manga protagonist name is Bigsword Warriorguy.

Pictures beneath the fold.