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.

Please excuse the break

Things have been busy the last month, and I haven't had the energy or motivation to buckle down and play Tales of Hearts R.

However, I have played some Rogue Legacy, the fusion of a Rogue-alike and Castlevania. While the game has a number of good points, it is not really a game I'm good at or greatly enjoy. It is a good distraction, though.

Ultimately, Rogue Legacy is a little too hard. It fails to recognize that the reason Metroidvanias are popular is that they let you explore and grow at a reasonable rate. The growth in Rogue Legacy is too slow and too inconsistent, and the game is difficult enough that you generally cannot explore a lot of the castle, and when you can, you end up dying and the castle changes.

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.

Hope you like Atelier games!

Thanks to a present from a friend and the 3 year anniversary Vita sale, I have three Atelier games on the Vita. While Atelier Rorona is not PS TV compatible, the other two are.

Looks like there will be a lot of Atelier entries in the future!

In the meantime, I am still going to be playing Tales of Hearts R. After stopping g my last two games, I feel I should get a win for the blog.

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.

An unfortunate hiatus for Valhalla Knights 3

So, despite the somewhat skeevy aspects of the game, I do enjoy Valhalla Knights 3.  I like the combat system, I like improving the characters, and I like a lot of the different subsystems.  So, why am I putting the game on hiatus?

Despite the game being on Sony's list of Playstation TV compatible games, there are an awful lot of things that require the touchscreen.  In particular, the dating minigame uses it, but, more importantly, the ability to use boost in combat requires it.  I can probably continue without it for a while, but this is something that is designed to help in combat.  I don't want to limit myself in playing the game.

Now, it may be that there are workarounds with the right stick or using a Dualshock 4 with the game.  I'm going to investigate those, but in the meantime, I'm going to try another game that doesn't require this.  If I can't play Valhalla Knights 3 on the PS TV, then I'll pick it back up on my regular Vita.

Valhalla Knights 3 on the PS TV

Using the Playstation TV to play Valhalla Knights 3 may not have been the best decision.  The game is not exactly the best looking Vita game, and those graphical flaws are magnified on a larger screen.  The hostess minigame also seems to rely on the touchscreen, and that's not an option with the PS TV.

After the cut, I'm posting a screenshot which basically sums up my ambivalence about the game.  It has nothing to do with the technical side, but the tastefulness of the game itself.

Valhalla Knights 3: the magical prison life RPG you've been waiting for

Valhalla Knights 3 is actually the 4th game in the Valhalla Knights series, there was a Wii game that came out between 2 and 3, and I'm not counting the digital-only enhanced version of the second game as a separate entry.  It's an action RPG put out by XSEED.

The game begins with a scene of an evil emperor doing evil emperor things like killing one of his minions that's trying to talk sense into him.  It then cuts to the player walking into Carceron Prison with a group of fellow prisoners.  After a brief explanation, you enter the prison proper where one of the female prisoners is promptly kidnapped to meet a presumably dark fate, two of the prisoners who entered with you try to intervene and are promptly killed.

Say what you will about the game, but it knows how to set the scene!

You're given basic equipment by a merchant whose business plan seems to be "more living prisoners = more customers spending money at my store" and are set loose.  It's only then that you find out that you and one of the group you came with are Imperial agents seeking W. Flockhart's lost magical treasure that grants wishes (or at least a wish).  I'm guessing that W. Flockhart is not related to the star of Ally McBeal.

In talking to other prisoners, you sometimes want to wash your hands.  In particular, there's a guy who talks about wanting to kidnap a woman and then 'heh, heh, eh, heh.'  Unsavory is best way to describe it.

The game also allows you to romance different clerks by giving them gifts and entering 'sexy time' with them.  I guess they felt that putting date sim elements would help; that gameplay element didn't exist on either of the game's PSP predecessors.

It turns our that you and your fellow Imperial agents (you meet up with a third soon into the game) are being magically compelled by the empire.  In fact, your group seems to hate the empire since it conquered your countries.

The first boss was actually quite difficult.  I had to grind levels and gold for about an hour before I upgraded everyone's equipment and could beat him.

Beat Ether Mirage and Demon Gaze going on hiatus

After giving it several tries and adjusting the difficulty, I was finally able to beat Ether Mirage.  The problem with that boss is that it heals an unreasonable amount of hit points every three turns (changing the difficulty meant it merely healed 4800 hit points as opposed to 5400).  Once that boss was beaten, exploring the last two screens of the dungeon was easy.

Then, the final boss fight came.  More details about that after the jump.

Pluto, Uranus and a roadblock

After Astro, I guess the developers decided to cut back on the dungeons.  Pluto and Uranus had a total of 4 grids for both of them, and they were very straightforward.  Uranus was also an incredibly easy boss fight and only 2 steps away from where the elevator would bring you.

Beating them made it so I had all 10 Demon Keys.  That meant I could get the magic sword that was hanging out in the castle.  It's a pretty nice weapon.  That meant I could go shatter the magical barrier that was supposed to consist of the magic shield that made up the last of the three treasures.

Doing that brought out a new boss to fight.  Unfortunately, Ether Mirage is tough.  Not only does she do a lot of damage, but she heals nearly 6,000 hit points at the end of the third round.  I haven't beaten her, and it's making me frustrated; I see why the trophy percentage of people playing the game dropped off around here.

Advanced Battle Tactics (hold the lettuce)

If you're wondering about the title of this post, then you're probably not familiar with .hack//SIGN.  In that case, I present BT (named after her favorite sandwich but without the L since she hates Lettuce).

What supermodel doesn't play MMOs and hate lettuce?

There goes Astro

I had a playing binge on Saturday, so I finished up Astro's dungeon and defeated him.  The dungeon was huge and involved going into and out of the water several times.  What's wrong with the water, you ask.  Well, other than the fact that you can't cast spells in it, going into it also strips you of your buffs and you need to reapply them when you leave.  There were a whole lot of times when I'd be in the water for 5 minutes or so and then when I got out, I'd have to reapply them.

I should mention that Astro is, in fact, a male demon.  So, my previous guess of a busty she-demon was wrong.

After two or three lengthy explorations (explorations so long that I filled my inventory and started consuming items so I'd have more room), I faced Astro.  Details on that fight after the break.

Astro's dungeon

The latests dungeon I'm in is Astro's.  It's more on the size of Jupiter's, which means it's going to take a long time to explore and conquer.  So fair, it has aspects of pretty much all the dungeons I've gone through.  There's an underwater part, electrified walls, and ground that hurts.

I haven't seen Astro yet.  I'm wondering if he or she will turn out to be like the most famous Astro or his most well-known descendant.  Of course, Astro could end up being an overly endowed woman, as 5 of the 7 demons I've beaten so far.  Smart money would put it on the latter.

The Traitor Exposed!

In a shocking, so shocking turn of events, the evil albino loli revealed that she was behind a lot of the bad things that happened.  I also got to have a boss fight with her in a form that I can only say should be by the dictionary entry for overcompensating.  Her portrait was so misleading since I beat her in two rounds.

Doing that calls for a dancing gif.

Olivia Pope has many talents. Dancing is not one of them.