u/eruciform

A few remaster changes:

* you can actually take screenshots on ps5 now, it was impossible in the OG version

* as soon as fast travel opens, you get free infinite fast travel instead of needing to wait til the final dungeon

* full grade shop from the beginning so the plat is one playthru now

* malevolence walls in the postgame dungeon don't knock you off your geoboard any more which is weird and probably a bug

* dark turtlez only steals your gels not all your elixirs and arcane bottles

And a few they needed to make but didn't:

* still slow as hell walking, this should have been increased by 30% base rate, seriously

* magilou and laphicet still refuse to ever use hidden artes while in auto mode, ever, even if you turn everything else off

* a lore or record page to show what mystic artes you've seen, to make the one missable trophy less harrowing, would have been nice

I've now platinumed Xillia R and Berseria R back to back. How stupid am I? Should I platinum Zestiria next? I did boot it up to play it casually as a follow up yo Berseria as I always do in any case. And I'm immediately annoyed by remembering that screenshots are also banned completely in Zestiria as well, I can't even take a title screen grab, and any platinum I get will be guaranteed to be a black screen.:-p Also I have on old leveled up endgame save I can pick up from when I get near rhe end but I don't have an old clear save, so this casual run is a fresh NG one, no grade bonuses. Annoying I can't NG+ from a previously cleared endgame but not actually clear save.

The remaster made a few subtle changes which were cool:

• Screen captures on PS5 are now allowed, the OG prevented them
• As soon as you get fast travel, you get the infinite fast travel bottle, instead of having to wait for the last dungeon for it
• I'm not positive but I feel like the treasure chest trophy was made easier, I got it before I even entered the final dungeon, and I don't remember that last time
• Oddly, the malevolence walls in the purple-floor areas of the bonus dungeon no longer knock you off your geoboard, you just crash right through them, making them useless, which is weird, maybe a bug
• And of course you get full grade from the beginning, so you can just turn everything on from the start, if you want, just like the Xillia and Graces remasters
• I kinda wonder whether they changed the XP value of battles on moderate/hard/evil/chaos, because I found that moderate was the fastest bonus-dungeon-boss-1 cycle for leveling last time I platinumed, but this time I had to up it to chaos to get enough exp, and I don't think i'm playing incredibly differently such that my combo maxes are better or something
• Dark Turtlez no longer steals all your arcane bottles and elixirs, he seems to only react to gels and only steals your gels

However the one thing they really needed to do was to increase the walking speed by 30% across the board, base level. Oh well. :-P

Also, Laphicet and Magilou REFUSE to use hidden artes, ever, under auto-control. So when you get to the platinum grind and need 2500 uses each, they are nearly zero. It's so weird that the AI just refuses to use hidden artes. Even if you turn everything else off, they will just sit there and do nothing instead of using hidden artes. Or rather, if you tell them to attack with break souls, they will sometimes do so and follow up with hidden artes, but very rarely. This also should have gotten fixed.

Tales of Xillia 1 Remastered

Platinumed @ 64h

Rating: 8/10

This might be my favorite tales battle system, it's both simple enough to not be a setup mess like some others, as well as has a few different paths to victory. Its can be played mashy if you want, or you can finesse dodging and stacking chains.

Story overall is pretty good, a few classic Tales twists. Tho it honestly feels incomplete even tho it does have a conclusive and cathartic ending. I realize there's a Xillia 2 (that I also haven't played yet) that REALLY should have been remastered at the same time. Maybe it'll clear things up better. But as a standalone, it felt a little empty in places and as an ending.

There isn't a ton thats different in the routes. If u plan to do both, do Jude first. There are 2 dungeons that differ, and a handful of scenes. But oddly most scenes are omniscient shots showing you what only the other person could see which is kinda odd for a split protagonist game.

Characters are always strong points in Tales, as are character and whole party interactions. Elize and Teepo are heartbreakingly adorable, and I honestly think Elize might be the best written child character in a JRPG, both her interactions verbally and also her physical interaction. They properly animated her with a short gait, skipping steps, hopping, hiding behind people or hugging them with a leap, just in general superb motion capture. And her character development felt real as a 12 year old too. Other characters were cool and all but I think she was my favorite. Having a protagonist in Jude hat's smart and not naturally a fighter was also a nice change of pace; Milla was cool but the enigmatic nonhuman bit wore a little thin.

A few unfavorites include the incredibly overused tropes that Ivar and Agria fall into, the hyperjealous idiot and the unstable sadist. Do we really need more of these? Also I could do without the skeevy interactions. While its low in general for a jrpg (sad I have to contextualise that) Alvin has to comment on how the 12 year old will turn out hot, and he and Rowen convince her she needs "huge bazongas" as a joke thats not a joke. Sigh. Did you have to, Tales?

Also, for a creator god of the universe, Milla certainly gets pathetically princess captured a whole lot. More than even in Arise which was already overloaded with that trope. Kinda disappointing.

Also did they have to design Presa like that? Like seriously the depth of that v-neck-looking g-string outfit is so low that they had to digitally shave her pubes. Holy sh*t.

Most hated character: Jude's father. He's a coward, a traitor, a terrible father, and also a terrible doctor. Throw in the "slap your child, that's just tough love" trope on top of it, and I just wanted to vomit all over him in every scene.

Mechanics outside battle are pretty decent, there's a semi-programmable auto-potion rule system, the controllable auto character AI is actually pretty decent.

The game is very easy. I played on normal on a first playthru, and on Hard (second highest) on NG+ with exp x10 and the devil gear. Even with the devil gear, the endgame enemies were bullet spongey. But still easy.

Exploration is ok. There are optional areas to explore, some dungeons that only get a minor quest pointing to, so theres more yet to explore, but its still a pretty linear world.

The later of the antagonists is at least well written. Of the "he's wrong but he does have a point" type which is far better than just pure evil forces of nature or wannabe mega-hitlers.

As a platinum its pretty straightforward, and as a Tales its low on the missables or grind, just pay attention to the bestiary as you go to kill one of everything along the way, and lightly follow a guide to make sure you don't miss subquests. Try to do long overlimit chains as you go to save on grind later, and try to swap in different characters, and try to have a food effect in place at all times even if its cheap and useless.

As a remaster I'm not sure what they added except that you can have all the grade shop options on a first playthru if u want. I turned on all but the exp ones because they just speed stuff up like double vendor upgrade value and double money. I got all missable trophies on a first play other than bestiary and lvl99 and two grinds that worked themselves out by just before the end of the second playthru.

Overall a strong JRPG as a whole and a good Tales game as well. Stronger on battle, a little weaker on plot or characters other than one or two really good characters. Worth the pickup, worth the platinum.

Wonder whats next. Blue Reflection quartet won't ship til July 30. But I do have a huge backlog. Unfortunately too many are enormous open worlds like Oblivion and Starfield. Maybe something small to start, like Etrange Overlord just finally arrived after a month of getting delayed in playasia shipping department.

I always go everywhere I'm not supposed to go first. But I think the creepy slendermen really don't want me here. After quite a few tries I did beat a set of three but then ran from everythjng and cleared the place out while screaming. Folks say this place is for grinding but even at my low level here, one agonizingly long fight was only one level. Did this grind get nerfed in the remaster?

As an aside: what am I doing wrong with Soaring Vortex? 75% of the time Jude just winds up with the hadoken stance and then does absolutely nothing. If I spam the skill he often spams "starting the skill" but still never does it. What is it asking me to do here? No other skill flakes out like this one does.

So I finally rolled credits on this immense game at 307h. Though I'm not quite platinumed yet. What else is there to do in the postgame? I finished the abyss and read the special books, I've already killed all 77 megabaddies. I have a few challenges yet like some stuff I need Damiane and Oongka for but they were locked out of ch12 for so long I had to wait. Missing one damn fish (giant red bream). Haven't done the cheating cheaters who cheat horse race yet but I have swept away a bear. Not sure what else there is other than completionist questing or knowledge farming.

How was it for other folks in postgame?