Tales of Legendia

[Andromeda]

Well I bought this for my birthday a month ago and finally finished it tonight after 60 hours of playing. It was definitely worth its value, but wow it is long. It just felt a lot longer than some of the other RPGs that I have played. I am not sure if I have put 60 hours into a game on the first play through, FFX might have come close, hard to recall.

The real difference is that you already beat the main game after 30 hours of play. You then get another 30 hours of play on the characters quests. Which until I got to Jay's quest I was really enjoying. I do not know if it was because I was just getting tired of bosses or what, but when I got to his it was just not as much fun as the other were. I was more looking forward to Grune's that I knew would come after it. But I really did not care a lot about Jay's history. Most of it still remains rather blank even after this quest.

Anyway, I found the idea of a main quest and then side quests that is still part of the another story after the game. It was sort of like having two games in one. I really enjoyed that, because how many times do you beat a game and want to continue on afterwards a little more to see how things turn out. I know that I have a lot of times. And you get the chance, which was exciting. You get to explore the same maps over again, which is pretty boring, but all of the monsters are doubled in power now, so it is still a challenge getting through.

Though it does feel a little strange just playing through everything over again. And until the second character quest you really do not feel like there is going to be a lot of connection, though to sort of hope there is. They all end up being very loosely connected and lead up to Grune's quest, which I had sort of expect by the time I was on the third quest.

It is funny though how the main quest can have you in dire threat of complete destruction as all RPGs end up and yet the character quests which at first seem like things cannot possibly be worse than before and everything else should be down hill. It comes out of no where and hits you that you are in even worse than the main story and even more is at stake than before and the chance of winning is even less.

I was pretty happy when they added a new map at the end in Grune's quest until I got slapped with 13 boss fights that lead up to the main boss, plus the one before brings the total to 14 straight boss fights. Not to mention that while most are probably mini-bosses, there is one in there that really is a boss fight and annoying.

Then you come to the boss and you get you butt kicked around and barely come out only to go back into it again. I had most of my good items already expended in the last battle. So I am already handicapped and the boss is just as strong as ever and I am getting floored. Which forced me to use All-Divide, which was really annoying since it doubled the length of the fight, I mean it was a walk in the park once I used it almost, but still really annoying. Very little was really threatening once I used it. There were still some close calls and rough spots, but overall it was just tendious attacking that went on forever.

The last map before it, was the only time I ever used Escape in the entire game. It shows how much I was fed up with actually playing through normal fights. The stupid monsters were giving me 300 exp, 300, when the others before would give 1000 easily. And on top of that they had double or triple the HP the other monsters had. So I am like no way, and just escaped most of the battles because I am not fighting a profitless battle anymore (*cough*FFXII). And I checked, the most I got was 500, which was hardly with the two minutes of trouble that the fight would give me. When I needed 12,000 exp to level I knew I would not be getting that anytime soon.

I actually sat down at 1pm figuring that I could finish off the game, Grune's quest in a few hours. Nope, 9 hours later I finally finished it. Spent 2 hours on that 13 boss fight nearly. No to mention having to go through some of those maps that are like an hour or two long to traverse thanks to fights. I really did not enjoy that.

No doubts I love the game, I am just sure if I want to replay it anytime soon. I did start the "name game plus" mode or whatever you want to call it. Found out what the purpose of the grade was for, which the manual did not say. I apparently was good enough on the grade to get everything in the shop. So I have double exp and grade, plus all my gald from the previous game, all one million of it, so pointless even at the end of the game, and all of my abilities. Which is even more pointless since I only have 99 TP, I could only do like two high level abilities before running out. It is pretty sad, I don't have any of the TP regen items I would need that could possibly make it worth while. So I am going to be sitting on a bunch of abilties I cannot use for a while when I decide to play again. Plus I am going to have to turn off most of the other character's abilties so tha they do not go willie nillie on their abilities and completely burn it all away.

I definitely want to get more Tales games, yes this was my first. I want Symphonia when I get a Gamecube. But anyway, what did you think of Tales of Legendia?