Popular Post TheIncinerator1 Posted February 8, 2015 Popular Post Share Posted February 8, 2015 (edited) Tales of Hearts R Finally, after about a month (a bit longer than expected) I got myself my second vita plat to put into the trophy collection, AND killing two birds with one stone here, the third "Tales of" game I've played and fully completed so far in the ongoing franchise. This time around though, unlike both Symphonia and Xillia, we got ourselves a remake called Tales of Hearts R.ToH was originally a DS game that wasn't released over in the west back in 08'. The game was in 2d (characters and all), the battle system was a bit different, only 3 switchable party members usuable at a time, and judging by some videos I saw of the original, some scenes that play out are a tad bit different. With this updated version being released for the Vita more recently though, we pretty much get a graphical upgrade, 4 switchable party members at a time, a completely different battle system, and a character that wasn't even featured in the original. Now, I'll give props where props are due, this isn't just a simple port that they threw out there and then called it a day, they went and reworked majority of the original game, so thankfully no laziness played a factor here. I've heard Innocence R pretty much got the same treatment as well, but that's a whole 'nother thing; there still hasn't a been a localization of that made for the west yet, so here's to hoping.Tales of Hearts/Hearts R is a story about young dude named Shing Meteoryte Kor Meteor who shortly after getting his grandfather's weapon known as a "Soma" or basically a spirit weapon, and becoming one who has a strong spirit or basically a "somatic" (we're in for the long haul here), by fate comes across a girl named Kohaku and her brother Hisui who bring whatever trouble they've been recently running from back from their home right onto his doorstep. That trouble is a witch named Incarose who is after the girl for some reason, and in finally being able to corner them, she damages Kohaku's spirit, or "spiria" as the game calls it. As they all manage to escape somehow, Shing Kor, with him being a new somatic and all, now has the ability to enter one's spiria. He offers to help Kohaku with her problem only to mess it up even more through a series of events resulting in every shard that makes up a spiria being scattered across the world basically making her an emotionless shell. Seeing as we can't have any of that, it's up to uh..Kor, to redeem his dumbass and get back those shards and return Kohaku back to her normal self. The story of course takes some twists and turns, but that'd be going into spoiler territory, this here's pretty much the jist of story's start.On to the nitty gritty though. Now kind of like my experience with Xillia 1 I don't necessarily dislike Hearts R, but at the same time I didn't think it was outstanding either. It's pretty solid for a portable Jrpg I'll give it that, but honestly there were certain points where I wasn't really digging it too much.The combat system seems to be the strong suit of the Tales games; of the 3 I've played so far, even if they were lacking in any other departments the combat more than made up for it and Hearts R is no exception. Battles in this game are fun, so fun actually that I found myself getting into fights over and over again just because. Combat is pretty standard Tales fare, encounter an enemy, fight in real-time, combo it up, and finish with a victory quote. What gives fights the extra edge in this game is the "Chase Link" system, a system where you can continously combo enemies at super fast speeds (think DBZ teleporting) and keep them in the air for quite some time. It also has sort of a buddy system known as "Cross Chases" where while you're attacking, one of your party members' icons below will glow for you to tap quickly resulting in a nice double attack. It's a pretty simplistic system, and I feel like even if you're beginner to large/complex combos, it's easily accessible. Something about it feels satisfying, and it's probably the most addictive feature in the game. On another note, leveling up and acquiring skills that give your character a boost in battle is also pretty standard fare as well. Certain skills exclusive to certain party members can be obtained by developing strong bonds with them (you know, friendship and all that) but that probably isn't really breaking new ground. Weapons, however are pretty interesting in this game. You receive them through leveling up your character rather than picking them up normally through exploration since they're "spirit weapons" which I thought was pretty neat albeit kind of cheesy. Everything combat related overall was probably the biggest highlight of the game, nothing necessarily out there, but it works just right.The story and characters is probably where I'd say things, at least for me, start to go south. I usually don't knock these stories too much because you kind of usually know what to expect when coming into these type of games, but this really didn't do anything for me. I watched each of the cutscenes and skits for the first playthrough, which granted, had some pretty chuckle worthy moments I'll admit, a lot more than the previous 2 I played surprisingly. There were however some seriously cheese-filled cringe worthy moments where I put on the "are you serious?" face, moreso than usual. Thankfully, the game's story is pretty short and moves pretty quickly in my opinion, the only reason I took a bit longer with it was because I was going for certain trophies earlier, but had that not been the case I'd say about probably 20-35 hrs the most for a regular playthrough. As for the characters, 8 of them are playable and in combat all of them are actually pretty great, I don't mind playing as them and experimenting with combos. BUT if we're talking about anything outside of combat story-wise though, I think I only liked about 3 of them. The cast is just so bland at times, some of them downright annoying (Hisui), and the people I actually wanted to shine barely even do that. I mean it got so bad at times that there were two non-playable characters who appear later on in the game that were not only more interesting than some of your main cast, but could've easily replaced some of your permanent party members and I wouldn't have mind at all. The humor at times at least saved certain parts, but man I think I've had more than enough of my fair share of this cast and their adventures for a long while. The last thing to note is the translation of the game and some changes I looked into. I'm not one to complain about anything sub/dub related, I'm fine with either, but a lot of decisions that were made seem kind of strange to me. The name change being a big one ("Kor Meteor/Shing Meteoryte"). Through out the game he's refered to as Shing by literally everybody, so each time I see "Kor" pop up in the text boxes it's really odd. I'm guessing it's a rough english translation?, but even if it that were the case Kohaku is still refered to as Kohaku rather than Amber and Hisui still has his name instead of the english Jade, so what was the point of the change? The other change, which I'm not sure if it had to do with some sort of licensing issue, was the removal of the opening song. When I first played the game one thing I've come to expect are those anime J-pop openings, it's like the "Tales of" calling card, but lo and behold it's just some instrumental of a track that doesn't even sound like the original one. I had to check some vids of the original to see if this was case with that one too (even watching that weird CGI opening), but nope, they actually did remove it. There's also a couple of uh "creative liberties" they seem to take with the script, but if you don't mind that sort of thing it's passable. TL;DR Honestly, Hearts R is good for what it is, a portable Jrpg for a portable system. Something you can play for long sessions at home, but can easily hop on and off with on the go with how fast battles and the story moves. The difficulty curve is kind of low, I'd recommend intially playing the game on hard (or higher) to increase the challenge for combat, otherwise you'll be breezing through enemies on normal. New and old Tales fans will definitely dig this for their Vita's for the combat alone, and anyone looking for a new jrpg (or remade in this case) to add to their collections, try and give this one a shot, best to come in not expecting anything too extraordinary though, and if you can tolerate some of the characters, the plot, and the odd subbed script choices you might just end up taking a liking to it. Edited February 8, 2015 by Inc 24 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Quaedam_Animae Posted February 8, 2015 Popular Post Share Posted February 8, 2015 (edited) Platinum #18 Borderlands I'm glad that the servers were restored and the platinum is obtainable through normal means again and not requiring that XLink Kai thing that I can't figure out to save my life. Good game and a pretty easy platinum. Gonna hold off on the DLC for now so I can get through my backlog of games that I know for a fact that I can platinum rather quickly. Edited February 8, 2015 by Quaedam_Animae 18 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Viscera1900 Posted February 8, 2015 Popular Post Share Posted February 8, 2015 #112 The Wolf Among Us (PS4) Full Moon Enjoyment 9/10Difficulty 1/10 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post CaptainMcStuffin Posted February 8, 2015 Popular Post Share Posted February 8, 2015 (edited) #17 - Far Cry 3 Mastered the Jungle Edited February 8, 2015 by Snake 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Tcjmcd Posted February 8, 2015 Popular Post Share Posted February 8, 2015 #5 - Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition Guacamelee! Platinum trophy "Luchador #1!" Enjoyment: 7/10 Time: 2/10 Difficulty: 5/10 (Dependent on Skill, Played it previously on Vita) Great game, another gem that people will have missed out on. The story is good, the gameplay is solid, the visuals are beautiful and there are many cool references to other games throughout the story (won't spoil, but you'll know it when you see it!). Trophy list is smaller compared to the PS3/Vita versions but that's not all bad, some of the previous annoying trophies have been eliminated because of this decision. On my previous account (that i played it on the vita with..), the platinum looked pretty tough so anyone looking to platinum the game now, the PS4 is very doable. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moshi-monsters_ Posted February 8, 2015 Share Posted February 8, 2015 The Crew Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post voodoo_eyes Posted February 8, 2015 Popular Post Share Posted February 8, 2015 (edited) #47 - Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments Solid Sherlock game, enjoyable to those who like those type of games. Mostly a fun experience, with some annoying puzzles. Main flaw of the game is the back and forth between areas and some clues only being available after specific actions being completed beforehand, which most of the times made sense, but in some cases a lot of running around could've been avoided as the deductions were somewhat obvious. Also the controls work better on PC, mouse + keyboard will always work best with these types of games Enjoyment: 7 Difficulty: 2 Edited February 9, 2015 by voodoo_eyes 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post straysheep87 Posted February 8, 2015 Popular Post Share Posted February 8, 2015 # 74 - PSVita Pets A severe case of "trophy whorism". 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post zajac9999 Posted February 8, 2015 Popular Post Share Posted February 8, 2015 Platinum #147 Surgeon Simulator Enjoyable and reasonably tough game. Took longer to plat than expected as I waited quite a while for a couple of the trophies to get patches. Also Ultra Rare Plat #25 18 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post TheYuriG Posted February 8, 2015 Popular Post Share Posted February 8, 2015 Platinum #150: Muramasa Rebirth Master of the Oboro Style! Playing through Fury had more bullshit on it than challenge. Playing on Legend further is useless unless you are doing all Caves of Evil, as you need to do everything else on Fury anyway except for them. From my number of deaths, I can say I could get the hammer trophy at the priest boss fight with Kisuke without any doubts. Took me 44 hours to platinum this game and I don't feel proud of it, just relieved that I'm done with it. It's annoying how the character refuses to turn to the other side if you are moving, this make Momohime's final boss fight very painful to accomplish, specially. Swords not changing instantly is also annoying. Most of the game you won't have cash to stack up on Whetstones for spamming secret arts, so you are left with your skill and your luck to face the bosses alone. Shops restocking it too random, I couldn't figure out the pattern. Once I spent 30 minutes fighting and came back for only more 4 Smoke Bombs avaiable to buy, then I immediately went from city to city checking the Caves of Evil locations and the shop was fully restored to max. Then I immediately went from city to city again only to find 1 more Smoke Bomb on sale. I hope it's a logic I failed to understand, opposed to a game flaw. 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Hemiak Posted February 8, 2015 Popular Post Share Posted February 8, 2015 #54 Dark Souls 2 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WindsorReich Posted February 8, 2015 Share Posted February 8, 2015 Fallout New Vegas after 4 years and 1 month 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post dontwaketheKIDS Posted February 8, 2015 Popular Post Share Posted February 8, 2015 (edited) #71Back to the Future: The Game Platinum Trophy Backlog time. After finishing Wolfenstein I wanted a non-action, story driven game and this fit the bill. It's about what I expected - an okay game, certainly nothing spectacular. The most interesting thing about BttF, now 4 years or so removed from it's initial release, is to see how Telltale has evolved and grown over the years. The contrast between BttF and, say, The Wolf Among Us or Game of Thrones is striking. Edited February 8, 2015 by dontwaketheKIDS 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Vivamp Posted February 8, 2015 Popular Post Share Posted February 8, 2015 (edited) #59Saints Row: Gat Out Of Hell#60Saints Row IV: Re-ElectedI've listed both plats as i got them about half hour apart, neither was very difficult, just a lil grind in some places (Upgrading all weapons in gat out of hell was a bit long.)With both games the last trophy i had to earn was "Spend ____ hours in the game"Worth trophy hunting on, even if they are a lil glitchy Edited February 8, 2015 by khvivi 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Viscera1900 Posted February 8, 2015 Popular Post Share Posted February 8, 2015 #113 Resident Evil HD Platinum Splattin' 'Em! Enjoyment 9.5/10Difficulty 3/10 Getting the platinum trophy from this game was much easier than I expected. My speedrun time was 2h 58min. Personally my 3rd favorite Resident Evil game. I've been wanting to try this Remake for a long time. So glad that Capcom decided to bring this gem to current and last gen consoles(I played the PS4 version). Although I kinda missed "the man, the myth, the legend" Mr. Barry Burton's legendary and cheesy lines. Now I'm really hoping that RE:Zero is going to get the same treatment with this HD Remaster thingy. 15 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post RoD_HiGo Posted February 8, 2015 Popular Post Share Posted February 8, 2015 #49 - Over the Edge Mirror's Edge 5 years and 10 months, my longest platinum. Well, I've played this game on an off for a long time, I really loved it at the beggining but I got frustrated at the speedruns so I dropped it. Then a few days ago I said, let's do it. The speedruns were really hard, especially chapters 3 and 9 but I enjoyed the challenge. Also the first platinum I ever got that deserves an ultra rare status. Enjoyment: 9/10 Difficulty: 8/10 ( subjective, may be easier for other people) 15 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luzuka_ Posted February 9, 2015 Share Posted February 9, 2015 (edited) # 83 - Minecraft PlayStation 4 Edition Edited February 9, 2015 by luky-sama 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Priere Posted February 9, 2015 Popular Post Share Posted February 9, 2015 #25 - Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix I'm so sad that it's finally over, but also extremely happy that my little heart was burning! Wanted this to be #30. but i guess BBS will take that place I'll just explain what i felt through all the game, Let's see; The story was fun, it's true that i felt totally confused the first time i played this game, but luckily i played through all the other games and understood it at last. Mushroom XIII were very fun (and a good tranq material farming!), the only one that gave me trouble was #1, Ironic... Sephiroth, as usual, shines upon us with his appearance.....When i defeated him, i was definitely saying these final words... "GET A HOBBY OTHER THAN CLOUD" Lingering Will Was a big trouble, i did not know about the HUGE trick that could kill him in a matter of minutes, while i waited to figure a strategy that the fight itself took 3 hours to finally deliver the final blow. Now the Data Org members made me decide the "I hate" list, First definitely goes to Vexen followed by, Larxene, Luxurd, Xigbar. I do not regret making two playthroughs, in fact, i wished it was three... Thanks for listening, Lukika Out. 17 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Light_of_Yes Posted February 9, 2015 Popular Post Share Posted February 9, 2015 #21 Senran Kagura: Bon Appetit! (I feel a bit pervy after getting the platinum) 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Homestar1992 Posted February 9, 2015 Popular Post Share Posted February 9, 2015 #11 - Hitman: Blood Money 9th Feb 2015 9:24:02 PM Perfect Assassin"Unlock all trophies" 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Shana Alter Posted February 9, 2015 Popular Post Share Posted February 9, 2015 #071 Fate/hollow ataraxia オールクリア 17 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post DrBloodmoney Posted February 9, 2015 Popular Post Share Posted February 9, 2015 (edited) Platinum #172 - WATCHDOGS pretty good, a solid - if unremarkable - open world crime sim, with reasonably good main missions, but plagued by far, far too many repetitive side missions. Good for a regular gamer, but becomes a slog for completionists. Ubisoft should learn from their Far Cry franchise how to do open world trophy lists better! 7/10 Edited February 9, 2015 by DrBloodmoney 17 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Guri_Tricolor Posted February 9, 2015 Popular Post Share Posted February 9, 2015 #49 - Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus and #50 - FIFA 15 15 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Benalicous Posted February 9, 2015 Popular Post Share Posted February 9, 2015 platinum #39 for me is Alien Isolation was a good game fairly easy plat fully recommend to anyone who fancies something different other than running and gunning!! 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Carlver Posted February 9, 2015 Popular Post Share Posted February 9, 2015 #15 Prototype 2 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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