Tales of the Tempest is...

[Magicpaint]

... is actually not a steaming pile of turd. It's actually playable. 

Especially at the price I got it, I have to say I'm having fun. I think the biggest problem with the game is what was omitted (Grades, Shortcuts, Quest length etc) than what is there.

I think the game looks nice for a DS game, sounds good, has a typical Tales story and I think what's left of the battle system is still pretty OK. Of course I'm a fan of the 3 line system, and so that could play a role to that, but I think the way you learn skills fast, level up fast and gain stat bonuses with titles really adds to it. It's not a great Tales game by any means, but I think what's there, and considering the price I got it for, really isn't too bad. It's certainly worth a single playthrough at the very list.

Anyone think the same?

[Leroy]

NO! You lie.

The well informed, grammatically advanced internet gaming community would NEVER just piggyback off of somebody else's angry comments about a game without actually playing it themselves. These people's comments are honest and without bias. You sir, must be a company shill.. begone with you!

Anyway, it's on my next Play Asia order.. but that's with a pre-order for something else so I won't have it for a few weeks. I'm looking forward to it, the length of the game is appealing to me, though it is a bit disheartening to know there aren't any interesting New Game+ features given that.

[Magicpaint]

Ha ha ha, I have to say that I'm guilty of that. I really thought the game was going to be bad, but when I saw the pirce, I thought why not and gave it a shot.

I'm glad I did. It's fun. I think the length isn't too bad for a portable either. I'm interested in knowing what you think about it, and others of course.

[Kajitani-Eizan]

to be fair, looking at a video of it, it looks to be poorly designed or something (e.g. awkward spellcast camera panning in battle). i don't know if the actual game is like that, or if that issue actually crops up that often, but assuming that the video is representative of the game, it sure seems pretty lackluster.

[Cyllya]

Yeah, Tempest is great. The only thing that I don't like about this game so far are a bunch of minor nitpicks.

Sometimes the boss battles are a little bland since difficulty is so related to the number of enemies, but the random battles are fun.

The spell panning hasn't bothered me, but it never bothered me in any of the other Tales games either, so....

But, cripes, no one's played this game, judging by Japanese fansites. I went to some Tales kouryaku sites looking for sidequest info, and they have nothing. I think I've seen one oekaki picture for it (isn't she cute). I haven't seen any sales numbers, but I'm guessing this makes ToL's look good. But it's not the game's fault. So this deepens my worry that there will be no future DS Tales. :/

[Carnivol]

I personally think TotT should've spent another 6 months on the drawing board.
There's just so much about the design of it that makes it feel like something that was made in someone's basement during their coffee breaks or something and someone walked up to them and said "Hey, that looks pretty neat, we'll publish that as is right now!"

[Kiko]

Yeah, I honestly wouldn't spend more than 10 bucks for the game. It's just not enjoyable unless you go in with extremely low expectations and put up with far too many downsides..

Why they went the Rebirth route and made the AI not do anything not set on their command list blows my mind, it's even more annoying since you can't command them to do a certain thing via the menu or switch control to them..

The music is good though, voice actors are alright, spellset is more or less Symphonia inspired and the skillsets are pretty bare. The game is relatively short but it doesn't have much replay value (Short is okay for a portable RPG, but I'd like to go back and enjoy doing something everyonce in a while). The menus are really wierd to work with too, and whoever thought of seperating the text/any battle info from the gamescreen should be shot. It's not like anything cinematic is going on in the bottom screen, but I'd rather the text go there. And the battle info is just messed up, I don't mind the portraits being on the top screen so much, but I'd rather the tech name and combo meter go on the bottom, or atleast any supporting info like "Counter!" could flash down there..

If you're under the mindset that Legendia sucked because of basic features that weren't around, then you'll probably feel that Tempest is an atrocity..

It's just kind of horrible that I have to force myself to play to the game so I can see the enjoyable aspects about it. Absolutely nothing is keeping me into the game other than my dorkyness with wanting to see how they did the skillsets and spells (not for flashyness..but.. well I'm just dorky <_<; ).

I won't touch on how graphically impressive the game isn't..I think we all know by now =P

[Cyllya]

and whoever thought of seperating the text/any battle info from the gamescreen should be shot. It's not like anything cinematic is going on in the bottom screen, but I'd rather the text go there. And the battle info is just messed up, I don't mind the portraits being on the top screen so much, but I'd rather the tech name and combo meter go on the bottom, or atleast any supporting info like "Counter!" could flash down there..

Uck, no. I like to see what I'm doing, thanks. Especially when fighting a certain teleporting boss who's hard enough to see as it is. It'd be silly to clutter the little battle screen with that stuff (especially skill names, as that info is also given to you via audio) when there's so much free space on the top screen.

[Kajitani-Eizan]

i don't see why the game wasn't made 2D. i'm guessing it would have looked 100x better like that.

The spell panning hasn't bothered me, but it never bothered me in any of the other Tales games either, so....

i'm curious here. by awkward spell panning, i mean like, it looks like the spell (say, fireball) is cast, then a second later, it pans to the caster. (i know it was cast well before the pan because the fireballs have already reached their target .) then the camera looks like it realizes that it screwed up and abruptly shifts direction back to the 1P. and this pan is accompanied by a really, really awkward zoom that zooms in and out a bit too fast. is this some kind of fluke that i happened to see in whatever video i saw it in? or is it really like that most of the time? because the spell panning has been just fine with every other tales game.

EDIT: and looking at some youtube videos again... man, the sound effects are terrible. though oddly, the music sounds really good.

[Magicpaint]

Ummm yeah, spell panning doesn't bother me, and I appreciated the full screen support too, gave it a clean feel.

Also don't understand the graphics complaint. I thought the only problem was when they brought the characters up close. But otherwise, the colours were vibrant, animation was smooth and the game definitely had that same 'look' of the other 3D games like Symphonia and Abyss which is quite a feat as it's on the DS.

I do agree though that a 2D game would probably have looked better. But I wouldn't say this is bad, at all.

Another issue I have is the cooking. It was fun at first with the touch controls and has a hilarious VA, but when the more complicated recipes started showing up, I was failing at it and it was really pissing me off. 

But, cripes, no one's played this game, judging by Japanese fansites. I went to some Tales kouryaku sites looking for sidequest info, and they have nothing. I think I've seen one oekaki picture for it (isn't she cute). I haven't seen any sales numbers, but I'm guessing this makes ToL's look good. But it's not the game's fault. So this deepens my worry that there will be no future DS Tales. :/

Yeah the game is really unpopular; in the official Tales forum, nobody talks about it, and in Japan the game is in the bargain bins going for 1.480 Yen or so (which is why a lot of us could get it for so cheap). None of the characters made it to the latest Top 30 popularity list, which is also pretty telling too. It's really a shame. Bandai Namco claims to have shipped over 300K copies which is on par with their ToDr shipment, but a lot of the copies are unsold (since Famitsu have the game at  ~180K sold), unlike with ToDr where they have sold most of it. The lukewarm Famitsu review probably drove away lots of the fans and such, too... not to mention the Tales of Destiny remake came around shortly after Tempest's release which could have killed potential sales.

I do share the same worry though, but the popularity of the DS is still going strong and Bandai Namco would be a fool to not give the system another chance. I'd like to think the game didn't cost much to make considering its length, lack of VA and no real anime scenes (save for a few seconds in the OP), so I don't think they should see the sales as bad. I think they should try a bigger budget title that's on par with the other main games in feature and length before they quit the system. I mean it's not like they poured their heart and soul into this game, they even outsourced it to DIMPS with minimal Tales studio involvement.

BTW yeah, Rubia is really cute and I actually liked her overall. Which is a feat as I normally don't like her 'type'. I liked the overall cast too, nobody really irritated me which hasn't happened in a Tales game besides maybe Abyss and Rebirth. The game is rather short though, I completed it at ~14hrs and I wasn't in a hurry. And there's a lack of replay value, though there are a few side-quests I skipped. I'll definitely go back to it.

[Cless]

I haven't bothered to play it yet, but I just heard part of the soundtrack last night. From what games I've played on the DS, this game so far pushes its sound capabilities the furthest. It reminded me of Tales of Rebirth and sounded surprisingly clean...

That said, VS is the first Japanese Tales opening I give a damn about since Eternia's flying. It might even be my favorite. It pushed me to even buy misono's album. What happened to me? I thought I was finished with jpop. But VS was just so damn catchy...

[Leroy]

Woo. My order shipped today even though the game I primarily made the order for comes out on the 8th. My DS backlog is pretty heavy though.. so I'm not sure if I'll give this any extra priority. But since it's short.. that immediately moves it up on the list, hehe.

[Magicpaint]

I haven't bothered to play it yet, but I just heard part of the soundtrack last night. From what games I've played on the DS, this game so far pushes its sound capabilities the furthest. It reminded me of Tales of Rebirth and sounded surprisingly clean...

That said, VS is the first Japanese Tales opening I give a damn about since Eternia's flying. It might even be my favorite. It pushed me to even buy misono's album. What happened to me? I thought I was finished with jpop. But VS was just so damn catchy...

Yeah, the soundtrack is really good. But what surprises me is the sample quality is REALLY good. It's probably the best music I've heard from the DS this side of Metroid Prime Hunters.

You can't be finished with jpop when it has do with Misono. 
Too bad VS sounds like garbage on the DS, that's my only real soundrelate problem. It sounds all muffled and rough.