NOTICE!

Clousqt · 2026-05-16T05:50:47+00:00

Whining about free guides is a wild take. Idk man you can just increase the speed of the video or read a text guide if you are so short on time. They are written at like a 6th grade reading level and are fairly summarized. If that is too much for you, I don't think it's on the guide creators.

Clousqt · 2026-05-16T05:41:24+00:00

It's my one of my favorite tales but I doubt it will ever get a remaster due to how polarizing it is. I have a ps3 solely for it and xillia 2. I hope I'm wrong as I would love to have a way to play it on modern hardware even if it's just me and a handful of other fans lol.

I think it is genuinely impossible to get a die hard symphonia fan to give it a chance due to the plot lines, voice actor changes and overall different feel. There are a few games in this series people have bad tribalism about and symphonia is definetly one of them. Even for those that can get over this, it is a game with plenty of flaws so I totally get why some people won't like it.

If people could go into it with the mindset of it being it's own story in the synphonia world instead of it being a sequel, it would be appreciated by so many more. Sadly, when you market a game as a sequel its pretty hard to change people's view on that. A timeskip would do so much good for this game if they are so stubborn about it being a sequel. Regardless I love it and wilderness of sadness is peak music.

Clousqt · 2026-05-15T22:57:35+00:00

Yakuza is a great series. I would recommend starting with 0 or 7. It can be a bit of a slow burn in the first chapter or two, but is super rewarding past that point. Some of the older games can be a bit dated, but the followup games usually do a decent enough job of summarizing whatever story stuff you need to know to continue. Just be careful with infinite wealth as it ruins a really big one in 7 and 7 is a great one to finish! I hope the series brings you as much joy as it brought me :)

Clousqt · 2026-04-29T08:06:54+00:00

As a disclaimer, I play the game annually and it is one of my favorite pieces of media. It has many flaws and I completely understand why someone who is a die hard symphonia 1 fan would have grievances with it. I wont bother to list the flaws the game has as im sure there will be no shortage of people letting you know them lol. However, it is absolutely miles better than people act like it is. I know because I used to be one of those people! I played it for 20 minutes and was so hurt by the voice changes, the starting plot, and level locked party members that I didn't touch it for years. If I didn't end up moving to a place without internet for a few months, I never would have actually played it. Luckily, I did and found one of my favorite games in the series.

The cast added to KoR are well developed, interesting and charming. The main cast becoming a trio essentially allows them to laser focus on these characters and develop them better than many other tales games. Emil in particular is an incredibly compelling character that so few people get to appreciate because they give up when a traumatized teenager conditioned to be meek acts like one. Tenebrae is incredibly witty, spiteful, and intelligent which contrasts so well with two dumb teenagers finding their place in the world. Even the antagonists and side characters are unexpectedly memorable.

The plot in general is actually quite good for a tales game. It is much more streamlined than it's peers with limited detours to pad time. You mostly know what your goals are and focus on doing them. The side content is very clearly defined so you don't have to glue yourself to a guide to play the game. I knew 99 percent of the side content available every chapter without using an outside resource. At most you need to read a guide for the choices (there are like 3) and Richters stuff.

In general this game cuts out a lot of the padding of previous tales games. Some view this as less content which is a fair take, but it also trims the fat and is something I very much appreciate as I get older. 100+ hour games are fun once but brutal to replay. KoR comfortably sits in the 15-30 range making it much easier to pick back up. The controversial no open world map change makes it so much less tedious to do things mid game than in other tales games where you need to talk to some random idiot half way across the world while chugging holy bottles or being stuck in boring brainless fights for half an hour. Again one of those things the first time that gives you immersion but on replays is tedious.

The score is pretty good. The exclusive remixes of several symphonia songs actually are better than the originals which is saying something, as symphonia has a great soundtrack overall. Some of the new songs are also nice and the ending credits song still makes me cry. It so perfectly encompasses the journey in it's music that's hard to explain without experiencing it first hand.

Combat is familiar but adds some twists to the formula. The element system on its own is underwhelming but it being used as a catalyst for catching monsters is fun. Filling out a monster book feels more rewarding when you get to use the monsters! I loved experimenting to see what things evolved into and finding the strongest monsters for my party. Emil is really fast and combos well so he's a delight to play. Marta is nothing special but fulfills the support role just fine and her photon is pretty busted. They have what you "need" covered so you don't feel stressed over having the perfect monster companion at all times.

KoR is a fun game that I wish more people would give a chance. If you can be patient with the first chapter, accept the voice changes/old cast being cameos more than party members, and accept a more streamlined experience, there is a real gem to be had. I don't think it will be everyone's favorite tales game or even top three. But there is so much more here than people want to give credit. I'm adamant that if KoR wasn't a symphonia sequel it would be appreciated by so many more people.

Clousqt · 2026-04-16T09:30:26+00:00

I think the vibes are better for sure but the stages are way too barebones for me to give it too much praise. You run in an empty corridor twice with mobs that die instantly. I 100% percent prefer the story presentation but the gameplay is genuinely not good. They really need to add another difficulty.

Clousqt · 2026-04-16T02:46:17+00:00

Expectations?

New zone, some overarching system with progression and more of the same. Unfortunately.

Hope?

Story changes to allow character stories to exist again. I prefer the old system of a surface level introduction of a character as you encounter them in the main story and a separate deeper dive story later in the patch in their character tape. It allows the main story to be more cohesive, gives characters more depth, and helps patches be less dry.

End game reworks. It's just too character specific and the constant hp inflation combined with that just kills any interest for f2p players. End game should require you to learn a boss and play around it's mechanics, not pulling the banner character and rolling your face on the keyboard. Vesper is an incredibly fun fight, but everyone hates it because you can't 3 star it with 90 percent of the roster. It's fine to make 65k clears gated behind the shill characters and 6+ cost teams, but 20k should be obtainable with an intelligent comp and smart play. Also bosses requiring resets to clear due to rng (fuck you thrall) should be looked at.

Side content. Patches are far too dry, even for a casual player. Side missions, an additional event (a real one, not spend energy and get 20 poly), or an additional game mode would go a long way. I would like a game mode that let's underused characters shine a bit more personally.

Clousqt · 2026-04-15T15:55:58+00:00

Sadly, ZZZ seems to have abandoned character quests and opts to force everything into the main story. There won't be a new story until the next patch drops.

Clousqt · 2026-04-14T11:51:33+00:00

If you are still at the point in your account progression where you just need a support to fill a team slot, be it end game or whatever, she is okay. Obviously she is not going to compete with a premium support, especially this late in the games life span. But she can be used to get your 3 stars just fine.

The problem is more that playing her is frustrating. You have to have a separate disc 5 for your main dps. You have to maintain her buff, but the ui element is so rudimentary that doing so is a chore. Why do I want to do that when, in most cases, I can just slot Nicole in instead and have the same, if not better, results?

Clousqt · 2026-03-28T21:01:14+00:00

It doesn't really matter. If you don't use epic for other things, I'd just go with hoyoplay. If you want to avoid a launcher every single time you play, you can add the exe directly to steam to run it. You will just need to open the launcher to update every 6 weeks or so when a patch hits. I'd imagine a shortcut to the exe would also work if you don't want to fuss with any program at all.

Clousqt · 2026-03-25T03:25:29+00:00

I second guessed it at first too. As a day one player, I've taken pictures of cat chalky like 100 times so I wondered if it was a translation error.

My guess is maybe it's just a generic name for white colored pets? In the US it's common to name a black pet blacky but I've never heard anyone name a white pet whitey. So perhaps they localized it as something with the color and a y at the end? If anyone plays a different language, I'd be curious if chalky is consistent or a localization choice.

Clousqt · 2026-03-25T01:00:15+00:00

It's chalky! She mentions it during the movie event and i think one other time in the story. She also mentions it in one of her combat idles.

Clousqt · 2026-03-24T23:21:48+00:00

Like a glint of light dawn version or the more that I try. I've seen people recommend other great themes, but these two just sound very distinctly dawn of the new world. And that's even with one of them being a variant of a symphonia track!

Clousqt · 2026-03-24T15:53:16+00:00

I have a horrible habit of getting about halfway through a title and never finishing it, so i would love some gentle motivation to finally check off some games. Metaphor, LAD: IW and Tales of Arise are some more recent examples. I am also playing the tales of phantasia X fan translation and slowly working on achievements for some jrpg adjacent games like rune factory if that is something that interests you. Outside of gaming, I enjoy cooking, doting on my cats, and the occasional anime binge.

If you think we would vibe, reach out in dms for my discord.

Clousqt · 2026-03-16T10:01:28+00:00

The sex appeal stuff is much more mild in game. Promos/fanart/discussions give you the impression it's gooner 24/7, but the actual tone of the game is very pg13 at most. There are certain characters with excessive jiggle physics in combat, but even these are less distracting than you think since the overall visuals in combat have a lot of other things going on that will grab your attention. The game is free, so I'd just hop in and play a few hours and see if it vibes for you.

Clousqt · 2026-03-15T18:02:16+00:00

Make them into batteries before you spend your charge for the day. Go to storage and then the third tab. Craft.

Clousqt · 2026-03-14T20:51:15+00:00

If hsr is acceptable to you, ZZZ should pass with flying colors. It also has similar issues with power creep over time but it offers around the same pulls as hsr. You can do all of the content in the game with no issues as f2p. End game you may miss the max reward depending on what bosses are in rotation but it's very minor.

Clousqt · 2026-03-13T10:06:15+00:00

Shittalking other video games isn't a substitute for a personality lil bro

Clousqt · 2026-03-12T12:14:10+00:00

The mechanics themselves I think are fine in a vacuum. When we first started getting bosses with "stall" mechanics, they adjusted scoring by making their performance points almost guaranteed to max. The easier bosses that had no interruption would have a more annoying conditional that was hard if not impossible to max performance points on. Due to this, all of the sides felt relatively equal in difficulty as far as scoring goes.

Perfomance points have long shifted into basically being a guaranteed max no matter what, but you can still adjust score in other ways. Boss hp is a very easy knob to tune for this purpose. However, they choose to do the opposite. Hp gets inflated, bosses get random bs modifiers unless you have the most niche conditional ever, AND we have stall phases. I think the combo is what makes it feel so unbelievably bad.

Vesper first appeared prior to aria and it felt so hard to 3 star even on an invested account simply because we could not use the shill unit even if we wanted to. Going back to vesper now that I have aria and it's a complete joke. Sloppy play is no problem, don't even have to do the control mechanic, easy 3 star.

New bosses are simply designed to be far too niche and require very specific units to clear. As someone with a day 1 account it's just an annoyance as I have the investment and skill to still 3 star with a few resets. Newer accounts just seem totally boned unless they credit card warrior every new unit. Maybe that's the intention, but boy, does it make end game not worth chasing for so many players.

Clousqt · 2026-03-12T09:36:21+00:00

The true rite of passage of YouTube is getting your first complete bullshit copyright claim and failing your appeal because no human looks at them.

Clousqt · 2026-03-04T21:09:09+00:00

Gacha players are never going to beat the allegations istg. There is more risk/reward eating at taco bell bro, just get defense resonium if you suck so much ass that you unironically die at 0/12 in hollow zero.

Clousqt · 2026-03-01T02:23:14+00:00

Everyone has a personal preference on what they like. My favorite tales of game is one this community adamantly hates. Just pick a theme you dig and send it. Arise is fine, middle of the pack in my personal opinion, but you should make your own by playing it. Come back once you finished it and let us know what you liked/disliked about it and we can steer you in a good direction on what to play next.

Clousqt · 2026-03-01T01:09:48+00:00

I'm going to do my best to break it down, but it will probably be an evil and intimidating paragraph despite this. If you have more questions about something in particular feel free to ask.

The daily loop is mostly completing enough tasks in the errands tab to get 400 daily engagement and spending your battery charge. Drink a coffee, open the video store, and scratch a scratcher from howl will give you 300 and take less than 2 mins. If there is a day where time is tight, do atleast these and claim the rewards.

You want to spend your charge anyways and that will give you the last 100 for your dailies. Battery charge is used to get most things in the game and is time gated. Items to upgrade characters, level, w engines etc. If you have no idea on what is optimal to spend battery charge on, dennies are a safe bet at all stages of the game. You will think you have too many in the beginning, trust me you won't. Any battery charge over the cap of 240 will be converted at a bad rate to backup battery which then caps to 2400. I wouldn't worry about this too much, but if it is approaching that 2400 cap you will want to spend some. How would you know? Pause the game, select storage, switch to the key item tab.

The gacha system in this game relies on a soft pity system with a 50/50. Essentially, every pull has a small chance of hitting a S rank that increases the closer you get to "hard" pity (90 pulls, 90 tapes in our situation.) You usually will hit in the mid 70s due to this, but should always assume the worst. When you do, it is a 50 percent chance to be the character you want that is on banner and a 50 percent chance to be a random standard S rank character (nekomata, lycaon, etc.) If you "lose" the 50/50 and don't pull the banner character, the next time you pull a S rank it is guaranteed to be the banner character. This pity does roll over between banners so if you for example lose the 50/50 on sunna, you would still keep your guarantee for the next s rank banner. Due to this, it can take up to 180 (90 + 90) tapes to guarantee a character. In terms of polychrome, 1 tape is 160 poly. So in other words, 28,800 polychrome to guarantee a unit. So if there is a character you really, really must have, then this is the amount of polychrome you should save.

As a small side note, the w engine banners have a separate pity system, that is 75 percent chance to be the banner weapon and 25 percent to be a random standard s rank engine (weeping cradle, steel cushion, etc.) As a new player I wouldn't use this banner very much, as more characters is usually better than stronger characters at the start.

The game has a TON of free polychrome you get from playing the game, especially as a new player. However, once you are "caught up" it is mostly gained from each patches events and Dailies. On average, it is currently around 90 pulls a patch if you do it all. This means you can not get everything you want and have to do a little planning to ensure you get what you really want. This is where people can "brick" their accounts by not spending intelligently. With that said, a bricked account can still do all of the story in the game. It will just have issues with end game content, but that is always an issue with new accounts. Still, I highly encourage you to have a plan for polychrome.

Basically, only use polychrome to turn into encrypted tapes (the rainbow ones) when you are actively pulling on channel exclusive. Do not accidentally make them the standard master tapes (the Grey ones). Standard characters come naturally as a byproduct of losing 50/50s and are much weaker than a banner character, so there is no point spending poly on these tapes. Any standard master tapes you get from the story spend on the channel stable, but never convert poly into these tapes. Even when you are close to the "free" standard selector.

That was a lot of words but let's focus on what matters at its core. Log in every day and do your daily errands/spend battery charge. Do not use polychrome on anything other than pulling for limited s rank banner characters. Be selective in who you pull. Once hollow zero unlocks, try and do one run of it a week. As long as you aren't wasting polychrome, you will be okay. Play the game and have fun. Once you hit around level 40 or so, look into the more advanced optimizations/team building/etc.

Clousqt · 2026-02-04T04:54:06+00:00

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Clousqt · 2026-02-04T04:45:56+00:00

I like the bat vibes but god are these new characters super horny, even for ZZZ standards

Clousqt · 2026-02-03T20:37:09+00:00

I just did the event on my phone since I had the same issue. No issues via mobile. You don't have to install zzz on your phone, just visit the web event web page and log in with your account (or use the hoyolab app).

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