Sheikah

Get enough musical notes (nearly all of them) and you can unlock a reward that doubles your health effectively. I'd go for that if you're having trouble.

He's got nothing on Coonbeard.

A poll might not be best, but I for one do think this forum should really have a shoutbox. On the forums I use that have one it lets you get to know people better and is fun for general socialising without a particular topic. It can't hurt to try it out.

That's all effort is at the end of the day. Effort is bought. It's all about getting more combined effort and a lashing of luck. It's no surprise that on average the better quality games out there usually have a higher budget. That's an average, not a definite fact. Quite a few Tales games don't have the effort put into it I feel. You're right, it wasn't. That's why people bought a 360 to play it. A fair number of Japanese went that far. So you think because there's no '2' people are stupid enough to think it's not a sequel? First off, it's an RPG. I like to think RPG players have a bit more intelligence. People playing it aren't doing so for the adrenaline rush, they're in it for an engaging story and some leveling up. Secondly, any RPG fan knows of Tales of Symphonia, so I'm pretty sure they'd know what they were buying. It mentions it on the back of the case too. As far as I can see, they are both main installments. You just seem to think that ToV is somehow superior because the characters are different, as are the towns. I disagree. In Symphonia there are new characters as well as old ones (that people love). There's new things to do. Repeated towns, but still most of what you're doing is new. This is such bullshit - the 360 has more RPGs than the PS3 at the moment (at least in Europe), and also better ones. It's also getting FFXIII as well as the PS3. So, uh, yeah. You figure that one out. It doesn't matter how they acquired RPGs, the fact is that if the Xbox has them then that attracts RPG fans. Oblivion (out way earlier on Xbox), Eternal Sonata (at least for a long time), Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey (great), Fable II (even better), soon to be FFXIII, ToV...it all adds up to a lot more than the PS3's showing in Europe at the moment anyhow. It's not uncommon for people to disagree with what a company labels a game. I would not say this is a spin off as the gameplay is pretty much the same as the previous game and the story is a direct continuation. I call sequel. Anyway, can't be assed replying to this anymore, I feel this discussion is spamming the topic and it has run its course...

Oh come on, I think anyone with sense would have the decency to admit that Tales games are often very cheesey and don't break the boundaries whatsoever. The battle systems make almost no change between games, the story is usually not as moving and is riddled with cliches (not saying FF games aren't, but Tales more so) and often there's much less effort put into their games (as Legendia and perhaps Symphonia 2 prove). Again, this is an unfair comparison. Smash Brothers is the kind of game that reaches a much wider audience, and it does not matter if you didn't play the previous games, really. With Symphonia: Dawn of the New World, the story follows on and you honestly probably wouldn't even think anything of buying it unless you had played the original. It's not fair to compare the fact that Brawl sold more than Melee to Symphonia 2 sales. I'd imagine it really is Symphonia 1 fans buying it. IF ToS1 fans wanted a new game why didn't they buy Vesperia more?? This is the point I'm getting at. It did well because people loved Symphonia 1, and it was probably the best (or at least one of the best) Tales games, with arguably the best characters. And as for saying people think they needed to play the first game - it would be silly not to. The second game spoils the story of the first one so I think it'd be ridiculous to buy the second game only for it to spoil the former, better game for you. Especially since someone could buy it and play it on Wii if they wished. Regarding 'people thinking they need ToS as a hindrance' - Symphonia reached such a wide number of people and was loved by so many that I'm pretty sure it still means there's more customers wanting to buy it. It's one of the worst. Awful, shoddy, half-assed presentation and recycled Symphonia voice actors. It talked about another land invading (IIRC) and you never even visited it. There was a battle scene which laughably consisted of about 3 people on screen, and this was meant to be a war. Gah. Just thinking of that game really riles me. I actually threw it in the dustbin. Way to catch my drift. My point about Symphonia 2 selling better being regular is not because it is a spin-off, but because it is a sequel to one of the most-loved Tales games and is in itself a fairly good game. Simply put. End of this conversation please, as I feel that you are just trying to spin what I'm saying into something else. It isn't, because FF main titles sell better than spin offs, always. With Tales here, Symphonia 2 (which you say is a spin off, I'd say a sequel) trumped a main title. That's why they're not similar.

At least they don't have to pay to be controlled! *sniff*

Final Fantasy is a much bigger thing, though. People massively anticipate the new main titles while new Tales games tend to either not even come out here or just breeze by. Most Tales games are shit anyhow with near identical gameplay, crap stories with predictable twists and typical characters. It just so happens that Symphonia was a solid and fun game that looked and played great (possibly the best Tales game there was), and so people wanted this sequel. Think about it, it can't be that it's just the fact that the Wii is more popular that this has sold better. It's not the mass casual audience buying this game because it really is for people who've played the first game, and they're not casual. Not casual, but numerous. That's why this game sold like hotcakes. A sequel to a really good game. Brand new Tales games are very hit and miss though. A perfect example is Tales of Legendia, which for all intents and purposes is a turd inside a game case. I don't get what your point is trying to make, because this sequel HAS sold better than a new Tales game. Your FF comparisons are clearly not valid because FF and Tales are different series and people have different attitudes to them, clearly.

You've been her boyfriend for 3 years and people, including her family, can vouch for that. Hell, even CCTV would have picked you up enough times to prove it. So her saying you raped her...stupid bitch. It would be worth going to court over, only to watch her fail and be left with legal fees. What a stupid, pathetic, waste of fucking sperm and egg. Man, being angry at people that I'm not even involved with is fun.

Yeah, Fable II has done exactly the same thing, with the split down the middle of the page and the upside down evil guy: I still think that the box art looks better visually, though.

Cosmic ways? Like blasting Noel Edmonds to the center of the sun?

Do you know her address? If you do, I suggest you post a shit through her letterbox. Failing that, plant some hardcore drugs on her and have her arrested. What a worthless person, she should be shot. Please note- taking advice from my posts is never a good idea, but still nice.

I don't know about you, but a lot of people I know want Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World because they loved the first game, while it's kind of hard to be excited about a game you've got no real attachment to. Considering most Tales games are like spin offs with almost carbon copy gameplay (and almost storyline cheeseyness too) I would debate that you could call any Tales games these days a spin-off.

Then why did Tales of Symphonia Dawn of the New World do better than Vesperia? I think you just answered that question.

Well it's a sequel to possibly one of the most well-loved Tales games of all time. The gameplay is quite similar to ToS 1 so I wouldn't say it's a spin-off, more a proper sequel. Maybe it is a bit spin-off like in the sense that there wasn't as much new content due to repeated areas.

You could be like one of those android characters who, upon hearing a trigger word, reads out an encyclopedia entry on the subject. :p

It's not great, so instead I recommend turning orbs on. It can be fun to walk around towns and see other players, who you can interact and exchange with as well as talk to.

I'm pretty sure they said the exact same thing once before. They are a bunch of assholes who think they are hilarious, basically.

Well after doing a fair bit of researching I took the plunge and purchased a Samsung NC10 white netbook for £279. Can't wait 'til it's here!

That endgame quiz single-handedly places Banjo Kazooie in the list of best games ever.

You could work in PR. "It's not dilapidated...it's rustic!"

I would say the FMA anime is the perfect balance - the story progressed at a great rate; in my opinion 51 episodes didn't put it in the 'short' basket, but not the overkill basket either. Not wanting it to end, in my opinion, is a sign of the anime not being bad. I felt the same for FMA, and that just confirmed how much I enjoyed it. I honestly believe it takes a lot of guts to end a series rather than to milk it dry, systematically turning it into a profit-machine. Some animes do work well to be continued (I believe One Piece is one, because it doesn't really take itself seriously) though. And the great thing with FMA is that a second series is planned, and as I've followed the manga up to the present I know it will be cracking. The FMA manga storyline won't go on forever though either, as I'm pretty sure I saw it confirmed somewhere that there's probably not too much left of it.

That was probably my major gripe with the driving system - lack of weight and real physics applied to your vehicle and objects made navigating troublesome and racing more so.

Captain No S. Sherlock commenting on the matter there, quite blatantly. Am I missing the batshit crazy style of logic being used by these morons? "Oh, we've made a game that clearly isn't going down amazingly, but we'd rather supress opinions reflecting its nature so that people can be tricked into buying a game that they might otherwise turn down." They've been flogging the dead horse that is Lara Croft for a while now... many of the games seem to be selling on name alone and that can only get a game so far. Meh.

Yup, poor PSO. The fact it was all client-sided saving and not server-sided kind of doomed the thing to oblivion. Didn't stop the game being fantastic though, and revolutionary for the time IMO. What a game that was...I was a L110 HUmar! Animal crossing also - let's face it, the DS version was similarly doomed since it's on the DS and gameshark codes are easily obtainable. The gamecube version of AC was pretty cool for the time, but I think they should probably have stopped there. Either that, or done a little more to it.

Is Naruto really getting that good? I tend to watch the thing in large spurts, stopping when I lose interest in it. I think the last thing I saw was: