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Hm... Well? This is random, and Tales game-development will probably never have to do with any of us, but... If you could make the next Tales game, what would it be like? What would it be called? What kind of characters would exist? Storyline? Plot? New ideas? 3-D? New bosses? Battle skills, spells? ...Anyway. I just thought I'd may as well post one of these, just in case anyone has any neat ideas they'd like to share. I mean... I know I do, but I'm having a hard enough time typing as it is this late, so I won't post any lengthy ideas yet. xD But... Yeah. ninja

It would have amazing characters, amazing 2D graphics, an addictive battle system and excellent voice acitng and music. Oh, wait, they already made that. It's called.. uh.. Tales of Phantasia.

Sounds like a mix between Final Fantasy 6 and Narikiri Dungeon 3. xd

I think it would be kind of fun.

If I got hold of the Tales team, my battle system would be where you have to focus on teamwork to kill enemies. No, not Destiny 2 where you have to trust your partners into killing them while you yourself get ready, but where your party can unify attacks and gather more power by attacking together.

Here. More detail: When you attack with your teammates on the same enemy at the same time, a bar somewhere on the screen raises (And no, not unison attacks. There'd be a seperate bar for that). You have to combo with your team to raise the bar.

After it fills to multiple different points, areas known as "Fields of Friendship!" ( xd , not really.) Fields of Squadron develop around enemies. If you and a few of your teammates are inside this area, you'll be able to do extremely-powerful combo "Team" attacks together. Such as a swordsman hitting the enemy up high, a mage caster striking it with lightning in midair, and an archer hitting it for added damage, and while it falls back down the swordsman thrusts his sword upward. As the bar gets higher and higher, the area will get bigger and your range of different Team attacks available will increase. Using strategy and deciding whether to hold off and letting the gauge raise to maximum or using what you've got will be a key aspect in battling and surviving.

And it'd be used for a lot more stuff than just Team attacks. If you have two healers, you'll develop another Team area, and if your healers cast healing spells in that area, they'll cast different multitudes of stat-heightening and enemy-lowering magic skills that are very effective. Same thing with Attack mages. And by combining different party members like a physical fighter and a healer, your Team attacks will include aspects of both characters, such as draining the enemy's hp and adding it to your own in a vampire-like way.

And also, every character has their own personal bars, or "Partner Gauge". Depending on who they combo with, they and that character's personal Partner gauges will increase as well as the Team gauge. Once they fill, the two or more teammates can cast and do techniques that would be far out of their league at that time (Such as casting Indignation at level 20). As the game farthers in and your characters learn extremely-powerful attacks, they'll be able to combine skills and magic never seen before in a Tales game (Or perhaps cameo spells, like Crazy Comet).

Also, if one or more of your teammates try to attack alone against an enemy or group of enemies, and get bullied and comboed constantly or receive a large amount of damage, they'll enter a "Break" period, where their reflexes and speed are greatly hindered and all damage received is magnified to extreme levels. Other characters can pull people suffering from the Break period to safety, and as long as their near one or more teammates, they'll slowly heal from the Break period.

And one of the main points of the game, you NEED to keep your party alive. No, they won't just disappear and never show up in your party list like in Fire Emblem, but it'll still be bad. Everytime your partners get hit, it lowers EVERYBODY'S Partner Guage, as well as the Teammate Gauge. And if someone dies, every gauge instantly goes to zero. Bad stuff.

EDIT: This paragraph has just been added thanks to someone pointing out something to me. ^_^

Basically, in short, it's like a combination of Tales of Destiny's SP system, Tales of Rebirth's dual Hi-Ougis, and Tales of the Abyss' Field of Fonemes. And Digital Devil Saga's Combination attacks for good measure.

...And as for story to supplement this battle system?...I have no idea. xp Something that includes trust and friendship, I guess.

Here's a highlight of all the main features of this made-up battle system, if you can't remember them from those long paragraphs. xd

-Teammate Gauge.

-Partner Gauge.

-Break period.

-Field of Squadron. (FoS xd , I'm so unoriginal...)

-Combination attacks.

-Team attacks.

rate mi idae plz?

My "Tales" game would probably take place when the Mana Tree was on its last legs, so to speak, and it was the job of the main character and his group to try and preserve the tree at all costs. The problem soon becomes that your party is actually weakening the tree, simply by using Magitech, which, of course, is what you've been using for the first half of the game. Evil, I know, but it shows that even good intentions can lead to the worst of calamities.
Something else I would add would be weapon-specific techs, in order to prevent unreal situations, such as a spear-wielder using his spear like a club.
The main character would be a Lancer, much like a dragoon, but not as inanely powerful. The skills would be similar to previous "Tales" heroes, but he can't use things like Beast or any smashing-type techs. He would get pseudo-magical skills, like a lancet-type skill(ripped from FF) or weapon enchantment. The ultimate weapon would be Fenrir, a pitch-black spear with a jagged-edged, slightly curved blade. Its attack values would also increase as the MC's health decreased.
Other classes would include a Thief, Mage, Healer, Armor-plated Meat-Shield, Archers, and Fencers.
New techs that might appear could consist of summoning animals as well as spirits, long range sword techs that can hit things in the air, a regeneration status spell, and variations of old favorites. Fireball would be altered into Firebolt, which is a thin jet of flame that deals up to ten hits of two-to-three hundred points in damage. Icicle would be come Freezing Rain, which is much like a Blizzard spell from Warcraft II. Cyclone could upgrade into Typhoon, which would have twenty percent chance of instantly remove weak enemies. Otherwise, it would just have a larger range than cyclone.
A spear tech would be Comet Lance, in which the user is propelled upwards and then crashes into the enemy with the force of a small comet. It would be kinda like Rising Pheonix, but more damaging.
Also, Unison Attack skill could be learned by the individuals who use them enough.
I come with all these things, but I'm no good in actuating them. It's like I'm the guy who does the inventory. Oh, well. Whatever.
Villains now! Kobolds, Were-creatures, Solidified Emotions(maybe?), and anything that is creepy or evil! I could just rip things from old folklore and reinvent them, but hasn't that been done too much already?
Regardless, this is all I can think up off the top of my head right now. Who knows, I might actually write it down somewhere.

Hmm...Garlyle's a lil' dark for a Tales game gonk ...but it's definately original. Kinda reminds me of Digital Devil Saga. (But no way is it a knockoff. xp Even DDS isn't as crazed as his idea...Well, perhaps almost as crazed...)

Thought of something else while I was playing Tales of Phantasia. What if, just before the last few hours of the game, the character with the least personality points would betray the party, fully and completely? It would be interesting, maybe?