February 1, 2023

Tales of Hearts R Review: Half-Hearted



 

Monsters called "xerom" are consuming the hearts (Spirias) of people and inflicting them with negative emotions ("Despir"). Somatics, wielders of shape shifting blades called "Soma", exist to fight off the xerom by directly entering the Spiria of an infected person. During one such job, a young Somatic named Kor, accidentally shatters the Spiria of a girl, draining her of all emotion. In an attempt to fix his mistake, Kor travels the world looking for the girl's Spiria shards. In the process he discovers the source of the xerom and a secret hidden within the planet's twin moons.

 

Tales of Hearts has a plot that can easily be broken into two parts. The first half is all about the group's attempt at piecing Kohaku's Spiria back together, while the second half deals with the fate of the world and uncovering the source of the xerom threat. There is a major side-plot involving a deadly feud between the Empire's church and military, however, that gets dropped about half way into the main narrative so that the story can focus on the second of half of the plot. It was vexing to not get a proper resolution to that conflict, but I was also a bit peeved with the number of inconsistencies and deus ex machina moments utilized in the plot. For example (highlight to read), there is a part where Ines manages to reverse Silver's calcification through the "power of friendship and love". However, when Lithia starts to calcify, she has to trap herself inside of Kunzite because there is apparently no other way to spare her life, despite the faxt she has a love interest - Hisui, who could have saved her through similar means to Ines/Silver.

 The party starts by helping a girl restore her heart, and then moves on to saving the world.

I wasn't too fond of the cast, not that they were bad, there just wasn't anything special or exciting about them. I found Hisui and Kohaku in particular to be annoying early on. Hisui because he was a jerk, and Kohaku for being a useless damsel. Fortunately, the main cast got better with time. The growth between Hisui and Kor was especially noticeable as the two went from near brawls to doing victory quotes together. On the other hand, the reverse was true of the villains. They started off strong and then seemingly got worse as the game went on. Incarose for example, is introduced as this powerful and intimidating entity, but over the course of the adventure she will have been fought 6+ times and had at least 2 fake-out deaths. By that point Incarose just seemed pitiful. The repeated battles against her had removed any air of danger or sense of mystery she once possessed.


The party gets better with time. The villains regress.

 "Bonding" and "friendship" are two major themes present in both the story and the gameplay. Character growth will even stop at certain points until the entire party's collective bonds have strengthened through plot events. There is also an affection system called the "Somatic Bond" that rewards the player with shared skills, combined attacks, and more for making correct dialogue choices during certain events. Bond experience can also be earned though cooking and combat. Once bonds become high enough, various skills are unlocked, many of which cannot be learned elsewhere. In this regard, "Hearts" has managed to do the "friendship" theme better than Graces, because the entire party literally becomes stronger through their Somatic bonds.
 


 

Each party member has a "Soma" (shape-shifting weapon) that improves through the allocation of "Build Points" gained during every level up. Each Soma has five categories: Fight, Belief, Mettle, Endurance, and one category that is unique to the character. Depending on where the player puts their points, the Soma may change its form, gaining new stats and abilities. Any Soma form unlocked through the "Soma Build" system can then be equipped at any time.

 
 
The map uses a plain and lifeless over-world, likley the result of Hearts R being a handheld title and a remake of a DS game. As a result, there is a lack of visual identity to the landscapes; almost blending together over time. The map doesn't list the names of places either, making it hard to navigate. Fortunately, Hearts does a good job of moving the player along a linear path for most of the adventure, and regularly introducing new areas instead of having the player backtrack.

 
 
The wilderness areas are simple and similar.
 

Towns are well decorated and populated, considering this is a handheld title.
 

The player is given a boat they can't control about half way into the game, and an airship near the end that they can.

Dungeons are present both in the real-world and within people's Spirias. Occasionally the story will necessitate a "Spiria Link" - entering someone's body to fight through their "Spiria Nexus" (dungeon). All of the dungeons are mercifully short, and unlike other Tales games, were not designed like a maze... most of the time. Enemy encounters inside and outside of the dungeons are completely random - a highly unusual design choice for the Tales franchise that seems to have gotten a mixed response. As much as I hate random encounters, they honestly didn't bother me all that much here. The encounters trigger regularly enough to keep the entire party adequately leveled but not so often that a fight was being initiated every three steps. It was only during dungeon puzzles that the random encounters started to become an annoyance.

 

 Left: Regular dungeon. Right: Spiria dungeon puzzle.


Left: Spiria link with a person. Right: Spiria link with a painting; objects can have a heart and soul of their own.

Battles are fought in real-time within an enclosed arena, using a party of up to four members. The player can block with the square button or use melee attacks with the X button. The circle button is used for special "arte" attacks and pressing circle in conjunction with an analog stick direction will trigger one of four mapped arte attacks. Arte abilities are important for initiating combos and breaking through enemies with a shield up. Unlike melee attacks, artes are not unlimited, consuming TC (Technical Counter) that is gradually replenished every time a regular attack is performed. Over time a vertical bar to the left of the screen, called the "Overlimit" gauge, will fill up. Holding the L button in conjunction with a direction on the D-Pad will activate it, granting infinite TC, invincibility, and faster spell casting until the gauge runs out.


Left: Regular attack. Right: Art.

 


"Overlimit" activated and in use.

There is an additional system called a "Chase Link" that causes a symbol to appear temporarily on enemies who have been staggered. Landing a special "Break Attack" (L+O or L+X) on the enemy while the symbol is present will engage a Chase Link mode, paralyzing the enemy for a limited amount of time and granting the player complete dominance over them. At certain times during a Chase Link, a character's avatar may begin flashing. Tapping the avatar enables a small tag-team attack between the two characters.
 


Bonds can increase through Chase Link tag-team attacks.


 

Tales of Hearts is average across the board, failing to excel in any one aspect: combat, story, music, world building. The combat system is fast, responsive, and pretty standard for a Tales game. The cast is certainly not the best in the franchise, but they get better as the game goes on. Although, Hearts doesn't do much to make itself memorable, its still a solid title worth picking up if you enjoy the Tales series of games.


Note: The game is Japanese audio only with English text. All of the 4:3 cutscenes were lifted straight from the DS original and are of exceptionally poor quality. Only the widescreen cutscenes were made specifically for the Vita version.



First posted to videogamegeek.com


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