JoJoestar It is just so hard to go back to. That walk speed is true test of patience. My first real vania was Aria when I was like 12 or 13 from an extended play recommendation. Even then I avoided the SNES ones after trying Super and it feeling bad to move. I really wish I got to spend more time with Portrait to decide if I truly hated it or not. I kind of ran through it and Ecclesia while I remember the latter well enough.
The area structure for Portrait fell flat for me quick- I remember not liking the characters much either. The multiplayer was extra boring too from what I remember.
I actually think the Tales series (mechanically) is a mess until Arise. The Tales combat systems are often strangely maimed until ⅓ or ½ of the game. For instance, In Vesperia, you cannot cancel into special moves from your regular combos. Unless stunned or launched for juggle, you have no guaranteed way of landing SP moves on enemies. I feel that people naturally make this connection to the intention of the design because “Keep hit,Combo counter go up”.
Why is this something that is unlocked pass the 10 hr mark? You do two bosses before you can special cancel.
You have to unlock swapping between characters in some of these games. The cameras are often rough in battle and jesus some of the lock ons have the worst default button mapping. You aren’t really taught effective techniques. I think they thought the gating of basic mechanics the player is already expected to have, behind story checks, is always the way to go. Even when a boss exploits the same mechanic you won’t have access to for hr in a fight.