(<- Rita is only grinning because she is from this Tales game.)

Down to the tenth mothership, Tales of Vesperia! If you haven’t noticed, ToV recently hit stores in both Japan and America not too long ago. Since the Tales series has insane popularity, of course fans would be going crazy for it. Vesperia is the first huge Tales impact since the release of Abyss. Especially with its American release.

Now since this will be the last “mothership” post in a while, I’ll talk about the last(for now, at least) apparent aspect of Tales.
Grade.
Now we all know that games are generally an escape for reality.. especially from school.. (for some people anyway, not really talking about myself.). I’m sure most people would hate the idea of being graded for the way you perform in a video game.

However, Grade is presented in a somewhat different prospect in the Tales series. Starting with Tales of Destiny 2, the grade system was officially implemented into the battle system. However, the initial presentation of Grade was a travesty when taken “seriously”. There was somewhat of a grading system in Tales of Eternia, if I recall correctly, however; it did not have much meaning then.

They took Grade waaaay too seriously in Tales of Destiny 2, making every action in battle a rash outcome for the grading conclusion. Wait – I haven’t explained Grade yet, have I? Grade is calculated by your performance in battle, allowing you to rack up negatives and positives depending on what your actions. It can range from -2.00 to 25.00. You name it.. depending on the game.

This Grade sounds useless, doesn’t it? But for people who love replaying games, it’s not useless at all. After you’ve completed the game once, you are given the oppurtunity to use all the Grade you’ve racked up in your entire playthrough to “purchase” extras.

Extras being 10x experience from each battle, the ability to hold more items, the ability to have all of your skills at the beginning of the game, etc. Grade is especially great for people who love the Tales series.

They give you a general amount of Grade at the end of some Tales games, though. I believe they did that in ToD2. I’ve never actually used the Grade ability that much. Only in Symphonia. >_> I should play Legendia with a delicious Grade enhancement.

Grade is perhaps the Tales series’ most unique aspect.

In August 2008, Tales of Vesperia was released in Japan and a few weeks later, it was also released in North America. Europe is currently awaiting a release. This is the first Tales mothership title to be released on the XBOX360, much to Japan’s dislike. (If you didn’t know, Japan’s an XBOX hater.)

(well this is certainly one of the betterTales boxarts..)

Tales of Vesperia introduces our tenth and newest Tales hero, Yuri Lowell. Now Yuri.. well, he’s not your average protagonist. AND BEFORE I GET INTO THAT, I’D LIKE TO SAY THAT HIS NAME SCREAMS IRONY. LAWL. Yuri is old. Well, he is old for Japan. Probably the oldest they’ll go for the Tales series protagonists. He’s 21 and a former knight. Well, he was only a knight for a couple of months. He honestly despises the empire that rules and has his own charming sense of justice.. which ultimately differs from the empire’s.

Yuri was rasied as a child, along with his childhood friend, Flynn Scifo; in the lower quarter of the empire city. Like any generic “lower class vs. upper class” squabble, the higher quarter could care less about the lower quarter, which makes Yuri feel rather bitter towards them. The way in which justice is upheld within the empire and the knights makes him feel discontent with their ways. Flynn had joined the knights in order to make a change from within.

As Yuri quit the knights, Flynn only gained more promotions and is one of the well-loved knights by the lower quarter.. especially since he was raised there. Flynn believes that Yuri’s sense of justice is wrong, as he will only “dirty” his hands in the process.

Anyway, the game starts off with a theft. Someone, named “Mordio” (LULZ, framin’ Rita) had stolen the aque blastia, which was used to provide water for the lower quarter. Blastia is an essential way of life in ToV, providing nearly every neccessity in the world. It provides water, the ability to fight, and divine protective from the monsters that roam the world outside of the cities and its barriers, etc. Hearing this, Yuri chases after “Mordio”.. he roams unto the higher quarter.

After a framed break-in, he’s thrown into the castle’s jail cell and through this, he breaks out. (With a little help from our dear Raven~) He then roams the castle and eventually runs into our dear heroine, Estellise Sidos Heurassein (yes, I had to go look her god damn full name up). Of course, Estellise is a hassle for Yuri to say, so he just calls her Estelle.

He saves her from some guards, although she didn’t really need it. Yuri eventually reveals himself to be a friend of Flynn, from which Estelle has heard so much about. As if it weren’t obvious enough, Estelle is the princess. (It’s not a god damn spoilers, it’s bitterly obvious). Through this, her life has always been sheltered within the castle.. much like Luke from Tales of the Abyss. However, Estelle is not a god damn spoiled little brat.

Anyway, things happen.. mainly conversations revolving Flynn. Estelle was running from the guards because she wishes to go seek out Flynn and warn him about something. As Yuri, who wishes to seek out the perpetrator and retrieve the stolen blastia, decides to leave town.. Estelle decides to accompany him to seek out Flynn. As they are escaping from the city (well, a sheltered princess can’t just walk out, now can she?), the lower quarter shields them.

And so begins their journey of self-discovery and revealing the ideal path to justice. WHAT IS JUSTICE.

Now let me start off by saying that ToV is cliched.. in a sense. It’s a nice change for the Tales series, but it also throws a bit of cliches at you. Estelle… well, the vigor princess, who wishes to save, heal, and help everyone.. whom later becomes the damsel in distress. Then there’s our lovable little boy, Karol and our hardcore tsundere, Rita. I’d like to call Raven a cliche, too. But I don’t really find it a neccessity to ramble on about cliches.

They may be cliched, but they’re absolutely lovable. There is seriously not one character that I disliked in this game. I loved Yuri, Estelle, and Rita. I expected more out of Yuri, but oh well, Estelle and Rita still delivered. Estelle’s dub pissed me the hell off, though. Kinda ruined her character composition. Just a bit. I liked Yuri’s JUSTICEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

Yuri was an extravagant change from the common “coming of age” aspect in which each Tales protagonist goes through. That’s usually the process of growing up through their adventure. Yuri was very mature and handled his situations quite well. Though he did somewhat change, the main change occurred within the other characters. They all changed… through the help of each other and Yuri.

Yuri taught Estelle how to decide for herself and the outcome of her decisions and such. Being in a sheltered environment, Estelle was cut-off from the world.. and Yuri taught her change. Rather than the generic hero x heroine relationships expressed in most JRPGs, Yuri and Estelle weren’t remotely romantic towards each other.

No blushes, nothing. (Except about two small embraces.. one accidental..) Rather than Yuri, the hero blushing at Estelle or vise-versa.. it was Rita blushing at Estelle. I realized this after completing it, and when I watched the skits, I was like “LOLWUT”. Yuri is more of an older brother to Estelle rather than her knight in shining armor.

Yes, this game is horrendously filled with subtext. Yaoi subtext.. Yuri(LULZ) subtext. Oh dear. Now Estelle admires Flynn an awful lot.. you’d think they’d be remotely involved at least, but all Flynn shouts through out the whole game is, “Yuri, Yuri… Yuri!!!” He’s more obsessed with Yuri than anything else. He even says that he knows him better than anyone else in the world… as if he was his lover or something. They also share a weirdly disturbing scene near to the end of the game.

Oh, Rita gets her share, too.. especially since she’s a party member. At first, a very cold and rotten little kid, she warms up to the party, especially Estelle. Tsunderes are cliche, but Rita is amusing to watch at times. Aside from her obsession with Estelle, she’s a badass character with awesome spells.

Justice is the main theme of this Tales game.. differing from the rest. The ideal path to justice.. what justice means.. how you deliver justice. Yuri has his own brand of justice, and even if it means dirtying his hands, he’ll deliver it for the rest of the world. In a sense, Yuri and Flynn’s relationship reflects Lelouch and Suzaku’s in Code Geass.

Tales of Vesperia was a large step-up on the notion of graphics. It implemented high-definition graphics and applied it onto the XBOX360. It looks beautiful.. beautifully cel-shaded .. way, WAY better style than Eternal Sonata. The anime cutscenes are also great, crisp animation.

The LMBS also got a rather glorious update, an upgrade from TotA’s. You’re still able to free-run and all that junk, your overlimit extended to more than 1. You can inflict attacks called “Fatal Strikes” in which tapping the RT button at the right time causes the enemy to die instantly. (Of course, this does not apply to bosses.)

You’re able to regulate item use for the AIs so they don’t go using items wastefully (although it gets EXTREMELY annoying when you have 15 Orange gels and 0 TP). You need to apply all of this from the use of Skills, though.

Somewhat taking this back from Abyss, Skills lets you implement certain abilities for your characters, allowing them to use their Mystic Artes, extensions to attacks, new attacks, item use, etc. You can extract these skills from weapons you get by simply maxing them out in battle. Quite fun, makes customization delightful.

Also, item customization allows you to create tons of things, making some of your weapons even stronger. Gives you the longing for much more Gald at various times. AND ITEMS IN GENERAL, OH DEAR.

Before I conclude, I’d like to talk about the whole XBOX360 thing. Tales of Vesperia for the XBOX360!? BLASMEPHY. That’s what Japan said. But thanks to ToV’s bundle release in Japan, the 360 was sold out for quite some time. NO XBOX IN JAPAN AT ALL. They were ALL sold out.

IT SEEMS Tales NEEDS TO TAKE THE XBOX APPROACH MORE. Though I’d certainly love to see a PS3 Tales in the future. I mean they’ve already got one on the way for the Wii, not the mention a sequel. Throw one at the PS3, willya?

I heard those achievements are hell, though. Some hardcore fans can’t resist ‘em.
Sorry, but I’ve got 100 hours to waste on nothing rather than getting annoying achievements.

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed my Tales segment. I’ll be working on a subcategory for this, called “The Decimals”. LULZ. I won’t fluently update that, though. Thanks for reading!

Until we meet again! (Waitin’ for you, Tales of Hearts!)

The Tales series had once stepped into the abyssal of handheld gaming. This was displayed to us through the late 2006 release of Tales of the Tempest. For a short period of time, TotT was considered the ninth mothership title in the Tales series, as well as a complete failure. However, in 2007, it was demoted of its “mothership” achievement, and ultimately deemed an escort title.

Poor Caius.

Tales didn’t give up there, though; they would eventually redeem their failure with the true ninth mothership title, and the second non-Tales studio game, Tales of Innocence. The eleventh mothership title is on the way, as well, Tales of Hearts. It seems Namco mainstreams the mothership/original titles on the Nintendo DS rather than the PSP, whereas Tales of the World and other Tales ports lay.

Before that – where is it my “mood” faces for each post come from? Why – a Tales game, of course!

Not just any Tales game.. Tales of Vesperia!
That’s not really my point, though. It’s a skit face. It shows the character’s mood and expressions, depending on the situation they’re in, or the conversation they are having. Skits are another common aspect of the Tales series, which evidentally emerged out of Tales of Destiny 2.

Tales of Phantasia, Destiny, and Eternia all had a minor number of skits, but they weren’t as evident as they were in the later games. With ToD2, there were several more skits.. Team Destiny enjoyed making them.. of course Team Symphonia had a large amount of skits erupt from their three motherships, introducing hundreds of unlockable skits.

Skits are general conversations the characters have.. depending on the situation at hand and such. They can be serious, moving.. mostly funny at times. They reveal many aspects to the characters and are a portal for development. They are easy to skip, however; since most of them just involve pressing a button to view.. and many of them are unlocked through minor subquests and such… or just cooking or something.

The skits were all completely voiced in Japanese, however; when ToS was brought to America, it lacked any voice acting whatsoever. The same occured with TotA.. but the ones in ToL were voice acted. (It’s not surprising, considering they were fairly short.. and a lot of them were ridiculously pointless.. only lasting a few lines, at most. They were mainly meant to be funny.) However, with the release of ToV, we have the honor of hearing all of the skits, fully voiced in English. (I still wish there was a Japanese option.)

Skits are mainly just there to allow the player to understand and relate to the characters more. It also shows how the characters react to each other and give you a more in depth example of their relationships. It also provides delightful humor at times.

In late 2007, Namco releases their ninth mothership title, Tales of Innocence to the Nintendo DS. This is one of the three mothership titles to never make it to the Americans and Euros. And there you have it. The three titles to never make it outisde Asia: Tales of Destiny 2, Tales of Rebirth and Tales of Innocence. I doubt Tales of Hearts will make it outside Asia, either. We can only hope that it does.

Tales of Innocence introduces our ninth Tales hero, Ruca Milda. Ruca is a timid, young boy.. who is quite a coward. He is an honor student at the school he attends, and is often bullied and used as a scapegoat for others. Great start for a hero, eh? As you can already sense, Namco pounded a great deal of character development into this young man.

I just wished they’d be more attentive of the others characters, the hero isn’t everything, jeez. That’s why ToL has the most character development. (And don’t you dare tell me that Tear[TotA] had development.. all she did at the end was develop feelings for who I wonder?, her personality and/or beliefs never really changed.)

Ruca lives in the Imperial Capital of the Kingdom, Regnum. There is a war outgoing in the rest of the world, however; his kingdom is kept at peace. Eventually, he discovers the great power within him.. a power of a great hero. There are also others with this power, and through this self-discovery of his, he meets the heroine, Iria Animi.

She quickly pursues him and leads him into persuasion and through this, Ruca starts his journey to lose his innocence. Ignore my extreme vaugeness, it pretty much starts off this way.

There’s not an extremely long introduction, and you’ll be able to leave the town right away.

Being a non-Tales studio game, you can sense the differentiation from the others, though the art may fool you at first (Inomata). It was developed by Alfa System. Tales of Innocence redeemed the way handheld gaming was presented to players on the Nintendo DS. It is considered the spiritual successor of Tales of the Tempest.. since it was pretty superior to it.. in all ways.

ToI presents a.. italian.. spanish.. -ish, European theme. This is protrayed through the names of the characters (Spada, Ricardo, Hermana..) and the style in which they dress. And the whole thing gives you this classy Italian vibe.

But like all Tales games, ToI throws immense cliches at you. There aren’t many heroes like Ruca in general JRPGs, but his personality is quite an archetype in anime. Not only that, but Iria is a bold example of a common cliche in both anime and gaming. She’s an ill-tempered, hot headed person, quite similar to Rutee from ToD. She also gets jealous when other girls flirt with Ruca and such. This is sometimes amusing to watch, though. But that’s a horrendously common archetype.

Being a handheld, the battle system only allowed the player to have three people on the battlefield. I suppose you could say this makes it more challenging, but all you really need is a healer and a melee character, and you’re pretty much set.

The LMBS is styled similarly to TotA’s, allowing you to roam the battlefield freely and attack. It also combines the aspect of aerial combat from the PS2 version of ToD, allowing you to attack and use skills while in the air. You can also command your party members to do specific things during or after battle.

There’s also something similar to an Overlimit, called “Awakening” where your attack power and other things increase.. and you can also switch your characters to rack up some immense amount of combination attacks and chains.

Tales of Innocence has a large portion of the game voice acted, even for some skits. Pretty impressive for a DS game. Tales of Hearts will be on a better card, so it may or may not be completely voice acted.

ToI is great, but it’s also one of the Tales motherships I haven’t finished yet. The three I haven’t finished are: ToD, ToR, and ToI. I will, though. I have evident access to them all and there’s a translation patch in development for ToI. Can’t wait for it, this person is great. They also did the extremely accurate translation patch for the PSOne version of ToP.

Tales of Innocence defined Tales gaming on the Nintendo DS, and succeeded Tales of the Tempest after its terrible fall to an escort title in 2007. I hope to see more Tales games on the DS in the future.. aside from the upcoming ToH, of course.

Next and last of the motherships…. (until ToH), Tales of Vesperia!

JUSSSSSTICEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

Tales is already a sensation in both America and Japan, the series being loved by many. While the non-Tales studio Tales game, Tales of Legendia was being developed, the actual Namco Tales studio were developing their next game.. and the eighth mothership title in the series, Tales of the Abyss.

The Tales studio actually has two teams as of the release of ToD2. One being Team Destiny, and another, Team Symphonia. Team Destiny worked on ToD2 and ToR, although I can be quite sure as prior to their “team” split, they also worked on ToE, and of course, ToD. Team Symphonia worked on ToS, TotA, and ToV.

Aside from that, another cameo that Tales enjoys pulling are the artists they choose to design their characters and such. Aside from Tales of Legendia, they have two distinct artists. They are Kousuke Fujishima and Mutsumi Inomata.

Fujishima designed the characters of Tales of Phantasia, Tales of Symphonia, Tales of the Abyss, and Tales of Vesperia. Inomata designed the characters of Tales of Destiny, Tales of Eternia, Tales of Destiny 2, Tales of Rebirth, Tales of Innocence, and Tales of Hearts. And we can’t forget that crappy escort title, Tales of the Tempest.

While it seems as though Inomata is the more credible artist (which I think that she is.. her art is simply charming and beautiful), Fujishima gets a lot of credit. First and foremost, Tales of Phantasia was rewarded with an animation where we got to see his art in full captions. ToS and TotA also were rewarded with animations, however; he did not fully design all of them. He’s got the glory of designing the most popular Tales games. Namely, ToS and TotA.

However, I do not like his art too much. While I found Vesperia’s cutscenes simply beautiful, he hasn’t improved one bit. Except on Estelle, ESTELLE IS LOVE. But anyway, their ears.. their ears are so DISTORTED. Just catch a glimpse of Tear’s ear in one of the TotA scenes, and TELL ME that isn’t distorted. The art quality doesn’t look that lovely, either. His best damn work was by far, ToV.

Inomata’s best art came from Tales of Destiny 2. The character designs, especially Kyle’s were really charming and lovely. Her art also makes the best, best, BEST, cutscenes.. it’s so shiny and pretty. Especially for a 2002 game. Her artwork for Eternia was pretty shabby.. and Rebirth’s made her work less captivating. ToI and TotT were pretty much the same, nothing too amazing. Tales of Hearts looks like it will deliver upon artwork quality, though. Especially cutscenewise.

Tales of Legendia’s character designer was Kazuto Nakazawa. He’s a pretty popular designer and anime director. He designed the popular anime, Samurai Champloo, and was also the art director for it. And we all know how awesome Champloo was. ToL’s designs are pretty great, I wouldn’t call them SUPER AMAZING, but they’re a stray from the general Tales artwork and a great add. The quality of ToL’s cutscenes were not that excellent, either, but they had their moments.

I’d like Tales to stray from their normal artists for their future games, hopefully after ToH. I’d like to see some new designs, some GAWKING ones. The same artists all the time really get boring, and a lot of people are starting to look THE SAME…. what? It’s the HAIR, okay? THE HAIR.

In late 2005, Tales of the Abyss was released in Japan, and a year later, in late 2006, it was released in the States.

(if they went a bit lower, you could see Luke’s thingy.. delicious?)

Tales of the Abyss introduces our eighth Tales hero.. Luke fon Fabre. Luke is a young man who is sheltered from the outside world within his comforting castle. Unknown to the troubles of the outside world, he lives in isolation, only able to express himself to those around him. Because of his isolated environment, he has grown up to be a rather arrogant young man with an atrocious personality. (Seriously, I hardly like anything about him.)

Luke really has no interest in anything, and desperately desires his own way.. his own methods. He desires to be spoiled since that’s how he grew up, the “prince” of the country. He learns the art of swordsmanship through his master, Vann Grants. He deeply respects him and looks up to him.

Though Luke first appears to us as a spoiled, arrogant little punk, he eventually develops into an emo a deeply emotional young man. That may sound terribly feminine, but it’s not. Actually – I always thought of Luke as the spoiled princess in need of saving (of course, that would apply mentally, in this case) and Tear Grants (the heroine), his knight in shining armor. If I could draw, I would totally depict that. Except Tear would be riding a badass white horse with Luke in his her lap, clinging to Tear’s neck. ISN’T THAT THE PERFECT IMPRESSION OF THEM!?

A large amount of gamers and Tales fans ship the couple Luke x Tear. I believe that they are the worst pairing in the whole series. (And I’m talking about “general” canon pairings, like hero x heroine, not “LOOKIT MAH CRAZY PAIRING!”) It would only work if their genders were reversed or if Luke just slit his wrists.

At the beginning of the game, you’re basically doing Luke’s bidding, running around the castle area and such, getting ready for training with his dear Master Vann. When you are introduced and adjust to the battle system, you meet the heroine. In fact, she first appears as an assassin, ready to shed Vann’s blood. Before Tear could “attack” him, however; she is countered by Luke and their indirect collision of powers causes them to be warped to another area.

Sounds so interesting, doesn’t it?

Tales of the Abyss grows a tendency (like all Tales games.. talkin’ to you, Vesperia) to drag on. It’s like, you do the main bidding of the quest, but in order to.. deliver a natural “gaming experience,” I suppose, they drag on the story. I can’t really state what they make you do and such, since that will ultimately spoil the story for you, but it does drag on, and you can sense it in the cutscene. The conclusion to the story is simply charming, though. One of my favorite Tales endings. (Nothing beats Legendia.)

TotA has the most “favorable” cast in the series, as well as the most overrated.. well, next to Symphonia. ToS just enjoys throwing immense cliches at you. At least TotA also offers a good amount of character development (for the hero, anyway), although I can’t really say that it went in the best direction like Senel’s or Veigue’s.

Abyss is often compared to Symphonia, the two battling for position of best Tales game. I’m referring to the general population here, not my own liking. Since TotA was ultimately made by Team Symphonia, it’s only natural to have similarities to the game.

It introduces a large “step up” in the Tales series, ultimately allowing you to use the whole field map as your running field. It instigates the same notion of LMBS as Symphonia does, however; it’s generally an upgraded version, with MYSTIC ARTES. Yeah, it’s hi-ougis, but in english, it’s called a Mystic Arte.

We all know how tough they were to execute in the past Tales games.. making you combine a large amount of button mashing before the actual execution of the attack. However, in TotA, it’s changed to a simple hold on of X. (or O in Japanese)

Simple, yeah.. but pretty. It’s just after an arcane attack, during the character’s overlimit.

We all know that TotA is getting an anime adaptation (or rather, you SHOULD know since I’ve mentioned it several times). The art looks pretty damn good, it’s in HD! I can’t wait for it, I just hope they don’t screw it up. It airs tomorrow.. although it probably already IS the 3rd in Japan.

To wrap up (cause my break is over).. Tales of the Abyss is a great experience, also considered the spiritual successor of ToS. (Or ToL for some.. not myself.) It’s a tad bit overrated and it drags on, and Luke is just an atrocious character.. but it’s still a great game. A must play for a Tales fan.

Next up, let’s lose our innocence!! (Tales of Innocence)

The Tales series has evidentially erupted worldwide after the extremely successful release of Tales of Symphonia. As Rebirth was being developed in Japan, another Tales game was in the process of development. That Tales game is the seventh mothership title in the series, Tales of Legendia.

Tales is generally heard as.. as a series with beautiful music. Each Tales game’s music (with the exception of Legendia and Innocence) were composed by the -now famous- composer, Motoi Sakuraba. He also joint composed with Shinji Tamura for ToP, ToS, and TotA. You could call Sakuraba another cameo of the Tales series.. since they never really changed the composer.

He is fantastic with the piano, I just wish he would orient his themes more strictly towards it. His piano themes are simply fantastic, and I just loved the themes in Tales of Destiny 2.. especially when he incorporated the opening theme, “key to my heart” into the piano and played it during the cutscenes. Jeez, it just made me love that game even more.

However, after Destiny 2, his music composition began to go downhill. It all sounded rather repetitive when heard in Symphonia, Abyss, and Vesperia. I have to admit that there were some rather delightful themes in the game, but most of them sounded generic and made his previous compositions glimmer less.

Tales of Legendia undoubtedly has the best soundtrack in the whole Tales series. It was not Motoi Sakuraba who composed it, rather, it was Go Shiina. He’s probably someone you haven’t heard of until now, but he is simply great. I have to say that his best compositions are the strings oriented ones. They’re just so damn good.

While many may not appreciate Legendia, they all have to admit that it has the most beautiful soundtrack in the series. I really hope that Go Shiina composes future Tales games, because I’m quite frankly tired of Sakuraba. Especially after hearing Shiina’s works. However, Destiny 2’s themes will never fade from my heart. They were absolutely breathtaking.

My favorite themes from Go Shiina are: the Forest of No Return and TALES. TAO, the melfes version is also very good, as well.

Whilst Tales of Rebirth was being developed, Tales of Legendia was also being developed by a Namco internal team called Team Melfes, rather than the usual Tales studio. It is one of the two mothership titles to be developed by a team other than the Tales studio.

And so, in 2005, Tales of Legendia was released into the world.. or Japan. In early 2006, ToL was then brought to America, however; not to Europe. It’s a shame. (I chose to use the Japanese cover because it looks better.)

Tales of Legendia introduces our seventh Tales hero, Senel Coolidge. Senel is a smug little punk who consistently pushes everyone away, believing he can do things on his own and protect what’s important to him by himself. That’s a rather bad first impression of him, but it’s what we see at the beginning.

When we first meet him, his only care in the world is to protect his apparent sister, Shirley Fennes. Who is incidentally the heroine. However, after Shirley gets kidnapped, he has to work together with others to rescue her.. and through this, he learns companionship.. which incidentally, is the most “moralized” aspect of this game. Later on, they’re always spouting nonsense about “NAKAMA” .. kinda like One Piece. I love that blistered nonsense, though. IT MAKES YOU TEAR UP AT TIMES.

Anyway, at the beginning of the game, Senel and Shirley are on a boat.. and they seem to be caught up in a tedious situation. Monsters are constantly attacking them, and unfortunately for Shirley, sea water and wind makes her very weak. They are soon ship wrecked and end up on the Legacy. What they first think to be an island is actually an extremely large vessel called the Legacy. THE LEGACY. That’s such a badass name.

Anyway, though the ship wreck, Shirley is extravagantly endorsed with sea water and knowing this, Senel needs to quickly heal her. He meets a man named Will Raynard and asks him where a fresh water spring is located. Senel hurriedly goes to it and places Shirley in the water. While Will is enraged and startled, asking him what he’s doing, Shirley glows as the water purifies her. Will sees this and is amazed. However, some other folks harboring ill intentions views this, as well. And Shirley is kidnapped.

AND SO begins Senel’s 40 hour chase to rescue Shirley and learn the true meaning of friendship. It may sound like a waste of time, but it’s not, IT’S NOT.

Now if you’re a Tales fan, you probably already know about Tales of Legendia’s reception. It’s very, very bad. Some view it as the worst Tales game, especially those ToS fanboys/girls. It’s a shame, really. I thought Legendia was absolutely captivating, my favorite Tales game and game in general by far.

It wasn’t really the story that got to me, nor was it the gameplay, or any of that. It was really the characters. They glimmered, more than anything. They really added to the story, made it feel less out of place. Not to mention the character development.. through all of the Tales games, Legendia probably had one of the most inducing development in the series. This is especially shown through Senel.

I wouldn’t say he changes more than Veigue, but he learns the beauty of companionship and learns to accept and trust other people who appear in his life. Now that I think about it, Senel is also similar to Veigue in the caption of shouting the heroine’s name 4 million times. “SHIRLEY, SHIRLEY, SHIRLEY!!!” ..Oop.. can’t forget that epic “STELLA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” dub. Of course, Senel’s obsessive name calling doesn’t beat Shirley’s constant craving for “ONII-CHAN!!” and his probably immense cock? I mean, why else would she constantly banter his name.. or rather ONII-CHAN every second of the game if there wasn’t anything good about him? It has to be his IMMENSE CAWK since his personality isn’t something to whore throw yourself at.

Legendia’s reception can also be because it’s the first non-Tales studio Tales game.. developed by some of the creators of the Soul Calibur series, as well. The battle system pretty much jumps back to the standard LMBS, with the straight line focus. However, they throw in something called a climax bar, where you can freeze the whole battlefield for a short period of time and rack up some immense combos or spells.. or healing whilst the enemy is frozen. This can be compared to the hourglass, but it’s much better.

Senel is also the first(and probably the last) Tales hero to use his fists to fight. Strictly his fists. That’s right, no swords for you, SenneSenne~(I USE NORMA’S JAPANESE NICKNAMES, OKAY.) This threw the reception back much more, but I don’t think it’s all that bad. It takes a while to get used to, yeah.. especially since Senel moves slow, but as you get new skills and such, it’s a much better experience. Though I can admit that the battle system gets very boring at times, especially with the consistent battle rate.

A lot of people chose to fight with Chloe instead, because she uses swords and her pace is much faster than Senel; however, this will only screw them over later on in the game. Chloe will not always be with you, in fact, she might be the one you have to fight! (OR NOT, LULZ) This brings on tight situations when you’re not with her. And still.. Senel x Chloe = DO NOT WANT.

Tales of Legendia also implements throwing into the battle system. With Senel being a fist user and all, he’s obviously a brute strength type of guy, so you can throw your enemies. Well, based on their weight, anyway. There are about four general throw skills you can get, and a lot of custom ones you can develop.. for certain type enemy and bosses. It’s fun to throw enemies when they’re knocked down, especially since the knocking down rate is CONSTANT. (Damn you, Chloe.)

Another reason that Legendia is generally disliked is probably because people DID NOT BOTHER TO FINISH THE GAME. I mean through the main quest with the stupid aspect of chasing Shirley CONSTANTLY, it didn’t exactly glimmer to me as the “perfect” game, either; however, through the second half of the game, the character quests, I loved ToL… LOVED IT.

Many people view it as “sidequests” simply because the character quests are not voice acted in the English version. As I recall, Namco did not have “time” to voice act it because they were having some issues bringing it over here or something like that? I don’t clearly remember what I read, but there was a reason why it could not be voice acted. They should have just gave it more time, in my opinion, because it would be GREAT voice acted. GREATER, actually. I played it in Japanese, as well, with the voices, and they were just awesome.

Overall, Tales of Legendia is my favorite Tales game. It has terrible reception.. but that can’t be helped. People just have different tastes, I suppose. It had great character development, a glimmering aspect of the game. The battle system was somewhat challenging, at least way more than ToS or TotA.. but it doesn’t beat ToD2’s difficulty. I don’t think any Tales game beats ToD2’s difficulty.

Next up, Tales of the Abyss. Oh Luke, you emo piece of crap.

With the prevalent Tales of Symphonia booming in Japan and America, Namco begins to poop out their pretty, and delightfully “meme’d” sixth mothership title, Tales of Rebirth.

Now with every Tales game, you all may have realized a very overused tactic Namco always uses. Those delicious habits of theirs are cameos. Oh, but not just any cameo. Ever since Cless started yelling “MAJINKEN!” in 1995, it’s been a tradition for every Tales hero (except you, Kyle. Sorry!~) to yell out at the top of their lungs, the same attack.

We heard Stahn do it, we heard Lloyd do it, and now people are hearing Yuri do it! Just in English. They always have to somehow warp the title of the attack “Majinken”.. why can’t they just leave it at “Demon Fang”? However, we still are awarded with the opportunity of seeing “Majinken” in every installment of the Tales series.

Not only does Namco take the habit of abusing their occurring “Majinken” cameo, they also do that to many other attacks/spells. With each installment, there are bound to be at least ONE original attack/spell… I think.. or one game that gives birth to another attack/spell which incidentally keeps occuring in the series (although I can’t remember Legendia having any new spell.. shame).

Some reoccurring attacks/spells are Splash, First Aid, Ray, Tractor Beam, Judgement (I’m pretty sure Grune was able to use this one..), Houtenku, etc. My favorite is INDIGNATION!~

An~y~way, in late 2004, Namco releases their sixth mothership title, Tales of Rebirth. Again in 2008, Namco releases ToR to the PSP… ported, of course. This was/is one of the three mothership titles to have unfortunately never made to the states or the eurobeans.

Tales of Rebirth introduces our sixth Tales hero, Veigue Lungberg. Now Veigue… well he is a mean, mean guy. He’s very cold and very unfriendly. The only thing that he really cares about is his precious childhood friend, and also the heroine of the game, Claire Bennett. Claire is the first and so far, only Tales heroine to be an NPC. An NPC is a non-playable character.

Though Veigue is generally cold and withdrawn.. basically antisocial, he eventually develops an intruging personality and is probably one of the most influentially “changed” Tales character in the series. Later on, Veigue develops a strong sense of justice and implements his serious archetype to the situation. While this may seem like an extravagant JRPG cliche, Veigue differs from the general hero who spouts out his delicious cliched nonsense.

Veigue can be similarly compared to Lloyd as they both share the same viewpoint towards discrimination. ToR; however, centres strongly on the topic rather than ToS, which mildly and then much later on, implemented the idea into the story.

While ToP shared the same aspects as ToS (half-elves), the cast in ToS made the discrimination factor a much more decisive topic throughout the entire game.. although, quite mildly. They; however, mentioned it more than the cast of ToP bothered to.. despite Arche being a half-elf herself. (Although some can argue that that was the whole plot eruption of ToP…DHAOS!! it’s an ongoing debate indeed.)

I’m sorry, I’m rambling.. this is about Rebirth.

The world of Rebirth is a place where Humas and Gajumas (humans and beast people respectively) exist together in peace. While there are racial tensions between them both, they continue to coexist under the kingdom they had both united and founded years ago.

However, the king who has looked over the land for the past long years has passed away and tensions once again erupt as a new person takes the throne. While this is happening, Veigue’s Force (his power, basically) erupts and he unintentionally freezes Claire with his Force of Ice.

Stuck within the depths of depression, Veigue rots in the house along with the frozen body of Claire for about a year. Just then, two people, a Huma and a Gajuma visit his house and demands that he breaks away from the state that he is in.

Veigue had not once considered breaking away from his peaceful village and his life with Claire, but through this event, he begins to consider this path.. and so his revolutionary change as a person.. and that effort to plaster a smile on his face begins.

Let me be honest.. if you already haven’t noticed, that is. I was extremely vague (LULZ) with this Tales rant. It’s because Tales of Rebirth is one of the three mothership titles I have not yet beaten. However, this is the game I have spent the least amount of time on. I’ve carved some hours into ToD and ToI, but ToR is something I lack in my life. I WILL play more of it, though. I WILLL!! Anyway, Tales of Rebirth was not ported out into America because.. I don’t know.. maybe they (Namco Int.) thought that 2D graphics weren’t COOL enough after Symphonia’s explosive outcome.

Tales of Rebirth’s reception in Japan was pretty strong.. or at least decent enough to get a PSP port release.

ToR alters the general aspect of LMBS (as do all the Tales installments); however, in this game, they introduce the three-line LMBS. It’s pretty much just as it says, it’s a three-line system, rather than the endemic straight line that Tales had always implemented in their LMBSes (excluding Symphonia’s multi-line). The three-lines are plainly visible and you are able to jump to the other line during battle.

The enemies may appear at any one of the three lines at any given time and your allies are able to shift from line to line as they please, as well. You can also use the strategy formation to set where they should appear at the start of battle.

Instead of having TP, ToR replaces it with FP, or Force Points. As you read prior to this, Force is the ability to fight in ToR.. and each ally you attain has a different Force ability.. such as Veigue’s being Ice. (Kinda differs from the HERO = FIRE archetype, huh? ie: Stahn.. Squall[FFVIII]).

You are able to set skills to one of the four buttons on the D-pad. As you use the skill, you will have to wait for it to load up again, or you can simply keep attacking.. There is something called the Rush Bar, also.. or Gauge. It checks a character’s mental state in battle, allowing them to attack stronger by filling it up.. whilst also weakening your defense and other abilities.

While ToR is not as popular as the rest of the Tales motherships out, it’s a great addition to the series. It also displays the best character development.. (next to Legendia, anyway) in the series.. as shown through Veigue, himself. IT ALSO INTRODUCED THE POPULAR MEME “KUREAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!” which Veigue enjoys screaming. He just loves saying Claire’s name. HE LOVES SAYING IT MORE THAN SENEL LOVES SAYING “SHIRLEY!”

Next up, TALES OF LEGENDIA!~

At this point in time, Tales has pretty much captured and captivated the majority of JRPGers hearts. Not only does it bring about a fundamental anime theme for them (along with loads of cliches, I might add), it also presents to them a wonderful story and real time gameplay… and wonderful characters.. I guess. That actually depends, for me. o_o There are some characters that I despise.. not to name any.

Anyway, after Tales of Eternia.. Namco decided to animate some of the Tales games. The Tales games that actually have adaptations are Tales of Phantasia and Tales of Symphonia. Their adaptations are four 30-minute OVA episodes.

While I enjoyed Phantasia’s… I absolutely loved Symphonia’s. Although it greatly differed from the game, I still enjoyed it. The adaptations aren’t exactly DIRECT adaptations.. they seem to avoid certain events to cut down time. ToS’s adaptation rushed through the events in Sylvarant and ended with them traveling to Tethe’alla.

Tales of Eternia was the first to be adapted. Badly, I might add. Well, I absolutely despised the anime they spawned. It was a 13-episode anime series, which pretty much served as a “filler arc” before they went to the mountain to go to Celestia. The characters felt so out of character and the animation was terrible.

The original characters they introduced were terrible, as well. AND WHAT’S WITH THOSE STUPID FEELINGS THAT FARAH HARBOR. She showed NOTHING like that prior to Celestia in the game.. and even then, they were not like that. And Rid was not such an oblivious, helpful moron.

Tales of the Abyss is also expected to get an anime. This one will be a 26-episode anime series.. hopefully they won’t screw it up and they will attempt to not stray from the actual events of the game. The animation looks pretty meh.. but we’ll have to see when it airs in October. All anime is pretty much being aired in HD now, so hopefully TotA the animation will amaze me. I won’t be surprised if ToS gets another 4-episode OVA series again.. with the latter events this time.

Anyway, in 2003, Tales of Symphonia is released for the GameCube in Japan and ported with extra features and scenes in 2004 for the PlayStation 2. ToS was then sent to American shores in 2004… though only the GC version. The PS2 version was never ported… although that did not have any effect on its insane popularity. *grumble*

Tales of Symphonia introduces our fifth Tales hero, Lloyd Irving. He’s pretty much a smalltown boy who doesn’t exactly live in the town, but a little distance away from it. He has made many friends in the town who are also characters in your party, including the heroine, Colette Brunel. He’s a cliched hero. (as if that weren’t common enough, coming from the Tales series..)

He’s a lazy 17-year old boy who falls asleep in class all the time and angers the teacher. He is also clueless most of the time, but of course at crucial times, he knows what to say and how to react and knows morals.. Even though he’s a clueless smalltown boy, he incidentally has this amazing swordsmanship and his skills excel all of the other characters. Yup, that’s Lloyd, our delightful cliche.. (and my most despised Tales character).

Anyway, his role in the story is not such a vital one, but since he’s the hero of the game, he manages to be thrown into the plot, along with his “story” and background of origin revealed later on in the game. Colette is the “chosen” one.. the girl who is… again, “chosen” to regenerate the mana deprived world of Sylvarant.

She is viewed as a very special person and vital to the world flourishing. She has to go on a journey to unlock the “mana” seals of the world and prove herself worthy of being the “chosen one”.. which also turns into an angel. However, the consequence of her choice to lead the regeneration is revealed later on.

Because of her path as the “chosen one”.. or “miko” in Japanese, she has to leave the town. In the beginning of the game, she goes to recieve her blessings for the start of her journey (or something like that) when suddenly a bunch of soldiers (who Lloyd calls the “Desians”) attempt to kill her in order to stop the regeneration. However, the assassin hired to protect her reveals himself and slaughters them. Lloyd also tries to protect his childhood friend, in the process, he reveals his exsphere. An exsphere is an gem that gives you the ability to fight.

Lloyd asks Colette if he could accompany her on the journey and she agrees. In the afternoon, as Lloyd is packed up and ready, Genis Sage (his best friend.. also a party member) tells him that she has already left. Lloyd wonders why Colette lied to him.

Later, the village is attacked and Lloyd and Genis are blamed for its destruction. They are then exiled from the village and Lloyd decides to chase after Colette. And so begins his adventure that will eventually change his regular “smalltown” boy life.

Tales of Symphonia had enormous plot holes, in my opinion. I honestly did not like the story at all, but I lived with it. ToS was a revolutionary change for the Tales series and the popularity in America EXPLODED thanks to it. It’s pretty much the Final Fantasy VII of the Tales series. The most popular game in the series. Period.

Seriously, this game just crapped out an insane fanbase, filled with hardcore fanboys, Kratos Aurion fangirls, annoying fangirls in general… its fanbase makes me RAAAAAAAAAGE. There are some people who find this game just “decent” or “good”.. I would be in the “decent” category.

This was the first Tales game to be fulled implemented with 3D graphics. I honestly wished they stuck to 2D, because the 3D models look like SD (super deformed) or chibi anime models. But if you want to talk about the deformed 3D models, wait until I rant about Legendia’s.

The cell shading was simply awesome though, and I loved the way they implemented that in Vesperia. Anyway, the 3D modeling was probably one of the reasons it was imported here, especially after they just JUMPED over Destiny 2. But thanks to Symphonia, I’m much more into Tales games than I was before, although I hate to admit that.

Not only was the 3D factor a revolutionary change for Tales, but the huge LMBS update made it even more loved and popular. Instead of just going in a straight line, it was turned into a multi-lined field. I think you can run in like 4-5 lines or something, because for Rebirth, it’s 3.

Or was it 2 for this one? I don’t remember, but I know it’s multi. It doesn’t exactly beat TotA and ToV, but it obviously gave birth to their foundation of free field roaming. It did you give a terribly easy advantage on all of your opponents, though.. which made the game pathetically easy.

I bet you could beat the whole game tapping A.. or O. The PS2 port brought some extra features, including new titles and cutscenes.. and more sidequests or something. It also brought hi-ougis.. rather than the GC version, which lacked any.

Tales of Symphonia is also the first Tales game to get a non-mothership, direct sequel. Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World. It’s not out in America yet, it’s coming out in November. It’s for the Wii and the hero of this one is a young boy named Emil Castagnier. It takes place 2 years after the events of ToS and shows the outcome and effects of Lloyd’s journey.

Despite my dislike for Tales of Symphonia, it doesn’t change the fact that this game is the most popular Tales game(though I can certainly say that Abyss is relatively close). I used to DESPISE this game, however; after playing Eternal Sonata, I realized that I have given this game far too little credit than it deserves. I was, afterall, once in love with it and beat it twice.. spent 117 hours on it. It at least deserves a decent.

Next up, Tales of Rebirth! Prepare to be KURRRRRRRRRRREAAAAAAAAAAAAA’d.

Tales pretty much holds an anime oriented facet. This was displayed through their initial release, Tales of Phantasia. With the PlayStation release of ToD and ToP, Namco introduces their opening segments. It’s an anime style opening accompanied usually with a J-Pop song. Of course, in America, the song is stripped and usually replaced with an instrumental theme (discluding the recent Tales of Vesperia).

After Destiny, Namco thought that they would hype up the cutscenes a little more, and in Eternia, we get to see some brief anime cutscenes, but nothing special. However, with the release of Tales of Destiny 2, Namco introduces some beautiful anime cutscenes, which also signify “major” events in the game. Since then, with every Tales game release, there are great anime-styled cutscenes in each game.. though I don’t think Tales of Innocence had any besides the opening segment.

For me, Tales of Destiny 2 probably had the greatest cutscenes in the series. It was just the way it was presented, nice and crisp animation, along with the artist’s style in mind. The other games in the series all had some sort of glimmer to them, which kind of killed the appeal for me, of course that excludes the recent Tales of Vesperia, which implemented the High-Definition style to the cutscenes and that just made it look so damn good. I still prefer Destiny 2’s though.

And so, after the release of Tales of Eternia, Namco brings to us a very delicious treat. A direct sequel to Tales of Destiny. In late 2002, Tales of Destiny 2 was released for the PlayStation 2 and again ported to the PSP in 2007. This was/is one of the three mothership Tales games to never reach American or European shores.

Tales of Destiny 2 introduces our fourth Tales hero, Kyle Dunamis. Why his last name is Dunamis is beyond me. Why is that strange? Why, because Kyle is in fact the offspring of Stahn and Rutee from Tales of Destiny. And their names are no where remotely close to “Dunamis”. They may have stated a reason within the game, but I had played it on and off for about a year, so I forgot.

This game takes place 18 years after the events of Tales of Destiny. Anyway, Stahn is (according to Kyle) off on a journey and Rutee runs an orphanage (that’s quite expected if you remember the events of ToD). Everyone else is pretty much scattered, existing on their own behalf. They’re all deemed heroes.. and with this knowledge, Kyle is inspired. His dream is to be a hero.. for someone or something.. just like his parents.

Rutee’s orphanage is pretty much flat broke and in need of money, so Kyle, along with his childhood friend (who also grew up in the orphanage with him) Loni Dunamis go to investigate a rumored giant lens in some ruins. They go to the place and as they approach the rumored “giant lens,” a girl emerges from it, saying that she is looking for a hero. Kyle then boldly states that he’s a hero, but the girl, named Reala (also the heroine) states that he is no hero.

Kyle then enforces himself to be the hero that Reala is searching for, and so begins their adventure through time, to change the boundaries of it and to become what it truly means to be a hero. Tales of Destiny 2 is a direct sequel to the first and displays the events that happen afterwards. It’s quite surprising to some people that Stahn and Rutee of all people have a child… whom is the main character of this one. Leon also is referenced (and even more than that, if it isn’t obvious to some people).

Tales of Destiny 2 displayed a more pumped up, faster pace battle system than Tales of Eternia. In this installment, they finally bring back casting for the protagonist. Kyle gets a few spells, but he is mainly a melee character. Your other characters who are focused casters are VERY important and are ideal to your survival in this game. They also have a limit bar where you can attack the enemy for a limited amount of time before your bar completely depletes and you can’t attack anymore. This trait actually makes the game much more challenging.

ToD2 is actually considered by many, (who has played it, anyway) the most difficult Tales game.. and dammit, I totally agree with them. There was this one boss that was so hard, it took me about 8 or 9 tries to beat him. That was the only really HARD, HARD boss for me, though. I never really got game over after adapting to the battle system. It’s pretty much a normal Tales LMBS once you get over the limit bar.

Because of the poor sales of Tales of Destiny and Tales of Eternia in America, Tales of Destiny 2 was NOT ported over here. Even with the PSP release, it still wasn’t ported. And I doubt it will be, Namco seems too damn lazy to dub a PSP port when they didn’t even bother with the PS2 one. I don’t know about the Japanese reception of this game, it doesn’t seem like it was as fantastic as the others, though. But for me, Tales of Destiny 2 is actually tied third with ToV in my top 5 favorite Tales.

Next up, Tales of Symphonia.

With the Tales series practically beginning to boom, Namco proceeds to their third mothership title. While they introduce a new world with new characters and a new story, they still look back at the past. Throwing away the idea of neglection of the past, they decide to add a bonus for fans of the past titles. In Tales of Eternia, cameos are introduced. Cameos are basically brief appearances other characters make. However, cameos in Tales games are quite different from say, movie cameos.

Usually, the cameo character in a Tales game is your opponent as an opitional boss in the coliseum. They’re usually extremely challenging, and at the same time, fun as hell. In Tales of Eternia, you can fight Cless and Arche in the coliseum. In Tales of Symphonia, you can fight Farah, Meredy, and Woodrow. In Tales of the Abyss, you can fight Rid, Mint, Nanaly, and Philia, and finally in Tales of Vesperia, you can fight Dhaos, Shizel, Barbatos, and Kratos.

There are also small references which serve as cameos, such as the spear called, “Dunamis,” in ToV, most likely a reference to Loni Dunamis in ToD2, who uses spears and axes as his choice of weaponry. Anise from TotA, can also attain some dolls which reflect past Tales characters.

In 2000, Namco released Tales of Eternia to the PlayStation in Japan and in 2001, it came to American shores as Tales of Destiny II. It was then ported to the PSP in 2005 in Japan and hit European shores in 2006.

Tales of Eternia introduces our third hero, Rid Hershel. Now his dub is incidentally called “Reid” but I prefer to refer to him as his Japanese name, “Rid”. Now Rid is not your typical, typical hero. Well, he’s not too generic, but I have to say, he’s either a really likable character, or a really bland “meh” kind of character.

Rid is a self-trained swordsman who basically uses his skills for hunting. He was born and raised in the countryside, also similar to Stahn from ToD. He is, however; very different from Stahn. Although he has a similar appetite, all Rid is interested in is lazing around. He has no motivation whatsoever and simply enjoys killing his time by sleeping or something easygoing.

With an attitude such as that, Rid doesn’t exactly make an ideal type of hero who’d like to save the world. When we first meet him, he meets up with his childhood friend, (who is also the heroine) Farah Oersted. They notice a change in the sky, and something crashing down from above. When Farah goes to see what happened, Rid follows and together, they meet a strange girl named Meredy.

They are puzzled by her clothing and language and her pet. Farah, being the good person she is, longs to assist Meredy and understand her, so she sets off to another village to meet their (Rid and Farah’s) other childhood friend, Keele. Rid protests, however; driven by his caring nature for his childhood friend, he tags along. And so, there begins their unraveling journey to change the world. Or rather, worlds.

While Tales of Eternia wasn’t exactly as delivering as Tales of Destiny was, Japan still fell in love with it. However, with the American port, the title was changed to Tales of Destiny II because of a licensing conflict with the title, “Eternia”.

Tales of Eternia revamped the whole style of the LMBS. It went from slow paced Tales of Phantasia/Destiny action to a much, much faster and more enjoyable pace. While Rid couldn’t exactly cast magic as Stahn could, his moveset totally made up for it. And Farah wasn’t a generic heroine either. You could choose her, kick ass (cause she’s an awesome martial artist), heal, and afterwards make some delicious dinner. She’s a badass martial artist in a dress. (Yeah, she’s in my top 5.. so is Rid, but I like Farah much more).

After the initial North American release, ToE was ported to the PSP in Japan and then sent over for the Europeans to craze over. Though it wasn’t actually a hit seller, and had some glitches (so I’ve heard.. right after Volt, it seems?) it still got some pretty good hits. At least Tales is slowly beginning to shine worldwide.

Next up, Tales of Destiny 2. (The actual Destiny sequel.)