My thoughts on ToS
Today I got back from an exam (which I already know I passed XD) and I was so happy that I went back to play Tales of Symphonia after a couple of days of intensive study. And well, I just beat it. And I can only say...
SERIOUSLY, IT WAS SO AWESOME I COULDN'T STOP CRYING ;________________;
It's been a long, long time (since Chrono Trigger) since I played an RPG non-stop. And even more since I became so obssessed about one. I blame it on my own fangirlistic tastes, which sometimes tend to favour good and well-rounded characters a little bit over the actual plot. But of course, I also need a decent, intricated plot with an addictive and fast rhythm. And this game has both. All main characters (and even a lot of secondary ones) have a great level of depth and backstory, and their personalities are awesomely formed. The skit scenes in which the playable characters interact with each other provide you with lots of situations in which you can see their different reactions: serious, concerned, sad, silly, humorous... with this feature and the many different moments in the story, which also contains such scenes, you feel like all characters are real, just *gasp* as if they were your friends XD
I loved not only how the story was connected to Tales of Phantasia (in a rather vague way, but well... ^^u): not because they provide you with a clear, explicit link (they even omit Lloyd's naming of the Giant Kharlan Tree into ToP's Yggdrasil XD), because I felt they didn't, but because of the little homages they gave to ToP: the scene in Flanoir with Lloyd and Colette under the snow parallelling Cless and Mint, T(o)rent and Ymir Forests and the hidden village of elves, Sheena's "successor" costume being identical to Suzu's clothes, everything related to the Eternal Sword, the Summon Spirits, Martel, the Giant Kharlan Tree...
And the story... in the end, it was so sad: a dehumanized, obssessed villain, turned into what he is for what at the beginning looks like an innocent, pure love for his deceased sister. Walking along the path to bring her back, he left his feelings along the way. If I really liked Dhaos, Mithos is even better as a character. And, of course, one cannot talk about ToS without mentioning discrimination: it was a really realistic topic which, as stupid as it may sound, made me think about cases of discrimination in the real world. Half-elves were treated brutally and at some points I was truly enraged to see such blatant acts of discrimination, and even if this is "only" a videogame, I think it was portrayed magnificiently. ToP was more about treating Nature with respect, but ToS' realistic issue is different, but also very good. The topic of religion was also incredible: even if Martel's Church was ultimately false, Colette insists on a god/goddess living inside every one of us. She calls it "conscience", but everyone can call him/her/it as he/she wishes, because that's the least important thing :3
It was also one of those few privileged games in which I did some sidequests XD I don't usually take those ones which consist on an extremely difficult and powerful optional enemy with a few millions HP points, but for people like me there are silly completion quests (other are less silly, though) and little ones in order to help some secondary character. And yes, they were funny to do XD
Well, I promised bad points too, I guess XD The first thing that inevitably comes to my mind is... its comerciality. The game is prepared to provide fanservice to everyone, and it's undeniable. Sometimes I felt as if some skits were put in there to give every fangirl something for its pairing, even shounen/shoujo-ai ones ^^u And of course, fanboys also have their share of "flesh" and light ero-thingies. Sometimes it was like a harem anime, both on the boys and the girls' part: everyone could be characterized as a moe stereotype. The later PS2 version even adds some scenes (Raine's bunnygirl costume, more Sheena x Zelos interaction...) that felt as if they were designed to attract even more comerciality. Well, I don't blame them, they want to sell, but sometimes it was pretty obvious they wanted to appeal to everyone. Think of Code Geass, but not in that scale XD
I felt that difficulty of the battles was too high sometimes in the beginning, while the final bosses were... well, crap O_O I'd also comment on the difficulty of a few puzzles here and there, but I'd feel I'm blaming Namco-Bandai for my own stupidity and lack of intelligence for these kind of things, so... just no XD
Overall, despite its comerciality, I feel it's a great game that doesn't deserve all those critics despising its supossed cliché factor, because even if there are some features in the characters that are indeed cliché, the game's plot is original enough to merit better critics.
[fangirl moment]
REGAL AND KRATOS PWNZ U, RAINE KICKS ASS, LLOYD IS LOVE ("Don't die before I do, Lloyd... my son" KYAAARGHGHG), STOP BITCHIN' ABOUT REGAL YOU TARDS, REGAL IS BETTER THAN YOU AND YOUR MOM, REGAL/ALICIA & KRATOS/ANNA 4EVER!!!
(I also like Sheena/Zelos, Genis/Presea and Lloyd/Colette, though I liked her more at the beginning... yes, I'm a het canon whore in this game, even if the only *really* canon pairings are Regal/Alicia, Kratos/Anna and Yuan/Martel XD)
[/fangirl moment]
PS: Namco, you better not screw all this up with that Knight of Ratatosk thingy... ^^u
SERIOUSLY, IT WAS SO AWESOME I COULDN'T STOP CRYING ;________________;
It's been a long, long time (since Chrono Trigger) since I played an RPG non-stop. And even more since I became so obssessed about one. I blame it on my own fangirlistic tastes, which sometimes tend to favour good and well-rounded characters a little bit over the actual plot. But of course, I also need a decent, intricated plot with an addictive and fast rhythm. And this game has both. All main characters (and even a lot of secondary ones) have a great level of depth and backstory, and their personalities are awesomely formed. The skit scenes in which the playable characters interact with each other provide you with lots of situations in which you can see their different reactions: serious, concerned, sad, silly, humorous... with this feature and the many different moments in the story, which also contains such scenes, you feel like all characters are real, just *gasp* as if they were your friends XD
I loved not only how the story was connected to Tales of Phantasia (in a rather vague way, but well... ^^u): not because they provide you with a clear, explicit link (they even omit Lloyd's naming of the Giant Kharlan Tree into ToP's Yggdrasil XD), because I felt they didn't, but because of the little homages they gave to ToP: the scene in Flanoir with Lloyd and Colette under the snow parallelling Cless and Mint, T(o)rent and Ymir Forests and the hidden village of elves, Sheena's "successor" costume being identical to Suzu's clothes, everything related to the Eternal Sword, the Summon Spirits, Martel, the Giant Kharlan Tree...
And the story... in the end, it was so sad: a dehumanized, obssessed villain, turned into what he is for what at the beginning looks like an innocent, pure love for his deceased sister. Walking along the path to bring her back, he left his feelings along the way. If I really liked Dhaos, Mithos is even better as a character. And, of course, one cannot talk about ToS without mentioning discrimination: it was a really realistic topic which, as stupid as it may sound, made me think about cases of discrimination in the real world. Half-elves were treated brutally and at some points I was truly enraged to see such blatant acts of discrimination, and even if this is "only" a videogame, I think it was portrayed magnificiently. ToP was more about treating Nature with respect, but ToS' realistic issue is different, but also very good. The topic of religion was also incredible: even if Martel's Church was ultimately false, Colette insists on a god/goddess living inside every one of us. She calls it "conscience", but everyone can call him/her/it as he/she wishes, because that's the least important thing :3
It was also one of those few privileged games in which I did some sidequests XD I don't usually take those ones which consist on an extremely difficult and powerful optional enemy with a few millions HP points, but for people like me there are silly completion quests (other are less silly, though) and little ones in order to help some secondary character. And yes, they were funny to do XD
Well, I promised bad points too, I guess XD The first thing that inevitably comes to my mind is... its comerciality. The game is prepared to provide fanservice to everyone, and it's undeniable. Sometimes I felt as if some skits were put in there to give every fangirl something for its pairing, even shounen/shoujo-ai ones ^^u And of course, fanboys also have their share of "flesh" and light ero-thingies. Sometimes it was like a harem anime, both on the boys and the girls' part: everyone could be characterized as a moe stereotype. The later PS2 version even adds some scenes (Raine's bunnygirl costume, more Sheena x Zelos interaction...) that felt as if they were designed to attract even more comerciality. Well, I don't blame them, they want to sell, but sometimes it was pretty obvious they wanted to appeal to everyone. Think of Code Geass, but not in that scale XD
I felt that difficulty of the battles was too high sometimes in the beginning, while the final bosses were... well, crap O_O I'd also comment on the difficulty of a few puzzles here and there, but I'd feel I'm blaming Namco-Bandai for my own stupidity and lack of intelligence for these kind of things, so... just no XD
Overall, despite its comerciality, I feel it's a great game that doesn't deserve all those critics despising its supossed cliché factor, because even if there are some features in the characters that are indeed cliché, the game's plot is original enough to merit better critics.
[fangirl moment]
REGAL AND KRATOS PWNZ U, RAINE KICKS ASS, LLOYD IS LOVE ("Don't die before I do, Lloyd... my son" KYAAARGHGHG), STOP BITCHIN' ABOUT REGAL YOU TARDS, REGAL IS BETTER THAN YOU AND YOUR MOM, REGAL/ALICIA & KRATOS/ANNA 4EVER!!!
(I also like Sheena/Zelos, Genis/Presea and Lloyd/Colette, though I liked her more at the beginning... yes, I'm a het canon whore in this game, even if the only *really* canon pairings are Regal/Alicia, Kratos/Anna and Yuan/Martel XD)
[/fangirl moment]
PS: Namco, you better not screw all this up with that Knight of Ratatosk thingy... ^^u