Lurker > NBIceman

The best part of that Aball illusion is one that completely passed me by on my first playthrough but becomes disturbingly obvious on subsequent playthroughs when you know what's up from the beginning, which I suspect is true for most people - Magilou barely talks at all throughout the entire ordeal. It's such a great piece of narrative crafting. Loud chatterbox troll Magilou being actually quiet is the first thing you should notice and a clear sign that something is very far wrong, but you're so disoriented by how weird it all is that's it's not really apparent until you're almost looking specifically for it.

Also reveals a lot about her character. She knows exactly what's going on as soon as the fog hits, but she keeps her mouth shut because she's legitimately fascinated by whether Velvet will figure it out and what'll happen when she does. It's not malicious, exactly, because as soon as Velvet asks her about it she doesn't hesitate to confirm her suspicions, but it's certainly a strange reaction to things and one that probably no other Tales character would replicate were they in her position.

Gonna refrain from commenting much here because at this point in the game it'd be nearly impossible to say anything of substance that doesn't delve heavily into spoiler territory. I'll just say you're approaching the point where Berseria went from good to great for me and leave it at that.

ES crossed my mind as a possibility but I didn't want to throw out too many guesses. Definitely a hero I love watching when played by someone who's good at him and who I hate watching otherwise.

Gonna guess Naga for this one, whose face comes at the expense of feet... or something.

Dendi wasn't a one-trick, was he?

This might be OD.

Fair enough on Kamoana's voice actor! I don't have that kind of personal connection so her crying just completely ruins scenes for me.

Eizen explains that he and his sister were born from the same earthpulse point and gave each other similar pendants on the same day, and were thus family.

Eizen's relationship with his sister comes across so much more endearing in Berseria than it ever does in Zestiria, which is ludicrous considering one of the plot points in that game.

When he says he took delight in a spell exploding in her face, she comes over to torture him.

This kind of thing is why he rates below the dog, the monkey, and the pheasant.

All-time great Tales town coming up in Taliesin!

Tinker too high if anything tbh

I must say I'm impressed that Kamoana's voice acting seemingly hasn't driven you insane yet.

That's the first hero down that I enjoy at least a little. Granted, a lot of that enjoyment comes specifically because he's bad and it's always fun to see teams that try to make him work and usually fail.

No problem seeing classic pubstomp heroes go down. They're all pretty dull IMO.

Omni should be such a cool hero but yeah he just can't catch a break these days.

I'm gonna throw out a semi-random guess of Faceless Void for the next one.

No great disagreements here yet. Those are indeed four very lame heroes.

As far as your questions on what to explain and what not to, my suspicion is that there won't be a lot of folks reading this that aren't at least somewhat familiar with the game, so you probably don't have to worry about the super fundamental stuff like basic abilities unless they're relevant to a point you're making.

Well Emil is a Mary Sue too. I described him in another topic as "fifty shades of self-insert fanfiction where a weakling Mary Sue can transform himself into an infallible badass, meets all his heroes, and gets a waifu voiced by Laura Bailey who gets wet at the sight of him." You may remember where. Is Rose as bad as that?

Well, when I did my giant Tales character ranking, I had Emil at #90 and Rose at #94, one spot out of last place. Now, granted, Emil got a little bit of that bump because I at least find him enjoyable to play in combat, but I do think Rose is still a worse character, if only due to circumstance - Rose single-handedly and completely ruins Zestiria's worldbuilding in multiple ways, which was the one part of the game that was actually promising before she showed up. Everything she does works out for her, her actions dont have consequences, and the rest of the party all treats her as infallible. The rules of Zestiria that apply to literally every other character simply don't to her. AND it's all so obviously forced that even if you aren't previously aware that development of the game was entirely overhauled midway through to give her this starring role, you'd probably suspect it.

Emil just has the, uh, good fortune to be in a title that was doomed no matter what kind of character he was, so I don't find his failings quite as egregious in comparison. But we're talking about two bottom-six characters in a series with over one hundred now (without even counting Japan-only games).

CJones posted...

Music Ranking Nominations from CJones

Dream Theater - Glass Prison 13:53
https://youtu.be/oGAHh0GPKRA

Haken - Atlas Stone 7:31
https://youtu.be/YZ8v_evgiS4

Caligula's Horse - Salt 7:41
https://youtu.be/qxApCWfTvqA

Blind Guardian - And Then There Was Silence 14:05
https://youtu.be/yCKLXy8l5nY

Devin Townsend - Genesis 7:27
https://youtu.be/1n7uvokARQ4

Diablo Swing Orchestra - The entirety of Swagger and Stroll Down the Rabbit Hole 60:47
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyhiCLYxU8g&list=PLbqs-W3v0JokCip1yCvbDS5Diki_yhvvC
Copy that address into the address bar to get the playlist to play.

I think that's under 2 hours, correct me if I'm wrong. Hopefully I'm doing this right. Never contributed to this before.

Awesome noms here. ATTWS is one of my favorite songs ever and I very nearly threw in something from Rabbit Hole myself.

Figured I'd post this since I know you like to do lyric/story research for these topics - someone went through and did some really excellent in-depth song reads for all of the Dear Hunter's Acts and it seemed like it might be up your alley for when you're doing repeat listens and such later on.

https://tocatta.wordpress.com/category/the-dear-hunter/

Looking forward to reading through this. Never played much Dota myself but I started watching the pro scene at TI3 and I've been a viewer ever since. Think it's the best game ever made in some ways.

Okay, my life has finally calmed down so here's a bunch of pithy quick-hitter thoughts on stuff that's happened since last I commented.

Laphicet thinks the bug is a new species, which leads to an incredibly dumb argument between Rokurou and Eizen about whether it's a stag beetle or rhino beetle

One of the best skits in the game tbh. "Beetledom? More like beetle-dumb."

Zesty. I would give that game a chance, but... I hear Sorey is insufferable, Rose is a "Mean Girl," the rest of the cast is shoveled aside, the gameplay prohibits a good story, and playing through it makes one want to gouge their eyeballs. I heard Hideo Baba was fired for ruining the game to make Rose the heroine because he was f***ing her seiyuu. Is that true? Or just a rumor?

Rose's problem is less that she's a mean girl and more that she's a Mary Sue... And I never use that term. She's actually one of the more actively likable characters in the game personality-wise; unfortunately her very existence ruins the narrative.

The Baba thing is technically only a rumor, but there's no small amount of smoke there.

I am already VERY afraid of crossing Grim. She's one tough customer and nothing gets by her. I like her.

Grim is one of my favorite NPCs in the series. Glad you're having fun with her already.

Entering Yseult, I purge some weapons. This a good while. I had like 250 in there. That's like... 42 things per character or 10-ish per slot, yeesh!

Berseria's equipment system is a mess. Zestiria's is worse still. I know Tales likes to innovate on its gameplay with every entry, but I think Vesperia's equipment/skill system is where they topped out and I kinda wish they'd just stuck to that one and made small tweaks to it.

Magilou says being unoccupied is being busy. And she's with us because it's entertaining. This existential quandary resonates with me.

Magilou is basically a bunch of existential quandaries coalesced into physical character form... A character that also happens to be the party troll. It should be a really obnoxious and heavy-handed combination, but her dialogue is so legitimately well written that she's awesome instead. And the best is yet to come!

Someone named Grune (Legendia Grune? Never played that either.)

You're not missing much IMO, but some people really love its cast for reasons I don't quite get.

Mags going from explaining how Phi having a name gives him humanity to demanding a nickname, only to reject all of Velvet's ideas (HILARIOUSLY)

Velvet being really terrible at naming or nicknaming anything is a nice endearing, understated character quirk I've always enjoyed from her.

I've got more high-level thoughts on recent plot developments etc. as well, but since I'd have to delve into spoiler territory for that I guess I'll hold off. No reason to make this post look like a CIA document on the off chance anyone else reading through the topic had some bizarre interest in seeing me wax about Berseria's themes.

DoomTheGyarados posted...

only 92% for Okada? the fuck?

Steve Yohe didn't vote for him because "he might pull a Benoit one day, we don't know."

I'm not making this up. People will come up with any justification.

I look forward to seeing which of my noms I predict finishing in the bottom half of the list ends up top 10 this time around.

Want to let you know I'm still reading this - just been sick and busy the last few days and haven't felt much like typing up thoughts. Glad you're still enjoying the game!

Only one I've played so far is Hues and Cues, which was a fun little time for a little while but I agree there's not a whole lot there for replays.

Looking forward to seeing more. I didn't get a whole lot of variety with my board gaming in 2021 because I really don't like playing online.

Paratroopa1 posted...

If you're going to respond to Ulti please DO quote him, I don't want to have to read that trash

Agreed.

I will always recommend the La-Mulana games but with the caveat that they're very much not for everyone.

I won't stand for this Corrine slander.

I'm still reading! Just don't really have much to add to this particular stretch of the game. Glad you're enjoying it, though.

Wanted posters are maybe the best Tales running gag.

Also, congrats on the Wisco win. I ragequit the tournament after my Longhorns managed to disappoint again but at least y'all cleaned up Nebraska for us!

By my math, I believe this all totals 119 minutes and 15 seconds as I stick to my determination not to nominate any artist twice for this series (outside of TDH, because I'm curious what you think of Act V vs Act IV).

Album
The Dear Hunter - Act V: Hymns with the Devil in Confessional (73:17)
https://open.spotify.com/album/72N545TE36DqJHiyE0YLGE

Songs
Barcelona - Falling Out of Trees (4:16)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1P6A0tFNqNQ

Closure in Moscow - Pink Lemonade (8:14)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOW3JAZ9MoQ

Exodus to Infinity - King Other (5:36)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oC0bMTNTW-k

Haken - Falling Back to Earth (11:50)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adHGrSP43QE

MEER - Picking Up the Pieces (6:15)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJalObIYSag

Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes - Living in the Real World (3:56)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IFMCqtmqlw

Will Wood and the Tapeworms - Hand Me My Shovel, I'm Going In! (5:51)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7-me9bvcDM

Just a small hint since you enjoyed Velvet's confessional so much - all the party members have different conversations with the priests you can encounter in the churches depending on who's selected as the onscreen character. I think some might take a while before they're able to be triggered, though - don't remember the details offhand.