Board 8 > Iceman Ranks Every Tales Series Party Member w/Writeups & Prediction Prizes

(+) Yeah! (+)

Tomorrow's gonna be an interesting day... I'm absolutely dreading two out of the three eliminations. One is a bonafide fan favorite and another is more controversial but definitely has a contingent of very passionate supporters. So everybody look forward to the fireworks I guess!

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Is it Kratos, because he ain't all that.

Lailahs pact just made no sense

I told my friend to try Tales of Xillia as he was finally playing some ps3 games, but warned him that he'd go insane from a certain line without saying what. The day he platinumed it I just got a wall of SHARING IS CARING

Kohaku started really strong and then flatlined. Its how I felt a lot about Hearts

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MichelBollinger posted...

Is it Kratos, because he ain't all that.

Kratos used to be the most popular Tales character and then a bunch of people betrayed him.

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My poor Regal. Though to hear what Symphonia 2 does to him... ugh.

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Alrighty, the following post is basically one big Xillia 2 spoiler so avert your eyes if you're worried about such things.

#66 - Fractured Milla (Xillia)
"Stop pretending you're heroes and admit your motives are selfish. You owe that much to the people you're eliminating in order to save yourselves."

There was a good character somewhere in here, but it just didnt get enough time to come out.

All the pieces are there. The whole idea of the character is that she accomplished Maxwells mission of destroying Exodus loooong before Prime Milla did. Muzet was blinded during one of these battles, and because Maxwell is a gigantic ass in the Xillia universe, he just left the both of them to fend for themselves in the human realm afterwards. So, in effect, this Milla is a human through and through, which gives her some qualities both good and bad.

The good first. This Milla has a legitimate sense of humor and a willingness to crack jokes at times. A lot of it is snark, but she actually makes one or two attempts to acclimate to the goofier comedy that the rest of the party shares. At one point she claims to be made of kindness and rainbows, and shes legitimately annoyed that no one laughs. I also dont mind her whole tsundere personality, even if its not a particularly original take on the trope. It works in the context of the game, since Prime Millas whole deal is being very up-front and honest about her thoughts and feelings. It makes sense that a more human version of her (especially one who has to deal with Fractured Muzets verbal abuse on the regular) would be more reluctant about such things.

Unfortunately, Fractured Milla is just plain annoying most of the time. Look, I sympathize. Her entire world was destroyed by a bunch of people who acted under the pretense of helping her. I just dont want to hear her whine about it for 90% of her time with the party, which is exactly what actually happens. Even after its well-established that they feel tremendous guilt for their actions and are only doing it out of necessity, she continues to inject her holier-than-thou attitude into practically every other sentence. She complains about being a fake one second, and then yells at the rest of the party for treating her like a fake in the next. Yeah, she forms a nice little bond with Elle and all, but by that point in the game, so has pretty much every other party member. That alone doesnt save her.

And I should note that obviously being annoying doesnt also preclude a character from being well-written. I just dont feel like F!Milla is. The purpose she seems meant to serve is really unnecessary, because the Xillia party is very much introspective enough to muse on the gray morality theyve been forced to operate under. Id even be willing to overlook it to an extent if her words guided her actions a little more, but nah, shes perfectly content to accompany the party on their dimension-hopping and destroying adventures as long as she gets to spend the whole time telling the group what horrible people they are.

The most frustrating aspect is that the development does start. She gets to be a little more introspective once she realizes that her end is fast approaching. Shes clearly shaken by the eventual realization that, during her war on Exodus, she killed the infant Jude and his father in her dimension, as it forces her to acknowledge that things are rarely just black and white, and that maybe she doesnt have the clear moral high ground that she thinks.

And then, ten minutes later, shes gone. Just when she gets onto the track of being a good character, she dies. And I actually really like the way they handle her death scene. If you choose to just have Ludger let her fall into the abyss immediately, she goes out with an absolutely heartbroken look on her face, implying that she really was starting to feel like the party actually cared about her. If you choose to hold on, she eventually lets go of his hand of her own volition after imploring Ludger to protect Elle, and of course gets off her one last snark to Prime Milla when she sees her. That stuffs great. It proves she really was a character with some layers. Regrettably, we only got to see the outermost couple.

By the way, if you dont miss Prime Milla for her personality, you will when the fighting starts, because F!Milla doesnt have access to the Four Great Spirits. That means shes the only character in the game who has no healing move and no Mystic Arte, which in turn means that shes literally P!Milla but worse Maybe that was the plan all along. Make Fractured Milla kinda suck so Prime Milla looks better by comparison. Mission accomplished, I guess.

Fractured Milla just doesnt get enough time with the party, and thats a shame, because if Bamco really felt like it, they couldve kept her around even when Prime Milla returns. As much as I love Xillia 2, its pretty unarguable that the writers pulled a lot out of their collective asses when it came to the story, and I kind of wish theyd done it again.

TL;DR: Annoying, whiny characters that serve a purpose are still whiny and annoying. She doesnt get enough time to develop beyond that.

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Oh I didn't get far enough in to Xillia to know what's up with this.

I wish there was some modern way to play Xillia, because for whatever reason I never want back to it in time. Think I was just super bummed by how much worse it played than Graces. Never even touched Xillia 2.

This one's gonna rustle some jimmies, lol

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i am only really mad because fractured milla dropping before prime milla is a goddamn travesty of justice. She was such a better take on Milla it wasn't even funny. They did kinda drag out her being a jerk to the party for a bit too long and didn't get around to the stuff like her realizing she killed Jude in her timeline and having to reconcile her experiences with the party with her past actions until too late (well only really too late because they kill her soon after.) God everything about her was better than Prime Milla to the point where my only praise for Prime Milla is that it influenced her dynamics with the party. The darker take on Fractured Milla basically suffering under the abuse of Fractured Muzet was another interesting take on her character in line with Xillia 2's darker plots.

I figured if I struck out on my prediction list anywhere it'd be here and that's okay! what's not okay is who is still hasn't been listed before this drop tbqhhh

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Man I did NOT get to the meat of Xillia, huh?

I knew it was a shorter entry and played like 25-30 hours, but guess that wasn't enough to even get into the beginning of the plot, lol.

Xillia's alternate worlds is only a thing in Xillia 2, which is why you guys who only played Xillia don't know about it.

Man, I can't believe that Xillia 2's best girl is out already. At least Kratos is still in!

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I just realized you included Rassius on the playable list. But not Asch ?

I see you posted why you didn't include the second one. But why include the first one?

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Alanna82 posted...

I just realized you included Rassius on the playable list. But not Asch ?

Well, like I said a while back when someone asked about Alisha, Asch's role as a supporting character and occasional enemy is much more important and long-term than his role as an actual party member. Rassius, though he's not really a long-term example of any role, essentially spends one scene and battle as an enemy, one as a hero coming to help at the last minute, and a whole dungeon as a full party member. So even though he doesn't spend a very long time with the party, it's still longer than he spends doing anything else.

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And here we go. If this elim drives everyone to immediately vacate the topic, thanks for reading up to this point!

#65 - Edna (Zestiria)
"Cry and I'll puke."

Any of you still here? Okay.

Look, I love snark. Ask anyone who knows me well and theyll tell you its my primary method of demonstrating affection. And Edna is undoubtedly, to me, the only source of true humor in a game thats otherwise bone dry. Her trolling leads to some genuine laugh-out-loud moments, the best example being the normincarena skit with Alisha. She also wins some points for the meta-commentary she has in one skit on how riotously stupid the games equipment system is.

Issue number one with all the trolling: it really tapers off as Zestiria wears on. Her jokes are bereft of all inspiration and creativity by the end. Shes just another voice in the crowd by that point, albeit one who stands out by being a little more deadpan than the others. It really feels like the writers kinda stopped putting effort into her dialogue in hopes that her strong start would carry her through.

The much bigger issue: its all she has. Try coming up with one of her traits that doesnt have to do with sass or her brother. The one time we get a vague hint of deeper characterization is a single throwaway skit where she reluctantly tells Mikleo what an extreme toll her power takes on her body. This is never revisited. What an interesting theme it wouldve been to explore how the Shepherd is forced to more or less exploit even those seraphim he considers friends to their detriment at times in the name of the greater good. But nope. We had to wait for the much better-written sequel to do that sort of thing. We had like nine other, apparently more important themes to get to in this game and this one had nothing to do with Rose.

Whats even more infuriating is that for all she dishes out, she cant take any of it. She can go after everyone in the party with impunity, but the one time Mikleo lightly teases her, she turns into a broody, petulant child who refuses to do her duty as a Sub-Lord until he apologizes to her. People like this drive me absolutely bonkers. If you dont have the self-awareness to let others poke fun back at you or even do it to yourself once in a while, youre not a jokester, youre just a bully.

Contributing to her lack of well-roundedness is that shes the unfortunate focus of what is probably the worst subplot this series ever came up with in Eizen becoming a dragon. Human-hating Ednas entire motivation for joining up with Sorey was that he promised to find a way to change him back, and then its barely ever brought up again except in skits where dragons are mentioned, in which case theyll make a point to give Edna a line of dialogue thats just an ellipsis to make sure everyone knows how terribly conflicted she is about the whole subject. Then, out of nowhere, Soreys like, Yeah, we cant cure him, so well just kill him. And then they do. And Edna cries a little and thats that, her only real potential for growth and development having been completely forgotten until the very end of the game. Sure, if youve played Berseria, the overall circumstance is sad, (and by the way, I have to admit that she actually comes off pretty pleasant in the one bit of dialogue we get from her in that game through her letter), but Zestiria came out first, and Edna herself never really gives us much reason to care about it.

TL;DR: I know people love Edna and I even understand why that is, but her being a source of humor really just disguises the fact that shes a pretty lousy character in every other respect. Im giving plenty of weight to the trolling, believe me - if she didnt have that shed have been buried way down in the previous tier - but there are several other party members on this list that do what she does better without all the baggage.

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okay this topic took a wrong turn somewhere with today's eliminations =(

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Well, I guess it's up to Zaveid to beat a Berseria character now.

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I'm sad Edna was eliminated this early but I'm far more upset that you reminded me of Zestiria's horrid Eizen subplot. Thank god the anime largely fixes it. Eizen doesn't deserve to be done dirty like that, especially after how awesome he is in Berseria.

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Time for Edna to stomp on TC.

Actually I haven't even played Berseria

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Edna is good but I don't particularly...care about her?

She's honestly way more compelling just as Eizen's nebulous sister, lol.

And yeah, it's incredible what a nightmare most of the connecting threads in Zesteria are if you play Berseria first. The difference in quality between those two games is frankly unbelievable. What I wouldn't give for the budgets to have been swapped.

And yes I did also basically forget she existed in the latter half of the game, but not her fault.

My husband just admitted his favorite Zesteria character is Rose.

(I asked him since I saw how badly the game was doing and I know he liked it alot which is why he got Berseria. I watched him play Berseria but we weren't living together when he played Zesteria)

He also has only played Zesteria and Berseria.

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Ow. Ah well, can't argue with points and probably would feel the same going forward in the game.

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Xillia 2's spoiler character out before Anise? That's pretty bad, but Edna too? Yeah, okay.... TC, seriously, why is that little brat still in at this point?

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That character gets way more hate than she deserves.

MichelBollinger posted...

Edna is good but I don't particularly...care about her?

She's honestly way more compelling just as Eizen's nebulous sister, lol.

And yeah, it's incredible what a nightmare most of the connecting threads in Zesteria are if you play Berseria first. The difference in quality between those two games is frankly unbelievable. What I wouldn't give for the budgets to have been swapped.

And yes I did also basically forget she existed in the latter half of the game, but not her fault.

There's a really godlike game inside Zestiria that was absolutely fucked by Baba doing everything wrong

Such a pity, there's good material to work with

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I think people are hard on Anise because she fucks up a lot harder than Luke and the party never blames her for it, while they never fully shut up about Akzeriuth

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Smash Master posted...

Xillia 2's spoiler character out before Anise? That's pretty bad, but Edna too? Yeah, okay.... TC, seriously, why is that little brat still in at this point?

Guess you'll have to find out in her eventual writeup!

And for a change of pace to finish the day, let's have one I doubt anyone will fight me too hard on.

#64 - Asbel Lhant
Look, I'm sorry. I wish I could promise to be with you forever, but...it would just be a lie. I'll die before you and there's no getting around it. But there's still plenty of time for us to deal with life together.

Something about Asbel has always really annoyed me more so than his style of character generally tends to, and though it took me a few run-throughs of Graces, I think I finally managed to figure it out. Its the fact that, in an extremely anime series full of extremely anime themes and extremely anime main protagonists, he is the biggest anime that ever animed. There is not one shred of nuance to any aspect of his character. There are no half-measures. Everything about him is taken to its extreme.

Like, for instance, look at his default outfit. He looks like an Elvis Presley impersonator. It doesnt suit him, it doesnt fit the game (unless theres a disco club in Barona I missed on my playthroughs), its waaay too white Its so outlandish that it almost reaches a point where I have ironic love for it, but not quite. Its just silly. Its one of the few designs in the series thats actively distracting to me. Otherwise serious cutscenes are derailed because I cant stop thinking about how ridiculous it looks.

But the bigger problem is his personality. As best I can tell, the idea behind Asbel was to make him the most empathetic character in the series. His first instinct in any given situation is to consider it from someone elses point of view and be as understanding as possible about it. No matter how many times it screws him over, hes determined to believe in the inherent goodness of all beings. This seems like itd be an endearing quality, but the devils in the details. Asbel loves him a hard case. The bulk of his empathy throughout the game is directed at Sophie, Richard, and later, Lamdba. Not to state the obvious, but those latter two are the main antagonists. That means that he frequently pisses off the rest of the party with his sympathies and ends up snapping at them when they call him out on it. In other words, hes not doing a very good job taking their point of view into account. Whats even more annoying is that sometimes he just plain doesnt make any sense. The first time the party brings up the (very reasonable and eventually correct) idea that Richards being controlled by some other entity, Asbel vehemently rejects it even though its actually a point in Richards favor. And late in the game, after Lambdas depressing past has been revealed, Asbel goes so far as to lament that he couldnt say for sure he wouldnt have resented humanity and tried to destroy the world like Lambda if he didnt have friends around him at his low point. This, of course, is absurd. It doesnt make him sound compassionate. It makes him sound like an idiot at best and a psychopath at worst. It wouldve been entirely possible, and much more interesting, for him to acknowledge that Lambda was in fact insane without completing writing him off as a lost cause. Two masters couldve been served there.

Then theres his side of the Cheria romance, and what do I even say about that? It only really gets any focus in the future arc, where it goes straight from never being acknowledged to being jackhammered into the players head. And the great big ending to it is asking her to move in with him eventually when shes done with other stuff. I actually do really like that hes understanding about that last bit, but thats overshadowed by how anticlimactic the rest of the scene is. He does have one or two good aspects (mostly the relationship with Sophie, which is by far the most consistently heartwarming and pleasant thing in the game), but they get overshadowed because I spend most of the story just shaking my head at him.

Its a shame, because I love his playstyle, and thats really what lifts him even to these unimpressive heights on the list. Ive always loved swordsmen who incorporate the sheaths into their combat (some Googling has taught me this is known as iaijutsu) and he has some of my favorite artes in the series. Playing as him makes me actively look forward to getting into even regular enemy encounters, and since this is in fact a video game series, that sort of a bonus to gameplay does win a guy a lot of points.

And I dont flat-out hate everything about his characterization - he can be entertaining at times - but its hard to identify with him when his well-meaning tendencies come off more as flat stupidity. The main protagonist shouldnt be one of the least interesting, least relatable, and, honestly, least likable characters in his game.

TL;DR: They tried to make him a nice dude and made him stupid instead. But he can do cool stuff with a sword!

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Asbel's a total nothing to me, but being the actual best playing character in the franchise does give him points.

MichelBollinger posted...

Asbel's a total nothing to me, but being the actual best playing character in the franchise does give him points.

That's not how you spell "Ludger Will Kresnik"

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Graces combat so good I literally paid them real money to do more combos.

I think there's only one character in the series I ever controlled in combat who wasn't the main character. (Eleanor)
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Oh wait Asbel is the protagonist of Graces. I'm dumb but the comment is still true.
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Edna was okay

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Today should be pretty pedestrian compared to yesterday!

#63 - Karol Capel (Vesperia)
I can hear them now. Here comes the invincible army, Brave Vesperia!

For a good long while, I thought I had no strong feelings on Karol. In thinking about it, though, I realized that evaluation isnt entirely accurate. As it turns out, I strongly feel that Karol is just a totally average character.

In terms of execution, its kind of hard to complain. They wanted to make him a cowardly kid with a lot of false bravado and they committed to it. From a conceptual standpoint, I dont mind that sort of thing. It makes plenty of sense that a young kid might have trouble standing up to bloodthirsty monsters several times his size and, in a larger sense, with finding his place in the world, which is essentially what hes doing by haphazardly joining whichever guild will take him at a given time. And hes kept from being complete deadweight in-story because all that varied experience gives him a wide array of skills and knowledge that prove useful to the party at times. His commitment to becoming stronger and learning how to be a real leader is a nice little gradual bit of development that leads to one of the best scenes in the game when he takes on the Baitojoh in Zopheir alone and saves the rest of the group.

Unfortunately, that scene is really all he has. Its his only memorable moment. And when its come and gone, theres not really much left to his character anymore, and theres still a decent bit of the game left when that happens. So for a good portion of part 3, hes just kind of there. His storys over and he doesnt contribute a whole lot afterwards other than some humorous slapstick with Rita smacking him for being a doofus.

More importantly, Yuri kind of cannibalizes his development a little. Karol might be the Brave Vesperia boss, but Yuri, as the main protagonist, is unquestionably the leader of the party. So whatever Karols leadership capabilities may be, we dont ever get to really see them in action.

I dont really care for him as a fighter, either. Hes a good healer if you set his AI right and thats nice for utility purposes, but so are Estelle and Raven and Id much rather have one of them in the party. He was nice to have in Baction when those two arent around, but the Definitive Edition gives you Flynn, who can also heal, so even there he becomes marginally less valuable. The AI guzzles his TP even quicker than with other characters and when I try to play as him myself, well this is the most accurate representation I could find of what that feels like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sv35ItWLBBk&t=0m25s. His visual design is about as basic and unremarkable as it gets, and he doesnt even have the great lineup of alt costumes that the rest of the Vesperia cast does, although I do appreciate my dude Klonoa getting some love.

As kid characters go, Karols fine. Theres not much else to be said about him.

TL;DR: Inoffensive and unmemorable, but not bad. Think he gets too much hate, but I wouldnt defend him to the death.

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NBIceman posted...

As kid characters go, Karols fine. Theres not much else to be said about him.

TL;DR: Inoffensive and unmemorable, but not bad. Think he gets too much hate, but I wouldnt defend him to the death.

I think this sums up my opinion of Karol as well.

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I am very anti Karol on both a gameplay and character standpoint.

His altered arts are ABSOLUTELY the worst to grind out, and give up on letting him earn them naturally.

NBIceman posted...

So for a good portion of part 3, hes just kind of there

I mean, if my memory is correct this should probably be a running theme in the Vesperia writeups.

I do like Karol but he'd probably only rank 4th or 5th if I were to rank the Vesperia characters? (not counting the PS3 character or whatever) Game has a really solid cast imo.
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pyresword posted...

I do like Karol but he'd probably only rank 4th or 5th if I were to rank the Vesperia characters? (not counting the PS3 character or whatever)

Well, if you discount the PS3 character then Flynn doesn't make the list either I imagine. So you're down to 7 characters right there. Judith is the worst of the lot so I'd definitely take Karol over her and probably he should objectively be over Repede but no way but if you did that puts him in 5th by default pretty much!

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Karol trying to name stuff in Part 3 is great.

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Well I guess you're right from that perspective.

But like say if I were to insert Karol into the Symphonia cast, I might even rank him 3rd among that list of characters.
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The entire last third of Berseria is such a dull nothing. When I came back to that game for the HD version I was pretty shocked. I couldn't even finish it.

You really feel the 3 uncoordinates writers effect in that game.

BK_Sheikah00 posted...

Karol trying to name stuff in Part 3 is great.

"The Splishy-Splashy Water-Colored Que-" ~SMACK~ "...You suck!"

#62 - Gall Gruner (Hearts)
I remember being your age. You think every question has a satisfying answer somewhere. But some questions have no answers, and some shouldnt even be asked.

Gall, like Patty in Vesperia, was added to Hearts after the fact, and its almost as obvious. Theres nothing so drastic with him as voice actors changing in the middle of scenes to account for Pattys worthless contributions, but his motivation for joining and then staying with the party is incredibly weak and there are several noticeable skits where he comes in at the very end to make one comment after everyone else is done talking.

But hes just so damn likable and chill. The Hearts cast is the least suited in the entire series to be saving the world because their most visible leaders have even less idea what theyre doing the majority of the time than most JRPG protagonists, and if it werent for Gall constantly reminding them to step back and take stock of a situation before acting, it feels like theyd have never accomplished much of anything. Hes self-assured and wise to the ways of the world, but his exceedingly laid-back attitude makes him one of the more generally pleasant characters in the game, and I never really got tired of just seeing him having casual chats with other party members. Also, he gets just enough development to show that, despite all appearances, hes pretty bothered deep down by his lack of real progress in his quest to eliminate despir. I like his design, I like his weapon, and hes fun enough in battle. The little bit of mystery thats paid off in the secret ending is cool too, even if its ultimately kind of silly and pointless and weird.

Heres the issue: all things considered, Gall is the most forgettable Tales character on this list. If youd asked me to name them all by memory prior to doing all the legwork for this ranking, hed have either been the last one I remembered to name or the only one Id have left off entirely. The only one that comes close is Suzu, but shes at least memorable for being so fantastically useless. All the likability in the world doesnt make up for the fact that, more so than any other party member in the ranking, he could be lifted right out of the game and not change a thing. Theres very little depth. I wish theyd have played up his similarities to Silver more - they were aware of it enough to make reference to it but, presumably, not confident enough to make it a focus. Its too bad. That feels like the big missed opportunity with Gall and itd at least give me something to work with here.

TL;DR: As with Patty, there is no reason for Gall to exist. But at least he manages to be fun and cool. Its kind of surprising to me that hes the only real chill older guy archetype in Tales - theyre usually pretty enjoyable and seem like something thatd be taken advantage of more often.

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I definitely meant to say Vesperia in that post and it's too late to edit <_<

Hearts is another game I wish I could play.

I DO have a fan translated Tales of Innocence ROM on my phone I've been meaning to get to....

#61 - Arche Klein (Phantasia)
Guys... I'm not going to say bye-bye just yet. I mean, there's no reason that we can't meet again, right?

I know Arche has some devoted fans, and I even understand why. I like her fine myself. But Phantasia was one of the last of the Tales games released in the West that I played, so I dont have any nostalgic fondness for her, and a lot of her most prominent character traits were done again and done better later in the series. The discrimination against half-elves, for example, plays a lot better in Symphonia, and while thats in large part a function of how much better the world is fleshed out there as a whole, its hard not to make the comparison.

Theres a lot to like about what shes given, though. Her visual design, for starters, is great. Shes cute and I like that her clothes and hairstyle both really bring out an elvish motif. Having her ride a broom in battle is a cool unique touch, too. Shes pretty great in battle, too, and its hard to take her out of the party once she joins, even if the nature of the Phantasia battle system means that all her spells grind everything to a halt.

As far as her personality goes I dont know, I feel like I should like it more than I do. The line between endearing and annoying is a hard one to walk for bubbly, eternally optimistic characters, but while Arche generally does it pretty well, it just doesnt really land with me for some reason. I think its because the rest of the party is generally pretty upbeat themselves, so she doesnt feel all that special. There are a couple of good scattered moments with it, though. She could angst over the situation with her mom, but instead she chooses to hold to the belief that her whole family will be together again someday, which seems to pay off when she goes to visit her in the ending. It makes for a sweet little dynamic with Suzu too that unfortunately just doesnt go anywhere because Suzu is pointless.

Her best moments are with Chester. They get off to a rocky start, with Arche being her usual oblivious self and insulting him more than she probably meant to, but she obviously feels bad about it when she sees how much it affects him and their eventual heart-to-heart about it is one of the better-written scenes in the game. Theyre at their best when theyre annoying the hell out of each other, though, because the insulting banter between them makes for about 90% of all of Phantasias interesting dialogue. I wish their little romance had been given more time to breathe, but what is there is good enough to be probably the most complete relationship between any of the main party members.

TL;DR: Arches fun and all, but I dont think theres a lot about her thats all that special. Maybe shed be higher up if she had a better supporting cast to play off of, but her only real interesting relationship is with Chester and its just not around for long enough. I know Im summarizing a lot of Phantasia characters in pretty similar ways, but thats kind of the nature of that game.

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Shame that some Tales games never been localized.

Tales of Destiny 2 JP
Tales of Innocence
Tales of Rebirth
Tales of Tempest
Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 2
Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 3
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Innocence has been completely fan translated and hard coded. DS emulator on my phone runs it with zero issues.

Last one of the night. Gonna be fairly busy tomorrow so it'll likely be another Skit day.

#60 - Karyl Sheeden (Destiny)
"Achtung baby, here's Karyl's song #1! Here we go, baby!"

Narrow winner of the battle of Kar@ls, Karyl, more than any other Tales party member, toes the line of being a joke character, and I mean that in a good way. His outrageous outfit, the anachronistic manner of speech, the hilarious fighting style Its all incredibly goofy and it all works. Who doesnt get a kick out of watching monsters get whacked over the head with a guitar?

And it works, in large part, due to the fact that hes actually the farthest thing from a joke. Hes a strong fighter, both in the story and in gameplay at least when the player controls him. Like his castmate Chelsea, the AI cant make him work worth a damn. Its a little annoying having to find his songs out in the field, but Ill forgive that inconvenience since its fairly unique, feels more worth it than with Chat, and gives him a little extra dimension. Hes a mainstay in my late game party since hes so helpful against the Impulse enemies, and he brings the added utility with the sonic attacks that even more enemies during that portion are weak to.

Hes so ridiculously over-the-top in his disguise that its charming, which of course is the whole point of him. This series is not short on characters, playable or otherwise, with exaggerated personalities, but Tales of Destiny is, and it desperately needed a character like him. But you know what it needed even more? Having him actually stick around for more than five minutes. As entertaining as the spoony bard is, he gets roughly as much screen time in the main story as Chelsea does. He obviously makes much better use of it, but that only goes so far. I remember thinking during my first Destiny playthrough that he dropped the lazy facade way too quickly, but then he suddenly left the party and it all made sense. Such a disappointment. His reason for leaving is perfectly consistent with the narrative, but it wouldve been just as easy to work him in as a much more permanent fixture. Which he deserved, even setting aside his pure entertainment value. His serious, angry side is pretty interesting, but his individual arc gets wrapped up so quickly with the express purpose of getting him in and out of the party that it feels like a massive waste.

TL;DR: Like this guy quite a bit, but theres only so far he can go on this list when hes around for such a small part of the story and completely optional afterwards. Another example of a Destiny character getting screwed over on this ranking by the lack of English PS2 releases.

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Man you were right, what an inoffensive day lol.

Skit - Ranking Every (English) Tales Opening Video

14. Hearts R
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8JHetM3uDY
Just dull and lazy. Galls scene is literally the exact same animation as the bit that plays upon his introduction in the story. Even the song is soulless. Hearts has such a colorful world but I cant imagine this opening would do a whole lot to make anyone excited to discover it.

13. Symphonia 2: Dawn of the New World
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnRRyLKpflQ
Truly an opening that perfectly fits the uninspired cash grab this game was. I like how even the OP seems to forget the OG Symphonia characters besides Lloyd existed until the very end. Really does a good job of setting up how theyre pretty much ignored in the story as well. And this is easily the worst song of any of these openings - the other bad ones are just lame where this one is legitimately annoying to listen to.

12. Eternia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gV2LtbRgJ64
I like the delayed start to the music as a nice change of pace. Dont get me wrong, though, the song itself sucks. And the characters look really weird - their eyes are terrifying. Meredy dancing is a nice little scene, though, which is one more nice little scene than Hearts R or Dawn has. And I get a legitimate kick out of how the non-main three party members get shoehorned in at the very end.

11. Graces F
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SymLluPY-ig
I dont actually hate this song the way a lot of people do. Its not good by any stretch of the imagination, but there have been times its gotten stuck in my head for a little while, particularly if Im actually playing through the game. The animations a big ol nothing, though. The first ten seconds are the only real interesting part. Mostly it just shows off how bad the character designs are in this game.

10. Destiny
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htImL49Bmw8
Dull, cliche, stupid Leon gets a dull, cliche, stupid long shot of him standing sadly in the rain. Just look at how awesome and troubled he is. Past that, though, this opening has a couple shots that I legitimately love, like the one of Stahn and Rutee standing together and the final look at the spot where the Swordian used to be.

9. Legendia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yXTD9wGv4E
For all its faults, Ill never knock Legendias setting. Its creative and pretty, and its opening does a pretty good job of demonstrating that aura. That said, its kind of an odd one. Theres a couple of cool moments, but the song is pretty lame and some of the later bits spoil a few pretty big and important plot points. Very weird.

8. Symphonia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmBfLOlsLFY
Kind of just there. I know a lot of people really like Starry Heavens, but Im not one of them, and some parts of the animation that would otherwise be pretty neat feel a little bit rough with how choppy the animation itself is at times. The inclusion of Colettes hand-writing thing is cute, though, even in spite of my overall feelings on the character.

7. Zestiria
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfQkGqno85Q
Damn shame we just got the White Light instrumental here in the west, because theres definitely an added layer of hype when the lyrics are included. Either way, though, it feels like this ones just trying a little too hard to be epic. Theres parts I like in it - the Armatus transformations look cool and Sorey vs Heldalf is done well - but it feels like theres not much flow and it takes too long to move between interesting bits sometimes.

6. Phantasia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgUhrhnqkGk
Honestly, this OP really has no business being as good as it is for coming so early in the series. Its the only one on this list that feels like a legitimate anime OP. Theres not a whole lot about it thats necessarily special, but its nice and smooth and pleasant all the way through with an enjoyable song to back it up. Cress and Mint quietly sitting together is a more compelling relationship beat than anything that actually happened in the game. Just solid.

5. Vesperia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve4LqfqpdSE
WHY WERE WE THERE BACK TO BACK WHY WERE WE THERE FACE TO FACE I MUST BE THE LIGHT WHEN YOURE IN THE DARK Ring a Bell is just unironically good. I dont actually love the animation in Vesperias opening outside of a few scattered moments (namely Yuri vs Yeager, Raven vs Tyson, the very last shot), but the music always puts a smile on my face, and even though this was never among my absolute favorite Tales games, I still have some strange kind of nostalgia for it, the source of which I cant quite put my finger on, that this OP brings out.

4. Berseria
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bfp_ubBgbc
I adore how this opening mirrors the progression of the game itself. Start off with some pretty violin bringing the promise of adventure, immediately switch to DaemonVelvet breaking out of prison as the guitar kicks in, and eventually ending on a note of peace and hope. But its great on its own merit, too. Burn is a great opening song that matches up really well with the frenetic Berseria fighting style, which in turn is captured perfectly by the animation. I slept on this OP for a long time, but Im not making that mistake anymore!

Surprised at that number 1, when I re-watch tales opening I don't usually even watch that one. I've never even seen Xillia 2 in action, honestly! Won't lie, when it was revealed to have a silent protagonist...I completely stopped paying attention to the game whatsoever.

Abyss is hard to argue against as a number 1 for me, just because of Meaning of Birth for Luke vs Ashe, even if that's cheating. Speaking of cheating, the orchestral version of it is the best Tales song...if you increase the Tempo, lol. Pretty lackluster if you don't.

https://youtu.be/4ko5zZipNGM

I think I'm totally with you on that Top 4. Might be tempted to swap Berseria and Xillia 1 but you got the top 4 right for sure. The Xillia 2 OP is fantastic.

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