History Headscratchers / TalesOfVesperia

[[WMG: Who sent Zagi after Flynn?]]

They appear to be open at the front, but do not have laces. How do they stay up? Even if they were made of a fairly rigid material, the amount of moving around Yuri does, especially when fighting, should cause them to just flop around (and possibly trip him up)

[[WMG: Are Tison and the Red-Eyes a different race of people?]]
Are there three humanoid races on Terca Lumireis? Because Tison and the Red-Eyes all move too unnaturally to be human. Like they don't have any bones, or like their bones are able to be flexible. I could maybe buy that the Red-Eyes are all just really flexible people and move like that to be creepy, but Tison moves and stands in just the same way, and all of them have a habit of trying to keep their eyes hidden. They even talk similarly, the difference being in volume.

[[WMG: This might be a really dumb question, but is Aspio actually part of Tarqaron?]]

[[WMG: Regarding Karol and his being in the Active Party]]
This is definitely a gameplay headscratcher. I mean, every time the team splits and they aren't put back together exactly how you had them before the split, [[TheLoad Karol]] is ALWAYS somehow in your active party, even if he was the very last person in your party list. Like after you flee Nordopolica. If your party consisted of Yuri, Estelle, Rita, and Repede (that is, none of the two people who branch off after defeating Belius), once you have everyone back in the morning (bar Judy), Karol is ''somehow'' in your active party. Even the times you split off with everyone, but one person left at a different time, Karol will be forced into your active party after. He's also forced into your party in the Atherum one every meets up again, and the game tries to force you to use him in Part 2 when you don't have Estelle and Raven (since he's your second best healer after Estelle in terms of variety of healing moves). I mean, there's the option that Yuri '''really is''' a DecoyProtagonist to Karol, I suppose. It really feels like the game '''really, really''' wants you to use Karol. My second related question is about his Coward Skill. Why doesn't it work when Karol is not in the Active Party? It's supposed to prevent surprise encounters. You'd think it would only work if he was ''not'' in the active party (meaning he wouldn't be able to fight). It kinda loops around back to my earlier point of the game halfway demanding you use Karol... So I guess my first question is: why the hell is Karol constantly being shoved into your Active Party, and my second question is why does his Coward Skill, which prevents surprise encounters, not work when Karol is in the inactive party where it would make sense for it to work, as surprise encounters force you to use your inactive party members?

[[WMG: Why do Rita, Karol, and Raven insist Yuri is rude?]]

[[WMG: What happened to Caer Bocram?]]
It's repeatedly implied an earthquake didn't actually destroy the place, as in the first skit about it Rita is doubtful the information just never reached Aspio and in the second, everyone is very surprised to see the town and voice astonishment that an earthquake did that. So what did? Was it destroyed in the Great War? Karol did say that it was in function ten years ago. It can't have been the Empire stamping out the guild that used to be there- with how much the game wants you to hate the Empire and prefer the guilds, they would have made that explicit.

[[WMG: About cities and towns.]]
The geography in this game is not spread out well- two entire continents are unexplainably uninhabited for almost the entire game (I don't count Yumanju as "inhabited"- it's a resort, not a city). Dahngrest is said to have been built by Altosk, a guild founded by the Don, so it's fairly new. Heliord is said to only have been just built. Tarqaron, Temza, and Caer Bocram are all fallen cities. Most of the functional cities are concentrated on Ilyccia, but the problem lies in the fact that the Empire obviously doesn't force people to stay on the continent and there's no reason why there aren't at the very least ruins on other continents if they did try to keep everyone on Ilyccia. Weccea at least has a reason why the only thing on it is Releweise, but there is no logical reason why this is the case with Hypionia and Yurzorea. Why are there no ruins of cities on any of the untouched continents or islands? Or even just natural dungeons like Keiv Moc? Why even include these other continents? Aurnion could have been built on the East Island of Ilyccia if they wanted to construct the town on uninhabited land. There are *four* locations that aren't on one of these continents or their own island- Yumanju, the only thing on the entire continent of Yurzorea, the Shrine of Baction that has no city of worshippers nearby, Egothor Forest, and eventually Aurnion. That's a lot for two entire continents, especially if you compare their size to Tolbyccia- not including the Erealumen Crystallands (which is said to be new and indeed doesn't exist until they are mentioned) or the Carpuson Islands (which could be part of Yurzorea), both of them are around the same size as Tolbyccia with Yurzorea actually seeming to be larger. It's all very jarring. Desier, like Weccea has an excuse for why it's so void of people- it's a desert. So why in the name of Maxwell is everything concentrated on two of the continents? Sure, people live in fear of the monsters, but people also recently built everything on Tolbyccia except Torim and Caer Bocram, and people built Aurnion. Why aren't there more things on the other continents?

[[folder: Rules about Guilds?]]
The game tells you that once you abandon the Empire, there are no laws except for what you set for yourself and that you live free, but you're also told that "its against the rules for anybody to be in two guilds at the same time" and later on, that it's forbidden to talk about what you find out on a guild job to anyone else. What rules? There aren't supposed to be any rules except for what you set for yourself- that's why the Blood Alliance and Leviathan's Claw can do what they please like that and why Raven gets after Brave Vesperia for ratting out Mimula. You're also shown that guilds are expected to pay in kind if they harm another guild. While it's plausible that the Union has its own set of rules, this doesn't explain why Brave Vesperia and Palestralle are expected to abide by these "rules"- they're non-Union. Or why the Blood Alliance and Leviathan's Claw are allowed to do as they please. It's implied that the Don was just going to get after Barbos as one guild leader to another for his behaviour, not a leader to his subordinates (considering what happened with Yeager later). Why are there rules about a thing that is supposed to be a symbol of living life according to your own rules and choices? And on the subject, why must guild members be punished so harshly for misconduct? Karol makes it sound like there are no light punishments for even small infractions the two times he remarks about punishment. The guilds on a whole are supposed to be an anarchy with an internal, non-anarchist system for individual guilds (and even then, many guilds likely don't have a specific leader, as Brave Vesperia doesn't after the Don's passing until the Blade Drifts). As weird and {{ironic}} as that sounds, that seems to be what the Guilds are supposed to be, because the laws of the guild are made by the guild founders, and people can join and leave as they please if they like or don't like the laws- they are not forced to uphold anything unless they remain a member of a guild after breaking its laws.
* To be honest, it's kind of implied guilds are a recent thing- formed within the last 40 or so years. It sounded like the Don was the one who created guilds in the first place, since he has near-total rule over them and it's not explained what Altosk is for, but based on what Raven does for the guild, it's like a police force for guilds. Guilds are all about loyalty and honour- as long as those things are not being breached, a guild can do as they please. I don't think they're actually real rules, but if you break them, you eventually earn the hatred of the other guilds and you find yourself unable to get clients, because guilds are usually not allowed in the Empire except for Fortune's Market, which is stated to have a monopoly on their trade. Altosk, however, is a member of the Union so that may be the rule Karol referred to when saying it's against the rules to join two guilds at once, since he was talking about Raven, a top officer of Altosk. Living by your own rules, living free, might be an exaggeration. Free could just mean free of the Empire.

[[folder: How come Raven didn't [[spoiler: DIE]] at the end?]]
The solution to defeating the Adephagos basically involves [[spoiler: nullifying all the Blastia in the world - essentially causing the world to give up all their technology until they rebuild it]]. Except that [[spoiler: Raven has a Blastia... in his ''heart''. Shouldn't the loss of all Blastia actually mean it nullifies ''him'', too, since he said it was the only thing keeping him alive]]. Shouldn't that actually have [[spoiler: killed him?]] Is his (and by extension Yeager's) heart some sort of exception to how the other blastia worked?
* He talked to Rita about it. If you stay at Dahngrest right after beating Daybreaker and Nightbreaker, Yuri tells him he should talk to Rita about his blastia if he's concerned about dying. He's never shown talking to Rita, but considering he agrees with what Yuri tells him, he talks to her about it. There's also the fact that Witcher was the one creating the network, since Rita didn't have the time, and that Raven's Blastia is a Hermes model running on his life force, not aer. His heart was simply not connected to the network either because Witcher couldn't connect it because his heart doesn't run on aer, or because Rita disconnected it from the network.

[[folder: How does Judith use artes?]]
Judith doesn't seem to use a blastia. Nothing is consistent in her costumes like with the others (except Karol, whose blastia is on his bag), so there's nothing that can be one. Estelle, Yuri, and Repede have their bracelets, Raven has his belt buckle, and Rita has her choker, but nothing is consistent with Judith. We know she doesn't dislike all blastia, because in an optional scene she carries a thermo blastia that was her dad's (Juana, as Rita names her). She just wants to dispatch the Hermes models. Yuri says that blastia, specifically bodhi blastia, are required for artes. So how does the non-blastia-using Judith use artes? It can't be because she's Krityan, because Krityans created the blastia, bodhi blastia included, implying they would lack the ability to perform artes on their own.

[[folder: Tolbyccian Beaches]]
So after you leave Nordopolica by boat and [[spoiler: Judy smashes your boat's blastia]], you're supposed to go to Dahngrest ASAP. Raven says you should go to the beach in the south, the one just off Heliord, stating that'll put you "about as close to Dahngrest as you could hope". Except there's a much, much closer beach if you approach Dahngrest from the north, which is also a faster way to approach Tolbyccia. It's the beach surrounding Ghasfarost. That one is "about as close to Dahngrest as you could hope". There's no cutscenes that take place between the beach and Dahngrest, so why not have you go to the northern beach?

[[folder: No elemental spirits for light and dark elements?]]

[[WMG: So the conflict between Yuri and Flynn over his killings of Ragou and Cumore. I'm going to put it bluntly: who exactly does the game side with? I've been trying to figure that one out for some time now.]]

[[WMG: Why do people say Yuri killed Cumore? He WAS going to kill Cumore, yes, but Cumore fell his own way. Yuri just didn't offer help. He still didn't finish him off himself.]]

[[WMG: How exactly did Estelle find out that Flynn was in danger? What vital information did she discover that she could only share with him personally? (And if it was about the conspiracy, who messed up and let the information slip?)]]

[[WMG: Why wouldn't Belius meet the heroes until the night of a full moon? I mean, just think about how much pain we could have spared ''everyone'' if she had just talked to us there and then.]]

[[WMG: So how did Zagi get to the top of Tarqaron?]]

[[WMG: Speaking of Zagi, who even sent him after Flynn in the first place?]]
I would guess Cumore (who dislikes him) or, more likely, Ragou, since he was close to Estelle, who they wanted to nominate for the throne as a puppet ruler. Since the knights supported Ioder, Ragou may have thought Flynn would ruin his and the Counsel's plans somehow.

[[WMG: Alexei is behind everything?]]
Okay, Yeager having been working for Alexei the whole time works, but the game says he was also behind Ragou and Barbos makes no sense giving their plan was to start a war between the knights, which Alexei commanded, and the guilds, and take over afterwords. This game essentially says Alexei started a war that would leave him powerless, and how did Yuri even figure that those were his doing anyways? He just seems to know like he read the script.

[[WMG: How does it make any sense for Dein Nomos to be required to instate a new emperor, especially when they...]]
... [[spoiler:IGNORE ALL OF THAT AND INSTALL IODER AS THE ACTING EMPEROR AT THE END OF THE GAME]]? It sounds to me like whoever designed the imperial law was some kind of complexity addict.

[[WMG: Why didn't Alexei just [[spoiler:shut off Raven's blastia?]]]]

[[WMG: Flynn's Hypocrisy...]]

[[WMG: How the hell do Yuri's boots work?]]

[[WMG: So why is there a prison inside of the palace where the ROYAL FAMILY lives? I mean if there was a breakout...]]

[[WMG: What's so special about the lower quarter's fountain? The people spent all their money on fixing it (pre-game) and Yuri goes halfway across the world to get the core back when its stolen. Wouldn't it have been far easier to just say "shit happens" and let the Empire fix it if they happen to feel like it? It's not like it's their only water supply or anything, there is a river right next to it.]]

[[WMG: We know that an apatheia is needed to make a blastia, but can a single apatheia go into making multiple blastia, or can it only be used once? It hit me some time after the ending and I don't recall the game going into detail about this.]]

[[WMG: Shouldn't there be elemental spirits for the light and dark elements? Sure, [[DishingOutDirt earth]], [[PlayingWithFire fire]], [[BlowYouAway wind]], and [[MakingASplash water]] may be the "great four" elements, but light and dark are used to damage enemies dammit. It shouldn't be too hard to add two more entelexia, [[SarcasmMode or would that have involved making the "gathering spirits" part of the story last longer than normal?]] [[http://gallery.abyssalchronicles.com/displayimage.php?album=211&pos=10 This scan]] implies that spirits can only be made into those elements, but...

[[WMG: So I've just saw The First Strike. LetMeGetThisStraight: [[DeadpanSnarker Yuri "Snark King" Lowell]], who quips with the best of them, doesn't get joke his commanding officer made about the twins chests? Really? I find that a little hard to believe. That doesn't mean the scene isn't funny mind you. It just seems odd.]]

[[/ folder]]

[[WMG: Rules about Guilds?]]

[[WMG: How come Raven didn't [[spoiler: DIE]] at the end?]]

[[WMG: How does Judith use artes?]]

[[WMG: Tolbyccian Beaches]]
So after you leave Nordopolica by boat and [[spoiler: Judy smashes your boat's blastia]], you're supposed to go to Dahngrest ASAP. Raven says you should go to the beach in the south, the one just off Heliord, stating that'll put you "about as close to Dahngrest as you could hope". Except there's a much, much closer beach if you approach Dahngrest from the north, which is also a faster way to approach Tolbyccia. It's the beach surrounding Ghasfarost. That one is "about as close to Dahngrest as you could hope". There's no cutscenes that take place between the beach and Dahngrest, so why not have you go to the northern beach?

[[WMG: Shouldn't there be elemental spirits for the light and dark elements? Sure, [[DishingOutDirt earth]], [[PlayingWithFire fire]], [[BlowYouAway wind]], and [[MakingASplash water]] may be the "great four" elements, but light and dark are used to damage enemies dammit. It shouldn't be too hard to add two more entelexia, [[SarcasmMode or would that have involved making the "gathering spirits" part of the story last longer than normal?]] And yes, I'm aware that [[http://gallery.abyssalchronicles.com/displayimage.php?album=211&pos=10 this scan]] implies that spirits can only be made into those elements, but this page is called ItJustBugsMe for a reason.]]

** Not only that, but to be blunt the lower quarter's needs are pretty low on the Empire's priority list.

* He talked to Rita about it. It might have been in some optional dialogue, but Judith tells him he should talk to Rita about his blastia not connecting to the network if he's concerned about dying. He's never shown talking to Rita, but considering he agrees with what Judith tells him, he talks to her about it. There's also the fact that Witcher was the one creating the network, since Rita didn't have the time, and that Raven's Blastia is a special Hermes model running on his life force, not aer. His heart was simply not connected to the network either because Witcher couldn't connect it because his heart doesn't run on aer, or because Rita disconnected it from the network.

Judith doesn't seem to use a blastia. Nothing is consistent in her costumes like with the others (except Karol, whose blastia is on his bag), so there's nothing that can be one. Estelle, Yuri, and Repede have their bracelets, Raven has his belt buckle, and Rita has her choker, but nothing is consistent with Judith. We know she doesn't dislike all blastia, because in an optional scene she carries a thermo blastia that was her dad's (Juana, as Rita names her). She just wants to dispatch the Hermes models. Yuri says that blastia, specifically bodhi blastia, are required for artes. So how does the non-blastia-using Judith use artes? It can't be because she's Krityan, because Krityans created the blastia, bodhi blastia included, implying they would lack the ability to perform artes on their own.

* He talked to Rita about it. It might have been in some optional dialogue, but Judith tells him he should talk to Rita about his blastia not connecting to the network if he's concerned about dying. He's never shown talking to Rita, but considering he agrees with what Judith tells him, he talks to her about it. There's also the fact that Witcher was the one creating the network, since Rita didn't have the time, and that Raven's Blastia is a special Hermes model running on his life force, not aer. His heart was simply not connected to the network either because Witcher couldn't connect it because his heart doesn't run on aer, or because Rita disconnected it from the network.

The solution to defeating the Adephagos basically involves [[spoiler: nullifying all the Blastia in the world - essentially causing the world to give up all their technology until they rebuild it]]. Except that [[spoiler: Raven has a Blastia... in his ''heart''. Shouldn't the loss of all Blastia actually mean it nullifies ''him'', too, since he said it was the only thing keeping him alive]]. Shouldn't that actually have [[spoiler: killed him?]] Is his (and by extension Yeager's) heart some sort of exception to how the other blastia worked?

The game tells you that once you abandon the Empire, there are no laws except for what you set for yourself and that you live free, but you're also told that "its against the rules for anybody to be in two guilds at the same time" and later on, that it's forbidden to talk about what you find out on a guild job to anyone else. What rules? There aren't supposed to be any rules except for what you set for yourself- that's why the Blood Alliance and Leviathan's Claw can do what they please like that and why Raven gets after Brave Vesperia for ratting out Mimula. You're also shown that guilds are expected to pay in kind if they harm another guild. While it's plausible that the Union has its own set of rules, this doesn't explain why Brave Vesperia and Palestralle are expected to abide by these "rules"- they're non-Union. Or why the Blood Alliance and Leviathan's Claw are allowed to do as they please. It's implied that the Don was just going to get after Barbos as one guild leader to another for his behaviour, not a leader to his subordinates (considering what happened with Yeager later). Why are there rules about a thing that is supposed to be a symbol of living life according to your own rules and choices? And on the subject, why must guild members be punished so harshly for misconduct? Karol makes it sound like there are no light punishments for even small infractions the two times he remarks about punishment. The guilds on a whole are supposed to be an anarchy with an internal, non-anarchist system for individual guilds (and even then, many guilds likely don't have a specific leader, as Brave Vesperia doesn't after the Don's passing until the Blade Drifts). As weird and {{ironic}} as that sounds, that seems to be what the Guilds are supposed to be, because the laws of the guild are made by the guild founders, and people can join and leave as they please if they like or don't like the laws- they are not forced to uphold anything unless they remain a member of a guild after breaking its laws.

* Not to mention, ''The First Strike'' has numerous problems with continuity and characterization, of which this is the least of them. (The ending sequence with Yuri and Flynn and the movie's villain takes my personal cake for not making any sense with previously-established character traits and in-game dialogue.) If you check on imDB, you'll find that none of the writers for the actual game were involved with ''The First Strike'', and it's not really a rarity for the anime, whether it be TV series, OAV, or movie, to change things from the original game as the writers and producers see fit. If you'd like to smile, the PS3 version features a cameo from the movie's twins, and Flynn and Yuri have a brief conversation afterwards about how they'd completely forgotten those girls -- and why are they still wearing the uniforms from that time? are they still in the knights? Flynn thought he knew all the current knights -- and isn't all of this REALLY WEIRD?, which seems to point at the PS3 writers poking fun at the incongruity, especially since none of it is resolved during their sub event and they disappear afterwards, never to be mentioned again. So if you don't like something about ''The First Strike'', I think you should probably feel comfortable ignoring it.

** The actual issue with the whole Cumore thing (which perhaps goes beyond what you were asking) is that Flynn kind of flip-flops on it. We don't know how long he was standing there, but it was long enough to witness what happened and he did nothing to prevent it. Also, if he had just been about enforcing the law then he would have arrested Yuri on the spot rather than letting him walk away and then asking for an explanation. It was only after he started arguing with Yuri that he started to get self-righteous about it (which, considering that he witnessed the crime and did nothing to prevent it, is pretty hypocritical of him) and then made a rather half-assed attempt to arrest Yuri (of course our next encounter with him is when the shit is hitting the fan, but notice that after that me makes absolutely no attempts to arrest Yuri again). I believe there's a scene in the ps3 version later on where they discuss it again and Flynn basically says that while he can't condone Yuri's actions, he can't completely condemn them either, and I think this view sheds a light on why he reacted the way he did at Mantaic. He was conflicted, shocked, and angry and seemed acting based on those emotions rather than actually thinking things through. It's also worth considering his 'you intend to dirty your hands?' question. Yuri's response is not a confession, Flynn already knows what he's done, so the fact that the question was in future tense in the first place means that his concern was actually not just with what Yuri had done, but with what he was ''going to'' do. It's not just about the law again, at least part of his reaction was because he was ''worried'' about what Yuri was turning into (and not without reason, considering how extreme some of Yuri's views later become). Yuri, however, either completely missed the point of that question or chose to ignore it. (Though, given all the stuff that happened immediately after, Flynn probably would have done better to worry about himself.)

The game tells you that once you abandon the Empire, there are no laws except for what you set for yourself and that you live free, but you're also told that "its against the rules for anybody to be in two guilds at the same time" and later on, that it's forbidden to talk about what you find out on a guild job to anyone else. What rules? There aren't supposed to be any rules except for what you set for yourself- that's why the Blood Alliance and Leviathan's Claw can do what they please like that and why Raven gets after Brave Vesperia for ratting out Mimula. You're also shown that guilds are expected to pay in kind if they harm another guild. While it's plausible that the Union has its own set of rules, this doesn't explain why Brave Vesperia and Palestralle are expected to abide by these "rules"- they're non-Union. Or why the Blood Alliance and Leviathan's Claw are allowed to do as they please. It's implied that the Don was just going to get after Barbos as one guild leader to another for his behaviour, not a leader to his subordinates (considering what happened with Yeager later). Why are there rules about a thing that is supposed to be a symbol of living life according to your own rules and choices? And on the subject, why must guild members be punished so harshly for misconduct? Karol makes it sound like there are no light punishments for even small infractions the two times he remarks about punishment. The guilds are apparently supposed to be almost an anarchy- you can make a one-man guild if you wanted, and the leaders are less leaders and more managers who keep things organised, including the Don. So why the hell do they have rules that aren't part of a guild's laws?

The geography in this game is not spread out well- two entire continents are unexplainably uninhabited for almost the entire game (I don't count Yumanju as "inhabited"- it's a resort, not a city). Dahngrest is said to have been built by Altosk, a guild founded by the Don, so it's fairly new. Heliord is said to only have been just built. Tarqaron, Temza, and Caer Bocram are all fallen cities. Most of the functional cities are concentrated on Ilyccia, but the problem lies in the fact that the Empire obviously doesn't force people to stay on the continent and there's no reason why there aren't at the very least ruins on other continents if they did try to keep everyone on Ilyccia. Weccea at least has a reason why the only thing on it is Releweise, but there is no logical reason why this is the case with Hypionia and Yurzorea. Why are there no ruins of cities on any of the untouched continents or islands? Or even just natural dungeons like Keiv Moc? Why even include these other continents? Aurnion could have been built on the East Island of Ilyccia if they wanted to construct the town on uninhabited land. There are *four* locations that aren't on one of these continents or their own island- Yumanju, the only thing on the entire continent of Yurzorea, the Shrine of Baction that has no city of worshippers nearby, Egothor Forest, and eventually Aurnion. That's a lot for two entire continents, especially if you compare their size to Tolbyccia- not including the Erealumen Crystallands (which is said to be new and indeed doesn't exist until they are mentioned) or the Carpuson Islands (which could be part of Yurzorea), both of them are around the same size as Tolbyccia with Yurzorea actually seeming to be larger. It's all very jarring. Desier, like Weccea has an excuse for why it's so void of people- it's a desert. So why in the name of Maxwell is everything concentrated on two of the continents? Sure, people live in fear of the monsters, but people also recently built everything on Tolbyccia except Torim and Caer Bocram, and people built Aurnion. Why aren't there more things on the other continents?

The geography in this game is not spread out well- two entire continents are unexplainable uninhabited for almost the entire game (I don't count Yumanju as "inhabited"- it's a resort, not a city). Dahngrest is said to have been built by Altosk, a guild founded by the Don, so it's fairly new. Heliord is said to only have been just built. Tarqaron, Temza, and Caer Bocram are all fallen cities. Most of the functional cities are concentrated on Ilyccia, but the problem lies in the fact that the Empire obviously doesn't force people to stay on the continent and there's no reason why there aren't at the very least ruins on other continents if they did try to keep everyone on Ilyccia. Weccea at least has a reason why the only thing on it is Releweise, but there is no logical reason why this is the case with Hypionia and Yurzorea. Why are there no ruins of cities on any of the untouched continents or islands? Or even just natural dungeons like Keiv Moc? Why even include these other continents? Aurnion could have been built on the East Island of Ilyccia if they wanted to construct the town on uninhabited land. There are *four* locations that aren't on one of these continents or their own island- Yumanju, the only thing on the entire continent of Yurzorea, the Shrine of Baction that has no city of worshippers nearby, Egothor Forest, and eventually Aurnion. That's a lot for two entire continents, especially if you compare their size to Tolbyccia- not including the Erealumen Crystallands (which is said to be new and indeed doesn't exist until they are mentioned) or the Carpuson Islands (which could be part of Yurzorea), both of them are around the same size as Tolbyccia with Yurzorea actually seeming to be larger. It's all very jarring. Desier, like Weccea has an excuse for why it's so void of people- it's a desert. So why in the name of Maxwell is everything concentrated on two of the continents? Sure, people live in fear of the monsters, but people also recently built everything on Tolbyccia except Torim and Caer Bocram, and people built Aurnion. Why aren't there more things on the other continents?

It's repeatedly implied an earthquake didn't actually destroy the place, as in the first skit about it Rita is doubtful the information just never reached Aspio and in the second, everyone is very surprised to see the town and voice astonishment that an earthquake did that. So what did? Was it destroyed in the Great War? Karol did say that it was in function ten years ago. It can't have been the Empire stamping out the guild that used to be there- with how much the game wants you to hate the Empire and prefer the guilds, they would have made that explicit.

It's repeatedly implied an earthquake didn't actually destroy the place, as in the skit about it Rita is doubtful the information just never reached Aspio and everyone is very surprised to see the town and voice astonishment that an earthquake did that. So what did? Was it destroyed in the Great War? Karol did say that it was in function ten years ago. It can't have been the Empire stamping out the guild that used to be there- with how much the game wants you to hate the Empire and prefer the guilds, they would have made that explicit.

Yuri's repeatedly noted as being rude, but in all the skits and most dialogue, Yuri is actually surprisingly polite, considerate, and reasonable. His "rudest" moments are just him being blunt. Hell, compared to Rita, he's practically a gentleman, but one of the excuses Yuri is given (courtesy of Raven) for why he's not part of the waiter minigame is "a rude waiter like Yuri'd be bad for business". But... Yuri is the most polite of the three guys and the least likely of them to offend anyone? In a skit he says he just doesn't want to do it because it's a bother and it's boring, but Rita of all people doesn't? I just fail to see how Yuri is so rude it's commented on several times and he agrees he's rude (less so this since Yuri clearly has a low opinion of himself).

*** Why not? They specifically mention Shadow by name in Tales of the Abyss when Tear and Jade are explaining Field of Fonon use. ANd if they wanted to avoid conflict, they could have had twin spirits born from the same blastia core become Luna and Shadow.

** Actually, the game notes that Halure's tree created a spirit and it's noted to be a flower spirit, so they're not just limited to the four base elements. The only explanation I can think of is that Gnome and Undine account for Shadow/Luna, and Sylph and Efreet account for Rem, because that's how the Fields of Fonons work in Tales of the Abyss. There are no [=FoF=] artes of Light and Dark- standing in a Dark FoF nets you Ground or Water altered artes, and a Light one nets you Wind or Fire. Presumably, the flower spirit of Halure is under Gnome, and thus under Dark.

* The most obvious answer is a new moon is the polar opposite of the full moon. It's not anything special, it's just what the phases are called. It's likely meant to be a hint that she's really an Entelexia, since it implies a strong aversion to the full moon and by extension in name, the Child of the Full Moon. It doesn't relate at all to the physical moon itself- just the name. Like how someone who likes puns might buy an instant noodle bowl called Bowl Appetite. It's not to do with the actual contents of the product, just the name. As to why she refuses to see anyone at all, it could still be related, like a cautionary. After all, it's not like Belius can exactly go showing herself to people without causing massive panic- she's significantly reducing the amount of people who can see her. It has naught to do with Estelle's powers, either, since Belius is far more reasonable than Phaeroh. I don't think she specially minds seeing Estelle (since she's not the warmest and fuzziest of characters to anyone at first), as long as Estelle doesn't use her powers near her, it's just she'd rather ''not'' see Estelle. And she can't exactly tell Natz to turn away the Child of the Full Moon, since ordinary humans can't detect it. Krityans can't, either- Judy relied on Ba'ul to detect Hermes blastia and that brought her to Estelle.

This is definitely a gameplay headscratcher. I mean, every time the team splits and they aren't put back together exactly how you had them before the split, [[TheLoad Karol]] is ALWAYS somehow in your active party, even if he was the very last person in your party list. Like after you flee Nordopolica. If your party consisted of Yuri, Estelle, Rita, and Repede (that is, none of the two people who branch off after defeating Belius), once you have everyone back in the morning (bar Judy), Karol is ''somehow'' in your active party. Even the times you split off with everyone, but one person left at a different time, Karol will be forced into your active party after. He's also forced into your party in the Atherum one every meets up again, and the game tries to force you to use him in Part 2 when you don't have Estelle and Raven (since he's your second best healer after Estelle in terms of variety of healing moves). I mean, there's the option that Yuri '''really is''' a DecoyProtagonist to Karol, I suppose. It really feels like teh game '''really, really''' wants you to use Karol. My second related question is about his Coward Skill. Why doesn't it work when Karol is not in the Active Party? It's supposed to prevent surprise encounters. You'd think it would only work if he was ''not'' in the active party (meaning he wouldn't be able to fight). It kinda loops around back to my earlier point of the game halfway demanding you use Karol... So I guess my first question is: why the hell is Karol constantly being shoved into your Active Party, and my second question is why does his Coward Skill, which prevents surprise encounters, not work when Karol is in the inactive party where it would make sense for it to work, as surprise encounters force you to use your inactive party members?

This is definitely a gameplay headscratcher. I mean, every time the team splits and they aren't put back together exactly how you had them before the split, [[TheLoad Karol]] is ALWAYS somehow in your active party, even if he was the very last person in your party list. Like after you flee Nordopolica. If your party consisted of Yuri, Estelle, Rita, and Repede (that is, none of the two people who branch off after defeating Belius), once you have everyone back in the morning (bar Judy), Karol is ''somehow'' in your active party. Even the times you split off with everyone, but one person left at a different time, Karol will be forced into your active party after. He's also forced into your party in the Atherum one every meets up again, and the game tries to force you to use him in Part 2 when you don't have Estelle and Raven (since he's your second best healer after Estelle in terms of variety of healing moves). I mean, there's the option that Yuri '''really is''' a DecoyProtagonist to Karol, I suppose. It really feels like teh game '''really, really''' wants you to use Karol. My second related question is about his Coward Skill. Why doesn't it work when Karol is not in the Active Party? It's supposed to prevent surprise encounters. You'd think it would only work if he was ''not'' in the active party (meaning he wouldn't be able to fight). It kinda loops around back to my earlier point of the game halfway demanding you use Karol...