History YMMV / TalesOfCrestoria

** [[WouldHurtAChild Cody Hjuger]], Kanata's father, is secretly a [[HumanTraffickers child trafficker]] who [[BitchInSheepsClothing hides his trades under the guise of a benevolent village leader]]. Selling the children in his orphanage as either slave labor, {{sex slave}}s, or for their [[OrganTheft organs]], Cody also has anybody who witnessed his trades sold to scientist Malcolm Sloat for painful experimentation. With his next sale being Kanata's childhood friend Misella, Cody tries to persuade his son into taking over the ring once he's dead, before attempting to kill him once he fights back.

* HarsherInHindsight: Aegis being falsely accused of the death of Queen Rebecca, who had feelings for him but he did not return them, becomes a lot harder to look at after it was announced that Aegis voice actor, Creator/TatsuhisaSuzuki, had an affair with a fan of his, and it had lead to his wife, the well known pop singer [=LiSA=], going into a state of depression not unlike what Aegis goes through after he is falsely accused.

* TooBleakStoppedCaring: The game's story falls into this. The world the story is set in is incredibly bleak, with all authority figures being apathetic at best and flagrantly evil at worst and things constantly going badly for the protagonists due to being framed for crimes while the truly monstrous villains get away scot-free over and over again. The very first chapter of the game opens with Kanata having to save his childhood friend Misella from being sold into sexual slavery by his own father and being MarkedToDie for it. Said Misella is a {{Yandere}} who routinely attacks and abuses the rest of the party. The party also contains [[SatanicArchetype the universe's equivalent of Satan.]] Even the citizens aren't much better, with most of them being [[BlackShirt Black Shirts]] who turn on innocents on a dime. While this wasn't the only reason the game was canned after less than a year, it certainly contributed to the problem, as the game's followup manga meant to finish the story, completely divorced from the contentious gameplay elements, suffered critically poor sales leading to the mangaka [[https://twitter.com/tubaki86/status/1668403061382082562?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1668403061382082562%7Ctwgr%5E2ea203db8175d945ca1319f6bfefdccc956c772b%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.abyssalchronicles.com%2Fnews%2Ftales-of-crestoria-manga-in-a-critical-state-manga-artist-requests-our-support begging people on Twitter to buy it.]]

* TooBleakStoppedCaring: The game's story falls into this. The world the story is set in is incredibly bleak, with all authority figures being apathetic at best and flagrantly evil at worst and things constantly going badly for the protagonists due to being framed for crimes while the truly monstrous villains get away scot-free over and over again. The very first chapter of the game opens with Kanata having to save his childhood friend Misella from being sold into sexual slavery by his own father and being MarkedToDie for it. Said Misella is a {{Yandere}} who routinely attacks and abuses the rest of the party. The party also contains [[SatanicArchetype the universe's equivalent of Satan.]] Even the citizens aren't much better, with most of them being [[BlackShirt Black Shirts]] who turn on innocents on a dime. While this certainly wasn't the only reason the game ended service after less than a year, it certainly contributed to the problem, as the game's followup manga meant to finish the story suffered critically poor sales, leading to the mangaka [[https://twitter.com/tubaki86/status/1668403061382082562?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1668403061382082562%7Ctwgr%5E2ea203db8175d945ca1319f6bfefdccc956c772b%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.abyssalchronicles.com%2Fnews%2Ftales-of-crestoria-manga-in-a-critical-state-manga-artist-requests-our-support begging people on Twitter to buy it.]]

* TooBleakStoppedCaring: The game's story falls into this. The world the story is set in is incredibly bleak, with all authority figures being apathetic at best and flagrantly evil at worst and things constantly going badly for the protagonists due to being framed for crimes while the truly monstrous villains get away scot-free over and over again. The very first chapter of the game opens with Kanata having to save his childhood friend Misella from being sold into sexual slavery by his own father and being MarkedToDie for it. Said Misella is a {{Yandere}} who routinely attacks and abuses the rest of the party. The party also contains [[SatanicArchetype the universe's equivalent of Satan.]] Even the citizens aren't much better, with most of them being [[BlackShirt Black Shirts]] who turn on innocents on a dime.

** [[VideoGame/TalesOfVesperia Estelle]] is widely feared/despised in the PVP arena. Having a powerful single-target heal in First Aid is bad enough, but her Mystic Arte, Sacred Penance, hits the entire enemy team and heals up to 45 percent of every ally's HP (including her own). Factor in her Awakening bonus (which increases the max HP and Defense of Staff and Light-type allies respectively, both of which apply to Estelle herself), and you've got a character that's nigh-impossible to bring down. [[StoneWall Estelle's high staying power is balanced by her offense being the worst in the game among SSR characters]], with even her Mystic Arte dealing pitiful damage and adding only one hit to the combo chain. But since you automatically lose an arena fight if time runs out, all the AI team has to do is stall. Estelle-based teams are so infamous that some players will immediately forfeit the battle if matched against her rather than waste time trying to kill an effectively-immortal enemy.
** The "Love's Fool" version of [[VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia Zelos]] is hated in PVP for the same reasons. He's also got First Aid and a Mystic Arte that recovers HP to his side, but instead of damaging the enemy, it also casts Attack Up on all allies at the same time. The Memoria Stone he comes with restores up to ten percent of Dark-type characters' HP every turn, which also applies to him. And his Awakened ability has a small chance to not cause a Dark-type character's cooldowns to activate when they use an ability... which again, also applies to him. This means there's a small chance that Zelos can cast First Aid on an ally, then instantly be ready to cast it again. And using First Aid still charges his Overlimit meter. If both "Love's Fool" Zelos and Estelle are in the same PVP party, you've basically got no choice but to [[ShootTheMedicFirst aim for them first]] and hope they go down before they recover enough damage.
** [[MidSeasonUpgrade "Living With Sin" Kanata]] is majorly seen in arena teams after his release, and is even more of a threat due to his Transcend board giving him an Attack bonus if he's fighting in Arena, on top of the innate +200% Attack bonus the Arena grants all characters. This means that if you run into him in your arena runs and you don't either have your own Kanata or a Water element burst damage, you can kiss your team goodbye if he decides to use ''Rending Tiger Strike''.

** One complaint leveled towards the Limited Events is this. All of them are the exact same format; five-six story missions that usually end with a fairly easy fight mixed in with some story missions that only are for plot, five-six free missions for grinding items, and lastly a three difficulty tiered raid battle that players can use if they have the special event currency needed to exchange for the fight. The events boil down to "grind enough raid currencies, then go raids for better event rewards" until the event ends. As a result, many find the events to be disappointing because they are so basic and samey, and the only real differences are bonus characters and rewards. The one event to notably avoid this was the "A Green and Swarmy Night" event, which instead had the free quests drop better rewards, and the raid boss was locked to one difficulty (Hard) but dropped better rewards too. The developers thankfully began mixing up the progression system for events after this, but the events still suffer from similar issues of feeling too similar in progression.
** One complaint the game has been receiving is that the seasonal alts all are designs that existed before in some form (either as alternate costumes in their home game, or are unique costumes made for other spinoff titles). Due to this, a number of players have expressed annoyance that the developers don't create their own alts for the game instead, especially because anytime they tease a new alt, players can easily tell who it is just by looking up past spinoff designs and tell from a quick glance who the alt will be.
* LowTierLetdown: Critical Tech Memoria Stones are seen as one of the worst ones in the game. On paper increasing the chance of landing critical hits is good, but not only do most of the effects cap off at very low percentages (at full Awakened the highest percent they increase is only 20%), but their outclassed by Torment Memoria Stones, which give a flat crit damage percent buff instead and and usually scale well as they are Awakened more. Since breaking a HP bar means all attacks become crits, this means its more beneficial to simply focus a team around Torment stones, use base attacks to break the bar, and then unload Mystic Artes onto the boss since they also become boosted by the Memoria Stone's effects. To add to it, the SSR Tech Memoria Stones are the only ones of value if you do try to use them, where as many R and SR Torment Memoria Stones are able to be used over SSR ones, simply because they act as a backup if you lack a specific Torment type.

* TierInducedScrappy:
** [[OriginalGeneration Aegis]]. On paper, he has stats that look like he should be a StoneWall; his SR version has the second-highest Defense of his rarity, while his SSR version has the highest Defense period, with both having among the lowest Attack stats in the game. However, his HP is ''also'' very low despite high Defense, which turns Aegis into a MasterOfNone; even with his good defense, Aegis is only staying alive a bit longer than a GlassCannon. He also has a pure offensive arte set despite being seemingly designed use as a tank, meaning he's overshadowed by [[VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia Genis]] for his SR version, who can give other people a hefty defense buff. His SSR version has a wide gap between the others in Defense, but he can easily be replaced by [[VideoGame/TalesOfGraces Asbel]]. Comparatively, Asbel has slightly better Attack and slightly worse Defense than Aegis, but Asbel has significantly higher HP, allowing him to be a StoneWall more effectively. Finally, the Memoria Stone for Aegis only provides spear units with a defense buff, meaning it's not even very useful due to most spear units being Wind element, creating an inherent anti-synergy with it. All of this means that Aegis is one of the least-useful units of the original generation of ''Crestoria'' characters.
** [[VideoGame/TalesOfXillia2 Chronos]] is an example of both high and lower tiers. In PVE content, he's considered one of the worst SSR characters due to his low attack stat, as even though he has good skills, his lower damage output means he can't help kill enemy waves quickly, allowing the enemy the chance to counter and prolong the fight. His Mystic Arte also isn't very strong, only giving an 88% damage increase compared to almost every other characters giving them more as a result of it being party-wide instead of single target. In the Arena though, he's one of the scariest enemies to face off against for the same reasons; with his fairly high HP and defense stats, he can tank through almost everything except powerful Light enemies, and thanks to his party-wide Mystic Arte, weaken the enemies team without issue. His Memoria Stone giving him a flat bonus to his Overlimit gauge also means he can quickly toss said Mystic Arte out quickly if not focused on. His lower attack doesn't hurt him here that much either due to the inherent arena damage bonus all units getting.
** On the high-tier end of the scale, [[VideoGame/TalesOfVesperia Estelle]] is widely feared/despised in the PVP arena. Having a powerful single-target heal in First Aid is bad enough, but her Mystic Arte, Sacred Penance, hits the entire enemy team and heals up to 45 percent of every ally's HP (including her own). Factor in her Awakening bonus (which increases the max HP and Defense of Staff and Light-type allies respectively, both of which apply to Estelle herself), and you've got a character that's nigh-impossible to bring down. [[StoneWall Estelle's high staying power is balanced by her offense being the worst in the game among SSR characters]], with even her Mystic Arte dealing pitiful damage and adding only one hit to the combo chain. But since you automatically lose an arena fight if time runs out, all the AI team has to do is stall. Estelle-based teams are so infamous that some players will immediately forfeit the battle if matched against her rather than waste time trying to kill an effectively-immortal enemy.
*** The "Love's Fool" version of [[VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia Zelos]] isn't quite as much of a StoneWall as Estelle, but he's hated in PVP for the same reasons. He's also got First Aid and a Mystic Arte that recovers HP to his side, but instead of damaging the enemy, it also casts Attack Up on all allies at the same time. The Memoria Stone he comes with restores up to ten percent of Dark-type characters' HP every turn, which also applies to him. And his Awakened ability has a small chance to not cause a Dark-type character's cooldowns to activate when they use an ability... which again, also applies to him. This means there's a small chance that Zelos can cast First Aid on an ally, then instantly be ready to cast it again. And using First Aid still charges his Overlimit meter. If both "Love's Fool" Zelos and Estelle are in the same PVP party, you've basically got no choice but to [[ShootTheMedicFirst aim for them first]] and hope they go down before they recover enough damage.
** The above mentioned GameBreaker with [[MidSeasonUpgrade "Living With Sin" Kanata]] is majorly seen in arena teams after his release, and is even more of a threat due to his Transcend board giving him an Attack bonus if he's fighting in Arena, on top of the innate +200% Attack bonus the Arena grants all characters. This means that if you run into him in your arena runs and you don't either have your own Kanata or a Water element burst damage, you can kiss your team goodbye if he decides to use ''Rending Tiger Strike''.
** Memoria Stones:
*** Inferno Memoria Stones are vastly overshadowed by Onslaught Memoria Stones. Inferno types only provide a damage buff for roughly two turns, while Onslaught's flat out give damage buffs without care for turns. Even if the total damage buff for an Inferno type stone is higher than an Onslaught type, that's still only two turns of increased damaged compared to an entire battle's worth of increased damage. For comparison, the highest percent buff on an Inferno skill is a fully awakened Bruiser [Strapping Muscleman] at 45%, while the highest percent Onslaught skill is Dhaos [Determined Gaze] at 30%, meaning while you get 15% extra damage, it lasts only two turns before being essentially a useless Memoria Stone after.
*** Critical Tech Memoria Stone's are seen as one of the worst ones in the game. On paper increasing the chance of landing critical hits is good, but not only do most of the effects cap off at very low percentages (at full Awakened the highest percent they increase is only 20%), but their outclassed by Torment Memoria Stones, which give a flat crit damage percent buff instead and and usually scale well as they are Awakened more. Since breaking a HP bar means all attacks become crits, this means its more beneficial to simply focus a team around Torment stones, use base attacks to break the bar, and then unload Mystic Artes onto the boss since they also become boosted by the Memoria Stone's effects. To add to it, the SSR Tech Memoria Stones are the only ones of value if you do try to use them, where as many R and SR Torment Memoria Stones are able to be used over SSR ones, simply because they act as a backup if you lack a specific Torment type.

* TheWoobie: Pretty much everyone in the party can qualify, although Vicious leans more towards JerkassWoobie. All of the heroes (save Vicious) are good people who are labeled Transgressors not because they did something inherently wrong, but because other people took advantage of the system to frame them for something.