Line #113 VideoGame/TalesOfEternia


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Eternia_2305.jpg]]
2
3	''Tales of Eternia''[[note]]''[[MarketBasedTitle Tales of Destiny II]]'' in North America[[/note]] is the third mainline entry in the ''VideoGame/TalesSeries''. The game was released on November 30th, 2000 in Japan on the Platform/PlayStation. It received an international release on September 10th, 2001 in North America, and later ported to Platform/PlaystationPortable in 2005. Eternia is a 2D anime-style RPG with an original real-time battle system taken from its predecessors, ''VideoGame/TalesOfPhantasia'' and ''VideoGame/TalesOfDestiny''. In addition, this game actually introduced many features that are still in use in many VideoGame/TalesSeries games today.
4
5	In the remote farming village of Rasheans, [[TheHero Reid Hershel]] lives a simple and boring life with his best friend, [[TheLancer Farah Oersted]]. That was until the day they witness an airship fall from the sky and crash into the nearby forest. From the wreck emerges a [[MysteriousWaif strange girl]] wearing foreign clothing and [[{{Fictionary}} speaking an alien language]]. Farah [[JumpedAtTheCall jumps at the opportunity]] to help out the girl, and [[TheDragAlong drags the reluctant and lazy Reid]] along for the ride.
6
7	With the help of their childhood friend and [[TheSmartGuy scholar Keele Zeibel]], Reid and Farah discover the terrible warning that the girl (named Meredy) has brought: that the two worlds that make up the ''Eternia'' universe are [[ColonyDrop destined to collide, with apocalyptic consequences]].
8
9	The game inspired ''Tales of Eternia: The Animation'', a [[TheAnimeOfTheGame 13-episode anime series]] co-produced by Creator/ProductionIG, which is loosely based on the game. The series focuses on the four heroes while introducing some new faces in a subplot unrelated to the actual game's plot. All 13 episodes of the series were animated in early 2001.
10
11	In the US, it was called ''Tales of Destiny II'', not to be confused with ''VideoGame/TalesOfDestiny2''. While it was (and still is to some extent) often speculated that this was because Namco wanted to avoid trademark infringement with Creator/{{Mattel}}, who held the trademark to the word "Eternia", [[https://www.ign.com/articles/2001/06/08/tales-of-destiny-2-interview Namco has officially stated]] that the name change was purely for [[MarketBasedTitle brand recognition reasons]], as the only other Tales game to be released in North America at the time was ''VideoGame/TalesOfDestiny''. Confusion ensued when an ''actual'' sequel to ''VideoGame/TalesOfDestiny'' came out in Japan and was called ''Tales of Destiny 2''. The PSP port, which was released in Japan, Europe, and Australia, retained the original ''Tales of Eternia'' title.
12
13	[[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant Has nothing to do with]] [[Franchise/MastersOfTheUniverse THAT Eternia]].
14	----
15
16	!!Tropes:
17
18	* HundredPercentCompletion: One of the most difficult games to try to achieve it in.
19	* AllSwordsAreTheSame: Notably averted. Weapons have separate slashing and thrusting stats, and different swords, or other weapons, may have significantly different balances.
20	* AlternateWorldMap: Celestia, considering the protagonist comes from Inferia and spends the first part of the game there. Next to Inferia, which is your classic fantasy world, it seems almost post-apocalyptic by comparison. This is really due to the elemental makeup; Inferia has the elements of Fire, Water and Wind, so their weather is more natural, their plant life is more lush, and the world itself is warmer, while Celestia has the elements of Earth, Thunder and Ice, so the weather is rife with storms almost all the time, their world is more barren and craggy, and much colder. Furthermore, Inferia is associated with the Craymel of Light (Rem) while Celestia is associated with the Craymel of Darkness (Shadow). Ironically for their contrast in climates, the name Inferia seems to come from Latin ''infernus'', meaning hell, while Celestia comes from ''caelestis'' (also Latin), meaning heaven.
21	* ArtisticLicenseSpace: Though it makes more sense because they essentially go in circles around the Orbus Barrier, Eternia is essentially a binary planet system, which like binary star systems that exist in real life (and are very common in our own Milky Way Galaxy minus our own Sun) seem to orbit a point between the two, though unlike Eternia with its Orbus barrier binary stars orbit the area between them. With Eternia, since they orbit a star themselves, as pointed out on a diagram of its star system in one of Seyfert's shrines, rotation would explain why they both experience day and night. Although it seems they always face each other, it could just be that the continent on Inferia Reid, Farah, and Keele live on does and that Mt. Mitche on Inferia always faces the part of Celestia Keele showed the Reid, Farah, and Meredy with the observatory's telescope on Mt. Mintche, similar to how one side of Earth's moon always faces its planet but still experiences day and night (i.e. the cause of moon phases). In addition, even though Celestia and Inferia are shown to be round on the solar system diagram the party sees, traveling across the northern or southernmost part of the map [[WorldShapes results in the party looping around]].
22	* AwesomeButImpractical: [[spoiler:The Destiny summon]], only useable once every 30 minutes of gameplay, [[spoiler:summons the main characters of the previous game]] to attack a single enemy.
23	* AxCrazy: [[spoiler:Hyades becomes increasingly more insane and inhuman each time you fight him.]]
24	* BagOfHolding: Chat's weapon of choice is a handbag, which holds an unlimited supply of cannonballs and toy hammers for her to hurl at enemies.
25	* BeachEpisode: The whole anime is this, taking place on a beach island and having little to do with the original plot- Until CerebusSyndrome kicks in.
26	* BigEater: Reid. He brings up food ''a lot'', especially in the presence of it, even if that means just smelling it without knowing where it actually is.
27	* BizarreAlienBiology: While Celestians are more similar to a HumanSubspecies than an actual alien, there're already signs of divergent evolution. For example, they have an organ called Elara on their foreheads that has empathic powers.
28	* BlatantLies: [[spoiler:"Ras was the one who did ''all'' the teaching." [[ShoutOut Bull]]. [[WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation Fucking]]. [[ClusterFBomb Shit]].]]
29	* BraggingRightsReward: If you do decide to fight Sekundes, doing so gives you experience and money. It also gives you the Derris Emblem, which unlocks the final ability of the Maxwell summon.
30	* CallingYourAttacks: And unlike VideoGame/TalesOfDestiny, international releases dubbed the voice acting for this.
31	* CardGames: Part way through Gnome's dungeon the party takes a break and Meredy teaches the other to play the Uno-like card game Whis. After that, you can play Whis at any time by selecting it from the item menu.
32	* CatchPhrase:
33	--> '''Max:''' Yeah.
34	--> '''Farah:''' No problem!
35	--> '''Meredy:''' You bet!
36	** In the LetsPlay done by [[https://www.youtube.com/user/PrinceBoo21 PrinceBoo21]] (seen [[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL919222ACD7A7CD1B here]]), he actually keeps running counters for how many times they say their individual phrases.
37	%%* CombinationAttack
38	%%* {{Combos}}
39	* TheComputerIsACheatingBastard: Every mini-game. Especially Craymel Ball. Dear god Craymel Ball...
40	* ColorCodedCastes: Inferians are required to wear color-coded chockers on their necks that mark their castes; Reid and Farah's red is for commoners, while Keele's white is for scholars.
41	* ConvectionSchmonvection: Subverted. In Efreet Gorge, the party needs protection from Undine to survive the heat from the lava.
42	* CoolShip: The ''Van Elita'', a high-tech ship which happens to be a {{pirate}} ship.
43	* CrystalDragonJesus: Seyfert is {{God}}, but his relationship with [[{{Satan}} Nereid]] has an interesting twist, revealed partway through the second disc. In the meantime, Seyfert has several churches, and a ''cathedral'' with the works, including stained glass and organ music.
44	* DeadAllAlong: [[spoiler:Balir, the ruler of Celestia. The heroes think he's the one trying to end the world and a group of Celestians known as Shileska plan to overthrow him, but despite what the general public of Celestia believes, he's been dead for some time.]]
45	* DeconstructedCharacterArchetype: Shares a page with the rest of the franchise [[DeconstructedCharacterArchetype/TalesSeries here]].
46	* DeconstructedTrope: As one might expect of a ''Tales'' game. This was actually the first game in the series to really cut loose with some heavy, stinging deconstructions of common tropes in [[EasternRPG the genre]], however. This includes:
47	** Asking the question, "what kind of person ''would'' effortlessly get involved in a quest to save the world, and stay cheerful and upbeat throughout, without hesitation?" [[spoiler:The answer is "someone who actually isn't very emotionally healthy themselves and is probably trying to avoid their problems", and this person then gets the full extent of their motivations examined at length.]]
48	** A world of light and a world of darkness! One must be good, one must be evil, and they must be opposed, right? [[spoiler:It actually turns out that the residents of either world aren't that different at all, and both societies have their virtues and (deep) flaws. Trying to make a moral judgment just based on where they live is ridiculous.]]
49	** It also deconstructs the ManChild, by examining why an adult or older teenager would act like a young child despite being much older. [[spoiler: When Meredy was six years old, her father was murdered by a racist mob led by Meredy's uncle, Hyades. Meredy's mother, Shizel, subsequently went insane and became possessed by an evil god, killing hundreds of people at once; Meredy and Hyades only survived because as Shizel's biological relatives they could just as easily have been possessed instead. Meredy froze her emotional development for the next ten years because she would have gone catatonic with grief otherwise.]]
50	* DiscOneNuke: You can technically get the [[InfinityPlusOneSword Eternal Blade]] starting from about 1/3 into disc one, with emphasis on the word "technically" since doing so that early would require an excessive amount of LevelGrinding.
51	* DifficultButAwesome: Chat is a very unique character (See LethalJokeCharacter below). However? If the player knows what they're doing, Chat can be one of the best characters in the game able to consistently stunlock.
52	* DoomedHometown: Three of 'em, at various points in the game and flashbacks.
53	%%* EnemyScan
54	* EscortMission: Only one, but it's a nightmare -- the combat system isn't designed to let you defend a non-combatant.
55	** [[spoiler:Shizel]] actually has a heal spell bound. However, the game doesn't let you rebind or even see her techs, so you have to figure it out the hard way.
56	* EvilOverlord: Balir. [[spoiler:Turns out he's been dead for some time and isn't who the heroes, especially Max, are after.]]
57	* EvolvingAttack: 2/3 of Reid and Farah's skills are souped up versions of their basic ones.
58	* FantasticRacism: Not exactly very played up, but Inferians think that Celestians are a race of savage monsters. What the Celestians think of Inferians is only slightly better than that. At least the Inferian party members ended up getting along fine with the people of Meredy's hometown of Imem, who tend to show more curiosity than hostility and only take their weapons out to show off what Celstians use to defend themselves, though for a brief moment the Inferian party members are startled until the townspeople explain ''why'' they took their weapons out, likely because an Inferian (aside from the ones present at the time) probably wouldn't take out a weapon in front of a Celestian merely to show it off.
59	* FranchiseCodifier: This is where the ''VideoGame/TalesSeries'' first entered its modern form by having high level spells play in real time instead of freezing the action, the first character customization system, a greater focus on CharacterDevelopment and the beginning of the series' status as a DeconstructorFleet.
60	* GameplayAndStoryIntegration:
61	** Before you fight Volt, you see Max/Fog walk ''right on up'' and touch him, getting him shocked. Surprisingly, starts the battle at [[HPToOne one health]].
62	** Given that Max isn't the brightest, his ArtificialStupidity might be a hidden form of GameplayAndStoryIntegration. His attacks are ranged and have a long charge time...and unless you tell him otherwise, Max will go right on in, bludgeon a couple times, and then start charging ''right'' in front of enemies' faces.
63	* GameplayAndStorySegregation: Recruiting Chat and Max. Both are optional characters (Aside from the one dungeon with Max), yet they never appear in any scenes where it's possible to have them in your party.
64	* GameOfNim: You can play an "arithmetic contest" MiniGame against a {{NPC}} in Barole that is basically the Game of Nim. It has the additional rule that no more than three tokens can be taken per turn, though. Winning will unlock the "Mathematician" title for Reid, which is kinda deserved because the dev team seems to have implemented a perfect-play algorithm and the game will win if the player makes a single mistake starting with the question, "Who goes first?".
65	* GlobalAirship: The party's ship, the ''Van Elita'', ends up with storage for this as well as submarines.
66	* GlobalCurrencyException: The town called Jini uses, "Jini" rather than Gald (normal money) for most of its services.
67	* GodIsGood: And He even gives you all the moves you need to beat Nereid with. ''And'' His voice congratulates you in the ending. What a guy.
68	* GuideDangIt: Just ''try'' finding all those Lenses on your own, as well as the entrance to the town of Jini. We'll wait.
69	%%* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:Ras]].
70	* HiddenElfVillage: Even though it has no particular reason to be hidden, the Celestian town of Jini can only be entered by going through an underwater cave with the Aifish. Despite Jini's actual location being south of the non-hidden town of Peruti, the entrance is actually quite far from there, so looking up the coordinates for the entrance after getting the GPS is the easiest way to find it.
71	* HopelessBossFight: Fortunately, you get your ass handed to you so fast, there's no mistaking this for anything else.
72	** In fact, if you manage to survive and reduce the boss to half HP, the game immediately cuts to the aftermath as if nothing had happened without so much as a victory screen or any acknowledgment whatsoever.
73	*** Unless you kill him really, REALLY fast (impossible without cheating in some form). But then, he's only worth 300 experience, which is the equivalent of about 4 regular battles.
74	* HPToOne: Eternal Finality, particularly during the HopelessBossFight in Disc 2.
75	** One of Cless's' [[LimitBreak Hi-Ougis]] in the Cameo Battle, Final Justice, also has this effect.
76	** In fact, many hi-ougis will not kill their targets (leaving them at 1 HP instead) except for the last hit. Holy Lance has the same effect (those 100 damage hits the lances do will never kill its target, only the damage procured from the explosion will). Admittedly trivial pursuit but hey.
77	** Max starts off with this after he touches Volt.
78	* HumanSubspecies: While there are some notable differences, Inferians and Celestians are more akin to human's subspecies. Judging from Chat's family tree, Celestians and Inferians are still cross-fertile.
79	%%* ILetYouWin: Ras
80	* ImpossiblyCoolClothes: Meredy's dress is so outstandingly cool that Farah has to lend her something less flashy to begin traveling. If you bother yourself to translate, Meredy comments that "it is a little plain..." in Melnics.
81	* ImprobableWeaponUser. Meredy equips whistles, to command her NonHumanSidekick to attack.
82	* InfinityPlusOneSword: It should be noted that the Eternal Sword was only the ultimate weapon in terms of sheer power, sacrificing other stats for it. Not to mention its Time element weakens it against certain enemies. The game had a few other weapons like it too. The true InfinityPlusOneSword was the Last Fencer. While not as strong in terms of sheer strength, it had no element, and the advantage of raising all stats at once. It also may or may not be [[ShoutOut named after one of titles]] Cless gets in ''VideoGame/TalesOfPhantasia''.
83	* ItSucksToBeTheChosenOne: In a VideoGame/TalesSeries game...this is to be expected; but this is probably one of the first to ''really'' do this. If you bear fibril of Seyfert, make sure you went all the trials before invoking it or else you die. (And even then; you have to put yourself at death's door to use it!) If you have Nereid's fibril? [[spoiler:Invoking it may result in him possessing you!]]
84	* KatanasAreJustBetter: The ninja sword (found in a pirate storehouse!) is one of the [[InfinityMinusOneSword best swords in the game]], with highly balanced stats and good damage output.
85	* KillerRabbit: Literally. Rabbit-like enemies called Rapid Rabbits appear during random encounters on Celestia, and they don't look very threatening and tend to be easier to defeat than a lot of enemies at that point. A [[UndergroundMonkey pink]] PaletteSwap called the Pink Hopper appears a bit later in the game, and it looks even less threatening.
86	* LaResistance: Shileska, a group of Celestian rebels. Unlike Inferians' obedience to their king, not all Celestians are content with their regime. [[spoiler:And said regime turns out to actually be led by someone different than everyone thought and that the original ruler was dead.]]
87	* LargeHam: Max. Boy howdy, Max.
88	* LastDiscMagic: [[spoiler:Reid's Aurora Skills, difficult to use against random encounters, but essential to beat the last boss.]]
89	** Any of Maxwell and Sekundes' spells. ''Especially'' Shooting Star, which requires you to grind them both up to level 26.
90	* LethalJokeCharacter: Chat. She's pathetically weak unless you do a bunch of sidequests and exploring, but once you do she has a very good stun rate with her weird artes and Eternal Throw can easily stun lock bosses.
91	* LethalLavaLand: Efreet Gorge, home of the Craymel Efreet. Since the game's designers know what convection is, the party has to have temporary protection from the heat via Undine's water abilities, so exploration of the area is essentially timed since her HP runs out over time (running out more quickly in the presence of fire).
92	* LimitBreak: [[spoiler:The aforementioned Aurora Skills, Farah's ShoutOut attacks, the mage's extended Indignation, Chat's Eternal Hammer, and Max's Elemental Master... wow, plenty.]]
93	* LongSongShortScene: Dragon Rock Mountain, the music for Dragon Rock Mountain, a Celestian mountain. The music would fit right in if used for an outdoor dungeon, but the heroes cross the mountain in question by train instead of by foot, so this song only ends up playing at the train station where the heroes board a train outbound for the other side of the mountain.
94	* LukeIAmYourFather: [[spoiler:Meredy's mother, Shizel.]] However, she knew about it the whole time.
95	* TheManBehindTheMan: [[spoiler:Here, it's 'The god behind the woman behind the man'.]]
96	%%* MagicalIncantation
97	* MarketBasedTitle: [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] due to brand recognition reasons, but things got confusing when ''VideoGame/TalesOfDestiny'' got a direct sequel.
98	* MedievalEuropeanFantasy: Inferia is pretty much this way, but this is not the case with Celestia. If the spaceship in the intro didn't make it obvious enough, the first town visited in Celestia, Imem, has electric lighting and telephones while the biggest city, Tinnsia, has moving walkways and escalators connecting the town's areas. Tinnsia is basically a real-world modern city.
99	* MedievalStasis: Inferia, which incidentally had been cut off from the more technologically advanced Celestia for centuries until Meredy travels from the latter to the former.
100	* NewGamePlus: Only exists via the game not allowing you to enter the BonusDungeon or playing the [[HarderThanHard Hardcore]] difficulty level without the save file being marked as "cleared", and the game only marks new save files as such by default. Thankfully it's not too difficult to circumvent.
101	* OminousPipeOrgan: Features prominently in the background theme for Mt. Farlos. Fitting, as it's a holy yet dangerous mountain.
102	* OnlySmartPeopleMayPass: Subverted in Volt's Ruins. [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments Hilariously.]] At the beginning of the dungeon, since the smart guy of the group, Keele, isn't present for that dungeon, the party doesn't know how to get in. Max, whom the party ended up finding out isn't the brightest, ends up charging head-first into the door, breaking it open, and walking out covered in dust (which he then brushes off).
103	* OptionalBoss: Sekundes, the Greater Craymel of Time, doesn't require the heroes to fight him for him to join as with the other Craymels. However, fighting him is still an option for players who want to and doing so is required to be able to use Maxwell's extensions.
104	* OptionalPartyMember: Handled strangely, to say the least. You don't ever ''have'' to take Chat along with you, but getting her on your party is as easy as speaking with her on the ship any time after recruiting Celsius. Max ''is'' forced for at least dungeon, but after that you have to go speak to him again at his hideout to get him to join.
105	* OrderVersusChaos: The key difference between the societies on Inferia and Celestia. The two worlds show both the positives and the negatives of their respective approaches.
106	** Inferian society is very orderly, with clear chains of command. Laws are clearly defined and resources are managed well, and they have enjoyed peace for so long that no one in the royal army has any real combat experience against other humans. The dark side is that class differences are a major issue, and the advancement of knowledge is restricted on the whims of king and church, with dissidents facing execution in some cases.
107	** Celestian society is very egalitarian and grants many personal freedoms. The free exchange of knowledge has allowed them great technological progress. In exchange there are frequent conflicts over territory and resources, to the point of anarchy in some places.
108	* PointOfNoReturn: The Bridge of Light, which allows travel from Inferia to Celestia but not the other way around. The heroes are aware of this before they cross it since they learned about it in Inferia City but later do so anyway due to their mission. [[spoiler:Of course, the heroes do find a way to go back and forth, thanks to a device, the Relay Point, the pirate Aifread used to travel between the worlds, and do so because they end up having to go back to Inferia. However, this time they travel between worlds it isn't a point of no return -- they can go back and forth anytime after that.]]
109	* PowerCreepPowerSeep: [[spoiler:The cameo bosses, Cless and Arche from Tales of Phantasia, now sport thousands of HP and insta-cast spells, in typical boss fashion.]]
110	** Those "thousands of HP" is deceiving as Cless has 90% resistance to every element including physical attacks, and Arche 80%. Effectively they have tens of thousands of HP.
111	* PunnyName: Sekundes. [[WhoNamesTheirKidDude That's his name]].
112	** The game also has the Gentallman enemy that randomly appears in Gnome's Mine, whose name refers to the fact that it is a very tall and vaguely humanoid monster.
113	* SaveGameLimits: You can save anywhere in a dungeon, but when loading you will be thrown back to the last [[CheckPoint Load Point]].
114	* SaintlyChurch: Played with ''and'' played straight. The church of Seyfert is composed of good people, but Keele outright saying "Dark Matter is the sign of the apocalypse" when it's [[spoiler:(albeit incorrectly)]] seen as a sign of Seyfert's second coming was not exactly the best idea he'd ever had...
115	* ShorterMeansSmarter: Inverted. This is touched on more in the anime than the game. Keele becomes taller than Reid when he goes off to the university and is the group's squishy wizard. Reid, on the other hand, is the dumb hunter/fighter.
116	* ShoutOut: Lots and lots - Eternia's one of those games.
117	** Summon Destiny. It summons the main heroes of ''VideoGame/TalesOfDestiny'' to perform their {{Limit Break}}s on an enemy. The object itself is also Stahn's sword Dymlos.
118	** Other Namco characters, notably Klarth F. Lester from ''VideoGame/TalesOfPhantasia'' and the Swordian Clemente from ''VideoGame/TalesOfDestiny'', give the [[PopQuiz Pop Quizzes]] in Mintche University.
119	** The list of "Missing Books" in said university - all weapons used by Klarth.
120	** Cless (and, optionally, Arche) in the arena. The reward for beating him is the [[InfinityPlusOneSword Eternal Sword]] and Cless' Headband.
121	** The Summon of Time. [[spoiler:Not at all Dhaos, the BigBad of ''VideoGame/TalesOfPhantasia'', right down to the attacks and battle music. There's even a special event if you finish him with Indignation.]]
122	*** Keele or Meredy will recite the Indignation incantation and hit Sekundes for 100,000 damage.
123	--->'''Keele/Meredy''': Heavens light, shine upon thee! Gates of Hell, open your passage! Strike, lightning of the Heavens! [[CallingYourAttacks Indignation!]]
124	** In preparation for Celsius' mountain, your characters have to buy winter wear, and you can have some of the characters try on weird things. One of them is the Thief costume, which you can have Farah try out - it's Rutee's getup from ''VideoGame/TalesOfDestiny''. Farah even references Rutee before rejecting the costume ([[{{Stripperiffic}} for obvious reasons, since you're climbing a mountain in a blizzard]]).
125	** Mint, the WhiteMagicianGirl in ''VideoGame/TalesOfPhantasia'', is the angel that revives your characters when you cast Resurrection. The background during the spell also show a close-up of her opening her eyes, straight from the animation of ''Phantasia'''s opening theme.
126	** In the same sense, Arche the SquishyWizard shows up in one of the spell animations to blast your enemies with meteors. There's also a way to temporarily turn either one of your mages into her UnexpectedSHMUPLevel incarnation from [=PS1=] version of VideoGame/TalesOfPhantasia, allowing them to fly around the screen and shoot the enemies with spells.
127	** You can get Stahn's trademark Deck Brush if you poke around your CoolShip.
128	** Speaking of non-Tales Of related cameos, an optional dungeon (which contains an essential part of the GlobalAirship ) sports Rick Taylor from ''VideoGame/{{Splatterhouse}}'', the undead samurai from ''Genpei Toma Den'' and spirit world statues from ''Shadowland'', not to mention that one of the {{Optional Boss}}es is the Valkyrie from ''The Legend of Valkyrie'' (her dungeon even has the same music from the first level of that game).
129	** The equipment shop in Barole has a genuine suit of [[VideoGame/TalesOfPhantasia Cless]]'s armor, cape and all, hanging on the side. It's easy to miss.
130	** The Water Craymel Lab has a shoutout to ''Phantasia'' that you can find once you get Keele in your party.
131	--->"If evil exists in the world, Craymels are at the heart of mankind."
132	** Reid's' true InfinityPlusOneSword, the Last Fencer, may or may not be named after one of the titles Cless can get in ''VideoGame/TalesOfPhantasia''.
133	** One of the collectibles in this game are lens. Yes, [[VideoGame/TalesOfDestiny those lens]]. You can show your lens to one [[TheCameo Ilene Rembrandt]] for various rewards. Getting all 60 gives you the "Lens Hunter" title. "Lens Hunter" was Rutee's self-proclaimed job in the last game.
134	* SlapOnTheWristNuke: Averted: The final boss actually has an attack which instantly wipes out the entire party, the only way to survive it is to use the Aurora Artes to block it.
135	* SlippySlideyIceWorld: Mt. Celsius, home to, well, Celsius. Until she's defeated, the nearby port town of Peruti ends up being covered in ice and snow as well.
136	* SpritePolygonMix: Characters and battle scenes are pretty much all 2D, while environments have more 3D components.
137	* SquishyWizard: Taking the archetype to its extreme is Keele, who wields the powers of the Craymels to devastate his foes, reads eldritch texts and unlocks the secrets of the universe, and ''forces the party to rest half way through every dungeon due to getting winded''.
138	* StatGrinding: Reid, who has separate attack stats for slashing and thrusting like his predecessors, has skill levels for them, and Farah has a similar situation with hand and foot attacks. However, everything else is based on experience points, rather than having everything this way as in most games using this trope such as ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyII'', and since the actual stats are increased with experience points, the skill levels for Reid and Farah essentially do the same job as TechPoints in other games with the exception that instead of getting points from battles that increase those skill levels, they come from successfully pulling off such attacks to level them up.
139	* StylishProtectionGear: The party gets some warm, but nice looking, clothes (even changing the sprites) to take on Mt. Celsius.
140	* SuperMovePortraitAttack: The first game in the series to use these.
141	* TakeOverTheWorld: Amusingly, this is actually Max's, a heroes', secondary goal after defeating Balir. None of the party seems terribly bothered by it, but that may be because they don't suspect a lot of harm out of someone like [[BoisterousBruiser him.]] Also, since the current head of state of Celestia is decided by means of KlingonPromotion, becoming the ruler of the world is pretty much an unavoidable aspect of deposing the current big guy.
142	* TechTree: In addition to getting a better version of a tech by using a weaker version enough times, using at least two techs enough times unlocks a tech that combines elements of each one used, and techs are also learned by increasing Reid's slash and thrust levels and Farah's hand and foot levels.
143	* ThereAreNoTents: Averted. You ALWAYS have access to a tent.
144	* ThirdPersonPerson: Meredy. At first, it appears to be a fluke of the [[TranslatorMicrobes Orz Earring]] translation, but this along with a bit of HulkSpeak persists throughout the entire game, even after you visit her land and speak to hundreds of her kind who lack these speech quirks.
145	* TimedMission: Sort of. In Efreet Gorge, the party is protected from the heat by Undine, whose HP gradually runs out over time and runs out faster when the party walks through fire. If Undine's HP runs out, the party ends up losing their own HP from the heat. Undine's HP can be restored by exiting and reentering the dungeon and fortunately, there's a Load Point at the entrance of this dungeon much like just about every other dungeon in the game, so it's possible to save when HP is low, reset the game, and reload from there.
146	* TookALevelInBadass: '''Hyades'''. The first time you see him, he's a SquishyWizard with two spells he'll never be able to get off once you close to melee range. Later encounters has him [[ThatOneBoss MUCH more powerful.]] He also seems to have taken a level in AxCrazy in the meantime as well, but that's another matter.
147	* TranslatorMicrobes: Melnics magically gets turned into English (sorry, Inferian) thanks to the Orz Earrings given to the first four members of the party. Of course, they don't work perfectly and at first Meredy's Melnics isn't translated and later on there's still some occasional Melnics that isn't translated.
148	* UselessUsefulSpell: The Summon Spirit of Ice grants you her immunity against Freeze, which if inflicted on every character means Game Over. All of this occurs AFTER the only dungeon in which it could have been useful. (There are a few enemies here and there that can still Freeze, but only the final boss and the bonus boss are worth switching Craymel setups to get this.) Like this, MANY examples.
149	* WarmupBoss: [[spoiler:Hyades,]] as the first boss of the game, [[ThatOneBoss bizarrely, given his next two encounters]]. The first time you see him, unless on higher difficulty, he's a full-out SquishyWizard with no moves at his disposal aside from two spell, and it's trivially easy to surround and stun-lock him to death with Reid and Farah such that he can't complete a spell charge-up.
150	* WeHardlyKnewYe: [[spoiler:Ras who? Oh, right! The GuestStarPartyMember...]]
151	* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: Early on, Reid and Keele casually bring down an Egg Bear. [[spoiler:Reid is put through a guilt trip for this later, when he experiences the event through the Egg Bear's eyes. Even you are probably going to feel at least a little sorry for the thing.]]
152	* YinYangBomb: Figures prominently in the ending.
153	** Actually, the general idea of Inferia and Celestia (essentially, light and dark) coming together is notable through the whole game; the team is exactly half Inferian and Celestian, provided you pick up Max and Chat, [[spoiler:Meredy is technically a half breed, but considers herself Celestian,]] the number of Craymels you obtain is evenly split between the two worlds in number, [[spoiler: And the Inferian and Celestian technology together pierces the shield over Shizel's castle.]]
154	** It also figures prominently in gameplay. Giving Meredy and Keele the Craymels from their respective homeworlds gets the job done, but the strongest spells are made available by giving both mages a roughly equal number of Inferian and Celestian Craymels.

Context VideoGame / TalesOfEternia