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Dwarven Vow #1: "Let's all work together for a peaceful world."
The fifth game in Namco's famous Tales Series, and the third to ever be released outside of Japan. It stands as the top selling game in the entire series, and the only one to break a million copies sold.
Tales of Symphonia is set in the land of Sylvarant, where the mana, the lifeforce of the world, is being slowly drained away through the actions of the evil Desians. The storyline follows Idiot Hero Lloyd Irving as he is, after some complications, made to guard The Chosen One, his childhood friend Colette, as she sets out on a pilgrimage to activate some Summoned Monsters and return mana to the world. Aiding them on the pilgrimage and filling out the Five Man Band are Bratty Half Pint Genis, who is Lloyd's other childhood friend, Professor Raine, Genis' older sister, and Badass Stoic mercenary Kratos... Any parts about this plot or its characters start to sound familiar yet?
The storyline takes only a few hours to drop its first plot twist on you, after which it is followed by the rapid introduction of new major characters, rivaling factions and Not So Fast Bucko moments galore as the true plot begins to unfold, resulting in a game that's gone through enough plot for two games before you've even finished Disc 1... And just refuses to quit doing it even through Disc 2.
Like many of its predecessors, Tales of Symphonia retained the real-time battle system, the use of food as healing items, the famous summon spirits, and the games' general tendency to include lots of Character Development, themes of discrimination and alienation, and a villain with considerably deeper motives than simply being Ax Crazy and openly evil. The game also contained numerous references to the first game in the series, Tales Of Phantasia, which turned out to be because it (Symphonia) is a Prequel set in the same world as Phantasia, a few thousand years before.
The first part of the game was adapted into an anime OVA during the fall of 2007; as can be expected from having a ten-hour arc condensed into four episodes totaling two hours, quite a lot of Adaptation Distillation was inevitably included — four additional OVAs are planned to cover more of the story, set to launch in Spring 2010. A manga was published that covered the events of the first game and the ending becomes the first game's canon ending according to the second game (See The Pikachu Effect below).
A sequel for the game called Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World (originally titled Knight of Ratatosk in Japan) was released for the Wii in 2008.
This game provided examples of (of the less spoileriffic kind):
- Absurdly Spacious Sewer (Meltokio. When Zelos and co. are arrested the party uses this to continue to come and go from Meltokio. It has doors, trash compactors, stairs, and bridges.)
- Accidental Pervert (Lloyd received the title "Peeping Tom" when he caught Zelos (Who ran when the girls heard noises) spying on the girls in the hot springs.)
- Action Girl (Sheena. The animated intro also shows Raine doing some pretty crazy stuff with her staff. Raine is actually quite a good melee fighter aside from the lack of non-magic techniques.)
- Adaptation Distillation - For some fans, the OVA is an excellent example of distilled adaptation.
- Adventure Rebuff
- Aerith And Bob (and it works)
- All There In The Manual (Tales of Fandom Vol. 2 has skits that reveal the background of Yuan and Kratos before they became Mithos' companions. They were soldiers that fought on opposites side of the war in Symphonia's backstory.)
- Always Save The Girl
- And I Must Scream (Borderline — if one is killed while wearing a Cruxis Crystal or its infantile form, the crystal absorbs the wearer's consciousness and slowly 'digests' it. The disembodied soul can interact with the outside world, so much as this is possible without a body. However, it's made clear that what happened to Martel Yggdrasill due to her brother's desire to resurrect her, and what happens to Colette after she "sacrifices her heart and memories" are true examples of this trope, and it's also hinted that Marble and Anna may have some form of consciousness, yet are unable to interact with anything..)
- And Man Grew Proud (The Ancient Kharlan War.)
- Apocalypse Maiden
- Apologises A Lot (Colette. She even says she's sorry for saying she's sorry.)
- If we're going by sheer amount, Lloyd and Regal take the cake here.
- However Colette, unlike Lloyd and Regal, apologises mostly when she doesn't have to.
- And Regal actually apologizes when he needs to.
- Arbitrary Headcount Limit (Four out of a maximum of eight members can fight; lampshaded by Gnome when remarking that "you fight dirty" four-on-one... ignoring the fact that half of your party were apparently just standing there, staring dumbstruck, instead of making it eight-on-one)
- Armed Legs (Regal.)
- The Atoner (Lloyd helps Colette partly to help atone for his part in Iselia's destruction; later on, the party is joined by Regal, who embodies this trope)
- Don't forget Kratos, either.
- Awesome But Impractical (Summons, Colette's Sacrifice spell, any of the Hi-Ougis.)
- An Axe To Grind (Presea.)
- Battle Royale With Cheese (When assaulting the Tower of Salvation in Tethe'alla, every single memeber of your party ends up "dying" one by one... until you make it to the end and they all pop up and inform you that they were saved. So pointless!)
- Beach Episode (Well, cutscene, at least. In addition to gaining new titles and outfits, you also raise the Relationship Values of whomever you choose to accompany you.)
- Beam Spam (JUDGEMENT !!!!!)
- Betty And Veronica (The game's most strongly hinted at pairings for Lloyd is the sweet, blond Colette (Betty) and the tough, dark-haired Sheena (Veronica).)
- Big Bad Mithos Yggdrassil
- Black And White Morality (Deconstructed. Lloyd believes the world works this way at first, and a large part of his Character Development is learning to fight for actual reasons rather than just "because those guys are evil".)
- Blatant Lies Lloyd says that "Killing won't solve anything!" in the final dungeon,
despite the fact that they are here to kill the Final Boss.
- Correction- they're here to STOP the final boss, not to kill him. True, that's what stopping him meant, but they were not there with the purpose of killing him, and in fact Lloyd laments over the fact that they were unable to avoid killing said final boss.
- And that so far, killing has solved EVERYTHING
- Bonus Dungeon (Niflheim)
- Book Dumb (Lloyd.)
- Bottomless Bladder
- Break The Cutie (Colette. Even though she doesn't break.)
- But Now I Must Go (Kratos.)
- Calling Your Attacks (All of them. Except for Collette when she loses her voice, using a special in combat will result in this trope.)
- Captain Ersatz (Maybe, but the similarities between Colette and SaiKano's Chise are high in number and down right creepy at times.)
- This Troper and one of his friends has accidentally switched the names for Colette and Flonne in casual conversation. Both ways. It doesn't help that they're both flat-chested blondes who preach about love and are angels.
- Ditto for Lloyd and Ichiro Ogami.
- It doesn't help that Kosuke Fujishima did the character designs for both.
- Not to mention Zelos and Sha Gojyo. At least one particular version.
- Capulet Counterpart (Sheena. True to form, she can fall in love with Lloyd depending on the Relationship Values.)
- Chained By Fashion (Regal.)
- Character Development (Lots of it.)
- Chaste Hero (Lloyd. Until the Sequel.)
- Chef Of Iron (Regal)
- Cherry Tapping (The player is given a special title for using only wooden swords until halfway through the journey of Regeneration.)
- Chivalrous Pervert (Zelos.)
- The Chosen One
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder (Yuan and Kratos.)
- Cliche Storm (Deliberate in the early stages, and in true Tales Of fashion, is subverted hard the rest of the game.)
- Combat Medic (Regal is an inversion, being a primarily melee fighter with some healing capabilities.)
- Complete Monster (Every Desian Grand Cardinal is one, but Kvar gets special mention for killing Lloyd's mother) as well as Rodyle for dabbling in sociopathic mad science of Hojo level depravity.
- And then Rodyle tops Hojo by ''flooding a room full of captive people who are trying to escape. And you can't save them. All you can do is watch as they drown. Moral Event Horizon... crossed!
- Forcystus has some supposed offscreen Pet The Dog moments and is described as being "kind to his kinsmen and underlings," and even stopped a genocidal band of humans from killing fellow half-elves. However, he's already far across the Moral Event Horizon from the get-go by massacring a village, turning one of the main character's friends into a monster and forcing them to fight each other, and running a futuristic Concentration Camp. From what we can see, the irony never caught up with him and allows him to to arguably remain a Complete Monster like his fellow Grand Cardinals.
- But to be fair, considering how horrible the treatment of half-elves is, it's more likely that he had to become a Complete Monster to survive the Crapsack World.
- Let's face it. It's not just the Grand Cardinals. From their leadership, down to the lowliest Mooks, the Desians are an entire army of Complete Monsters.
- Crapsaccharine World (The bright, cutesy graphics do a great job covering the dark, Nightmare Fuel ridden story...)
- Critical Annoyance Genis: "WE'RE GONNA DIE..."
- Crystal Dragon Jesus (The Church of Martel, which has a very Catholic bent to it.)
- And while we're on the subject, the game subverts the idea of a Corrupt Church because the priests, and Martel, are actually very good people/beings. It's just that the Tethe'allan Pope is a wanker. Unfortunately, he's the one in charge and the Martel Knights aren't much better.
- Cultural Cross Reference (In the beach sidequest of the first game, the names of the four girls you're supposed to find easily remind you of a certain book series that is beloved by the Japanese. Amy, Jo, Beth, and Meg make cameo appearances. Seriously. Bonus points to Jo apparently being a Bokkuko here, and having Amy be blonde)
- Cute Bruiser (Presea, as well as Colette once she gains more angel abilities. She even lifts an unconscious Regal with one arm at one point.)
- Cut Scene Power To The Max: Kratos, in cutscenes, can kill, stun, or block pretty much anything with a dramatic flash of light and a single attack. In battle, he's not so hot. Also, all the characters with wings don't use them very often.
- Not to mention the fact that a single Demon Fang from Lloyd can horribly wound Magnius and Mithos in a cutscene. A Fireball (or three) from Genis yields similar results.
- Not really. It's more like a stunning attack than anything (let's face it, would you be okay after taking a surprise shockwave to the face?
- However, this is probably to do with the fact that the player can miss out on future techs if they don't level up, which would have led to all sorts of complications.
- Hey, at least the game recognises special moves and lets the characters use them rather than running into Why Dont Ya Just Shoot Him territory.
- Damn You Muscle Memory (Going from a later game like Abyss, Innocence, or Vesperia to Symphonia can be really frustrating, because Symphonia predated free run.)
- Dark Is Edgy (Shadow, Pronyma.)
- Dark Reprise (Zelos' and Colette's themes.)
- Defeat Means Friendship (Just about anyone you fight without killing.)
- Definitely Just A Cold (Colette for a large part of the game.)
- Determinator (Half the damn cast, Lloyd being the primary culprit. It's also deconstructed with the Big Bad, whose main character flaw is in many ways his inability to Know When To Fold Em, something Lloyd does know.)
- Death Of The Author (A good portion of the game's Fan Dumb take this stance, and blindly ignore any Word Of God. It's mostly related to Shipping though.)
- Die For Our Ship (Colette, by some Lloyd/Sheena fans; sometimes they don't even hate her, just "need" to bash her because she's "in the way".)
- Disc One Final Dungeon (First there's the first visit to the Tower of Salvation in Sylvarant, then it's the Second trip to the Tower of Salvation in Tethe'alla (the third trip to the tower overall). And then after that, it's Torent Forest. Some people got a little burnt out by the time the third one came around.)
- Distressed Damsel (Colette is kidnapped twice during the course of the game. Well, three times if she's the Victorious Childhood Friend )
- The Ditz (Colette.)
- Dojikko (Colette, complete with Efficient Displacement. It's called a "divine clumsiness" at one point. She even trips after she gets wings!)
- Doomed Hometown (Iselia is burned by Desians and Lloyd is banished for being partially to blame for it.)
- Also, Presea's hometown of Ozette is destroyed rather arbitrarily, Luin also becomes completely wrecked, and so does Heimdall...basically, half the hometowns you go to wind up getting thrashed.
- To b quite honest, Luin was asking for it. That's what you get when your town's name can be written as Ruin.
- Dual Wielding (Lloyd; the fact that dual-wielding is an unusual combat style is lampshaded by Kratos at one point; Lloyd's (rather poorly thought-out) response is the trope's page quote.)
- Dumb Is Good (Lloyd and Colette are both rather dim-witted and seem much 'nicer' when compared to the smarter Genis, Raine and Kratos.)
- Durable Deathtrap
- Emotionless Girl (Presea. She comes to her senses at the worst possible time, though... Also Colette, as she begins to become an angel. Thankfully, she gets better.)
- Empty Room Psych (In Welgaia, there is a building with several floors, each with two identical small rooms. Almost all of them are completely barren.)
- Enigmatic Minion (Kratos.)
- Et Tu Brute (Zelos at the final dungeon, complete with the hero's exclamations of disbelief)
- Everythings Better With Princesses
- Everythings Precious With Puppies (A sidequest involves naming all the dogs.)
- Evil Costume Switch (Kratos after The Reveal.)
- Extremity Extremist (Regal, with his feet.)
- Fake Defector (Zelos, depending on your ending. Also Kratos, but he's much sneakier about it.)
- Fan Preferred Couple (Quite a few examples since Lloyd can be paired off with anyone, but notably Lloyd/Sheena.)
- Fanservice (Sheena's alternate outfits, as well as a visit to the beach and a hot spring. The massive amounts of Ship Tease also count.)
- Fantastic Racism (The discrimination against half-elves is a recurring element in the series.)
- The Fatalist (Kratos.)
- Fauxshadow (The character Genis is foreshadowed to betray you. He doesn't.)
- Fight In The Nude (Characters will only be shown using their most basic (and generic) weapons, with a few exceptions: Lloyd's model goes from wooden swords to basic metal swords after the second town. Kratos will equip the Flamberge after a certain event. And Lloyd will have the Material Blades after you earn them. Characters will also only use their most basic special attacks in cut scenes, because attacks are split across "Strike" and "Technical", and on top of that, you're allowed to delete known attacks, so it'll only show attacks that you can't not know. So expect to see a lot of Firebal, Demon Fang, and Force Field.)
- Five Man Band (the initial guard for the Chosen, during the first part of the game - the archetypes begin falling apart once the party size expands to eight)
- Foreshadowing (Lots of it.)
- For The Cel Of It
- Fragile Speedster (Sheena. However, she's not the fastest character in the game— that'd be Lloyd.)
- Fridge Brilliance (Noishe, while only ided as a "dog" or "protozoa" quite clearly fits the description of a Cu Sith (pronounced "coo shee") of Scottish Mythology. In case you don't get it, it rhymes.)
- It does? Did the English version mess it up then?
- This troper thought the end sequence music was very nice, then realized it was very familiar. Of course it's the same tune used in the end sequence of Tales Of Phantasia
- Fun With Acronyms (The sequel uses the (deep breath) "Flex Range Element Enhanced Linear Motion Battle System" (FREE-LiMBS).)
- Funny Aneurysm Moment (The ending becomes a lot less hopeful for people who have played Tales Of Phantasia and realize that once Yggdrassil's system of mana distribution fell, it eventually lead to exactly what he was trying to prevent — another great Magitek war that destroyed all advanced human civilization on the planet.)
- Gainax Ending (Hoo boy. After defeating the final boss: Lloyd remerges the worlds, and the Eternal Sword then vanishes. Then the Summon Spirits appear to tell them that the Seed and Derris Kharlan are leaving and the world is gonna quickly die of mana deprivation without them. The heroes think they're screwed without the Sword, but Lloyd needs to try to save the world anyway, and so his Exsphere reacts and he promptly sprouts angel wings, of a completely different style compared to Colette's, and flies to the Seed along with Colette. When they reach the Seed, they think it's too late, but then the Eternal Sword randomly shows up again, and with its power they germinate the Seed.
- But we're not done! As the Seed falls to Earth, Tabitha, the Artificial Human made as a failed attempt to create a mechanical vessel for Mithos's sister Martel, is standing in the ruins of the Tower, and the seed falls on top of her, opens up, and she's infused with a whole crapton of spirits we've never seen before, including Mithos's sister, and when Lloyd and Colette come down to earth, she introduces herself as the Goddess Martel, the Goddess that Mithos made up for his Path Of Inspiration. She's made up of all those spirits, and is the new guardian of the new World Tree. She shows the heroes what the Tree will look like when its grown (which looks like the Game Over scren), and tells them that in its current state, it will die, so they have to give it happy thoughts or something, and Lloyd has to give it a new name. Then Lloyd goes "This tree's name is- *CREDITS*
- Wow. The credits to a good job of ungainaxing it a bit, but that ending is just weird.
- The name thing is a bit of a joke. The game is a prequel to Tales Of Phantasia, which features a Mana Tree, inhabited by the Goddess Martel, and is set thousands of years later. The name of the tree in that? Yggdrasil, same as the mythological tree and the villain of Symphonia. They didn't say it probably to be funny and/or keep from making the connection between the games even more obvious than it already was.
- Gainaxing (visible on Martel in the ending cutsceen, coincidentally, Gainax did the animation...)
- Game Breaker (Colette's Toss Hammer
 ; Para Ball being another example.)
- Gameplay And Story Segregation (Suffers pretty bad from it, considering how powerful the party becomes. Notably averted when Raine gets the Unicorn's Horn, and when Colette loses her voice.)
- Glass Cannon (Colette, Genis, and Sheena. Especially frustrating with Genis and Sheena, since their most powerful attacks rely on them getting into Overlimit first, which requires them to get hit at least a few times.)
- Good Bad Bug (Tech Glitch.)
- Also of note: For the final boss fight with Mithos, in the beginning cut-scene, the final boss will randomly not move at all. He will just stand there, talking to you, mouth not moving, arms lifeless, body totally inert. This is made even more chilling when you listen to his speech about becoming a lifeless being.
- Good Is Dumb (All party members gained through Defeat Means Friendship.)
- Good Morning Crono (Done with a twist; Lloyd is standing while sleeping and is beaned with an eraser by Raine to wake him up.)
- One must consider that Lloyd was standing at the back of the class holding full pails of water as punishment for his latest (assumed) misdeed. He fell asleep while being punished! Raine had to wake him up! And his response is priceless: "Oh, Professor Raine—Er, is class over?" Face Palm.
- Go Out With A Smile (Colette, as she's about to lose her soul is smiling and thanking Lloyd for being there for her.)
- Go Through Me (Happens a couple of times with varying results.)
- Grand Theft Me (Yggdrassil's primary goal is to use a suitable Chosen as a host body for his sister's mind.)
- Guide Dang It (Lots of moments, but the "Hard Path", the Relationship Values, and the Hi-Ougis get special notice.)
- Hachi Maki: Is that what that utterly ridiculous neck-tie-thing Lloyd's always sporting is?
- Hair Of Gold: (Colette.)
- Half Human Hybrid (Half-elves.)
- Hammer Space (Seles's purse. Also: Colette has true Hammer Space, because her Pow Hammer-series spawn hammers out of nowhere.)
- Handsome Lech (Zelos. It's all an act.)
- Heads I Win Tails You Lose (Kratos' second fight.)
- Heel Face Revolving Door (Kratos, Zelos and Yuan.)
- Hello Nurse (Sheena, lampshaded mercilessly by Zelos.)
- Heroes Prefer Swords (Lloyd.)
- Heroic BSOD (Lloyd suffers one after Colette loses her soul.)
- Hero Secret Service (Above mentioned Five Man Band, and eventually also the rest of the party in regards to Lloyd.)
- Heroic Sacrifice (Much to Lloyd's dismay, there's quite a few. Some end without people ending up dead. Others... don't.)
- He Who Fights Monsters (Forcystus runs a Human Ranch and looks down on humans as inferior beings like the rest of the Desians, he even thinks an appropriate punishment for breaking a non-agression pact is to pit Lloyd and Genis against a mutated Marble. What made him join in the first place? He fought and defeated an army of humans who were committing genocide against Half-Elves!)
- Hey Its That Voice (Lloyd clearly having the voice of Robin and Ma-Ti). Also, Kratos' VA is Cam Clarke, who lent his voice in several other productions, as well, brrrrother!
- The Big Bad is voiced by Tidus!? (Well, half the time.)
- So that's why his laugh is so annoying!
- Samus? Bastila? Why are you a clumsy big-boobed ninja? Shouldn't you be fighitng Metroids and Sith?
- Forcystus is also The Other Darrin for Tony Montana
- Magnius also voices various Grunts and Brutes.
- Rodyle is, variously Spotswoode, Myotismon and Mercurymon, Timmy's Dad and the Club Skum MC from "Hobgoblins".
- Remiel is also The Riddler.
- Colette has had an on-and-off job as Ducky.
- She's lowered her voice here, but you hear it, yep yep yep!
- And Presea is Bubbles, Ben Tennyson, Raven, Rikku, and also Corrine. And many, many other roles.
- Alice's career includes Jenny Wakeman and Ami Onuki
- And who can overlook Crispin Freeman as Regal?
- Hidden Elf Village (Heimdall. There's also a hidden Japanese village, Mizuho.)
- Hopeless Boss Fight (Yggdrassil the first two times you meet him.)
- Hostage For Macguffin (Lloyd, of all people, is at one point held hostage so Kratos will give Yuan the Eternal Sword.)
- Ho Yay (Zelos occasionally acts slashy towards Lloyd.)
- Genis cooks for him, and he totally resents it if he's not chosen to be in Lloyd's group in the times you have to split the party in two.
- Human Resources (Exspheres.)
- Idiot Ball (Lloyd will occasionally be handed the intelligence ball that will give him spontaneous moments of insight before he turns back into a moron again)
- Idiot Hero (Lloyd. This changes once Character Development settles in and he becomes more of The Messiah instead.)
- I Let You Win (The first two times you fight Kratos. Of course, you might not actually win the fairly difficult battles.)
- Improbable Weapon User (Genis uses a kendama, a children's toy. Sheena uses cards with wards inscribed on them.)
- Inexplicable Treasure Chests
- Internet Backdraft (Just try and explain why Colette or Sheena is a better match for Lloyd and see how far that gets you.)
- Also, don't bring up the Drama CDs. Just... don't.
- Or compare this to Final Fantasy X.
- This Troper just wants to say that doing the reverse on that last one yields the same results. And also to warn everybody that even after you point out the many, many differences the slightest comparison will lead to Fanwank of unimaginable levels.
- Grandia II says "hi".
- Or bash Colette.
- Or, similarly, bash Sheena.
- Invisible To Normals (Presea and Abyssion are literally the only people out of a population of two whole planets who can hear Nebilim's voice.)
- Is It Something You Eat (Professor, what's a philanderer? Is it something you eat?)
- It Was His Sled - Kratos is Lloyd's father! In one of the endings, Zelos dies!
- Kamehame Hadoken (Regal is shown to be capable of this, but doesn't use it in combat.)
- And rightfully so! It looks like it would be a real Game Breaker.
- Kid Hero (Lloyd, Genis, Colette, Presea and Sheena, as well as Mithos.)
- Leitmotif (Every member of the party has one, including a few Dark Reprises. The Big Bad and Kratos also have their respective themes worked into their fight music.)
- Lethal Chef (Raine. She has rather... Interesting ideas on cuisine, such as one skit where she wonders about making a spicy cake. Sheena also has weird ideas about food, but she knows which weird ideas work so she is still a good cook (one of the best three, in fact, along with Genis and Regal).)
- Small addition to that comment: this troper counted and half of Raine's recipes have lemon as an additional ingredient.
- A skit in the sequel has her cooking "lemon rice" for the party. Yum.
- This Troper finds it funny that she can fail at making a Bread Sandwich!
- One of the funniest moments in the game involves Raine's cooking skills. In a small skit, the stone-faced, humorless stoic Kratos samples some of Raine's cooking to be polite. He even makes a gallant attempt at finding something nice to say about it ("Well, it has an interesting texture") before the aftertaste sets in and Kratos's first reaction is to use one of his healing spells on himself. It's funnier because it's Kratos.
- Lethal Joke Character (Not a joke character, (and not really that hard to use) but Colette fits.)
- Lethal Joke Item (After restoring Luin, each character gets the ability to buy one of these; they are the most powerful weapons you can buy for that character. Lloyd gets a Paper Fan Of Doom, Colette a tambourine, Genis a toy kendama, Raine a mop, Sheena a wallet, Zelos/Kratos a baseball bat or a pink plastic dagger, Presea a squeaky toy hammer, and Regal a pair of silver boots.)
- Limited Move Arsenal.
- Lolicon (Not helped by the fact that Presea is technically in her twenties. One can even label Regal a Lolicon if you choose the right answer when asked about his tastes in women.)
- If this troper's calculations are correct, Regal, at 17, was in love with a girl who couldn't possibly have been older than 11. Yeah, I'd say he qualifies.
- Alicia worked for Regal for awhile. She was obviously older than twelve (Presea's appearance) when she appeared on her grave and I'd say she was at least more around 16 by the time she was killed by him.
- Similarly
- Zelos' Personal EX Skill lets him flirt with female NP Cs for free items and money. This works on little girls as well. There's even a Z-skit where the rest of the party mistakes this for Zelos just really liking children.
- He claims to be thinking about how hot they'll be when they'll grow up, though.
- That really doesn't make it any better, though... then again, this is Zelos Wilder.
- Lost Forever (See Guide Dang It. Many sidequests involve this.)
- Lovable Sex Maniac (Zelos Wilder; he even gets a special title for flirting with every female NPC in the game.)
- Love Freak (Colette, especially showcased in the skit when she states that she'll have to ask an assassin trying to kill her about why she's doing it 'when they become friends'. Which they eventually do.)
- Love Makes You Evil (Yggdrasill)
- Love Triangle (Lloyd, Colette and Sheena.)
- Luke I Am Your Father (Kratos and Lloyd)
- Malevolent Architecture (Lampshaded at a few points.)
- Magic Knight (Kratos/Zelos)
- Magitek (Used by the villains, and the source of quite a few problems as a result.)
- Man Behind The Man (Yggdrasil.)
- Master Of None (Kratos and Zelos. They don't really have that many techs to combo with, having only one full combo per tech tree side. Outside of a glitch using it for infinite combos, magic's casting times prevents it from synergising with melee)
- That's not to say, however, that they're bad characters. In fact, they're usually considered the best characters behind Raine and Colette.
- Memetic Mutation (The infamous "Coffee Mind-fuck" has generated a minor meme cluster, with Lloyd being referred to as Coffee-kun on certain Image Boards, and often being portrayed as an enraged Starbucks employee who offers only two options for an order - "motherfucking hot coffee" or "motherfucking cold coffee," offering none of that "Espresso or Frappucino bullshit.")
- We're not joking. Just look at the Mind Screw below.
- The Messiah (Lloyd, after much Character Development; Colette would also qualify, but is overshadowed by Lloyd.)
- Mind Screw (Is that coffee hot or iced, Lloyd?)
- "It's hot coffee... actually it's iced coffee... Wait, can't you feel that it's actually hot coffee? I lied. It's actually iced coffee. ... It's hot."
- Money Spider (Special mention for the dragon in the Temple of Earth, 10000 gald per kill, and is a respawning enemy.)
- This is actually a Good Bad Bug that was "fixed" in the Japanese-only Updated Rerelease for the PS 2. It was only supposed to give 1000 gald, but a few more zeros made their way into the code...
- Most Annoying Sound: Desian Mooks, when defeated, shout "beaten.. by an INFERIOR BEING!" This happens every time.
- Also; "I'm sorry". Said by everyone. Ever.
- Names To Know In Anime:
- Narm (Colette learning Judgment.)
- Regal: "What is this ominous light that threatens to engulf us?!"
- New Game Plus (The GRADE system, which allows you to purchase bonuses and even Self Imposed Challenges if you choose.)
- Nightmare Fuel (Paying too much attention to stuff in this may cause nightmares. It's covered by cute graphics, but sometimes even that doesn't help. However, after Colette loses her soul, she's downright creepy, with Glowing Eyes Of Doom and a complete apathy towards anything except that which threatens her.)
- The Exbuela. OH DEAR GOD, THE EXBUELA!
- Norma Bates (Presea's father's body.)
- Not In This For Your Revolution (Kratos. More wrong than you could imagine.)
- Not So Different (Dangerously so, in the case of Mithos and Lloyd.)
- Now Where Was I Going Again (A log keeps track of various story events; incomplete quests are highlighted to remind you.)
- Said log is very poorly writen, reading like bad fan fiction.
- Could be a result of Too Long Didnt Dub, though.
- A particularly egregious example of this is Aska's sidequest. It technically starts early on in the game, but you have no chance to resolve it until after coming back from Tethe'alla. The result is a highlighted Synopsis log, that doesn't describe what you still have to do, and doesn't get resolved for a sizeable portion of the game.
- Numerical Hard (Applies to random battles, and most bosses. Latter bosses do get some new moves though)
- Obfuscating Stupidity (Zelos.)
- Official Couple (Lloyd and Colette.)
- Older Than They Look (Presea, Mithos, Yuan and Kratos, for starters.)
- Orphan's Plot Trinket (Lloyd's Exsphere.)
- Our Elves Are Better (And they're aliens!)
- Out Of Focus (Regal, the only party member the player can go the entire game without using, makes nothing more then a few token lines after visiting the rooftop grave.)
- Painting The Fourth Wall (The skit "for lazy people".)
- Parental Abandonment (All the main characters, except Presea possibly Regal and Kratos, as well as the Big Bad. If not for the fact that the game's inherent bias towards idealism means they all get over it, we'd have a Dysfunction Junction on our hands.)
- Path Of Inspiration
- Pettanko (Colette describes herself as having an endowment like "an ironing board". The game even gives her "Ironing Board" as a title.)
- The Pikachu Effect (The Manga's ending is canon.)
- Pimped Out Dress
- Pollyanna (Colette.)
- Power Gives You Wings (The strongest characters are all angels with translucent, multicolored wings.)
- Power Glows - Both the angels with their glowing translucent colored wings. Also, Lloyd's "ultimate weapon," the Material Blade.
- Powered By A Forsaken Child (Exspheres)
- Precursor Heroes (Mithos's party)
- Pre Existing Encounters (The first Tales game to use this mechanic instead of Random Encounters.)
- Punctuated Pounding (Actually punctuated slashing: FEEL THE PAIN! (slash!) OF THOSE INFERIOR BEINGS! (slash!) AS YOU BURN IN HELL!)
- The Quiet One (Kratos.)
- Red String Of Fate (Colette's Necklace, the key item. It is from Lloyd to Colette, and it's tied with a Red String.)
- Relationship Values (Raised and lowered according to your decisions. Colette, in particular, is almost impossible to shake off due to her role as the childhood friend. There are also skits scattered about the world map that raise your status with various characters depending whether or not you answer correctly, but you don't get punished if you choose the wrong answer.)
- It's actually unnecessary to "shake" anyone off. The ultimate goal of the Relationship Values is to guide which character becomes Lloyd's "soulmate" (thus affecting the endgame and the ending)...but the deciding factor is a single event that takes into account the top three rated relationships.
- Although, in the sequel, you can view a scene where Lloyd discusses to Emil about how he traveled around the world between the events of both games. The player gets to pick who, out of the original cast, was Lloyd's traveling partner. This also unlocks another scene in another town, with said character. This is a nice touch, to say the least.
- The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized (The Renegades.)
- Rings Of Death (Colette uses chakrams in combat. The fact that most of them are obviously magic may explain their boomerang abilities.)
- Road Cone (As expected, the official adaptations of the games make it clear that Lloyd/Colette is the main pairing)
- Schizo Tech (Justified because the Desians have been stunting the technological advances of the rest of the world.)
- Scripted Battle (The first Hopeless Boss Fight against Yggdrasil comes right after some other tough bosses, setting it up to be even more of a Curb Stomp Battle than its hopeless nature would imply.)
- Sealed Evil In A Can (The Desians. Subverted once we learn what they're doing during the time they're supposedly "sealed away".)
- Ship Tease (Done for every member of the party with the Flanoir cutscenes. The ones with Sheena and Colette are decidedly romantic (the creators obviously knew that people were going to ship regardless), and the other ones explore other types of affection.)
- Don't forget the Z-skits: One where Genis tells Lloyd to tell Colette he loves her and another where Lloyd, in his idiocy, makes Sheena think he's willing to marry her.
- Ship To Ship Combat (The aforementioned Colette vs. Sheena war, plus the numerous Yaoi Guys ships. The various skits and Ship Tease moments do not help one bit.)
- Shout Out (Several, such as the the snow statues of Namco characters like Pac-Man in the first game.)
- Side Quest Oh so many. Waaaay too many.
- Similar Squad - lampshaded with a little debate amongst the team about who their counterparts were.
- Slap Slap Kiss (The relationship between Zelos and Sheena, at least on Zelos' part, has romantic implications.)
- Sliding Scale Of Idealism Versus Cynicism (Very idealistic)
- Slouch Of Villainy (Magnius.)
- Snow Means Death ( Zelos's backstory, revealed in his Flanoir Doctor Scene, in which a very vivid mental image of his mother's murder in the snow is left.)
- Snow Means Love (The Flanoir doctor scene Shown in the intro with Colette's respective scene).
- Soup Cans (Many puzzles revolve around this; the most blatant example is the "quest" to obtain the Ymir Fruit.)
- Staff Chick (Subverted twice. Once in that it's Raine and not Colette, and second, the fact that Raine is a pretty heavy subversion herself.)
- Standing In The Hall (Lloyd; while sleeping at the same time)
- Strangled By The Red String (Lloyd and Colette)
- Stupidity Is The Only Option (You mean to say that the surly angel who refused to explain anything and was interested only in his "daughter's" transformation into a soulless being, practically cackling when she was finally ready to do so, wasn't such a great guy after all? I'm shocked, I tell you.)
- Teen Genius (Genis)
- That One Boss (Sylphs, if you're trying to get them early)
- Thirty Xanatos Pileup (Let's just say there's a lot going on.)
- Trauma Inn (One town has three as a result of being a tourist attraction.)
- Trial Balloon Question (The Question is skipped however, with the answer being given straight.)
- Trojan Prisoner
- Try Not To Die
- Tsundere (Sheena, towards Zelos. Lloyd gets off easier, but he has a habit of misinterpreting her advances.)
- Turn Coat (Several characters, but particularly Yuan, who alternates between trying to capture/kill Lloyd and co. and assisting them with alarming frequency.)
- Turns Red (Played straight by That One Bonus Boss, Abyssion, who starts using attacks like Indignation Judgment and Meteor Storm when his HP is low, and subverted in the case that Lloyd's Falcon's Crest becomes available to him only when his HP is lower than 16%, so it's the player character turning red.)
- Also, Genis and Sheena's strongest attacks can only be performed while in Overlimit- a Status Effect that is pretty much turning red, but that can be activated through other means.
- The Unchosen One (It is Lloyd, not Colette or Zelos, who rallies everyone to save the world.)
- Victorious Childhood Friend (Colette, by Road Cones. Depending on how you play the game, she may become the Unlucky Childhood Friend instead.)
- Video Game 3D Leap: First game in the series to use 3D battles, although free-range 3D running didn't come until Tales Of The Abyss.
- Viewer Gender Confusion (Be honest, did you think that figure in pink in the back of the box art was going to be a man? Not only that, but a total cassanova at that? The fact that he's way in the back and in a very androgynous pose doesn't help. Raine can also be mistaken for a very hot effeminate guy... well, until thirty seconds of playing. Later, the kid Mithos also has a quite girly design, rather similar to Colette. (This troper claims guilty in all cases...)
- Well Intentioned Extremist (It's a Tales Series game. Most of the villains, except the Grand Cardinals.)
- What Happened To The Mouse: Noishe is played up as a major character in the beginning, even appearing in several skits and being the one thing Lloyd has that came from this dead/estranged parents, but is dropped roughly the time that the team makes it into Tethe'alla. He still appears occasionally (in stables, when the whole team is split up), but isn't even called by name again in scenes.
- His one useful ability, using Long-Range Mode, was also overshadowed greatly by the Rheairds before the end of the first disk.
- What Measure Is A Non Human (Oh so much use of this. Lampshaded at one point.)
- Willfully Weak: (Regal again.)
- With My Hands Tied (Regal's fighting style is based around using his feet only, since he killed his lover with his hands and therefore vowed never to kill with his hands again.)
- The Woobie (Colette. There is a split opinion on her— and that's flame bait.)
- Woolseyism (Raine and Genis were originally named Refill and Genius, respectively, in the original Japanese. While the Japanese would find this incredibly funny in a good way (espeically since "Refill" is a healer, thus, she refills your HP), Namco's editorial team wisely realized that Westerners would find the names eye-bitingly stupid and wisely dropped the "u" from Genis' name to preserve the joke without being too obvious, and came up with a nice equivalent for Raine without being quite as blatant as the Japanese version (that is, her English name invokes the image of a soothing rain washing away pain).)
- World Tree (The Tree of Mana, destroyed during the last magitek war. A new one sprouts by the end of the game. As shown in Phantasia, Lloyd named it 'Yggdrassil'.)
- World Of Silence
- Wutai (Mizuho.)
- You Blockhead (Lloyd is blamed for the destruction of Iselia even though it was Genis who wanted to go to the forbidden ranch in the first place, and Lloyd was the one who tried to talk him out of it. Genis even has the gall to get indignant with the townspeople for their entirely rational anger towards their homes being burned down because Lloyd and Genis violated their peace treaty.)
- Of course, at the time everyone thought that the Desians had struck first at the temple, so Genis has a point here.
- You Can Barely Stand (During your first trip to the Tower of Salvation, if you lose the fight against Kratos, you face Yggdrasill with 1 HP per character. Yggdrasill has 40,000 HP, and your attacks do practically nothing.)
- You Wont Get Away With This
- Zero G Spot (Referenced in a skit between Zelos and Lloyd, the latter of whom having no idea what the former's talking about.)
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