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"This cold, noisy world...and me. The rain never really cleans anything. I wish I could believe it was possible..."
In spite of its bright colors and the seemingly slice-of-life experiences of its population, the city is a Crapsaccharine World down to a T.
In General
General
- The very world of Kivotos itself. The General Student Council offers little in the way of help, delinquent gangs roam the streets, and many areas of town are either derelict or close to complete abandonment. All of this is combined with the presence of rogue A.I.s, mad scientists, and corrupt corporations all vying to further harm to the city to achieve their goals.
- The delinquents in general. In "The Clumsy Sister and the Magician of the Old Library", it's revealed that many of the delinquents were expelled from their schools for being unable to keep up with their grades, and with how the system works in Kivotos, if you're not a student, you don't have access to basic needs and utilities. While some delinquents are genuine unrepentant troublemakers, there are others who are simply trapped in a feedback loop of committing crimes just to survive, but at the same time being unable to enroll in another school due to their delinquent status and thus being unable to access basic necessities.
Character-specific
- In spite of their outside appearances, many students are well on their way to hitting a breaking point from the stress of life in Kivotos. Others have dark secrets that continuously follow them around that only make their lives more miserable than they let on.
- In spite of her outward demeanor as the calm-yet-deadly Head Prefect, Hina is an overworked wreck whose team is barely holding Gehenna back from descending into pure chaos. All while the Pandemonium Society makes their lives a living hell with endless red tape for even the smallest mistakes, all while Sensei is busy with the other major schools. It all comes to a head after the attack on the Eden Treaty, and she ends up breaking down in tears.
- Similar to the Prefect Team, Trinity's Justice Task Force and Vigilante Crew are so busy trying to keep order in the district, they hardly have any time to properly socialize or have fun as students should. This leads to students like Suzumi and Tsurugi suffering from No Social Skills, and they find it extremely difficult to express their feelings to Sensei, much less other people, ending up as socially awkward loners.
- Under the sleepy exterior, Hoshino hides some serious pain from having to watch Abydos fall apart around her, as well as finding the corpse of the last real Student Council President of Abydos.
- Though many of the SRT characters refuse to let their feelings show, Miyu wears her heart on her sleeve. She's naturally inconspicuous to the point that most people fail to notice her very existence. She often equates herself to garbage (often hiding in a garbage can), and animals tend to constantly swarm her. The result is a very depressed sniper.
- Shiroko is an easy cake-taker for getting the short end of life's stick. She was found as a homeless orphan that tried to fight Hoshino (and lost), and was taken in by the Foreclosure Task Force. The caveat? She's actually a God of Death, doomed to bring about the end of Kivotos and the world, and an alternate timeline has her reluctantly return to this position after that Sensei became Phrenapates.
- Haruka's has suffered from severe bullying from her past, a fate that thankfully Aru rescued her from, but she's still mentally scared, making her the Overzealous Underling she is today.
- Yuzu and Tsukuyo were victims of harassment in their childhoods, making them the shrinking violets they are.
- Arius Squad as a whole are nothing short of a band of jerkass woobies. Not only do they come from one of the most destitute districts in Kivotos, they're also hardened killers forced to do the biddings of their cruel headmistress and have one of the most depressingly mottos to follow that has made them think everything in life is in vain. Even after the defeat of Gematria at the end of Volume 3, Arius Squad is ultimately left on the run as wanted criminals. It's kind of a miracle that Azusa ended up being the only one who wasn't broken up by her upbringing.
- The effect Beatrice's control of the Arius Squad has led them to not live a normal life. When letting them roam in the café, many of them are piqued or confused by certain objects that ordinary students would find normal.
- While Sensei's good influence is coming through them, Saori and Atsuko being evident, Misaki and Hiyori have it the worst from Beatrice's abuse as Misaki is still depressingly-suicidal while the latter is highly pessimistic and cynical of everything.
- Atsuko's last Relationship Story has the flowers she grew on a flowerbed get destroyed when a heavy rainstorm comes in. She's sad as she thinks it's her fault that she wasn't good enough to keep the flowers alive, almost diving back to the Arius motto of everything in life is in vain. Luckily, Sensei manages to cheer her up by saying they'll help her get better. As the chapter ends on a good note, it's sad to see how cheerful Atsuko is with Sensei but still continually shows some sides of her being broken by Beatrice's control and admitting she didn't care about deciding her own choices.
- Mika's cheerful and goofy exterior around you as her Sensei hides the inner pain and alienation she feels in the aftermath of the Eden Treaty Incident, as a number of students have been bullying her, and only a few students like Koharu seem to be on her side, leaving her with only Sensei to turn to for help. Her clinginess to Sensei is shown to have its tragic side, as her Live2D animation for the Recollection Lobby has her panic and beg you not to hate her. Her 4th Bond Event, where she becomes afraid to tell you about the bullying that led to the swimsuit you bought for her being damaged, further highlights how much she has come to treat you as her rock of stability.
- Even before she was playable, a lot of terrible things happened to her during the main story. While it was to try and prove herself to her friends, Mika truly did think Trinity and Arius could get along, which was why she first extended an olive branch to the latter group. Said branch was harshly snapped when this ended up leading to Seia’s supposed death, causing Mika to unconsciously delude herself into hating Gehenna so much that she would allow that to happen and wanted to stop the Treaty from happening to save herself from a breakdown. Indeed, she begins weeping when she eventually realises the harsh truth.
- Before she realises said truth, when Trinity students tried to break her out of prison to have her lead them against Gehenna amid the crisis in Volume 3 Chapter 3, Mika chose not to follow their lead, being unwilling to make the situation worse than it already was, and already accepting her time in prison as punishment for what she’s done. Said students then proceed to assault and mock her for not feeding into the cycle of hatred. Even if one may think this as karma for all that Mika had done, it definitely serves as overkill with nobody deserving such horrific bullying. At least one of her little remarks has her muse that some of the students tried to throw grenades into her cell when she was still imprisoned.
Main Story
Prologue
Volume 1
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Volume 2
Chapter 1
- In Episode 5, when Aris plays "Tales Chronicle Saga", which won the Worst Game Award, she deems it fun to play. This warmed the hearts of its creators who probably never got a kind comment for it: Momoi, Midori—and Yuzu, who was touched enough to come out of her locker and give her thanks.
- Tales Saga Chronicle 2... didn't win the Millennium Prize in the last episode. It got something else: Special Honors. It's unprecedented for this contest, but the judges had to make it up because TSC2 turned out to be an engaging definition of the RPG genre that it got 10,000 downloads within seconds after the Special Honors announcement. Even Yuuka apologizes for her insults before and admits playing the game had given her nostalgia as a kid. Going from Worst Game Award to this? Now that's a feather to put into the Department's cap.
Chapter 2
- In Episodes 3 to 5, Sensei and Aris go out on an adventure. It shows how well Aris has acclimated to life in Millennium, her bubbly personality becoming popular amongst the student body that Sumire, Asuna and Karin casually accommodate her RPG game-speak.
- In Episode 5, Aris and Sensei run into Neru, and it turns out that the maid has been coming over to the game devs' room to play games, enough that Aris has gotten over her fear of maids.
- In Episode 11, when everyone is despairing over what to do after Rio had kidnapped Aris to be killed, Momoi (Who was comatose) shows up. After learning what happened when she was in the hospital, she refuses to accept what happened and declares they should go rescue Aris. This shakes everyone out of their despair and makes them determined to rescue Aris.
- In Episode 12, the many friends Aris has built over her time at Millennium become determined to rescue her. Each contributing in reaching where she’s held:
- Yuuka and Noa, even though they’re both from Seminar and working for Rio, are appalled of what Rio has done and searches their database to find out where Rio took Aris. Upon informing the rescue party of where Aris is being held (The Fortress City of Eridu), they ask them to stop Rio and safely return Aris home.
- The Engineering Department gives the party a way into the city with the unmanned transport trains Rio. Their reason why? Because Rio stole the Sword of Light, their magnum opus! Well, it's really because they care deeply about Aris that they even accompany the party to Eridu as on-site support.
- Veritas all decide to help the rescue party with hacking into Eridu's systems like the transport train and giving mission support.
- C&C, despite working for Seminar and Rio, all are determined to rescue their cherished Friend, especially Neru (with a side bonus of getting revenge on Toki).
- Neru's determination in Episode 21; despite the mounting wounds from fighting Toki, falling from a tower, and being shot by laser cannons, Neru still powers through them, all to rescue Aris. She isn’t called "promised victory" for nothing.
- Episode 24, "What You Want To Be"—its title sums up the entire message of what the Game Development Department and Sensei tell Aris, who thought she's just a evil lord to be slain by heroes. While there's plenty of classic games and stories of the hero defeating the villain, there are no set rules about these things to begin with—the evil lord being the hero is just one of many ways what anyone could be, and Aris will always have that choice to be whatever she wants.
Volume 3
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
- Mika's brutal Hope Spot that leads into her Despair Event Horizon. Just as she and her fellow Tea Party members were starting to get along, with Nagisa agrees to vouch for Mika during her hearing and Seia promises to have a private chat with Mika, Seia has a couple of dream visions that leave her rattled. One that tells of Kivotos suffering a future apocalyptical event from an unknown unstoppable force, and the next being a meeting of Gematria. The combination of which leaves Seia in a bad stage where she meets with Mika in a half delirious mood, coughing blood and blaming Mika for what is to come. And before she recovers her senses to apologize Beatrice psychically attacks Seia, kidnapping her consciousness, leaving her body an unconscious shell. And immediately following this the Tea Party bursts into the room, and with their prior knowledge and prejudice against Mika, immediately blame Mika and accuse her of assaulting Seia again and begin calling her a witch. The combination of all these events in succession immediately causes Mika to suffer from an emotional breakdown where she flees Trinity and decides the only thing left for her is revenge against Arius who she blames for all her suffering.
- Saori resigning herself to death upon being defeated by Mika. With her agreeing with Mika's description of her as a hound, one with venemous fangs that she used against everyone she should have cared about. And that next to Azusa, Mika is the most appropriate one to give her an end. Fortunately Sensei managed to intervene.
- Similarly upon facing the entirety of the Mimises forces Mika too resigned herself to death, concluding that it is the most fitting end to a villainous witch like her. Fortunately the organ from a stray bullet started playing Kyrie Eleison, giving Mika a Heroic Second Wind long enough for Sensei to return.
- Even after everything is done Arius Squad themselves are left on a bittersweet note. Yes they no longer have to suffer from Beatrice but they are still fugitives for all their prior actions, something that not even Sensei can wipe from the record. Because of this Saori has to leave Squad in order to take jobs to financially support them so they don't have to. Which unfortunately because of her fugitive past means she either has to take jobs for a pittance or in the Black Market where her employers can take advantage of her. Fortunately as her relationship story reveals, Sensei is helping her with that last part.
Volume 4
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Volume Final
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
- The entire scenario around Shiroko Terror and Phrenapates is a terrifying and tragic affair, as Phrenapates is your alternate timeline counterpart, who didn't exactly survive the Bad Ending they ran into, that left Shiroko in deep despair all alone. The fact that Phrenapates entrusts Plana and Shiroko Terror to you at the end of the story, and even gives you their old Adult Card (Which has his last 1200 Pyros left in it) has had many players declare that they would never waste Phrenapates's last gift to them - several even refused to use the Card because it would have crumbled into powder afterwards, which would continue to stay in your inventory as a reminder of Phrenapates.
- Another heartbreaking tidbit about Shiroko Terror in her boss fights is that she uses the EX Skills
of all of her Foreclosure Task Force friends, making all their weapons her tragic keepsakes. Closer inspection of her weapon sprites when she's using her friend's EX skills will show that many of them are heavily worn, with the Abydos Foreclosure Task Force logo rendered illegible by the harsh wear and tear they've seen in the Bad Future timeline.
- Another heartbreaking tidbit about Shiroko Terror in her boss fights is that she uses the EX Skills
Event Stories
Other Content
Official content outside the game
