Tales Series

Exactly. Therefore I always choose Green Emil. Its the same reward for less hassle.

You wound me. ;__; I do have feelings! Sometimes. I think. Supposedly.

Final stretch before the final dungeon. We go to Dhaos Castle, where we get a bunch of Dhaos flashbacks. He had already realised the danger the desperate Meltia posed, but he couldn't interfere, so the mana ended up depleted. He feels awfully inadequate and is plagued by guilt after the disaster, which is why he decided to go to Aselia and seek out the Great Seed. The Great Kharlan Tree had very little mana left, from which Norn was born. This leads to a funny conversation about how Martel is Norn's little sister amd the tree is the mum. Or dad. Oh, and Albert is made of the tree's Sacred Wood.

Dhaos visits Rondy just before we get to the summit, but when he tries to send her through time, she tosses the ring (turns out it's called Derris Elusion) away and it teleports on its own. Dhaos warns her to turn back, or he will erase her along with the twins. The twins must be destroyed, or the tragedy they caused may repeat itself again.

When we get to his room, Dhaos reveals he is simple a memory, an afterthought remaining in an attempt to correct his own shortcomings in averting the disaster. And so we get a double boss fight! He. Is. CHEAP! Somehow he's got a dumb move named Dhaos Flasher that puts everyone it hits into Stop condition for like...10 seconds? Oh my god, it hit my whole party and it sucked. Oh, and Tetra Spell now chains into Super Dhaos Laser. SOMEHOW.

After I Demon's Lance Rain his ass, Dio and Mel reveal they hated and blamed Dhaos in their past lives, but now they understand the burden he bore. Dhaos admits his own heart was plagued by darkness and hatred after the despair he faced, so he quotes Morrison! "If there is such a thing as evil in this world, it is in the hearts of men." The twins then say they admire Dhaos for being a great, self-sacrificing king, and Rondy tells him he no longer has to bear this burden. He can rest. Dhaos disappears, Rondy bids him farewell and sheds a tear. As she leaves the room, Dhaos reappears and observes our party silently.

...Wow. Dhaos was a shitty king. Time for the Crystal Valley of Judgement.

Poor Dhaos. Shame this stuff wasn't in the original Phantasia.

Wait wait wait, there's an attack called Dhaos Flasher and it puts everyone in a stop condition?

...I really didn't need the mental image of Dhaos flashing someone as an attack.

He does Orchid's fatality from Killer Instinct.

I was thinking flashing as in that move in DBZ, but you remind me of the other meaning.

...Don't get so far ahead. It's just another light explosion. Here. The kicker is how he shouts "Light of salvation" when using it. Cheater.

@ Lu: Me not understand. (?_?) Does that mean you don't like Emil, therefore you don't have feelings? You haven't even started your Symphonia 2 copy, so you might end up joining Emil's fanclub after all. He MUST have something you will find likable.

@ Asterism: Try going into Game FAQS or the extinct Tales Namco Forums and say that out loud. They will burn you in the stake for having even the slightlest positive opinion about Emil, Anise or Shirley. (Patty too, but she comes out in conversation a lot less.)

@ Kombat: Ninja'ed, but here goes: Symphonia 1 was a direct port of the PS 2 game, locked at 30 fps. But hey, if they added new costumes to the game's code they COULD have done the same to Symphonia 2, which didn't have ANY. (Note: Pyjamas Emil is a different character than Knight of Ratatosk Emil, coding wise. Xenoblade does that with Human Fiora and Mechon Fiora)

@ danna: If you played Xillia you must be already tired of Agria's flashing. Which my partner still enjoys for what is worth. You would get along. *quickly pictures more decent women like Driselle and Karla*

edited 8th Jul '14 2:23:42 AM by FlightMaster

I already got told about PS 3 Symphonia. But yeah. I really wish Emil got an Aster outfit and I guess a different coded Chapter 1 Emil to play more like normal.

Ha! I unlocked Namcot Island! And what do you know, the Ant Lion Man and Tarlow X are there too. Oh well, I'll leave the rest of the spirits for my second playthrough, since that's the only way to go to the extra dungeon.

Crystal Valley of Judgement: It's really long and boring, but we get a flashback of Dios and Meltia. Dios decided to become a soldier when he was 13 and saw his country wrecked in the war. Meltia was a genius even as a 13-year old, so she decided to become a researcher. She was desperately insecure her new father would leave her behind her parents did. In the end comes the confrontation between the children and their past selves. It's a fun fight, but poor Meltia didn't even get to use her Mystic Arte. Dios at least got an Ignite Calibur off. That has to be a reference to Celsius Calibur! I want mah Hilda back.

The past selves now drop dead, holding hands and disappear. The twins begin slowly fading away. To repent for their sins and receive absolution, they have killed themselves and must soon disappear. Etos is devastated that this was Norn's judgement, but the kids think this is the only way to wash away a sin as great as theirs. Norn now calls us to her side in the inner sanctum.

Norn is a total bitch!

Did Namcot Isle have is usual references to every last Namco thing ever?

BTW this is something the Tales series guys really ought to think about

edited 8th Jul '14 7:19:31 AM by MightyKombat

@Flight, yo, Driselle is like, 10/10 lewdest Xillia. Agria I was actually quite hyped for her but then she appeared only a bit, was boring, AND had that terrible dub voice.

I haven't gotten far at all in Vesperia, but I'm assuming Duke, the white haired guy in that picture, is from that game. I recall seeing someone like that on the OP.

"by the way Blazblue stop fucking doing this shit."

This, so much.

Blazblue does all that shit while STILL pimping out its in game story mode on boxes and advertisements. Its idiotic and very Countdown To Final Crisis.

Tales series needs to cut it out too. I can't believe it actually took a side material to explain further why Legretta hated the score, and that it took even more side materials to actually bother fleshing out Dhaos.

There aren't many references in Namcot this time. It's okay, though, since the game has references freaking everywhere. You know, I need to do a Tales reference compilation one of these days. I think Destiny has the most of them, but I'm not 100% sure. Graces might give it a run for its money.

Wait, didn't you learn why Legretta hated the Score in Abyss? The reason (her brother's death) is in the game, if you read her final letter. Dhaos, on the other hand...well, I chalk it up to Phantasia being ancient and them deciding to only flesh him out afterwards. His backstory is actually in a novel named Katazareru Rekishi. Vesperia has no excuse though. Its writing was godawful after the first act. I got the distinct impression they had too many writers that couldn't coordinate properly. Xillia was a rushjob, so they threw whatever had been planned for the game into fanbooks.

The rest don't really have such issues though. Symphonia's villains work self-contained, same for Destiny (even though Leon gets drama C Ds to himself), Rebirth, Abyss, Innocence and Graces.

edited 8th Jul '14 8:16:27 AM by lu127

Ah yeah. Yeah my bad on Leg, I never really did do that sidequest (Though quite why its a sidequest when the other God Generals had their backstories laid out mid gameplay is beyond me but at least its ingame)

I also at least am glad they managed to lay out Richter's story (even if I'd rather he was possessed by the dark priest Shaft who was trying to revive Dracula)

Dhaos had an excuse too though. Phantasia didn't really flesh anyone out. It's not a great excuse, but it is one. Actually, the first Star Ocean was really, really bad at giving the final villain any details as well, but that might be because he came out of nowhere.

I kinda liked Dhaos as he was without that fleshing out...

Please tell me it's not just me. Sure I'm only familiar with his OVA incarnation, which was 4 episodes long...

He's actually noticeably more unreasonable in the game. In the game, Dhaos attacks Midguard out of nowhere, while giving a bunch of cryptic warnings that explain nothing, and they start developing magitek almost entirely to fight him. In the OVA, they already have the magitek for some reason, Dhaos is a lot clearer in his warnings, but they refuse to consider his position.

In the game, it's like the writers wanted Dhaos to be a maniacally evil villain, threw in the weird time travel thing which means you fight him in a different order than when he fights you, and then decided last minute to make Dhaos sympathetic. There are a couple earlier scenes that sort of vaguely hint at that, but they barely get commented on or pointed out.

edited 8th Jul '14 10:59:36 AM by Zendervai

Those were retconned in Katararezaru Rekishi when the PS 1 remake came out. Dhaos did try to talk to Midgards, but they kicked him out. The reason he talked to them is because they had already started depleting huge amounts of mana, to the point that Yggdrasil couldn't generate the seed he needed. Plus, he had seen the mess that Meltia's Mana Cannon had made. Also, he kinda saw his wife kill herself to send him to Aselia, so he's not very stable.

I see where the general idea is coming from but sadly it also inspired some REALLY sloppily written villains with some REALLY sloppily written excuses for sympathy from the mains in the series. Mohs and Lambda anyone?

Okay, Mohs was just given sympathy at the end for some odd reason; he wasn't portrayed sympathetically or understandably at any other point, which is why it was so bad (alongside the obvious "extort a teenage girl with the lives of her family so that she will spy on and eventually cause the death of Ion as well as continuously aiming to instigate the bloodiest conflict that the world has ever seen" being marks against him).

Lambda was alright though in my opinion. He's essentially experienced nothing but hatred and animosity toward him, and literally no one except for professor Cornell actually showed him any amount of compassion, with some people going so far as to hand craft a weapon explicitly to hunt and destroy him. He was just working with what abilities he had and how he felt he would be best able to deal with the threats against him using that, but Asbel shows him that not everyone has to want him dead, and he can still be able to live alongside people and see the good that they can do, not just the bad.

Yeah, Mohs is a dirtbag except for that moment when he dies. I am going to chalk it up to Tear being a dumb softypants, because it's the least stupid option.

Lambda was okay, but there were two problems with his presentation. The flashbacks should not have been stuffed so far back in the end (they should have maybe been started the time Emeraude was playing us around) and his voice. This was an issue with both his Japanese and English actors. Lambda is shown to be a child in mind, and is inhabiting a child-like body. His voice should not be that of a menacing middle-aged man, especially since it doesn't fit his Energy Being appearance either. Bzzzzt, casting agency.

With Lambda its an obvious case of "too little too late."

Finished NDX! We reach the end of the Crystal Valley, but Norn is nowhere to be found. Suddenly, our dear mascot Krululu turns into Norn! She has been observing our journey every step of the way, but now it's time for us to disappear. Etos protests saying it's too cruel, but Norn says he can save the kids if he gives up his lifeforce as a spirit. Etos wants to go through with it, but says he can't because the children themselves have decided how this will end. Though it is a parent's duty to oversee a child grow, they cannot be forever protected. Norn traps Eto in a Crystal Ball, but the kids are now pissed and tell her to stop bullying him. Dio attacks her, and proof to Norn that they would stop at nothing to attack her. FIGHT!

After the fight, we release Etos. Suddenly, Krululu appears! During the journey, our dear mascot developed a heart of his own and is now standing against Norn to help Dio and Mel, who have mustered the courage to atone for their sins. Norn assumes her real form, where her lower half is composed of roots connected to the flowers of the world tree and the final battle commences! She can summon the spirits against us and is another cheater that cannot be Time Stopped but I have Krululu on my side! Krululu confirmed for bestest mascot. I ended up blasting her with Mel and Black Hole.

When she is defeated for real, she says that their strength is proof of their lives and atonement. Her work is done. Norn disappears. The time heroes are glad to learn the truth about Derris Kharlan, Arche thanks us for changing history and let her friends live, but the twins are now out of power. Etos is devastated, but Dio says it's alright. Mel breaks down crying beside herself, saying she wants to stay with Eto. Dio can't hold back his tears either, and apologises for being a bad child but Etos says his cute little twins are good children. They have to go, but promise that they will meet sometime, somewhere again. As they fade away, Krululu looks to the sky, shedding a single tear as a pair of shooting stars travel the heavens above.

My twiiins! This was so sad. The ending credits show Klarth with all the spirits, Arche dreaming about having a fight with Chester and Mint and Cress attending a wedding. The final scene is Etos reading a book. He's no longer lonely, because he has turned Etos House into an orphanage. He lives with Krululu and Albert. As he's watching over the children, a pair of kids knock on the door. The final shot is the reborn Dio and Mel returning to the house with the words "sometime, somewhere". My twins were reborn!

The credits song is the saddest thing ever. ;_;

Awww. Makes a great ending to the whole Aselia timeline.