I can't say that I expected the Lance of Kresnik to be able to summon aliens. I mean, I knew there was more to it than it seemed, but I still thought it was a weapon. That entire sequence was amazing, though - the war battles, the fight with the Chimeriad leading to them siding WITH us against Liam O'Brien and the aliens, Jiao revealing that he was protecting Elize out of guilt for having murdered her parents and then going out like the biggest badass ever, to everything falling apart... this was quite the sequence. It was beautiful. Only thing was I lost the fight against Gaius despite being THIS CLOSE - but apparently I was supposed to lose it. I had 11,000 HP left on him (playing on Hard because Moderate was too easy). All those Life Bottles went to waste. Oh wells, I have enough Gald to get more. But now, it's just Jude with this Muzet spirit, who is probably who she says she is because he can summon her.... and I'm stuck controlling him when I prefer Leia and Milla. Both of whom are fun to play as.
LOVING this game. I will probably replay it on Unknown and do Milla's path. And I won't be taking so damn long to do everything the way I have been because I'll carry over shop levels (Food is my lowest at like 56 - I don't plan to level that above 60 until others are 90+ - and Armor is at like 66). This is lining up to fit in a missing place in my Tales rankings... Abyss > Xillia > Symphonia > Graces > Vesperia
Only con is the JRPG trope of letting the bad guys get away just to let the bad guys get away and regret it later. I mean, Jude should have either let Milla kill Wingull (why does he share his name with a Pokmon?) in the capital of Auj Oule or let Alvin shoot Presa in the temple. Letting them live is only going to prove problematic later, even if there's a temporary truce. Has Jude played any other JRPGs and learned that lesson? Guess not.