LogFAQs > #968848636

Oh yeah - forgot to mention Dezel's spirit blowing his hat off Zaveid's head. A nice little touch. Also didn't mention that Zaveid didn't turn and look when a hot (human) chick walked by behind him. You'd think he'd be checking her out, with the short shorts and legs. I mean... I noticed. She was that noticeable.

Also, with the climax behind me, I thought I'd do a character ranking but most of this cast is just whatever, and my ambivalence toward the lot of them is quite similar. Top 3 are Edna, Alisha, and Lailah, probably in that order (none of them would be in my top 10 Tales characters - meanwhile Abyss has three there). Then probably Zaveid and Dezel. Then Sorry, Mikleo, and Rose. Really, though, this cast is unremarkable, and I legit do not care what happens to any of them. That's the sign of a poorly written game. You'd think when I'm over 80 hours in (I have no idea why it has taken me that long tbh, probably my "leave no stone unturned" philosophy, plus playing on Hard) that I'd care about this cast by now. I just don't.

Sorry is boring, and his design and personality are as "generic JRPG protagonist" as you can get. I don't hate him, but am I going to be able to tell you a thing about him or his backstory in five years? No. This topic may help me recall more details, like him and Mikleo being orphans from a destroyed village. And that - plus the ruins thing which kinda disappeared after we cleared the elemental temples - are the only things tying them together, the only story threads relevant. Mikleo is a good punching bag for Edna and Lailah, but that's the extent of his personality. There's not much there. We don't see many nuances of character. The discussion between our cousins was great and reminded me how that had been missing - you establish characters' personalities through their fun times together, and this game has been devoid of that. This is why I will only remember Mikleo as "punching bag for the jokester and the prankster."

Edna the prankster is an epic troll but has nothing else going for her. Yeah, she's Eizen's sister, but that's about the only backstory we have; we've hardly seen what their relationship is like at this point, and only got those details in Berseria. We don't know how that changed over time, or even how long Eizen's pirating days lasted for. Edna certainly found out eventually, but she's said nothing about what Eizen's like. While she has mad troll skillz, her personality doesn't really have many other fleshed-out facets to it, nor does she have a journey edit where she's still grappling with her brother having turned into a dragon. This is what's missing - a vulnerable side, mostly related to that, and that would've made things a lot more interesting, especially if Eizen's transformation had only happened recently as opposed to years prior.

Lailah the jokester had her previous journey with the last Shepherd, Sorry's father and Mikleo's uncle, but that's the only backstory we got. She's just a typical seraph aside from being the Prime Lord, one who was born after the events of Berseria (unlike Edna and Zaveid), but is still quite advanced in age compared to humans. She has a notorious addiction to puns, wants to find "the perfect curl" or whatever unmemorable crap that was, and seems to be easily roped into things. There's also that stuff about a pact she made that she can't violate, but that was only used as a story device to withhold things from the player until later. It didn't culminate with anything relevant to her.

Zaveid has probably the most memorable story here given his relevance from Berseria, affinity for the ladies, rivalry with Dezel, and general cavalier attitude - but that's not saying much, seeing as how most of the others have virtually no story. Dezel's death was something, but that - alongside his design (it's the hat) - were the only things that stood out about him. His blindness and vengeance against Symone are nothing remarkable, since he was discarded instead of enacting said vengeance in epic fashion. It would have been far superior if he had gotten to kill her by sacrificing himself.

This leaves just Alisha and Rose. You all know which one I prefer here, and it's not just because I love Alisha's design and find Rose's boring. No, it's because Alisha brings out the best in Sorry, and she is a compassionate person even though she's a bit gullible and emotional, despite masking it well. She was duped by Maltran for years and this shows depth and flaws that Rose couldn't hope for. My rant on Rose is above. I don't quite hate her (Emil is probably my most hated), but she is being portrayed infallibly, and thus this is mild disdain. At the very least she got used to the seraphim talking inside her head, but that storyline was left behind and was never given any finality. "Yeah, I just needed to get used to it. Sorry I was rude." This was excluded because it would portray Rose more negatively than her boyfriend wanted, I presume.

Really, the best thing I have to say is some of the character designs. Alisha and Dezel are both great. Edna, Mikleo, and Lailah are also pretty strong here. I'm too straight to enjoy Zaveid's shirtlessness. I find Sorry's design generic, and Rose's boring.

So yeah, quick aside over. Hope to finish this off real soon.