Board 8 > To gain +3 to inspiration, BCT plays Tales of Berseria. *spoilers as I go*

(+) Yeah! (+)

After many, many delays... I finally get to fucking play this thing for the first time in TWO MONTHS according to Steam (4/12). YIKIES.

HERE. WE. GO.

...okay, where was I? Oh yeah. Final dungeon. Overloading my CPU. Right.

AHEM.

I start beating up the weaklings in the area to get reacquainted. Aside from struggling to get off Annihilation Crash again, I manage just fine. The Fire Doe was weak AF and, really, only the Code Red was a problem - the one, y'know, Rokurou wanted to face because Shigure couldn't beat it? Well... in the fight he recognized this daemon as a Rangetsu. After the fight, he admits having killed Shigure and kills the daemon... which turns out was his mother, the previous Shigure. INTERESTING. She seemed to have been a malak halfway to becoming a dragon, and since she'd kept her memories of her sons that has to mean... Rokurou is half-malak? How does that work, exactly? I didn't realize that malakhim and humans could fuck given how a malak is produced.

Velvet suggests we interrogate Tabatha to see if she knew about this and played us for fools. She kind of did - but wasn't out for revenge from what Rokurou's mother had done to the Bloodwings 20 years ago. Apparently, she was holding baby Rokurou during the entire fight as if that were possible. Game logic, people! Apparently she was trying to protect him, thinking he'd become the greatest swordsman of all. He was able to fulfill that wish... and he relishes in finally being praised by his strict schoolmarm of a mother, in her final moments no less. It felt good. He also realized that it wasn't that Shigure couldn't beat her in a fight - it was that he chose not to do that. Perhaps he'd developed an Oedipus Complex? Or maybe it was just that he'd already killed his mother once and couldn't have that experience a second time. Probably that. Anyway, Rokurou gets his color variant outfit. Laphicet is the only one who doesn't have one of those and I'm thinking he just doesn't since I completed his sidequest so...

After some equipment management in Zeksom - shockingly not too much - I make my way back to the Ziggurat. All I do there is verify that both shields are down, which they were (I legit forgot if I'd gotten to the second) and call it quits for the night.

I may play a little tomorrow afternoon. We'll see how deep this place goes.

Finally have some open time! (Yeah, this is why I don't do playthroughs in summer.)

We get to the top of the ziggurat and the party sees the wheel in the sky, thinking we'd need to fly up there to blow it up. But... nope, there's a teleportation circle. We're expected, because Artorius clearly wants to sacrifice Velvet and Laphicet to awaken the scourge. Laphicet goes "BRING IT ON!" and Magilou tells him to be more cautious. LOL, this is coming from her? XD. Rokurou reacts the same way!

Before we head up, I get conversations between Velvet and everyone else:

1. Rokurou: He's fired up about fighting a super-strong foe, as always. He's changed from being scared of losing a fight to being afraid of running from that fear. Velvet apparently inspired this change. She... doesn't recall doing anything special, but it was just traveling with her. She makes no apologies if everyone dies in the fight. True Velvet.
2. Laphicet: For no apparent reason, Aunt Velvet picks now of all times to ask why his hair stands up on end, and wonders if he's been drying it correctly. She thinks he might... catch a cold? Umm... you've been traveling with him for a while and he hasn't caught a cold yet, not even after leaving the hot spring into Meirchio... and Velvet thinking it's cute may be enough to get the kid to change it. She still doesn't understand boys, eh?
3. Eleanor: She's nervous... and she's serious... and she's Eleanor. Got it. This pretty much summed up the relationship between these two. Always tenuous, and yet Eleanor's on the right side now.
4. Eizen: He has accepted his fate of turning into a dragon, though he doesn't know when it will occur (well... I do). The malevolence isn't bothering him. Nor is the fact that Velvet would have to beat him up if he turned in the scuffle against the Shepherd. This is what happens when two unflinching parties meet along the same course.
5. Magilou: Saved the best for last. The conversation goes from both being surprised that Magilou is still around after all this time to something very deep and profound: "Uncertainty is what spurs us onward." This coming from Magilou shows that she's much more intelligent than she lets on. Life is a journey of uncertainty... and Velvet is uncertain if Magilou is sick or not, because she's flabbergasted.

We warp up to the wheel in the sky to find Innominat's minions have overrun the place... and none of Artorius's exorcist thugs are here. Seems like there aren't much of any left with the malakhim to do his evil bidding. The only ones who still have malakhim are like Eleanor or Videl's dad: They're trying to do the noble thing and are willing to question the Abbey if they feel like the Abbey isn't just. In other words: The thugs don't have them, because thugs are stupid and need to be told what to do. The humanists have kept theirs by treating them as partners.

I get a skit where Laphicet thanks everyone for helping him mature so quickly on this voyage. Velvet for giving him a name, Eleanor for being his vessel, Rokurou and Eizen for teaching him how to live, Magilou for all the surprises and laughs, Grim for teaching him the ancient tongue... EPIC BIENFU SHADE MASCOT ABUSE... and Bienfu changes emotions on a dime. He's hilarious. THIS is how you do a mascot character. You make them take abuse with a smile. It's great comic relief.

Smashing some portal thing causes the actual portal to open, so I press forward. Yeah... that attempt at a joke didn't turn out so well. Whoops. I also get to see Lost Fon Drive and Good Grip with a newer graphics card. Both are still cool, but I'm REALLY looking forward to Howling Dragon. Eizen has been using Perfect Mayhem a lot though. At any rate, the guppies here are weak, but the Fire Doe gives me problems even though it's recycled from earlier. You'd think they'd want this place to have its own, but oh well.

I'm not all that far in and I already hate this place. The enemies are too redundant for a place this massive; there are only like five types so the encounters are already getting old, especially because they're weak. The place is also quite linear and doesn't have a maze-like layout. Like... imagine how cool it would be if you had to figure things out instead of having the next portal in front of you. I miss those kind of JRPG dungeons. I also wish there were another few types of enemies. They really half-assed this final dungeon, but I guess I can't say that surprises me. This game was low-budget compared to Symphonia and Abyss. And budget (whether measured in dollars or time) is one of the ingredients in a great RPG. Passion is another. This one... well at least the writers had passion, so that helps. A LOT. Keep in mind that the budget thing really only applies to RPGs; in most other genres, a big-budget game can be a polished turd, or a low-budget game can be awesome.

I will try to play more tomorrow. Don't expect an update like this one. Probably just a "I got right outside the final boss" sort of thing.

Huh, I don't think I got any of that stuff with Rokorou. Probably by the end I was just rushing to the credits.

The final dungeon is a let down for the reasons you explained. Maybe I need to replay Symphonia, but I don't remember its final dungeon being nearly as padded - perhaps because I played it when I was a teenager and time had no meaning then?

I played through this linear place quite... straightforwardly. Only things of note were a couple rough battles (a Fire Doe and some new enemies in the inner areas), Velvet bringing up "birds fly because they must" (like she'll kill Artorius because she must), a skit where Magilou trolls Velvet and Eleanor about what she puts in her cooking (Mags just hit level 20 there), another where Rokurou learns about the curvature of the earth AND Magilou spills that this "wheel in the sky" is the belly of the beast itself, and shattered a crystal by just approaching it like that was supposed to be a puzzle or something. I stopped in the central area because I was tired of the music track.

Peace___Frog posted...

The final dungeon is a let down for the reasons you explained. Maybe I need to replay Symphonia, but I don't remember its final dungeon being nearly as padded - perhaps because I played it when I was a teenager and time had no meaning then?

IIIRC in Symphonia, there's the option to explore for goodies but also the option to just go right ahead and fight the final boss right away. It worked because a lot of "final dungeon stuff" already had gone down earlier, which was a unique approach with its pros and cons. If you're gonna make a long, linear dungeon, do it like Abyss. In Abyss's final dungeon, a lot was happening. Yes, it was long, but it didn't feel monotonous because, y'know, you got to kill Legretta right away, then there was the single best 1-on-1 duel in the history of fiction, Guy finding his childhood house, Jade smacking Natalia, and then the Sync fight. The plot didn't stop even through that place. Like most Abyss stuff, it was awesome.

This feels... empty and soulless. The obnoxiously redundant piece of music doesn't help. Like who do I even get to kill? I've taken out most of the bad guys, so there's literally NOTHING happening except redundant fights (and the Magilou skit was because her cooking hit level 20; I hope to get the rest of them there since they're all at 19 except Eizen who's at 21). This dungeon is pointlessly long and it doesn't help one enjoy the experience. The plot is all wrapped up aside from the final confrontation; the climax was before all that sidequest bloat (when Velvet killed the monster Melchior). They really didn't do a good job ending this on the right note imho. I don't know if my forced time away from it helped or not.

Tonight, I did shit in the final dungeon. Laphicet learned Indignation out of nowhere (!!!) against a big enemy, and then Eizen and Rokorou each got a level 3 Mystic Arte against another on my way back through (after, y'know, exiting for equipment management purposes). Since Eizen's the only one regularly in my party, his is the only one I've seen. Venom Strike - it's awesome, though... Howling Dragon is cooler tbh. I'll see about getting the girls their Level 3 Mystics too, but that is going to require more orbs. This dump is gonna take a while to get through at this pace.

The equipment management was like a half hour of that though. Not AS bad as some other times. I'm just powering through it because it doesn't matter that much anymore. Just wanna keep any really good bonus skills, power them up enough so I don't lose starting souls, and that's it.

The level 3 mystic artes are hit and miss. Some are pretty easy to activate (Laphicet and Eizen), while others you'll be lucky to see the AI ever use (Magilou and Rokurou). Magilou's in particular is so situational that you might as well forget that you even have it.

Magilou hardly ever uses Good Grip (I think I've seen it twice) and I don't think I've even seen Laphicet's level 2 since, when he's in my party, he almost never gets any of them off. Rokurou I practically never use so it's natural that I barely see his at this point.

I'll probably forget about Magilou's eventually.... but I gotta get it first. No idea which one's gonna come up when.

Also it's nice to see you guys back in here, if I didn't say so earlier! :D

Okay, these last few days were crazy busy.

I got Magilou's - Tetra Detonator sounds awesome but it looks like most battles are gonna end too fast for her to ever get it off. I presume that's what you meant by "situational." Velvet fainted mid-fight, got revived, and then all of a sudden kept stunning the Gorgon thing, building up enough souls and BP to end it with Lethal Pain. Sweet.

There's a hilarious skit where Velvet asks Magilou to pony up the 100 gald owed... and Magilou just makes more and more excuses, then counters the bet with a... life bet? Against the bad guys? Uhhh... that lost me, but it was hysterical, so I'll give it that. This one is followed by a conversation between Eleanor and Rokurou where he tells her not to worry too much because it can cause her to lose fights she should be able to win. He's right. She then challenges him back by asking what his plans are after killing Artorius. What's next for him after taking down the two best in the world? What CAN there be next for him? He doesn't know, but is willing to travel the world to find that out. She wants to help others out as a human being - how philanthropic - and won't hesitate to take any daemons down, even if Rokurou. She has a sudden burst of confidence. Nice. I really wish we'd seen more of a relationship between these two. I honestly don't think of them as having had much other than the daemon/exorcist thing and his usual subtle trolling.

Laphicet and Eizen lament that most humans will no longer be able to see them after they kill Innominat - only other malakhim and the pure of heart (the exoricsts who treated their malakhim as equal partners, like Eleanor came around to do) will. Eizen says he'll go full-on Reaper to Benwick and the crew, who already know he'll always be by their side even if they can't see him. He's also gonna troll the fuck out of them. I SO want to see that! Eizen also finds inspiration in humans living life to the fullest in the limited time they have. I wish I was capable of inspiring anyone...

I died against a Dire Foe before I could save again. FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK. Geez, this is why these long dungeons SUCK. Not enough save points or reminders to Quick save... which I should've done, that part is my bad >_>

I'll play again some other time but I don't like the thought of having to redo all that. Will quick save a lot more often though.

The problem with Magilou's level 3 mystic arte is that it can only trigger off of Tetra Detonator. So she needs to be fighting a spellcaster so she can even get to use it, then hope that her counter is Tetra Detonator rather than one of the other spells (and if there's a way to force Tetra Detonator, I never figured it out). Then when that happens, you need to have enough BG to use the level 3 mystic arte. Which is a bunch of stuff that isn't likely to all be true if the AI is controlling Magilou. Rokurou and Velvet have pretty obscure triggers, but even those are way better than Magilou's.

I won the rematch with the Fire Doe. That's nice.

I won the rematch with the Gordon. That's nice.

I won a chain encounter on the outer ring, mostly against the walking dildos. That's nice.

I won the rerematch with the Fire Doe even more handily than the rematch. That's nice.

Skits viewed... 1/2 items reacquired... auto-save abused...

I take the warp point and find myself at The Staircase. As many of you know, The Staircase is a symbolic ending of a Tales game. Laphicet confirms that the bastard's right up ahead. Rokurou talks debt debt debt and Velvet says he just likes saying that - he obviously just wants to go sword-to-sword with the Shepherd. Everyone here is doing so for their own selfish reasons, which is definitely an improvement over, say, Vesperia where they all do it for pretty much no reason and Graces where FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC LIKE WE'RE PONIES.

Having viewed The Staircase scene, I know I gotta double back. Would it have killed them to put warp pads in this place? It's gonna be such a pain slogging back through to the beginning where the first orb is to be inserted. Ah well. I have to go back to town anyway to... equipment management.

I get tired of that and call it a night. Phew. Hoping I'll have the game beated soon but I need to find a couple more of the guardians. I recall where one is but... yeah. More encounters, here I come...

Do you generally try to 100% (or close to it) most games you play?

Peace___Frog posted...

Do you generally try to 100% (or close to it) most games you play?

It can vary depending on how much I enjoy them. Oftentimes I try to soak in as much of the experience as possible, so I drift toward completing more. But if I start to get frustrated with something, I just wanna beat the final boss. I'm kinda at that point here despite the technological hiatus, but I do wanna at least unlock the last two Mystic Artes for the sake of it.

Unless of course there's some crazy bonus dungeon now that I've been to The Staircase like happens in older Tales games.

Didn't play much but I did finish my equipment management (what a drag) and get back to the wheel in the sky. Magilou starts using Good Grip. A LOT. (aka twice in five battles)

Gotta find the locations of the last two pillars for Eleanor and Velvet before I finally go kill the bastard.

I played a little last night but didn't get to write anything.

Got Eleanor's third Mystic Arte. The thing I had to beat was weak. Haven't seen it yet. She used Lost Fon Drive instead. Hooked on Fonics, am I right? Seventh fonists, I tell you.

I get to Velvet's and lament... why do we get these nobody monsters as sub-bosses instead of actual henchmen? Like there's been ZERO plot since I got to this dump. The dungeon is monolithic for the sake of it. This isn't fun, it's obnoxious.

Velvet's third Mystic requires... being therionized for longer than one usually is. I know how to do this; it's comboing with additional pushes of R2 to extend the life of it and not finishing a combo. I try to satisfy the conditions and get it off and she just uses Lethal Pain WTF. And this keeps happening. Sometimes she uses a Break Arte first. But it becomes very apparent that this third Mystic Arte doesn't exist at all. They want you to think it does, but it does not. And, yes, I've been doing what I thought were three hit combos. I swear this activated Lethal Pain five times at least.

IIRC, pressing R2 again resets the counter for it. When you're able to use it, Velvet will scream and her HP bar will turn red. You have to start pretty close to full HP, or else she'll hit 1 HP and exit therion mode before she can use it.

Pushing R2 again didn't seem to reset the counter. I have noticed Velvet's primal yell and the red flash but every time I get that and push L2 after a couple whacks, it activates Lethal Pain.

Are you using the new Break Soul she got? You have to combo the Mystic Arte off of that, like all of the other level 3 Mystic Artes.

Aha, that's gotta be the issue. I need to figure out how to do that one, then. Thanks!

Fuck this third Mystic Arte. Either Eizen kills a mob, or Eleanor deliberately interrupts my combo, or the enemy dies, or my HP magically disappears and I lose my entire stock of BP... for fuck's sake JUST LET ME GET IT OFF ALREADY.

I've cleaned out the entire dungeon and still haven't seen it. And then I die to a Chain Encounter, and, uh.... get it off immediately after reloading (by that, I mean 25 seconds into my first encounter, of course). Funny how that works! LOL.

That is a top tier Mystic Arte. Like... HOLY CRAP THAT WAS BADASS. Sorry, I was too busy admiring to get a picture, xD

I decide to just go try to kill the bastard right now. I only have 11 Life Bottles but if that's not enough, I'd need to grind a level anyway. After the party all states why they're there, Artorius says some nonsense about "the hopes of mankind" and "perfect world" but we've already seen his horrible dystopia. This guy is fucked up in the head. This is why he has to die right here, right now. We're saving mankind from his reign of terror, and making sure he goes down in the history books as the diabolical fiend that he is... along with his now-deceased boss Melchior, of course.

Innominat says something about an "icky feeling in its chest" after Laphicet hit him before... and Laphicet, being the BADASS kiddo he is, says "Then I'll just have to hit you again, and see if that helps!" YESSSSSSSS. THIS is how you do a kid character who isn't awful! I think him being male helps because there's no lolicon fanservice nonsense at play. It'll be good to separate this fiend from Laphicet Crowe's body. After all, this thing took Laphi's life so it could posses his body.

Velvet responds to "Arthur" (woah) saying she finally can answer the question "Why do birds fly?" - because they want to. Artorius is a monster who wants to strip wants, desires, and will FROM the people. The will of the people is at stake and not for the reason the bastard thinks it is. He continues spouting politician nonsense that doesn't make any sense just because it defies his ideal dystopian future. There's a cool battle sequence video before the fight that shows off how much game tech has evolved.... and then get to the battle and get annihilated. Grrrrrrrrreeeeaaaaatttttttttt....

I change my cooking to Mythic Omelet with Velvet's -40% 1000 damage and that helps A LOT. I also start going for the god first instead of the bastard and that goes quite a bit better. I still lose handily, unfortunately. The THIRD time, however... Innominat keeps getting its Mystic Arte off but I manage to kill it. The bastard is then flying solo, and is quickly overwhelmed. I, uh, only have one Life Bottle left and a second form to deal with of course because armatus (I expected as much), so FUCK.

Between forms, Innominat realizes that Laphicet is the source of power for the party and is literally why they're able to match wits with it, so it makes a beeline for the poor boy. Velvet gets in his way, and Innominat expects just because it's inside Laphi's body that she'll oblige. Velvet's like "Nahhh..." They cross swords and Velvet brings out that comb that Laphi gave her way back when to defend herself... and it snaps in two. The monster sees and asks why Velvet has its comb, and she says it's because Laphi gave it to her, not Innominat. Does it not realize that even though it's inherited Laphi's body, it still isn't Laphi - it's a horrible fiend bent on world domination? It suddenly starts pretending to be in pain for sympathy, and I REVEL in it. Artorius is by its side.

The bastard says that birds fly because they have strong wings, and thus mankind must be suppressed because of sin. This could have been prevented if he had a better math teacher tbh, because this sounds like "1 + 1 = 11" to me. Somehow... Artorius activates despair to armatize with Innominat. One more step, and it could've become a daemon, too, but Innominat held it in check. The fiend merges into one to complete its goal of destroying the world. My goodness, this thing is a monster worse than ANY daemon.

The fight starts promisingly when everybody unloads Mystic Artes on this hellspawn. Eizen, Magilou, Velvet... and then Velvet again managing ANNIHILATING CRASH SOMEHOW! I thought it against the Fire Doe was magnificent enough but against this thing's final form is even more impressive. I managed to screencap THAT one:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/6/2/AAR0ZFAADa3O.jpg

Its second form is oddly weak. This doesn't make any sense. I'm beating the crap out of this thing pretty handily since, well... going up against two monsters isn't as easy as going up against one. And its Mystic Arte LOOKS cool, but it can't even one-shot Eizen. THE WHAT. I win handily. The inability for it to cover the entire battlefield allows anyone to get revived pretty quickly.

Artorius goes "Let's settle this" and Velvet makes a sacrifice ploy by letting it send her sword flying so she could unexpectedly claw it to the face. It starts some "end the world's sadness" bullshit but... it IS the world's sadness. What it and Melchior did was make a sad, lifeless world of zombies. Velvet somehow bites into him to rip Innominat out, shouts "Arthur's forgotten maxim," HEADBUTTS the guy, grabs his sword as it falls from the sky, and impales him with it as she finishes the sentence: "Do not despair... NO MATTER WHAT!" HOLY SHIT THIS IS GLORIOUS! He seemed to have forgotten his own path. He was full of despair and hate... and went from the man Arthur to the monster Artorius. He admits this occurred when Celica fell into Innominat's sinkhole... instead of Velvet and Laphicet. What a fucking monster - I had thought he was going to say "It should have been me" like I 100% would have in that situation. Wishing your wife's siblings had died instead shows his own self-importance, but thankfully that's dying as he is. Velvet admits self-sacrifice herself in this unusual conversation, which is weird since she should be calling him an asshole for wishing death upon him from the start. In his final moments, he realizes she's the hero the world really needed, not the villain. Boy, are we gonna have to correct the record on THAT one...
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/6/3/AAR0ZFAADa3P.jpg

Rokurou (who was the only one who didn't take part in the actual fight, though Laphicet was just in for the last 15 seconds) says it's over, but we still have the thing possessing Laphi's body to deal with. It's still hungry. And it doesn't have Artorius to keep its power in check. Velvet volunteers as tribute. She cradles the thing and plays along with its Laphi act... and then claws it in the ass as he nips her shoulder. They're going to devour each other. A yin-yang sort of thing, a perpetual contradiction where they both remain sealed until Sorey and Rose change things or whatever. Who cares, that's Zesty. Phi doesn't want her to do this but she says that she can't kill the fiend, because that would kill both her AND him as well since they're parts of Innominat. Velvet throws him an apple and tells him to eat. To live. To do what he wants to in life before growing old, moving to Florida, and dying. Velvet talks about being selfish and whatnot, but she's not. She asks her nephew to help the weak. To heal the world she "ruined" (saved?). To make the most out of his unwavering kindness and strength, which would be wasted if he died here, at 5 y/o. He's a malak. He's got another thousand or two years left in him. He's a wreck. He's losing the only family he has left. But they love each other. They are family, after all.

(to be continued... posting this now with the next post half-done because there's a nasty storm outside and I don't wanna lose power again and lose all this, but I HAVE saved that I beated the game!)

The four elementals appear as Innominat becomes sealed, and they ask for a replacement, because he served as the balance of their power. They need a malak of considerable strength to do the same thing. Laphicet, of course. There's no need for me to recap the obviousness here. He wishes for humans to spread their wings and fly - metaphorically, of course. Flawed, complex creatures, who can right the wrongs of their past. They grant him his desires. The kid'll be great! Something something silver flame.... and we get an AMV ending!

Laphicet becomes a dragon called Maotelus (ehhh @ that name), revealed to be the name Eleanor gave him since it means the same thing - "one who lives" - in an ancient language. This is at the same place where Velvet yelled "LAPHICET" - that fortress or whatever. He spreads his wings to heal humanity of the daemonblight. The Van Eltia rejoices upon seeing Dyle, Kamoana, and Medissa returned to fully human forms, thus knowing that the mission was a success. Rokurou shows he's still a daemon, because he's to corrupted by sin to have his heart changed, and he wouldn't have it any other way.

The credits show images of Velvet and Laphi traveling the world in a fractured dimension where there never was a daemonblight, as evidenced by Celica and Arthur being proud parents, Rokurou and Shigure having beers together, Magilou being a circus performer (instead of having everyone murdered to hold her hostage), and just a genuinely cheerful place as opposed to the morbid awfulness of the world we do have. This culminates with a reveal that it was our new Empyrean's doing. After the credits, we get seeds that there will always be conflict. Some daemons will always percolate. Rokurou kills a few of them who were going to ambush a caravan, of course having fun taking six on at once. Eleanor breaks up a fight in a ruined city (Loegres?). Kamoana, Medissa, Dyle, and Tabatha are all there for whatever reason. Magilou finds a flower growing... whatever that means, Melchior. You watching her or something?

Laphicet is doing all he can to bring peace to the world for his aunt. I mean, he is a god now. He can manage that. And Innominat's shrine is now his. Artorius is deadzo, thank goodness. And the people of this world can presume that the daemonblight is gone. Wouldn't surprise me if Eleanor announced the death of Artorius and the purge of the daemonblight. Would've been the perfect time to spin the message that the Abbey was responsible for it all along. "Your suffering was caused by this man so he could be the hero to alleviate it." Even if it's not quite true, people would eat that shit up the same way they did with Artorius. Like I always say: ppl r dum, and that's something you can use to your advantage if you want to do good things... or truly terrible ones. And there's the difference between Artorius and us. He wanted to get rid of everything. We wanted to get rid of him.
~~
FINAL THOUGHTS
I would again like to apologize for all the delays. I had no way of knowing what was going on with my computer, but thankfully won't have these issues with either Zestiria or Omori, both of which I'll be tackling soon. If I don't like Zestiria much, I won't play it much, but I will be logging that in this topic. Omori as of now will be to Plum, who bought it for me back in December (and I was gonna play it in April but... y'know...).

Let's start out with what I didn't like. There are a few things. The #1 thing is of course the equipment system being utter fucking garbage. You get so many drops that your inventory becomes a bottomless pit of junk and it's impossible to find the one with the most useful skills (necessary on higher difficulties to a certain point) if you don't properly purge all the crap. The game was also way too easy, even on the highest difficulties - I can't imagine how pathetic it must be with the Grade Shop carryovers,. A good challenge is Abyss Unknown in general or Vesperia Unknown at 2x EXP; even half EXP here won't help much. The other things are minor complaints, mostly related to this game's lack of budget. The amount of cutscenes replaced by just skits did not work at times and this diminished the impact of those scenes. Sometimes it did work, so there is that. I'd also have liked a better final dungeon, especially one with warp points.

But yeah, despite all that, this game was awesome, and I am really glad I played it. It felt like a return to form for Tales after all I heard about Zestiria (I may or may not finish it depending on how much I hate it - and me using "hate" there instead of "like" says something jsyk), but its storytelling is markedly better than any game in the series since Abyss. Localized ones, I mean. I can't really think of many issues with the story here, aside from maybe minor concerns that the writers were really mean to Velvet. Every time it seems like she has something that would make her happy, they take it from her. But that was the story; to be happy, you must first be sad; to be sad, you must experience happiness. If you experience neither, you live a life of apathy like I have been for the past year.

The battles got fun when I unlocked the hardest difficulty so that was helpful. There were some kickass artes and controlling Velvet was actually fun for a bit; it didn't feel routine. Of course the other characters are too spell-focused to be fun to use which creates a problem - you can really only use Velvet or Rokurou without being bored of standing in the same place. There wasn't anyone that's as fun to control as Leia in Xillia 2, no sirree. But I do appreciate them taking a different approach to battles in an attempt to keep the series fresh - this one just didn't work so well, and you never know until you try.

The characters here were fantastic, and I think having fewer of them was helpful. Xillia 2, while it had some well-punctuated plot twists and tried to do new things with storytelling, had way too many characters to be coherent. There were nine playables, which is always excessive, especially if you can only take three in with you at any time. This created a lot of story issues. From what I understand, Zestiria was the same way. This was much better in terms of being able to tell a story about these people. It never felt like there was too much to keep track of. Let's go over everyone...

Velvet: Top tier Tales protagonist, behind only Luke (with Yuri in third). Luke will always be #1 because of how perfectly developed he is, but Velvet found a way to mix some of Luke's development ("some" indeed) with Yuri's hard-edged badassery, all while feeling like a complete character in the process. She had her moments where she was awesome and her moments where she was completely unlikable. Her being manipulated by Innominat was not a good look where she became a psychotic zombie ready to impale herself. Cristina Vee was downright fantastic as her, nailing both the perky younger Velvet and the anger-filled Lord of Calamity and selling me on her at every turn.

Rokurou: We needed more of him having drinking scenes with Eizen, honestly, but we did get a good picture of who he is. He never backs down from a fight and really enjoys fighting with his back against a wall - where's the fun without a challenge? His samurai storyline was at times interesting but kind of became whatever as the game went on. What's understated is how good of a troll he is. Unlike somebody else we know (more on her shortly), he got away with trolling people without it blowing up in his face. It was subtle, yet effective. I liked him a lot as a sidekick but that's just it: He never felt like he was more than a sidekick. He got overshadowed by at least three others in the party.

(cripes, this is getting long... another post incoming...)

Laphicet: Top tier kid character for sure. He started out as mindless vanilla but he was meant to. He started to develop feelings, to see himself as more than one of Villain Teresa's tools, and in the process he developed a strong sense of protection for his Aunt Velvet. This rapid maturation was one of the most fascinating storylines of the game. There were little details like him not liking the nicknames that his aunt would call him and, well, being a boy who liked toys. When he yelled at her for letting Innominat manipulate her was BADASS and this coming from the kid was astounding. He showed this side of himself again in the final fracas. I do expect him to be in Zestiria since he replaced Innominat, but I hope it's in a good capacity and not a bad one.

Eizen: Not knowing what would become of him in Zestiria helped me go into this with an open mind; it wasn't until I realized that they were planting seeds for what eventually became of him that I connected those dots. It kind of makes me sick, honestly. This guy has all the development he got and then he just turns into a dragon like it's nothing. It's gonna hit hard because of how fun he was as a malak pirate captain... and how his Reaper's Curse was also quite fascinating. Everything went wrong for him. And he embraced it. He let his shadow shine. And Howling Dragon kicked ass. Gonna suck to see what becomes of him, and how Edna is all choked up about her brother becoming that. Zaveid is who I'm more intrigued by here - because he and Eizen had an awesome rivalry. What happened with Theodora fueled that even more. Eizen wanted Zaveid to release her. Zaveid couldn't. I've been both before, so I get it. Eizen's Charlie Brown kind of story... I can relate to that, too. Fascinating guy.

Eleanor: Eleanor isn't bad. I'm sure she found a good husband and started a family. Backstory wise, all I can recall is that she lost her mother to a daemon (whom she later killed with a scripted Spiral Hail) and was xenophobic because of that, thinking that because one daemon bad, all daemons bad. She realized the errors of her ways eventually, especially after being forced to adopt a child of a woman she'd murdered, but the reason she turned on Artorius and the Abbey was because she lost a duel, got called a traitor, and just sorta tagged along with Velvet and started to see that the Abbey wasn't as righteous as she'd thought. She was always the one trying to call the bullshit out. It's obvious why she was the one who turned. She definitely strikes me as a humanitarian, someone who wants to help anyone and everyone. She's the nice girl who will see a vulnerable child (think Kamoana) crying and ask what's wrong, then offer her shoulder for some warmth. She's the one who'd take her jacket off in a rainstorm to lend to a vagrant who only had rags to wear. She's the one who would lure a dog who stole a kid's toy into a trap, then give it an earful as to why that's wrong without calling it a mutt. I just wish we saw her internal monologuing more, because the few times I remember seeing it were great. Oh, and she had the scar on her chest from that daemon, and that was the first time Laphicet saw bazongas.

Magilou: Here. We. Go. Saved the best for last. Let's just say... "Have Erica Lindbeck narrate my life, please" still holds up. Really, the only thing that I didn't like about Magilou was a gap in her development. The "Lost Legate" thing sorta felt tacked-on, and we should have gotten more detail about her past. She was being trained as a circus performer until "an accident" (not an actual accident, thanks to Melchior) led to them all being wiped out except for her. She was then adopted by a monster and trained as a monster's apprentice, as she had exceptional skills. She also had exceptional smarts, of course, and picked up what the monster was doing and betrayed him, which led to her arrest. She got out and just went about with her IDGAF attitude even though she did, actually, give a fuck.

Her constant abuse of poor Bienfu (who probably only went with her in the first place because his compass pointed him in that direction) was hilarious. The hanging him by a rope from a window. The making him read her letters. The sadistic punishments for him letting himself get hexed by her step-monster. She just did it for jollies and to keep him in line, since he prided himself on "physically escalating with cuties." She acted like she saw him as a tool, but she really didn't: She cared for him at the same time, and would've never done anything to hurt him beyond repair. I think this relationship actually escalated his desires to cuddle with other human females... namely Eleanor.

What's odd is that the inconsistencies with her character fit together like pieces of a puzzle. Her staying mum upon realizing that her former adoptive monster had cast a ridiculous illusion arte just to see what would happen was fantastic, especially since, once Velvet interrogated her, she spilled without pressure. She didn't want to blow the surprise, wanted to see if Velvet was sharp enough to figure out the distortion, have fun along the way, and then wasn't afraid to tell the truth. The endgame Magilou was... sane, and offered rational advice, even though her persona seemed ridiculous. This goes back to her roots in the circus: She was really level-headed the entire time and just created a dramatic, flamboyant persona out of boredom and desire for attention. But unlike Rokurou, she doesn't always get away with it once people are onto her shit. And she doesn't care. I think she secretly likes being trolled back. She really was rational the entire time and these little things prove it.

But, again, Erica Lindbeck. Perfect casting, since apparently she's just as dramatic as Magilou IRL. This let her sell the part wholeheartedly and I don't think someone who lacks that kind of personality could've even come close to it.

Aside from Magilou in first, it's really hard to rank them. And it's even harder to know where to place them on my series list (Tear and Luke are my clear top two, but... Magilou Mayvin is definitely top 5). Also @NBIceman (yes that @ was so you know I beated the game) I do wanna say I appreciate you pointing some of that out to me. First-time players tend to miss those details when they don't know what to look for, so thanks for that bit.

Bienfu: Poor guy was the butt of jokes and memes, but it improved the game. I like how Tales is willing to make its mascot characters punching bags so they're legitimately funny instead of just obnoxious. It worked well with Mieu so it worked again here. Only I think Bienfu was even funnier than Mieu, because... Physically Escalating with Cuties.
Benwick: Another good "sidekick" character, and thankfully in his case, that's pretty much all he was meant to be. Wish we could've gotten more development for him in particular, though. I wanna know where he came from and how he became Skipper and then First Mate on the Van Eltia.
Kamoana: Poor thing. Her mother was murdered by an exorcist (cough*Eleanor*cough) and she was turned into a therion by others despite being just a little girl. Her village was wiped out and she has nobody to go back to there. And yet she'll probably never learn the truth about what Eleanor did, which is a good thing. If she did... I so wanna see what happened. Kamoana's probably too nice herself to hold a grudge since Eleanor probably wrote a letter and gave it to...
Medissa: Honestly, not much to say here. I wanted more from her other than she lost a kid and then got another one to replace him, one who'd lost her mother. She got a second chance upon realizing the Abbey was full of shit.
Dyle: Human Dyle interesting. Did he marry Medissa? He was another sidekick, just a lizardfolk one.

(villains incoming)

Artorius: This guy was definitely messed up in the head, and that stems from him losing his world - Celica - due to an unfortunate misstep. It was that traumatic event where he went from "loving husband" to "Melchior's puppet" and had deeply distorted ideals that were harmful to the masses. He tried to present himself as an infallible hero when he was anything but - he was the bringer of apathy as a replacement for humanity. He was a shepherd leading the sheeple to the slaughter. Though the entire plan wasn't quite deliberate on his end like I'd first thought (Celica dying was certainly an accident), he certainly made the most of what transpired. He will forever be remembered as a villain who brought great harm to the world, even though he was the puppet of...

Melchior: This thing was a dirtbag. It wasn't even human. No positive feelings, no family ties it wasn't willing to cut, nothing redeeming whatsoever. Doing things like brainwashing Bienfu, creating a fake Aball to mindfuck Velvet, stealing Siegfriend's mana to destroy the world... the list goes on. Its hatred for humanity and projection of all its awful deeds onto its victims reeked of a whiny Karen saying "YOURRRR BADDDDD BECAUSSEEEEE I DIDDN'T GETTTT MY WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!" Like, come on, you piece of shit, the villains that history remembers aren't the ones being bullied around by people; they're the ones doing the bullying, the ones like YOU. Velvet DEVOURING it in front of the moon was one of the most feel-good moments of the game and was immeasurably satisfying (oh yeah: One more issue with the game is all the sidequest fluff AFTER the climax... like wut). Its own soul being used to foil its own evil plot was phenomenal to watch. The way it had cheated death and ended up going out like that was great, too.

Again, we already covered this, but Melchior was the true main antagonist here. Artorius was a puppet and only fit best as final boss because of his history with Velvet.

Shigure: Whatever. Brothers gonna brother.

Thug Oscar & Villain Teresa: Two throwaway henchmen who didn't really contribute anything until their sendoff. Getting to see their relationship from that point of view was refreshing considering they'd just gotten in the way before then. Velvet killing Oscar and then immediately seeing the parallels between Teresa and herself was something. Even though the key difference was that Teresa WANTED to become a therion; Velvet just sorta became one not knowing what it was. Velvet was a victim of happenstance, while Teresa kinda got what she bargained for. Whoops.

Innominat: It was an EPIC twist that this previously faceless version of Hades was, in fact, possessing Laphicet Crowe's body and had inherited his memories. All of that buildup of a personal vendetta only for it to go up in smoke because Laphi was responsible for "don't tell Velvet" and volunteering as tribute. Kid should've devoted energy to what Videl eventually did in deciphering the ingredients for the Omega Elixir. The comb kept resurfacing as a plot device; it went from something of irreplaceable sentiment to being thrown away at the very end of the game, because that sentiment was never in line with reality. This is how you use an item as a plot device as opposed to a MacGuffin like a crystal skull or something.

I wish there were more villains than that tbh. But everyone else was just a one-off, like the high priest we killed when Magilou repossessed Bienfu or the daemon that killed Eleanor's mother, only to be owned with a Spiral Hail finisher. Oscar wasn't particularly tied to anyone; he was just a lackey, a thug. Really, the only blatant pairings were Velvet/Artorius (also Eleanor/Artorius to a lesser extent), Velvet/Innominat, Rokurou/Shigure, Laphicet/Villain Teresa, and Magilou/Melchior, and that last one could've used a little more exploring, to be honest. The best villains are ones that the hero themselves REALLY wants to kill - and, in seeing what the baddies did, the player feels the same way. I only felt that way about Artorius and Melchior, especially the latter. Note how I stopped recognizing its humanity. That's what I do when I REALLY hate a villain.

IN CONCLUSION
This was a great experience and it definitely helped get some of the rust off me. It felt good to actually force myself to do a project (as technology allowed) and I want to keep at it, which is why I'm doing Zestiria. And Omori. And that triple ranking project... hopefully. Oh, and maybe something else coming later in the year. I'll probably also play more Mafia and try to be less blatant scum next time (still don't know how I pulled off that con).

Really, the plot and characters carried Berseria to a level that the mechanics could not. The game felt largely untested and low-budget, having serious issues in places like sidequests and that equipment management system. These issues were significant enough to ultimately harm it enough for it to not be in my top 10 games ever (and probably even top 20), but I'd still say it's an 8/10. An excellent score for something that plagued by an issue as large as it had. (Keep in mind, I give VERY few 10'/10s; to me, that means "Nearly flawless to the point that the few minor issues it has are non-factors." No game is perfect; a 10/10 means it's as close to perfect as it can get. This game perfected the writing but failed elsewhere. And if you're gonna pick one thing to do right in an RPG, pick the writing. Mechanics age. Stories don't.

*** THANK YOU ALL FOR READING!!! ***

Glad you enjoyed it, and that you were able to sort out those crazy pc problems to finish it.

I only bothered doing one or two of the sidequests after Melchior because even though I loved the game and enjoyed the combat enough even without the highest difficulty, I had had enough by then. And the pacing still dragged.

Hopefully we get another cast with this quality soon. I didn't play arise because i didn't see that much praise after the initial release hype.

The PC thing is something I hope to not experience again. Hopefully, in five years I'll be in a better place to replace parts before they shit the bed. Still didn't affect my enjoyment.

Yeah, the pacing dragged at the end for no good reason. They just had their climax. You don't put all your filler between the climax and the finale. That makes no sense. It was like pushing all the momentum into the Abyss of Death.

I've heard Arise is alright. Nothing outstanding, nothing terrible. I do own it (got it cheap on PS4) but have only heard that it's a middling Tales entry, which is sad since it took five years after Berseria. Here's hoping they come more frequently in the future and that Bamco stops wasting their time and money with gacha garbage they end up killing after a year or two anyway.

I'm sad at how few comments I've received postgame... but even so, I'm gonna start Zestiria tonight. Keep in mind that these writeups will not be as thorough because I have that on PS3 and I keep my TV with my consoles in the other room.

Here's what I know going in:

• According to the boxart, Sorey is destined to become Shepherd, which is an immediate red flag as to what became of this world. Is the plot about Sorey realizing how that's a bad thing, because of how evil Artorius was? And how badly is it done, because of what I know about it going in?
• From my understanding, both Sorey and Rose can use malakhim, and most of the party members are malaks that you can tether each to, affecting their battle abilities. This may be completely wrong since it's based on what I remember of what the user ElizeLutus (who's posted in here - she's a friend of mine), if anyone here didn't know) told me in 2015, but... yeah.
• Rose is a bitch to Alicia so Alicia doesn't stay in the party very long. Part of why the game is so hated is that Rose just gets away with it like it's nothing, in part because Alicia is a flawed human being, but this plays into the game's hypocrisy and Rose being a Mary Sue. AFAIK Rose isn't like this to anyone else, but is still insufferable for all the same reasons as Emil was. Alicia's waifu design certainly didn't help matters, as people liked her going in based on aesthetic. Worth noting that I loved her design from the start and told myself that I would like her, but... we'll see. I do have a good track record with that. Leia from ToX was obvious, and I enjoyed her so much I named an alt after her.
• Edna and Zaveid are party members. I believe there's another named Mikleo.
• As this is set in the same world as Berseria, a lot of the same cities return, but aren't named the same for the most part. It is a thousand years' difference. Things have changed a lot.
• Eizen. Dragon. Obvious.
• There's an Alicia DLC that I'll probably just watch on YouTube if I care enough about her.

We'll see how long I last. If I decide this to be a waste of my time, I'll stop and let you all know. Got other things to do, like... cleaning my apartment (made some good progress there today, at least!).

I'm not going to elaborate too much, but the reason why Alicia leaves the party doesn't actually have anything to do with Rose.

Alrighty then. I'll wait and see.

Here's my rundown:

1. The voice acting here is such a step down from Berseria. Like... people don't actually talk like this. Berseria's main cast felt natural except for Laphicet, who was supposed to be wooden early on. Here, Mikleo feels unnatural. Sorey is wildly inconsistent. Alisha sounds real but the timing is off.
2. "Sorey" is not pronounced the way I thought (I read it as "So-ree" and it's "So-ray"), and it's spelled "Alisha" and not "Alicia" so... shows what I know. The legend here, however, feels very, very wrong, because one such Shepherd was totally evil, and lost his battle to a daemon who subsequently ended daemonblight. Was Velvet the actual Shepherd all along? And is "Era of Asgard" referring to Symphonia or Berseria?
3. The skits are only viewable at save points and points of interest? Uhhh... that's not a very smart decision. Alisha only has one winquote, and there aren't any group ones except those tied to the plot. The gameplay isn't too dissimilar from Berseria but it's a gauge instead of just souls and you still get ordinary attacks too. There were a lot of things thrown at me at once, like the monoliths and those associating to battle skills. I'm figuring it out as I go.
4. Sorey is an idiot. Blindly trusting and most definitely wanting to get laid. Why else would he take an attractive human girl back to his village so hastily? He also never asked her her name despite spending three days with her, nor did she ever tell him. He doesn't question anything even when people tell him to. Nice guy, but not all that bright. At least Alisha gained the trust of everyone else.
5. Alisha, however, most definitely picked up on the presence of the seraphim, and figured that Sorey was talking to them. Why else would she have suggested he try to draw Excalibur? (I'm using that name because of this world's roots in Arthurian legend, of course.)
6. My goodness, did they need to change the name of literally everything? What Berseria calls daemons Zestiria calls hellions. Malakhim are seraphim here. I don't understand why they chose to have zero uniformity. Was that a translation issue? Like... they could have just used daemons and seraphim in each game. Would've been easier to follow.
7. This daemon was... eating Mason!? What the hell? This just felt forced and unnatural. Speaking of Sorey being a nimrod, it took him far too long to ask himself what the thing meant by "main course." Or to figure out that it was Alisha. And it looks like we're gonna get zero follow-up and just have Mason discarded without even a world-building scene of his wife Natalie grieving, which could have shown a lot about how relationships work in Elysia. Instead all I have to go on are bits of unvoiced dialogue... and tbh all I remember right now is that Mason and Natalie were a couple.

I saved right after Sorey woke up.

I figured the terminology has just changed to a degree over the 1000 year span.

Zestiria has good music, a decent cast, and gameplay that I absolutely could not stand, largely because elements of it force you into certain party compositions and I hate that.

Murphiroth posted...

I figured the terminology has just changed to a degree over the 1000 year span.

It feels like to a ridiculous degree. The only terms that stayed consistent are "Greater Resonance" and "Armatization."

Tonight's updates:

• As expected, Mikleo was waiting in ambush for Sorey, having come to the same conclusion about Alisha being the target
• There's not much in the way of daemons along the way here. I know I'll be back in these woods later, when I can use Rock Smash.
• I make it to Ladylake just fine. Rose tries to buy Alisha's knife off me, but I turn her down thinking this thing is going to be useful. Needless to say, I was right. I'd have felt dirty selling it, too. As was obvious, Alisha is of royal blood.
• Ladylake is another glorious water city, but still pales in comparison to Grand Chokmah.
• A dog spots the fox daemon guy and chases after him for us. We fight him again and win, but his assassin buddies subdue him, tell us HONOR INTEGRITY, and that they don't intend to kill the princess after all. They also tell me to get to the altar... where I so happen to run into said princess.
• All Hades breaks loose in the chamber, and since Sorey is able to see Lailah, she knows exactly what time it is. That said she gives him a quick pitch on what he's getting himself into but being the JRPG protagonist that he is, he says he'll be fine. Riiiight. I also have a lot of names to process here. Commander Bartlow, for one, doesn't seem to be happy that the Shepherd is among them. Lady Maltran doesn't seem to be a villain or anything but I expect I'm gonna have to fight her in some circumstance later.
• Sorey passes out for three days, then gets more info about the Lord of Calamity and the Shepherds and whatnot. From what's being divulged... one would think that Velvet was the true Shepherd and Artorius the Lord of Calamity, as he was the one to have unleashed daemonblight by trying to resurrect Innominat. He was the one who spread malevolence. Velvet was just reacting to him and sabotaging his nefarious plans. She didn't spread malevolence herself - the negative press covfefe about her did, and that was all the Abbey. So this retrospectively re-asks what I've been asking myself since early in Berseria.
• Toitolez selling mapz that are 100 gald yet I can't afford because I spent all 1400 gald I had on weaponz... yay...
• Having that knife proved useful in the sewers, because it's actually a key. It occurred to me that Alisha had probably been trying to use it as such in the ruins where we found her.
• Sorey is also too immature to be Shepherd at this point. The way he basically dismissed Mikleo, who he knew was capable enough in battle, was boneheaded. His abilities aren't quite yet what they should be... allegedly. He says he can't see anything from the Earthen Historia when holding the iris gem. He also can't un-armatize at will for, oh, about 15 seconds. That went away immediately. This makes me think this game is written by an unreliable narrator.
• Lailah saying she made a pact in the aqueduct shrine before wasn't anything too notable. How many Shepherds has she served? I like her regardless; she's a terrible liar and her diversions to get away from saying anything are adorable. I gotta wonder if she knows the truth about Artorius, the supposed "Shepherd of Legend" in this society, actually being the villain. I'm sure if she doesn't, Edna and Zaveid both do. That's bound to be a "plot twist" later but, having played Berseria and knowing the truth already, I won't be shocked.
• Armatization is fun. I'm activating it by accident a lot because I keep trying to reconfigure the controls to what's most comfortable and/or similar to Berseria. That's the kicker: Guarding in Berseria,was with L1 due to its arte system. So Armatization had to be remapped to Square to retain that... yeah. Not sure what I'll be doing going forward.

Okay, I'm really really really sorry I completely fell off of this topic the way I did. Real life started getting insane in March and it's only now starting to kind of slow down - getting back to this felt kind of daunting but I enjoyed catching up! Don't want to just throw in a bunch of walls of text so I'll just do a few quick-hitter thoughts - a lot of my opinions echo yours anyway so it'd just be a lot of rehashing.

-First and foremost, I'm obviously just really glad you enjoyed Berseria as much as you did. You and I are agreed that Abyss is the gold standard Tales game that will likely never be topped, and Berseria's my definite #2 (#3 is either Arise or Xillia 2 depending on what day I'm asked). I hated Zestiria with such a fiery passion (that's only gotten worse over time) that Berseria was gonna have to really blow me away or I'd be at risk of falling off the series entirely, and fortunately it did.

-I have some thoughts on the game's ending but the only real strong ones involve Zestiria spoilers, so I'll keep them to myself for now.

-Also very happy that you enjoyed the majesty that is Magilou - I'm glad some of my ramblings gave her a little bit of extra memorability in your mind! I'm not gonna say much about the characters here since that would lead to more walls of text (although if you want that, I guess, now you can go back and read my writeups for them in the ranking topic I did! Just don't read the last couple spoiler tags in Laphicet's post.)

-There's a little detail about Eizen that I'd really love to go ahead and bring up since it's only actually covered in supplemental material, but I guess one aspect of it could also still be considered a spoiler so I'll wait on it.

Anyway, I do hope you like Zesty. I don't know how much I'll comment considering most of what I could say would just be spewing vitriol, but I'll definitely keep following along and jumping in if I do feel like I have something worthwhile to contribute. Cheers!

Hey, no worries! I just wanted to make sure you were still following along - glad you were able to catch up and that life is finally giving you some room to breathe :)

I SHOULD add that I'd give Abyss a 10/10. Yes, there's the whole ...Anise being a conspirator in killing Ion... thing and how that's poorly handled, but that's the ONLY issue I've ever had with the game. The rest is that good. It's not just a gold standard for Tales but for JRPGs as well. For me, my Tales ranking (of what I've played) is something like:
Abyss > Berseria > Xillia 2 > Symphonia = Xillia 1 > Graces > Vesperia > [redacted]
I should do a Tales replay project sometime, but I'll play Arise first (which I do own). I'd love to get a wife I could do that with. May need to acquire Legendia though. I have no intention of reacquiring [redacted] because I don't want to acknowledge its existence; when I do, I'm bashing the shit out of it.

Berseria being an 8/10 still feels right. The plot's good, the cast is great. the battle system is fine... but that weapons system and the sidequest pacing are glaring issues that significantly undermined my enjoyment. An 8/10 is the same score I'd give Xillia 2, but I enjoy Berseria more (it's probably in my top 30 games all-time, though I should make a formal list). Putting all those sidequests between the climax and the finale would compare to a TV show throwing eight filler episodes in the second half of the final season just to meet their episode quota, thus destroying the pacing.

Reading your Berseria character write-ups, agree about Rokurou - he's overshadowed bigtime. With Eizen, he definitely was great at setting the scene and looks like a total badass, but... how'd you forget about Howling Dragon? That's an awesome Mystic Arte; it's his other two that are very, very lame. Laphicet was certainly a good foil for everyone else in the party, and is certainly a top-tier kid character, period. Best BOY kid character in a JRPG I've ever played. Nanako Dojima from Persona is best girl kid (RPGs only). I also agree that him becoming Empyrean sorta came out of nowhere to set the scene for Zestiria (I didn't read any farther than that sentence per your instruction). They didn't let it end naturally. We can talk about that ending later (as well as Eizen, whenever I reach that spoiler).

The girls in Berseria are certainly more awesome en bloc than the guys. Eleanor was written beautifully as a turncoat - she didn't change, she just recognized that her alignment contradicted her ideals. Her demeanor carries the party chemistry well, and reading hers makes me want to replay Berseria to look for the subtleties even more (which I may do after Zesty). Those are the kinds of things you pick up on a replay. Velvet's development is certainly fantastic and, like I said above, Cristina Vee just NAILED it. And so did Erica Lindbeck, who was just born to be Magilou.

I plan to reread your entire rankings topic upon completion - or quitting - of Zestiria. So far, Zesty seems like standard Tales fare. Sorey is the same kind of idiot as Lloyd and Asbel. Alisha seems nice but overly generic waifu material. Mikleo is whatever. Lailah has potential but we'll see. I don't like the way you have to tether in battles though, and the tutorials are too much at once.

Also in your old topic there I noted you saying that some people think Vesperia has the best cast in Tales... when Abyss and Berseria outclass it by MILES. I don't get people sometimes.

Will play more tonight.

The tethering really only annoyed me when Alisha or Rose weren't in the party and I was limited to just 2 party members. It's probably partially because I would've used Sorey and Rose/Alisha even if I wasn't forced too, but that's probably because they made all of the seraphim completely interchangeable.

BlueCrystalTear posted...

Will play more tonight

This didn't happen, by the way. My aunt and uncle showed up a day early and wanted to do something. Didn't get back home until nearly 9 pm and didn't feel like playing at that point. I likely won't play today but we'll see.

Mewtwo59 posted...

probably because they made all of the seraphim completely interchangeable.

This is exactly why you should be bothered by the tethering, then. They took away something that makes Tales so fun by removing party diversity. A little issue with Berseria is that the only two you can use in battle are Velvet and Rokurou, because the other four spend too much time casting. This seems to have the same problem. My main in each game hasn't always been the protagonist. I play a mean battlemage Tear in Abyss and have tons of fun with Leia's aerials in Xillia (I'm not as good with Judith, unfortunately), though I controlled both Jude and Milla as well. I don't recall who all I tried in Graces but I need to play it again.

I should get Legendia somehow but I've heard many complaints about it, namely that the voice acting just stops, the battle system feels like a huge step back from Symphonia, the random encounter rate is obscene, and Shirley is the most whiny and obnoxious damsel in distress imaginable. I play games to have fun. None of that sounds fun.

Played plenty tonight.

• So... Ladylake is in Eastgand, right? Somewhere around the Morgana Woods in Berseria, yes?
• The Turtlez can seez Mikleo. Interesting.
• Sorey seems to have WAY too much faith in Mikleo. Like... even after the fight, he's still very much a stubborn, boneheaded, idealistic Tales protagonist. The only thing is that I don't find him particularly likable yet. Unlike that crew at the harbor who took Sorey out for a round of drinks. THAT had to be something to see, but of course they didn't let us. The stanboys going crazy over having drinks with the Shepherd would've been quite nice to see.
• Lady Maltran definitely has that air about her that you do NOT want to cross her. She also shows a lot of compassion and understanding for Alisha's situation (she also mentions recovering something... the knife, or something further?). This is why I don't think she's a villain. Something about her design makes me think she'll be someone I have to fight later, but she won't side with Commander Fartlow if he's being an idiot. Which... he's most certainly bound to be.
• I cleared out the Galahad Ruins relatively easily. Of course Mikleo followed us. They didn't try to hide it, and the "___ overheard you!" got old fast after three times in a half hour. Predictable stuff transpired and more SUPER SAIYAN MODE and... yup. No issues there.
• Alisha seems to have developed greater resonance already. How in blazes was that even possible? Her becoming a Squire might have granted her that power? Because I presume it's just her. Her lack of a reaction is... strange to me. I mean, I find her alright so far. She's not an idiot like Sorey, and certainly has it together. I just want to see her vulnerable side. A lot of times it seems like she has a stick up her butt. There's just gotta be something inside her waiting to let loose.
• Sorey passed out right then and there as he cheered and they somehow got him back to the inn without much trouble. Uhh.. okay. That's a LONG way away.
• The priest was back (yes I searched the whole town before leaving for the ruins, don't judge me) and willingly accepted his duty. I hope that the later ones need some convincing to do our dirty work. I haven't found the seraph yet...
• I checked a couple places in the field because, if the seraph just randomly decided to visit Ladylake, that would sure be convenient. The ruined village (that looks... recent) and that little hole-in-the-wall both prove to be dead ends.
• While I'm there, I try to fight the Code Red over that way and it keeps owning me. I level up once since it's only five battles away and still get owned (despite this giving me new artes and equipment proficiency... does that do anything? The tutorial for it says "Water is wet" and that's it), so I go back to town. That's where I ended for the night.

So far, this seems like standard exposition for a Tales game. Nothing too outstanding but some signs that the game won't be as good are present. These include the seraphim linking system, the fact that Sorey already feels like a less interesting/likable version of Asbel and Lloyd, and a general lack of direction with so much infodump text tutorials. I'm trying to keep track of everything but it's not easy... not that it really matters. That Code Red aside, Moderate is a pretty weak difficulty. I may up it to Hard soon.

Ladylake is near Eastgand, yes. There was a guy in Taliesin who talked about draining an old city under a lake, and that city became Ladylake.

Mewtwo59 posted...

Ladylake is near Eastgand, yes. There was a guy in Taliesin who talked about draining an old city under a lake, and that city became Ladylake.

That's what I thought (though I'd thought that guy was out in the field, overlooking what would become Ladylake). And there was another NPC by the Taliesin cathedral who made a joke about moving the capital to Eastgand. It was me remembering those two guys that led me to that conclusion.

The place certainly has changed a lot in a thousand years. And I mean topographical change - likely because of the waking of the Empyreans.

Played a little. Freed Uno and he agreed to become Lord of the Land just like that. Lailah told Sorey about dragons. Tried the Code Red again and still got destroyed. Upped the difficulty to hard. Saw 87 skits at the inn. Equipment management is a lot easier in this game...

Not much to talk about here.

Played a little more last night.

• That ritual was boring. I'm glad I don't have to maintain the blessing, just level it up if I want to. I don't know if I need to because I've had zero problems so far. I'm not even really paying attention to mechanics at this point. I'm just mashing buttons and it's working for me, even on hard mode.
• The spy coming up to us finally was overdue after how many times he'd been seen eavesdropping. Simon, was it? Definitely will get to kill this guy later.
• Chancellor Fartlow is certainly shaping up to be the bad guy. After he tried to have Alisha assassinated for... reasons? And then tried to bribe Sorey, only to be rebuked and have a bunch of his thugs killed. He won't underestimate us again.
• That said, what the hell was going on there? There wasn't a lot of information as to what these jerks really wanted, and a lot was dumped on Sorey. This is the first time I'm hearing about another country (Rolance, was it?) and a possible war. And these guys seem to know something about Shepherds, possibly that Artorius was evil. They do understand how sheeple just want salvation or instant gratification, so it's a logical connection to make.
• And then we were interrupted by the Scattered Bones guild (odd name for an odd group), who are being used to move along the plot even though they don't make any sense at all. They just turned on Fartlow like it was nothing despite this whole "honor" thing. Did I follow that correctly, or did he betray them?
• A secret passage, of course.
• We're sleeping at the inn since Alisha's manor is being watched... shouldn't we be leaving town? They're going to find us at the inn if they want to. And yet, for whatever reason, they don't.

I'm enjoying this somewhat but Berseria was set up better. Not to mention there were characters I was already starting to like. Here, I'm still ambivalent about all of them, even if there was an amusing skit about a Bienfu favorite book that Sorey and Mikleo read together in the castle. Too bad it wasn't the 1091st Anniversary Edition of Physically Escalating with Cuties.

Haven't played these past few days. Had the following in the evenings:

• A Friday night where I just needed to chill after doing a lot in the hours prior
• A rock concert out on by a band I'm friends with
• Cards Against Humanity night
• An unexpectedly long conversation in the social room at my building

And a lot of cleaning and such in the daytime (or the hangover Sunday morning). I'm finally getting somewhere with my apartment organization project. Just need to sort through what's in my storage cubes and shelves. So I think I should be able to play a couple of these next few days. As remedy for boredom, even if this game is pretty blah so far.

Played some. Ehhh...

• Sorey reminds me of Bible Thumping idiots who say "But if it's not in the Bible..." - him denying dragons being part of a legend is so stupid. I'm starting to actually dislike him, and it's rare for me to actually dislike a character this early in a short, unless it's intentional like with Luke.
• Alisha stayed behind for pretty much no reason, like we're trekking to this mountain for pretty much no reason. If we could ford the river, why aren't we?
• I reckon the earth seraph is Edna... and the dragon is Eizen. This was the mountain on which they were born. I'd be surprised if Eizen were a dragon already - I thought he'd turn into one before our eyes.
• Lailah lying about prior Shepherds again... it's kind of cute how bad she is at changing the
• Zaveid shows up to kill a cave troll in one move. The old "super strong until he joins you" clich at work! Also, his voice sounds different. The acting is significantly weaker. Not sure how a VA could get that much better in just a year. He knows a Shepherd when he sees one. I then fight him and lose... abs again... I'm actually supposed to win this fight......? Uhhh... I'm supposed to beat the guy who just one-shorted the thing that I could hardly scratch...? That's... some logic. But I go back to what I initially figured: You gotta last a minute. I finally manage to do that and Zaveid ends the fight. Good.
• Lailah showing insanity about armadillos is... something.
• We get attacked by Eizen in his dragon form, and Edna can no longer talk sense into him. I get dragged into battle and keep getting told to run but I keep thinking this is the Berseria mechanic of escaping by running along the edge. Whoops! I get away, though.
• Edna is nothing like I imagined. Her parasol made me think she was more formal. Instead my introduction to her is a sick burn of "Is there a school you go to to get that dumb?" Nice. Sorry deserves it. She also burns Lailah by saying people would respect her if she worked on her personality. Ouch! Things like "Dum-Dum Academy" make me like her already. Her immediate refusal is gold. "Heed this, morons" as a rebuttal to humans just wanting a seraph to do their bidding. Sorry should have found something to incentivize her, since she's not going to do this just to be good like he is. Did he not understand how people (and seraphim) are all different?
• Edna gives us an opening in that she wants to find a cure for Eizen. Such a thing does exist, but as we learned a thousand years ago, gathering ingredients is not easy. But if Videl could be spared, so too can Eizen. Sorry seems to think so. Crazy idealist. And an idiot. But if he can get an Omega Elixir....
• Edna has a Divine Artifact already. Because she needed to, to speed things up. It works since she's the party troll, but still.
• Assassin lady with a seraph and a pure heart.... it's weird. This whole guild is weird.
• I choose to wait on Alisha and do the job quietly at night. Because ppl r dum and all. Especially Sorry. I get an AMV of Sorry punching the ground and rocks rising. Blah. Nothing special. Neif was in on this the whole time. More of this.

That's all for tonight. Edna is what the party needed to not frustrate me. And, yes, "Sorry" was not a typo.

Yeah, Sorey is... not the best protagonist in the tales series. I mean he's not worse than the fanfiction insert, but he lacks the charm of a lot of the others.

ElizeLutus posted...

Yeah, Sorey is... not the best protagonist in the tales series. I mean he's not worse than the fanfiction insert, but he lacks the charm of a lot of the others.

There's nothing Sorry's done that makes me think of him as particularly likable, even though he's a do-gooder idealist like Asbel (just less radical). We'll see how he responds to Edna. She's exactly what the party needed: A troll.

Tales protagonist rankings of the games I've played:
Luke > Velvet > Yuri >>> Jude > Milla > Lloyd > Asbel >>> Sorry (so far) >>> Wimpy

With ">>>" separating tiers. Luke is one of the most complex characters ever written and should be a gold standard for character development in all media. I think ranking them is pretty straightforward and self-explanatory.

Part of the issue with Zestiria is the voice acting. Sorry just sounds generic and doesn't have the nuances of something like "I lied, it's hot." I much preferred Robbie Draymond as Sketchy Akechi in Persona 5. He was more convincing as that creep than as this idiot. Scott Menville and Bryce Papenbrook were better as "stubbornly clueless idealist protagonist." Most of this cast, save for Edna, is so far pretty uninspiring. We're not getting the epicsauce that Cristina Vee and Erica Lindbeck gave us in Berseria (and the rest of them were pretty good, too).

Played a bit more tonight.

• Edna is amazing. "Normincarena" and "Squirrelcarena" had me in stitches, as did her calling Mikleo "Meebo." The way Edna had Alisha eating up the "Squirrelcarena" was amazing and made me like them both quite a lot. I needed that laugh. Edna also has the best winquotes so far, with the "dimly-lit star" insult to Mikleo and a couple other gems I'm too tired to recall. Only other one I laughed at was the one where Sorey and Mikleo inadvertently rhyme and Lailah then intentionally rhymes with them (Okay / Sorey / Day or something like that?)
• Got to Marlind without issue. This place feels like a noxious swamp. In this state... I don't know how anyone can even live here, but that's probably because they can't see how bad it truly is.
• A lot of blah blah blah with the medicine and such. People here seem to expect miracles... so we're gonna give them one.
• I get to clearing up the malevolence because we need to weaken the Drake. I clear up a bunch of the gargoyle heads and find myself having to go into a haunted museum... or what's left of it. This place is creepy, especially with the cackling. The mess and dimly-lit corridors don't help.
• The boss here is tough ("Knight Arthur" huh?). I actually need to change things around and beat it on my third try by just overwhelming it and using Fairy Circle (how do I have that already?) whenever it's stunned. Don't care about the blast gauge use - that's what it's for.
• Turns out this "ghost" is actually a Normin named Atakk. He's got a similar boner to Bienfu and a love for art. He also has a tendency to wander off in the middle of conversation. He so happened to come down with the daemonblight because of how people were using said art as fuel for war and then selling things on the black market. It's sad. Poor guy was nothing but a victim of humanity's selfishness. People are innately evil, as daemonblight shows, and that affects everything around us. I hate it, honestly.

At least we've helped clean up some of the malevolence here. Hopefully this town will be quick on its way to a recovery, but I think that's a long ways off.

I also wanted to note that I haven't found anything about this game to outright hate yet, though as I've noted... I have been looking. Really, Sorey's Bible-thumping was the biggest red flag. There's been nothing particularly bad but there also hasn't been anything particularly good, and knowing that Rose replaces Alisha in the party is... already concerning. At this point in the story that makes no sense, so I worry that it comes out of nowhere. I also know that since the DLC is Alisha-centric, they knew they done goofed by that point.

AFAIK this game's reputation has two camps: "Forgettable" and "memorable for all the wrong reasons." Is there legit anybody, save for those who got this as their first Tales, who actually enjoyed the game?

Of the recent Tales games I've played my rankings are:

Zestiria > Arise > Berseria > garbage > Vesperia

I liked the combat in Zestiria the best and I thought the cast was pretty good too. I know I'm in the minority though.

That's... a very unusual ranking. Vesperia is overrated, but it isn't terrible or anything!

Do you guys mind if all my comments here are questions for this post?

• Marlind isn't ancient since it didn't exist in Berseria, so why is it in the Celestial Record? Or was that just the Great Tree, which definitely did exist back then even though I never visited it?
• Why should I care about these books? What meaning do they hold upon my first introduction to them? Do you guys also find this to be banal and stupid, since they're just books that the story hasn't felt worth introducing before now?
• Why is the dialogue in this game so bad? Why did the guy who was buying the book from Agatha just leave? Why did the malevolence just disappear? Did the person who wrote this game not understand how people behave around each other? Why is there such a big discrepancy between the dialogue here and that of Berseria? Or was it just the better voice acting in the latter?
• Why was the drake so easy to bring down? Why does this feel like I'm just watching some bad movie? Before the last boss, what was the last thing I did that felt like it was part of a game? Could they have not had a shooting mini-game here?
• Why does the damage display contradict how much damage a hellion actually takes? Is there another game out there that does such a thing?
• After I beat the drake, is it any surprise that the seraph it turned out to be was already Lord of the Land? And was it not just as unsurprising that he recognized the Shepherd immediately?
• How is it that Alisha can be so awesome as to convince him to go back to his duties in as much as a few sentences? Why is this game overusing the "it happened because it needed to" trope, instead of letting the plot write itself?
• Why did Lailah reject 49 normin? That's... a lot of hearts to break at once, is it not? And why didn't the game explain to me how to catch normin, or even where to look, or where to get the Poke Balls?
• What happened between Edna and the normin to cause her to have a need for so may confrontations, and why does she have a nor doll on her parasol despite that?
• Why do skills get built up as mattering and each monster has its intro spiel, yet all you do is mash the same buttons in battles?

Would you believe that's all for now? Or that I'm tired of asking questions?

This game is so lazily written.

I met Lucas, who's a real interesting guy with his "tests." Would not be shocked if he had some Rangetsu blood in him. He gave us back half the payment so I think I can trust him. Rose also has personality, so that's nice to see, but her saying she gets that Sorry is weird is planting seeds for later.

Edna has a win quote "You can't win by just swinging your sword around" but that's basically what I'm doing. Just pushing buttons and not having problems. (I did find the normin in the woods)

The Elixir skit was clearly a large influence on Berseria, what with the "Maotelus made the elixir" as we saw firsthand and the beetle Lailah was chasing, which was probably a rhinostagros. This was not intended, but it all makes sense and doesn't feel forced in Berseria. This location also feels similar to places in Berseria, but I don't believe it is because it's in an area there was no access to back then.

The boss was weak. Apparently Alisha and Mikleo "nearly died" from being knocked back and Sorry was more concerned about the princess he's fucking than his best friend. That was a bad scene, though the malevolence dissipated as Alisha woke up. This should bode well.

Can't decide on what the budget was here. Probably low, though not as low as Berseria.

Didn't play much tonight. I did beat that thing I had trouble with before, the Code Red or whatever they're calling it after a millennium.

Marlind seems to be a normal place now. Cheerful and lively. I really didn't feel attached to this place at all because I never got to see it like this, the way I did with Ladylake.

Before triggering anything, I stay at the inn and get an amusing skit where Lailah walks in on Sorry touching Alisha's armor and interprets it... sexually. Like she should. After, Lucas is happy to be relieved, and I think he (and many townspeople) could feel something different in the air. That's why it changed so fast. I think they're all grateful for the Shepherd's visit and understand what he did, even though he was running around, not directly helping. They are blissfully ignorant of the malevolence and daemonblight... but probably could still feel a change.

Forced to stay at the inn again for no reason, and at it there's this incredibly stupid, awkward scene with the assassin lady and her seraph henchman Dezel, where they repeatedly ask why Sorry would be leaving Marlind. Uhhh... WHAT? None of them are from there or have anything left to do. She legitimately thought that now that we saved the town that we should just stay here forever or something. It defies all logic since the same could've been said of Ladylake, it's incredibly awkward, and Sorry shuts it down by stating what should be obvious: He has nothing left to do here, and there are other people to save. Just as awkwardly, they leave, and Sorry says we're going to Rolance. I'm left wondering: Did a 6 y/o write this scene?

I end there for the night. Did find the normin in town. Did download the free DLC (Alisha looks sexy in that God Eater outfit). Not much else to say.

Alisha just abruptly decided she was leaving to go report in the capital. No warning or anything. She just up and left. If this is the last she's in my party... boy, can I understand why people hate that. This wasn't built up to or anything. She just decided that her report was more important than helping people, even if those people are in another nation.

A nation which so happens to be attacking out of nowhere, mind you. A messenger comes in in rough shape. We heal him up and send him off to Ladylake. Lucas is... a pushover in terms of being convinced to do what Sorry wants him to do. You'd think a brute like him would want to risk his life for his country. Is that Hyland, or... is he a wanderer? Hmm. There is some war talk and the seraphim talk Sorry out of going into the battlefield; it's his job as Shepherd to help people, not hurt others. Taking a side means SUPER SAIYAN MODE wins out, and then the other country hates the Shepherd. Not the right thing, so he decides to help civilians.

Neif says Maltran originally came from here and became heir to her line when everybody else died. Something about that makes me... suspicious. Maltran seems to have it together and I certainly still expect to fight her at some point, but instead of her being coerced into it by Chancellor Fartlow, she may be nothing good herself. Neif also has an iris gem, which means we get to view some Earthen Historia! First one is some Rolance military ceremony (how long has Rolance existed, anyway?) that was undated. A second one in the "ruins" is the author of the Celestial Record founding a village... and someone who kinda looks like Velvet watching. Sorry thinks this author might have been a Shepherd, but it certainly wasn't Artorius - that book didn't exist back then. Other things did, like the Book of Innominat.

Outside town, a henchman named Landon shows up and has one of his goons read a missive about Alisha being detained for conspiring with Rolance and using the Shepherd or some nonsense. They know Sorry is whupped for their princess (obviously) so they're using her as collateral to manipulate him into fighting for Hyland. I would think the most ideal plan is to mediate the war, get Alisha freed, and take her to Rolance so we can put the screws to Hyland leadership later. Even Rose, her dad (what was his name again?), and Neif know the charges are "hogswallop" so they're going to Ladylake to protest. That's really nice of them. Meanwhile, Lailah takes initiative form Edna's "Mikleowned" jokes and says "Sickleo." Hilarious.

Landon wants Sorry killed by having him lead the charge... uh, no. That would ensure the extermination of humans. I already am looking forward to killing this guy later. Sorry just goes to join Lucas in the ambush without acknowledging the idiot, so that's nice. What I am wondering here is... why isn't there malevolence galore? This is a war, for crying out loud! They... don't really show much of it, just say it happens and then make me fight daemons after the AMV. Hell, even the Rolance goons were calling Sorry a daemon... after realizing that he was the Shepherd... and he just causes craters to send them soaring. Uh, the goal was to scare them off, not kill them. We wanted to end this invasion, but if anyone had to die... the aggressors were the root of the malevolence, so Sorry was probably in the right, even if Hyland wasn't.

All malevolence breaks loose after the battle, and I can't purify enough hellspawn to get anywhere. I move forward and... Landon has already fully transformed into a massive daemon, and he seems to think it's a good idea to bring Sorry's severed head to the Council. Would that not get him executed for treason? I kill the bastard pretty handily - is he dead or what? It's no big deal if he is or isn't, as he was the scum of the earth. The domain expands and it's clear it's the Lord of Calamity. Sorry is stubbornly insisting we somehow put a stop to this, and since this is a JRPG I guess my level is unimportant and am doing what the idiot wants to do, even though he's exhausted. But I'm out of time and energy for tonight, so I stop at the Rolance camp save point.

A few questions I have for next time:

1. Did the malevolence affect Lucas and his boys at all?
2. If Landon is dead, we can just blame it on Rolance. The guy was a slimeball. But will they buy it and still release Alisha?
3. Why are so many JRPG protagonists such dumbasses? Velvet was very refreshing, not only being female, but also being a daemon herself and being treated as the villain by townspeople and such. She also had a very different way of thinking, what with saying she didn't care what kind of chaos she caused because it was a distraction for the Abbey. Was she designed as a counterpoint to Sorry due to his negative reception? Sorry is a do-gooder idealist idiot. Velvet was... the original Lord of Calamity, who was actually the good guy. Which leads me to...
4. Is the Lord of Calamity here actually Velvet's spirit losing control from suppressing the evil that is Innominat? I would think that this iteration of "Lord of Calamity" is indeed such a thing, combining two extremely powerful entities. Can't wait until Sorry learns that the Shepherd he idolizes was the bad guy and that Velvet was the one who should've been idolized over all the years, having freed humanity from suppression. If Sorry's role is to suppress humanity, that makes him indeed the full opposite of Velvet. He's a do-gooder who ended up becoming something evil that he thought was good. She's a lady of chaos who used her evil abilities to actually do good.

More soon. I'm not hating this game, but my feelings pretty much amount to total apathy. This game has given me nothing to attach to (no characters, no towns, no narrative points - really just Edna ribbing people) and very little to actually find terrible on the overall (though there are a few little things, like that scene written by the 6 y/o, that are insignificant yet bad). AFAIK, people don't actually hate the first half. It's the second half that gets all the hate. We'll see if I can keep going here.

So... the Lord of Calamity here is Heldalf and seems to have zilch to do with Velvet - he smells of Demise from Skyward Snore, and that's about all I can say. The confrontation with him goes about as terribly as one would expect... at least until our assassin friend shows up. I hear her voice with emotion, and, uh, am pretty quick to identify it. What. A. Fucking. Twist. Did NOT see that one coming, but it makes sense and ticks all the right boxes. Excellent actress as well, pretending she couldn't see the seraphim the entire time and pretending that Sorry was a weirdo, when she's just as weird, if not weirder. Especially given her crush on Shepherd boy. There's really no other explanation for Rose showing up in the middle of a battle with zombies.

Rose's cronies are all also young people, which surprises me since the assassins seemed more seasoned than teenagers would be. It's weird that the ones you'd think would be inexperienced... aren't. They do threaten Sorry if he leads humanity astray, which previous Shepherds have of course done. And, as her friends go to look for stragglers of the bandit children, Rose - and that may not be her real name given what she implied - takes me to "Old Man Mayvin." Gee, where have I heard that before? Unclear which bloodline this is, however. Could be Magilou's, if she ever found anybody willing to put up with her. It's more probable that he's descended from a certain fiendish monstrosity that met its comeuppance many ages before, and his voice sounds similar enough to that thing.

The seraphim never left, thankfully, and were just suppressed by the Calamity Malevolence. Oddly, Rose... doesn't have enough resonance...? Then who was the assassin who Dezel was with, the one with the awkward scene in Marlind? If that wasn't Rose... I'm officially confused. They are calling her "Boss" as if... she'd... this makes no sense. And then, to camouflage it, Rose has the most AMUSING reaction possible to Sorry having Lailah speak through him, shaking Sorry's hand around like a motor, and, when Edna takes this chance to troll, goes "We're ghoooooooooosts...." Rose punches Sorry's lights out. All Edna can say is "Uh-oh." I needed that laugh. So far, no issues with Rose personality-wise. Writing-wise... yeah, they're gonna have to show us who Dezel was with, because the logical conclusion would've been that being Rose. The clear leader. The alpha female. I'm still trying to deduce that.

Even weirder: Dezel is here, and asks about Rose's affinity for armatization.... I am so confused. She apparently has the latency for it, because she does. O... kay.... I don't understand what's going on here, or why he was with her like that if... gah...

Just like Dezel, Sorry is a terrible listener, and decides he's going to go back to the battlefield because of his hero complex. Geez, this dumbass. He's talked out of it with being enticed to explore ruins, so he's also quite predictable. Rose, who's now in her "standard" outfit for no reason, is watching him like a hawk and admits her interest in him. Edna wants to smash the door but Mikleo won't let her. Mikleo wants a competition even though all he's doing is standing there. I already stepped on the switches except for the one in the second bedroom, so I just need to do that and boom. Done.

And done for the night. Meh. Did I miss something with that...? Any pointers are appreciated.

Just made my way through the ruins. A few notes from memory:

• I note at the equipment shop that Alisha's picture is no longer displayed next to women's armor. So she just up and left and that was that.
• I get trapped in an experiment room and the smoke comes rushing in. It takes me a few tries to realize that there are multiple switches on the floor that need to be pressed in a certain order, but I manage to do it. This was certainly installed in case a scientist got trapped or whatever, but... there's no lab equipment left, and certainly not enough space on the other side of the door for that to make any sense. It's bizarre.
• The dragonewt fight is problematic. I just have to survive long enough and it's not easy, but I manage to do it after a few tries with only minor tweaks.
• Rose SUDDENLY gets the ability to see seraphim and hellions, just like that. And then she goes from freaked out to composed in no time at all. Even stranger, she can instantly armatize - something Alisha never could. Because Rose is supposed to be the heroine, of course. The plot reason, as Edna explained, was that Dezel was using her as a vessel and... abusing that. Edna trolling by possessing Rose's unconscious body to prove a point was... very Edna. But it did prove a point and that's certain to be a big deal later on.
• Dezel making a sub-lord pact makes sense and I needed him. He's... bent on revenge and doesn't mind killing hellions. Uh, no, you purify the malevolence, not kill the vessel. It's odd that he hasn't generated any malevolence himself but that was because he was using Rose as a vessel. Which still makes no sense to me. How the heck could Rose deny the existence of seraphim when one resided in her? Would she have not felt like she was being watched all the time? Would she have not felt things in the wind? How did she not learn to see him over time? Having a seraph residing inside you will grant you resonance over time. The fact that she just abruptly could is mighty convenient, given its timing.
• The hellion turns out to be a dog named Oysh. Obviously there are dog seraphim as there was a cat in Berseria. I forget her name right now because she was such a minor character. Oysh actually sounds elderly - I don't know how many y/o that would make him because seraphs live forever. Unless they become dragons, like Eizen did... the Reaper gaining enough malevolence over time does make sense.
• I try controlling Rose and she's quite a bit more fun than Alisha. It's still a very button-mashing battle system, and it's tragic how Rose controls seraphim exactly how Sorry does. The battle system here has no real depth to it, a stark contrast to the pairs of Xillia or the Fields of Fonons of Abyss. I don't particularly care for this. Battles are quite boring, except for the chain encounters... and I got into several and still won handily. Even controlling Rose. It really doesn't seem to matter who's in the party. And all of these tutorials seem all for naught because you can just swing your sword around and win, even on Hard difficulty. The convoluted skills system is all for naught.
• The Earthen Historia shows Heldalf as a greedy bastard who feeds off of malevolence so he enjoys causing wars to breed it, giving him a strong hellion army to lead. Or something. That clip made virtually no sense.
• At the end of the platforms is a silver key, which unlocks every silver chest in the world. Have I mentioned how stupid this "locked chest" mechanic is? If you're going to have chests locked like this, don't give them a master key so fast. It kinda defeats the point. Have "Single Bronze Key" or "Single Silver Key" and they get consumed on chests. You can then unlock the master key at endgame and carry it over to NG+.
• Something something mural about Trial of the Shepherd from the Era of Asgard something something? I would presume "Era of Asgard" may refer to the time after Berseria, when people wrongfully credited the bastard Artorius with purifying everything, when that was all Velvet's doing. I can't wait until Sorry finds out that the Shepherd is, traditionally, a villain masked as a hero. Doesn't change that Heldalf is clearly bad news.
• I stop at the ruins entrance before heading out to Loegres/Pandrago. Will probably stop in Stonebury/Lastonbell along the way. Those are the only towns of which I'm aware are returning, though Reneed also has to be but IDK what it's called now. We do have to explain to Rolance that the scum running Hyland were blackmailing the Shepherd, which will allow the team to operate there. Sorry is worried about Alisha, as he should be... because who the hell would trust the higher-ups at Hyland after the crap they've already pulled?

Curiosities still include how and when these countries formed, which things mentioned were places I visited before, just how much has changed since the land I'm on now didn't exist at all in Berseria (yes, that would make these ruins quite recent), and how many plot holes I'm going to encounter. They certainly haven't skimped on highly convenient details. Or maybe I'm just looking for them to make fun of them. Because I knew to expect a zero, which means anything greater than that is alright.