Tales of Vesperia! And a DVD meme?

[sincere]

Okay, despite my initial burst of hatred for its battle system, I have given up on Secret Missions come here today to express my love for Tales of Vesperia. I think, so far (I've only just gotten Ba'ul), that it is my favorite game in the Tales of series.


1. Tales of has a shady history with romances, for me. I really liked Lloyd/Colette, for instance, even though I also like Lloyd/Sheena, but TOS was quality because they let me choose who I really wanted Lloyd to be with. I really hated Luke/Tear; I'm ambivalent but positive towards Stahn/Rutee, and ambivalent but negative toward Reid/Farah.

Early on in TOV I worried that I was being set up for blunt force Yuri/Estelle. There were all the signs. Two dissimilar characters who have something to teach each other; they hook up alone early on and everyone else joins their journey; people were suggesting that Estelle was Yuri's wife and girlfriend, etc. But the heavy-handed insinuations of their coupledom faded almost immediately, to be replaced by a genuinely interesting relationship with no overt romance...

...and a sibling myth. The game has blatantly set up Estelle to be the Child of the Full Moon, which suggests that Yuri would represent Brave Vesperia -- her brother.

If I'm not misreading the signs, and having been told there is no blatant raburabu, I'm frankly surprised anyone would suggest that this pairing is canon. (Unless they mean canon incest.) But I love this idea. I'm really excited to see it played out.


2. I really like Yuri. He's very original as far as video game protagonists go. The typical JRPG has one of two kinds of protagonists: the good-natured, warm-hearted, idealistic imbecile -- or the self-centered, conflicted, but still idealistic anti-hero. Yuri isn't either of those guys. He's a competent, rational adult, calm and collected and a little bit of a friendly jerk; he likes teasing people. He's smart, too -- all too often in video games the obvious is paraded in front of your character's face, and you have to wait hours in the game before they figure out what you already knew. Yuri has not only taken those same clues that helped me figure things out and figured them out himself, but he's sometimes taken subtler clues and figured them out before I did.

But I just liked him until he went all vigilante on me. Ragou is an evil man who killed and tortured lots of innocent people while on the Empire's payroll, but because of his power, after he was arrested he was able to wiggle out of most of the charges and go free. Unlike his boyfriend best friend, Flynn, Yuri determines that if the law fails, he'll take matters into his own hands. He kills Ragou and dumps his body in the river.

He's not proud of it. He doesn't even like it. It kind of makes him feel sick. But it's justice, and someone needed to do it.

Later on, Cumore does the same thing. Tortures and kills innocents while claiming to be under the authority of the Empire. Now, I fucking hate Cumore, so Elizabeth and I were saying "KILL THIS BITCH" at the screen the whole time.

...and then Yuri went out and he did it. He hunted Cumore down in the night and killed him. (That never happens in video games.) And the man was so pitiful, so desperate and terrified, that Elizabeth and I almost felt bad for having wanted him dead. And Flynn caught him at it and ohhh, boys, how are you ever going to get married if this angst continues.

But Yuri didn't turn a hair. He just dealt with it and did what he thought was right -- even though that meant cold-blooded murder. And he felt bad, but he did it anyway.

And that's when I decided that I fucking. Love. Yuri.


3. And speaking of yuri lololol, if Rita were a boy she and Estelle would be married already. People would be stunned you could ever call an alternative pairing "canon". I like other pairings, don't get me wrong (I think Flynn/Estelle is cute, although Flynn is totally in love with Yuri, and I think Yuri/Rita is kinda cute) but they're just so shippy together.

I've seen people argue, "They're not gay! You just don't know what girl BFFs are like!" Well, as a girl, I feel comfortable saying that if another girl ever followed me around the world with extremely flimsy justification, fretted about how I feel about her despite being tough and bossy and uninterested in other people's opinions of her, got outraged instead of my hypothetical love interest (these people always also argued that Yuri/Estelle is canon) when my life was threatened, and then gaze lingeringly at me and say "Kay..." in a soft trailing way for no reason, I would wonder if she wants to make out with me. I'd do it, too. That'd be really touching.

Also, I can't help thinking Estelle is kinda gay. There's that battle-end chat she has with Judith where Estelle is like, "Wow, they're so bouncy" and Judith goes "WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT?" and I go "ESTELLE, her eyes are up THERE". (She's the cutest lesbian ever, though.) (Also, I can't stop being in love with her cute Glasses accessory. I have her wear them all the time.)


Finally, I really like everyone, even characters I thought for sure I wouldn't care less about (like Karol and Repede) and the plot's kept me interested.









Fic: The New Girl In Town, DGM, Lenalee/Kanda & Emilia/Kanda suggested. No one has yet commented on my title, which I admit is inspired by the Hairspray song! Man. Um, Emilia drives Lenalee crazy.

Comments

[overlimits.livejournal.com]

Oh god, I could go on forever about the points you brought up. *u* I agree entirely, of course. While I do find Yuri/Estelle kind of cute, they really don't go beyond a brotherly/sisterly love for one another, which is precious in its own right. *~*. Personally, I am all over Yuri/Judith. XD

And YES, RITA AND ESTELLE ARE SO GAY FOR EACH OTHER IT HURTS. That never dwindles, either, which is wonderful. Tales is generally lacking in good girlslash, so having it pulled off so cutely (and believeably) is so refreshing.

Also totally agreeing on Yuri as a whole. He's seriously one of my favorite RPG protaganists ever. *^*

[kalorii.livejournal.com]

I don't think I'll ever see Vesperia unless someone happens to record it and slap it up on YouTube... XD; The jury's still out for me as I was never that hyped for it.

Speaking of yuri, though... I still say that Legendia had the most blatant femslash and slash hints through it. It was a great game and I couldn't care less about what others have said about it. ._.; Legendia had the cast that worked so well together and, after seeing Abyss and Legendia side-by-side, I think that Legendia's the better game. >.> That's just me, though.

[kay-willow.livejournal.com]

Yuri/Judith is cool too!! I was distracted, though, because I read that Judith's cooking title is something like "Chef Mom", and I'm like, What? Mom?? so I keep waiting to meet her like, husband or her son or something, and that distracts me. XD Also, I am contractually obliged to ship Yuri/Flynn. (Did you do Raven's "Red Lily" sidequest? Is his old friend male or female? Just curious to know if comparing them to Yuri and Flynn is implied gay or outright gay.)

I want to read cute fluffy fic about Rita and Esteeeelle. I was happy with the crumbs I got in previous games (Farah/Meredy in Eternia, Sheena/Colette in Symphonia) but those pairings are positively dwarfed by Estelle/Rita. XD Sheena/Colette is 100% platonic in comparison.

[kay-willow.livejournal.com]

I played like. An hour of Legendia. :\ I own it, but I haven't been able to make myself play more of it.

I seriously am enjoying this game so much I think after I move out and lose June's 360, I'll have to buy one myself just for this game. But it devastates me that it's on this random system that I have no other actual use for. XD Here's hoping that someone uploads Youtube videos for you. :D

[overlimits.livejournal.com]

XD! Fortunately, she has neither of those things. That would...be weird. XD I just adore the way that Yuri and Judith interact, and I love that he's not all weird and blushy about girls. Where he was like "lol nice revealing outfit" and she was like "oh, maybe you'd like to see more? :D" and he was like "WELL I CERTAINLY WOULDN'T COMPLAIN 8D" sdkjghsjkg XD

Yuri/Flynn uhhhh...I'm not that big on XD;;; Mostly because I think Yuri's pretty much as straight as an arrow and I don't actually like Flynn all that much*dodge* (Ah, Raven's old friend is female, btw~)

I WILL BE WRITING SOME. :D Well, eventually, anyhow. I have to get through NaNo first. =_=;;;

[kalorii.livejournal.com]

D: I wasn't sure of them before, either. XD; But the game is awesome! And I kinda have the whole stinking thing YouTubed... (http://ca.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=846C9E2B13B11871) >.>

That's the main reason I've never been excited for it. FF13, Vesperia... Blah. I wouldn't mind if they were on the Wii. All this "HD graphics" crap is overrated. If someone YouTube's it, I'll watch it. Until then, I'll just spoil myself on it. XD

[schwann.livejournal.com]

I am honestly really surprised how much I've actually gotten into Vesperia. When my friend visited and brought it along to give me a little preview, I... Fell asleep through most of the beginning. Oops? She played it again the next day, and I found myself actually more and more interested, to the point that I had to go out and get it as soon as I could, even if it involved braving the mall. I did, I played it in record time (for me) with my sister, and now we're actually going to play it again starting tonight. Only... A couple of days after we beat it (and yelled at each other through the final battle aljlsdjfkj oh god).

I'm pretty excited to play it again, if only because I'm getting Yuri's True Knight costume come hell or high water aaand because I'll be doing a little characterization digging. I don't know what it is about him that makes him kind of difficult to play. It's odd to me, as his personality seems like one that wouldn't be too difficult to replicate. Not that I'm doing awful at it... I think.

Though, the long haired variant of a certain Luke fon Fabre and Yuri meeting was... Oh god, so hilarious. Let's just say that if that had been an in-game scene? Luke probably would have throttled Yuri. Lawl.

/rambles

IN SHORT, I love this game and it added another character to my pool of endless muses.

...And I love Yuri and Flynn's relationship. Not necessarily in that way! Ahem.

[scuttling.livejournal.com]

not reading because omg my brother's xbox 360 is broken /cries forever

[kay-willow.livejournal.com]

Well, actually, the difference between The Force Unleashed on the 360/PS3 and the Wii is dramatic, I'm told. Those systems just have so much more processing power. I couldn't care less about HD. :\ In fact, in my experience, the better the screen you watch a game on, the less clear the actual picture. I have an HD TV and I'm playing on the Elite 360 and I can't read half the shit that pops up during battles. XD

That is intriguing and I will have to peruse it when I have the free time. :3 Thanks for the link (and the uploads lol)

Someday, you will come out to visit me, and we will play Vesperia. *nodnod*

[kay-willow.livejournal.com]

I didn't care much for Flynn at the beginning (I was expecting someone a little less stuffy :P ) but I like him more now and I'm not sure why. Probably because his similarities to Yuri, originally hard to make out, have had some chance to get underlined.

I don't agree that Yuri is all that straight -- he's definitely not as gay as Flynn, but he hasn't shown all that much interest in women either. He had some interest in Judith (and I love their relationship; Yuri/Judith is definitely awesome, and my second choice for a Yuri pairing :D ) but he just seems way more interested in Flynn. XD



I might attempt NaNo, if I can finish Vesperia, ever.

[kay-willow.livejournal.com]

I want to see that fucking costume dljgldfgj I've never seen it. That's the one you get from doing all the Secret Missions in one playthrough, right? But I just can't be bothered anymore to try so hard to get all these Secret Missions when I've been playing, all this time, on someone else's X-Box Live account, so none of those achievements will be salvageable after. (And the Nan/Tison fight was hard. They never did their jumpy things, and they were too hard on Normal and too easy on Easy. Sigh.)

YAH RIGHT I'm loving it, too. When Flynn caught Yuri after he killed Cumore, and the way he just -- pretended not to have seen it for a little bit, I wanted to hug them. And then the confrontation after it... They break my heart. XD

[kay-willow.livejournal.com]

D: nooooo fix it fix it fix it

[inarticulate.livejournal.com]

Oh god I desperately want a 360 for this game ;;

And re: one of your other points, I wasn't completely sold on Stahn/Rutee until the remake; they really fleshed it out so you could see that they really were starting to fall for each other, which they didn't do so much in the original. But I-I didn't like Luke/Tear, either OH GOD I AM NOT ALONE ;; I love Tear best when she's on her own.

[rain-waltz.livejournal.com]

Ahhhh.
So instead of a angsty pretty boy for a main character, Vesperia's got a pretty boy that can lighten up and be funny, you say?
I am sold.

[prays for a 360, but knows she'll never get one].
:(

[overlimits.livejournal.com]

I'm on my second playthrough and still am not a huge fan. XD I don't hate him or anything, just don't particularly love him either. ^^;

I think it just boils down to character interpretation. ^^; I felt like he wasn't showing much interest just because he had better things to worry about. XD;

I love Raven too djkhsjkafa he's one of my favorites. +_+

I'm uh. Not confident I'll be able to finish it, but I'll at least give it a shot! At least I have a premise this year, unlike last year. XD

[meimi.livejournal.com]

Yuri is just all kinds of win. \o/ He is now my favorite main hero ever. Sadly, the game's plot took a bit of a nosedive later on so I can't really call it my favorite game overall, but I had the same thing happen with the characters. This is the first time where I've liked every single member of the main party. D: That's never happened before! And while I ship Yuri/Flynn hardcore, I think Judith/Yuri is pretty damn sexy too~ And Rita/Estelle are so totally married.

[usagi-alchemist.livejournal.com]

All the cool people are playing this! D:
All I know about that game is that my friend has played it and her Yuri icon looks like Kanda. Except that he smirks. It's a little disconcerting.