Tales of deserves better than this

[sincere]

So I told myself I was going to finish one of my in-progress games before starting new ones, and that's been largely successful! Since adopting this policy I have completed six games, and it's only been 3-4 months! Six games is more than I finished in 2014 in its entirety.

Until I realized that Tales of Zestiria is coming out in, like... a week. I know nothing about it, except that it is a Tales game and so I obviously need it. And the protag resembles Lloyd.

What to do, when I still haven't completed Tales of Xillia! Or looked into TOX2 at all, sob My answer: I have put FFX-2 aside. I'll be back, Yuna! But for now I am trying to steamroll Xillia. I am ashamed that I have treated it with the same negligence that I treated Graces. I lost my save data, of course, but last night I got back to Xian Du, so I will resume my liveplay when I get home.

Still having some issues with the workings of my brain, but eh. What can you do? Academic block is almost over and I'll have some extra time once I finish this last week of work. Then I'll lose my excuse and have to do stuff! Probably.

Comments

[lynndyre]

I'm really hoping Zestiria feels more like Vesperia or Abyss or Symphonia again, I played Graces but couldn't get sucked in or relate to any of the characters, and the same thing happened with Xillia. I want to love Tales games!

But yeah, all I know about Zestiria is it has fusion-battle and apparently canon gay?

[sincere]

Hey, I won't say no to canon gay! Please don't be like Pascal and Sophie

I wish I could quantify why the new Tales games don't hook me. I mean, I hated Graces because some of the characters and relationships and most of the plot were problematic, but there's nothing wrong with Xillia. Everyone in it is likable enough. The gameplay is fine. It's sad that Vesperia-Abyss-Symphonia remain some of my favorite games but I can't keep interested in the new Tales games...

Well, definitely still planning to own and play Zestiria ASAP after I finish Xillia. Or whenever I manage to justify it to myself.

[slayerofgod]

I mean, I hated Graces because some of the characters and relationships and most of the plot were problematic

Those are Xillia's flaws as well, although in its case the plot being problematic is its front and center issue.

Battle system is definitely better than it's ever been though. Also Leia. <3

[sincere]

I can't speak to Xillia's plot since I'm still just dipping toes in it at this point, but I don't have a problem with the rest yet. It has not had a strong beginning, but that's not unforgivable.

But I hate Pascal and I think Malik is an awful character, and I hate every time the game made me try to ship Asbel/Cheria or Hubert/Pascal and I hate every time Pascal and Sophie had any interaction, well really anything involving Pascal I hated. In Xillia, I like just about everyone! Everyone has their good points! If I had to pick a least favorite I guess I'd go for Elize, but I don't actually dislike her. Although I'm not crazy about Jude/Milla, I don't have any pairings I hate or any characters I think are awful together or just stop making them awful together and maybe I'll ship it more, God, game!!!

There's plenty of time for that to change, but right now I still have plenty of approval for it....... although I guess I'd also still had approval for TOG before Cheria's kidnapping, sob. But the plot had already started being ridiculous, at least. (Everything with Asbel and Hubert's family was criminal levels of stupid.)

[slayerofgod]

The plot doesn't start having problems until a certain point, and you're obviously not there yet, so I will say no more.

Character-wise, eh. It's more a problem of certain ones being handled badly in regards to what the plot is doing. Alvis in particular is a serious victim of this.

YMMV, obviously. I'm not the be all end all of Xillia opinion or anything. ^^;

[slayerofgod]

Alvin, not Alvis. Alvis is a character from Xenoblade, dummy. >.>;

[sincere]

This third act is a roller coaster ride of disappointment in terms of both character and plot. I only just arrived in Trigleph but I didn't enjoy getting there and I'm annoyed by everything, so I'm switching back to Zestiria.

[slayerofgod]

Yeah, the big things for me were the King of Fennmont knowing Rowen was a traitor but not any of his men knowing the same, and Alvin being let back into the party repeatedly for no real logical reason.

[sincere]

I had the same thought about Rowen -- both when the army didn't know and when Gilland telling his men meant Gilland was somehow evil. Seriously, genius?

I can't say I was surprised by Tweedlefluff and Tweedlestern letting Alvin stick around, and they all did remain suitably suspicious of him -- and I don't have any problems with Alvin in general.

But I had a lot of complaints. Anyone believed Zagette was anything other than a psychopath? It was okay when Milla created the sealed world but when Maxwell did it it was evil and anti-freedom? I'm supposed to believe Milla never had any character development and that's a good thing? Gaius is supposed to be heroic?

And I hated Jude's catatonia and my only positive thought about Jude/Milla is "I hope I'll dislike it less now that he allegedly isn't a Stepford Wife"

[slayerofgod]

That sounds about right, yeah. None of that was really any different in Milla's scenario either, except the fact that Milla's non-romantic feelings for Jude were even more clear (Unless there was something in the ending, which I never saw).

I vote Leia in that scenario, anyway. I wish she had gotten more attention in general.

[sincere]

Please tell me that in Milla's side you didn't have to see Jude staring at the ceiling for weeks while Leia fought for their lives directly in front of his face, because I know it was supposed to be a character low but there's a line after which I stop sympathizing

[slayerofgod]

You'll have to remind me what point of the game that happened. My memory's kinda fuzzy. ^^;

[sincere]

You'd probably remember. It was gross. After Milla's death, the party splits up for a little bit. Jude ends up in a traumatized catatonic state where he doesn't speak or eat or anything and Leia is taking care of him, pretending everything is normal, cooking him food that he then throws at the wall, etc.

Alvin has been told that if he kills the party, Muzet will get him back to Elympios, and because he's miserable and hopeless in a less pathetic way than Jude, he's going along with it because it's all he's got left. Jude is so pathetic that he just lies there and stares blankly down the barrel of his gun, and Alvin can't bring himself to shoot him, but Leia panics and attacks him.

So Alvin and Leia are fighting, and Leia tries to get Jude to escape, but he can't even be bothered to move his damn legs so she has to half-drag him, and then he just toddles along behind her while she hauls him around. Alvin and Leia fight some more literally right in front of him while he stares into space.

I know. He had defined himself in terms of Milla and he had to realize he couldn't live that way (although honestly I still don't know if he has or will, since everything is still all about Milla). But if he's so empty without his obsession? That's sad.

[slayerofgod]

Yeah, that wasn't in Milla's scenario. You actually play as her in the spirit world during that segment.

That does indeed sound excessive and disgusting. Blech.

[sincere]

I wish I were playing the Milla side of things, because A) she's obviously the main character and Jude is just some guy whose perspective I'm seeing but really he's no more a main character than Elize, and B) he's not really a good main character. After his catatonic state he empathizes a lot with Muzet because just like her he was living for other people without thinking about himself and making his own decisions and just like her he got lost when there was no one to hold his damn hand. This is really late in the game for the central character to have a revelation like this and I still haven't seen any evidence of it (e.g. he still tells people "This is what Milla would do -- so I'm going to do it!" and I don't know if the game realizes that deciding to do what Milla would have done is not the same as making decisions for yourself).

In a lot of ways, Jude is the Bella to Milla's Edward. It's not a flattering comparison.

[slayerofgod]

I wish I were playing the Milla side of things, because A) she's obviously the main character and Jude is just some guy whose perspective I'm seeing but really he's no more a main character than Elize,

I got that impression, too. The sad thing is that kinda thing *can* be done well, see FFXII. Alas, Xillia swung and missed.

That is a frighteningly accurate description, even more so considering Milla is entirely indifferent to Jude's feelings despite being aware of them. People bring it up to her directly and she says nothing in response.

[sincere]

Agreed. FFXII wasn't a perfect game, and it probably still would've been preferable to be playing Ashe than Vaan, but at least Vaan was his own character. He wasn't living for Ashe. He was making his own choices.

If you really want to tell a sidekick's tale (or, for that matter, a love interest's tale), they still need to have their own story. Jude's story to date is: gets caught up in Milla's story->gives up entire life->drifts aimlessly in Milla's wake->devotes self to Milla for eternity->loses Milla->devotes self to Milla for eternity by choice!!

In this way, Bella is technically better off than Jude. :\

I know this can be said about 90% of Tales games before the second act, but I'm enjoying Zestiria so far! I think Alisha would have been a good sidekick protagonist (though of course only male sidekicks should get their own story, in order to avoid telling a female story) and she does actually have her own post-game DLC sidestory that I downloaded for free. We'll see if I play it or if I kick it to the curb like I did with the extra Graces material...