Stupid ass PS4 requires installation now so I had to delete other game files to make room for this 14(?) year old title... I'm not complaining though because I get to experience fluri bromance first hand babeyyyyy!!!!
DE stands for Definitive Edition, which is a remaster+all the other cool bonus content from the original PS3 release+brand new content. That means we get a beefed up Flynn but lost some ship tease. Tons of costume titles for the characters and new side quests! Most notably, one involving the twins from the movie, which is awesome in on itself because I don't think it's in the PS3 version. There's also a few other changes to the original releases: the VO for Yuri was done by Grant George instead of rehiring Troy Baker for the additional lines (it's similar enough to not cause any dissonance); new english voice lines for Flynn and Patty; and skippable cutscenes (apparently these weren't in the originals what). I live for Troy Baker's Yuri Lowell but the replacement guy isn't half bad himself. It took me out a few times when I first started playing but the badass baritone is there and the voice acting was good.
There's literally nothing new about the characters or plot buuuuut I have new opinions about them so here we are! And I can actually review the gameplay now!
Character comments:
Some additional thoughts on the characters! Not much because I'm dumb and can't think critically.
Flynn shows up more often compared the playthrough I watched 5 years ago, but that doesn't make his appearance in cutscenes any less mind-blowing. I go bonkers every time he shows up. If this was a typical JRPG, Flynn would be the main character. He has the looks, the goodness and prowess required for that role, and even undergoes heroic BSOD halfway through the story. Sadly this isn't the JRPGs of eld, so we have him as the rival.
My assessment of Estelle in the previous review can be summed up as "typical heroine, mint adjacent, nice girl" and nothing else. After experiencing the story for myself, I still think she is a typical heroine, a mint adjacent, and overall nice girl, but she's more than that. Her naivete doesn't annoy me as much anymore only because she genuinely believes the good in the world. What Belius said about her stuck with me; she never loses her compassion and kind heart, despite everything that happened to her or to the people she cares about. She is as Yuri said; pure. Good. Unlike you or me.
I really didn't have anything nice to say about the side characters in my previous review huh... because I distinctly remember giving Karol a back-handed compliment. I thought Karol was your staple kid character who may or may not be annoying as shit, but it wasn't until the start of arc 3 that I realized Karol's problem is precisely that: he's a fucking kid. He's fucking 12! He was kicked out of guilds because of his cowardice and Nan, fucking NAN, another KID, berates him for running away from dangerous monsters that could most likely, definitely kill a normal sized adult, much less a child. So what if he runs away because he's afraid? Adults do that all the fucking time and you're telling me a 12 year old shouldn't have self-preservation? Bullshit! Karol is doing just fine, and he even overcomes his fears in the end.
Patty is the only real extra party member since Flynn is already in the plot. She's annoying (as are most kid characters) but damn, if she aint useful! In a lot of ways the story bends itself sideways (not yet backwards) to fit Aifread into the narrative. She's not my favourite but I can't deny her monster of a playstyle and the absolutely scalding insults she regularly dishes out to the antagonists. It needs some getting used to but once you get the hang of her playstyle, she is insanely fast (in Critical mode at least), not just her movement speed but also her basic attacks. Corner an enemy on the edge and you can literally button mash your way to victory (most of the time) and that's not mentioning the multiple ways to combine the effects of her artes and skills to get the most insanely stupid, broken, and ultimately chaotic scenarios in battle, like here:
And here:
Mind you that these two examples above are boss battles. The first a harder, optional boss (I think) and the second the tough as ass arc 2 final boss who can heal himself. I don't think a tales series player who has never played this game can even make sense of what's happening, so regular people, don't worry if it's all chaos, because that was the point I was trying to make. Even I have no idea what's happening. It's literally like FFXIV's 24-man raids with graphics and fx at max. Ooof my eyes.
So basically how to play Patty: pray to the RNG gods.
Gameplay: 7. I'm not complaining about fixed cameras anymore because it's actually pretty cool how they managed to hide shit behind boulders and walls. It also makes the puzzles more interesting. You can never go wrong with the standard tales action jrpg formula, however it was painful for me to adjust due to how slow everyone is in battle (especially Karol), since I just came from Graces f, the battle system of which is vastly different and significantly quicker. Aerial attacks and artes for anyone that isn't Judith were difficult to execute, backstep was an actual skill you had to obtain for characters instead of a default action... That wasn't even the worst part, I completely ignored synthesis for the first 5 hours and it spelled my downfall because I never got backstep for Yuri and Estelle... oh Estelle. Not only is she slow, her AI is stupid as fuck too. You can set commands and turn off artes to make her less stupid but shit like casting two aoe heals back to back still happens. She has one of the dumbest AIs I've ever seen, and that's saying a lot because I play Kingdom Hearts. Yeah.
Story: 8. Only for the bromance subplot. Nothing much to say, it's still the three-arc tales staple plus some few add-ons about Aifread, but boy! I keep losing my mind whenever Flynn shows up on screen, it's not even funny! I know he's going to show up, I know how Yuri's going to react but the game keeps getting me! I grossly underestimated the impact of seeing all the fluri bromance first hand would do to me... you know the Tiffany Pollard meme where she screams "BEYONCE?!"... yeah that's me every time Flynn shows up. In the end, nothing beats experiencing a story for yourself and also growing older to gain new perspectives in life, so don't look at my 300+ screenshots of fluri the game (to put it into perspective Y0 comes in second with only 97 screenshots).
Soundtrack: Eh. It's alright. Vesperia is still mostly Sakuraba so it's no Abyss, but it's also not a Graces f either. The theme song always help raise the score, so a 7 is good enough. Flynn's duel boss theme is fucking banger though.
Overall rating: Playing the game for myself? Eeeeeeeeehhhh.... a 7? I mean the ost is so-so, the premise and characteristic genre is fire but the story itself is pretty generic (if we don't account for the fluri bromance, which would score a 9), the gameplay saved it somewhat despite the slow start and clunky controls, largely thanks to Patty's unusual but fun playstyle, as mentioned above. It's enjoyable, and I think that's more than enough for a video game, especially in the gaming scene. Onward to NG+!
Extras: the times I lost my fucking mind when Flynn showed up...
Case 1: Flynn's first on-screen appearance
Case 2: Flynn at Ghasfarost (sorry I didn't have an actual ss of him but look at how surprised Yuri is lmaooo)
Case 3: Flynn at the coliseum (crotch shot but I absolutely lost my mind to care)
Case 4: After [spoiler] dies, Flynn shows up for a big damn villains moment...
Case 5: Yormgen, when I thought it was only the party vs big bad's evil monologue scene
Aaand that's the last one that blew my mind because the next time Flynn pops up it's the battle couple + dog segment in arc 3 and I'm not shocked because it's the most iconic sequence after the argument in Mantaic. Flynn is a permanent party member after that so no more surprise appearances.
Other notable events:
This fucking sign in illusion Yormgen (honestly fuck you bamco)
Rita being down to fight all the time and absolutely savage with her words
Rita: I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that noise
Judith the resident big girl/bloodier knight entering a screaming contest and fucking killing it
Raven fainting every time he sees Judith in any.. provocative outfits (or naked), despite his dirty old man tendencies
Here's the duel boss theme:
That's all for this review(?)! The next one may or may not be Tales of Symphonia, seeing that I'm literally in the final dungeon rn, or an updated review for Tales of the Abyss because I just got the PS2 working again. Or maybe it's going to be about FFXIV idk. Either way it's going to be a loooooong time before the next post come up.
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