Tales of the Fanclub

[Valor]

Slow-as-hell battle system (SNES/PSX was much faster), crappy translation (Cress? Claus?), graphics downgrades, story is generally dumbed down for the E-10 crowd, and they removed: Lilith, the S.D., Satsugeki Bukouken, Odin, Shadow's dungeon, Groovy Arche, the face chats (think skits), and the nice new map graphics. Among other things, I guess.

Wait, Lilith? Isn't that Tales of Destiny? Groovy Arche is still in, I believe. I don't think the skits would have been able to make it on the GBA. And the SD faces were really ugly.

My only complaint about the translation was the change in Dhaos. Rather than being perhaps the most serious character ever in a Tales game, he's been made less evil. Any other complaint has to do with the GBA's pathetic capabilities. They used the SNES map walking and opening scene, yet used less-detailed PSX sprites.

Wonder what would have happened if they worked on the Full-Voice Edition on the PSP instead...

 

[Keltena]

Argh, the Temple of Darkness >.< God, I hatehatehate that freaking dungeon. I also hate the Meltokio Sewers and the Ymir Forest.

Same. Well, I'm not up to Ymir Forest yet Ymir Forest is the most annoying thing EVER (seriously, FISH? What the heck?), but I hated Gaorocchia (or however the heck it's spelled) with a burning passion. What a freakin' maze.

...can't say the same about Zelos's mansion, though~

Up to disk #2 now, and dear god, game, could you be any more obvious about Kratos and Lloyd? xD I swear. "His eyes soften whenever he looks at me"? I totally called that one~ Although honestly, I should have seen it coming way earlier.

 

[Phoenixsong]

Same. Well, I'm not up to Ymir Forest yet Ymir Forest is the most annoying thing EVER (seriously, FISH? What the heck?), but I hated Gaorocchia (or however the heck it's spelled) with a burning passion. What a freakin' maze.

...can't say the same about Zelos's mansion, though~

Up to disk #2 now, and dear god, game, could you be any more obvious about Kratos and Lloyd? xD I swear. "His eyes soften whenever he looks at me"? I totally called that one~ Although honestly, I should have seen it coming way earlier.

I like mazes, though. Most of the time, anyway. Gaoracchia never really bothered me that much, iirc.

...not necessarily! D: The first time I played I was like "hm... could it be him? Or, wait, nah... NOISHE yes omg I think so I think the Desians turned him into a cowardly dogasaurus SO THAT'S WHAT HAPPENED OMG I AM A FRICKIN GENIUS take THAT game!"

...actually I dropped that theory pretty quickly, but yeah.

 

[Zhorken]

The villain development is pretty bad

The hero development is also pretty bad. Yuri has none.

 

[Keltena]

Oh. My. God. Second (?) visit to the Tower of Salvation in Tethe'alla, and, just...

Wow.

Spoiler

That was the most amazing dungeon and following cutscenes and boss fights... well, actually, the boss fights were nothing special, pretty easy, but oh my god. I actually started crying when the last party member left me (Genis), and I didn't stop until Mithos attacked us.

I... am I a bad person because I might have thought it was even more awesome than it already was if Zelos had actually betrayed the party? Yeah, probably. What he did was still utterly awesome, though. *hugs Zelos*

I don't know what made all that so amazing, but it was.

On an earlier note... I wasn't too thrilled with the way they revealed that Kratos was Lloyd's father. I'm not sure exactly why... like, I can't really think of anything they should have done better except that I didn't like some of Lloyd's lines and the way he voice-acted them. But meh.

My parents are making me stop playing now, aaaaaaaah! *addicted*

 

[Lupine Volt]

Oh, yah...the Tower of Salvation take 2. The only time in the game I've felt sympathy for Regal...until he ripped of Gandolf. However, I was sad when everyone else started dropping out...although you would think that they would have saved Sheena for a later position.

 

[Keltena]

So I got up to the part in the game where Lloyd can't sleep and a member of the party comes to talk to him... you know that part? At first, I thought it was just always the character I got, but from what the Synopsis said, it seems like it depends on the relationship values you have.

So, I'm curious, who did you guys get? I got Raine, which was awesome; her conversations with Lloyd are always great.

 

[Phoenixsong]

Unless you make an effort to make them super-duper AMAZING love you, it's generally going to be the Sylvarant people.

Also, you know if you refuse to speak to the first person that approaches you, you can get one of the other people who stayed behind to talk to Lloyd instead, right?

I guess I got Colette, Genis and Raine in order, although that's because at the time I didn't understand how affection worked. I want to see the Tethe'alla crew conversations, blah.

 

[Keltena]

Huh, didn't know that. Ah well; I think I would have gotten Colette and Genis next anyway, and I'd much rather talk to Raine. I doubt Presea or Zelos (the only two people I might choose over Raine) were high enough up there anyway, and Kratos wasn't an option.

Anyway, wow, this game seems to be nearing its end. (Now that I think of it, I should have gone with Colette. Give me back my healer, you assholes!)

 

[Keltena]

Double post. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. But I just beat the game, and... well, I feel a little unfulfilled. I mean, we never learned Zelos's backstory (he has to have one, it was heavily hinted at), and, well... I guess the ending kind of depressed me, but that's beside the point. (Why, oh why, can't the party just stay together and be one big happy family? D; (Answer: because that would make no sense, you idiot.))

And, I mean... I don't know, but I feel like there's more than one loose end, and I really don't get why, because it was such an awesome game why wouldn't they have finished it properly?

(Also what's this I hear about an ending where Zelos dies? O_O)

 

[Phoenixsong]

and Kratos wasn't an option.

You didn't deny enough people. Say no to everyone who wants to talk to you and Kratos comes instead, regardless of who loves you or doesn't love you. But then... see the last thing I quoted.

Anyway, next time you play through the game try saving before the conversation scenes and resetting after you talk to one person, then talk to the next one. And if you make a backup save of the game in another slot at that point, you can get both the ending you got and, by making sure you speak to Kratos in the backup, the alternate ending without having to play through twice. Not that you won't want to play again anyway, but you can still get two endings out of one playthrough. S'cool.

I also recommend that you do try to leave Colette as the one who loves you best least once, as when she's the one who rescues you in Torent Forest the subsequent trip to Welgaia makes a lot more sense. It doesn't work quite as well when they try to apply other people's personal problems to her. I'm still having trouble seeing how she fits into the whole Alicia thing, so I'm a little scared to try and get Regal or Presea to love me. :/

Double post. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. But I just beat the game, and... well, I feel a little unfulfilled. I mean, we never learned Zelos's backstory (he has to have one, it was heavily hinted at), and, well... I guess the ending kind of depressed me, but that's beside the point.)

The characters' Wikipedia articles have a lot of stuff in them. No idea where they got it, because as you said it was never in-game (manga, maybe? I never finished it), but it's there.

And, I mean... I don't know, but I feel like there's more than one loose end, and I really don't get why, because it was such an awesome game why wouldn't they have finished it properly?

...that's why there's a sequel coming out next month? :D Still haven't preordered that sucker, hm. I need to stop stalling and waiting for a coupon/for Circuit City to get it with the free shipping at all, because I'm having a hard time believing that Gamestop is only charging 40 dollars for it instead of 50. Need to get it before they hike up the price...

(Also what's this I hear about an ending where Zelos dies? O_O)

Spoiler

Speak with Kratos in Flanoir and you fight Zelos instead of that lame Gatekeeper thing. He's mortally wounded after the fight, though, so he says some stuff and then dies. Kratos will rejoin your party, however. They "had to" kill Zelos in order to give you an option to get Kratos back, since they're practically identical; I still don't understand why he couldn't have been too injured to fight the way Kratos was, or why it would be so terrible to have two characters with similar styles, or one extra party member; they're still two separate people, and the story could've been more interesting if they were both there.

...also that battle annoys me because Zelos can use Judgment in it. Why can't he use it when he's on your side? D:

 

[Keltena]

A sequel, huh? My mom will be thrilled. Dx

Kratos comes to talk to you, really? (Thinking about it, I actually don't remember the game giving me an option of yes/no, but it probably did.) I... really wish I'd known that. Too late now, though, unless I want to replay the entire freaking game. Dx

...ah. I wondered what I was missing... when do you talk to him in Flanoir, though? o.o

Still, even if there's a sequel coming out, I think it's kind of messy of them to not wrap everything up in the first game. I mean, they hinted at his backstory so heavily, they should have revealed it before the end of the game. D;

...soyeah.

 

[Phoenixsong]

When I said; refuse to talk to everyone else that night.

Oh, there are a million things they didn't wrap up properly. They wouldn't wrap everything up, especially since the sequel follows the original so closely (it's like... two years after, I think?), but it was a little annoying. One thing that bothers me is that Noishe seems to have no point whatsoever. He has a story, too, you know, and then on top of that they keep making a big deal out of the fact that supposedly he can transform into Superman or whatever. And yet... nothing. So they'd better pick that up in the sequel or else... I mean, they could've just given them some random horsedragon to ride on or something like everyone else has and not go out of their way to make up a weird dogasaurus with no other purpose. Cute weird dogasaurus, but still.

Spoiler

I also hate the fact that, and no I will never let anyone hear the end of this, they had to make Kratos leave. You got the ending where Zelos lives so you didn't see this, but Kratos takes Zelos's place with Sheena when he rejoins the party and you go to Welgaia, so he gets confronted with the whole "stop being a traitorous coward" deal. And then, after he agrees to clean up his act... he leaves. The planet. What the hell? He just got through telling everyone he wasn't going to run away from his problems anymore, and then he turns around, completely ignores the fact that there's 4000 years' worth of "you and your friends screwed up the world" that he should be working to repair, and takes a couple of rocks and goes to live on the moon with them. AND there was that whole thing about everyone's life having worth and you should do important things for as long as you can instead of just giving up... what the hell does he expect to do alone on the moon? I want to know why Lloyd didn't yell at him and tell him to stay. D< Obviously Kratos learned absolutely nothing from the events of this game.

And I'm not just upset about it because he's my favorite character otherwise; even if I hated his guts I would've wanted him to stay because it would've been more in tune with the growth he was supposed to go through as a character. I would've wanted him to get run over by an Arma Boar shortly afterward, but he should've stayed on principle anyway!

While I'm trying to avoid spoiling the sequel for myself I did see something about Kratos... narrating it? Something like that, don't remember and don't want to verify it. But he's on the cover of the Japanese game, so he comes back in some way for something. And if Namco doesn't resolve that nasty little issue from the original game I am going to carry out my threat of shoving heated metal rods up where the sun don't shine.

 

[Keltena]

...I just realized. Dx We were talking about completely different nights. The one where I said I thought you didn't have a choice was the one in Heimdall, not Flanoir.

...I get it now.

God, now I really wish I'd somehow been psychic and kept a save file from way back.

...yeah, that really pissed me off, too.

 

[Lupine Volt]

Yah...

On the subject of backstory, most of it is revealed through his Flanoir scene and a couple of sidequests.

Oh, and on the subject of Colette in the place of Alicia's scene If you have Regal, she points out to Presea that Alicia is dead, and Presea will attack her, and if you have Presea, she tries to tell Regal that it might not be an illusion. Mithos shows up to goad either of them to Kill Colette so that Martel will have her body.


...and, on the subject of Kratos leaving, I hated that too. If it helps, he appears in a cameo for Tales of Vesperia, so I like to think that he somehow ended up there...which means that, eventually, someone's gonna write a fanfiction about that.

 

[voltianqueen]

I still wanna see the scenes for Zelos, Presea, and Regal... XP

ToS2 Spoiler, I guess: I watched this clip from the new game on YouTube, and it was Yuan talking to a hologram-type thing of Kratos. It was in Japanese, so I have no idea what they were saying, but it made me happy. I wonder if he does anything important.

 

[Retsu]

...and, on the subject of Kratos leaving, I hated that too. If it helps, he appears in a cameo for Tales of Vesperia, so I like to think that he somehow ended up there...which means that, eventually, someone's gonna write a fanfiction about that.

He's hard as hell, too. One of the cheapest Mystic Artes/hi-ougis in the series.

 

[Dannichu]

Aww, it means you have more incentive to replay the game to get everyone's Flanoir/Heimdall scenes :D

...of course, you can watch them on Youtube, too, but that's cheating. I do recommend Zelos and Sheena's, though, because they're so... personality-developing (poor Zelos ;;). I also adore Genis and Raine's. Presea's is meh, and Regal's was hilarious because, like I said before, it was basically "blah blah Lezereno Company", which was a shame because I really wanted something to endear me to Regal.

I just realized that I'm going to have to go back and replay the game just to have Colette as my Flanoir-scene buddy (which should be fun because I'm fairly sure she depises me because 8 playthroughs of picking every option to make her hate me must have done something) so I can have the Flanoir Bunny or whatever that item she gives you is to complete my item list. I've got Zelos and Kratos' already, thank goodness :3
The Kratos route was really good, actually, because it also gave me Zelos in the Monster Manual :D

 

[Eclipse]

Oh, right, before I forget to bring it up, is it just me, or does Karol look disturbingly alot like Lloyd? Karol must be a descendant from him... o_O

 

[Retsu]

What? Karol and Lloyd have... nothing in common. o.o Well, they're both adolescents and idealists, I guess, but that's about it.