Tales Favorites

With the new Tales of Vesperia that just came out and me regrettably unable to get it at the moment. I figured to ease my broken soul I would talk about my three favorite Tales games.
Number 3:

Tales of Eternia

Tales of Eternia is the original name to the English dubbed Tales of Destiny II, it was the first game I bought from a pawnshop, as well as the first Tales game I played. The story starts of pretty basic, Reed and his best friend Farah stumble upon an alien girl who speaks a weird language. After the village gets attacked due to the girls sudden appearance Reid, Farah, and the girl soon to be known as Meredy get banished from the village. They set out on a quest picking up their good childhood friend Keele, in search to find someone who can speak to Meredy. Soon it all leads to a great catastrophe known as the Great Fall will happen, as both the world Reid from and Meredy world is soon going to be destroyed by it.

This game has a lot of charm to it, each character has their own personal traits and humor every so often. There is a lot of side quests and hidden summonings such as Maxwell, and Shadow. The combat is fairly good, the only problem is using the special powers of Reid. It requires pressing all the buttons at the same time in order for it to work. It is much needed during the final battle in order to live and defeat the final boss. It took me quite some time to learn how to do it but once I did it was well worth the ending.
There is love story between Keel and Meredy, but Keel being too much of a nerdy coward was unable to tell Meredy how he feels.

The game was so good and well played that they ported it to PSP in Japan and even made an MMORPG based around it, which is regrettably canceled now.

My favorite part is when you go to this one hotel (the one with the fighting arena in the town) and while Reid and company stays there. Reid hears a rumor about a ghost that will ask "Where is my feet?" If you have your feet sticking out the ghost will take their feet for their own. The first night staying there they sleep on the 2nd floor, and sure enough Reid wakes up in the middle of the night as a strange voice is asking for his feet. Reid being too scared to move didn't get much sleep, second night you will stay on the third floor and sure enough Reid hears the voice again this time louder. He runs over to Keeles bed trying to wake him. Only to get a nerd sleep talking reply, and Reid is once again too scared to sleep. Third night you stay on the forth floor, and in the middle of the night Reid once again hears the voice and it was really loud. Freaking out the ghost would take his feet he makes a run only to fall over something in the middle of the floor. Waking everyone up, the lights turn on and there is a cat that Reid tripped over. The house maid comes in and explains that she taught a cat to say "Where is my feet?" as some kind of humor and to keep people from finding the cat and throwing it out. It's so stupid it's funny.

Number 2:

Tales of the Abyss

This game deserves the praise it got from so many, the game itself will leave a warm tingling feeling when you complete it. The game is based on two themes, existence and destiny, the game revolves around Luke a spunky smart-ass, who got handed everything to him on a silver platter. He comes from a wealthy family with close relations to the royal family in the city he lives in. At a young age Luke was kidnapped and later found with no recollection up to that point. With those events that happened, Luke was unable to leave the mansion for his family feared it would happen again. One day an assassin came to kill his teacher the master of sword fighting Van. Luke tries to protect Van by interfering with the killers attack only to be teleported to another place with the assassin. From there the story starts to move as Luke and Tear make new aquantices and learn about different threats that inhabit the world that they try to put a stop to. This game has a lot of plot twists and stuff that will bring tears to your eyes.

The character growth in it is something I really admire, such as Guy's fear with females and how he come to terms with it. As well as Luke's selfish attitude, as he turns into someone you can rely on as he learns his through past mistakes.
The combat has improved a lot, you can modify your magic to fit your style or not even be a magic user at all, like I did. It has a lot of side quests that are fun, there are costumes you can obtain with each character. It is also the only Tales game I know of besides Tales of the Worlds that doesn't use summonings.

The only thing I didn't like about this game was the loading, it takes 2 mins for it to loard the next area and even some fights.

The game is such a big hit that in October of this year this is going to be an anime based on it. Including the Japanese opening of the game, Karma. But to tell the truth I prefer the English guitar solo, compared to the Japanese singing.

Number 1:

Tales of Symphonia

This game has gained so much popularity through and through, so much that there is a sequel coming out for the Wii fairly soon. The game as well has a theme of Racism, mostly amongst the Elves and half Elves. Half Elves are considered be lower then dirt and are very discrimated amongst everyone. So much that a lot of the characters you meet have to hide the fact that they are half Elves and claim to be just Elves. But that's not the only trouble there is also The Ranches. A place where human slavery occurs, and a certain amount of humans are forced to work by the Desians. But wait that's not all, the world is getting depleted by Mana the source of life, due to the world dying "The Chosen One" has to become an angel and die for the world in order to restore Mana to the world.

Yes, this world is deeply troubled by so many disasters that it's very much troubling especially to a sword weilder Lloyd who always seeks justice. Raised by a dwarf after his monther died when he was a child, Lloyd lived with his best friend Genis, his sister Raine and the Chosen One Collet. After the departing of Collet and Raine as well as a mysterious man named Kratos, Collet and company seek out certain towers she must climb to become an angel. Lloyd and Genis were left behind but got into some trouble when they visisted a human ranch. When the Desians found out they attacked the village hurting a lot of people, due to this Lloyd and Genis were exiled from the village and set forth to catch up to Collet's party. The story is full of twists and turns as Lloyd learns more about his past, and about the future of the world.

The battle system is pretty decent for Gamecube, and the cut scenes are perfect with the close ups of characters facial expressions, which I happen to love a lot in games. There is a lot of costumes, side quests, and a lot of humor too boot. The only thing I didn't like about this game and it's very small is the dim witted Collet, she is probably the most sorriest character ever and I mean that literly. She doesn't ever stop apologising, she even apologisies because she aplologiesed. It gets really annoying really fast luckily at one part of the game she looses her voice for a large chunk of the game.

There is an anime and a manga released because of the fan ratings for this game. I am a sheep from this game at times I wish I could hate it but in all truths I love it. The storyline, cutscenes, characters personalities, and side quests all got to me.