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Sep. 24th, 2006 03:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tammaiyaAs promised, I am now going to talk about video games, or rather video game news, since the Tokyo Game Show is starting today and Square Enix and Bandai-Namco have a lot of info about what they intend to show up on their site. Nintendo doesn't, because Nintendo's site is crap and completely impossible to navigate and lacks a lot of information about anything, including the Tokyo Game Show or anything about Twilight Princess.
Namco has Tales of Destiny, Tales of Phantasia, Tales of the World, Tales of the Tempest... There's also a cute looking pop trivia game.
Bandai has a Tamagotchi game and a Digimon game, but not much else.
There's no info on the list that isn't already on the subsites for each of the games; Tales of Phantasia: Full Voice Edition for PSP has already been released in Japan, and in addition to the full voicing (extensive list of seiyuu here, for those who can read it), it also contains the grade system from later Tales games. It says here that it includes all the additional characters, scenes, facechats, animation scenes etc from the PS and the GBA versions (originally it was SNES), and also has the convenient "anywhere road" function.
No, I don't know what that means either. Anyway, characters are here, shots from the opening animation are here. It's a remake so I won't go into the plot or characters.
Tales of Destiny is a full-voice remake of the PS original for the PS2. If pre-ordered, it comes with an extra dvd called Orange Gumi, including a character drama, a "secret event image", messages from the seiyuu, a mini-soundtrack, and a gallery of design sketches. (There was one for Phantasia, too, called Apple Gumi. It was limited edition pre-order only, though, so you can't get it now. The character drama is up on YouTube.)
The PS2 remake of Destiny has been rendered into 3D, as evident from the screenshots. According to the product info, there are upgrades to the battle and chat systems, the script has been rewritten, and events have been added. The new battle system is referred to as "AR-LMBS" (Aerial Linear Motion Battle System), at which I just smile and nod, because Tales battle system explanations can get fairly complex (though they're generally pretty intuitive to use), and I don't think I'm going to get wtf they mean without actually playing it. The new chat system uses something called "Emotional card Chat", which is a big improvement from the PS version where you had to just sit around waiting on the world map until your characters got bored and struck up a conversation. One, you had to wait FOREVER; two, it took ages to realise there WERE chats so you missed a whole heap; three, you could only have chats between the characters on your party; and four, there were no close-up representations of the characters with facial expressions etc. The cards have the title of the chat and the text of what they're saying underneath with representations of the characters on playing cards. Looks good.
Here are the character introductions. (menu on the left)
I've also heard something about multiple endings, but I can't find confirmation of that anywhere on the official site, so who knows. Opening animation screens here, there are shots of the new "intermission animation" here, and shots of the reworked CG movies here. The ToD remake comes out 11th November this year. Again, remake, so you can find the plot and character details in English if you look for them.
Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology is a Tales series sidestory coming out on the PSP sometime "this winter" (northern hemisphere winter, that is, so Dec-Feb). The product info doesn't really say what the plot is; just says that this time Abyss and Legendia are included this time and that the themesong is going to be written and performed by popular singer-songwriter 植村花菜 (Uemura Kana). There are two original characters, a girl named Kanonno and a white animal creature called Mormo.
It took me a while to figure out which of them was being referred to as the protagonist, thanks to the lax attitude of the Japanese language to such things as subjects and pronouns, but I THINK it's Mormo. (Later note: no, neither of them are. The main character has no name and no set appearance and is just referred to as "main character", which is why I got confused.)
Kanonno is age unknown, height 158cm, weight 44kg, and her seiyuu is 工藤 晴香 (Kudo Haruka). Her bio says that she's a girl involved in the resistance movement "Adribitom" (I had to make that romanisation up, just so you know) in the town Ailily (again with the romanisation), suffering under tyranny. She has a fundamentally cheerful and carefree personality, and has a calming effect on the people around her. She has a bit of an airhead atmosphere to her, but in truth she's got a firm character, works hard and is trusted greatly by the resistance group. She has amnesia and can't recall anything but her name, not even her age.
She's looking for clues to her memory, wants to protect her as yet unknown hometown from the Devourer, and is on a journey with the protagonist. Thinking that the main character, having just been born from the World Tree with no past, is in the same situation as her (memory loss), she feels sympathy for you.
Quote: "The light of freedom won't disappear... We Adribitom are that light!"
Mormo is age unknown, gender unknown, height 44cm, weight 1.3 kg, and its seiyuu is 阪口 大助 (Sakaguchi Daisuke). Its bio says it's a mascot character journeying alongside the protagonist. It is the Guardian of the World Tree from another world called Yaun. Its birthplace Yaun is the only remaining part of the World Tree and is being consumed by the Devourer. Holding the aimless hope that if it defeats "that which devours" it might be able to get its home back, it descends upon Telejia.
Mormo has a strong sense of justice and a fiery personality.
It possesses a mischievous appearance, but is fundamentally cautious with the fate of the world and watches over the protagonist, who it has made its own.
Quote: "The ones who called out to the World Tree and brought you into this world were us."
As for characters from the rest of the Tales series, so far the only ones confirmed are Chester (Phantasia), Lloyd (Symphonia) and Refill/Raine (Symphonia).
The story: Telejia, the world where humanity lives by the grace of the World Tree.
At a certain time, the land is almost wholly consumed by a monster invading from another world, the Devourer.
People were driven from the place they lived, frightened by this horror snatching away the land.
The World Tree, which gave birth to and reared the land, was protecting the people and also the land from the invasion of the Devourer, but day by day even that power grew weak.
With its remaining strength, the World Tree brought forth the last hope. The main character.
As the last hope of the World Tree, the main character decended upon the land of Telejia.
Moving to the system info. First there is "My Character Construction". It's not clear whether you can change Mormo's appearance or build characters from scratch, but I think it's the former, because otherwise I don't know where all the extra characters would come into it. Working on the basis of that assumption, you can assign Mormo a class, eg swordsman or magic user, and change its appearance to look however you want including gender, colouring etc. You can also customise the way your equipment looks.
NO, WAIT. Mormo is NOT the main character, and neither is Kanonno. *goes up to edit their bios and some other things*
So basically you create your main character to look however you want, including gender, features, equipment, voice and class.
The quests you can get vary depending on class, which brings me to the quest system. You talk to the guild agent to receive quests, and choose one you like from a "rich variety" of quests such as searching. Once you've decided on a quest, you get info from the person asking-- hey, this sounds kind of like the quest system in FFXII-- go to the town or dungeon where that info leads you, and complete the quest. Once it's done, you go back to the requestor for your reward and the quest is complete. Huh, it's a lot like the quest system in FFXII.
Further down on the quest page, it talks about inviting party members. One party can have a maximum 4 members; you can scout members at town inns. Obviously, you meet a lot of "Tales series" characters as the game progresses, and if you scout them you can add them to your party.
It says that a truly strong party will supplement the weaknesses of your own character's job, and you should enjoy forming parties made of a mix of your favourite Tales characters (JUDAS HAD BETTER BE THERE. THAT'S ALL I'M SAYIN') according to your own tastes. However, whether or not you can invite those characters into your party will depend upon the content of the quests you do.
The battle system is FR-LMBS, standing for Flex-Lense Linear Motion Battle System, which, much like the AR-LMBS of Tales of Destiny (above), I don't really understand. It's the same system as Abyss, apparently. The explanation doesn't help much. Largely it seems you can move your characters in any direction to the edges of the screen, much like other Tales games and in 3D like the later Tales games which I have yet to play.
There are also face chats. It doesn't say much about them-- they're animated conversations that give you info depending on the characters you've got, and may give hints about what to do next.
Finally there's a page talking about the town, Ailily. A town covered in trees, with an earthy fragrance and the sound of flowing water. It is this town's World Tree from which the main character is born and embarks on the start of their journey. The people gather from all over the world to share in the blessing of the Mana that the World Tree brings forth (the power that is the origin of the world) and the town could be called the centre of the world, but since a man named Ganzel, with his despotic policies and his control over the masses, became sovereign, trade with other countries has been cut off and entry into and exit from the town have been banned.
Under this unreasonable regime, in a state of isolation, the population is suffering a painful lifestyle of such things as food shortages. Because of this regime, a resistance group called Adribitom has come into being to save the masses, and carries on operations day by day for the people.
Phew, that took a while. That's all the official info on the Namco site regarding Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology done!
Tales of the Tempest is the latest Tales game, not a remake nor a sidestory, and it's coming out on the DS on the 26th of October. Preordering will get you the Official Fan Book and a bag.
The themesong is the solo debut of Misono, lead singer of Day After Tomorrow, which was the themesong of Tales of Symphonia. The song is called VS, and the concept is supposed to be "dance and rock".
(Note from this point on I use terms like Templar because they sound better than priest soldier, and Inquisition for heretic interrogator. They aren't a direct translation, but same sort of concept.)
Starting with the story, it's set on the continent of Aleulla. A long time ago, Aleulla was under the control of a race of people that turned into beasts called Recants. The Recants had achieved an advanced culture and system in the society they'd nurtured. Possessing heightened physical ability and spirituality, they were able to accomplish unique advancements. It bears mentioning that they exceeded at life beyond those skills, and constructed a delicate and unpredictable civilisation from an outwardly ferocious appearance. At a certain time, an influential section used a technique that they themselves had sealed, and large numbers of Recants were massacred.
Though the massacre wasn't their original aim, the opportunity that arose at that time split the kingdom in two, and subsequently the mayhem called the Werewolf War occurs.
After that, the Recants, rapidly declining in numbers, ceded their supremacy over the continent to the human race, which in those days was still small and weak. The Aleulla from which the Recants had died out was temporarily thrown into chaos, but humanity regained the national polity and once more prosperity returned.
Humanity propogates the movement to eradicate the Recants as the "race that destroyed the world". It is said that this was because the Recants, whose usual outward appearance didn't differ greatly from that of the humans, gain unthinkable abilities that humans fear whenever they turn into beast.
On the imperial command of the King, the Church hunts Recants as heretics, and the Knightly Order prepared to raise an army against an invasion or revolt by the Recants or another country. The Recants eradication movement "Recant Hunt" half encouraged the discovery of Recants and informing on them, going so far as to offer a reward.
One day, an injured knight dragged himself into a village.
Little did Caius know that this would raise the curtain on a new crisis engulfing the heart of Aleulla...
And translating that took FAR TOO LONG because they used nasty kanji and nasty sentence structures. *shudder*
Okay, moving on: characters. There are six.
Caius Qualls is 15, male, 165cm and the main character, voice actor 高城元気 (Takagi Motoko). He's a boy who grew up in a village in a remote part of Aleulla with his foster father. Thanks to a crystal entrusted to him by the soldier from the Order of the Knights of the Imperial Guard who he happened to save, a Spot (a heteromorphic lifeform) comes to attack his village. Caius fights the Spot alongside his foster father, but realising that Caius's foster father is a Recant (werewolf), the townspeople take a cold attitude towards them.
While Caius, along with his foster father and childhood friend Rubia, are escaping the village, the three of them are chased by a Templar of the Church, and Caius's foster father acts as a decoy to save Caius. At the time of their separation, Caius asks his foster father about his real parents, and wondering if his real father is in the capital, embarks upon a journey to search for the secret of his own birth.
Rubia Natwick is 15, female, 155cm and her voice actor is 門脇舞 (Kadowaki Mai). Caius's childhood friend who has grown up in the same remote village as him since they were little. Both her parents were priests in the Church, and had planned for her to go to the capital in the near future and study to become a Templar, but her parents are killed by the party of Lukius (a member of the Inquisition), who came to capture Caius's foster father.
Rubia embarks on a journey with Caius, chasing after her avowed enemy Lukius to seek revenge for her parents.
Tilkis Barone, 18 years old, race human, gender male, height 178cm, weapon a large sword. Seiyuu is 山崎たくみ (Yamazaki Takumi). The prince of a small remote country a long way away from Aleulla. On his way heading towards the capital of Aleulla to investigate the mystery of the cataclysm that hit his own country, he encounters Caius and Rubia. Tilkis handles his sword brilliantly, but on the other hand, he also possesses a lot of wisdom and knowledge.
Forest Ledoyen, 45, Recant, male, 195cm, uses a large axe. Seiyuu is 乃村健次 (Nomura Kenji). A Recant who moved to Tilkis's small country. He travels together with Tilkis as his servant. Being knowledgable on the terrain near the capital and other such information, he also acts as a guide. He's reticent and looks frightening, but he's actually very kind inside.
Arria Ekburg, 18, human, female, 165cm, fights with a staff. Seiyuu 荒木香恵 (Araki Kae). A priestess belonging to the Church. Doubting the Church's policy of persecution against the Recants, she is on her own holding back the monsters that have recently been developing in the capital. Arria carries a staff as tall as she is, and battles centred on magic are her speciality.
Lukius Bridges, 15, male, 165cm. Seiyuu 斎賀みつき (Saiga Mitsuki). Spearheads the Templars as the righthand man of the Pope, and is in command of the Recant Hunt in each area of Aleulla. Wearing the mask that is the symbol of the Inquisition, it is impossible to understand what Lukius is really thinking.
That's all the characters.
Then there are the towns, starting with Felun, the remote village. A small village situated in the south of the continent of Aleulla. The main character Caius lives in this village with his foster father. It's sometimes used as a relay point in trading, but the security of the entire nation of Aleulla has been growing worse, and it seems recently that travellers have also been going missing.
Then there is the fishing village of Naliss. A fishing village that used to prosper from trade. In its position on the sea route, it moves the the goods of other countries, and will now occasionally send cargo to the town of Leda.
Finally there is the capital Janna. A city of natural beauty situated near a lake at the heart of the continent of Aleulla. Recently here, the phenomenon of monsters appearing in parts of the city has been occurring, and the Church and Knightly Order are guarding against this.
Now, joy of joys: the system info.
The battle system, unusually enough, does not consist of an acronym ending with -LMBS. Instead it is a "3 on 3 Linear Motion Battle System", which is apparently a linear motion battle system that has the rush of an action game and a significant strategy element, something which in fact tells me very little at all. The "3 on 3" stands for 3D and 3-line. The field is drawn in 3D, and the battle situation is combined with three lines which you can move freely along. Because it's NDS, there's the touchscreen and dual-screen setup, which means you can use the lower screen to use items and change strategies and such.
That could totally have been called 3o3-LMBS. *contemplates this*
The battle system is further divided into formation and actions and werewolf transformation system.
Formation: You can have a party of up to 3 characters in the 3-on-3 LMBS, and you choose on which of the three lines to place each of your characters. Depending on the specific talents of your characters and the enemies appearing, the most effective arrangement will change. The status bonuses the characters receive also differ depending on the way they are arranged, so you should try different formations.
Actions: During battle, the characters other than the one you control will fight automatically. You can change the settings on three types of actions for each of your characters through the menu screen: Action (the ratio attack and defence); Target (policy on which enemy to aim for); and Magic-Tech Action (how often they should use magic and special techniques). These settings cannot be changed during battle.
Werewolf transformation system: Forest and Caius, who are both Recants, can change form mid-battle and get a major power boost. Forest can do this from the start; Caius gains the ability after a certain event. While in werewolf form, neither can use special techniques or magic. There are two ways to use the werewolf form; one is to go through the menu screen and choose the item "Werewolf Transformation" and set it to "on". Using this method means that for the price of TP (tech points), Forest or Caius will go into every battle already in werewolf form.
The other method can be used during battle, like magic or special techniques. The Werewolf Transformation item can be set as a battle command. Using this command in battle will cause transformation, accompanied by consumption of TP.
The cooking system is pretty much the same as the older Tales games: you have a recipe, you have ingredients, you cook the food and different recipes have different effects. There is also the possibility of cooking by gathering the appropriate ingredients together and using the touchscreen.
The camp skit system seems to be the equivalent of chat systems in other Tales games. Being the terrible person I am, I find the name "camp skit" to be hilariously funny, but anyhow. (It's not just my translation, the japanese is kyanpu sukitto.) Basically, during the journey you can make your characters sit around a campfire and listen to their conversation. Aside from when a camp skit happens as part of the plot, you can go into a camp skit by using the "tent" item. This annoys me, because it's much easier (and cheaper) just to press "select" a lot. << Anyway, the skits change depending on where you are and what part of the story you're up to. Like other Tales games you can get special titles from the skits, so you should try them as much as possible.
Finally in the system section: wireless. When you get an item called "Eleusis's Mirror" (and yes, that's the right romanisation. I googled it extensively. Apparently it's a small Greek town that was the site of a major ancient Greek cult), you can use the DS's wireless function to play multiplayer dungeons. You can have up to 3 players, each choosing a character to control in battle. This mode doesn't affect the plot or your character's exp levels in the actual came, but you can use the money and rare items you get in multiplayer mode.
That's all the info, so the only thing left is screenshots.
Those are all the games that really grabbed me from Namco-Bandai-- which, I know, were all Tales games-- and that actually took me quite a while thanks to the level of detail I went into with the two non-remake games. Anyway. Later, maybe tomorrow and maybe (probably) not, I'll move onto Square-Enix. There are more games, but by and large there's much less info about the the majority of them, so it might end up about the same length. The Square games being shown at the TGS that I'll be focussing on are:
KHII Final Mix + CoM remake; FFVII Crisis Core; FFXII Revenant Wings for DS; FFVI Advance; FFV Advance; FFIII DS; FFXIII; Seiken Densetsu 4; Heroes of Mana; Dragon Quest Monsters Joker; Chocobo and the Magic Picture Book; and a newly announced DS game called It's A Wonderful World (subarashiki sekai).
Now, it's 3.40 am and I have to get up tomorrow, not hideously early but before midday, for my parents' lunch party thingo. So I'm-a go to bed now, I think.
OW WHY DOES MY SHOULDER HURT SO BAD. *cry*
Namco has Tales of Destiny, Tales of Phantasia, Tales of the World, Tales of the Tempest... There's also a cute looking pop trivia game.
Bandai has a Tamagotchi game and a Digimon game, but not much else.
There's no info on the list that isn't already on the subsites for each of the games; Tales of Phantasia: Full Voice Edition for PSP has already been released in Japan, and in addition to the full voicing (extensive list of seiyuu here, for those who can read it), it also contains the grade system from later Tales games. It says here that it includes all the additional characters, scenes, facechats, animation scenes etc from the PS and the GBA versions (originally it was SNES), and also has the convenient "anywhere road" function.
No, I don't know what that means either. Anyway, characters are here, shots from the opening animation are here. It's a remake so I won't go into the plot or characters.
Tales of Destiny is a full-voice remake of the PS original for the PS2. If pre-ordered, it comes with an extra dvd called Orange Gumi, including a character drama, a "secret event image", messages from the seiyuu, a mini-soundtrack, and a gallery of design sketches. (There was one for Phantasia, too, called Apple Gumi. It was limited edition pre-order only, though, so you can't get it now. The character drama is up on YouTube.)
The PS2 remake of Destiny has been rendered into 3D, as evident from the screenshots. According to the product info, there are upgrades to the battle and chat systems, the script has been rewritten, and events have been added. The new battle system is referred to as "AR-LMBS" (Aerial Linear Motion Battle System), at which I just smile and nod, because Tales battle system explanations can get fairly complex (though they're generally pretty intuitive to use), and I don't think I'm going to get wtf they mean without actually playing it. The new chat system uses something called "Emotional card Chat", which is a big improvement from the PS version where you had to just sit around waiting on the world map until your characters got bored and struck up a conversation. One, you had to wait FOREVER; two, it took ages to realise there WERE chats so you missed a whole heap; three, you could only have chats between the characters on your party; and four, there were no close-up representations of the characters with facial expressions etc. The cards have the title of the chat and the text of what they're saying underneath with representations of the characters on playing cards. Looks good.
Here are the character introductions. (menu on the left)
I've also heard something about multiple endings, but I can't find confirmation of that anywhere on the official site, so who knows. Opening animation screens here, there are shots of the new "intermission animation" here, and shots of the reworked CG movies here. The ToD remake comes out 11th November this year. Again, remake, so you can find the plot and character details in English if you look for them.
Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology is a Tales series sidestory coming out on the PSP sometime "this winter" (northern hemisphere winter, that is, so Dec-Feb). The product info doesn't really say what the plot is; just says that this time Abyss and Legendia are included this time and that the themesong is going to be written and performed by popular singer-songwriter 植村花菜 (Uemura Kana). There are two original characters, a girl named Kanonno and a white animal creature called Mormo.
It took me a while to figure out which of them was being referred to as the protagonist, thanks to the lax attitude of the Japanese language to such things as subjects and pronouns, but I THINK it's Mormo. (Later note: no, neither of them are. The main character has no name and no set appearance and is just referred to as "main character", which is why I got confused.)
Kanonno is age unknown, height 158cm, weight 44kg, and her seiyuu is 工藤 晴香 (Kudo Haruka). Her bio says that she's a girl involved in the resistance movement "Adribitom" (I had to make that romanisation up, just so you know) in the town Ailily (again with the romanisation), suffering under tyranny. She has a fundamentally cheerful and carefree personality, and has a calming effect on the people around her. She has a bit of an airhead atmosphere to her, but in truth she's got a firm character, works hard and is trusted greatly by the resistance group. She has amnesia and can't recall anything but her name, not even her age.
She's looking for clues to her memory, wants to protect her as yet unknown hometown from the Devourer, and is on a journey with the protagonist. Thinking that the main character, having just been born from the World Tree with no past, is in the same situation as her (memory loss), she feels sympathy for you.
Quote: "The light of freedom won't disappear... We Adribitom are that light!"
Mormo is age unknown, gender unknown, height 44cm, weight 1.3 kg, and its seiyuu is 阪口 大助 (Sakaguchi Daisuke). Its bio says it's a mascot character journeying alongside the protagonist. It is the Guardian of the World Tree from another world called Yaun. Its birthplace Yaun is the only remaining part of the World Tree and is being consumed by the Devourer. Holding the aimless hope that if it defeats "that which devours" it might be able to get its home back, it descends upon Telejia.
Mormo has a strong sense of justice and a fiery personality.
It possesses a mischievous appearance, but is fundamentally cautious with the fate of the world and watches over the protagonist, who it has made its own.
Quote: "The ones who called out to the World Tree and brought you into this world were us."
As for characters from the rest of the Tales series, so far the only ones confirmed are Chester (Phantasia), Lloyd (Symphonia) and Refill/Raine (Symphonia).
The story: Telejia, the world where humanity lives by the grace of the World Tree.
At a certain time, the land is almost wholly consumed by a monster invading from another world, the Devourer.
People were driven from the place they lived, frightened by this horror snatching away the land.
The World Tree, which gave birth to and reared the land, was protecting the people and also the land from the invasion of the Devourer, but day by day even that power grew weak.
With its remaining strength, the World Tree brought forth the last hope. The main character.
As the last hope of the World Tree, the main character decended upon the land of Telejia.
Moving to the system info. First there is "My Character Construction". It's not clear whether you can change Mormo's appearance or build characters from scratch, but I think it's the former, because otherwise I don't know where all the extra characters would come into it. Working on the basis of that assumption, you can assign Mormo a class, eg swordsman or magic user, and change its appearance to look however you want including gender, colouring etc. You can also customise the way your equipment looks.
NO, WAIT. Mormo is NOT the main character, and neither is Kanonno. *goes up to edit their bios and some other things*
So basically you create your main character to look however you want, including gender, features, equipment, voice and class.
The quests you can get vary depending on class, which brings me to the quest system. You talk to the guild agent to receive quests, and choose one you like from a "rich variety" of quests such as searching. Once you've decided on a quest, you get info from the person asking-- hey, this sounds kind of like the quest system in FFXII-- go to the town or dungeon where that info leads you, and complete the quest. Once it's done, you go back to the requestor for your reward and the quest is complete. Huh, it's a lot like the quest system in FFXII.
Further down on the quest page, it talks about inviting party members. One party can have a maximum 4 members; you can scout members at town inns. Obviously, you meet a lot of "Tales series" characters as the game progresses, and if you scout them you can add them to your party.
It says that a truly strong party will supplement the weaknesses of your own character's job, and you should enjoy forming parties made of a mix of your favourite Tales characters (JUDAS HAD BETTER BE THERE. THAT'S ALL I'M SAYIN') according to your own tastes. However, whether or not you can invite those characters into your party will depend upon the content of the quests you do.
The battle system is FR-LMBS, standing for Flex-Lense Linear Motion Battle System, which, much like the AR-LMBS of Tales of Destiny (above), I don't really understand. It's the same system as Abyss, apparently. The explanation doesn't help much. Largely it seems you can move your characters in any direction to the edges of the screen, much like other Tales games and in 3D like the later Tales games which I have yet to play.
There are also face chats. It doesn't say much about them-- they're animated conversations that give you info depending on the characters you've got, and may give hints about what to do next.
Finally there's a page talking about the town, Ailily. A town covered in trees, with an earthy fragrance and the sound of flowing water. It is this town's World Tree from which the main character is born and embarks on the start of their journey. The people gather from all over the world to share in the blessing of the Mana that the World Tree brings forth (the power that is the origin of the world) and the town could be called the centre of the world, but since a man named Ganzel, with his despotic policies and his control over the masses, became sovereign, trade with other countries has been cut off and entry into and exit from the town have been banned.
Under this unreasonable regime, in a state of isolation, the population is suffering a painful lifestyle of such things as food shortages. Because of this regime, a resistance group called Adribitom has come into being to save the masses, and carries on operations day by day for the people.
Phew, that took a while. That's all the official info on the Namco site regarding Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology done!
Tales of the Tempest is the latest Tales game, not a remake nor a sidestory, and it's coming out on the DS on the 26th of October. Preordering will get you the Official Fan Book and a bag.
The themesong is the solo debut of Misono, lead singer of Day After Tomorrow, which was the themesong of Tales of Symphonia. The song is called VS, and the concept is supposed to be "dance and rock".
(Note from this point on I use terms like Templar because they sound better than priest soldier, and Inquisition for heretic interrogator. They aren't a direct translation, but same sort of concept.)
Starting with the story, it's set on the continent of Aleulla. A long time ago, Aleulla was under the control of a race of people that turned into beasts called Recants. The Recants had achieved an advanced culture and system in the society they'd nurtured. Possessing heightened physical ability and spirituality, they were able to accomplish unique advancements. It bears mentioning that they exceeded at life beyond those skills, and constructed a delicate and unpredictable civilisation from an outwardly ferocious appearance. At a certain time, an influential section used a technique that they themselves had sealed, and large numbers of Recants were massacred.
Though the massacre wasn't their original aim, the opportunity that arose at that time split the kingdom in two, and subsequently the mayhem called the Werewolf War occurs.
After that, the Recants, rapidly declining in numbers, ceded their supremacy over the continent to the human race, which in those days was still small and weak. The Aleulla from which the Recants had died out was temporarily thrown into chaos, but humanity regained the national polity and once more prosperity returned.
Humanity propogates the movement to eradicate the Recants as the "race that destroyed the world". It is said that this was because the Recants, whose usual outward appearance didn't differ greatly from that of the humans, gain unthinkable abilities that humans fear whenever they turn into beast.
On the imperial command of the King, the Church hunts Recants as heretics, and the Knightly Order prepared to raise an army against an invasion or revolt by the Recants or another country. The Recants eradication movement "Recant Hunt" half encouraged the discovery of Recants and informing on them, going so far as to offer a reward.
One day, an injured knight dragged himself into a village.
Little did Caius know that this would raise the curtain on a new crisis engulfing the heart of Aleulla...
And translating that took FAR TOO LONG because they used nasty kanji and nasty sentence structures. *shudder*
Okay, moving on: characters. There are six.
Caius Qualls is 15, male, 165cm and the main character, voice actor 高城元気 (Takagi Motoko). He's a boy who grew up in a village in a remote part of Aleulla with his foster father. Thanks to a crystal entrusted to him by the soldier from the Order of the Knights of the Imperial Guard who he happened to save, a Spot (a heteromorphic lifeform) comes to attack his village. Caius fights the Spot alongside his foster father, but realising that Caius's foster father is a Recant (werewolf), the townspeople take a cold attitude towards them.
While Caius, along with his foster father and childhood friend Rubia, are escaping the village, the three of them are chased by a Templar of the Church, and Caius's foster father acts as a decoy to save Caius. At the time of their separation, Caius asks his foster father about his real parents, and wondering if his real father is in the capital, embarks upon a journey to search for the secret of his own birth.
Rubia Natwick is 15, female, 155cm and her voice actor is 門脇舞 (Kadowaki Mai). Caius's childhood friend who has grown up in the same remote village as him since they were little. Both her parents were priests in the Church, and had planned for her to go to the capital in the near future and study to become a Templar, but her parents are killed by the party of Lukius (a member of the Inquisition), who came to capture Caius's foster father.
Rubia embarks on a journey with Caius, chasing after her avowed enemy Lukius to seek revenge for her parents.
Tilkis Barone, 18 years old, race human, gender male, height 178cm, weapon a large sword. Seiyuu is 山崎たくみ (Yamazaki Takumi). The prince of a small remote country a long way away from Aleulla. On his way heading towards the capital of Aleulla to investigate the mystery of the cataclysm that hit his own country, he encounters Caius and Rubia. Tilkis handles his sword brilliantly, but on the other hand, he also possesses a lot of wisdom and knowledge.
Forest Ledoyen, 45, Recant, male, 195cm, uses a large axe. Seiyuu is 乃村健次 (Nomura Kenji). A Recant who moved to Tilkis's small country. He travels together with Tilkis as his servant. Being knowledgable on the terrain near the capital and other such information, he also acts as a guide. He's reticent and looks frightening, but he's actually very kind inside.
Arria Ekburg, 18, human, female, 165cm, fights with a staff. Seiyuu 荒木香恵 (Araki Kae). A priestess belonging to the Church. Doubting the Church's policy of persecution against the Recants, she is on her own holding back the monsters that have recently been developing in the capital. Arria carries a staff as tall as she is, and battles centred on magic are her speciality.
Lukius Bridges, 15, male, 165cm. Seiyuu 斎賀みつき (Saiga Mitsuki). Spearheads the Templars as the righthand man of the Pope, and is in command of the Recant Hunt in each area of Aleulla. Wearing the mask that is the symbol of the Inquisition, it is impossible to understand what Lukius is really thinking.
That's all the characters.
Then there are the towns, starting with Felun, the remote village. A small village situated in the south of the continent of Aleulla. The main character Caius lives in this village with his foster father. It's sometimes used as a relay point in trading, but the security of the entire nation of Aleulla has been growing worse, and it seems recently that travellers have also been going missing.
Then there is the fishing village of Naliss. A fishing village that used to prosper from trade. In its position on the sea route, it moves the the goods of other countries, and will now occasionally send cargo to the town of Leda.
Finally there is the capital Janna. A city of natural beauty situated near a lake at the heart of the continent of Aleulla. Recently here, the phenomenon of monsters appearing in parts of the city has been occurring, and the Church and Knightly Order are guarding against this.
Now, joy of joys: the system info.
The battle system, unusually enough, does not consist of an acronym ending with -LMBS. Instead it is a "3 on 3 Linear Motion Battle System", which is apparently a linear motion battle system that has the rush of an action game and a significant strategy element, something which in fact tells me very little at all. The "3 on 3" stands for 3D and 3-line. The field is drawn in 3D, and the battle situation is combined with three lines which you can move freely along. Because it's NDS, there's the touchscreen and dual-screen setup, which means you can use the lower screen to use items and change strategies and such.
That could totally have been called 3o3-LMBS. *contemplates this*
The battle system is further divided into formation and actions and werewolf transformation system.
Formation: You can have a party of up to 3 characters in the 3-on-3 LMBS, and you choose on which of the three lines to place each of your characters. Depending on the specific talents of your characters and the enemies appearing, the most effective arrangement will change. The status bonuses the characters receive also differ depending on the way they are arranged, so you should try different formations.
Actions: During battle, the characters other than the one you control will fight automatically. You can change the settings on three types of actions for each of your characters through the menu screen: Action (the ratio attack and defence); Target (policy on which enemy to aim for); and Magic-Tech Action (how often they should use magic and special techniques). These settings cannot be changed during battle.
Werewolf transformation system: Forest and Caius, who are both Recants, can change form mid-battle and get a major power boost. Forest can do this from the start; Caius gains the ability after a certain event. While in werewolf form, neither can use special techniques or magic. There are two ways to use the werewolf form; one is to go through the menu screen and choose the item "Werewolf Transformation" and set it to "on". Using this method means that for the price of TP (tech points), Forest or Caius will go into every battle already in werewolf form.
The other method can be used during battle, like magic or special techniques. The Werewolf Transformation item can be set as a battle command. Using this command in battle will cause transformation, accompanied by consumption of TP.
The cooking system is pretty much the same as the older Tales games: you have a recipe, you have ingredients, you cook the food and different recipes have different effects. There is also the possibility of cooking by gathering the appropriate ingredients together and using the touchscreen.
The camp skit system seems to be the equivalent of chat systems in other Tales games. Being the terrible person I am, I find the name "camp skit" to be hilariously funny, but anyhow. (It's not just my translation, the japanese is kyanpu sukitto.) Basically, during the journey you can make your characters sit around a campfire and listen to their conversation. Aside from when a camp skit happens as part of the plot, you can go into a camp skit by using the "tent" item. This annoys me, because it's much easier (and cheaper) just to press "select" a lot. << Anyway, the skits change depending on where you are and what part of the story you're up to. Like other Tales games you can get special titles from the skits, so you should try them as much as possible.
Finally in the system section: wireless. When you get an item called "Eleusis's Mirror" (and yes, that's the right romanisation. I googled it extensively. Apparently it's a small Greek town that was the site of a major ancient Greek cult), you can use the DS's wireless function to play multiplayer dungeons. You can have up to 3 players, each choosing a character to control in battle. This mode doesn't affect the plot or your character's exp levels in the actual came, but you can use the money and rare items you get in multiplayer mode.
That's all the info, so the only thing left is screenshots.
Those are all the games that really grabbed me from Namco-Bandai-- which, I know, were all Tales games-- and that actually took me quite a while thanks to the level of detail I went into with the two non-remake games. Anyway. Later, maybe tomorrow and maybe (probably) not, I'll move onto Square-Enix. There are more games, but by and large there's much less info about the the majority of them, so it might end up about the same length. The Square games being shown at the TGS that I'll be focussing on are:
KHII Final Mix + CoM remake; FFVII Crisis Core; FFXII Revenant Wings for DS; FFVI Advance; FFV Advance; FFIII DS; FFXIII; Seiken Densetsu 4; Heroes of Mana; Dragon Quest Monsters Joker; Chocobo and the Magic Picture Book; and a newly announced DS game called It's A Wonderful World (subarashiki sekai).
Now, it's 3.40 am and I have to get up tomorrow, not hideously early but before midday, for my parents' lunch party thingo. So I'm-a go to bed now, I think.
OW WHY DOES MY SHOULDER HURT SO BAD. *cry*
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-09-24 07:48 am (UTC)*sighs*
oh to have money, and time to waste it in.
no subject
Date: 2006-09-26 08:23 am (UTC)