#...IT'S CALLED TALES FROM BERSERIA

[alovelyburn]

Hi! Do you know any media - either western or eastern - with a character like Griffith in it? Thanks

That's a tough one. There are tons of characters who evoke similar tropes or are directly inspired by Griffith, but it depends on which parts of Griffith you're looking for. So... I'll give names and then just kind of expand on how they are Griffith-esque.

Giorno Giovanna from JoJo's always struck me as a bit of a Griffith Lite. He's idealistic but ruthless, a strategic thinker, has big dreams and does a lot of sus things in pursuit of more positive goals. He's also given to poetic proclamations.

The classic is Ryo Asuka from Devilman, who is a direct inspiration for Griffith and has a very similar role/dynamic with Akira (the protagonist... you probably know this already but you know) to Griffith's and Guts'... emotionally, but not behaviorally. Like Ryo and Griffith don't act anything alike but they have similar functions. Yeah.

Laurent from the Captive Prince is partially inspired by Griffith - I haven't gotten very far in that book, but Griffith is a stated inspiration.

Chrollo Lucilfer from Hunter x Hunter is kind of a hybrid Griffith/Femto type figure to me. He hits a lot of the same buttons as Griffith but is much more overtly malevolent. Still, the intelligence, strategic thinking, his way of going from adorable to terrifying, and something about the way he... talks... Always reminds me of Griffith. And like Griffith he's quite difficult to read and can instill existential dread in orders without doing very much. Also, books.

Blade of the Phantom Master (Shin Angyo Onshi) has a ... lot of things in it that remind me of Berserk, but when it comes to Griffith, they have two different characters that kind of ring the bells. For Griffith the human, the main one is Hae Mo Su, who is the main character's deceased best friend who appears only in flashbacks once you're past the middle of the series. The other oen is Aji Tae, the main villain - a lot of people compare him to Griffith, but he's more of a Femto, although he sometimes pretends to be a Griffith. Also because of plot things, it's... an interesting comparison.

Artorius from Tales of Berseria has a lot in common with him - mind you I've never actually played the game so take it with a grain of salt. But he's a silver haired idealist who becomes unemotional due to a severe loss and then proceeds to do awful things in the name of benefiting humanity so, there you are.

If you want something MUCH MUCH MORE LIGHTHEARTED than anything else on this list, I'm Stanning the Prince is a romance manhwa webcomic that simultaneously strongly evokes Berserk and turns it into like... a lighthearted romance comic. The younger/crown prince is physically identical to Griffith and has a Griffithy vibe... also his sigil is a blue and white wolf whereas his brother's sigil is a red and black bird, so like.... anyway but again this is romance comic so don't expect it to go too heavy.

Le'Garde from Fear & Hunger (dark RPG) is perhaps the most 1-for-1 comparison I've seen in terms of role and story, though he has some non-Griffith twists to him. He is directly based on Griffith, though. I saw a review call this game "Undertale, but it's Berserk."

All that said, the closest I've ever come to being like, this guy may as well just be Griffith was... Canute from Vinland Saga. When he first appears, this comparison will seem pretty shallow but just hang in there. By the time I paused in my reading (which I need to get back to) I was like, oh this is what Griffith would be like as King, cool cool.

#ask #anonymous #ariel talks about berserk #also #about tales from berseria... #...IT'S CALLED TALES FROM BERSERIA #so.

[sir-adamus]

I swear people who complained Vol 9 is a filler are the same people who complained Team RWBY not getting much character focus and development (especially Ruby)

there's no satisfying some people (and i guarantee 'focus and development' would probably have only meant 'directly fighting the bad guys for 9 episodes straight and getting ridiculous shonen anime upgrades that come out of nowhere')

#rwb/y #oh no the character driven story throws the main characters into a scenario where they are detached from the rest of the cast #and the on-going plotline #and they have to deal with their personal issues which more pressing concerns have prevented them from doing up to this point #no story has EVER done that! #except for in FFVII when Tifa and Cloud have to put Cloud's brain back together after he goes catatonic #or in AtLA with Aang and the Lion Turtle #or in Tales of Berseria where the party get stranded in another dimension and Phi has to call Velvet out on her shit #or in The Owl House where the kids got stuck on Earth for several months with no idea how to get back to the Boiling Isles

[genshingorlsrevengeance]

Request: How about some jealousy headcannons for Velvet , Eleanor, and Magilou?

(Tales of Berseria) Velvet, Eleanor, Magilou Jealousy HC's

Honestly, I was waiting until I had access to the skit sprites, and now that I have, it's time to UNLEASH the Berseria asks that's been laying dormant for nearly a year.

Velvet's jealousy is quiet, and very terrifying.

Thinking about it logically, she really shouldn't be that angry about S/O simply talking to other people than her.

She was a Daemon after all. And yet, S/O chose to stay with her despite that.

And right now, they were doing anything but that.

It takes a long while for the jealousy to build up, but it's nearly ready to blow up.

S/O notices her glaring at them, and the person they're talking to.

After a few moments, Velvet realizes she's staring and quickly looks away, acting like nothing is happening.

S/O walks after her, with Velvet continuing to walk despite her name being called.

(S/O) "Velvet?"

(Velvet) "What?"

(S/O) "Are you alright?"

She stops walking and glares at them again.

(Velvet) "Fine. Why?"

(S/O) "You...just looked a little angry is all-"

Her eyes narrow as her fists clench.

(Velvet) "A little?"

(S/O) "O-Okay, really angry! I'm sorry I haven't had much time for you lately, I've just been trying to get supplies and-"

(Velvet) "I said it's fine. Better for us to be stocked up anyway than wasting time."

She tries to play it off, but S/O knows her better than anyone at this point.

(S/O) "Well, I could use your help carrying some of it back to our rooms. And...I'd like to have some time alone with you, actually. There's this pretty spot near the inn we can sit down at!"

Velvet simply sighs and her shoulders relax a little.

Choosing to not mention the blush on her cheeks, S/O gently grabs her hand and squeezes it for reassurance.

Velvet says nothing else and lets them hold it for a few more seconds before slowly letting go.

(Velvet) "Come on, show me where we're putting the supplies."

Eleanor feels guilty for even thinking about being jealous.

The two of them were busy, especially on a journey like this, romance was almost impossible. She knew this, and yet...

Eleanor pouts when she sees S/O speaking to the other members of the group and goes off to be alone for a moment.

Maybe some fresh air would clear her head.

The sun was about to set, watching it glisten along the coastline they were on.

(Eleanor) "Maybe during the voyage, we could...-"

(S/O) "Eleanor?"

Eleanor nearly jumps out of her skin when she hears S/O voice come from behind.

(S/O) "Are you okay? You look upset."

(Eleanor) "A-Ah...Don't worry I-..."

Eleanor thought S/O was too busy to notice her lately, yet the fact they noticed her leaving in a crowded inn made her guilt grow.

She cuts herself off before simply sighing and clearing her throat.

(Eleanor) "I'd like to get dinner with you, if you don't mind."

(S/O) "Oh, sure. I can grab the others and-"

S/O immediately noticed Eleanor's body posture change, both her hands going behind her back.

S/O gently smiles at her before nodding.

(S/O) "There's nothing wrong with being a little selfish. Where do you want to go? My treat, tonight."

Eleanor smiled back and nodded.

(Eleanor) "I recall seeing an interesting food stand in town. Perhaps they're still open?"

Magilou doesn't really get that jealous.

She knows when people are lying or being serious.

She also is very much aware of herself, and how she truly feels.

Not to mention the incredible circumstances she and S/O found themselves in, going to assassinate a world leader.

With that being said, it would be remiss of her to not embarrass her S/O at every opportunity.

That was a sign of true love!

S/O is simply talking to Eizen regarding the Van Eltia.

And that was the time to strike.

(Magilou) "S/OOOOOOOOOOO!"

Magilou called out for S/O's name as she extended her hands and nearly tackling them to the floor.

Barely fending Magilou off of them, S/O stared at Magilou who began flailing at them.

Eizen gives Magilou an extremely unamused look while S/O tries to shut her up, with everyone looking at their direction.

The crew, port workers, the rest of the group, everyone's attention was on them.

(S/O) "W-What are you doing, Magilou?!"

(Magilou) "You barely spend time with me at all lately! As your beloved, I demand that you give me attention too!"

(S/O) "We were literally just talking ten minutes ago!"

(Magilou) "It's not enough!"

(Eizen) "Are you done? S/O has to get the supplies on the ship before sunset."

(Magilou) "This is a matter of the heart, Eizen! You wouldn't understand, for you do not possess a maiden of your own!"

(S/O) "I'll talk with you once I'm done, Magi! Just give me a few-"

(Magilou) "UGH! You wound me, S/O!"

(Velvet) "I'm about to give you a wound if you keep this noise up."

(Magilou) "Believe me, you'll understand my feelings once you have someone to call your own!"

#tales of berseria x reader #tales of berseria imagines #tales of berseria headcanons #velvet crowe x reader #eleanor hume x reader #magilou mayvin x reader #velvet crowe #eleanor hume #magilou mayvin

[gamequoteshowdown]

Thank you everyone for making this happen! Now, without further ado, the match-ups for Round 1!!!

Round 1

"I've been waiting for this!" - Akihiko Sanada, Persona 3 / "You're just a corpse who doesn't know he's dead" - Valter, Fire Emblem: Sacred Stones

"Are you going to be our goddess of victory… or our angel of death? Doesn't sound too bad to bet my life on that." - Keiji Shinogi, Your Turn To Die: Death Game by Majority / "Don't fuck with a witch!" - Bayonetta, Bayonetta

"Teammates!? Friends!? To hell with that! Why am I inferior to you!? I was extremely particular about my life, my grades, my public image! So someone would want me around! I am an ace detective! A celebrity! But you… You're just some criminal trash living in an attic!? So how!? How does someone like you have things I don't!? How can such a worthless piece of trash be more special than me!?" - Goro Akechi, Persona 5 / "I was just gunna ask you to sell a gun to this child." - Starlo, Undertale Yellow

"I want you to live." - Charlotte Wiltshire, Hello Charlotte Series / "Your hair… sunset colored. I like it." - Queequeg, Limbus Company

"The hope to end pointless conflict… The hope to tell your daughter how much you care… It is our mission as apothecaries to ensure that everyone lives long enough for their hopes to become reality. Even if it costs us our own lives." - Castti Florenz, Octopath Traveler II / "Game is clear when 2 zombies hold hands!!" - "How to Play" Narrator, Loving Deads: The House of the Dead EX

"Thanks to you, I am saddled with unnecessary… feelings" - Miles Edgeworth, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney / "I am so fucking normal right now" - Harry du Bois, Disco Elysium

“SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL IS GOING TO HAPPEN” - Harry du Bois (in the form as a potential mural painting), Disco Elysium / "You pull out your cellphone and access your old Tumblr. You have ten, but you specifically access the Garfield one." - Narrator, Monster Prom

"… Nice meeting you again, you FUCKING WHALE!" - Ishmael, Limbus Company / "My guess is no one's ever loved you before" - Woody, Kingdom Hearts 3

"Take care, [player]. I was lucky to have known you. Though the parting hurts... the rest is in your hands!" - Grovyle, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky / "Far out, man." - Netzach, Limbus Company

"I'll be back once I eliminate that devil called poverty from the world!" - Partitio Yellowil, Octopath Traveler II / "Elder gods from the whole cosmos have awoken to taste your cookies." - Narrator, Cookie Clicker

"Hello! This is the part where I kill you!" - Wheatley, Portal 2 / "Now we come to the question : Do I kill you? Do I tear you apart to my heart's delight? The choices of the beautiful are unbearable. How's a girl to choose?" - Alice Angel, Bendy and the Ink Machine

"I am Ferdinand von Aegir" - Ferdinand von Aegir, Fire Emblem: Three Houses / "Her metabolic processes are of interest only to historians." - Miles Edgeworth, Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations

"It ain't a matter of guys or chicks... I'm just scared shitless of being rejected" - Kanji Tatsumi, Persona 4 / "...also Stanley is addicted to drugs and hookers" - Narrator, The Stanley Parable

“You’ve met with a terrible fate, haven’t you?” - Happy Mask Salesman, Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask / "I have no idea what to do with my life, but that's okay! Because I'm still working hard! Even if it's on nothing at all!" - Papyrus, Undertale

"Despite everything, its still you." - Narrator/Chara/Frisk???, Undertale / "In this world, it's kill or be killed." - Flowey, Undertale

“Heart. Lungs. Liver. Nerves. Heart. Lungs. Liver. Nerves…” - Voices of the Paranoid, Slay the Princess / "In the quiet glade, across old bark. In the ancient glade, it's always dark." - Gabbro, Outer Wilds

"You take away all their sins, and people aren't people anymore!" - Rokurou Rangetsu, Tales of Berseria / "Do you even get how it feels to have nightmares about doing tango with raw chickens? Eh?" - Heathcliff, Limbus Company

"Life is worth living, even if it hurts you, even if you hurt in it." - Solid Snake, Metal Gear Solid / "I often think about the god who blessed us with this cryptic puzzle... and wonder if we'll ever get the chance to kill him." - 2B, Nier: Automata

“Oh? Is that how it is? Yeah, okay, I like you too. Neat! Still going to kill you, but now we can both enjoy a mutual romantic subtext to the murder.” - The Razor, Slay the Princess / "Now it’s Reyn Time!" - Reyn, Xenoblade Chronicles

"You lost the coin toss. We both did." - Catherine Chun, SOMA / "I like to drink blood. . . and smoke the weed!" - Dracula, Space Funeral

"Pick a god and pray!" - Frederick, Fire Emblem: Awakening / "Can you believe it? Dragons! In your own homeland! What are you going to do?" - Florentia Candidius, Elder Scrolls Online

""Did you get the Broom Closet Ending?! The Broom Closet Ending was my favourite!" ...I hope your friends find this concerning." - Narrator, The Stanley Parable / "It’s dangerous to go alone, take this!" - Old Man, Legend of Zelda

“Close your eyes for a sec, will you Chigasaki?” “You mean physically? Or to the criminal acts I’m pretty sure you’re about to commit?” “Both.” - Chikage Utsuki & Itaru Chigasaki, A3! Act! Addict! Actors! / "You are all about to perish, do as you please. I'm sorry." - Meta Knight, Kirby Super Star

"Boy" - Kratos, God of War / "Take care of yourself, kid, cause someone really cares about you." - Sans, Undertale

"Almost Christmas means it wasn't Christmas!" - Phoenix Wright, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney / "Dios mío!” (Draw a cross.) “A LIBERAL!" - Harry du Bois, Disco Elysium

"That's it. I'm not paying one cent of my taxes!" - Ema Skye, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney / ""Trust your partner"... And I do. I can't forgive you, but I trust you." - Neku Sakuraba, The World Ends With You/Subarashiki Kono Sekai

"Hey, you. You’re finally awake. You were trying to cross the border, right? Walked right into that Imperial ambush, same as us, and that thief over there." - Ralof, Skyrim / *clap ... clap ... clap ... * "Oh good, my slow clap processor made it into this thing, so at least we have that" - GLaDOS, Portal 2

"hallOO. chikkEN. OKs?" - BOb, Slime Rancher / "Pretty good plan. You could say it was the greatest—" - Charles Calvin, The Henry Stickmin Collection

"Blood comes in four types: A, B, O, and AB. However! No blood test can determine whether a murder was committed… in cold blood!" - Phoenix Wright, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney / "You ain't my partner anymore, man. You're my friend! So trus' that, yo!" - Beat (Daisukenojo "Beat" Bito), The World Ends With You/Subarashiki Kono Sekai

"I always come back." - William Afton, FNaF Pizzeria Simulator / "So -- as you can see, I'm a *pretty okay* detective -- and an absolutely GIANT COMMUNIST." - Harry du Bois, Disco Elysium

"Ears have a nice mouth feel, very chewy!" - Briar, League of Legends / "This is like taking candy from a baby, which is fine by me." - Shadow the Hedgehog, Shadow the Hedgehog (2005)

"It's a beautiful day outside. Birds are singing, flowers are blooming... On days like this, kids like you... Should be burning in hell." - Sans, Undertale / "In the dark times, should the stars also go out?" - Steban, the Student Communist, Disco Elysium

“We are a path in the woods. We have no beginning, and we have no end, but something cold and unnatural sits watching us from just beyond our edge.” - The Wild, Slay the Princess / "Strong Pokémon. Weak Pokémon. That is only the selfish perception of people. Truly skilled Trainers should try to win with the Pokémon they love best." - Karen (Elite Four), Pokemon HeartGold / SoulSilver

#not polls #round 1 #tumblr tournament

[wandringaesthetic]

Once again I must speak of humanity's highest art form, the Japanese Role-Playing Game

So Tales of Berseria ate my free time in a way that it's been a while since a video game did. I just beat it.

I'll get the easy stuff to talk about out of the way first.

Regarding gameplay. I played it on "normal." I should have played it on a higher difficulty, and you should too unless you are just remarkably bad at action RPGs. Starting from about the halfway point I got good enough at chaining combos together with Velvet that the difficulty became trivial. I ignored whole mechanics. I hardly ever bothered switching out characters.

Battles are the thing I like least about the Tales games I've played previously. They mostly translate the "action" part of "Action Role-Playing Game" as "pressing a lot of buttons" in a way that doesn't reward strategy OR skill very much. Berseria isn't an exception here. That said, there's probably a little more to it on a higher difficulty, and it feels a lot more "fair" than its direct predecessor (Tales of Zestiria) did, in that it does reward attacking enemy weaknesses and enemy attacks rarely feel totally unavoidable. The bell-like sound when you successfully KO, stun, etc an enemy and the combo counter going way up in the 50s does feel kinda satisfying in the way I imagine the lights and bells on a slot machine feel satisfying.

Overall visual presentation is uneven. In some ways, it feels like a game of an earlier generation. Like "we are doing as much as we can with these three tile sets, give us a break, let your imagination do some of the work." A few areas, windswept green hillsides and hazy, blooming marshes, are legit beautiful. Dungeons generally feel a little sparse. Towns are bright primary colors vaguely european anime world. Given that the world is being alternately overrun by daemons or under the iron grip of its government and church, the generally bright and sunny aesthetics feel a little discordant and I feel like this story could have benefited from the world backing up its themes and vibes a little better. Don't even necessarily veer away from the anime aesthetics much, just do something with the lighting. One of the moments where the aesthetic best backs up the plot and themes, IMO, comes late in the game. Your heroes are in an abandoned, far northern town. The sun is setting and there's a red glare on the snow....

SO ANYWAY NONE OF THAT IS WHY I WANT TO TALK ABOUT TALES OF BERSERIA.

From one point of view, this is a revenge story. From another point of view, this is a classic JRPG , you're awaking the elemental lords and preventing an ascent to godhood. From another point of view, you are the villain of the piece, on a mission to kill the guy who actually really did save the world, fucking up everything and everyone on your way. You consort with daemons, witches, pirates, and traitors. You eat people.

What is called reason... isn't. What is called selfishness... isn't. The people who are yelling about their feelings are maybe the most reasonable ones and the ones keeping it locked up are absolutely bridled by their emotions. What is luck? What is one's nature? What is free will?

(Why do birds fly?)

The writing, in terms of themes and motifs and meaningful echoes and variations on themes is really, really special. (At least if one understands that this IS a JRPG and this IS an anime and we ARE going to yell about our ideals.) Also the character dialogue (and there is so much dialogue, just SO MUCH both meaningful and unmeaningful this is also a feature of this series hope you enjoy listening to your six new wacky, grimdark anime friends for the next 60 hours) is very good.

Combs, apples, hair, swords, coins, flowers, compasses. Illness, grief, death, loyalty, faith, despair, perfection, children, hunger.

Maybe I'll walk this back when I'm not high on this game's fumes, but as a scholar of JRPGs, I think this is one of the top two or three best WRITTEN of them out there. I feel like I'd have to play it two or three more times to really highlight why, there is so much going on here. Like, if you accept that it is highly, highly character driven and the world's a little underbaked.

Anyway. Good and evil, order and chaos, darkness and light, reason and emotion, all that's illusions and if you must insist on dividing them, if they're not in an ourobourus yin yang, eating each other, keeping each other in check, shit gets fucked real quick.

#this is also the thesis (one of the theses) of the million hours of FFXIV commentary that exist in my brain that I may never get out #tales of berseria

[castellankurze]

Tales of Berseria has a mechanic where you can send your pirate ship on voyages lasting a half hour (real-time) for loot. Your party members can give the crew various buffs for a voyage, with the one from main character and resident demon-infested edgelord Velvet Crowe described as "giving the crew a pep talk" before sailing for a morale boost. It's accompanied by a voice line where she says flatly "alright, we're counting on you."

The buff is called "the Mistress' Support."

#Tales of Berseria #Velvet Crowe

[mamthew]

I replayed Tales of Zestiria. It took 70 hours and the post-game DLC chapter took another 6.

Tales of Zestiria released at a time when I was big enough into Tales that I pre-ordered Special Editions and asked Gamestop employees if I could keep promotional posters after they were done with them (I still have the posters for Graces and Xillia). This means that Zestiria, as a Tales game on the brand-new PS4 hardware, had me vibrating with excitement and set me back over a hundred dollars. To call the game a disappointment would be underselling it. I skipped meals to afford this game and then couldn't bring myself to bother opening the Blu-ray movie that was packaged in the Special Edition, or to preorder the prequel, Tales of Berseria, two years later. Zestiria was inescapably bad.

Still, I'd expected to come away from this replay a decade later with a new appreciation for the game. I'm better at analyzing art now than I was then, and even bad art can have something interesting to say, even by accident. But the further I dug into this playthrough (which cost me an extra fucking $60, by the way, because my original disc has gone missing and i guess namco cant be bothered to lower their prices on 2015 offerings), the more appalled I was at Zestiria's lack of quality assurance, cut corners, bland story, and infuriating systems. Every Tales game has its fair share of jank. With Zestiria, the publishers clearly assumed this this meant Tales fans' jank threshold is through the sky. And given its 9/10 Steam rating, maybe they guessed correctly.

The best Tales games deconstruct genre tropes by first presenting those tropes at face value, then turning them on their heads halfway in. Symphonia is probably still the clearest example of this, as its Chosen One pilgrimage is revealed to hide something much bigger and more sinister behind it, but most games in the main series do this both with their main story and with one or more party members' individual arcs. The idea behind Zestiria and its prequel Berseria was a novel take on this series staple: have Team Destiny make a game with a doggedly cliche story and have Team Symphonia follow it up with a whole-ass game that turns all those cliches on their heads. I really appreciate this initial idea, and it actually works pretty well, still; Zestiria's story and characters are noticeably more complex and interesting after you've played Berseria and gotten that context.

But. Zestiria is a worse game than Berseria, by far. Once I'd played Berseria, replaying Zestiria to catch the new context was a massive chore, with its frustrating battle system, terrible area design, worse dungeons, and bland characters. It's easy to play Phantasia after its stealth prequel, Symphonia, because Phantasia PSX is fun and polished, and the areas where it is dated don't invite immediate comparison to the same areas in Symphonia. But Zestiria is unfun and unpolished and released only two years before Berseria on the same hardware. Zestiria's status as a sequel is simultaneously the most interesting thing about it and something that makes it even more inexcusable. While I don't know anything about the development of the two games, I can't help but wonder if the existence of Berseria is part of the reason why Zestiria feels so rushed and unfinished. They couldn't release Berseria first without ruining the whole point of the games' connection, for both of them. So if one game was going to have to drop on a strict deadline it would be Zestiria, the more cliche entry that allows for Berseria to function as a deconstruction. Now, though, 6-8 years later, it just means that only one of the two games in this legitimately cool experiment is actually worth a replay.

On its own merits, Zestiria's story is just a cliche. Sorey, our protagonist, is a human raised by Seraphs, elemental spirits invisible to most people. Because Sorey can see Seraphs, he takes on the role of Shepherd, a Chosen One religious figure that historically works with Seraphs to beat back the evil Lord of Calamity every time a new one crops up. He collects a team of Seraphs along with a human whom he gifts with the ability to work with him, and together the crew "purifies" "malevolence" by fighting monsters. At the end, he purifies the Lord of Calamity, sacrificing his friends and/or himself and/or his time (it's unclear, both accidentally and deliberately) to do so, thus saving the world. There's a few more wrinkles than that, but generally it's a fairly simple story. The neatest thing about it, actually, is that Sorey's Seraph friends can turn into weapons for him when they fuse with him, which is a fun reference to Tales of Destiny, a game in which certain characters had magical talking swords that only a select few people could hear.

It gets ideologically...troubled, though, when it comes to the concept of malevolence. In the world of Zestiria, feeling negative emotions can turn living things (and somehow also some inanimate objects) into monsters called hellions that serve the Lord of Calamity, which is essentially the being with the most malevolence in the world. By fighting those monsters Sorey can usually return them to their normal selves, unless they're "too" malevolent or they like their malevolence somehow and refuse to turn back, and he's forced to kill them. Malevolence isn't necessarily generated by doing bad things, it's generated by the negative emotions themselves. Someone doing bad things who think they're doing them for the right reason won't turn. Someone doing good but resentful of the fact that there's a systemic shortcoming requiring that they fill this need will turn. This essentially cordons off a chunk of the range of human emotions as "the bad ones," thus generally denying them to all the characters we're supposed to care about.

Every time Sorey gets frustrated by an injustice or his inability to help someone as much as he'd like, he's cautioned to stop feeling that way, or he might turn and in so doing, force all of his friends to turn too. And while plenty of good people turn, they can't be reasoned with until they've been purified, and their emotions reset. They do a few interesting things with this, like when Sorey must maintain a sort of radical empathy toward the man who tortured and killed his grandfather in cold blood, while the man taunts him about having done it. But for the most part, it means that Sorey's character does not really develop throughout the game. He must stay friendly and approachable but stoic and incorruptible because the story's stakes if he falls are so high that the writers can't let that happen. The intent here is to frame hellions as one thing so that when Berseria features a protagonist who is becoming a hellion, the player's conception of the world is challenged and broadened. A more interesting story would be one in which Sorey does become a hellion and has to figure out a way to stop his friends from changing too, but that would lean too much into what Tales of Berseria does, so Sorey must stay a bastion of positive emotions for the sake of the twist, which only happened two actual real-world human years later, and not to these characters.

I think Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker is a useful comparison, here. In that game, feeling despair about the impending end of the world turns people into monsters, killing them instantly. It's a metaphor for the way inaction from the feeling of helplessness at the mind-boggling scale of the problem of global climate change keeps us from trying to do anything to fix the problem; the problem of "don't despair at the end of all things or you'll end sooner" is, purposely, a paradox because our current call to action is also a paradox. The problem's too big for any one of us but we can't let ourselves think that way or it'll only get worse. But the negative emotions in Zestiria aren't also unconstructive emotions. The central theme of Berseria is that angry people get shit done, which is demonstrably true in our world too! So it feels insincere when Zestiria frames anger as a problem that must be solved before any larger problems can be handled. Especially when one character, Rose, is an assassin whose mission is to kill people who use their power to ruin the world. She doesn't become a hellion because she doesn't kill out of anger, but the question then hangs over the entire game: why does that matter? If the evil Cardinal Forton was stabbed by someone who was mad at her, she wouldn't be any less stabbed. You can easily find lots of old forum posts from back when the game released of people trying to piece together why character A was a hellion but character B never changed, and in the end, the answer is it's arbitrary. The writers decided A was too angry or sad or something and that B hadn't reached that level.

It doesn't help that the translation is pretty shoddy in places. This was an issue with localizations of Japanese games at the time. I remember the discourse around the localization of Persona 5, a good game I like a lot with powerful themes and messages about real-world issues. The localization didn't really give its characters distinctive voices and had many sentences that were nonsensical or poorly structured, to the point that the localization of Persona 5 Royal had to go through with a scapel and rewrite a number of lines for clarity and voice. Zestiria has this problem but much worse. At the end of Persona 5, I knew what the characters were fighting against and why. The cutscene before the final boss of Tales of Zestiria is so hard to parse that I found myself questioning things I'd thought I knew about the basic parameters of the story and characters. This really does a disservice to the voice actors, who work valiantly to make their characters sound distinctive and individualized through a sludge of boring words. It's especially frustrating because for the first (and I believe only) time, they got some voice actors known for their internet presence for the game, and those guys had to work twice as hard to make their roles in a seminal JRPG series memorable.

I've written this much and barely touched on the gameplay yet. One of the most frustrating things about Tales of Zestiria is that its battle system is designed after the one in Tales of Graces, the game with my favorite battle system in the series, but it's tweaked in ways that make it borderline unplayable. In Graces, regular attacks that used the attack stat were called "A Artes" while special attacks that used the magic attack stat were called "B Artes." This game keeps that differentiation, calling them instead "martial artes" and "arcane artes" and adds a third category for spells, or "seraphic artes". The game attempts a rock-paper-scissors style tier system in which martial beats seraphic, seraphic beats arcane, and arcane beats martial. In practice, this means that each type of attack can't interrupt the attack type it's weak to. And then, instead of hitting them out of casting, arcane artes speed up the cast bar of any spell users they hit. This makes arcane artes (i.e., the cool moves you use in every Tales game because they're cool) a dangerous proposition because at any time their target might start casting and get off a powerful spell instantly as a result. It also makes the bad AI of CPU characters way more dangerous, as even if you know how to stop an enemy from casting, often your partner will run over to another and help it cast faster instead.

Also, no character type has access to all three types of artes. Humans can use martial and arcane, Seraphs can use martial and seraphic, and the powerful human-seraph fused forms can use arcane and seraphic. The fusing system means that there can only be as many Seraph characters on the field as Human, so a battle party is either two characters (Sorey and one Seraph) or four (Sorey, a partner, and two Seraphs). In the many parts of the story where Sorey is traveling only with his four Seraph friends, you're stuck with a battle party of two. If a Seraph dies in battle, they can be switched out on the fly and recover over about a minute while benched. If a human dies, they can revive by fusing with their partner Seraph. Fusing is the only way to revive human characters without items, and the only way human characters can get access to healing spells, which are used by spending gauge that's built up by comboing.

This means that players are disincentivized from playing as Seraphs, as if the Seraph dies, they'll have to switch to another character they're less familiar with until their character has been benched long enough to return. It also means that human characters at their weakest right after getting revived are in a dangerous position, as fused characters can only use arcane artes, which can make enemy spells cast faster, but they have to build gauge by hitting enemies in order to get enough to spend on a heal. The system is both overly complicated and makes it difficult to claw back out if things go south. It's the result of a lot of pretty good ideas stacked together until they're getting in each others' ways.

Another collection of pretty good ideas that get in each others' ways that is then stacked on top of all the rest is the equipment and skills system. Sort of like in Tales of Vesperia, equipment can have skills attached to them. Unlike in Vesperia, however, there's no way to permanently learn the skills attached to your equipment. Once you switch to a stronger weapon or armor piece, your character loses the skills attached to their previous gear. On top of this, each skill is placed on a 5x13 (I don't remember the exact proportions) tic-tac-toe style board. If you manage to place columns, rows, or stacks of skills on this board, you get better skills. But, again, those are wiped away if you replace your gear. If you find a sword with 60 more attack but it breaks the column that raises all your stats by 20, then all your other stats suffer if you equip it. If that same sword breaks the row that improves the character's attack growth rate for level-ups, then in twenty levels your character might have worse base attack than they would have if you'd kept the crappy sword that let you hold onto that growth rate. But then, on top of that, all characters' growth rates are decided by the stats of the equipment they're wearing when they leveled up. So maybe it's a better option to just wear the strongest gear and let that improve your growth rates that way? There's no way of knowing which one helps you more. And in the short-term, you're going to have a difficult time in battle if you're using weak equipment, even if it lights up your tic-tac-toe board like a christmas tree. Then, there's also an item fusing system where you can chunk items of the same type together to combine their equipped skills. But every time you fuse two of the same item with different skills in the same slot, the resulting skill is unavailable until you fight with that item equipped for a certain number of battles. If you fuse a piece of gear with a locked skill slot, that slot disappears, making the resulting piece of gear worse, rather than better. So to actually get good enough gear options, you have to fight wearing items you fused regardless of their stats or how they fit on your tic-tac-toe board (you can't even see where a locked skill will go on the board until you've unlocked it).

So you have to wear bad gear sometimes and some of that bad gear is going to affect your stat growths during levels, and suddenly this is three different decent ideas combined into a terrible chimera of a gear system. This makes equipment management for the six (sometimes seven) party members an agonizing process that often easily takes twenty minutes to slog through every time you get a new piece of equipment or visit a shop. There's even more complexity to this gear system than I've brought up here, but I'm exhausted just talking about it, so let's move on.

So we've got an equipment system that's overly complex and often contradictory in its modes of engagement, grafted onto a battle system that's engaging and occasionally interesting but unintentionally punishing and limiting. And all this is presented through the jankiest engine and worst art direction in the series. Zestiria is graphically ugly and runs like a nightmare, with a stuttering frame rate, a tiny draw distance, and bland, same-y environments. The developers had the idea of having battles take place on the main map, rather than placing them in separate flat arenas like in other Tales games, and while this makes sense in theory, in practice it means that the camera is actually hellish, often getting stuck on setpieces or other characters, or just...the idea of a slope. Dungeons are designed with this in mind, as nearly all of them are made up of thin corridors between large rooms where the enemies are placed, but enemies will follow the player character without ever giving up or tiring, often at a slightly faster pace than the player character. Enemies grouped together result in longer and more difficult encounters, where more enemies keep entering to replace the ones you dispatch.

If, for example, you're 50 hours into a game and trying to get to the next room of a dungeon without a fight, but all three enemies in a room catch up to you in a narrow hallway, then you're stuck fighting twenty enemies in groups of five at a time while the camera resolutely stares directly at the wall behind your character and at any time one or five of them might start casting a spell, which the partner character might speed up with an arcane art, and then the party's dead and you lost all the gameplay that got you to that point. While this is a worst case scenario that only happened to me a handful of times this playthrough, any combination of these issues plague nearly every enemy encounter in the game.

The six-hour DLC, which is really just a single 11-floor dungeon with fusing (and therefore player one's healing and reviving capabilities) removed, which provides no new story information, makes these issues even more apparent, and frustrating. A pathway up to the eighth floor is locked behind a hidden door on a wall on the sixth floor with three purple dots on it. The whole dungeon is tinged with a purple haze, so these dots are hard to make out, and it's made harder by the constant stream of enemies chasing you through the dungeon without stopping. In most of the game, if you fight an enemy, then all nearby enemies disappear when you finish the fight. In the DLC, though, they show right back up while you're recovering and keep chasing you, meaning you can get five to six encounters in a row with no chance to get your bearings, all while hunting for three small purple dots on a wall somewhere in a purple dungeon. It was clearly purposely designed this way to try to wring more time out of a miniscule DLC, and it worked, as I spent at least two of my six hours with that DLC just scouring the same three floors for that hidden door. That DLC was on release - and still is - ten whole dollars.

It's impossible not to have to grapple with the realization that Bandai-Namco forced this game to be bad. The game needed more development time that it did not get. The game needed more QA testing or, more likely, to actually respond to feedback received from testers. The game needed better localizers or, more likely, localizers with enough time to put the script through a few drafts before finalizing it. The game didn't need DLC, the DLC it got didn't need to be six hours long, and it definitely should never have been $10. The game itself should not be $60 now in the year of our lord 2023. And none of this is because Team Destiny said "let's make the game bad and expensive and frustrating." It's because someone higher up in the decision-making process said "I don't give a shit if the game is bad and expensive and frustrating." Tales of Xillia feels like it was made to be a benchmark of quality for the series. Tales of Zestiria proves that the developers were not being given the time or resources necessary to meet that benchmark. We'll see if we get another utter failure like Zestiria after Arise, or if they manage to maintain the new benchmark Arise has set. But knowing Bandai, I'm nervous about which way that's likely to fall.

Oh, the music's pretty good, though. Like six tracks in the game are really good and the rest is bad to fine, which is better than the vast majority of the series. Get Go Shiina to compose for more Tales games, please.

#tales of series #tales of zestiria

[rwac96]

Type:Prompt

Fandom:Blazblue, Tale of berseria

Character:Ragna the bloodedge, Velvet Crowe

Au:Crossover Au Crossover fuse original

Inspired by this post which lead the creation of this pic

Summary: a daily life in the Crowe family while the thier children eizen, Arthur, Ceila and Saya(add her there) help their parents with cook while Ragna and velvet enjoy this wonderful life together in peacefully time as both of them can’t believe that they allowed to have such happy after the nightmare that was thier life

(Tag madman since it came from his blog)

Theme:wholesome, family, Ragna and velvet got a different ending then canon.

(adorable pic, and anyways, this is based on the ask that came from @madmanwonder's blog)

There was a saying that not everyone gets a happy ending, while another states that one must earn a happy ending. In the case of Ragna the Bloodedge & Velvet Crowe, the latter very much applies to them. After the nightmare that was pretty much their lives, especially with the dangers they've faced; it seems like a dream that they would wake up from. The pair was blessed with four children; two boys and two girls.

As Ragna, who has taken up his beloved's last name since their marriage, chopped up the onions; he takes notice of a tiny hand grabbing hold of one of the carrots. His red & green eyes turn to Eizen, who looks like a small version of him but sports gold eyes and black hair. The silver-haired man couldn't but smile, hearing the young boy offering to assist his parents in cooking. Tiny footsteps of his other children kicked up; moving his heterochromatic eyes to his younger son, Arthur, climbing up one of the stools.

"Mommy! Daddy!" A young, squeaky, and feminine voice spoke up. "Can I help with mixing?"

"Sure thing, Saya," Velvet, his wife, spoke up. "Just don't overdo it."

Saya Crowe, is a little girl who looks like a female version of her father, even sporting the spikiness of hair at the top and the heterochromatic eyes. Climbing up top, she grabs a spoon and proceeds to stir the bowl with eagerness. Though, she gets some of the mixtures on her. Meanwhile, her sister, Celica, walks by to join in on watching her parents cook. She resembles her mother but has her father's blondish-white hair and heterochromia. But, unlike Saya, her left eye was piercing blue. She holds a glass of juice, taking a sip as she approached one of the available stools.

"Saya, Eizen," Ragna calls out to his children assisting in cooking. "Careful, okay?"

"Yes, Daddy," the two say in sync, as Saya continues mixing while her brother holds onto the carrot; listening to his father's instructions.

It seemed impossible for the infamous Grim Reaper and the Lord of Calamity, but together, the pair earned their happy ending. They had each other, and their four wonderful children.

#answer #answered #answer posting #answer prompt #crossover #crossover au #crossover shipping #crossover ship #domestic au #parents au #blazblue #tales of series #tales of berseria #ragna the bloodedge #velvet crowe #calamitous bloodedge (ragna the bloodedge x velvet crowe) #eizen crowe #arthur crowe #celica crowe #saya crowe

[creativeroleplay-ads]

Hi there! You can call me Sabella! I’m in my 30’s and I’ve been RPing since I was a teenager. I’m open to all types, and in regards to length, I do my best to match my partner. I will not RP with anyone under the age of 21, and I prefer to write in third person, past tense. NSFW themes are fine, but please don’t make them the focus.

I RP both fandoms and fandomless. I do not RP celebrities, though. In fandoms, I ask that we double if you want OCxCanon, where I play a canon for you and you play a canon for me as well. On that same note, I am also open to playing multiple characters! Romance is not a requirement, but it is also welcome. DISCLAIMER: Any underage characters in an RP featuring NSFW themes will be aged to at least 18.

Fandoms I RP:

Marvel

Supernatural

Devil May Cry

Teen Titans (The only DC I know well enough)

Several 90’s and 2000’s anime (Ask me about an anime and I’ll let you know if I know it!)

Tales Of games (Berseria, Vesperia, Symphonia)

Resident Evil (Games or Movies)

Fandomless ideas:

High fantasy is my favorite

Shoot me some ideas! I’ll let you know if it interests me.

I am not a huge fan of slice of life, but I can be persuaded with the right story!

If you decide to message me, please let me know which idea you’re interested in and which characters if it’s from a fandom! You can also like this post and I will message you! Limits, story, and such can be discussed. I do have some plot ideas, but there are too many to list here. I hope to hear from you!

You can also add me on Discord, my preferred platform: sabelthewitch

#rp finder #submission #find roleplay #roleplay #literate rp #discord roleplay #fandom roleplay #18+ roleplay #roleplay finder #discord rp #oc roleplay #marvel roleplay #teen titans roleplay #supernatural roleplay #resident evil roleplay #devil may cry roleplay #oc x oc rp #oc X canon rp #high fantasy rp

[findroleplay]

Hi there! You can call me Sabella! I’m in my 30’s and I’ve been RPing since I was a teenager. I’m open to all types, and in regards to length, I do my best to match my partner. I will not RP with anyone under the age of 21, and I prefer to write in third person, past tense. NSFW themes are fine, but please don’t make them the focus.

I RP both fandoms and fandomless. I do not RP celebrities, though. In fandoms, I ask that we double if you want OCxCanon, where I play a canon for you and you play a canon for me as well. On that same note, I am also open to playing multiple characters! Romance is not a requirement, but it is also welcome. DISCLAIMER: Any underage characters in an RP featuring NSFW themes will be aged to at least 18.

Fandoms I RP:

- Marvel

- Supernatural

- Devil May Cry

- Teen Titans (The only DC I know well enough)

- Several 90’s and 2000’s anime (Ask me about an anime and I’ll let you know if I know it!)

- Tales Of games (Berseria, Vesperia, Symphonia)

- Resident Evil (Games or Movies)

Fandomless ideas:

- High fantasy is my favorite

- Shoot me some ideas! I’ll let you know if it interests me.

- I am not a huge fan of slice of life, but I can be persuaded with the right story!

If you decide to message me, please let me know which idea you’re interested in and which characters if it’s from a fandom! You can also like this post and I will message you! Limits, story, and such can be discussed. I do have some plot ideas, but there are too many to list here. I hope to hear from you!

You can also add me on Discord, my preferred platform: sabelthewitch

-

#roleplay #rp #oc rp #original rp #fandomless rp #Marvel rp #Supernatural rp #Devil May Cry rp #Teen Titans rp #anime rp #Tales Of games rp #Vesperia rp #Symphonia rp #Resident Evil rp

[synamartia]

❖ Call me Syn, Syna, or Raina, or whatever comes to mind when you think of me~ ( be nice, there ain't none of that negativity here ! ) I'll also respond to Smut Santa / Saint Dickolaus! 😉

❖ I'm 29, about to be 30. I'm afab and use female pronouns. Happy mama of 2 beautiful babes~ They come first before anything else, so if I don't get back to you in a timely manner or like... at all... that's why. Or maybe I just don't like you. ( nahhh that's not it ... ? )

❖ Previously went by Taqsyq, but after YEARS of being out of the writing game and just off of tumblr in general, I've decided to start over fresh. I started Taqsyq when I was like sixteen or seventeen, still in my nerdy emo girl phase fuck I still am, and there is a shit ton of things that I just wanna run away from when it comes to that blog/username, including some very bad memories that I'm not going to discuss publicly. Plus, again: seventeen, nerdy emo girl phase. Everything I wrote on that blog was the highest form of OOC cringe like you just saw a stripper accidentally slam her hoo-ha on a pole bullshit for me. The only reason I'm not deleting it is because I'm a memory hoarder and despite all the bad, I want to keep it for all the good that happened there as well. Besides, it's the account that I ran imagine-reborn (an imagines blog for Katekyo Hitman Reborn) under and I figured, if nothing else, I could get a few laughs and maybe even learn a thing or two from how god-awful teenage me was at writing.

❖ My rules are simple. Be kind to all: this is a safe zone for EVERYONE. I would like to keep it that way. I don't have a list for what I will and will not write (yet), so all I can tell you is: ask. My inbox is always open. If I don't feel comfortable writing something, I'll let you know!

❖ Minors: as of right now, I don't think I'll be posting anything that is safe for your consumption, so I would very much appreciate it if you did not interact. If you are not a minor and do not have an age indicator, this rule applies to you as well. I check my follower list daily and I WILL block anyone that does not adhere to this rule.

❖ Requests: Closed ( not for long. I promise ;D )

❖ Currently, I only write for Hazbin Hotel. But I'm open for discussion on anything else on my list down below! I'm always looking for something new to watch/read, so if you have any recommendations, fire away!

❖ Series ; Current Hyperfixation: Hazbin Hotel

Anime : Naruto ; InuYasha ; Death Note ; Bleach ; Hellsing ; Soul Eater ; Fruits Basket ; D.Gray-Man [ Original / Hallow ] ; Kuroshitsuji ; Katekyo Hitman Reborn ; Ao No Exorcist ; Yu Yu Hakusho ; Full Metal Alchemist ; One Piece* ; Shingeki No Kyojin ; Kimetsu No Yaiba ; Jujutsu Kaisen**

* Still trying to catch up. This is a massive anime, and I've spent the better half of this past year trying to watch it all. I've made it to the Raid on Onigashima, the part where Yamato got his bracelets removed. Love him, by the way! <3

** Nanaminnnn~! I am not okay about anything with this man. <3

Manga / Manhwa : Everything mentioned above ; Noblesse ; Bloody Cross ; Area D

TV : Hazbin Hotel ; Game Of Thrones ; Vikings ; Avatar: The Last Airbender ; The Legend Of Korra ; Supernatural

Books : A Song Of Ice & Fire ; Twilight Saga why did teenage me think it was the greatest series ever shoot me now fucking christ

Video Games : Final Fantasy Series + Individual Prequels, Sequels, Movies, Remakes* [ 7 / 9 / 10 / 13 / 15** ] ; Tales Of Series [ Legendia / Zestiria / Berseria / Arise ] ; Devil May Cry Series ; Kingdom Hearts Series*** ; Star Ocean Series [ Till The End Of Time / The Divine Force ] ; The Legend Of Zelda [ A Link To The Past ] ; Sonic Series ; Spyro Series ; Shining Force Series [ 1 / 2 ] ; Lufia Series [ Fortress Of Doom / Rise Of The Sinistrals ] ; Diablo 3 ; Lunar [ Silver Star Story Complete ] ; Infinite Undiscovery ; to be updated as I remember / play.

* So far, I've only played the first installment of Final Fantasy 7 Remake because I currently do not own a PS5, but I'm working on it. The Compilation of Final Fantasy 7 is my absolute favorite series of all time. I could watch Advent Children ( original and complete ) on repeat, and I've played the original release so many times that I don't even need a guide to get a 100% on a brand new save ( Obsessed much? Yup ). I'm a completionist at heart, and this game is amazing and it provides a massive sense of nostalgia for me.

** SLIGHT SPOILER (maybe? You've been warned) Another amazing installment in the Final Fantasy series, this game is so well written in my opinion. It stays away from the bigger cliches you see in most RPGs ( eg : the guy gets the girl, friendship is the key to saving the world, etc. ), the characters are so individually complex, the villain technically wins and reminds you how easy it would be for you to become the same type of monster. Plus badass women that fix your car, lights up entire cities, wakes up the fucking Gods to fight on your side, takes the entire mercenary army they led and defects to your side? IN HEELS? YES PLEASE. It has one of the best enemy turned ally characters in the FF series; I'm just disappointed we didn't get to see much of Aranea after everything in Tenebrae. Also Ardyn has some serious daddy vibes, and I would literally give my left tit just to lick Aranea's boot ( oh, the things I would do to these two, phew~ ).

*** Let's be real here. The Kingdom Hearts Series makes zero sense if you didn't play all of them and you didn't pay attention to each and every detail, and I did neither. I played 2 and 3 when they originally came out, but in my defense: it doesn't look like a series that follows a singular story, something that I did not know at the time, and usually the series I play have an entirely different story per installment ( eg : Final Fantasy and Tales Of ). I tried to piece together the story from online synopses and second hand game play ( I watched someone else play ), and it just didn't work out. So, suffice to say, my knowledge of Kingdom Hearts goes about as far as basic facts regarding Organization XIII because they were my whole reason for trying the games in the first place. I'm still open to discussion about it, though! Just keep in mind my side will be very limited. Sorry!

To Be Read / Watched / Played : Helluva Boss ; Phantasy Star Series ; Final Fantasy Series [ 1-6 / 8 / 11-12 / 14 / 16 ] ; Diablo 4 ; Black Clover ; Hell's Paradise ; Fairy Tale ; The Seven Deadly Sins ; My Hero Academia

❖ Look out below for a face reveal!

Dividers used © anitalenia

#about me #synamartia #syn speaks

[carmot]

°•▪︎▎▏「 𝓹𝓲𝓷𝓷𝓮𝓭 」

[CARRD] | | [COMMISSION CARRD] | | [ART BLOG] | | [KOFI]

« Fafnir ⋮ He/Him ⋮ 29 ⋮ ESTP ⋮ Virgo »

»About Me Hey there! You guys can call me Fafnir or Faf. Either works for me. I am autistic, have & ADHD & BPD. All formally diagnosed so you may see me talking about it every so often. I'm also a huge reptile enthusiast & own a lovely little ball python by the name of Daly. You may see me post pics of him from time to time & talk about him. If you aren't good with reptiles or are afraid of snakes, I wouldn't suggest my blog.

I draw & my interests vary from long running hyperfixations like Monster Hunter & (unfortunately) MTG to games like Granblue Fantasy, Final Fantasy (Tactics, IX, XII, XIV), Tales of (Phantasia, Symphonia, Zestiria, Berseria, Abyss), Genshin Impact & Punishing Grey Raven. I can & will get into extended meta discussions about any of these topics & their characters. Especially the ones listed in my carrd.

I tag some characters on posts & aesthetics. I will talk about my ships with my OCs. I am carefree & embrace being cringe & SO SHOULD YOU!

My Askbox is ALWAYS open & so are my DMs. I encourage everyone to send silly shit even if it's not on topic. If you wanna hop on anon & tell me about your day, I'm all ears.

On top of this I do tarot readings from time to time & will do them for others if requested. I accept tips with my kofi.

I can be fairly risque at times & I will remove anyone who I think is a minor from my blog. No hate, just I don't want to have to police myself in my space nor do I want to introduce that content to minors.

»Character Brainrot Tezzeret (MTG) Alhaitham (GI) Roland (PGR) Belial (GBF) Lucilius (GBF)

»OCs Gerel Blossi Cleite Per'yah Arlain Per'yah Amara Blossi Moira

»Other SocMed Twitter: @Fafnyrd Discord: On Request

#pinned post #about #About damn time I make one of these since like Tumblr's trying to hide links in bios #Its so weird styling this for Tumblr when I do it so differently on Twitter & Mastodon #What happened to good old fashion rules pages smh

[genshingorlsrevengeance]

(Tales of Berseria) Velvet, Eleanor, and Magilou first kiss HC's

Velvet's first kiss is rough, but passionate.

She grabs her S/O's face forcefully before crashing her lips onto them, and just as quickly pulls away.

There's a faint flush of pink on her cheeks, but she distracts that sight with her smirk.

(Velvet) "What? Don't tell me that caught you off guard."

Her teasing tone carries into a very quiet chuckle, but it vanishes once others get into sight.

(Laphicet) "...Velvet? Why does S/O look surprised?"

(Velvet) "Don't worry about it, Phi."

(Eizen) "It's best not to disturb the love birds, boy-"

(Velvet) "Call us that again, and I will eat you."

Eleanor's first kiss is shy, but proper.

She first psyches herself up for it before gently puckering her lips and gives a peck on their cheek.

Eleanor immediately turns away with her face aflame in embarassment.

(Eleanor) "...W-Well, don't just stare!"

S/O gives her a return kiss which makes her frown quickly vanish and her mind becomes at ease.

...At least until she heard a noise behind them.

(Rokurou) "Whoops, sorry. Didn't mean to interrupt."

(Eleanor) "G-GET OUT!"

Magilou's first kiss is mischevious, shameless, and most of all, completely catching S/O off guard.

She makes sure it's front of the entire group for the extra embarassment for S/O.

(Magilou) "Oh, S/O my love, please take me away from these vagabonds!"

She goes in fort another kiss, much to the dismay of everyone involved.

Eleanor looked grossed out and slightly jealous, Velvet's face remained deadpan as her hand quickly covered Laphicet's eyes, Eizen and Rokurou just looked unimpressed and sorry for S/O.

(Laphicet) "Um, what's-"

(Velvet) "Just keep your eyes forward."

(Eleanor) "Ugh! There is a time and place, you two!"

(Rokorou) "Reeeaaally doubt that S/O's a willing participant to PDA."

(Eizen) "Well, a happy wife is a happy life, or so I'm told..."

#tales of berseria x reader #tales of berseria imagines #tales of berseria headcanons #velvet crowe x reader #eleanor hume x reader #magilou mayvin x reader #velvet crowe #eleanor hume #magilou mayvin #rokurou rangetsu #eizen (tob) #laphicet

[mewnia]

Who's your favorite and least favorite characters from every tales of game you played

Oh heck, you gonna make me choose? Okay, here it goes--

Symphonia

Fav: it's a tie between Colette and Emil! As for who I like to draw more, that's definitely Colette :P

Least Fav: Yuan. I dunno man, I just don't click with him. I sincerely wish I could love him as much as so many fans do!

Abyss

Fav: call me basic but I love Luke so much

Least Fav: Mohs LOL I don't dislike anyone in the main cast! One of the more solid groups, to me. Mohs can die tho (and did)

Vesperia

Fav: Judith! Don't get me wrong, I love Flynn. But they make him so boring in the definitive version, it's very hard to defend his character there.

Least Fav: Zagi.

Graces

Fav: Sophie!

Least Fav: ngl, it's been a hot minute since I've played Tales of Graces, and a lot of my memories of it are mucked up due to dealing with a toxic relationship at the time. Atm I'd say mix between Cheria and Malik? But I plan to do a new play through of that game some day soon to get a better, fresher feel, I promise. Carry this opinion with a grain of salt.

Xillia

Fav: tie between Milla and Gaius! They're both so awesome, and I LOVE drawing Milla when I get the chance! Gaius especially gets up there after playing Xillia 2.

Least Fav: Presa.

Zestiria

Fav: I LOVE LAILAH I love her so much. But call me basic again, cuz I also really like Sorey and how they characterize him. He's still a basic main character, but there's this small twist to him, y'know?

Least Fav: I had to rewrite this because I legitimately forgot Lunarre existed. Haha! I feel like they just kept him in because they liked his design so much.

Berseria

Fav: why try and put a bunch of bad bitches against each other?

Least Fav: I do, however, have complicated feelings about Kamoana. The role she plays is a good concept, but. That's a child. Put some clothes on her. (also this is a personal thing, but I really can't handle her English voice actor's performance)

Arise

Fav: tie between Law and Shionne!

Least Fav: Vholran.

#long post! #I like doing these! #it's very hard to not go into a tangent tho #surprise that most of the characters I don't like are the villains haha #the small ones especially are just. #ugh. #anyway Arise is very short #I feel like they're very obvious answers but I'm always happy to expand on why! #Tales-of-Sunday #anon #mewnia murps

[mecha-omega]

This is the second Tales of Game I’ve finished (The other was Berseria 😬). Holy shit what a game, I never thought I would’ve fell in love with two games in the month of Jan so much.

For me the strongest connecting tissue of this game is 100% the characters. Yuri, Estelle, Raven, Judy, the supporting character to the villains make this games story so much better to the point I would just call it peak fiction. If I were to put the game’s story into words it would be “If a game took inspiration from old 2000s Fantasy Anime OVAs”, that’s the only way I can describe it. It’s not bad mind you, it can be predictable at times but the cast makes the story so enjoyable to the point you just want to see how these characters interact with each other. Usually from what I can tell, the cast if really good can glue a game together and Tales of games always (mostly) nail it.

Gameplay wise, so much fun. I don’t have the willpower to experiment to much with the combat but I had fun with it overall. Finding how certain attacks can land with each other is really cool. Just getting them in a stun locked position and bursting just to get them in a worst position and finishing it off with a Burst or a powerful finishing Arte feels AMAZING! Funnily enough most Tales of games are multiplayer with 4 player local co-op, the camera moves back to put everyone in the frame so they know where they are at all times. Only player 1 controls the character movement in the over-world.

For the presentation, I love how the character models look with the cell shaded like ((?) Im not to sure what to call it Ngl) look to them & with the environment looking pretty nice makes the game look really solid considering recent games going for a more realistic look which just makes the game age poorly.

Ima be real, just listen to the music especially the battle themes. That’s all I gotta say they are extraordinarily amazing to listen to.

I don’t have to much to fully say altho I would like to shout out side material: “Tales of Vesperia: The First Strike” & “Tales of Vesperia: The Empty Mask”. REALLY GOOD SIDE MATERIAL IF YOU WANT MORE OF IT (for The Empty Mask I highly suggest you get to part 3 of the game to read it). And for the ranking for each ToV media: “The First Strike” 7.5 or 8/10, “The Empty Mask” 8.5/10, and finally “Tales of Vesperia” 10/10.

If you want to play ToV I suggest getting it on either PC, PS4, Xbox, or Switch since they run normally unlike the ToS “remaster”. It has extra content on the PS3 version that didn’t come out to the west including some extra stuff. Highly recommend this game if you want to get into the Tales of Series.

#tales of vesperia #nintendo #microsoft #xbox #playstation

[4ragon]

A weird thought I just had, and this is very specific to tales games

But the way that the worlds are in the tales games has changed so much since the early days. And not all of it is for the worst! Or even necessarily bad, sometimes it's just different. But walking around Symphonia vs Arise feels so different. Like yes on the one hand it's all one sprawling interconnected map, and yes having a field vs random levels and towns certainly has its downsides, but at the same time, there was something kind of charming about it.

Plus all the newer games are built with automatic fast travel, you don't get to EARN fast travel. In Symphonia you got Noishe, and then the boats, and then the rheiards or however it's spelled. In Abyss you get a plane eventually. In Arise you get...checkpoints you can warp to. And it's very convenient for finding sidequests but still. Not exactly exciting, is it.

The worlds feel both bigger and smaller, you know? Because now that the games are designed where you are actually traveling everywhere, they can no longer span entire worlds. Every inch of land mass is accounted for so you never get the option to just hop in a skyship and circumnavigate the globe. The maps themselves are bigger, but the world is smaller.

And that's not necessarily bad! It felt weird that there were only like a handful of cities in the entirety of Terca Lumereis or Sylverant or shit uh what was Destiny's world called? Whatever, there were huge swaths of land that were just empty, devoid of life, space to be traversed, a flat plain. It's actually kind of like the post I just reblogged about open worlds being largely empty, but for the opposite reasons. Traveling through on foot was boring, a means to an end up until you found the next level or the world opened up.

I don't know, I do enjoy both versions, I won't lie. They both have their strengths. I know my love of the old tales design can't be separated from my nostalgia. And fast travel in Berseria and Arise and Zestiria work fine for what they are. The design philosophy allows them to make the world feel more alive, more beautiful and varied. But part of me wonders if they could combine these design philosophies, you know? Make fast travel fun and exploratory. Bring back exploring the world from the skies.

#tales of #sorry i have so many tales essays in me at all times #quick someone ask me for more granular opinions on tales games i know all of them except the crossover stuff