Last one for tonight! Tomorrow we finish out the 50's, so we will be about halfway done, whoooo~

52. Tales of Legendia (PlayStation 2)
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Tales of Legendia is about Shirley and Senel as they end up on a giant ship and Senel has to rescue her because she holds some kind of special powers or position in society, although what exactly it is is not known at first. Senel teams up with some others with similar goals as he attempts to get her back from those who would use her.

This game is a bit different from most Tales games of the time, but it still had it's similarities. X button attacks, O uses arts. Attacking restores the TP needed to use arts. Pressing a directional button with O uses different arts. In this game there will be some sort of... gel bubbles in certain paths, protecting chests usually. Entering a fight while inside one of these will trigger a stronger than usual monster. The game also has block puzzles to do in most dungeons. There are 8 playable characters with 4 used in battle at a time.


General impressions:
I was a bit nervous to try this one because it's the black sheep of the Tales family. Sure enough, it wasn't as good as the others I had played. But it was still quite good, especially later on when things start to pick up more. The characters were interesting and the story was excellent. The gameplay is alright but certainly the worst from the series. But despite its faults, it kept getting better and I would definitely play it again.

Story:
The story is the best part of the game. It's hard to go in to much detail without spoilers, but it really had me interested when things started to pick up. I liked learning about the different types of people and how the world got to where it was. I also really like the deconstruction that this game used. The main character views his previous lover as perfect and she's shown as such in some flashbacks, but as time goes on you learn that he was seeing her through rose-coloured glasses (SPOILER)and she was actually kind of a jerk. She did do some good things but she wasn't the perfect maiden we were led to think she was. I really liked the story, although it did feel a bit slowly paced at times.


Gameplay:
One of the weak points. It isn't as fun as the rest of the series, the 2D battle screen gets a bit confusing and difficult, and the block puzzles were awful later on. The AI is also a bit stupid and your main healer likes to not heal until the last possible second, which often leads to dead characters. Cooking was much less exciting. But other than that it was fine.


World:
The world actually has some very interesting locations that I had a lot of fun exploring. The world felt very large and vast and there were some very pretty places. The best thing about it though was the teleport things they had everywhere to minimize back tracking. It was an excellent feature and took away the potential for something tedious.


Characters:
While this game by no means has my favourite characters in video games, they are overall well written and interesting. A lot of them felt and acted like real people. It was actually hard for me to choose favourites because they don't stand out much, but their interactions and scenes are well written and I like the cast more as an ensemble than as individuals.

Favourite character: Norma OtFQadR.jpg
Honourable mention: Shirley SGjV5kO.jpg


Norma was just a big silly goofball and some of her stuff made me laugh out loud. She just brought a lightheartedness, and she was silly and goofy and fun. She was also pretty positive and picked herself back up when she was down. Shirley is generally hated and I can see why in some instances. Her voice is annoying and she gets kidnapped a bajillion times. But she's a heroic and selfless character deep down and she has some of the most interesting development and scenes, especially with her changy parts.

Overall this is a weak entry for the Tales series, but still a really good game overall. Good characters, great story, so-so gameplay. Good history to it as well. A lot of fun and I will definitely play it again.