これでよかったんだろう？ マリアン…
Jun. 12th, 2013 00:19![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mokasuiFirst post might as well be about one of my favourite games ever: the Tales of Destiny remake for PS2, which I decided to replay... again. The whole reason I made this account was to blab about games I'm playing, so let's get straight to that. This is really long since this is my comments from over half the game... Probably everything in this is going to end up long though. I don't care; I'm doing this for myself anyway.
Spoilers through Oberon Secret Factory and that nice cave after it.
I did have two in-progress playthroughs I could have continued (one Solo Play Lion Side on Chaos about to fight Batista, and then my Stan Side Evil playthrough which is somewhere in Shusaia now) but I wanted to replay the whooole game. I also decided to do this new playthrough on Hard because I figured by now Normal is probably too easy for me, but I'm not doing this for the challenge (that's what those other two are for) -- I'm doing it to reexperience the game.
There are a few dungeons in this game that I just love. The pirate attack, with the awesome music that plays while you're on the ship, is something I see as a reminder that those dungeons (not to mention the first real boss) are close. Then there's Moreau Castle, which is awesome because it's the first dungeon with any semblance of puzzles. It also has awesome music and JOHNNY SHIDEN. I actually had a really hard time beating Batista when you fight him here. I think I only had two Life Bottles left by the time I won, and if I recall correctly only I was alive at the end... I had just revived Stan in hopes of getting him some EXP and ran up to smack Batista with Gessenkou or something since he only had like 50 HP left, but he didn't stagger and killed Stan as he died. Oops.
And then I forgot to buy Life Bottles before getting onto the ship. Ugh. At least the Kraken was ridiculously easy. I remember having some trouble with him on other playthroughs, but I pretty much just sat there on the opposite side of him from my AI bros and chopped him up. Next dungeon after that is another awesome one: Toukei Castle. Because Tales of Destiny knew we needed more awesome music. Y'know, to go with our awesome music. If I remember right, most things in this dungeon were weak to Dark and I got Demon's Lance at some point during. Spam time. I also turned Stan into a second Lion for this dungeon because why not.
... also probably would have been fine even if I wasn't able to buy more Life Bottles in this dungeon. Tiberius was surprisingly easy, and again, he's a boss I tend to have troubles with.
And then there is the amazing half way point dungeon. Okay, maybe it's not inherently any more amazing than Moreau Castle or Toukei Castle, but it's got bitching music and seems like it was designed to make sure everyone Lion'd it up since it's their last chance. I ended up just equipping a bunch of Tension and Critical skills (I also had one, maybe two Chasers) to his Swordian Device and it was great. Majin Rengokusatsu at least every other battle, not to mention spitting out Houryuu Zankouken on everything weak to it and getting like infinite CC from spamming Gessenkou/Gessenkohou otherwise.
Even the boss is really weak to him. And yeah, he uses wind and that stupid dragon likes to spit out wind attacks every five seconds, but seriously? Even in my first playthrough that wasn't much of an issue. I just learned to doublejump over it. This time I didn't even bother with that since I had a Flash Material, which doesn't require me to relearn the timing for jumping over the wind slice and also helps me with spells I can't easily avoid.
So that was glorious, but then it was time for everything to become depressing since that's just how this game works.
And by depressing I don't mean the story, I mean dying in the Oberon Factory just a few steps away from the save point after doing the whole first room (not running from a single fight). Stupid tiny robots. I always wonder if I could handle these fights better if I still had Lion, but eh. I couldn't in my other two Stan Side playthroughs, and this time I decided not to equip his Narikiri doll even though I had it. I wanted to not have him in my party again until after THE CAVES because immersion.
Anyway, I actually did mean the story when I said depressing. I don't think there's much in this story that I was able to take very seriously besides this... playing the original first didn't help since the original was just plain silly about everything except for this (although I do really appreciate how even the original was all about getting a gloomy atmosphere literally everywhere after shit goes down -- even just the mix of Despair and Crooked Sight playing in towns and the world map instead of the typical bouncy happy town themes and the heroic world map theme was enough to give me a seriously strong sense of that).
wait no no story yet. Lion, jeez. I had such a hard time beating him. I think the last time I fought him I was playing as Rutee (in my Evil playthrough). This time I was Chelsea though, and it was bad, man. Especially that part of the battle where he'll use Majin Rengokusatsu every fucking time he uses Houryuu Zankouken.
My only saving grace with this fight was that Chelsea's Hien staggered him 80% of the time when he was in the air from his own attacks (like Kuushuuken, which he loves to spam). Too bad he never staggered during all the times he used Gessenkou, and Houryuu Zankouken caused a few game overs by catching me at its highest point when I was just a bit too close. You know how it is. Houryuu Zankouken? Time for Majin Rengokusatsu. Nobody survives because everyone's too close.
I did have a lot of fun dodging a lot of his stuff (and just generally getting away from him, his attention off of me) with Gekka. Actually used it to dodge Demon's Lance a lot, though I could have just Flashed him. If you know what I mean. I actually did need Gekka, though. The attempt where I actually won included this horrendous moment where he used Ground Dasher, so I used Gekka to get in the air... and when that ended he had cast it again. Wouldn't have had enough CC to Flash through two of those.
But yeah. Story. I feel like ToDR's version of the whole Lion thing is almost excessively sentimentalized. Like, it feels really anime how he's all "okay, maybe we can do this together after all even though i was fearful and desperate enough to do all this crap in the first place. btw Rutee i'm gonna heroic sacrifice so i guess now's a good time to tell you i'm your bro." That's just kind of silly. I also always hated the whole contrived elevator thing and would have preferred he took his determination and desperation to the absolute limits and died fighting trying to protect her.
Then again, if that had happened I'd be deprived of the last moment I'm so fond of. But before I get to that. I also thought the way he revealed his relation to Rutee was way more appropriate and not stupid than the way he does in the remake.
I get that he was actually less of a complete asshole in the remake and more of a tsundere which is nice, but ugh. I really hate the way it was done in the remake. It was kind of cool in the original, since his intentions are more ambiguous and it's not nearly as random. He seems to be saying it to make her lose her resolve before the fight (and also leads to the fucking awesome line where he says he'll kill anyone, even family, to save Marian) but you could also see it as the selfishness of not being the only one of the two that knows. But there's a lot of bitterness coming from him when she questions his motives and he tells her that she was abandoned, and it all just comes out way more naturally in the original. One of the few things I wish hadn't changed, right here.
So that last moment. It gets me every fucking time. The part where the elevator is long gone so Lion sits down, and apologizes to Chaltier for kinda dragging him into this. And then Chal is just totally cool with it, "yo, i wanna be with bocchan no matter what." Chal is such a bro. I don't think it's even the fact that Lion is dying that gets to me, or the fact of what his motivations for betraying everyone were, but actually that Chal is totally okay with being there at the very end and in fact probably wouldn't have it any other way. My eyes watered up this time and I've seen this scene just so many times... it shouldn't affect me anymore.
Spoilers through Oberon Secret Factory and that nice cave after it.
I did have two in-progress playthroughs I could have continued (one Solo Play Lion Side on Chaos about to fight Batista, and then my Stan Side Evil playthrough which is somewhere in Shusaia now) but I wanted to replay the whooole game. I also decided to do this new playthrough on Hard because I figured by now Normal is probably too easy for me, but I'm not doing this for the challenge (that's what those other two are for) -- I'm doing it to reexperience the game.
There are a few dungeons in this game that I just love. The pirate attack, with the awesome music that plays while you're on the ship, is something I see as a reminder that those dungeons (not to mention the first real boss) are close. Then there's Moreau Castle, which is awesome because it's the first dungeon with any semblance of puzzles. It also has awesome music and JOHNNY SHIDEN. I actually had a really hard time beating Batista when you fight him here. I think I only had two Life Bottles left by the time I won, and if I recall correctly only I was alive at the end... I had just revived Stan in hopes of getting him some EXP and ran up to smack Batista with Gessenkou or something since he only had like 50 HP left, but he didn't stagger and killed Stan as he died. Oops.
And then I forgot to buy Life Bottles before getting onto the ship. Ugh. At least the Kraken was ridiculously easy. I remember having some trouble with him on other playthroughs, but I pretty much just sat there on the opposite side of him from my AI bros and chopped him up. Next dungeon after that is another awesome one: Toukei Castle. Because Tales of Destiny knew we needed more awesome music. Y'know, to go with our awesome music. If I remember right, most things in this dungeon were weak to Dark and I got Demon's Lance at some point during. Spam time. I also turned Stan into a second Lion for this dungeon because why not.
... also probably would have been fine even if I wasn't able to buy more Life Bottles in this dungeon. Tiberius was surprisingly easy, and again, he's a boss I tend to have troubles with.
And then there is the amazing half way point dungeon. Okay, maybe it's not inherently any more amazing than Moreau Castle or Toukei Castle, but it's got bitching music and seems like it was designed to make sure everyone Lion'd it up since it's their last chance. I ended up just equipping a bunch of Tension and Critical skills (I also had one, maybe two Chasers) to his Swordian Device and it was great. Majin Rengokusatsu at least every other battle, not to mention spitting out Houryuu Zankouken on everything weak to it and getting like infinite CC from spamming Gessenkou/Gessenkohou otherwise.
Even the boss is really weak to him. And yeah, he uses wind and that stupid dragon likes to spit out wind attacks every five seconds, but seriously? Even in my first playthrough that wasn't much of an issue. I just learned to doublejump over it. This time I didn't even bother with that since I had a Flash Material, which doesn't require me to relearn the timing for jumping over the wind slice and also helps me with spells I can't easily avoid.
So that was glorious, but then it was time for everything to become depressing since that's just how this game works.
And by depressing I don't mean the story, I mean dying in the Oberon Factory just a few steps away from the save point after doing the whole first room (not running from a single fight). Stupid tiny robots. I always wonder if I could handle these fights better if I still had Lion, but eh. I couldn't in my other two Stan Side playthroughs, and this time I decided not to equip his Narikiri doll even though I had it. I wanted to not have him in my party again until after THE CAVES because immersion.
Anyway, I actually did mean the story when I said depressing. I don't think there's much in this story that I was able to take very seriously besides this... playing the original first didn't help since the original was just plain silly about everything except for this (although I do really appreciate how even the original was all about getting a gloomy atmosphere literally everywhere after shit goes down -- even just the mix of Despair and Crooked Sight playing in towns and the world map instead of the typical bouncy happy town themes and the heroic world map theme was enough to give me a seriously strong sense of that).
wait no no story yet. Lion, jeez. I had such a hard time beating him. I think the last time I fought him I was playing as Rutee (in my Evil playthrough). This time I was Chelsea though, and it was bad, man. Especially that part of the battle where he'll use Majin Rengokusatsu every fucking time he uses Houryuu Zankouken.
My only saving grace with this fight was that Chelsea's Hien staggered him 80% of the time when he was in the air from his own attacks (like Kuushuuken, which he loves to spam). Too bad he never staggered during all the times he used Gessenkou, and Houryuu Zankouken caused a few game overs by catching me at its highest point when I was just a bit too close. You know how it is. Houryuu Zankouken? Time for Majin Rengokusatsu. Nobody survives because everyone's too close.
I did have a lot of fun dodging a lot of his stuff (and just generally getting away from him, his attention off of me) with Gekka. Actually used it to dodge Demon's Lance a lot, though I could have just Flashed him. If you know what I mean. I actually did need Gekka, though. The attempt where I actually won included this horrendous moment where he used Ground Dasher, so I used Gekka to get in the air... and when that ended he had cast it again. Wouldn't have had enough CC to Flash through two of those.
But yeah. Story. I feel like ToDR's version of the whole Lion thing is almost excessively sentimentalized. Like, it feels really anime how he's all "okay, maybe we can do this together after all even though i was fearful and desperate enough to do all this crap in the first place. btw Rutee i'm gonna heroic sacrifice so i guess now's a good time to tell you i'm your bro." That's just kind of silly. I also always hated the whole contrived elevator thing and would have preferred he took his determination and desperation to the absolute limits and died fighting trying to protect her.
Then again, if that had happened I'd be deprived of the last moment I'm so fond of. But before I get to that. I also thought the way he revealed his relation to Rutee was way more appropriate and not stupid than the way he does in the remake.
I get that he was actually less of a complete asshole in the remake and more of a tsundere which is nice, but ugh. I really hate the way it was done in the remake. It was kind of cool in the original, since his intentions are more ambiguous and it's not nearly as random. He seems to be saying it to make her lose her resolve before the fight (and also leads to the fucking awesome line where he says he'll kill anyone, even family, to save Marian) but you could also see it as the selfishness of not being the only one of the two that knows. But there's a lot of bitterness coming from him when she questions his motives and he tells her that she was abandoned, and it all just comes out way more naturally in the original. One of the few things I wish hadn't changed, right here.
So that last moment. It gets me every fucking time. The part where the elevator is long gone so Lion sits down, and apologizes to Chaltier for kinda dragging him into this. And then Chal is just totally cool with it, "yo, i wanna be with bocchan no matter what." Chal is such a bro. I don't think it's even the fact that Lion is dying that gets to me, or the fact of what his motivations for betraying everyone were, but actually that Chal is totally okay with being there at the very end and in fact probably wouldn't have it any other way. My eyes watered up this time and I've seen this scene just so many times... it shouldn't affect me anymore.
