System and Games...

[CrimsonNataku]

Originally Posted by Kanji_The_Wanderer

I say that, because whenever I find out something new and come to tell you, you already knew that..haha =]

That is really cool about the Phantasia OVA, when was it realeased in Japan? last year?

Have you played any of the other Tales games before Symphonia??

I just do a lot of research... It's more possible for me than playing games time-wise.

They started releasing Phantasia in 2004.

I've been trying to get my hands on the other games for a long time now... But from what I've learned you can't get Phantasia (the first game, but you can get the GBA remake), or Tales of Destiny 2 - at least, the [/b]real[/b] Tales of Destiny 2. When Tales of Eternia was released in North America, they renamed it "Tales of Destiny 2" because of some copyright infringement issue regarding the name "Eternia." I haven't found a decently priced Tales of Destiny ($45...T_T), and the same goes for Tales of Eternia (aka Tales of Destiny 2...for +$50!)

[Kanji_The_Wanderer]

Originally Posted by CrimsonNataku

I just do a lot of research... It's more possible for me than playing games time-wise.

They started releasing Phantasia in 2004.

I've been trying to get my hands on the other games for a long time now... But from what I've learned you can't get Phantasia (the first game, but you can get the GBA remake), or Tales of Destiny 2 - at least, the realTales of Destiny 2. When Tales of Eternia was released in North America, they renamed it "Tales of Destiny 2" because of some copyright infringement issue regarding the name "Eternia." I haven't found a decently priced Tales of Destiny ($45...T_T), and the same goes for Tales of Eternia (aka Tales of Destiny 2...for +$50!)

wow, I am surprised. You think that those games would be cheap by now but hard to find...Even if you get them and all the games I said, it'll take you a millenia to beat them....lol but that is really cool. I just thought that the Tales series was your average popular game, I didn't know that they were THIS popular, it is actually surprising...Do you know which Tales game/OVA has been the most successful??

[CrimsonNataku]

Originally Posted by Kanji_The_Wanderer

wow, I am surprised. You think that those games would be cheap by now but hard to find...Even if you get them and all the games I said, it'll take you a millenia to beat them....lol but that is really cool. I just thought that the Tales series was your average popular game, I didn't know that they were THIS popular, it is actually surprising...Do you know which Tales game/OVA has been the most successful??

In the U.S., or in Japan? The Tales of Phantasia OVA will be the first OVA to be released outside of Japan, so I can't say much about that... Only I think that in Japan the Eternia OVA may have been more popular... I'm not certain about that.

In the U.S., because of all the complications involving their releases, the Tales games haven't really gotten the spotlight they deserve. From the reviews/articles I've read, the Tales games haven't really gotten any decent popularity until Tales of Symphonia came out. Die hard fans I bet will say that the older games are just as good. Though I did hear Tales of Rebirth was a little too different.

[Kanji_The_Wanderer]

Originally Posted by CrimsonNataku

In the U.S., or in Japan? The Tales of Phantasia OVA will be the first OVA to be released outside of Japan, so I can't say much about that... Only I think that in Japan the Eternia OVA may have been more popular... I'm not certain about that.

In the U.S., because of all the complications involving their releases, the Tales games haven't really gotten the spotlight they deserve. From the reviews/articles I've read, the Tales games haven't really gotten any decent popularity until Tales of Symphonia came out. Die hard fans I bet will say that the older games are just as good. Though I did hear Tales of Rebirth was a little too different.

Wow, the more I hear about these games the bigger an impact it is having on me..Now I want to play Abyss more then ever.

What are the main characters names? and I was watching someone play it in Japanese on Youtube, they were doing so many summons.

More summons then I think are in Symphonia, which is crazy. And different people were summoning, not just one. (like Sheena is the only summoner) and the summons had really cool sutscenes, even cooler then those in Symphonia....do you remember the summons names?? They looked human, if my memory serves me.

[CrimsonNataku]

Originally Posted by Kanji_The_Wanderer

Wow, the more I hear about these games the bigger an impact it is having on me..Now I want to play Abyss more then ever.

What are the main characters names? and I was watching someone play it in Japanese on Youtube, they were doing so many summons.

More summons then I think are in Symphonia, which is crazy. And different people were summoning, not just one. (like Sheena is the only summoner) and the summons had really cool sutscenes, even cooler then those in Symphonia....do you remember the summons names?? They looked human, if my memory serves me.

Sorry it took so long to get back to you ^_^;

Tales of Phantasia
Cress Albane or Cless Alvein
Chester Barklight or Chester Burklight
Mint Adnade or Mint Adenade

Side note: There is strong evidence to indicate that Tales of Symphonia was actually a prequel to Phantasia - a prequel that takes place 4000 years before Phantasia! If you want more information I'll be happy to provide it ^_^.

Tales of Destiny
Stahn Aileron
Rutee Katrea

Tales of Eternia (aka Tales of Destiny 2)
Reid Hershel
Farah Oersted

(Arguably there are others, but these are the "official ones")

Tales of Destiny 2
Kyle Dunamis (whose real name is Kyle Aileron, he is the son of the two main characters from Tales of Destiny)
Reala

Tales of Symphonia
(Do I really need to write these ^_^)
Lloyd Irving
Colette Brunel
Genis Sage (In the Japanese version, he is called "Genius Sage" ^_^ and his sister Raine is called "Refill Sage"...I'm kind of glad they changed the names, aren't you?)

(Once again, arguably there are other "main characters")

Tales of Rebirth
Veigue Lungberg
Claire Bennett

Tales of Legendia
Senel Coolidge (His nicknames in Japanese are so funny)
Shirley Fennes

Tales of the Abyss
Luke Fon Fabre
Tear Grants

This was actually really hard... Because I sort of feel like all the characters from each series should go on the list...

[Kanji_The_Wanderer]

haha, thank you very much Crimson-san for giving me all that information. But I was just asking all the characters names in Abyss. But it is cool that you put the main characters frim all the games. That's alot.

I just asked you about the summons and the charcters in Abyss. But thank you for all that other info. Those charcters names are very cool.( hope I don't sound ungrateful) Did you know that all from memory or look it up. If from memory very impressive!! ^__^

[CrimsonNataku]

Originally Posted by Kanji_The_Wanderer

haha, thank you bery much Crimson-san for giving me all that information. But I was just asking all the characters names in Abyss. But it is cool that you put the main characters frim all the games. That's alot.

I just asked you about the summons and the charcters in Abyss. But thank you for all that other info. Those charcters names are very cool. Did you know that all from memory or look it up. If from memory very impressive!! ^__^

3/4 were from memory... And I feel a little silly now for not realizing what you meant ^_^;

Here are the Abyss Characters (I put them in the order that they become playable in the game):

Luke fon Fabre
Tear Grants
Jade Curtiss
Anise Tatlin
Guy Cecil (Real name... Play the game and you'll find out ^_^)
Natalia Luzu Kimlasca-Lanvaldear

These are the six playable characters of Abyss, obviously there are other non-playable, yet still important characters and there is one more playable character that you meet later.

There are seven main antagonists inthe story, and since some of them are spoilers, that's all I'll say unless you're curious.

As for summons... are you by any chance talking about Mystic Artes? There actually aren't any summoners/summonings in Tales of the Abyss. However, each character has Mystic Artes, which is the equivalent to the special attacks like Falcon's Crest, Indignant Judgment, etc. Only in Abyss they're much much much easier to perform and make use of. And yes, they are much better animated. Each character has one standard mystic arte, and then one hidden one, amounting to 12 Mystic Artes at your disposal (14 if you include the additional character you get to play later).

Actually... Scratch that. The enemy boss characters have mystic artes as well, which sometimes make them a pain in the neck if you're not prepared for them. And then there are other NPC's who have Mystic Artes. One particularly important character eventually gives his Mystic Arte to Luke, the main character, I believe. So... There are actually a lot of them ^_^; I don't think I can remember/write them all...

Also, instead of Unison Attacks, there are Overlimits for each character. In Symphonia, the overlimit was something that just happened over time and was automatically activated. In Abyss, when you're green overlimit bar is full, you press the R2 button whenever you like, and the corresponding character will go into overlimit, during which you can activate mystic artes.

Although I'm sad that the summonings were taken out, when you start playing the game and get acquainted with the setting, it's pretty clear that summonings and summoners would be very much out of place.

[Vesperd]

wow you two are amazing game critics, interesting read!

[Kanji_The_Wanderer]

Originally Posted by CrimsonNataku

Here are the Abyss Characters (I put them in the order that they become playable in the game):
Luke fon Fabre
Tear Grants
Jade Curtiss
Anise Tatlin
Guy Cecil (Real name... Play the game and you'll find out ^_^)
Natalia Luzu Kimlasca-Lanvaldear
As for summons... are you by any chance talking about Mystic Artes? There actually aren't any summoners/summonings in Tales of the Abyss. However, each character has Mystic Artes, which is the equivalent to the special attacks like Falcon's Crest, Indignant Judgment, etc. Only in Abyss they're much much much easier to perform and make use of. And yes, they are much better animated. Each character has one standard mystic arte, and then one hidden one, amounting to 12 Mystic Artes at your disposal (14 if you include the additional character you get to play later).

Actually... Scratch that. The enemy boss characters have mystic artes as well, which sometimes make them a pain in the neck if you're not prepared for them. And then there are other NPC's who have Mystic Artes. One particularly important character eventually gives his Mystic Arte to Luke, the main character, I believe. So... There are actually a lot of them ^_^; I don't think I can remember/write them all...

Also, instead of Unison Attacks, there are Overlimits for each character. In Symphonia, the overlimit was something that just happened over time and was automatically activated. In Abyss, when you're green overlimit bar is full, you press the R2 button whenever you like, and the corresponding character will go into overlimit, during which you can activate mystic artes.

Although I'm sad that the summonings were taken out, when you start playing the game and get acquainted with the setting, it's pretty clear that summonings and summoners would be very much out of place.

Wow that sounds cool. Mystic Arts huh? That sounds really cool that each boss ba ttle has their own. That is very interesting. Do enemy bosses have the same mystic arts as the playable characters? Or do they have special ones that no one else can see? And when you use them you don't see them again?

Are there 2 worlds like Symphonia or is there one world? Why could summons and summoners be out of place??

[CrimsonNataku]

Originally Posted by Kanji_The_Wanderer

Wow that sounds cool. Mystic Arts huh? That sounds really cool that each boss ba ttle has their own. That is very interesting. Do enemy bosses have the same mystic arts as the playable characters? Or do they have special ones that no one else can see? And when you use them you don't see them again?

Are there 2 worlds like Symphonia or is there one world? Why could summons and summoners be out of place??

Each enemy boss character (as far as I know) has their own set of Mystic Artes. The playable characters have different Mystic Artes. You can use them more than once, and they can use them more than once... Which can be very annoying at times.

There is only one world, but there's a little twist which is a spoiler ^_^.

In Abyss, the sources of magic are these particles called Fonons, a material energy found in all living things. The planet is composed entirely of Fonons. Originally, there were only six types of fonons. But in the story a seventh fonon was discovered, which led to all kinds of disorder. Those who can use the seventh fonon are called Seventh Fonists, and they are the most rare and special (Luke, the main character, and Tear, the female protagonist, are both Seventh Fonishts). A key thing about this seventh fonon is that, by using it, you can tell the future. Which is how the game's entire setting is established.

As you can see, the "magic" in the Abyss world is a lot more scientific (sort of) than in Symphonia, and thus having Summon Spirits and Summoners would be a little out of place; Symphonia's magic was a result of mana, which was comprised of multiple elements (Earth, Wind, Fire, etc). Abyss' magic is a result of fonons, particles that (supposedly) are non-sentient. It would be difficult to have spirits representing each type of fonon like there are spirits representing each type of element in Symphonia.

What's more, the emphasis in Abyss is the whole concept of your future already being determined. The game's focus is the shaping of your own destiny. Symphonia's theme was different, which is why I can see them taking the Summon Spirits out.