Characters personnalities?

[Eglaios]

I just got out from the first mansion, ~2 hours in the game, and I wanna know if the characters act and think as generically as this for the whole game, and maybe the whole series?

To be more precise, I don't mind clichés, but after playing 2 hours (just escaped the first city), it's how Yuri and Estellise seriously lack personnality at the moment.
I mean all they say is either tutorials or reaction from events, and I'm a bit feared there's not much more to discover about them as the story unfolds.

I'm conscient this is a 15-years-old game and I can live with it if the gameplay is worth it, but I wondered if the newer Tales of titles had the same problem of characters just reacting to events rather than having an actual personnality that either evolves or unfold as the story grows.


I might be biased as well since I recently played Danganronpa and Rune Factory:Tides of Destiny, which both really put emphasis on the few NPCs' personnalities...

[Devsman]

They grow in terms of experience and knowledge and stuff but they don't have any drastic personality shifts.

It's more the kind of game where the story shifts around the characters instead of vice-versa. Yuri and Flynn in particular are interesting in this regard because they have completely opposite roles from their archetypes. You know, the knight in shining armor hero and his cynical rival/buddy sidekick who eventually comes around thing, except this time the hero is the cynic and the knight I'm shining armor eventually comes around. And the story supports this 100% start to finish.

[Devsman]

I should also point out, it doesn't exactly count as a personality change because it was always there in subtle and less dramatic ways, but Yuri has a SERIOUSLY interesting development right around the time the first mini-arc ends.

[SOUS CHEF HELLDAVE]

Yuri is one of the more interesting JRPG mains because he's a fully formed person, you'll find out more about him and his character basically through other characters having crises and he helps to resolve them and become more realized people

[Unseen]

Yea don't let this games story or character logic translate to the rest of the tales games, Lloyd was great, chester and cless were good altho a bit standard, Stahn was a great 80s hairband go to, Sorey is just an all around friendly dude.

Yuri is the worst character in this game and jumps at the chance to play executioner in an unjustified public execution that the victim is rock on for. Its weird and makes no sense whatsoever. Yuri is just dull and typical people on here can defend him all they want he is incredibly subpar for a main character. Even squall from FF8 has more redeeming qualities than Yuri. Dude is wishwashy through the whole game.

Rita is the real hero and main, she might be somewhat bratty and pushy but she knows what she is doing and is basically the mcguyver of the game. Yuri has some kind of issue with her initially I forgot (maybe he don't trust her I dunno), but quickly drops all that the more resourceful she gets. Raven would of been cool if he didn't decide to betray the team and play badguy for 10 mins only to say, nope that wasn't me sorry guys.
Other motives throughout the whole game are questionable, behavior as well. The only character who stays constant and not cartoon insane is rita and flynn.

Everyone is free to love yuri I found him to be incredibly arrogant, and generally psychotic to wanna jump at the chance to execute an old man he supposedly respects. Rita is the only one who said the whole thing was stupid. This is the adventures of magic girl rita she stole the game from everyone, she is even the combo farm master post game so get use to her.

Also op 15 years does not dictate a good storyline, hell xenogears is over 20 and has a much better story so do many other jrpgs such as the very first tales which is an absolute masterpiece.

[Eglaios]

Originally posted by Unseen:

This is the adventures of magic girl rita she stole the game from everyone

I'm currently heading towards the first port with her, and I can see what you mean. She's easily my favorite character of the current 4, considering that until the point I'm at ;

- Yuri always stays cool. Always. There's just nothing else to its personnality, and zero character development since he's so "perfect" already.

- Estelle being the average noble starter pack : Respectful, used to the luxury of solving problems peacefuly and wants to stay legit. Although rather common in jrpgs, there could've been something more to develop her mind about being forced to accept the realities of such adventure

- Karol falls pretty much in the immature kid cliché. Always tries to look cool and ending up falling on its butt. The young age could be used to make him grow more mature as the story unfolds, which I start doubting...
Part of its relevance lies into his love, which I don't really care about.

- And then there's Rita, which, even though she starts on the nerdy mage cliché, got blessed with an actually deeper writing. She does have her own interests and isn't feared to use everyone to help her yet stays critical towards the party's actions, plus her emotions sometimes lead to conflicts with other members. All of these often make moments deeper than just "only opening her mouth to show how much of a nerd magician she is", unlike the other characters.


At the end, it's easy to see the writing seemed more focused on giving each character a strenght to help the party. That's been pretty successful so far, but I think I have an issue with characters doing small talks, like Yuri just saying cool leader stuff or Karol peeing its pants, without adding any depth or evolution to the characters.

That being said, it's clear that even small talks makes me more attached to the characters than if they shut up for the whole game unless there's something really important to say.

[Unseen]

Get use to the aimless talking. But I hate to sound like I’m bashing the game. I’m not it’s a great game with great gameplay. But the story is not well directed or very epic due to standard hanging out nature of the cutscenes. And the antagonists are pretty poor.

Rita is pretty mature for her age she even has her own place that the team stays at while everyone else just seems like homeless vagabonds.

[Devsman]

Originally posted by Eglaios:

- Karol falls pretty much in the immature kid cliché. Always tries to look cool and ending up falling on its butt. The young age could be used to make him grow more mature as the story unfolds, which I start doubting...
Part of its relevance lies into his love, which I don't really care about.

I remember playing for the first time and thinking "wow, this game's little kid trope is surprisingly bearable."

Then I met the actual little kid trope.

[Unseen]

Pokemon rip off I never once used karol in battle unless I had to.

Probably the most irritating character in all of tales.

[darth.crevette]

Originally posted by Unseen:

Yuri is the worst character in this game and jumps at the chance to play executioner in an unjustified public execution that the victim is rock on for. Its weird and makes no sense whatsoever.

Okay, you're actually wrong on that part. You should read up on how a ritual seppuku is performed; Yuri acting as the Don's kaishakunin, while no one else wanted to do it, is actually one of the greatest honors he could have granted him. I'm not going to comment on the "unjustified" part though, as that is up to interpretation.
Yeah, Japanese culture has some weird stuff, but it is what it is...

~edit: well what do I know, I decided to read the forums for Vesperia on gamefaqs and ended up in a topic where someone with a name very close to yours, compalining about the exact same thing... 6 months ago. Even after everyone tried to explain to you why these events happened the way they did, you refused to change your opinion, so I won't try anymore either.

[Devsman]

Originally posted by darth.crevette:

Originally posted by Unseen:

Yuri is the worst character in this game and jumps at the chance to play executioner in an unjustified public execution that the victim is rock on for. Its weird and makes no sense whatsoever.

Okay, you're actually wrong on that part. You should read up on how a ritual seppuku is performed; Yuri acting as the Don's kaishakunin, while no one else wanted to do it, is actually one of the greatest honors he could have granted him. I'm not going to comment on the "unjustified" part though, as that is up to interpretation.
Yeah, Japanese culture has some weird stuff, but it is what it is...

It was an interesting dilemma, and it gave Yuri an opportunity to reflect (don't skip the skit afterward). It's kind of a microcosm of Yuri's character--crappy circumstances challenged conventional ethics, and Yuri is the one who's not afraid to get his hands dirty.

[Unseen]

Omg seriously that was an interesting dilemma and yea that was me, its one of the weirdest plot mechanics I've ever seen in any jrpg. And I don't care if its japanese or viking, public executions and honor suicide is pure evil madness. And its odd I'm the only one who brings up this criticism. You think this makes a guy a hero? And I don't even care about the don, he was a bland and boring old man character. But its just weird that they are glorifying those themes. The 2 scumbags he offed before don are an example of when an execution is needed, but they should of got a trial but hey yuri is a punk who doesn't respect law and order and thinks he should do everything. But the don, killing a dude over botched confusion that his guild lackeys miscommunication over a frickin pokemon.

Btw there are many other glaring aspects of this game that make its storyline silly as hell. I've played the series since phantasia and nothing in the whole series I've seen yet was as pointless or as questionable as the dons fun public execution for all the kiddies. And I really wish people would stop bringing up cultural practices that were pure evil.

[Eglaios]

Originally posted by Devsman:

It's kind of a microcosm of Yuri's character--crappy circumstances challenged conventional ethics, and Yuri is the one who's not afraid to get his hands dirty.

I didn't get to this part yet, but "not afraid to get its hand dirty" doesn't add any depth to Yuri's character imo.
As I previously said, Yuri is cool. And he's the leader. And he always do the good things. And he always ends up winning. And the only thing I wish is that idk, one of its beloved one dies, he loses an eye, an arm, whatever that would make this rock of a character drop a tear.

From what I understood, this situation is yet another event to show how perfect he is. To me, this is not character enrichment, it's just pure writing logic : they take an event and think "what would the flawless hero stereotype do in that situation?".

[Unseen]

This is far from what makes a man perfect a perfect man would of told the don to stop being an idiot and we can handle this a different way. Least rita said it was stupid cause it really was. Yuri is the worst hero in the whole series and I find it funny people bash zestiria so much but look past this questionable moral judgement but I'm not gonna push my opinion that's just how I feel don't like yuri at all.

I mean I been playing jrpgs since the psx era and I have never seen anything more morally questionable than glorifying a public execution/self administered suicide. And in a game that basically looks like anime disney. None of the previous tales games I played had anything that weird in it. And this is a teen rated game, it wasn't made for 6 year olds but it certainly wasn't made to be a dark horror game. Just the things I see suddenly pushed in these games I don't agree with whatsoever or get behind. These things are wrong, and culture does not justify a public execution EVER!

Unsubscribing I love how games push stuff that is hot topic as hell and can get you in hot water just for discussing. I won't communicate the same way I did in gamefaqs I like my steam account but I will not act like this part with don was "perfect" its just weird.

And the whole trying to cheer up karol cause his little mind got warped at the weird plot mechanic you wouldn't even see in silent hill was just cringy.

[Eglaios]

Originally posted by Unseen:

And I really wish people would stop bringing up cultural practices that were pure evil.

I wish not. I play games to get exposed to different cultures, even if they aren't to my liking, that's what I'm here for.
Censoring racism and barbarian practices in the real world, I see the point. Games are a work of art *cough* at least the remaining areas where money didn't take over, and as long as disclaimers are present, I don't see any issue including taboo themes in there.


I finally started playing ff7 lately, and that's a festival : Already at the beginning, there's Cloud dressing as a girl and Tifa and Aeris getting exposed to sexual exploitation (You meet Tifa lightly dressed in a freakin dungeon, and Aeris barely escaping very explicit sexual assault)

Worst of all (I didn't even meet Sephiroth yet), the "government" threatens to nuke the slums. You think "oh it's a JRPG, I'm gonna counter them and save everyone", but no. The bomb is undefusable, and you have to watch the whole district being anihilated as you barely escape.
And not just any district like "omg the vilain wiped half of the earth that we didn't care about". It was actually a place that the player made memories in, and there was also all the secondary party members (that I was unexpectedly attached to) who died in the process.
Even the slap low-poly Aeris gets when she gets kidnapped left me speechless.

I think the fact that FF7 includes really monstruous acts that hit in the guts strongly contributes to making an immersive and interesting experience.



...Uh I wrote way too much for that point oops

[Unseen]

Public executions and honor killings are not isolated to just japan and they don't even do that anymore. And its one of the worlds biggest cultural cancers.