RPG Reviews: Tales Of Symphonia, Part 5: I BELIEVE I CAN FLY!!

Last time, we begun our journey through a brand new world and captured a prisoner. This in turn grants us our final Party Member.

Regal Bryant:

CV: Otsuka Akio/Crispin Freeman

Regal... well he's a bit of an odd one. His manner of playing is more among the line of a fighting game character, with his whole deal being based around chaining many of his Artes together. It's hard to pull off, but he can dish out some of the highest amounts of Damage in the game. He's also part of that Side Party alongside Presea I mentioned earlier. Oh, and all his skills should be kept to the T Branch. Eagle Rage in particular is borderline broken.

The Fighting Game analogy even works with the way his Artes are split: Ground, Anti-Air, Air, and one Special called Force (Also some healing spells). Force needs to be used a 100 times to activate his Limit Break, which even has its own combo besides you having to be in Overlimit: You need to throw a each type or Arte in quick succession before finishing it off with Force, and to be fair Fanged Finality is a pretty good finisher. Oh and I forgot to mention, in Japan Force is written as 発. Does that Kanji look familiar? Take a look at this:

Regal is a Nen User Confirmed!

Actually being a Nen User really does explain why he's so fucking awesome...

Anyhow, we finally make our way to Ozette, though not before I did some grinding for Regal. Once we get there, she has a small talk with a certain Half-Elf that just screams bad news, and we learn exactly how bad her whole condition is: Her house is a wreck and there's a guy in a bed... who's dead. Has been for a while, likely. And she doesn't even realize it.

Anyhow, the Party decides to leave her alone for now, going to Altessa's house instead. And inside it we find... a blonde girl who speaks in a weirdly robotic way?

Atlus, did you copy someone's homework?

Anyhow, this girl, Tabatha (Played by Fujishima Kousuke and Kim Mai Guest) introduces us to her Master, Altessa... and he's a grumpy old asshole who wants nothing to do with Presea. Tabatha explains that it's probably out of guilt or something among those lines, but the gang is ultimately forced out of the house.

Anyhow, we need to go get an Inhibitor Ore for that Key Crest. Notably, in spite of seeming quite concerned for her, Regal continues to express there is no relationship between him and Presea. And Zelos' comments on having probably met him before do not help matters at all. But whatever, time for a new dungeon:

Toize Valley Mine:

Indiana Jones would like to have a look at this.

Unfortunately, to go in, we must bust through the gate in a fight. Oh well, not too difficult. However Regal has formed an opinion on the group that can best be summarized in the following Clip.

Anyhow, there are only two noteworthy things about this place. First is its gimmick, with lets you drop bombs on some rocks to make them break, which is pretty darn satisfying. The second is that you should probably bring a Mizuho Potion here, as you'll find a Gnome that will ask you for a potion. You should give it to him, it's important for a dungeon later on.

What does matter though is a sequence towards the end. A man named Vharley pops up, and it's clear he and Regal share a past, though the specifics are not stated. What we can infer, however, is that Regal made some kind of deal with the Pope to have this man imprisoned (He's an Exsphere Dealer) and he would give himself in for the authorities because, well, he did actually kill someone. This being the Pope, however, he did not go through with this.

That said, Vharley leaves, with Regal deciding to leave the story of his imprisonment for some other day. Whatever the case may be, I decided to grind for Colette a bit after neglecting her for so long... and as soon as they walk into Ozette, some random NPC sells them out.

But yeah, the Pope's three knights aren't much of a challenge anyways. Sadly, once this is all over, Colette gets a really heavy feaver, but it's okay, Presea is around!... Except not as, well, she knocks Colette out and hands it to the guy she was talking to earlier. Jesus Christ, there are already a bunch of traitors, and now one of them was a Party Member!?

Mind you, she is ultimately tossed aside, as the Evil Desian introduces himself as Rodyle, the most cunning of the Evil Desian Generals... yeah, how long will it be until we kick his ass, anyways?

So yeah, he takes off with Colette. That said, Lloyd still ultimately gives Presea her new charm... and naturally she is more than a bit disgusted with what she's done, ultimately finally laying her father's corpse to rest. It also turns out she has no other family left. She apparently has a little sister, but no one knows where she is. Thus, she decides to stick around in order to atone, and Regal also decides to join in as it's clear there's a relationship between Vahrley and the Evil Desians (Vharley was the one who took her to the Imperial Research Academy in the first place).

And then Kratos pops up to admit this isn't actually part of his plan. Oh no, Rodyle is acting outside of it right now, and sadly right now the Chosen One is useless to them so it's not as if they're in any need of an alliance of any sort. Still though, guys at Mizuho should have located the Rheairds by now, so at least they have that. Also, Genis tries to be cool in front of Presea but since he's taking too long Lloyd decides they should get out already. 

Oh come on, this one totally isn't his fault!

I should mention that at this point you can finally make progress on obtaining Presea's Limit Breaks. But yeah, Kratos is right, the Rheairds have been found, but there's a slight problem: They still need to make a pact with Volt... and Sheena isn't exactly okay with this.

See, a few years prior to the game's start, Sheena actually tried to make a contract with Volt... and it failed miserably. In fact, that whole incident is why the actual Village Chief is in a coma. Hell, a whole fourth of the population had died... though surprisingly no one seems to hold it against her besides her. I dunno, I kinda would've expected at least some villagers to hold a grudge against her.

See? Something like that.

Anyhow, Lloyd manages to cheer her up, and the Vice-Chief then tells us to go to the Temple Of Lightning. Oh and in a Skit we learn that all members of Mizuho basically have two names: Their real Names (Only known by their parents, village chief and whoever they marry) and a second name of sorts, so no, Sheena is not her actual name. What is her actual name then? Who knows... except Zelos.

Well, I mean, who knows? Maybe he's right.

Unfortunately this leads us to... a less than enjoyable Dungeon.

Temple Of Lightning:

Oh, if only the opposite was so easy...

This place sucks. Setting aside the multiple lightningbolt related puzzles, there are some very badly lit rooms that you need to walk on tight corridors on so as to not fall and wait for the lightning to come down to light things up a bit. Apparently the re-releases actually made it worse: In the Gamecube Version, you could at least brighten up your TV so that you could somewhat tell where you were going. All other Versions? Yeah, I still can't see a damn thing!

Anyhow, eventually Volt comes down... and for some reason he's speaking the Language of the Ancients. And Mithos was here too. Damn that troll... anyhow, he has no real plans to make another pact, so he decides to deal some divine retribution which... yeah gives Sheena a bit of a panic attack. Now I can't help but wonder how it could get worse...

Well... goodbye Corrine... too bad I didn't give too much of a damn about you.

Thankfully, Lloyd makes sure she doesn't get killed in the middle of that, and that gives her enough time to build up her resolve and face the wannabe Thunder God.

Volt:

Volt is not an easy enemy. Most of his attacks hit multiple people, and more than a few of them can inflict Paralysis on your Party Members. That said, I never really found him frustrating. He's a fair challenge that's ultimately fun to fight, and that's all that matters. And hey, once you beat him, you have all the right to say this.

That said, once the pact is made, something weird happens. Undine pops up and claims that due to two opposing forces merging from the two worlds, part of the Mana Flow has been severed. No one really knows what this will mean in the long run... but for now it seems as if there really is a way to sever the whole system the two worlds are built upon.

Still though, there are other news: They have found the Rheairds!... And they're in another Renegade base. Here we go again...

Tethe'Alla Base:

I hope you get used to seeing this place...

This dungeon is a giant maze. The main gimmick here is trying to get three Passwords and then putting them on a computer. Not too bad if you know what you're doing but don't be surprised if you get lost for a bit. Still though, eventually you will reach the Rheairds... and not just Botta waiting you for a fight but also...

Yuan Ka-Fai:

CV: Morikawa Toshiyuki/Chris Edgerly

As you might expect, this fight is a bit of a pain. While they have less health than most other bosses, these two are relentless in their assault. I better have Zelos have Healing Wind or Healing Stream by this point, as they'll save your life more often than not.

Still though eventually they'll go down, with Yuan noting something's off about Lloyd's Exsphere... but before he can say anything else there's an Earthuake, which gives our heroes the perfect chance to run off. And thus Noishe and that stupid boat are now useless, as the skies are us to travel through. Truly, a feeling that is hard to surpass.

And you know what else makes it fun? The music!

Yeah, I haven't mentioned it all that much, but the soundtrack in this game is really great. Anyhow, Colette's in some flying rock in the sky, but before that I took a small detour towards Altamira... that for some reason Regal refuses to enter. Huh... anyhow, got some new weapons and gear plus restocking on items so it's time to save our damsel.

She's in some sort of energy cage, and Rodyle is so much of a coward he isn't even there in person, instead deciding to send his pets at us. Thus, it's time to go Dragon Slaying!

Meat...

NOT THAT DRAGON!!

But yeah, it's three dragons for the price of one, and we murder them all. Yippie!

Well, in this case we killed the children as well, so we're directly guilty.

But yeah, through some Magitek jumbo-mumbo Colette's Mana is used to trap us all in place, but Presea manages to push foward just enough to save her. Good job Presea!

And thus, the day is saved, although now our heroes are aware of the fact that Rodyle is making some Mana Canon and for some reason Colette's crystal is useless for it. And hey, once she wakes up, Presea finally smiles!

PROTECT THAT SMILE!!!

So yeah, time to separate the worlds... but we're living that for another day. At long last, the Fellowship has finally united, and it is thus time to save these worlds. How that will turn out however, will be shown next time...