Tales of Legendia
Tales of Legendia is a fantasy role-playing game that continues the Tales series of games. It released here at February 7, 2006. This game, in my honest opinion, was the most horrible addition to this wonderful series. The only thing that made me go through the whole thing was its interesting story and music. I will say that the graphics are better and rather colorful, but that still hardly does anything to make me like it more. However, even if I hate its guts that doesn't really mean others have disliked it.
Getting into the story is actually a bit confusing at first. You play as a white-haired boy named Senel Coolidg who is protecting his supposed sister name Shirley, who is rather soft-spoken. It starts out with them both running from an unknown enemy when suddenly their boat is swept in by the current of a continent. However, in reality, the continent is a ship called the Legacy, an artifact of the Kingdom of Terises that existed thousands of years in the past. When Senel and Shirley first arrive on the Legacy, the events started to move quickly. You find out that Shirley can breathe underwater, making her known as a Ferines, "the people of the water." Then, she is thought to be the Merines, a legendary being with the ability to pilot the Legacy. Lastly, within a few minutes of arrival, Shirley is kidnapped by bandits. Of course, as the story progresses you'll find out what all the names/races are and mean. With her abduction, Senel along with others that are introduced throughout the story begin and make it through their long journey. I'll just tell you right now...this is the only part of the game you'll like. The story is the only thing that will/might keep you going to endure the rest of this game.
The gameplay is somewhat different with it having enemies randomly attack you instead of you choosing to fight. This was rather annoying throughout the game because after finishing a fight another could come just ONE second later. Also, this made progression rather slow. The battle system to me was a big letdown. The character you played as during battle is only able to move two dimensionally (back and forth) like that of Symphonia, which I didn't mind. But, it is also pretty much on a 2D battlefield. The actual spells and attacks are quite lacking in appearance/display. This was a big disappointment when I actually got to see it. I was generally expecting something flashy and exciting; however, nothing eye-catching came. Other than all this, the main thing that irritated me the most was constant yelling from the characters. I mean, it wasn't the actual yelling that I minded; it was the repetition of the same phrase all the time!! If there were two enemies and one started casting a spell, they would blair out a phrase. Then, if the second monster was slightly delayed and started casting a spell right after the first, they would blair the exact same phrase again! I just dealt with it and continued playing through.
Now, about the actual voice acting throughout the game....I truly hated it more than anything. One of the voices was so annoying in cutscenes that I literally wanted to rip my ears off. The actual humorous parts that came around did not make me laugh because it was either a really corny joke or the voices completely ruined it. In a serious/dramatic scene, the voices really were NOT convincing. To be perfectly honest, I hated all the characters of this game.
Lastly, I come to the music. I loved this soundtrack so much; it was rather unique from all the other games. It was so good that, I think, it was the best of the series. The voices of the characters pretty much made me tune them out and listen to the music throughout cutscenes. If anyone is interested in getting this beautiful soundtrack, you might try here: