Tales of Vesperia
Jun. 4th, 2012 05:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
runespoorMy brother borrowed an XBOX360 and Tales of Vesperia, and I am currently playing it. I don't know how long the game is; I'm currently at 50 hours, and I have the sinking feeling I'm at the late-game. I don't want this to end, you don't understand.
I don't think I have the same sheer amount of ~feelings~ for the characters as I did for the characters in Tales of Symphonia (especially the Coward Brigade of Zelos and Sheena, which is a reference to a scene in the game and not a judgement on them), but that may change, especially if I have the opportunity to do another playthrough.
I do have a lot of feelings about them and the about the plot anyway, as well as about shipping.
There are many similarities between ToS and Vesperia on every level - scenario, character types, etc - but it doesn't detract from my enjoyment in the slightest: I feel like they're basically exploring the same base material in a different way, which pleases me.
I'll hopefully do a full post when I'm done playing the game to talk about the themes and such - so far it revolves around politics, capitalism vs the state, idealism vs practicality, justice, and personal choice - but right now I want to squee about characters and shipping.
Character feels
RITA MORDIO LET ME LOVE YOU. Rita is a snotty and abrasive 15-year old genius mage who provides a great deal of the party's cynicism and sarcasm. I was bound to love her just for that. But it gets even better! You see, Rita falls in love with the pretty, sweet, idealistic Estelle. It's really, gratifyingly glaringly obvious. It's not actually, explicitly, textually spelled out, like "hey, Rita, still in love with Estelle?" but it's still text. From dialogue to framing to body language... TINY HIPSTER LESBIAN. (I also have the headcanon that Rita is MtF, given that at one point when Estelle has look through Rita's closet, Rita looks embarrassed, and Estelle promises she won't tell anyone what she found there. Or it could be something else entirely backstory related that hasn't been revealed yet, but... yeah.) And then Estelle is kidnapped and Rita proceeds to break my heart. Every other sentence out of her mouth refers to Estelle; she's a scientist and she's terrified it'll be too late to save Estelle, but her arrogance transforms into the optimism she'd never shared with Estelle. Yes, they'll be able to save Estelle. She's a little obsessed.
Karol: yes. Yes. Yes. A timid 12-year old axe-wielder, I wouldn't say the most original character I've ever seen, but he's extremely well-developed and he's probably the best-rounded character in the game. His psychology is both subtle and easy to grasp, the difficulties he faces and the choices he makes all follow the same logic but always add to his complexity. I'm extremeley impressed with his storyline so far, which I've found to be the most satisfying. Headcanon: FtM Karol. Facepalming: oh, Tales Of, your culture of machismo. It's showing.
Judith: I was somewhat dubious/lukewarm about Judith at first. I blame the blatant fanservive of her combat bikini, but it turns out she's a nuanced and layered character. I don't think she'll ever be my favorite, she's far too reserved, level-headed, and quietly confident for me to despair of and clutch, but she grows on you.
Estelle: got the short end of the stick. I like her, and I like that her idealism - specifically her will to help everyone who comes her way - is also depicted as a flaw: it diverts her focus from the overall goal. But she's not a particularly original or conflicted character, especially when compared with Colette, her ToS counterpart. Colette had been bred to view herself as a sacrifice, and that lent a layer to her characterization that I haven't found yet in Estelle. Estelle also gets the shaft from the narrative - she's damseled-in-distress and occasionally told to 'learn her place' which, given that she'd a goddamn princess, is both baffling and irritating. (I haven't yet played past Estelle-is-kidnapped, hopefully things are going to happen that'll change my opinion on this.) I like her as a character, and I feel for her, but I'm rather disappointed with the way the narrative treats her.
Yuri: is less archetypical a character than Estelle. I don't love him yet, at the moment I'm incredibly frustrated and furious with him, which I know well enough means that given time I'll adore him. He has an interesting storyline, especially when couple with Flynn's, but getting into the details would make me dive into the meaty thematical questions, and this post is long enough as it is.
Raven: I'm conflicted. I don't have the last word on Schwann yet, so I'm rather curious about that. I like him well enough, and he does have his moments - I had the biggest grin when he shows up in Heracles. I'll reserve my judgment until I've finished the game. Maybe he ranks so low with me because he feels somewhat like a cross between Zelos and Kratos (my favorite or second favorite character in ToS and the one I liked the least), and so he both pales to Zelos and reminds me of Kratos.
Ships
At the beginning of the game, I quickly stumbled across what I called the OT3 of Boringness: lead female naive idealistic Estelle, lead male ~cynical ~loner ~with a past Yuri, and Yuri's-rival/best-friend-and-Estelle's-knight golden boy Flynn. Yuri and Flynn are "typical" best-friends/rivals-on-diametrally-opposed-paths-that-think-the-other-hung-up-the-moon, which is a perfectly valid ship type. Estelle and Yuri, as the lead female and male characters of the game, are coded as love-interests, and their interactions rely mostly on being supportive of one another while still calling one another out on their flaws. I called it thus because it was so expected, and my emotional investment in them wasn't the highest. The major part of Estelle and Yuri's discussions in the early game revolves around Flynn, and Flynn himself, when he pops up, meshes perfectly well with that.
There, OT3 - and when it became obvious Rita had a crush on Estelle, I got an OTP of AAAAH I WANT THEM TO KISS.
Flynn and Yuri are probably at their most interesting when they talk to each other, as each of them exemplifies a thematical way of life and they confront and argue about it and their struggles when they do.
I OT4 them because Estelle is at the center of it, and I think Rita could have interesting snark/interactions with the guys, but mostly I OT4 them based on Homestuck-type relationships. (I don't know how I lived for so long without these categories. They make different types of relationship as important and legitimate as one another!) It goes a bit like this:
Estelle♥Rita. OTP of girlfriends.
Estelle♦Yuri. I don't care about them smooching, but this fits them quite well and I ship so hard for plotty reasons.
Yuri♠Flynn. There are still unresolved pale feelings there, but they're kismeses alright.
Other Homestuck-type ships:
Judith♦Estelle/Yuri[/Karol/Rita], not all of which are requited. Judith is on occasion very maternal, though it's mostly with Estelle and it took me a while to realize that was the reason why Judith criticized Estelle so much - at first I thought Judith disliked Estelle. Then I observed that Judith's criticisms of Estelle were justified, actually.
Judith♠Rita - I didn't expect that one and clearly should have.
I don't have opinions about other ships, but I am queasily aware of the basis to ship Yuri/Karol, which I... don't. At all. It looks hypocritical for someone who ships Batman/Robin to object to a ship on the grounds that one of the participants is twelve, but there you have it. Do not want. However, I am exceedingly fond of their friendship and of Karol's hero worship.
Storylines
Karol’s is the best. Yuri’s, if it meets up to my expectations, is shaping up to be glorious. Rita needs one asap, though I wonder whether the conflict between her feelings for Estelle and her knowing-what-needs-to-be-done-backed-up-by-science isn’t supposed to be hers. I hope not. At this stage I’m not sure if she has anything we don’t know about in her backstory.
Conclusion: I’m really hooked on this game.
I don't think I have the same sheer amount of ~feelings~ for the characters as I did for the characters in Tales of Symphonia (especially the Coward Brigade of Zelos and Sheena, which is a reference to a scene in the game and not a judgement on them), but that may change, especially if I have the opportunity to do another playthrough.
I do have a lot of feelings about them and the about the plot anyway, as well as about shipping.
There are many similarities between ToS and Vesperia on every level - scenario, character types, etc - but it doesn't detract from my enjoyment in the slightest: I feel like they're basically exploring the same base material in a different way, which pleases me.
I'll hopefully do a full post when I'm done playing the game to talk about the themes and such - so far it revolves around politics, capitalism vs the state, idealism vs practicality, justice, and personal choice - but right now I want to squee about characters and shipping.
Character feels
RITA MORDIO LET ME LOVE YOU. Rita is a snotty and abrasive 15-year old genius mage who provides a great deal of the party's cynicism and sarcasm. I was bound to love her just for that. But it gets even better! You see, Rita falls in love with the pretty, sweet, idealistic Estelle. It's really, gratifyingly glaringly obvious. It's not actually, explicitly, textually spelled out, like "hey, Rita, still in love with Estelle?" but it's still text. From dialogue to framing to body language... TINY HIPSTER LESBIAN. (I also have the headcanon that Rita is MtF, given that at one point when Estelle has look through Rita's closet, Rita looks embarrassed, and Estelle promises she won't tell anyone what she found there. Or it could be something else entirely backstory related that hasn't been revealed yet, but... yeah.) And then Estelle is kidnapped and Rita proceeds to break my heart. Every other sentence out of her mouth refers to Estelle; she's a scientist and she's terrified it'll be too late to save Estelle, but her arrogance transforms into the optimism she'd never shared with Estelle. Yes, they'll be able to save Estelle. She's a little obsessed.
Karol: yes. Yes. Yes. A timid 12-year old axe-wielder, I wouldn't say the most original character I've ever seen, but he's extremely well-developed and he's probably the best-rounded character in the game. His psychology is both subtle and easy to grasp, the difficulties he faces and the choices he makes all follow the same logic but always add to his complexity. I'm extremeley impressed with his storyline so far, which I've found to be the most satisfying. Headcanon: FtM Karol. Facepalming: oh, Tales Of, your culture of machismo. It's showing.
Judith: I was somewhat dubious/lukewarm about Judith at first. I blame the blatant fanservive of her combat bikini, but it turns out she's a nuanced and layered character. I don't think she'll ever be my favorite, she's far too reserved, level-headed, and quietly confident for me to despair of and clutch, but she grows on you.
Estelle: got the short end of the stick. I like her, and I like that her idealism - specifically her will to help everyone who comes her way - is also depicted as a flaw: it diverts her focus from the overall goal. But she's not a particularly original or conflicted character, especially when compared with Colette, her ToS counterpart. Colette had been bred to view herself as a sacrifice, and that lent a layer to her characterization that I haven't found yet in Estelle. Estelle also gets the shaft from the narrative - she's damseled-in-distress and occasionally told to 'learn her place' which, given that she'd a goddamn princess, is both baffling and irritating. (I haven't yet played past Estelle-is-kidnapped, hopefully things are going to happen that'll change my opinion on this.) I like her as a character, and I feel for her, but I'm rather disappointed with the way the narrative treats her.
Yuri: is less archetypical a character than Estelle. I don't love him yet, at the moment I'm incredibly frustrated and furious with him, which I know well enough means that given time I'll adore him. He has an interesting storyline, especially when couple with Flynn's, but getting into the details would make me dive into the meaty thematical questions, and this post is long enough as it is.
Raven: I'm conflicted. I don't have the last word on Schwann yet, so I'm rather curious about that. I like him well enough, and he does have his moments - I had the biggest grin when he shows up in Heracles. I'll reserve my judgment until I've finished the game. Maybe he ranks so low with me because he feels somewhat like a cross between Zelos and Kratos (my favorite or second favorite character in ToS and the one I liked the least), and so he both pales to Zelos and reminds me of Kratos.
Ships
At the beginning of the game, I quickly stumbled across what I called the OT3 of Boringness: lead female naive idealistic Estelle, lead male ~cynical ~loner ~with a past Yuri, and Yuri's-rival/best-friend-and-Estelle's-knight golden boy Flynn. Yuri and Flynn are "typical" best-friends/rivals-on-diametrally-opposed-paths-that-think-the-other-hung-up-the-moon, which is a perfectly valid ship type. Estelle and Yuri, as the lead female and male characters of the game, are coded as love-interests, and their interactions rely mostly on being supportive of one another while still calling one another out on their flaws. I called it thus because it was so expected, and my emotional investment in them wasn't the highest. The major part of Estelle and Yuri's discussions in the early game revolves around Flynn, and Flynn himself, when he pops up, meshes perfectly well with that.
There, OT3 - and when it became obvious Rita had a crush on Estelle, I got an OTP of AAAAH I WANT THEM TO KISS.
Flynn and Yuri are probably at their most interesting when they talk to each other, as each of them exemplifies a thematical way of life and they confront and argue about it and their struggles when they do.
I OT4 them because Estelle is at the center of it, and I think Rita could have interesting snark/interactions with the guys, but mostly I OT4 them based on Homestuck-type relationships. (I don't know how I lived for so long without these categories. They make different types of relationship as important and legitimate as one another!) It goes a bit like this:
Estelle♥Rita. OTP of girlfriends.
Estelle♦Yuri. I don't care about them smooching, but this fits them quite well and I ship so hard for plotty reasons.
Yuri♠Flynn. There are still unresolved pale feelings there, but they're kismeses alright.
Other Homestuck-type ships:
Judith♦Estelle/Yuri[/Karol/Rita], not all of which are requited. Judith is on occasion very maternal, though it's mostly with Estelle and it took me a while to realize that was the reason why Judith criticized Estelle so much - at first I thought Judith disliked Estelle. Then I observed that Judith's criticisms of Estelle were justified, actually.
Judith♠Rita - I didn't expect that one and clearly should have.
I don't have opinions about other ships, but I am queasily aware of the basis to ship Yuri/Karol, which I... don't. At all. It looks hypocritical for someone who ships Batman/Robin to object to a ship on the grounds that one of the participants is twelve, but there you have it. Do not want. However, I am exceedingly fond of their friendship and of Karol's hero worship.
Storylines
Karol’s is the best. Yuri’s, if it meets up to my expectations, is shaping up to be glorious. Rita needs one asap, though I wonder whether the conflict between her feelings for Estelle and her knowing-what-needs-to-be-done-backed-up-by-science isn’t supposed to be hers. I hope not. At this stage I’m not sure if she has anything we don’t know about in her backstory.
Conclusion: I’m really hooked on this game.
