Masu gives Tales of Symphonia Knight of Ratatosk a second chance

So, due to my current little project of trying to beat as many tales games before Xillia is released to celebrate the 15th aniversary of the best series ever, (just beat Destiny Directors Cut with james saturday night) I decided to move on to one that I was dreading. Knight of Ratatosk (Dawn of the New world/Pokemon Dawn of the New world)

Going into it, i was dreading it. All I was doing was remembering all of the bad things about it and how it did the original poor justice. Of course at the start I was loathing it since it was chock full of "COURAGE IS THE MAGIC THAT TURNS DREAMS INTO REALITY" and Emil is such a pussy. I found myself bashing everything about the game. Till later that night I thought to myself "You know, im going to try to enjoy this."

As of now, Im fighting(STUCK) on Brute. For those of you who dont know, hes basically the boss before the endgame. [spoiler] and marta's ugly ugly bald daddy. god her mom must have been good looking to have a cute daughter like marta with........THAT.[/strike] And to be honest, i've been legitimately enjoying the game! Of course, it has its little issues like Player 1 being forced to be emil and marta n such. my huge ass list of complaints have actually been decreacing into just these major issues i have:

1.The biggest problem. Symphonia cast cannot gain experience. On one hand after thinking about it, through the story, it makes sense! They come and go so much, and Regal and Sheena are basically the main fucking characters (you have them from like, chapter 4 till the end of the game) so it wouldn't matter with them, but with Collete who joins in chapter 2 and never again till chapter 7 end, you wouldn't want a level 14 collete there would you? I mean yeah theres passive EXP, but whatever. If at the very least they removed the EXP lock in Chapter 8 when LLoyd joins at the end of the game, i would have been fine.

2.Emil and Marta and their everlasting struggle with COMMON SENSE up till chapter 5 or so. The beginning of the game consists of NOTHING but this:
Emil:Lloyd's a fucker.
Marta:Yeah. Fuck him.
Both:WE KILLLLLLLLLLLL.
*run into one of ToS1 cast, lets say Genis*
Emil:Hey you're lloyd;s friend arent you.
Genis:.......Yeah?
Emil: *turns into ratatosk* TELL US WHERE THE FUCK HE IS SO WE CAN KILL YOUR BEST FRIEND.
Genis:How about NO.
Marta:I DONT GET IT WHY WONT THEY SELL OUT THEIR BEST FRIEND? ITS LIKE HES THEIR FRIEND OR SOMETHING

Everytime they meet a ToS1 character, the above scenario happens. Untill they meet Raine, where we get this lovely variant:

*above scenario happens up to ratatsok yelling*
Raine:Tell me what you guys are getting centurion cores for an I'll tell you where Lloyd is.
Emil:WAIT SERIOUSLY?
Raine:Well I cant really deny the reports. Lloyd aparently killed people. People change, all I can do is figure out why Lloyd did this and put him back on the right path.
Marta:ARE YOU SERIOUS!? PEOPLE LIKE YOU ARE DESPICABLE. WASNT LLOYD YOUR FRIEND AND STUDENT!?!?!? HOW COULD YOU SAY SUCH THINGSSSSSSS
Masu:Are YOU serious Marta? Weren't you just whining about how Lloyds friends WONT sell him out?

To make it even better, when marta stomps off RPG Female-like style, the following scene when you find her, emil says "Sooooo what was that for? She actually seemed like she was on our side unlike the others.

3.Ratatosk Emil. Before it was funny. It was hysterical to see him try to act like a hardcore douchebag. But it gets to be just a little too much to tollerate around chapter 5 or 6. To make things funny, Mine and Lyle's favorite characters (Genis and Sheena) are the only ones to call him out. Albeit Genis only does it in a victory quote where he calls him a "Stupid neanderthal", but since sheena is in the party for 60% of the game, she is the ONLY character who ever goes "Uh. DUDE! You're being a collossal prick. Cut it out"


To be honest, im willing to look past the above three complaints too. Just look at the game as a parody or comedy, then #2 and 3 loop around to just being funny (except ratatosk will still piss you off). Number one is just......I know they wanted to promote the whole use monsters thing, but it shouldnt have been at the cost of the already loved cast. If they re-released this game and the ONLY change was that you could level them up and they FIXED Presea and Sheena (Both are absolute, utter garbage. Sheena is just BAD, but its like they didnt even bother with Presea. Shes borderline unplayable. she might as well be a glitch.) The sages are just fine (excpet the low damage due to the no leveling up, which is VERY problematic on hard mode which im playing now, where Genis does a whoping 3000 dmg to Brute with his Mystic Arte, fucking Marta does 9000 AND heals the party. Unbalanced much?), and Regal Zelos and Collete are tolerable (outside of ONE huge issue with Zelos which i'll get to in a sec.)

In the end, after overlooking the other issues, I will not lie. I've enjoyed this playthrough of ToS2! If you have it, give it another shot. Don't look at it as the failed sequel to ToS1. Just think of it as a spin-off (which it is) or something, it lightens the pain lol. Also, Maybe its because im older and more mature, but I actually slightly like Emil. Of course hes a completely balless incompetent pussy at the beginning, but the kid fucking tries. At first he doesnt, he just cries about being scared. But later on he gets some base in his voice (THANK GOD cause he always sounds like hes on the verge of tears outside of ratatosk mode), and Marta has pretty decent development too. What's funny is that 90% of my liking for emil comes from the skits, not even the actual story besides a few scenes i saw tonight. He's pretty damn hilarious in them, especially the one when he nearly breaks down crying when sheena cooks for him and he goes "its just......i thought that woment couldn't cook." and sheena replies "Oh, you just had bad luck with the other women" (shes refering to Raine and Marta) only for marta to reply "MIND FILLING ME IN ON THIS LITTLE CONVERSATION" violently. Lol. The biggest problem with the two, is just the magnitude and ferocity that they just ride EVERYONE in the world about Lloyd and wanting to kill him and all of that shit. If they toned it down, they would have been more bearable. The willpower it takes to tollerate such behavior for a long portion of the game will break most players. Oh yeah, the game is short. As hell. I started it last tuesday. Im at the end already (this is including the fact that I worked all this past weekend, spent all night friday out drinking and most of saturday sleeping/playing tales of destiny)

My main issue is the changing of the original cast's voices. Well, mainly just ZELOSSSSSSSSSSSSS. Lloyds is just like "Ergh. Nowhere near as good as 1's but not terrible." Sheena,Raine and Regal are all different too, but close enough to their originals. That and regal is YURI LOWELL in 2,so no complaints from me XD Collete's is the same as 1, as I think Presea's is too. I think Genis is Carl Clover from blazblue???

But anyways, the main focus of the voice segment. ZELOS. Just.....what the hell were they thinking? Even if they HAD to change it, they could have done so much better. Since I was in my "accept the differences and drawbacks" mentality, I was tollerating Zelos' voice......barely. Until I got into a battle, and fucking used Light Spear and heard the following:

AWWWWHHHHHHHH YEAAAAAAAHHHHH!

In the most flamboyant, metro, homoerotic voice they could have possibly done for Zelos. The flamboyant cassanova! ITS WHAT WE'RE SUPPOSED TO LOVE ABOUT HIM! AND THEY RUINED ITTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT.

Well, I should point out the things I liked in the game.

1.Fixed the battle camera. The only issue with ToS1. The camera only focuses on player 1, even in multiplayer mode. This is fixed in 2.
2.I DO NOT like that P1 is FORCED to be emil or marta during multiplayer mode. ALTHOUGH, They are both extremely fun to use, so that makes up for it. That and the ToS1 characters suck
3.Marta is voiced by Rise.
4.90% of the music is reused, just remixed from ToS1, but the few original tracks in 2 are mostly great. Im always happy when I hear the ToS2 exclusive songs.
5.Alice and Decus. They're two of the five new villians in the game. They're basically the "rival couple" to Emil and Marta in an odd sort. Alice is a sadist who aparently only calls people by her disgusting pet names if she likes them??? (She calls her underling Hawke whom she always abuses "Hawkie" and Marta "MartMart") She calls Emil "Pet" (refering to him being Marta's pet.), but I dunno if that has any hidden meaning to it. Decus is a hilariously over the top guy who is obsessed with Alice, though she thinks hes a creep. He wears a disgusting cologne called "eau de seduction" which you later find out in a skit that its made by Regal's company (he then calls it an abomination after actually smelling it himself and he plans to instantly halt its production as soon as they save the world again lol) Ironically for Decus, hes the only character in the game that Alice doesn't have a pet name for, despite the fact that he loves her (which sucks for him since she aparently only gives those names to those she likes. She even had one for Collete but i forgot what it was.) For some reason, Decus thinks Emil is his #1 Fan. While Alice is some......crazed.......sadistic......lesbian.......something towards Marta.
6.The Skits and Victory Quotes. They. Are. Hilarious.


So yeah! It has its drawbacks, quite a few to be honest, but after going through it again and reevaluating it, its a pretty solid RPG. Especially for the freakin wii. I'd say its worth picking up honestly, especially since its only like, 25 dollars at the most now.

I never thought of playing through it in the mindset of parody. That might help ease the pain. It's like when I went to see the second punisher movie. It was awful. Completely unrelated to any human thought. I guess that's the mindset I have to go into this game.

The gameplay was fun. It was the story and characters that were bad. The conversations about Lloyd you mentioned above with Marta and Emil acting anything like normal human beings pretty much sums it up.

also, there was an entire chance for a subplot, where Zelos refused to believe Lloyd was evil. I was expecting him to eventually see some horrific event that would shake his faith in Lloyd. But that never happened. It's unappealing that our main characters are almost completely unlikable and WRONG all the time. Especially when our main goal is to kill the likeable goofball that we fell in love with.

But I'll be willing to give it another chance again. ....Someday. Lol. Catherine's coming out in a week, and it DIDN'T bastardize a game that i loved.

I respect Masu's opinion though. Knights of Ratatosk is STILL a Tales game. So it has to have a good aspect to it. Despite my bitching about Legendia, it still had plenty of good parts to it.

If you took Tos2's gameplay, and Legendia's story and characters, it would make for a pretty good game overall.

That was another thing that annoyed me. When you finally DO find the real Lloyd. He still acts like hes fucking evil.


"Alright......then lets work together........*pulls out swords*"

Sheena:WHAT

Lloyd:HAND OVER THE MOTHERFUCKING CORES YOU FUCKERS

Regal:HEY WHAT.

Lloyd:YOU ALL HEARD MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Yeah. And then the whole reason behind it in the end was stupid.
"Cause I didn't want my friends getting corrupted by this. ....And I knew everything that was going on the whole time and didn't feel like sharing. Because....well because. Oh! I'm not affected by the corruption stuff cause I'm the awesome guy who beat the crap outta Mithos."

Ok another thing. How every fucking vanguard enemy has a move (the name varries, generic grunts just have it called Over Limit) where they will not flinch. and it lasts a good TWO MINUTES. Bosses like Alice Decus and Brute having this is completely LUDICROUS because Alice can HEAL. No flinch. Cast spells. Fully heal. Decus can just combo you to oblivion,and Brute rivals Genis in magic. Im still losing to him. Speaking of brute:



That face(er, move) is killing me D:

Mufasa wrote:Yeah. And then the whole reason behind it in the end was stupid.
"Cause I didn't want my friends getting corrupted by this. ....And I knew everything that was going on the whole time and didn't feel like sharing. Because....well because. Oh! I'm not affected by the corruption stuff cause I'm the awesome guy who beat the crap outta Mithos."

Raaaaaaaaaaage.

James was complaining about this last night (hes playing ToS1 atm). He was like "is there anybody who DOESNT hold vital information till the last second right before they or somebody dies?" Im getting sick of that, people keeping vital info to themselves, which could have helped the party avoid like, 3 dungeons and 15 boss battles lol. They got it right with Rita at least And to some extent Asbel. Though it didnt kinda work for him.

Asbel:HUBERT RICHARD IS COMING TO KILL THE TOWWWWWWWN
Hubert:I thought i fucking exiled you. Get the FUCK OUT.
Richard:SUP GUYS ITS TIME TO DIE.
Asbel:I FUCKING TOLD YOUUUUUUUUU
Hubert:Well. Fuck.Whatever.
Richard:HEY HUBERT N ASBEL, WHEERS YO MOMMA. IM HERE TO RAPE HER.
Both:........I KNOW HE DIDNT BRING MOMMY INTO THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
*boss battle*

lol.

I tried picking it up again. I got into a dungeon and then remembered why I stopped playing. In fact, when I saw a couple of marta cosplayers I started ranting to my friend about this game.

There was a good cosplay too, but i was so annoyed that I didnt take the pic.

Before the con, I had JUST sold this game on ebay for 15 bucks. I'm not looking back.