Reviewers corner

[Manibrandr System]

Because it's fun to give things a review. I'll start with this:

This is a playthrough of the final battle in Tales of Eternia (Tales of Destiny 2 in the US) So here's a little warning to those who hasn't played it to not read it for potential spoilers. (If any)

>[Link]<

This battle, while sucessful, is an example of many thing not to do in that game.

First off, appears that he hasn't gotten a good combination of craymels. It is noted that Bloody Howling (Dark Elemental, massive damage) is used, while it is strong against most foes, the fact that the end boss' elemental disposition is the same of that of the spell, it's useless and it's not worth sacrificing Mental Supply(Restores TP when hit), Holy Bliss(Constantly Regens HP) and Life Rescue(Periodically regenerates 5% of the total HP of all allies) over.

A poor equipment setup is noticed. Reid should be equipped with a Faerie Ring(Cuts TP useage by 1/2) because he uses techs a LOT. The same goes for Max, if you don't have a spare Faerie Ring, then use an Emerald Ring(Cuts TP useage by 1/3) instead. you can either use the second accessory slot for a Moon Crystal (Increases Max TP by 30%) or a *Chancellor* (Chains 3-Levels of different laser attacks together) Meredy should be equipped with an Opal Crystal (Increases max HP by 30%) As her base max HP is a bit low for comfort.

The formation is terrible as well. As you can see, the casters and tank/fighter characters are too closely placed together instead of spread apart.

Now...to his fighting style. Pretty pathetic IMO. There's little or no chaining of attacks and techs at all, he went straight to using sacred skills (Omega Demon Chaos and Demon Spiral Hammer) with minimal or no chaining, which is often interrupted when he jumps into the stream of the end boss' Soul Shot (Multiple balls of light shooting diagonally downwards from above) attack. Not to mention the complete lack of blocking and retreating from attacks he know will connect if he held his ground. Note that he (Repeatedly!) walks straight into the Nihilistic Light(Glowy balls of dirt floating upwards from the ground) attack as well as sontinue charging immediately after recovering from an attack instead of defending and looking for an opening. He also repeats the mistakes with no change of strategy at all.

Oh and he didn't use a single Flare Bottle(Ups attack power during battle by 30%), but I guess I'm splitting hairs with that.

Overall score 3.7/10 a sucessful fight, but he could have done a lot better.

PS : The game is awesome, I recommend you get this game whichever way you can. it's released for the PSX and PSP under Tales of Destiny 2 in the US.

[inferiare]

I started playing Ar Tonelico a couple nights ago. Might as well put my $0.02 in about what I've seen so far:

The bad: Glitchy in some areas (like going from one area on the map to the next can lag somewhat), there's a few typos that litter the dialogue/information parts, and if anyone remembers the dubbed anime from the early 90's? That's the voice acting in English.

The good: I like the story already. The story is really engaging. The music is good. The character designs are awesome (even if morons complain that Lyner looks like OMG CLOUD!!!!!!!111!!1!!!cactus from FF7, when he DOESN'T. God forbid that other characters from other franchises have somewhat spiky blond hair.), and the battle system is damn awesome.

Also? It's a sprite-based game. Oh, and the Japanese vocals are niiiiice.

So far, with a couple hours into the game, I like it so far. Hopefully, it'll keep getting better.

[Manibrandr System]

(even if morons complain that Lyner looks like OMG CLOUD!!!!!!!111!!1!!!cactus from FF7, when he DOESN'T. God forbid that other characters from other franchises have somewhat spiky blond hair.)

Yeah! The resemblance of ALL spiky blond-haired heroes to Cloud Mcfaggot is really striking!

Also, Ar Tonelico does indeed look very fun, this game rates an 8 on the DO WANT! scale of 10