Baelfael : In celebration of the new game coming out (ONE WEEK!), I decided to make this short, Coffee Break Chapter. It had a longer name before, but I shortened it for convenience. Or, if you have to shorten it even further, CBC. It's a mostly humorous, outside-the-box view at the games, or any situation or holiday, like Christmas, Valentines, Easter, etc.
This and any CBC's in the future include all the characters from the game, and Tales of Angelus, but will not spoil anything. ...At least for my fanfiction anyway. So, for your own good, please play through Tales of Symphonia at least once before reading this, to avoid any spoilers.
Oh, and don't worry. I have next to no idea what the new game will be like, so there are not going to be any spoilers for Dawn of the New World. Enjoy!
Leon : Ahem. Baelfael does not own rights for Tales of Symphonia or any copyrighted material. They belong to their respected companies. ...My throat hurts.
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Coffee Break Chapter : Old Habits Die Hard
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"Hi, I'm Leon Calister, from the popular fan fiction, Tales of Angelus, based off of Tales of Symphonia." Leon greeted everyone.
"If you can call it popular." Lloyd reiterated.
"That thing is Red, also from both of the aforementioned world treasures." Leon introduced his partner on his right.
And finally, a woman bowed. "And I'm Fiona Quis. You don't know me, but I'll be a future character in the fanfiction."
Leon turned towards the crowd again. "As any of you who played TOS may know, the sequel, Dawn of the New World, or as they in Japan call it, Knights of Ratatosk--"
"That is impossible to say. Glad they changed it." Lloyd interupted, but was shushed by Fiona.
"--is being released into American stores a week from today. With such a memorable day, we felt it was appropriate to take a look back and see what good times it's predecessor has brought us."
Lloyd turned toward the audience as the camera focused on him. "The year was 2004. RPG lovers around the world were sinking into depression. Why? Because all they had to play was Final Fantasy, which all involved the same, slow and degrading, move-by-move, time-based battle system. Not even 3D graphics and cool, over-the-edge moves could've saved them from that."
Fiona took out a pointer and motioned toward the chalkboard behind her. "At the time, Namco, who was still it's own company at the time, had released two 'Tales of' games into America, Tales of Destiny, and Tales of Eternia, which was renamed to Destiny II, avoiding a nasty copyright hazard with Mattel. The games made some good money, but never enough to be considered a hit. So all they had to go by was Soul Calibur."
"But Namco made a daring decision." Leon pointed out. "Namco brought Tales of Symphonia to America, hoping to make at least some money off of a gamble. And it payed off, in masses. Tales of Symphonia instantly became a hit, and anyone who owned a Gamecube instantly bought one."
"There are a lot of reasons and speculations as to why TOS became as popular as it had," Fiona continued, pointing at the chalkboard again, "but here, I'll show you the top 5 reasons why it selled out like Lloyd's intelligence."
Number 5 : Characters (as explained by Genis and Mithos)
"A bunch of rag-time heroes going out to save the world by defeating monsters is the basis for any RPG. But TOS expanded on that, by making the main characters even more rag-time."
"An idiot swordsman, a blonde klutz, a short know-it-all, an abusive older sister, a busty paper-killing assassin, a pervy womanizer, a 28-year-old loli, and Crispin Freeman." Mithos stopped for a second. Suddenly, his eyes lit up. "Oh yeah, and Kratos, the Vader ripoff."
Genis nodded. "That's right. But that's not to say the villains weren't any weirder. Magnius could only come up with one insulting noun. And you could never tell if Kvar was squinting the whole time, or if he was just keeping his eyes closed."
"And Pronyma..." Mithos shuddered. "She is horrible! She tried to come onto me after she joined Cruxis!"
"What's wrong with that, other than the obvious reasons?"
"She came onto me when I was in this form!" Mithos motioned to his own body, which was in his child-like state.
"Well, I can't very well say I'd prefer 'disco inferno' over this." Noticing the looks he was getting, Genis turned towards the camera. "And I meant if I were a girl."
"You sure sound like one." A voice called from off screen.
Number 4 : Battle Interaction (as explained by Raine and Regal)
"Tales of Symphonia was the first of the Tales series to involve the Linear Motion Battle System; a system that allows free movement for any character in a 3D background--"
"Except for the player himself." Regal cut in.
"Yes, anyone could move around in a full 360 degrees, except for the characters being controlled and the enemy they face." Raine finished.
"Which meant that strategy now played an even more important role in an RPG than ever before." Regal turned toward the large area behind him. "As Lloyd will now show you, running head-first into the enemy group is not the best way to defeat the enemy."
"Hi mom!" Lloyd waved at the camera.
"Now, watch what happens when Lloyd runs in-between the two grasshopper monsters."
(_CENSORED FOR GRAPHIC CONTENT_)
"Well, that didn't really work out for Lloyd, did it? Now watch what happens when Kratos jumps behind one grasshopper."
Kratos runs towards the monster, jumps and soars over the monster, and instantly swings his sword, cutting the monster down.
"You see? Kratos used his head. Lloyd might need his stitched back on."
"I feel dizzy..."
Raine turned towards her student, who, off-screen, was on a stretcher. "That's just blood loss, Lloyd. You'll make new blood, you just need some orange juice."
Number 3 : Anime (as explained by Zelos and Sheena)
"Anime was becoming a hit in America already, introducing shows like Dragon Ball and Sailor Moon and moving on to other genres. They even brought Beyblade over." Zelos explained.
"But you rarely see any anime in games. Sure, Final Fantasy had it's own 3D cinematics, but you can't compare that and the old traditional way of animating. Which is why it came as a pleasant shock when the opening movie for the game was fully animated, even though most of the rest of the game wasn't, or was in 3D."
"So, to make up for it, they included a lot more skits than the other games, and included some that didn't even help the player, and were just humorous or expanding the characters profile. They even included several cliches, like visiting bath houses, going to the beach, and other stuff."
"You see, anime is more than just referring to the style of animation. It also includes all the stuff that goes on in anime."
"Like when prepubescent boys spy on girls in the bath house."
"Or when a girl wears the shirt of the guy she likes."
"Or how kunoichi have such huge assets."
SMACK!
"Or how perverts get slapped across the face in every episode!"
"Anime. It's not a genre; it's a way of life."
Number 2 : Relations (as explained by Colette and Presea)
Presea dragged the camera down to focus on her. "Many RPGs have great and memorable characters, and TOS wasn't an exception. Many of the main characters have their own story and backdrop that spells out their personality to you."
Colette nodded. "Everyone is explored probingly. And it's because of this that all the relationships in the game are easy to develop and last until the end of the game, possibly continuing on into the sequel."
"Many fans of the series have different tastes and opinions on the characters and their relationships. Basically, the rule is, everything is allowed."
"We've been together so long that any pairing is allowed! Lloyd can hook up with any member of the party by design, and the rest of us fill in the gaps."
"Say for example Lloyd decides to hook up with Sheena. Where does that leave Colette, the other main character? She could hook up with Zelos, or even me!"
"Some even go so far as to place someone with someone from the other side. There are a lot of people that liked seeing Kratos and Yuan together."
"The point is, it's a matter of opinion, and no ones pairing is above or below anyone else."
"And lets not forget the characters that people have come up with! They even go so far as putting themselves into the game!"
"And placing themselves in romantic relationships with their favourite characters. Which brings us to number one."
Number 1 : Kratos
"Let's face it," Lloyd started, arm in a sling. "2 out of 3 TOS players are female, and nearly all of them play for the same reason; Kratos. Girls love him, guys want to be like him."
" has all the traits of the collectively agreed perfect male specimen." Fiona pointed out. "He's handsome, a skilled swordsman and scholar, a single parent, brooding, and has a deep devotion towards his family. Girls love him because they know they can never have him. He will always be loyal to Anna."
"A woman who, we've never had the chance to see her face, not to my knowledge, anyway." Leon pointed out.
"His fanbase also skyrockets when people realize he was working toward the greater good throughout the whole game, even under the guise of a bad guy."
"Yeah, feigned betrayal is all the rage these days. I betcha they're gonna try and follow his example, see if it works for their games."
"Posers. My dad was cool before any of them will be."
"So there you have it. TOS is a great game, and you are a genius for buying it. And if you haven't, then why are you wasting time looking at this? Go and buy it! And for that matter, its sequel is coming out next week! You don't have time to be wasting! GO RESERVE A COPY NOW!"
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Baelfael : As I explained earlier, this is not a serious fiction. It is purely humorous, (or at least intended to be) and not attacking any point of the game or any other game I may have mentioned earlier. Final Fantasy has good points too.
I hope you enjoyed this small break. I have another that I'll be putting up near the start of December, so if you enjoy this one, please look forward to it. All right, back to Tales of Angelus!