Tales of Eternia

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Tales of Eternia
Developer(s)	Wolfteam
Publisher(s)	Namco (JP, US) Ubisoft (EU)
Designer(s)	Mutsumi Inomata (character)
Release date(s)	November 30, 2000 (PS1) September 10, 2001 (PS1) March 3, 2005 (PSP) February 16, 2006 (PSP) February, 2006 (PSP)
Genre(s)	Action role-playing game
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer
Rating(s)	ESRB: T (Teen) CERO: All Ages PEGI: 12+ OFLC: PG (PSP)
Platform(s)	PlayStation PlayStation Portable
Media	3 × CD-ROM (PlayStation) 1 × UMD (PlayStation Portable)

Tales of Eternia (テイルズ オブ エターニア, Teiruzu obu Etānia^?) is a Japanese PlayStation action role-playing video game released by Namco in 2000, and later ported to PlayStation Portable in 2005. Eternia is a 2D anime-style RPG with an original real-time battle system taken from its predecessors, Tales of Phantasia and Tales of Destiny. It is the third main game of the Tales RPG series. The Linear Motion Battle System as well as various other aspects from previous Tales titles still feature prominently.

Its North American release was titled Tales of Destiny II to avoid copyright infringement on the name Eternia (which is owned by Mattel in North America for the Masters of the Universe toyline). This is problematic, because there is now a PlayStation 2 game actually known as Tales of Destiny 2, which is a true sequel to Tales of Destiny and takes place in the same world. Tales of Eternia doesn't relate to Tales of Destiny, except for a few brief character cameos that are typical in all of the games in the series following the first.

Both the North American and Japanese releases of the game feature an anime introductory video. The Japanese version has an accompanying song called flying by GARNET CROW. Tales of Eternia is also a 13 episode anime series co-produced by Production I.G. which is loosely based on the game. The series focuses on the four main characters while introducing a few new faces in a subplot unrelated to the game's actual plot. All 13 episodes of the series were animated in early 2001.

Contents 1 Storyline 2 Characters 3 Battle System 4 Tales of Phantasia and Tales of Destiny Cameos 5 Classic Namco References 6 External links

[edit] Storyline

The story takes place in "Eternia, a world where two planets, Inferia and Celestia, face one another, separated by the Orbus Barrier. It all begins when two of the main characters, Reid Herschel and Farah Oersted, notice a strange change in the color of the Orbus Barrier and some kind of spaceship falling down from Celestia. When they go to see what happened, they meet a cute girl, Meredy, who is dressed in a strange fashion and speaks a strange, foreign language, and her pet, Quickie.

Thus, Reid and Farah decide to go see their childhood friend, Keele Zeibel, in search of answers. There they learn Meredy speaks Melnics, an ancient civilization's language. So, when they finally understand her words with the help of a special earring, she says she comes from Celestia because the two planets are going to collide and collapse in the Grand Fall. They must search for the Greater Craymels to stop the fall and save both worlds.

At the start of their journey, they can't really believe what Meredy says, as in Inferia, after thousands of years of isolation, Celestians are said to be man-eating ugly monsters. Eventually, as they travel through all of Eternia requesting the help of the Greater Craymels and meeting new friends, such as Ras, Max and Chat, they'll finally uncover the secrets of Eternia and how to stop the Grand Fall.

[edit] Characters

• Reid Hershel
• Japanese: リッド・ハーシェル Rid Hershel
• Age: 18
• Origin: Inferia
• Height: 178 cm
• Weight: 62 kg
• Class: Hunter
• Japanese Voice: Akira Ishida
• U.S. Voice: Kevin Miller

Reid is the red-haired protagonist in Tales of Eternia who wields a wide variety of mêlée weaponry, including swords, axes, and halberds. His main strength is his vast array of powerful close-combat special techniques that utilize his high physical power, so Reid should always be in the thick of battle. Reid's high HP and defense statistics also help him to survive in close quarters with the enemy. Reid can also learn recipes throughout the journey and cook status-enhancing food for his allies out of combat. Reid and Farah have known each other since childhood, growing up in the same small village, Rasheans Village, and have become close. Reid has no magic to speak of, but he has the special ability to use Fibril, the so-called "Power of the Gods", to execute some unique and powerful techniques late in the game.

• Farah Oersted
• Japanese: ファラ・エルステッド Farah Oersted
• Age: 17
• Origin: Inferia
• Height: 161 cm
• Weight: 46 kg
• Class: Farmer
• Japanese Voice: Yuko Minaguchi

Farah is a hardheaded farm girl from the same village as Reid, Rasheans, and they are almost always together. Farah uses her martial arts prowess to inflict hand-to-hand damage on her enemies through punches and kicks, but she also has a small selection of healing magic to aid the party with. Farah's weapons are knuckles that augment the strength of her physical blows, and she plays more of a supporting role than Reid both in and out of battle. Farah's strength, defense and evade statistics are always higher than Reid's. Farah is very good at stringing together long attack combos that give the party extra experience. Her only drawback is that she lacks the ability to attack more than one target at once (unless the enemies are bunched up, but even then her techs are made to attack single opponents).

• Keele Zeibel
• Japanese: キール・ツァイベル Keel Zeibel
• Age: 17
• Origin: Inferia
• Height: 174 cm
• Weight: 51 kg
• Class: Mintche University Light Craymel Graduate
• Japanese Voice: Soichiro Hoshi

Keele is one of two supporting spell casters for the party, with Meredy being the other. Keele is a scholarly researcher who spends his time at Mintche University investigating Craymels and their applications. Keele has the ability to cast offensive magic and summon based on what Greater Craymels are assigned to him. Although he has a few innate spells that are gained automatically, the vast majority of Keele's spells must be gained through Greater Craymel assignment and fringing to develop new techniques. Therefore, both Keele and Meredy are highly customizable, but assignment of Greater Craymels among them is a zero-sum game, so the best idea is to balance their selections of spells. Keele has slightly more HP than Meredy, but he is slower to learn new summoning spells. Keele fights with staves and maces, but his physical attacks are typically weak and he should cast spells at all times. Keele's starting spells that he knows naturally without Craymels are: Fireball, Aqua Edge and Wind Blade

• Meredy
• Japanese: メルディ Meredy
• Age: 16
• Origin: Celestia
• Height: 157 cm
• Weight: 45 kg
• Class: Craymel Engineer
• Japanese Voice: Omi Minami

Meredy is the other supporting spell caster, and she has abilities that are very similar to Keele's. Hailing from Celestia and speaking a language alien to the Inferians, Melnics, Meredy is never without her companion Quickie. Meredy's home is Imen, the city of Craymels, in Celestia. Like Keele, Meredy has a handful of innate offensive spells. Meredy has the same Greater Craymel options as Keele, including fringing, offensive spellcasting, and summoning. Both Keele and Meredy should be placed in the rear of the battle formation so they can be out of harm's way as much as possible. Meredy has a slight TP advantage on Keele, and she learns summoning spells earlier than he does. Meredy uses whistles to command Quickie and attack from long range; she can obtain a special item late in the game to control him more accurately while defending or casting a spell, increasing her power as a stand-alone character. Nevertheless, like Keele she should focus on magical attacks as opposed to physical ones. Meredy's starting spells that she knows naturally without Craymels are: Lightning, Ice Needles, and Grave

• Chat
• Japanese: チャット Chat
• Age: 12
• Origin: Celestia
• Height: 146 cm
• Weight: 38 kg
• Class: Pirate
• Japanese Voice: Junko Noda

Descended from a famous pirate, Chat styles herself an oddball pirate who is the captain of an impressive ship, the Van Eltia, but she has no crew. Before meeting the party in the course of the story, Chat lived in relative isolation. A unique and specialized character, Chat has the ability to steal from enemies and unleash some interesting attacks, but she is hardly a sturdy pillar when it comes to combat. Best used in a support role, Chat is most useful for stealing and quickly darting in and out of combat. Bags are her weapons.

• Max
• Japanese: フォッグ Fog
• Age: 38
• Origin: Celestia
• Height: 185 cm
• Weight: 92 kg
• Class: Gunner
• Japanese Voice: Masashi Ebara

The leader of the resistance group, Shileska, which is aligned against the de facto Celestian government; high-powered energy guns are Max's weapon of choice. Shileska is headquartered in the Celestian city of Tinnsia. Max has very high HP and will most likely be the first character to reach the maximum of 9999, but placing Max in the front is a bad idea. His weapons have a long charging time, so Max needs to be protected while he gets off his damaging shots. However, Max can be an extremely effective damage dealer in the back of the formation if he is well defended and left alone.

• Rassius Luine (Ras)
• Japanese: レイシス・フォーマルハウト（レイス） Rassis Fomalhaut (Race)
• Age: 25
• Origin: Inferia
• Height: 182 cm
• Weight: 76 kg
• Class: Merchant
• Japanese Voice: Hiroshi Isobe

Ras originally appears to be on the party's side and even is usable as a character for a period of time, but his true intentions as a Senior Knight of Inferia are soon revealed. Ras is an agile swordsman who uses sabers in quick attacks and techniques, and he is reasonably effective in the front of the party with Reid. Also, Ras shares some sword-based skills with Reid. Nevertheless, he eventually becomes an adversary, opposing the actions of the party to reach Celestia. It is eventually revealed that he has the same special powers as Reid when it comes to manipulating the Fibril.

[edit] Battle System

Tales of Eternia carries on the tradition of the Linear Motion Battle System (LMBS), a system that is somewhat similar to a 2-D fighting game. Commands are entered in real time, and both allies and enemies act out their orders in real time in the 2-D plane. Normal attacks and special techniques are usually executed instantly, but spells have a chanting time that increases as the complexity of the spell increases. Unlike the previous two games in the series, Tales of Eternia executes spells in real time, probably due to the increased graphical abilities of the PlayStation console. Therefore, spells no longer act as interrupts that freeze time, so spell effects can be dodged and evaded if the player is skilled enough, adding another dimension to the gameplay. The future games in the series would also choose to retain the totally real-time chanting and casting system for spells.

Elements of battle strategy, such as individual character commands (AI behavior) and party orders, have been slightly expanded, but their functionality remains essentially intact. Much like its predecessors, Tales of Eternia allows the player a large degree of control over computer-controlled allies and the techniques they use. Since the player only directly controls one character at a time, all other characters are governed by general rules of AI behavior set by the player before and during battle. During battle, the player can switch which character he or she is controlling, while issuing specific orders to other allies to execute certain techniques on command. However, totally controlling all of the characters' actions throughout a battle requires a large amount of micromanagement, and most players end up delegating control of allies to the AI during normal encounters. During important and difficult boss battles, the player may choose to take more direct control and issue more forceful commands in order to keep the party alive and functioning at maximum efficiency.

[edit] Tales of Phantasia and Tales of Destiny Cameos

Tales of Phantasia

• Tristan appears in Mintche as part of the Grip Sword side-quest. He mentions his student (Cless(Jap)/Cress(USA)) preparing for the Arena.
• Klarth (Claus or Clark in other translations) hosts the second Namco quiz.
• Cless (Cress in the USA) and Arche appear in a special coliseum battle with Chester, Mint and Klarth (once again, Claus or Clark in other translations) in the audience.
• Sekundes, the Greater Craymel of Time, shares the battle theme, appearance, attacks and vulnerabilities of Dhaos.
• Mint appears when either Keele or Meredy cast Resurrection.
• Arche also briefly appears as a playable character when Keele or Meredy cast Shooting Star when Maxwell is at level 30 and has maximum vitality.

Tales of Destiny

• Chelsea hosts the first Namco quiz.
• The swordian Clemente hosts the third Namco quiz.
• Lilith is the cooking champion in Chambard.
• Irene is also in Chambard (and Tinnsia) and will you give prizes for collecting Lens.
• Photos of Stahn, Rutee and Philia appear as part of a puzzle in Chat's Hut's maze.
• The thieves costume that Farah tries on in Peruti is Rutee's outfit.
• Bruiser (Mighty Kongman) hosts the sushi eating mini-game in Tinnsia.
• The S.D. key item is the swordian Dymlos.
• The Destiny summon spell brings in Stahn, Rutee, Garr (Woodrow), Philia and Leon for a special attack.

[edit] Classic Namco References

Much like its predecessors, Tales of Eternia contains many hidden references to classic Namco arcade games.

At Mintche University, the player can take three quizzes based on Tales of Destiny and various Namco games. Each quiz rewards Reid a different title being Namco Teacher, Namco Professor and Namco Otaku. Questions range from classics like Pac-Man and Dig Dug, to modern (at the time) games such as Klonoa and Tekken. Even though the quizzes were changed from purely Tales trivia to Tales/Namco trivia as Tales of Phantasia had not been released in the US, there are questions relating the Namco games or products that never saw release in the US (such as the Tower of Druaga board game). Another curiosity is that the quiz states Blinky from Pac-Man as the orange ghost; while Blinky has traditionally been the red ghost, the most recent game at that time (Pac-Man Arrangement on Namco Classics Collection Volume 2) did have Blinky and Clyde's names swapped.

Aifread's Tomb contains three distinct sections based on The Genji and Heike Clans (Genpei ToumaDen), Shadowland (Yokai Douchuuki) and Splatterhouse.

Glimmer Spire features the main theme music of Legend of Valkyrie (Valkyrie No Densetsu) and the central character as a boss.

The items Excalibur, Golden Armor, Golden Helmet, Red Shield, Blue Shield, Jet Boots, Hyper Gauntlet and Crystal Rod are prominent items in the Tower of Druaga series (and have appeared in most of the Tales games).

[edit] External links

• Official American Website (Playstation)
• Absolute Destiny Fanshrine to Keele Zeibel with information, media, and more.
• Tales Channel
• Tales of Destiny II at MobyGames
• Page for Tales of Eternia on RPGamer.com
• Tales of Destiny II at GameFAQs
• Tales of Eternia anime series
• Temple of Undine (fan site)
• Symphonic Heaven (fan site)
• Tales-of-All.de
• Tales of Eternia: The Animation Info