...And all three of mine are technically from video games. o-oops.
Tales of Vesperia is divided into three acts. The first act primarily deals with classism in Vesperia's world. The lower class essentially lives in poverty and gets no official help from the knights, even when their water source has been tampered with which is VERY MUCH A NECESSITY. Then there's the noble class which sits at the top of the city and lives in the lap of luxury etc. etc. FOR CHARACTERS, Yuri serves as a worldy man who has to do shady things to get by, and Estelle serves as his foil as a princess locked away in the castle with very little experience with the world and its hardships. They meet by Yuri breaking himself out of the castle jail (which he was in for trying to steal back the blastia that made the lower quarter water fountain work) as Estelle was trying to break out of the castle. AND THEN THEY SPEND SEVERAL HOURS OF THE GAME GOING ON A QUEST TO FIND FLYNN FOR IMPORTANT REASONS. And they run into the Guilds (and pick up a guildie as well, Karol) and then there's conflict between the two, with the Empire representing 'law' and the Guilds representing 'chaos' and how they both have problems but that gets more in depth in further acts.
There are also themes on law vs. chaos in the form of Flynn and Yuri having very different ideas on how to change the world for the better, in that Flynn believes in working within the system and changing it from the inside out whereas Yuri believes it's better to fuck the system and find something else. Both are presented as valid ideas with pros and cons and they make the Empire vs. Guilds conflict more personal.
Also, Estelle and Rita are adorable and you get a dog in your party, you should know this. It's important.
The second act is primarily about Estelle's journey. She is called an 'insipid poison' by a giant talking monster and so she goes on a quest to learn about why and also about HER POWER (which allows her to cast artes and heal without a blastia, which is what everyone else uses to cast magic in Vesperia-world!) So she travels the world looking for that same monster, learns lessons in how best to direct herself, while Yuri learns about THE DANGERS OF VIGILANTISM...Before Estelle learns her healing is capable of driving an certain species insane and she ends up killing one oh no. And that her power and continued existence is destroying the world oh no. And it turns out it's because her aer conversion rate is so terrible it causes problems in the environment and oh BLASTIA DO THE SAME THING. WHICH APPARENTLY MEANS JUDITH HAD TO KILL HER but that is terrible so they don't do it. Instead a villain kidnaps Estelle and brainwash her and use her as a giant blastia OF EVIL to make up for the lack of terrible. But then they overdo it by forcing her to fight her friends and it's awful and I cry everytime I get to that part no lie. IT'S TERRIBLE OKAY.
And oh yeah, there's time travel and weirdness and you ride on a giant flying sentient whale and it's awesome.
BUT!!! Just before the third act we learn that the environment problems take the form of giant world eating monsters of grossness OH NOOOOOOooooo. So then the third act of the game is when we learn lots of lessons about how terrible humans are for overusing our existing resources and our need to find a new resource. Which is kind of undone a little by the fact that the new resource is made by taking all the aer in the world and converting it to mana which will not have any long term effects, especially if you don't ever play Symphonia and start seeing weird connections about how mana is misused...BUT YES. THE WORLD IS CHANGED FOR THE BETTER, BECAUSE WHILE WE MAKE BLASTIA USELESS, ESTELLE GETS TO BE NOT KILLED.
And the final boss marries a squirrel and everyone's happy the end.
EXPLAIN DI[E]CE TO ME AS RIDICULOUS AND UNHELPFUL AS I JUST EXPLAINED VESPERIA TO YOU.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2013-02-07 06:00 am (UTC)Tales of Vesperia is divided into three acts. The first act primarily deals with classism in Vesperia's world. The lower class essentially lives in poverty and gets no official help from the knights, even when their water source has been tampered with which is VERY MUCH A NECESSITY. Then there's the noble class which sits at the top of the city and lives in the lap of luxury etc. etc. FOR CHARACTERS, Yuri serves as a worldy man who has to do shady things to get by, and Estelle serves as his foil as a princess locked away in the castle with very little experience with the world and its hardships. They meet by Yuri breaking himself out of the castle jail (which he was in for trying to steal back the blastia that made the lower quarter water fountain work) as Estelle was trying to break out of the castle. AND THEN THEY SPEND SEVERAL HOURS OF THE GAME GOING ON A QUEST TO FIND FLYNN FOR IMPORTANT REASONS. And they run into the Guilds (and pick up a guildie as well, Karol) and then there's conflict between the two, with the Empire representing 'law' and the Guilds representing 'chaos' and how they both have problems but that gets more in depth in further acts.
There are also themes on law vs. chaos in the form of Flynn and Yuri having very different ideas on how to change the world for the better, in that Flynn believes in working within the system and changing it from the inside out whereas Yuri believes it's better to fuck the system and find something else. Both are presented as valid ideas with pros and cons and they make the Empire vs. Guilds conflict more personal.
Also, Estelle and Rita are adorable and you get a dog in your party, you should know this. It's important.
The second act is primarily about Estelle's journey. She is called an 'insipid poison' by a giant talking monster and so she goes on a quest to learn about why and also about HER POWER (which allows her to cast artes and heal without a blastia, which is what everyone else uses to cast magic in Vesperia-world!) So she travels the world looking for that same monster, learns lessons in how best to direct herself, while Yuri learns about THE DANGERS OF VIGILANTISM...Before Estelle learns her healing is capable of driving an certain species insane and she ends up killing one oh no. And that her power and continued existence is destroying the world oh no. And it turns out it's because her aer conversion rate is so terrible it causes problems in the environment and oh BLASTIA DO THE SAME THING. WHICH APPARENTLY MEANS JUDITH HAD TO KILL HER but that is terrible so they don't do it. Instead a villain kidnaps Estelle and brainwash her and use her as a giant blastia OF EVIL to make up for the lack of terrible. But then they overdo it by forcing her to fight her friends and it's awful and I cry everytime I get to that part no lie. IT'S TERRIBLE OKAY.
And oh yeah, there's time travel and weirdness and you ride on a giant flying sentient whale and it's awesome.
BUT!!! Just before the third act we learn that the environment problems take the form of giant world eating monsters of grossness OH NOOOOOOooooo. So then the third act of the game is when we learn lots of lessons about how terrible humans are for overusing our existing resources and our need to find a new resource. Which is kind of undone a little by the fact that the new resource is made by taking all the aer in the world and converting it to mana which will not have any long term effects, especially if you don't ever play Symphonia and start seeing weird connections about how mana is misused...BUT YES. THE WORLD IS CHANGED FOR THE BETTER, BECAUSE WHILE WE MAKE BLASTIA USELESS, ESTELLE GETS TO BE NOT KILLED.
And the final boss marries a squirrel and everyone's happy the end.
EXPLAIN DI[E]CE TO ME AS RIDICULOUS AND UNHELPFUL AS I JUST EXPLAINED VESPERIA TO YOU.