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"CLAAAAAIIIRRREEE!!!!" |
Tales of Rebirth is the sixth instalment of the Tales (series), released in 2004 for Sony Playstation 2.
It tells the story of a world where humans (Huma) and beastmen (Gajuma) co-exist in relative peace, having co-created the kingdom of Callegea long ago. Gajuma have the ability to use a magical power known as Force, which takes the form of a specific element or power depending on its host.
Our hero, Veigue Lungberg, was just a country boy living in the backwater village Sulz with his sweetheart Claire. That is, until the day that the Gajuma king of Callegea dies, triggering an event that causes Huma worldwide to suddenly develop the power of Force. Veigue gains the Force of Ice, which immediately goes berserk and freezes Claire in a tomb of ice.
One year later, he is visited by two travellers: Mao, a Huma with the Force of Fire and Eugene Gallardo, a Panther Gajuma with the Force of Steel. Mao manages to free Claire using his Force, but before they can get too comfortable she is kidnapped by a group of Kingdom soldiers. Veigue joins Mao and Eugene on a quest to rescue her and unravel the mystery behind the Force event. The plot later expands to involve Fantastic Racism and a good amount of Body Surfing.
Veigue later receives help from other characters: Annie Barrs, a girl with the Force of Rain and a vengeful grudge against Eugene; Tytree Crowe, a Hot-Blooded labourer with a sister complex and the Force of Wood; and Hilda Rhambling, a mysterious fortune teller using the Force of Lightning.
Unfortunately, even after the PSP port, this game has never seen the light of day outside of Japan. But at least Eugene is playable in Tales of The World: Radiant Mythology, and Annie is an NPC. And with the localization of Tales of Graces F, Veigue will also see a localized appearance.
This game provides examples of:
- All of the Other Reindeer (Halves suffer this. Ask both Hilda and Militsa)
- An Ice Person Veigue's force
- Badass Adorable (Eugene, though this is just lampshaded in Radiant Mythology)
- (Mao as well)
- Badass Normal (Milhaust Selkirk. He doesn't have any Force, but he's the most powerful Huma amongst the Callegea army and at one point beats the crap out of Veigue. When he's finally beaten by Veigue, Veigue thinks he's holding back...)
- Not to mention he's the only one in the game able to do one-person Hi-Ougis. Yeah...
- Backstory (While Eugene doesn't really develop, he's got one heck of a Backstory. Hilda, on the other hand, not only has a painful Back Story, she develops from it)
- Big Bad Wannabe (Saleh is evil, has a huge ego, but he really cannot back his claims up and instead gets his ass kicked all the time)
- Bodyguard Crush (Milhaust somehow does care A LOT about Agarte, and I mean more than Knight-Liege relationship)
- This is exactly Agarte's motivation for kidnapping Huma girls in the first half of the game- she feels the same for Milhaust, but thinks the two could never be together since they're different races. Cue her kidnapping the girls in hopes of finding one so that she can switch bodies with them so that she and Milhaust can be together. That, and she's also largely tricked and manipulated by Zilva
- Bromance: Veigue and Tytree
- Catch Phrase (Tytree: "That's worth *insert number from 1 to 5* stars!")
- There's also Eugene's "I'm not surprised that you answered my question with a question". Tytree even hangs a lampshade on it.
- Cool Old Guy (Eugene)
- Little Bit Beastly ("Half"s are like this, looking pretty much like humans but with minor animal characteristics.)
- Cute Shotaro Boy (Mao)
- Defrosting Ice... Country Boy (Veigue is cold, antisocial, but he eventually warms up in the end)
- Dual Boss (The Four Stars love pulling you into these. In their final battle, you fight all four at once.)
- Elemental Powers (Force.)
- Evil Chancellor ( Zilva Madison)
- Eviler Than Thou (Saleh and Tohma both kill each other as their dying "fuck you" to the other).
- Fantastic Racism (main theme of the game)
- Fighting Your Friend (other than casual Heel Face Turn, this game loves this trope. So much that you fight each of your party members seperately at different points of the game.)
- Final Solution (The main goal of Zilva is to eradicate all Huma.)
- Five-Man Band
- The Hero: Veigue
- The Lancer: Mao
- The Big Guy: Eugene & Tytree (Tytree can double as The Heart due to his outrageous optimism in the middle of racism and dark thoughts here and there)
- The Smart Guy: Hilda
- The Chick: Annie
- For the Evulz (Saleh, a type of guy who for no better reasons... just LOVE doing evil things and trampling on hope and love)
- Four Is Death (The Four Stars of Callegea)
- Get a Hold of Yourself, Man! (When Veigue almost lost it, Tytree takes him to a beach... and then incites a fistfight with him so he got better. Veigue later repeats it on Reid in the Viva Tales bonus DVD)
- Note that Reid had done nothing to actually deserve this, it was merely Veigue taking things way out of proportion.
- Giant Space Flea From Nowhere (Yuris, depending on your interpretation, when you think about it, it came out of nowhere and was only mentioned by the last parts of the story)
- Grand Theft Me (Agarte manages to switch bodies with Claire at the fake ending, and much of the remaining plot is spent trying to switch them back once Veigue figures it out. In the past, Zilva also pulled this on Doctor Barrs in order to poison the king and get Eugene exiled.)
- Half-Human Hybrid ("Half"s, who are half-Huma, half-Gajuma and universally discriminated against. Militsa of the Four Stars is a Half, as is Hilda.)
- Hate Plague (The influence of Yuris in the second half of the game causes all Gajama to irrationally develop prejudice against Huma, sometimes to murderous extremes.)
- Hot-Blooded (Tytree)
- Ill Girl (Not exactly inflicted with a terminal disease, but Annie plays this part during one arc)
- Ironic Echo (Early in game, Mao pretended that Eugene is his servant. Late in game, Eugene pretended that the whole team is his servant. For situational uses. There's also a skit detailing this.)
- Also counts as a Brick Joke.
- Keet (Mao)
- Lions and Tigers and Humans, Oh My!
- The Load (Claire. Main heroine, but NEVER participates in battle, even when she's tagging along. Justified because she has no Force and no combat training.)
- Love Makes You Evil (Agarte, whose plan is motivated by her love for Milhaust.)
- Manipulative Bastard (Tohma, who pretty much made up Hilda's past and uses them to break her oh-so-many-times. There's also Zilva, the bitch that orchestrated the death of Ladras and framing of Eugene, then manipulates Agarte into starting her body-switching plan. All so Zilva can take over Callegea and eradicate all Huma.)
- The Medic (Annie, being a doctor's daughter and all)
- My Country, Right or Wrong (Milhaust)
- Names to Know In Anime:
- Nobuyuki Hiyama - Veigue
- Akeno Watanabe - Mao
- Unsho Ishizuka - Eugene
- Kappei Yamaguchi - Tytree
- Sayaka Ohara - Hilda
- Shinichiro Miki - Milhaust
- Noble Top Enforcer (Mainly Milhaust, but before exile, Eugene is also this)
- Onee-Sama (Annie thinks Hilda is one. Tytree is also rumored to be interested in her because of this, and his sister complex)
- Panthera Awesome (Eugene)
- Perpetual Frowner (Veigue)
- Quirky Miniboss Squad (The Four Stars: Saleh, Tohma, Militsa and Walt.)
- The Power of Love (Tytree loves spouting virtues of this, which in turn ticks off Saleh)
- Redemption Equals Death (Agarte.)
- Say My Name (KUREAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!/CLAIIIIIRRREEEE!!!!!! So much it's even parodied in the Viva Tales, and almost reached memetic status)
- In fact, it was actually used in the Bonus DVD for the PSP release to make a brand new Hi-Ougi for Veigue and Tytree, Mugen Zekkyougin. The only problem was it left their allies' ears bleeding.
- Lampshaded by Saleh during an boss battle:
Veigue: Saleh! Where's Claire?! |
- Ship Tease -- Veigue and Claire. Agarte and Milhaust. Tytree and Hilda. Even a tiny bit of Anne and Eugene (though that has weird implications). And despite all that, only Agarte and Milhaust reach any resolution, with everyone else in Status Quo, altough side material more or less scream the obvious fact that Veigue and Claire are together. Oh, and Agarte dies in the end, so... no Official Couple for you!).
- Smug Snake (Saleh has the makings of a Complete Monster, but he just... doesn't take much actions. Unlike Tohma.)
- Super-Powered Evil Side (Anyone with a Force risks going into a berserk rage if they lose control of their emotions, requiring a dose of Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!. Eugene has the worst case of this, as the influence of Yuris means he is at constant risk of going berserk, even after the party brings him under control the first time).
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech (Tytree delivered one to Saleh. Unfortunately, Saleh is too thick-headed to listen.)
- Unstoppable Rage (You go into this if your Force go out of control)
- You Killed My Father (Annie intends to get revenge on Eugene for this.)
- Subverted when it turns out Eugene really DID kill her father, but in self-defense: Annie's father was trying to kill Eugene. Double-subverted when it turns out Annie's father was being possessed by Agarte's Evil Chancellor, Zilva.
- Zettai Ryouki: (Mao)