Tales of Legendia/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Artistic License Geology: It may be a fantasy setting and all, but if the planet used to be all ocean before the orerines terraforming took place, shouldn't it have a solid core or an ocean floor? Even Neptune has a core of mostly rocks and ices.
  • Base Breaker - Depending on who you ask, Shirley is the most loathed of Scrappies or the most beloved character in the game.
    • Or both. Some love her as a villain and hate her as a hero, and vice versa. Love to Hate, if nothing else.
    • Also, the entire game is a bit of a Base Breaker for the Tales fandom.
  • Better Than It Sounds Video Games
  • Boring but Practical: In order to play to elemental weaknesses later in the game, basically having Grune spam Curse and sea spells. Although mostly in the main quest, you'll have Grune spam "Bloody howling" as it's literally her only spell for a lot of the time before the character quests. Basically...if oyu wanna use Grune for magic damage, expect to see and hear a lot of "Bloody howling".
    • Healing in this game is basically "Revive" or "First aid", later on "Cure". There's no real "heal over time" effects like in other Tales (series) games, so you'll hear those a lot, especially Revive because it heals the entire party.
  • Character Tiers
    • Shirley is a bit of a Tier-Induced Scrappy because she's a caster (And you don't really need another), a weird form of hybrid between caster and ranged fighter (Which makes her Master of None). Not to mention, most of her spells are already known by Will, Norma, and Grune but mostly Will, so she essentially comes off as a clone of Will.
      • Casters in general are Overshadowed by Awesome in this game; they're mostly used for utility of comboing and playing to elemental weaknesses. The melee fighters deal way more damage, but you need at least Norma (And possibly Will or Shirley) for healing.
    • The melees are basically top tier because of how the melee works; it's overpowered. However; they are much more likely to run out of TP if they spam Eres.
      • It certainly doesn't help that melee fighters can use the Extreme Symbol, which skyrockets physical attack power in exchange for cutting defense in half. The trade-off is so very worth it; the character equipped with the symbol will deal absolutely absurd damage. For example, Senel using the symbol and wielding a elemental weapon that an enemy is weak to can easily break 10,000 damage with a single throw move. Spells tend to top off at about 2000-3000 damage, and take a lot of time to cast.
  • Complete Monster - Jay's adoptive father, Solon. Vaclav is right up there, too, as is the captain of the Gadorian Knights.
  • Crowning Moment of Awesome: Really, any time the Gadorian Knight captain gets his ass kicked. The second time doubles as a-
  • Crowning Moment of Funny: Poppo translating the Grand Gaet's language. Apparently, they bro speak.
    • Whenever Norma sleep talks.
    • Also the Star Festival Event. Mostly Will's wish.

Will: "May the dinner table be at peace."

      • Norma's wish as well. Along with her explanation.

Norma: "Hook me up with a drop-dead gorgeous bod!"
Norma: Don't sound so disgusted! It's a really serious problem for me! I haven't been growing at all lately!" I'm not asking for a G-Girl level, but a C at least! ... So to speak...
Chloe: Leave me out of this. ... Besides, if you're going to shoot for someone, surely it should be Grune, not me.
Norma: *Sigh*
Chloe: Wh... what?
Norma: This is why I hate dealing with amateurs! You don't get it! You don't get it at all! Do you have any idea what it's like to be flat as a board?! Huh?! It ain't easy, you know!
Chloe: Ah--
Norma: G-Girl's beyond human! She's the ultimate work of art! A miracle to behold! In the realm of the gods! Do you think I could win against a god?! She's like every man's dream! You know what I am? I'm every carpenter's dream! So me and my pancakes have to shoot for something more realistic. That's you and yours, C, so shut up! Even I know there's no way for a girl with mosquito bites like me to match G-Girl at this point short of the Everlight and that's way gone! You should really take pity on the less endowed, you insensitive clod! How can you not understand the complexities of the female heart, C?! Unbelievable!

    • The Bantam Bouncers. They look like they came out of a Disco Music Video, and get the crap beaten out of them by Senel. Despite being beaten up so easily, they wind up being able to kick ass if they want to.
      • Course it's also pretty funny to hear them sing and beat up people who break the rules. Especially when the Oresoren and Norma join in about 20 or so hours after the last time they sang.
      • "The boy is here, we found him at last! Let's hurry up and kick his a-"
  • Crowning Moment of Heartwarming - Jay's Character Quest, before the party heads for Mirage Palace.
  • Crowning Music of Awesome - Go Shiina's soundtrack was pure awesome. Every. Single. Track. of it.
    • This troper just replayed the game, and the two, brief cutscenes when the cannon is first fired probably have her favorite tracks. And they're really brief.
    • What really helped was the motif of the game The sea, as well as the general atmosphere just plain FIT with the soundtrack. The usual composer(s) of the Tales (series) and their adrenaline-rush type music (much of which is done by series veteran Motoi Sakuraba, who was absent for this installment) really wouldn't have worked, just as Go Shiina's serene soundtrack wouldn't have worked in the pumping games.
  • Die for Our Ship - Shirley
    • Chloe and Stella also suffer this, with the latter actually dying in canon, but much less notably than Shirley does.
  • Disappointing Last Level - A lot of the character quests fall into this.
  • Fan-Preferred Couple: Senel/Chloe, mainly in the West. In Japan, it's more of a Broken Base thing (one actual spin-of, Tales of the World, supported Senel/Shirley, then Tales of the World 2 leaned toward Senel/Chloe, then Viva Tales Of went back toward Senel/Shirley, back to Senel/Chloe in Tales of Heroes: Twin Braves, then BOTH in "Tales of the World 3"....it never ends!)
  • Game Breaker - Shirley, when you finally get her.
    • Some also ignore her because she has the lowest INT, but she's able to combo at range when she's not casting. Shirley's main problem is a lack of unique spells until Tidal Wave, so most people ignore her.
  • Goddamn Bats - The Eggtopus monsters.
  • Harsher in Hindsight - The theme song, already a massive Tear Jerker about friends parting ways and specifically Grune having to leave the party in the end, was on the very last single the band Do As Infinity produced before one of their members left and they broke up. (The other two members did reform the band in 2009, happily.)
  • Ho Yay Shipping:
    • Moses and Jay. Their relationship, however, IS questionable to the point in which it can be taken in several ways.
    • Elsa and Chloe. Elsa gets very excited about Chloe, and even once insisted that she and Chloe were out on a date when they were talking a walk. Chloe does not return Elsa's feelings, but doesn't seem to be too weirded out...
    • Shirley and Fenimore:

Fenimore: So, I have to teach you what friends are like. You'll like it.
I just acted like you... Ahh... That isn't like me at all...

    • Norma and Grune also seem to have this air about them, as do Norma/Shirley and Norma/Chloe to a lesser extent.
    • Shirley and Chloe have a slight feeling of it past Chloe's character quest, but try telling that to the shippers.
  • Love to Hate: Maurits, Walter, and Shirley whenever they're the villains.
  • Memetic Molester: Hell, half of Legendia's fans probably think this is half the role Solon is meant to play in the game.
  • Misblamed - While she has her flaws as a character, a lot of Shirley's scrappy status comes from people thinking that she willingly set out to destroy the world and Senel due to him rejecting her. In truth, she had lost the memory of what becoming the Merines would mean and is only during the transformation, where it's too late to do anything about it, that she remembers the world-destroying nature of the whole thing.

Shirley: I see...so that was it. I remember now, Fenimore...why I failed the Rite before. I realized what would happen if I completed the Rite of Accession. So I refused. I failed on purpose. If I completed the Rite...If I awakened as the Merines, it would mean......That I would kill my brother.

  • Moral Event Horizon: Maurits; although he is Easily Forgiven. Also, Solon, who just keeps crossing it.
  • Narm - Senel screaming Stella! "STELLAAAAAAA!!" during her death sequence
    • Also, "my tales" and the English version of "Hotarubi", which are rather over-the-top (and in "Hotarubi"'s case, redundant in places).
      • Narm Charm: The reprise of "my tales" at the end of the character quests, when the party is confronting Schwartz.
  • Needs More Love: Many of Legendia's fans believe so.
  • Purity Sue - Stella, as touted by Senel. Eventually subverted when it's revealed through flashbacks that she was quite an ass to her little sister Shirley, but then Shirley herself doesn't seem to mind--and as Shirley is The Scrappy to part of the fandom, that part of the fandom generally doesn't care. To be fair, it may be precisely because of the fact that we only know her through Senel that she comes off as Suetiful, but then again she is Too Good for This Sinful Earth...
  • Real Women Never Wear Dresses - Shirley often receives this treatment from rabid Chloe fans.
  • Ron the Death Eater - Shirley (surprise) and Senel get this the most.
  • The Scrappy - Shirley.
    • Although there are some who think that she's Rescued from the Scrappy Heap when she's a villain, or after that when she becomes a party member. See Base Breaker above.
    • Or, if nothing in this game does it, Tales of the World: Raidant Mythology 3 might.
  • Scrappy Level - Everybody hates the Waterway and hate it even more when having to do it a second time in the Character Quests. It's not a bad level, it's just painfully long!
  • Scrappy Mechanic - Puzzle booths. Also Eres stones.
  • Tear Jerker - several Many.
    • Fenimore.
    • Pretty much Moses' entire Character Quest; especially the ending, as well as the game's end. Many others.
  • That One Boss: Schwartz, without a doubt. Also, Solon, Vaclav and potentially Maurits. Stingle may also count.
    • Raging Nerifies as well. VERY fond of casting several powerful spells in a row while hovering above your characters' heads, forcing your melee fighters to jump attack JUST to hit it and making it practically impossible to knock it out of its chant. Once once it gets tired of spells, it attacks with an aerial smash that can wipe your team if you don't get out of the way.
  • Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Shirley.
    • Jay was meant to be a "destroyer" through his raising by Solon, but ended up a just-plain Woobie since the Oresorrens' raising of him quelled his murderous instincts.
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