Hello! This is Grace, also known as Ecargmura and I’m here with a review of Chapter 3! Just to try something new, I won’t be adding a recap to this review. I’m just going straight for my thoughts this time!
This review contains spoilers for Crestoria.
“Sometimes, halfhearted kindness is crueler than nothing at all.”
Congratulations, Kanata! It takes you three chapters to get a concrete goal! It’s not a bad thing! I’m glad he found at this point and not too late. I wonder how he will go about with this goal. Will he show no mercy to those bound to the vision orbs? I’m honestly excited for what’s to come!
This chapter is my favorite! I find it a compelling chapter filled with surprises! Many things happen as well! Aegis joins the party and we also get to see what the Nation of Sin is like!
Aegis has jumped up into being my favorite Crestoria character. I feel really bad for him. He explained his past in the Nation of Sin where he’s from a lower middle class family that has a liquor store. They don’t have a lot of money, but when Aegis wanted to be a knight, they enrolled him in the academy despite the high tuition cost; this caused Aegis to become the person he is because he wanted to make him and his parents proud. I can relate to him because my family owns a liquor wholesale business, and I went to university where the tuition was very high. I did my best to work hard at university doing something that I liked. In his first Character Episode, Aegis is shown to be a closet nerd for he is a fan of a children’s book series called Silver Avalanche and even gave Kanata a lecture on why he shouldn’t look down on children’s literature. I have never related this well to a character before.
I also felt bad for Aegis when he was framed for a crime he didn’t commit. All Aegis wanted was to do his job properly, but the people around him are just bad. Yes, I can relate because I often get into misunderstandings with people. The moment where he gets branded as a transgressor is just so aggravating that I want to beat the king to a pulp.
The “relationship” between Aegis and Rebecca is very frustrating to watch. Rebecca is deluded due to her loneliness and Aegis is just accepting of her whims without any thoughts. The argument they had at the tunnel was just sad to watch. I feel bad for Rebecca as well, because she’s just lonely. I don’t think she’s bad—she’s just lonely. She didn’t deserve that death at all! Apparently, Aegis knew of her feelings but didn’t really act upon them. Though, I don’t really think he’s to blame. Rebecca isn’t at fault either.
We also meet Orwin and Yuna in this episode, which makes Chapter 3 the first time we see all six of our original protagonists in one chapter. Orwin doesn’t introduce himself formally; I think he said that he was taken to jail because he was in a drunken brawl. He gets bailed out quickly, leaving Raven alone. The way they got along was cute and hilarious. Yuna is very enigmatic. She has a weird accent and also has a habit of lying. Apparently, she’s looking for someone named Genitz, but he’s not in the Nation of Sin. I wonder what their relationship is. Yuna seems fun. I hope she appears again soon!
Meakyu is adorable! I wonder if Meakyu is going to be a key element to the story, given his species was in a history book, or if he’s just there for the cute mascot role. Whatever he is, he’s so cute! His ‘kyu’ voice is sooooooooo cute!
Makina seems like an intriguing character given that she’s an artificial human created from vision orb energy. She reminds me a bit of Alice from Dawn of the New World with her cute but sadistic streak. I’m curious if she will appear again in the future. I also wonder if those twin scientists will make more artificial humans; they also seem like intriguing people—I hope they appear again soon.
The king is just terrible. I hope he dies in the most excruciating way possible. He’s terrible from how superficial he is with his preference for beauty—having many concubines of both genders—to how he just kills Rebecca in an instant when he wasn’t satisfied with her anymore. He’s the worst. If he appears again in the future, I want to destroy him to a pulp with my strongest units.
Kanata gets a goal in this chapter: to destroy all the vision orbs in the world. I think that’s a great goal that I want to see happen. I’m too tired of watching how Crestoria’s society works. It needs change, badly! I’m rooting for you, Kanata! Misella shows some character in this chapter. She feels pity for Rebecca and wants to help her escape the kingdom. I think the kinder, softer side of Misella is nice to see. I hope to see this side often in the future and not just her “simping” and her “snarking” sides; I like those sides of her too. Her character episode that's unlocked after this chapter is hilarious. It's obvious she hates vegetables, but doesn't want Kanata to know. I like how she gives long, polite explanations on why meat consumption is better. Vicious seemingly ‘betrayed’ the group in the beginning of the chapter, but comes back to rescue Kanata and Misella by the middle of the chapter. I kind of knew he wasn’t a traitor. Vicious is enigmatic, eccentric, and a bit of a prick, but I think he genuinely does care for Kanata, Misella and Aegis in his own “vicious” way. I can't wait to see the group's dynamic now that their numbers increased.
For the crossover characters, Leon, Raven and Eleanor appear. Leon starts off a bit antagonistic in the beginning of the chapter but then goes against the knights by the middle of the chapter because he cares about Aegis. Also, Stahn is a sword. This is so weird. In Tales of Destiny, the premise of the story was about talking swords, except Stahn, the protagonist, found the sword and wielded it; Leon was a Swordian user as well, so there are some parallels to Destiny’s lore. In Tales of Vesperia, Yuri first meets Raven in jail. In Crestoria, Kanata and Misella meet Raven in jail. Raven’s main role was to gossip about Rebecca’s backstory, which did give good insight to her. Finally, Eleanor is a part of the Knights, so she’s an antagonist. I am a huge Eleanor fan, so seeing her as a villain makes me sad. I know she’s just playing the same role she did in Tales of Berseria, but seeing how awful the Knights are in this game, I just want Eleanor to get out ASAP. Also, how did she enter the Nation of Sin? Did Machina’s intrusion allowed her to enter?
Speaking of the Nation of Sin, I felt really…cheated. Like, it was built up as an important place where transgressors reside. I just didn’t like how underutilized it was. The hype was big yet it went downhill so fast. The reason? Makina and the Enforcers bust in and kill everyone except for Meakyu. Chapter 3 has 9 stages. Kanata and co spent 2 stages being inside before the genocide happened.
Regardless of my disdain, I think that the Nation of Sin was a nice implement to the story. It showed that it wasn’t just Kanata and co that escaped the enforcers—there were more that did and decided to redeem themselves by living in peace. Such an idea was novel to Aegis, but he learns that anybody can be redeemed, no matter their sin;. I am just upset that everyone died so quickly. At least, Aegis realized the severity of the situation and acted quickly despite being powerless without a Blood Sin at first.
Also, the song used in Stage 8-3 is awesome! Does anybody know the name of that song? I also love the voice acting, especially in stage 8-6! The way Aegis declared that he wants to protect people by his own will was superb voice acting. I don't think words can describe how great the cast is. Tatsuhisa Suzuki's role as Aegis is amazing; he really brings him to life.
Other than my gripes, this chapter beat chapter 1 in terms of best chapter in the game (in my opinion). The story was important and it didn't focus on something weird like obtaining seasoning like in Chapter 2. I wonder how long it will take for chapter 3’s crown to be usurped by a future chapter.
Right now, Kanata’s destination is Toshimina; a book about the god of vision orbs, Kasque, is located there. I read the summary for chapter 4, and they won’t be arriving there in the next chapter. I wonder how long it’s going to take them to reach their next destination. Will Kanata destroy a vision orb next chapter? I am excited to press on further into this game.
Tales of Crestoria is an upcoming mobile title dedicated for smartphones that is an entirely new story and doesn’t focus on previous Tales of titles. The game features Kanata Hjuger, a young man branded as a Transgressor because of the crimeof “protecting someone important” to him. The game will be released for iOS and Android on 2020.
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