I soar to heights… That no one else can reach.
A lot of games have those characters with irritating personalities but have amazing gameplay. Falk is one of those types. His arrogance and brooding personality can be grating at times, but his gameplay is probably the best so far. I’m so sorry, Alexandra, but Falk has you beat in terms of gameplay so far.
This episode is basically what happened with Falk after August convinced him to join the military; if you don’t remember, Falk appeared in August Episode 1 around the third chapter. That was in 997 YC. The first chapter of this episode takes place on 998 YC, when Falk is 16 years old. From Chapter 2 onwards, it’s revealed that Chapter 1 was just a flashback chapter—perhaps Falk reminiscing the moment he took over a federation base by himself.
Chapter 2 onwards takes place in 999 YC. Falk is 17 and Hugo has already defected the Federation and joined the Empire for unrevealed reasons. Falk, Hugo and Amelie are in a team where she is the captain. It’s obvious that Falk hates being with them and the whole episode is just him trying to prove that he doesn’t need to work together to be stronger. Yes, the team is very disastrous. Falk hates everyone’s guts; Amelie’s a space cadet and Hugo’s just trying to be the team’s one braincell.
Falk has a lot of bad qualities, but he does have good ones too. His main bad quality is his tendency to whine. One staff member Vel pointed out that Falk’s like a Chihuahua and now, I cannot get it out of my head. All I see in Falk is a yapping Chihuahua that thinks he’s bigger than he normally is. I also think that his tendency to look down on his teammates is also a very bad quality of his since Amelie and Hugo prove to be very strong, but he won’t acknowledge that. His disrespect for Amelie is very profound since they knew each other way back—his real name is Claude. However, his desire for power seems to stem from a deceased friend named Joyce. I assume Falk and Joyce’s relationship will be explained in a future episode because he’s gentle whenever he thinks about her.
One of his good qualities, other than the fantastic gameplay, is his humility towards stronger figures. In one portion of Chapter 3, Bastien becomes a teammate. Falk is pretty much star-struck—his personality does a 180. While his strength does get the alpha’s praise, Falk admits that he still has a long way to go before he reaches his level. I think that someone like him having that kind of personality within him shows he’s not all that bad at times.
Falk’s gameplay is the best one so far, I repeat. He’s just so fun to play as. I love the creativity behind it. Yes, he uses dual blades, which is nothing new in Tales, but his unique gimmick is using lightning currents to stretch his blades and use them as grappling hooks to pull himself towards wooden towers, buildings and fences. The fact that he can fling himself once he grapples onto something helps a lot with boss fights. Not only can he pull himself towards inanimate objects, he can use them to pull people towards him and kick them. It’s super helpful during fights that have mages or boss battles.
Another thing about gameplay is that Hugo’s walking and battle animation changed greatly now that he’s in the Empire. I kind of like the Empire model since his Federation model looked like of silly, especially running.
My favorite part in the game is how Hugo concocted a plan for his team to enter Lunne. He made fake passes for Falk and Amelie but the catch is that he made them husband and wife and not siblings. Congrats to Falk for being a husband at 17—it reminded me a lot of Sorey and the scene where he was pretending to be a married couple with Rose.
Overall, I hope that I can like Falk’s character in later episodes because he’s a bit annoying right now. His gameplay is top notch. I wonder where his story will take him next.
Tales of Luminaria is an upcoming Tales of Series original title for iOS and Android released November 2021. The game was first announced during Gamescom Opening Night Live. Unlike the recent Tales mobile games, Luminaria has been reported to have its own original world with only original characters and no previous Tales characters, as well as an English dub. Unfortunately, the game has announced termination of service worldwide on July 19, 2022.
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