“…Remember, Joyce. Our hands are empty, but that just means we can grab hold of anything.”
Joyce was a dude? He was Reki Kyan and Lavi’s clone? Despite the many questions I have with him, I do know that losing him did change something in Falk. If you thought Falk was a bit insufferable in his first chapter, worry not. He’s a lot better in this chapter as he has a lot of depth. He’s still prickly, but he’s actually a nice guy. He just had a rough life, that’s all. He lost his closest friend, after all.
Falk’s second episode is just a lot of character building for him. He uses a lot of street smarts and it turns out that he does watch out for his friends as most of the story went to searching for Salim, the young peddler he was acquainted with. I actually liked seeing the more serious and mature side to Falk here. He probably hasn’t moved on completely from Joyce’s death, which is why he has yet to open himself up completely. I do like the contrast he and the boss of the chapter have. She believes she has nothing, but Falk wants everything.
The plot for this episode is a bit more straightforward compared to his previous episode, so this might be a shorter review than before simply because there isn’t too much too talk about like before. I did like it, however. I like learning more about characters and seeing a newer side to Falk was the most welcoming factor here.
However, the dungeon they were in was way too linear and I didn’t like it. I did like the gimmick of Falk using his blades to tip over ladders in order to make bridges. Other than that, it was just up and down. Since this game is pretty linear in itself, I didn’t expect too much, but I did want a bit of creativity… However, Falk’s battle style makes up for it. He’s still the king of gameplay; nothing will change my mind about this.
It’s unfortunate that Joyce was only briefly seen in the first part of the story and then he isn’t mentioned again. I kind of wished the plot was more focused around him than on Salim. Not that I’m saying Salim isn’t a bad character—he isn’t—but I was assuming the plot would focus on Joyce and such. I wanted to see Joyce’s ghost and such. It felt like a cop-out of sorts? If Luminaria ever gets something more in the future, I hope Joyce and his friendship with Falk gets explored more. He was the only one who made Falk change after all.
I feel like Falk is surprisingly mysterious because he refuses to elaborate about himself. His friendship with Joyce and his childhood as an orphan named Claude are only explored but not too focused. There were also hints that he and Vanessa are related due to their surprising resemblance towards each other, but none of that will be answered. I wanted to learn more but I can’t. Shame on you, Bamco.
I’m trying my best to pump out the remaining Luminaria reviews by the end of this year. I’m hoping to get them done by either August or September. I’m going to work hard to write the rest of them. I just hope I won’t get too stressed out.
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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