“I can do whatever I want too… I’ll seize that right!”
Lydie’s the last Adventurer to get the spotlight and she gets an entire episode to herself. It’s good, but the placement of her episode is very odd. It takes place right before Edouard’s first episode—basically Lydie’s perspective before she met Ed. This episode highlights why and how Lydie fights for what she believes in.
From Edouard’s episode, we know that Lydie is on the run and that she has a prospect helping her out. This episode reveals that this prospect is Gaspard who is guiding her through a letter he sent to her. His only clue to her freedom and her goal is “ice”.
Her reason for running away is that her father is extremely abusive. I mean, it can’t be a Tales game without a crap dad in it. She lived in a storage room all her life with little to no light. Her room is filled with books. Because of her isolated upbringing, she is also malnourished; she points this out twice in the episode. She is very small for her age—she’s 15. Her father sees her as a failure and plans on selling her for unknown reasons, hence why she is on the run. First off, why does her father look so much different from her? Their skin tone is different and their hair color is too. Lydie is strangely pale for someone who lived in the desert region. Second, why did her father lock her up in the basement if she’s his only child? This mystery would most likely be answered had Luminaria not ended their service. I hope it gets answers if Luminaria continues in a different type of media.
My biggest gripe with this episode is the gameplay. Lydie’s gameplay usurps August’s crown. Hers is the worst by far. Holy heck, how can you make someone’s gameplay this clunky? Five buttons? Her choices have limitations? What the fuck is this? The other gunners Lisette and Gaspard all have unlimited bullets, so why does Lydie have to reload? Why make it unfair? On top of all of this, Lydie is solo. While Gaspard being solo was fine, his advantage was that he had unlimited bullets. Lydie does not. So basically, reloading is a hassle if you need to do it in a middle of a fight.
Some good things about her gameplay are that you have both short and long ranged attacks, but that’s about it. It’s pretty much a gamble to see which one works best with the number of enemies and their distance away from Lydie. Gripes aside, my favorite is the grenade ammo. It’s fun to use when there are multiple enemies approaching.
Character-wise, Lydie is very straightforward and driven. She wants to leave the clutches of her abusive father and wanting to find the answer to her hypothesis is cool. I think she’s very brave for someone her age. She’s also a genius. She’s intelligent enough to create her own Reactor and to make her own original food creation. I was just doing my best to root for her.
The revelation that Gaspard was Lydie’s prospect, the motivation why she decided to escape and the reason why she was led to Ed makes you wonder what’s Gaspard’s end goal. He most likely knows Ed is the prince of the Miasui Icedom and if so, does this mean that Gaspard is pretty much pulling the strings about everything?
The best part about this episode is that it takes place in Wasbald, but no desert treading is involved. Hell yes. Lydie’s episode is just her traveling from town to town and eventually reaching Ed, commencing the start of Edouard episode 1.
While I did not like the gameplay, I did like everything else about this episode. Lydie is an interesting character and it makes you want to know why she’s so persistent with this goal of trying to prove the world is dying. What is her end goal? I’d wish I knew what it was. Also, the dialogue with that shady guy trying to sell Lydie something but then it turned out to be nuts was hilarious.
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.
Info Page | News | Gallery | Official Website (EN) | Official Website (JP)
