I know it's late but....I'm FINISHED ToA!!!
Ya I know the hype over this game kinda died down awhile ago, and I've been playing on and off for..whoa I think around 3 years o_o (I'm a casual gamer, I play like once a wk or once in a couple wks hehe..)
but ANYWAY, ever since this summer started I've set it a goal to finally finish this game xP And I finally beat it today =D
LOL I'm pretty ammature so I had to do the final boss fight twice XD;; First I had: Luke, Guy, Jade, and Tear in my party and...it was SO hard to stay alive ==;; I spent more time healing/resurrecting (abusing Tear's Artes) rather than being on offensive XD; So we all got owned around the middle of the second battle with Van..
So I decided to go ALL OUT DEFENSIVE XP; I swapped Guy for Natalia, who has awesome healing skills and surprisingly it sped up the fight. I ended up not using as many Life bottles haha. And though I planned to be on the defensive the whole time I did manage to get in a few extra hits at Van. (But damn, that guy has a LOT of overlimits..o_o how does he get so many??)
So after finally finishing the last battle and seeing the credits (love the artwork and song!!) the game ended right right there o_o; Well, this wasn't the first time I came across problems like this... (it was the US undubbed version so basically english text with Japanese voice overs) After the credits where it's supposed to skip to the epilogue scene...it didn't >< So I had to search for it on youtube and watch it there orz
Thoughts on the ending:
The part where everyone was going towards Luke telling him to come back was really sad >< And the fact that even Guy and Anise were aware of Luke possibly disappearing was just heart-wrenching... oh and the part where Tear finally confessed seshe liked Luke unbenownst to him was just ;alkej; <3 ;___;
Seeing Asch's body falling towards Luke and Luke holding Asch in his arms just makes me all teary about his death all over again ;____; And whoa the part where Luke's and Asch's body kinda..became one was a pretty cool scene~
I loved how the song in the credits just gradually transitioned to Tear singing the fonic hym (beautiful song *___*). And well, I've seen too many bittersweet endings these days (like for Drrr & Angel Beats) so I was pretty happy we got a happy ending XD It was a bit confusing on who it was that came back, like was it Luke or Asch? Cause the guy had long hair which was like Asch, but he responded and fulfilled a promise to Tear...which Luke did.
But I'm guessing that most likely it was Luke who came back...in Asch's body. Since Luke was going to disappear, his soul must have merged with Asch's body so now they become a single entity (hence the long hair?) That's just a theory anyway ><;; I'm just glad everything turned out alright at the end :D
Overall impression:
Though it felt like a pretty long time, I have to say that I quite enjoyed playing this game =D The gameplay was fun (oh I love boss fights even though I suck at them haha), great story and characters. Some of the character development wasn't as deep, such as I wasn't too moved by the deaths of the God Generals...but that's alright. Since I didn't play continuously, I had to keep refreshing my memory on what's going on in the story by reading the journal which helped a lot~ And though there were only a couple anime cutscenes I've always looked forward to each one =D (And the opening is <3)
There was an amazing variety of bgms, and sooo many places to explore, each with their own bgm that suits them. I love the battle bgms too, especially the special boss fight ones. The different variations of Karma were great too, especially Promise, Mirrors, and Meaning of Birth. XD Side-quests were fun, a bit tedious but it's fun ^^ Didn't get to do all of them since I went past the time limit for a few but I don't mind.
To sum it up, I love this game <3
Oh! And I've been holding off on watching the anime cause I didn't wanna get spoiled, so I can watch it now~ (maybe the ending will be explained more clearly >3)
Now I'm just busy looking for sheet music cause some of the background music in this game is gorgeous <3 Does anyone know where I can get ToA sheet music?
but ANYWAY, ever since this summer started I've set it a goal to finally finish this game xP And I finally beat it today =D
LOL I'm pretty ammature so I had to do the final boss fight twice XD;; First I had: Luke, Guy, Jade, and Tear in my party and...it was SO hard to stay alive ==;; I spent more time healing/resurrecting (abusing Tear's Artes) rather than being on offensive XD; So we all got owned around the middle of the second battle with Van..
So I decided to go ALL OUT DEFENSIVE XP; I swapped Guy for Natalia, who has awesome healing skills and surprisingly it sped up the fight. I ended up not using as many Life bottles haha. And though I planned to be on the defensive the whole time I did manage to get in a few extra hits at Van. (But damn, that guy has a LOT of overlimits..o_o how does he get so many??)
So after finally finishing the last battle and seeing the credits (love the artwork and song!!) the game ended right right there o_o; Well, this wasn't the first time I came across problems like this... (it was the US undubbed version so basically english text with Japanese voice overs) After the credits where it's supposed to skip to the epilogue scene...it didn't >< So I had to search for it on youtube and watch it there orz
Thoughts on the ending:
The part where everyone was going towards Luke telling him to come back was really sad >< And the fact that even Guy and Anise were aware of Luke possibly disappearing was just heart-wrenching... oh and the part where Tear finally confessed seshe liked Luke unbenownst to him was just ;alkej; <3 ;___;
Seeing Asch's body falling towards Luke and Luke holding Asch in his arms just makes me all teary about his death all over again ;____; And whoa the part where Luke's and Asch's body kinda..became one was a pretty cool scene~
I loved how the song in the credits just gradually transitioned to Tear singing the fonic hym (beautiful song *___*). And well, I've seen too many bittersweet endings these days (like for Drrr & Angel Beats) so I was pretty happy we got a happy ending XD It was a bit confusing on who it was that came back, like was it Luke or Asch? Cause the guy had long hair which was like Asch, but he responded and fulfilled a promise to Tear...which Luke did.
But I'm guessing that most likely it was Luke who came back...in Asch's body. Since Luke was going to disappear, his soul must have merged with Asch's body so now they become a single entity (hence the long hair?) That's just a theory anyway ><;; I'm just glad everything turned out alright at the end :D
Overall impression:
Though it felt like a pretty long time, I have to say that I quite enjoyed playing this game =D The gameplay was fun (oh I love boss fights even though I suck at them haha), great story and characters. Some of the character development wasn't as deep, such as I wasn't too moved by the deaths of the God Generals...but that's alright. Since I didn't play continuously, I had to keep refreshing my memory on what's going on in the story by reading the journal which helped a lot~ And though there were only a couple anime cutscenes I've always looked forward to each one =D (And the opening is <3)
There was an amazing variety of bgms, and sooo many places to explore, each with their own bgm that suits them. I love the battle bgms too, especially the special boss fight ones. The different variations of Karma were great too, especially Promise, Mirrors, and Meaning of Birth. XD Side-quests were fun, a bit tedious but it's fun ^^ Didn't get to do all of them since I went past the time limit for a few but I don't mind.
To sum it up, I love this game <3
Oh! And I've been holding off on watching the anime cause I didn't wanna get spoiled, so I can watch it now~ (maybe the ending will be explained more clearly >3)
Now I'm just busy looking for sheet music cause some of the background music in this game is gorgeous <3 Does anyone know where I can get ToA sheet music?