Feb/098
Tears to Tiara
Plot
As with all games that are remotely similar to Tears to Tiara, the story begins with some religious fanatics who have nothing better to do (such as getting a life) and are planning on ending the world by summoning some form of great evil. Also as with all games that are remotely similar to this one a sacrifice is needed and duly provided in the form of a holy priestess (Riannon). But this is where the similarities with other such games end.
In an unexpected turn of events Riannon marries Arawn while being witnessed by her dumbstruck brother (Arthur) who had arrived to save her and the equally (if not more) stunned plotters. They then proceeded to defeat the plotters and escape. An epic story, which ate up 24 gaming hours of my life, begins from here onwards.
I don't wish to spoil too much so I'll just trail off here. But suffice to say there are quite a few plot twists, dramatic moments, and GAR deaths.
World
The world in which this story is set is quite obviously Great Britain under the rule of Rome with The Holy Empire as the Roman Empire and the religion of the One Absolute God as a parallel to Christianity. The setting is also influenced by Arthurian lore with the city of Avalon being a reference to Camelot and characters with names such as Morgan and Arthur as well as a sword of ultimate victory in a stone thrown in for good measure.
Characters
The only complaint that I have with the game so far is the designs of the characters and the comparisons above are plain for all to see. The PC version got the short end of the stick in terms of designs and a really short end at that.
As for character development I feel that there has been a lack of emphasis on the development of the female characters that are rather one-dimensional. The only female character that took a liking to was Octavia. This in part due to the fact that I love girls with swords and that she is less annoying than some of the other characters.
The male characters on the other hand go through a lot of changes throughout the course of the story. Arthur grew from a boy into a man, Taliesin grew a backbone and met his fate head-on and Arawn has his own tragic tale to tell.
As with the setting of the game the characters are heavily influenced by welsh mythology. You can view the origin of the characters' names by clicking the following links.
Arawn, Riannon, Arthur, Ogam, Morgan, Octavia, Taliesin, Llyr, Epona, Gaius, Lector, Myrrdin, Pwyll, 12 angels, tribe of Gael, the Brigantes.
Gameplay
As with most visual novels the story is told through 2-D cutscenes outside of the battles. However, there have been quite a few changes made to the battle and leveling system in this game as compared to its predecessor (Utawarerumono). Out went the turn based system and limited leveling opportunities and in came battles in real time, emphasis on items, and the ability to level up the characters via farming.
Also, one would never be shorthanded in this game as you could recruit additional auxiliaries from your headquarters and train them to be as powerful as the main characters and equip them with powerful items (unsurprisingly, I use some of my hirelings more often than a few of the main characters). The additional characters come in the standard flavors such as soldiers, archers and mages/healers.
Overall verdict : Good game hampered by below average character designs.
P.S. Can't wait for the anime to start airing.
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Follow Me!
February 9th, 2009
As much as I want to get the PS3 version of this, an English version will never see the light of day.
February 9th, 2009
While most of the PS3 designs are clearly superior, the Ermin character looks a lot cuter.
Meganekko and – are those goat ears?
February 9th, 2009
And then you think back to how old Tears to Tiara really is and you´ll know why the design is changed :p
From what I know the ero scenes won´t be in the PS3 version. Thus making it a tiny bit more likely to be translated. But for the record, it will never be granted a translation, which is a reall pity. I want my fix of nice visual novel games on my PS3!!
manga’s last blog post..A Challange? I accept
February 10th, 2009
The PS3 version is out of the question for me since I can’t read the language (and, actually, I don’t have a PS3), but I think I might just hold off and watch the anime. I’ve got a ton of games to play at the moment, mostly VNs, and there’s a remote chance that the anime might be good. At the very least it’ll be able to deliver the plot.
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February 14th, 2009
I found it boring. The story’s cookie cutter, and the characters are flatter than those in a Dan Brown’s novel. Only winning point I can find about TtT is its innovative combat system, which is pretty refreshing from all those SRW clones.
Also, my favorite character’s Octavia. XD. I leveled her till she’s even stronger than my Arawn. lol
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March 7th, 2009
Contrary to the above, I found the story very fascinating. On more than one front does the authors take a stab at organized religion and blind faith, while still making the plot itself interesting (albeit more of what TTT is about already happened in the past, and the meat is more in the recounting and discovery of that past). I actually didn’t think too highly of the story either until it got to the part about Arawn and Myradin’s relationship, in which case it took a wtf plot turn similar to that of Utawarerumono, but revealed a whole lot of plot depth.
I’ll agree that the females in the story never really received any development, but then again in hindsight, this story is ALL about Arawn and his own ‘coming of age’, so to speak. And on that perspective, the story was fantastic in my opinion. Behind the seeming simple exterior is actually a rather fascinating and complex man.
The battle system was great, and definitely a huge improvement over Uta’s. My personal favorite characters were Ogam and Llyr, for the AoE spells that are nearly quintessential in the impossible difficulty =)
April 26th, 2009
who your favourite Tears To Tiara character and why? just ask anway.
December 29th, 2009
my fav is morgan