Milla's voice is, uh, off. It's the recording quality, I think?
The recording quality is completely awful for a modern PS3 game where it's a significant part of the experience, I'm baffled at how they messed this up relative to basically any other game that wasn't either a retro release or a handheld title. It definitely sticks out most with Milla since it makes it sound as if she has a lisp.
Yeah, it sounds like the foam on the microphone is like two feet thick, it sounds muffled. Tales games might be using a crappy studio?
I love the inter-connected maps actually. World maps can be nice, but it's nice we actually get some exploring.
I actually find the reviews for this game on major sites have been way too high. It IS a good game, but missing a lot. I find this cast a lot less endearing -- I wonder if they changed writers or something.
I've heard much of Xillia 2 is better. But I'm surprisingly not crazy for the new cutscene directions. I liked the lengthy "chatting" of Vesperia, Abyss, and Symphonia; now it feels like a lot more drama is trying to be ringed through as opposed to more lenghty chat dialogue that sort of helps build relations a bit more slowly. Also, while I hated the story/characters otherwise, Graces f had ballin' 'win-quotes'.
And lisp or not, Milla's VA is really not up to snuff compared to the rest of the cast.
End Chapter 1 Spoilz
The whole scene(s) where she got her legs injured were pretty damn tame reactions for a woman whose only control of her legs were as limp noodles.
I like a lot, dislike or shrug off a lot else. But while I *love* the Tales series, I always found that even if their games DO have shortcomings, they're too much fun to ever dislike. The world's are pretty, the music is usually decent, the characters are bright and colourful (and skits are a genius waste of time to establish better connections with your favorite characters), and the battles are great.
The graphics are ok. Milla's body is a disaster proportions-wise, but I doubt that's graphical sloppiness and more just following Inomata's emaciated designed (I wanna feed the woman a burger every time she's on screen). But I've always found Tales games excel at backgrounds and scenery than character models.