Yep, got confused as hell, my apologies.
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Yuri Lowell (Tales of Vesperia) is such a great protagonist, I'm surprised nobody tried to copy his formula
- Thread starter Chaos2Frozen
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Rowen from Xillia, wasn't he like some badass adviser/general to the king or something?
I'm sorry, but what exactly do you copy from Yuri? His coolness? His bantz? His vigilante arc?
In my view, a character like Yuri is best executed when he's a foil to the other surrounding cast around him. Flyn, Judith, Estelle, etc are what makes Yuri's character compelling with how they bounce off each other, and imo, that's why I didn't have an especially high fondness of Yuri once it came to the latter part of his arc, because once it became about that one specific trait of his, he's far less compelling a character.
My go-to of a protagonist that more games should look to copy the formula of would be Luke's arc.
In my view, a character like Yuri is best executed when he's a foil to the other surrounding cast around him. Flyn, Judith, Estelle, etc are what makes Yuri's character compelling with how they bounce off each other, and imo, that's why I didn't have an especially high fondness of Yuri once it came to the latter part of his arc, because once it became about that one specific trait of his, he's far less compelling a character.
My go-to of a protagonist that more games should look to copy the formula of would be Luke's arc.
Yeah, I think it's worth it for sure. There was a pretty big split that seemed to happen post-Vesperia that all the tales games since have suffered from. Things like the field screens inbetween towns that are all fairly bland (and also bleed-in to dungeons...basically being the exact same as a field), overcomplicating things like gear so you don't just get 'better' gear, you get side upgrades and things of that nature that give different stats instead, etc.
Vesperia has a more traditional overworld, does some more standard RPG stuff like go to a town and upgrade away, and the cast is extremely strong due to big part of how good Yuri is as a protaganist. I also personally like the artstyle a lot more, the games post-Vesperia abandoned the more cel shaded/chibi-esque characters.
Probably not. As someone in a similar situation who wants to like the series and keeps trying different Tales games but always giving them up midway because of lack of interest, I thought Vesperia was one of the better ones, but not exponentially so. My favorite so far remains Graces F.
Compare that to the "protagonist" we got in Dragon Quest XI. That's OK, though. It's one of the game's "classic" features.
I was speaking moreso of lead protagonists, though. Almost every Tales game has at least one standout (non-lead) party member. (Hell, aside from Cheria and pre Future Arc Richard, most of Graces' cast far outshine Asbel.)
I mean if his issue was the specific monster types and shitloads of weaknesses with each move being tied to 2 or 3, that's a problem that explicitly doesn't exist in earlier tales of games like Vesperia which only had a few elements and not all attacks are elemental at all
Yuri really is such an interesting character.
He doesn't go through a lot of character development himself, it's more like he acts as a mentor for the other characters in the party and helps them grow. It's a pretty unique concept among JRPG protagonists. I'd love to see writers for other JRPGs attempt something similar.
He doesn't go through a lot of character development himself, it's more like he acts as a mentor for the other characters in the party and helps them grow. It's a pretty unique concept among JRPG protagonists. I'd love to see writers for other JRPGs attempt something similar.
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In a way that's like the Persona protagonists, helping other people solve their personal life problems. While those character do have a bit of personality to them but they're overall still meant to be blank slates.
I can't believe they made character such as him in a jrpg, he's one of the best ever and the English voices actor Troy Baker did an amazing job.
Vesperia was before they introduced that enemy type weakness deal. There's none of that looking at the enemy types and thinking up a combo in your head that will hit as many weaknesses as possible. It's much simpler, yes. As a game overall Vesperia's closer to a classic JRPG with more of an attempt at making actual dungeons than any of the games you played, it has an overworld, and frankly better visuals and music than any of the recent games too. On the downside it has a lot of missables.
What I liked about Yuri as a main character, or a character in general. He was very realistic.
Despite the fantasy setting and usual tropes we get from this nonsense, he simply reacts in a common sense way to everything. He has moments where he goes the extra mile in his character in making hard choices but man, his "normal guy" reactions to stuff were great.
His lack of "-raises fists at a bad guy- you can't do this, what about the people! I'll defeat you when your a massive monster 35 hours from now!" might be what I remember most lol.
Despite the fantasy setting and usual tropes we get from this nonsense, he simply reacts in a common sense way to everything. He has moments where he goes the extra mile in his character in making hard choices but man, his "normal guy" reactions to stuff were great.
His lack of "-raises fists at a bad guy- you can't do this, what about the people! I'll defeat you when your a massive monster 35 hours from now!" might be what I remember most lol.
Subsequent protagonists have been popular in Japan and bring in money through merchandise, mobile games, etc., so there isn't any creative or financial reason for them to "repeat" the character type. Japan has an outsized influence because that's where all the non-game stuff is sold and gets continued investment, other places aren't nearly as much of a factor.
OP
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Yeah but none of them dominated the rankings the way Yuri did.
The fact that Yuri was undefeated in all those years should have been a huge indication of the success of this type of character.
No, but Yuri isn't the first or only character to dominate the ranking over and over either (Leon from Tales of Destiny was always #1 for a while prior to Yuri) and they didn't really just reuse the entire character there either. Usually a super-successful character leads them to incorporate elements of that character people liked into other characters, but not reuse the character completely. So there are characters that have similar roles in the cast dynamic Yuri does or some of his personality quirks, but a protagonist that's a true spiritual successor to him probably won't happen anytime soon so they have more freedom to keep cycling through different looks, personalities, etc. and maybe strike gold again someday.
Gotta be honest, I never got into him very much. I won't argue that he stands out in the Tales series itself as a lead, but I always thought of him as a rather flavourless character. Western media is full of these cocky, morally grey smucks that like to sarcastically quip and tease, and they were all over last gen video games in general. Just like all the other Indiana Joneses like him, he even doesn't really change throughout the game. That stuff is the domain of tragic backstories, so he can be cool and complete almost right off the bat. All they're designed to do is assert their coolness over other characters, generally be ambiguous about right and wrong, yet arbitrarily have a sense of justice concerning the big bad. Probably not even the only character like this that Troy Baker voiced.
I liked him because it turned the stereotypical Tales hero on its head. Yuri is who the "cool rival character" would usually be.
The actual hero of any other game would be Flynn. But here it's the other way around. Flynn even has all of the stereotypical moves a Tales hero would have, like Demon Fang, Sword Rain, etc.
It was like looking at the world from another angle.
The actual hero of any other game would be Flynn. But here it's the other way around. Flynn even has all of the stereotypical moves a Tales hero would have, like Demon Fang, Sword Rain, etc.
It was like looking at the world from another angle.
What is feminine about him besides his long hair? Real question, maybe the fact to our eyes manga characters somewhat look unisex or don't have the exagarated body proportion of comics so we're looking for other things to define a character sex?
I always find it funny how our perception of hair just seems to affect what we think of long hair characters, I've grown reading books/bd of celtic legends and in a lot of them men warriors had to have long hair, in some tribes the longer haird you had the better you were considered, short hair men were considered unfit to be warrior (having no beard was a disgrace as well for some tribes and also vikings).
There are also a lot of cases of other civilisations where long hair had nothing to do with womanhood as well, I'm sure there are hobby ethnologist out there that could tell us much more, including chonmage in Japan mostly used during Edo period that we're still able to see for sumo wrestlers.
Said wrestlers who need to cut their hair once they retire.
If anything his long hair tends to show how Yuri does not follow rules, he has long hair which is fine but let them grow as is and freely which is kinda representative of his character.
Though I'm not delusional, there's also a trend in otome game to have slim guys with long hair and Yuri's character design was also probably related to that as well but in a rather tame way
I cant wait to meet this guy in the game lol
And emotional Luke from Tales of the Abyss is great
And emotional Luke from Tales of the Abyss is great
You did not https://www.google.com/search?pws=0&hl=all&gl=US&ei=fRI3XO7UAsn4wALr5ZiYCg&q="Yuri+Lowell+is+an+amazingly+likable+character,+he's+basically+that+one+cool+older+guy+in+every+other+JRPG+party+except+he's+actually+the+leader."&oq="Yuri+Lowell+is+an+amazingly+likable+character,+he's+basically+that+one+cool+older+guy+in+every+other+JRPG+party+except+he's+actually+the+leader."&gs_l=psy-ab.3...16066.22648..23234...0.0..0.0.0.......3....1..gws-wiz.wmSnb_ZwMiA
Unless you're from the Berenstein universe, then maybe. In which case, I gotta ask, did you guys ever get a Season 2 of Firefly over there?
Estelle is too cool for the JRPG world where all the awful Shonen-like male main protagonists reigns supreme.
Manga already does a good job at making some characters look more masculine than others without having to add exaggerated muscles to them. Eye size, bone structure, etc just making them look older is one way. There are teenagers that look 30, very angular, smaller eyes compared to the size of their head, and thus more adult, and there are adults that can look like teenagers if the style makes them smaller, with bigger eyes, more rounded delicate features.
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I'm not asking them to repeat a character, not sure what this thesis on Japan is supposed to provide, but my simple opinion is that doing something different can reap great rewards. Yuri was different, and Vesepria was one of the best games in the series. I want more different, instead, after Vesperia, it feels like they've mostly gone in the other direction. Sure, people praise Berseria for its cast, but I found nothing memorable about that either.
Thanks for the replies all! It does sound like this is worth checking out for sure. But I do appreciate the warning from werezompire as well... temper expectations a little I guess.
I happened to start trying tales at a particularly bad point it seems... or at least a very divisive one. Now that I've seen what the baba games are like, I'm curious to try the other, more "classic" style. I feel it will gel with me more, or that's the hope at least.
Okay, yeah. Been playing the remaster since launch, Yuri is absolutely amazing. Actually I'm surprised at how much I like the entire cast, but Yuri, and especially his dynamic with Karol, is fantastic. I'm actually surprised at how well realized it is.
He's very popular in the west, but not as much in Japan. I don't think he's disliked or anything but his vigilantism and snarkiness are definitely not as highly praised.
Edit: I remember a really funny panel where Yuri Lowenthal recalls getting a call to apologize that there was a character in the sequel to Abyss named Yuri Lowell, and that he wasn't chosen to play him. lol.
Edit: I remember a really funny panel where Yuri Lowenthal recalls getting a call to apologize that there was a character in the sequel to Abyss named Yuri Lowell, and that he wasn't chosen to play him. lol.
Apparently he won so many popularity polls in Japan he was banned from them just so that other characters would stand a chance. That sounds to me like he's very popular there too (which is well deserved btw).
Oh, that's news to me. I just remember him not being on the polls a whole lot, but I didn't realize that was why.
Edit: Yep, you're right and I was wrong. Leon was also banned apparently
He won most popular Tales character 3 years in a row tho.
Edit: Didn't mean to dogpile :) on this. I'm just glad Tales fans the world over know Yuri is the best. Also I think Repede usually wins best mascot character. All is right in the world.
I don't blame you, in a lot of ways he does seem like a character that wouldn't go down well there. But I think he's so incredibly well written it's hard not to love him.
I also like that he had a bit of gray morals about him. He sometimes acted like a giant dick without it coming across as out of character or poorly written.
Haven't played Symphonia in a long time, but I do remember hating Lloyd in the beginning of the game and warming up to him over time. With Vesperia though, I didn't mind Yuri even from the beginning, though he didn't inspire super strong feelings either way. Maybe over the course of the game I'll come to feel more strongly about him (around 11 hours in now.) He's fine, just a little... generic to inspire much controversy or intense fandom? Then again, the whole Tales series can have pretty generic story elements but that's almost part of the appeal, it's like JRPG comfort food.
So far I wish Repede had a bigger role, there are moments where he's in the party but literally doesn't even show up in cutscenes. I guess it's hard to write an interesting character without dialogue, but Repede's design just has so much character that I wish the game took more advantage of him.
So far I wish Repede had a bigger role, there are moments where he's in the party but literally doesn't even show up in cutscenes. I guess it's hard to write an interesting character without dialogue, but Repede's design just has so much character that I wish the game took more advantage of him.
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