This past weekend saw this year’s Tales of Festival event in Tokyo — a celebration of the Tales JRPG franchise. It was full of voice actor interviews, in-character skits, music from the series — and to cap it off the results of this year’s Tales popularity polls were revealed to the 10,000 plus fans in attendance.
The survey results come courtesy of the Tales of Magazine, which polled their readers earlier this year. On the first day, three polls were revealed in a talk show-like event.
They first asked readers which of the following pairs — Yuri and Estelle (Tales of Vesperia), Lloyd and Colette (Tales of Symphonia), Stahn and Rutee (Tales of Destiny), Cress and Mint (Tales of Phantasia), Ludger and Elle (Tales of Xillia 2) — made the best partners. They only revealed the top two with second place going to Llyod and Colette and first place to Ludger and Elle.
The second set of results revealed what readers think the Tales series’ hardest boss fight is. Third place went to Dhaos (Tales of Phantasia), second to Julius (Tales of Xillia 2), and the honour of hardest boss fell to Barbatos (Tales of Destiny 2).
The final survey of the first day asked what the most helpful special moves of the franchise are. The results are as follows:
10) Tidal Wave
9) Heal
8) Sword Rain
7) Tiger Blade
5) Resurrection (tied with Revitalize)
5) Revitalize (tied with Resurrection)
4) Sword Rain: Alpha
3) Nurse
2) First Aid
1) Demon Fang
On the second day, the main skit — which was done in-character by the voice actors of 13 of the series’ most popular characters — was centered around the award show-style presentation of the results of three more polls. It started with the big one — the most popular character top 30.
At first, everything seemed legit with the reveal of the top 30 through top 20, but then Zelos, the host of the night, revealed that the numbers 11-20 were missing so they had to skip straight to the top 10 — where he was revealed to be number one. The others, sceptical of this result, forced him to reveal the truth: that he had altered the list to make 11-20 look like the top ten. After the farce was revealed, the complete results of the poll were shown.
30) Tear (Tales of the Abyss)
29) Elize (Tales of Xillia 2)
28) Richard (Tales of Graces)
27) Gaius (Tales of Xillia 2)
26) Colette (Tales of Symphonia)
25) Kongwai (Tales of Innocence R)
24) Cheria (Tales of Graces)
23) Estelle (Tales of Vesperia)
22) Leia (Tales of Xillia 2)
21) Reid (Tales of Eternia)
20) Reala (Tales of Destiny 2)
19) Sophie (Tales of Graces)
18) Spada (Tales of Innocence)
17) Julius (Tales of Xillia 2)
16) Alvin (Tales of Xillia 2)
15) Milla Maxwell (Tales of Xillia 2)
14) Jade (Tales of the Abyss)
13) Rita (Tales of Vesperia)
12) Guy (Tales of the Abyss)
11) Zelos (Tales of Symphonia)
10) Kratos (Tales of Symphonia)
9) Lloyd (Tales of Symphonia)
8) Emil (Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World)
7) Flynn (Tales of Vesperia)
6) Raven (Tales of Vesperia)
5) Judas (Tales of Destiny 2)
4) Asbel (Tales of Graces)
3) Jude (Tales of Xillia 2)
2) Luke (Tales of the Abyss)
1) Ludgar (Tales of Xillia 2)
[*Note: Yuri, as last year’s winner, was not eligible for this poll.]
So after a silent protagonist (at least the first time through the game, anyway) was revealed to be this year’s most popular character, two additional polls were revealed.
The first was for the top five characters with a charming gap between the two extremes of their personalities:
5) Zelos (Tales of Symphonia)
4) Gaius (Tales of Xillia 2)
3) Luke (Tales of the Abyss)
2) Emil (Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World)
1) Raven (Tales of Vesperia)
The second was for the top five mascot characters:
5) Quickie (Tales of Enternia)
4) Teepo (Tales of Xillia)
3) Mieu (Tales of the Abyss)
2) Lulu (Tales of Xillia 2)
1) Repede (Tales of Vesperia)
So what do you think of this year’s Tales polls? Are your choices on the list or do you think Japanese fans are way off in their picks?
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