Forgotten Tales: The Aries Tournament

Fight for Knowledge, on three different fronts.
— Tagline

Forgotten Tales: The Aries Tournament is an action-adventure, RPG developed by Red Mage Studios, and published by Dream High Productions and Sega. It is the first game to debut the Forgotten Tales series. It follows the adventures of Neo Tranquil, Zero Evol, and Echo Serene as they all work on discovering the mysteries that seemed tied to the Aries Tournament. 

Story

The Aries tournament is a tournament held once every four years, chosen to be in a city at random. This year, the tournament is held in Station Square, where people from all over the world will come to watch this tournament take place. That being said, not everyone comes with good intentions, some people are here to try and cause havoc, and no matter the price it isn't good. Between a stolen time stone, a string of young girls going missing, and three powerful but mysterious children, it's going to take a powerful bunch to keep Station Square safe, and that's just what this city has to offer.

Lightstone (Prologue)

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Time Shift (Neo's story)

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What Remains (Zero's story)

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Dark Intent (Echo's story)

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Power too great (Final Story)

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What may Come (DLC, Ages' Story)

Coming Soon...

Characters

Playable Characters

• Neo Tranquil
• Fey Wayward
• Leah Dubio
• Time Spinner
• Aselia
• Zero Evol
• Trinity Moon
• Dusk Evol
• Echo Serene
• Fate Serene
• Apollo Athas
• Kala Genie
• Aero Facade (Unlockable, Code:Timeless)
• Millie the Mouse (Unlockable Code: Trapped)
• Ruby the Dragon (Unlockable Code: Legend)
• Ages Tranquil (DLC)
• Eileen Tsunami (DLC)
• Hawke Auditore (DLC)

Non-Playable Characters

• Aria Stormstout
• Vitality
• Andrew the Hidden
• Vellnorzmu (Vella)
• Various un-named Vendors

Gameplay

Forgotten Tales follows very general RPG tropes. The player gains experience points when winning battles against enemies, and after enough points have been gathered, the character levels up. With each level, the character can gain new abilities to fight with and become stronger. Characters also gain an increase to their stats when they level up, which make fighting enemies easier. Some weapons found in the game also come with abilities equipped on them. When a character uses this weapon, they are able to use the ability with it. After the player has had that weapon equipped for a certain number of battles, the ability is learned by the character and can be used with any weapon after that.

The Forgotten Tales also uses the same battle engine used in the "Tales of" games; the "Evolved Flex-Range Linear Motion Battle System" (EFR-LMBS). Character move freely around the battlefield to fight their enemies in real-time. There is no random encounters, instead while on the field, enemies will appear and begin to roam the area. If the player is within their range, they will chase the player, and once they come into contact, they will cause a battle. If multiple enemies are doing this, they may also link their enocunters, causing an even larger amount of enemies to fight against.

Gameplay Elements

Attacks

There are four different kinds of attaks in Forgotten Tales; Basic, Novice Intermediate, and Expert. Basic attacks are simple attacks used in combat by pressing the x button. You can chain basic attacks together by pressing the x button multiple times to create a combo.

Novice abilties are special attacks used by characters to deal an increased amount of damage. Although they have a short cast time of 2 seconds, they also require a certain amount of magic/energy. If the magic/energy bar is empty, the ability cannot be used. Intermediate abilities are more powerful than Novice abilities, but have a longer cast time of roughly 5 seconds and require more magic/energy than novice spells. Expert abilities require a plethora of magic/energy, and can have a cast time of anywhere between 10 to 20 seconds, but they generally deal more damage the longer they take to cast.

Fatal Strikes

Sometimes when in combat, after performing a novice, intermediate, or expert ability, the enemy will begin to glow for a few seconds. When that happens, the player may use the same ability they just used again, to create a Fatal strike, which be an altered and more powerful version of their last ability. As an example, Neo's Mantis barrage, becomes Mantis Blitz or Zero's Shadowbolt, becomes Corruption.

Ultimates

There are three different kinds of ultimates used in game. Overdrive, Limit Break, and Time Warp.

Limit Break is an ability able to be used by every character in the game. WHen in combat every player will have a limit gauge below their profile picture, alongside their health and magic/energy meters. When attacking or being attacked, the limit gauge will begin to fill, when it has reached full the character can use a limit break allowing them to use their most powerful attack. The bar starts at 0, and reaches full at 100.

Overdrive is an ability only useable by Zero Evol, Echo Serene, and Ages Tranquil. On the left side of the screen, when playing as these characters, is a bar with a number below it. That is the drive bar. Whenever a character used any of their special attacks, that bar will fill. Once that bar has at least a 1 on it, the player may activate it. Once activated, characters will have a huge increase in speed, able to quickly shot spells off. Basic attacks can be chained together with ease, novice level attacks will be instant, while intermediate and Expert level attacks will only be half of their cast time. The bar stops being filled by special attacks once it has reached 9. Both Ages and Echo will have this ability at the start of their stories, while Zero will aquire it after some time playing as him.

Time Warp is the final ability used by Neo Tranquil and Ages Tranquil. When in combat, there will be a bar on the right side of the screen with a clock below it. That is the Time bar. This bar fills for every second you spend in combat. Unlike the Overdrive bar, which stops at 9, this bar stops at 12 o'clock. At any time in combat, the player may activate this bar, which will cause all party members to leave combat, except for Neo/Ages. Neo/Ages will begin to glow silver and will have a new set of abilities, exclusive to this mode avalible to them, while their normal abilities will not be able to be used. Like overdrive, Novice and Basic abilities are instant, while Intermediate and Expert abilities have half their cast time. If the player wins a battle while in Time Warp, their entire party will gain exp like they were all still in the battle. Once the bar runs out, the player will be unable to move or attack for five seconds, but all party members who were in combat will return.

Trivia

• Although you may use a code to unlock Aero, Ruby, and Millie, and they do have line recorded when part of a party, they are the same cutscenes that happen when they are not there, and as such they do not have any real signifigance to the plot.
  • That being said, there are some exclusive skits that can happen featuring them when they are in the party.
• There are two party members in the game, that have not ever appeared in Tales of the Echo, those being Ruby, and Aselia.
  • Although she has not appeared, Aselia has been referenced several times by Time Spinner when he talks about his second-in-command, that person being Aselia.
  • Although Ruby has not appeared in Tales of the Echo, it is listed in her profile that she appears in Season 2.