Tales of Rebirth

    This game is a wonderful study on the concept of race, presented with beautiful painted backgrounds, detailed sprites and one of the best soundtracks in the series. Not to mention inomata's wonderful character designs.

    First of all, I should clarify that this game's view on race and ethnic conflicts is very eurocentric, as it's based on Yugoslavia. There is little to no mention of stuff like colorism, class-race connections, or institutional racism. Basically every group here hates each other and there is no overall ruling group as different towns hate different groups. However, it questions what race even means if we continue to isolate and consider people different over the slightest difference in appearance. There's even a town of all gajuma (the animal people) where they set up a social hierarchy based on what animal they are that is completely arbitrary. It is a criticism of the concept of race itself and why humans arbitrarily decide who goes where. It even brings up the fact that if you have everyone of the same race alone they'll still find ways to discriminate against each other. The conclusion of we are all the same at heart is very naive when you think about racism in places like america, but I think it's very optimistic and cute. It didn't annoy me and I just found it cute.

    It utilizes the theme of our souls not being affected by what we look like as well with the main 2 couples, as they struggle to see each other for what they are because of their appearance. I will not go into detail because of spoilers but it's not just them feeling like they can't love each other because they're different races.

    I found the cast to be incredibly likeable and a lot more subdued than other tales casts that are very gimmicky and over the top. You get skits pretty often and they're all very fun :) That, included with Inomata's wonderful character designs makes it a very fun trot. Hilda is my favorite btw

    I also found the soundtrack to be equally subdued and enjoyable. The battle themes never got old because they're very easy listening, the town themes are chill and soft. The environments are all very pleasant. It's incredibly beautiful when combined with the lovely spritework.

    The gameplay is the most fun I've had with this series ever. 2d tales gameplay with 3 lanes, the RG system to gauge how much damage you take and deal is fantastic. And enemies are designed for you to modify your RG to hit different weaknesses. FG as a replacement for the original TP is wonderful. You can change a lot in combat based on your formation. Since there's no dedicated healer and you heal by doing damage, you can basically use any party setup.

    All in all, I think this is definitely one of my favorite tales games ever now.