Man.
I'm still on the fence with the whole thing regarding manual mode from the get-go.
I finally did a serious search for the character startup data (which had eluded me forever) and found it in just a few minutes. I once mentioned somewhere (probably in the news section) about the possibility of replacing a useless treasure early in the game with a Technical Ring. Well, I can now easily make Cless simply begin the game with one equipped.
I just bring this up all the time because I'm a Semi-Auto hater and dislike the fact that it takes around eight hours of gameplay to gain access to Manual. Convince me why I
shouldn't make this part of the release.
My argument for:
1) Practically every Tales game after this lets you use it right from the start or shortly after.
2) Manual mode is a preference. Some people don't like it. It usually* has no significant advantage over Semi-Auto. And right here in ToP, you even sacrifice an accessory slot to use it, unlike the other games.
3) People who believe this is cheating do not have to use its functionality. The Technical Ring also cannot be sold to shops for extra money.
4) Official overseas versions of games sometimes have tweaks applied to them.
*However, manual
is kind of broken in this game. Last time I played the game through, I definitely recall that enemies are completely defenseless against jump slashes which are only executable in this mode. If you abuse this, it could make the earlier parts a tad easier. But I don't see a big difference in giving you access to it right at the start vs. an arbitrary point in the earlier half of the game.
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