Summon Spirits

[DemonFang]

Okay, so here's a little something on Summon Spirits.

1. Since Tales of Symphonia is supposed to be a prequel to Tales of Phantasia, why are the character designs of the spirits so different in the two games?  In Phantasia, for example, Gnome resembles Dugtrio from Pokemon, where as in Symphonia, he resembles a large hybrid mole-hamster.  In Phantasia, Sylph is a small fairy with blue hair and plain robe, but in Symphonia, the Sylph is a trio of (near human-sized) fairies with a sword, bow, and shield. Shouldn't the designers have tried to make them more similar for continuity's sake, or was there some specific reason for the change? (Or perhaps they didn't care at all, and there was no real reason?) I don't know, but I just thought it was worth mentioning.

2. Undine. 
In Tales of Symphonia, her name is pronounced with the Spanish/Italian pronounciation of "Un", as in "Un cuaderno", and with the other two vowels stressed, to make "Oon-dee-nee". In Phantasia, Klarth (Claus) pronounces it as "Un-dine", with the "un" as in "uncaring" and "dine" as in "we will dine on seafood tonight". So here the's question - which is correct? Personally, I prefer the Symphonian version, probably just because Symphonia was the first Tales game that I played and I got used to it. Of course, we all know that the English voice cast for GBA's Phantasia sucks, so I'd naturally stick with anything besides them. But what do you all think?

(I know that this was an insanely long post for something so mediocre, but I was bored and the board seemed a little dead, so...)

[Rhapsody]

1. Since Tales of Symphonia is supposed to be a prequel to Tales of Phantasia, why are the character designs of the spirits so different in the two games?  In Phantasia, for example, Gnome resembles Dugtrio from Pokemon, where as in Symphonia, he resembles a large hybrid mole-hamster.  In Phantasia, Sylph is a small fairy with blue hair and plain robe, but in Symphonia, the Sylph is a trio of (near human-sized) fairies with a sword, bow, and shield. Shouldn't the designers have tried to make them more similar for continuity's sake, or was there some specific reason for the change? (Or perhaps they didn't care at all, and there was no real reason?) I don't know, but I just thought it was worth mentioning.

I have a hypothesis about this, but it's based on second-hand information and guess work, so I'll leave this to someone more qualified.

2. Undine. 
In Tales of Symphonia, her name is pronounced with the Spanish/Italian pronounciation of "Un", as in "Un cuaderno", and with the other two vowels stressed, to make "Oon-dee-nee". In Phantasia, Klarth (Claus) pronounces it as "Un-dine", with the "un" as in "uncaring" and "dine" as in "we will dine on seafood tonight". So here the's question - which is correct? Personally, I prefer the Symphonian version, probably just because Symphonia was the first Tales game that I played and I got used to it. Of course, we all know that the English voice cast for GBA's Phantasia sucks, so I'd naturally stick with anything besides them. But what do you all think?

I'd definitely go with the Sympohnia pronounciation myself. Mainly because Klarth pronounces it the same way in ToP: OVA as well. It also just sounds more correct to me.

[Cyllya]

1: Quote time~

Lloyd: [Maxwell] was pretty strong for an old geezer...
Sheena: That's because although he looks like an old man, he's not.
Lloyd: Hmmm...I see...
Sheena:  Summon Spirits don't have gender, either. It may be that they just take on those forms to make it easy for people to recognize them.

2: I prefer the Japanese pronounciation (oon-DEE'-nay').

[Dice]

1) I was asking ymself that earlier today actually.

2) personally preffered "un-dine" to "oon-dee-nii" because it sounds too much like "houdini" and Undine doesn't seem to hocus-pocus to me.

[Kogahazan]

Also it would be pretty bland for them to keep the same design for the summon spirits each game. It's the same with movies of books or other adaptations of some sort of story medium, it would be bland to follow the original word by word. There's nothing differentiating the adaptation from the original work, yet people still criticize movies of being not faithful to the book or the anime having filler that pads out the manga. I say anime and manga in general are fillers of your time. Now I'm going off on a tangent...

I personally like the Japanese pronunciation of Undine. Saying dine as in dining on food doesn't sound right in a name to me.

[DemonFang]

I think you missed my point, Kogahazan.

I thought that the Summon Spirits should look the same (or at least similar) in Phantasia and Symphonia because the two games are connected and take place in the same world.

It's understandable that the spirirts would look completely different in, say, for example, Tales of Eternia - but that would be because there is no real story link between Eternia and any other Tales games.

Get it? 

[Kogahazan]

Yeah, I got it before I even posted. I still keep my argument valid, it would still be boring to have them the same.

[Goshi]

Yeah but I like some of older designs better though. Luna is Phantasia so adorable that I wish I could have an avatar of her while Symphonia's Luna looks like cliche blonde goddess person.

It would be boring to have looking the same all the time though. So I would agree there too. Plus Shadow looks stupid, what if he stuck to that appearance.

[Yetika]

Personally, I think that the Spirits' personalities change over time, and hence they change their appearance to suit the way they are (Which still supports Sheena's explanation about their nature).

I don't think they're incapable of evolving in this way, and it must be boring to look exactly the same for a few thousand years.

[Goshi]

Personally, I think that the Spirits' personalities change over time, and hence they change their appearance to suit the way they are (Which still supports Sheena's explanation about their nature).

Thats funny though because in Phantasia Luna is very willing to not fight and such. While when you summon her she seems pretty happy to blast things to bits. But anyway...

[Yetika]

Thats funny though because in Phantasia Luna is very willing to not fight and such. While when you summon her she seems pretty happy to blast things to bits. But anyway...

That's my point, heh. People change over time.

Also, don't forget that Luna was the Spirit who led an old war referenced in Phantasia (it's mentioned in the plot, but it's easy to miss). She became unwilling to fight sometime after that.

[Cyllya]

I think he meant Luna's behavior just during ToP, so not much of a change over time there. Undine was weird in that regard though (unless she's just not a morning person).

[Phren]

I can't say I remember ToP that well, but I think it's good to have a change in the spirits from game to game, in the same universe or not. I mean, if they were always static, it'd be boring. It's kind of nice to see how they are in each game, regradless of my liking some of ToP's designs better.

As for Undine. I've always like 'un-deen' as I've heard it in some other games/shows/etc. The minute I heard Meredy belt out "oon-dee-nee" I knew it was so much closer to being correct, but that I hated it utterly.

[ChestersLiLSiS979]

Yes, it would be pretty boring if they didn't have new designs. And just because they are supposed to be following timelines, it doesn't necessarily mean that they should be of the same or similar appearance.

And I remember hearing "Oon-dee-nee" in Tales of Eternia, as well as its English version, Tales of Destiny II. Frankly speaking, I'd like to stick with the classics.