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Tales of Vesperia
Platform: Xbox 360
Even when I was reaching the end of my 60th hour, I still didn’t want it to end.
Review by Sirus
Since the days of the Super Nintendo, the Tales series has increased in popularity as well as numbers. The numerous games have garnered various levels of support over the years, but two recent games have stood out as receiving greater than the usual amount of critical acclaim as well as popularity among gamers. Tales of Symphonia was released early in the Gamecube’s lifecycle and praised for its well written storyline and accessible though deep systems. The same team who worked on Tales of Symphonia then released Tales of the Abyss on the Playstation 2 late in its life cycle. Tales of the Abyss was especially praised by fans of JRPGS because, like Symphonia, it gave gamers a large scale adventure that lasted for a good 60 hours.
Tales of Vesperia marks the next leap in generations for the Tales series and its first time released with HD visuals and Dolby Digital Surround sound. Vesperia comes to us from the same team behind the two most recent solid entries into the Tales franchise and lives up to the high bar set by its predecessors. Because it follows so much in the success of previous games, fans of either of the two aforementioned titles know what to expect as far as mechanics, story progression, character development, and gameplay. If you haven’t played a Tales game before, I highly suggest you download the demo of Vesperia on the XBL marketplace and try it out. Keep in mind, though, that if you have trouble with the boss, that is normal and most of the game’s bosses are slightly less difficult.
The story of Vesperia follows a protagonist who not only starts out much more mature than any of the series’ previous main characters ever grew to be, but shows qualities and does things nobody would have ever dreamed to see a JRPG character do a couple of years ago. Yuri Lowell is a man who grew up in an area of poverty and joined the Knights to change things only to realize later that he was too constricted by the rules and procedures the law sets forth to accomplish anything. His sense of justice finds him on the hunt for a no-good magician who he believes stole the blastia that controls the water in a fountain central to his hometown, The Lower Quarter.
Yuri’s hunt for the blastia thief leads him to break into a house where he believes the thief is living. Upon entry, he confronts the thief only to have him run off, leaving Yuri to deal with the consequences of breaking the law. As luck would have it, the Knights decide that Yuri’s criminal actions warrant a jail sentence. Just when it starts to seem like Yuri isn’t getting out of prison anytime soon, his mysterious neighbor slips him a key on his way out on a pardon. Free from jail, Yuri has to make his way through the castle on his way back to The Lower Quarter. On his way out, he runs into a girl named Estellise who hires him to help her get out of the castle as well. On their way out of town through The Lower Quarter, they run into Yuri's Dog, Repede, who wants to tag along for the ride.
What begins as Yuri’s search for the blastia thief soon expands into much more. The story spans multiple continents and has you confronting multiple nemeses. The game is eventually drawn together by a broad story arc but most of the game is focused on smaller seemingly unrelated jobs that weave together in the end. By the end of the game, you have a total of eight different characters in your party, of which you can use four in battle at any given time. The characters are developed thoroughly through skits, a series staple, which are now fully voiced. Skits basically show you a conversation between your characters about a major story event that just took place and how they are dealing with it. Skits must be triggered by pushing the back button on the controller when a cue appears in the bottom left of the screen.
There are also a number of different side quests that can be undertaken throughout the game. These side quests are kept interesting because they always have a good amount of dialogue associated with them that makes them feel like optional quests not useless side stories. Many of these quests must be triggered at a specific point in the game or access to them is lost forever. Thus anyone who wants to see everything there is to see is strongly advised to use an online walkthrough or strategy guide.
Throughout the game you will find yourself trekking through all sorts of dungeons, caves, forests, and ruins. There is such a variety of dungeons, each with their own unique look and new enemies that it never gets old. Dungeons are very manageable because they have well-placed save points throughout and you will always be given a healing save point before fighting a boss so you know to prepare.
Aside from the variety in the dungeons themselves, the other reason the dungeons never get old is the extremely well-executed combat. The Tales series has always been known for its combat. Even the earlier games in the series had battle systems that were much more fun than similar but clunky, action-oriented battle systems. Vesperia uses a battle system very similar to the one made popular in Abyss and, just like abyss, combat is fast, furious, and fun.
While walking around a section of the world map or a dungeon area, you will see enemies on-screen. For about the first third of the game, simply touching the on-screen enemy initiates combat and it doesn’t matter if you attack the enemy from behind or not. Later on in the game, you get the Sorcerer’s Ring (an item anyone who played Symphonia or Abyss should be familiar with), allowing you to freeze enemies and attack them with initiative as well as leaving you open to possible attacks from behind. Thankfully, the only real negative to being attacked from behind is that your battle party is randomly selected from available characters. On the other hand, if you are able to hit gain advantage, you start the battle out with all enemies stunned.
Each battle begins with one of the enemies as your default target. The game automatically keeps you on an invisible line it creates that ensures you are always going to hit your target. As soon as you change targets, you switch to that target’s line and continue normally. You can hold down the left trigger at any time during battle to free run, allowing you to navigate to any portion of the battlefield of your choosing where you can resume your fighting. This is especially helpful when you are trying to chase that annoying spell caster enemy who runs away as soon as you get too close.
In battle you have three main actions: attacks, artes, and guard. The default control scheme has you attacking with B, using artes with A, and guarding with X. You can change up the control scheme however you like to fit your play style in the options, although for the purposes of this review, I will assume the default because that is what I used. Both regular attacks and artes are direction based. This means that executing an attack without holding the analog stick in any direction does the base attack. Along with that, holding your analog stick in either of the four main directions while you hit the attack button will change the type of attack you do.
The variations of regular attacks are fixed. Holding up will do an attack into the air (good against flying enemies) and holding down will do a ground attack (good against small enemies like rats). The directions associated with your artes, however, are customizable. Initially you will have only one arte, but, as you level up, you will gain numerous different artes that can be assigned to neutral, up, down, or side positions of B. This makes it so that battles run smoothly because you have your four most used skills freely available to you. I played 99% of the game as Yuri, and, as such, always used physical type artes with B. It can get a little more complicated if you try to control a spell caster directly but it is much easier to let the AI do their thing and command them to cast specific spells as needed.
One might think that simply killing the enemies presented to you in an encounter is more than adequate; however, that is only half of the battle. Any seasoned JRPG fan is likely to have realized that to get through a dungeon most effectively, you must maximize your potential. The Tales series has always realized this and thus gives you grade at the end of each battle based on numerous factors. Some things considered in awarding grade include how fast you killed your enemies, how much damage you sustained, how many items you had to use, and whether you realized you were hitting their strong points or not. Most battles end with the player gaining a positive amount of grade, however small. The grade accrued throughout the game can be spent in the grade shop to receive bonuses that can be used for a second playthrough.
The graphics in the Tales series has always been pleasant to look at because of the stylized approach the creators use. Now with the move to HD visuals, towns and dungeons are a marvel to behold. Many of the towns are static and as such feature painted vistas that overflow with color. The lush environments are second only to the beautiful character models. In battles and most scenes, characters look like they were cut straight out of the latest anime and brought to life in 3D on your screen. The visuals are so good that I had a hard time differentiating between anime and in-engine cutscenes. High level spell effects are similarly fantastic. I’ve been waiting years for a game to finally show a massive meteor shower on my enemies this detailed and awesome looking.
The music and voice acting in Vesperia is top notch. Series veteran Motoi Sakuraba returns, composing the soundtrack once again. The Vesperia soundtrack is markedly better than any of the previous Tales soundtracks Sakuraba composed. It fits the game perfectly, giving it the perfect relaxing background music to enhance all the game’s major scenes. The game also has a theme song that is the first Tales theme song to be translated into English for the US release of the game. Bonnie Pink’s Ring a Bell is a solid pop-rock intro. Its themes are used repeatedly in the game’s soundtrack with many variations.
The Voice Acting in the game is top-notch as well, featuring some of the best Anime voice talent available. I didn’t find any of the voices to be overall objectionable or any battle cries to become overly annoying. Every character has a fitting voice actor that expresses his personality well. A few other things should be noted: the game does not have a Japanese voice option and you can not skip cutscenes although you can pause the in-engine cutscenes.
Tales of Vesperia is just as good, if not slightly better, than Tales of the Abyss while still clocking in about as long. I beat the game in just over 63 hours doing a small portion of the sidequests. The game isn’t overly difficult on the normal difficulty setting with only a few bosses requiring some grinding. Players who want it really easy can play on easy although they will not gain as much grade from battles. Anyone crazy enough to think normal is too easy can play on hard and there is an unlockable very hard difficulty mode after you beat the game. With tons of sidequests and a main game lasting just around 60 hours, there is tremendous value to be had in Tales of Vesperia. Even when I was reaching the end of my 60th hour, I still didn’t want it to end.
Platform: Xbox 360
Even when I was reaching the end of my 60th hour, I still didn’t want it to end.
Review by Sirus
Since the days of the Super Nintendo, the Tales series has increased in popularity as well as numbers. The numerous games have garnered various levels of support over the years, but two recent games have stood out as receiving greater than the usual amount of critical acclaim as well as popularity among gamers. Tales of Symphonia was released early in the Gamecube’s lifecycle and praised for its well written storyline and accessible though deep systems. The same team who worked on Tales of Symphonia then released Tales of the Abyss on the Playstation 2 late in its life cycle. Tales of the Abyss was especially praised by fans of JRPGS because, like Symphonia, it gave gamers a large scale adventure that lasted for a good 60 hours.
Tales of Vesperia marks the next leap in generations for the Tales series and its first time released with HD visuals and Dolby Digital Surround sound. Vesperia comes to us from the same team behind the two most recent solid entries into the Tales franchise and lives up to the high bar set by its predecessors. Because it follows so much in the success of previous games, fans of either of the two aforementioned titles know what to expect as far as mechanics, story progression, character development, and gameplay. If you haven’t played a Tales game before, I highly suggest you download the demo of Vesperia on the XBL marketplace and try it out. Keep in mind, though, that if you have trouble with the boss, that is normal and most of the game’s bosses are slightly less difficult.
The story of Vesperia follows a protagonist who not only starts out much more mature than any of the series’ previous main characters ever grew to be, but shows qualities and does things nobody would have ever dreamed to see a JRPG character do a couple of years ago. Yuri Lowell is a man who grew up in an area of poverty and joined the Knights to change things only to realize later that he was too constricted by the rules and procedures the law sets forth to accomplish anything. His sense of justice finds him on the hunt for a no-good magician who he believes stole the blastia that controls the water in a fountain central to his hometown, The Lower Quarter.
Yuri’s hunt for the blastia thief leads him to break into a house where he believes the thief is living. Upon entry, he confronts the thief only to have him run off, leaving Yuri to deal with the consequences of breaking the law. As luck would have it, the Knights decide that Yuri’s criminal actions warrant a jail sentence. Just when it starts to seem like Yuri isn’t getting out of prison anytime soon, his mysterious neighbor slips him a key on his way out on a pardon. Free from jail, Yuri has to make his way through the castle on his way back to The Lower Quarter. On his way out, he runs into a girl named Estellise who hires him to help her get out of the castle as well. On their way out of town through The Lower Quarter, they run into Yuri's Dog, Repede, who wants to tag along for the ride.
What begins as Yuri’s search for the blastia thief soon expands into much more. The story spans multiple continents and has you confronting multiple nemeses. The game is eventually drawn together by a broad story arc but most of the game is focused on smaller seemingly unrelated jobs that weave together in the end. By the end of the game, you have a total of eight different characters in your party, of which you can use four in battle at any given time. The characters are developed thoroughly through skits, a series staple, which are now fully voiced. Skits basically show you a conversation between your characters about a major story event that just took place and how they are dealing with it. Skits must be triggered by pushing the back button on the controller when a cue appears in the bottom left of the screen.
There are also a number of different side quests that can be undertaken throughout the game. These side quests are kept interesting because they always have a good amount of dialogue associated with them that makes them feel like optional quests not useless side stories. Many of these quests must be triggered at a specific point in the game or access to them is lost forever. Thus anyone who wants to see everything there is to see is strongly advised to use an online walkthrough or strategy guide.
Throughout the game you will find yourself trekking through all sorts of dungeons, caves, forests, and ruins. There is such a variety of dungeons, each with their own unique look and new enemies that it never gets old. Dungeons are very manageable because they have well-placed save points throughout and you will always be given a healing save point before fighting a boss so you know to prepare.
Aside from the variety in the dungeons themselves, the other reason the dungeons never get old is the extremely well-executed combat. The Tales series has always been known for its combat. Even the earlier games in the series had battle systems that were much more fun than similar but clunky, action-oriented battle systems. Vesperia uses a battle system very similar to the one made popular in Abyss and, just like abyss, combat is fast, furious, and fun.
While walking around a section of the world map or a dungeon area, you will see enemies on-screen. For about the first third of the game, simply touching the on-screen enemy initiates combat and it doesn’t matter if you attack the enemy from behind or not. Later on in the game, you get the Sorcerer’s Ring (an item anyone who played Symphonia or Abyss should be familiar with), allowing you to freeze enemies and attack them with initiative as well as leaving you open to possible attacks from behind. Thankfully, the only real negative to being attacked from behind is that your battle party is randomly selected from available characters. On the other hand, if you are able to hit gain advantage, you start the battle out with all enemies stunned.
Each battle begins with one of the enemies as your default target. The game automatically keeps you on an invisible line it creates that ensures you are always going to hit your target. As soon as you change targets, you switch to that target’s line and continue normally. You can hold down the left trigger at any time during battle to free run, allowing you to navigate to any portion of the battlefield of your choosing where you can resume your fighting. This is especially helpful when you are trying to chase that annoying spell caster enemy who runs away as soon as you get too close.
In battle you have three main actions: attacks, artes, and guard. The default control scheme has you attacking with B, using artes with A, and guarding with X. You can change up the control scheme however you like to fit your play style in the options, although for the purposes of this review, I will assume the default because that is what I used. Both regular attacks and artes are direction based. This means that executing an attack without holding the analog stick in any direction does the base attack. Along with that, holding your analog stick in either of the four main directions while you hit the attack button will change the type of attack you do.
The variations of regular attacks are fixed. Holding up will do an attack into the air (good against flying enemies) and holding down will do a ground attack (good against small enemies like rats). The directions associated with your artes, however, are customizable. Initially you will have only one arte, but, as you level up, you will gain numerous different artes that can be assigned to neutral, up, down, or side positions of B. This makes it so that battles run smoothly because you have your four most used skills freely available to you. I played 99% of the game as Yuri, and, as such, always used physical type artes with B. It can get a little more complicated if you try to control a spell caster directly but it is much easier to let the AI do their thing and command them to cast specific spells as needed.
One might think that simply killing the enemies presented to you in an encounter is more than adequate; however, that is only half of the battle. Any seasoned JRPG fan is likely to have realized that to get through a dungeon most effectively, you must maximize your potential. The Tales series has always realized this and thus gives you grade at the end of each battle based on numerous factors. Some things considered in awarding grade include how fast you killed your enemies, how much damage you sustained, how many items you had to use, and whether you realized you were hitting their strong points or not. Most battles end with the player gaining a positive amount of grade, however small. The grade accrued throughout the game can be spent in the grade shop to receive bonuses that can be used for a second playthrough.
The graphics in the Tales series has always been pleasant to look at because of the stylized approach the creators use. Now with the move to HD visuals, towns and dungeons are a marvel to behold. Many of the towns are static and as such feature painted vistas that overflow with color. The lush environments are second only to the beautiful character models. In battles and most scenes, characters look like they were cut straight out of the latest anime and brought to life in 3D on your screen. The visuals are so good that I had a hard time differentiating between anime and in-engine cutscenes. High level spell effects are similarly fantastic. I’ve been waiting years for a game to finally show a massive meteor shower on my enemies this detailed and awesome looking.
The music and voice acting in Vesperia is top notch. Series veteran Motoi Sakuraba returns, composing the soundtrack once again. The Vesperia soundtrack is markedly better than any of the previous Tales soundtracks Sakuraba composed. It fits the game perfectly, giving it the perfect relaxing background music to enhance all the game’s major scenes. The game also has a theme song that is the first Tales theme song to be translated into English for the US release of the game. Bonnie Pink’s Ring a Bell is a solid pop-rock intro. Its themes are used repeatedly in the game’s soundtrack with many variations.
The Voice Acting in the game is top-notch as well, featuring some of the best Anime voice talent available. I didn’t find any of the voices to be overall objectionable or any battle cries to become overly annoying. Every character has a fitting voice actor that expresses his personality well. A few other things should be noted: the game does not have a Japanese voice option and you can not skip cutscenes although you can pause the in-engine cutscenes.
Tales of Vesperia is just as good, if not slightly better, than Tales of the Abyss while still clocking in about as long. I beat the game in just over 63 hours doing a small portion of the sidequests. The game isn’t overly difficult on the normal difficulty setting with only a few bosses requiring some grinding. Players who want it really easy can play on easy although they will not gain as much grade from battles. Anyone crazy enough to think normal is too easy can play on hard and there is an unlockable very hard difficulty mode after you beat the game. With tons of sidequests and a main game lasting just around 60 hours, there is tremendous value to be had in Tales of Vesperia. Even when I was reaching the end of my 60th hour, I still didn’t want it to end.
| 10/10 - Addicting fast-paced battle system that never gets old. | ||||||
| 10/10 - Beautiful anime-styled graphics. | ||||||
| 9/10 - Fantastic soundtrack accompanied by a stellar voice cast. | ||||||
| 8/10 - Well-developed characters in a well-executed JRPG plot. | ||||||
| 10/10 -50-60 hour main quest with multiple sidequests. | ||||||
| 9.5/10 (Marvel-Ous) | ||||||
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