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Tales of Vesperia


The NZA

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ToV_Cover.jpg

 

Alright, so im late to the party, but i picked this one up from Newt for $10, and it was a great deal. If the upcoming PS3 version gets a good LE, ill think about grabbing that, too.

 

The Tales series takes a lotta shit for being cookie-cutter J-RPG, and to an extent, i can see why - i didnt get to play much of Destiny for PS1, and newt still praises Symphonia for gamecube, but they usually dont score high past old-school RPG heads. Vesperia's is indeed along these lines, but there's some good changes to the formula.

 

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As you can see, the art style's this kind of soft pastel cel-shading, and it really works - its about the prettiest RPG ive yet played. what matters more to me, though, is that the lush environments work well with the soundtrack, for the most part, making for the enveloping experience i look for from RPGs. The battle sytem's a kind of hack-and-slash which works for me, since im tired of standard grinding anyway (plus, you can put it on full auto if you want).

 

The plot, so far, is enjoyable - bit of politics, bit of standard world-saving. The thing is, you watch the opening cinematic, and it does indeed look cookie-cutter: you can basically point to any character that shows up and pick their archetype/name 5 anime characters like them, and truth is, you're not wrong...but what the game shines at, for me, is that there hasnt been an RPG since Lunar that nails down its characters in such a fun, anime way. Victory scenes and constant, optional dialogues have the characters reflecting, interacting, and often antagonizing each other, making them really feel like a team. It also brings contunity: they'll talk after a hard-ass boss battle (or even one that was too easy), and either show their concerns about events in the game or just talk about things they'd rather be doing, but either way, these interactions are plentiful and dont repeat either, so they add a great deal of character to the game, something i wish more J-RPGs did. nothing feels like more of a waste than going to some beautifully designed area where nothing significant happens and the party acts entirely mute anyway.

 

By my estimation, im at least 1/3 into the game, and again, its looking to be my favorite of the genre so far this gen. I'm looking at Persona 4 and possibly Lost Odyssey next, but traditional RPG fans really should give this one a go. Cant wait to see how the prequel anime goes down.

 

ps for posterity, here's what the upcoming PS3 release looks to bring:

Tales of Vesperia will be ported to the PlayStation 3 in Autumn, 2009 with additional content as well as a different logo. A PlayStation 3 port has been long rumoured and was finally leaked from the April 1st Issue of Shōnen Jump and was officially announced at a Tales Press conference by Namco Bandai Games on April 6th, 2009. It is the second to be released in the Tales Line-Up of 2009, after Tales of VS, an escort title for the PSP, and before Tales of Graces, the new Mothership Title for the Wii.

 

* Branching Storylines

* Full voice acting

* Flynn as a playable character

* Ties-In with Tales of Vesperia: The First Strike

* New playable character, a pirate girl called Patty Fleur

* New Cutscenes

* New Subplots

* New Costumes

* New Bosses (Including the Sword Dancer)

* New Dungeons

* New Hi Ougi/Mystic Artes

* New Skits

* New Animated Scenes

* New Sidequests

* New Songs

* New Artes

* New Monsters

* Repede as a selectable on screen avatar

* Repede also gains a costume, which isn't in XBOX 360 game

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Better late than never.

Tales of Vesperia FTW. I put like 80 hours on that, and I didn't even touch the New Game +. According to Siege it's the bees-knees, adding a Grade shop where you can spend all the grade points you've gotten during the course of your first playthrough and dramatically alter the experience.

I'm sure I'll play it again eventually. I stopped immedietely after beating it.

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Better late than never.

Tales of Vesperia FTW. I put like 80 hours on that, and I didn't even touch the New Game +. According to Siege it's the bees-knees, adding a Grade shop where you can spend all the grade points you've gotten during the course of your first playthrough and dramatically alter the experience.

I'm sure I'll play it again eventually. I stopped immedietely after beating it.

 

I take it's the first tales game you played?

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  • 4 months later...
Xbox 360 users, stung by being the paying beta testers for Tales of Vesperia, a game touted as an Xbox exclusive and the sole reason many own their consoles, are launching a petition for redress from Bandai-Namco Games, who they accuse of “underhanded” and “unfair” tactics for daring to release the game on the PS3 in massively upgraded form.

 

Their petition lays out the following demands:

The games should not be dispersed across multiple platforms, they should be consolidated onto one platform [i.e. Xbox 360].

 

The games should be complete and properly made.

 

From now on, the porting of titles like Tales of Symphonia and Tales of Vesperia should be abolished.

 

An official apology should be made to Xbox 360 users for the abnormal number of additions made to Vesperia only a year after its Xbox 360 release.

 

The traces of the later additions found in the Xbox 360 edition should be explained.

 

Further bizarre product linkages should not be undertaken.

 

Elements of the Tales series [i.e. Patty Fleur] which cannot be enjoyed by all users should not be added.

 

Characters and the Tales universe should not be toyed with any more than necessary.

 

Certain platforms should not be favoured over others.

 

We wish to see user complaints acted upon.

 

We wish to see more consideration given to the effects of official actions on the fanbase.

 

The petition, launched on Japanese petition site Shomei.tv, has a closing date of January by which to amass 1,000 signatures, but looks set to easily meet this deadline, having already accumulated 560 signatures.

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man.

were we this whiny last gen? cause Xbox ports were almost always better/brought more than PS2 ones did - Silent Hill 2, Fatal Frame 2, MGS2 etc. you paid $60, you got as much product as there was then - the only time i can kinda see a point is like bish saying his Ninja Gaiden 2 didnt get patched cause they rushed off to do Sigma. if the glitches were somehow gamebreaking (im sure theyre not) then the "beta" argument would apply. fuck me, though - some gamers are whiny.

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man.

were we this whiny last gen? cause Xbox ports were almost always better/brought more than PS2 ones did - Silent Hill 2, Fatal Frame 2, MGS2 etc. you paid $60, you got as much product as there was then - the only time i can kinda see a point is like bish saying his Ninja Gaiden 2 didnt get patched cause they rushed off to do Sigma. if the glitches were somehow gamebreaking (im sure theyre not) then the "beta" argument would apply. fuck me, though - some gamers are whiny.

 

The 2 line that got me laughing were

 

The games should not be dispersed across multiple platforms, they should be consolidated onto one platform [i.e. Xbox 360].

 

and

 

Certain platforms should not be favoured over others.

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Did I hear right that they're going to be coming out with one for the Wii? Another one for my wishlist then!

 

Did I hear right that they're going to be coming out with one for the Wii? Another one for my wishlist then!

 

...did you start your bachelor party early? and yeah, Tales is a series: Wii got one entry (not great by most accounts, but hey, you might dig it), but yeah not this one, sadly.

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  • 6 months later...

this is all my fault; i so shouldnt've mentioned it to you

 

i forget the specifics, i know the new character didnt strike me as much, i just liked the idea of more dialogue voiced over cause the voice acting was well done. the adding of new areas, looking back, wasnt a big deal cause the game's freaking huge as it is and i didnt explore every corner of what was already there, nor replay it just yet.

 

newt makes it sound like the PS3 version just aint coming, which is so dumb at this point it hurts my brain. that said, really no reason to not borrow this one off me and run through it on xbox if you're down, install to the hard drive and loading times are great.

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it was, like, their best-selling one or so from the series, no? got a freakin' anime and a fan-following! game's got polish all around, and this is the one doesn't get localized this gen?

i know you said namco-bandai's dicked about in the past, i guess i just didn't notice it. this makes as much sense to me as Ubisoft saying "no, we dont wanna support No More Heroes on more fitted systems where it'll do better stateside". its like, fuck, the work's already done, money's on the table, just pick that shit up!

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  • 10 months later...

about 12 hours in so far, and loving it so far, the combat system is fun, the story is ok, but god do I love tales skits <3. also <3 Rita BOOM!

 

I also have to say it's nice that yuri seems to be in good control and is decently smart and not fooled like some other main characters. I'm at the town of the guilds atm.

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oh, absolutely - Yuri was a highlight for me. such a great protagonist, and he really develops as the game goes on, too...shame that's rare in the genre these days.

 

skits are indeed the best, and that's an eventful town throughout the game. i'm assuming you installed the game to your drive? really cuts down on loading times, shit was essential for that game & Lost Odyssey as well.

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