Tales of Vesperia

[Magixion]

I picked this game up yesterday and am loving it so far. The graphics really bring out the anime-inspired art style and draw you in. The battle system is typical of the Tales series and is easily one of the most fun systems I have played for awhile. Also, Yuri is just a badass and so is Repede, his knife wielding dog-thing!

Anyone else pick this up or going to pick this up?

[Ouch!]

It's out? How did I miss this...?

[Magixion]

Yes it is! It came out on Tuesday! :tongue:

[Roto13]

Apparently you can pay real-world money to buy levels and skills and stuff for your characters if you don't feel like grinding. Not that Tales games are particularly difficult. I beat Tales of Symphonia on Mania difficulty with half EXP and I didn't have to grind once. >_>

[Namelessfengir]

ps2 or 3

[Zeromus_X]

XBox 360. :p

[Tasura]

I haven't picked it up yet, but I plan to the first chance I have money, which will be in a couple of weeks, give or take a month, depending on how far the government has it's head shoved up it's ass.

[Karellen]

Apparently you can pay real-world money to buy levels and skills and stuff for your characters if you don't feel like grinding.
It begins.

[Lawr]

Apparently you can pay real-world money to buy levels and skills and stuff for your characters if you don't feel like grinding.
It begins.

Lawl Karellan and yeah, I thought this was an MMO too. :laugh:

[JKTrix]

I went to the store on Thursday looking for this, but they didn't have it. To be expected.

They did have Mercenaries 2 though... and I've been playing that since I got it. What a fun game.

That 'pay money' stuff is just in Japan. All that's available right now for the US are some free gels and some 'trial' skills for some of the characters. No doubt that it will be coming later though. Namco loves them microtransactions.

[Dreddz]

If only Namco could take this series to new places, then maybe I would be interested. Tales of should be in the dictionary right next to generic.

[Markus. D]

It's still pretty fun y'know n-n?

Battling things side-scroll style.

[JKTrix]

If only Namco could take this series to new places, then maybe I would be interested. Tales of should be in the dictionary right next to generic.

I wouldn't go so far as to say 'generic' (it's still better than most similar games and looks to be more enjoyable than Infinite Undiscovery), but maybe a little 'behind' considering RPGs in general. Tales is still kinda stuck in kid-friendly mode when it comes to presentation and content, though Vesperia already seems to be touching on some more mature subjects. I guess that's just how the franchise is meant to be, all colourful and pleasant and stuff. If it changed too much, the JP audience probably wouldn't be too pleased. I just hope that Namco's idea of innovating/progressing the franchise doesn't begin and end with letting people choose whether they want anime or CG cutscenes (http://www.siliconera.com/2008/08/20/two-editions-of-tales-of-hearts-planned-for-japan/).

[Khaotic]

Time to throw away my PS3.

[Bastian]

The only Tales game I played was Symphonia. It was alright. Really, I think I only liked it because it seemed to toally rip off the Mana games and Final Fantasy games and merge them into a lesser-than multiplayer. If it was single player, I would have never finished it.

[Zeldy]

What console is this one? Is it out in the UK yet?

I absolutely adored Tales of Symphonia, so I'm really looking forward to playing this!

[Carl the Llama]

I found this: IGN: Tales of Vesperia (http://uk.xbox360.ign.com/objects/142/14225689.html) it says it was released in the UK 2 days ago >.> and that its on the 360.

[Roto13]

The only Tales game I played was Symphonia. It was alright. Really, I think I only liked it because it seemed to toally rip off the Mana games and Final Fantasy games and merge them into a lesser-than multiplayer. If it was single player, I would have never finished it.

How exactly does it rip off either of those games?

[Krelian]

I found this: IGN: Tales of Vesperia (http://uk.xbox360.ign.com/objects/142/14225689.html) it says it was released in the UK 2 days ago >.> and that its on the 360.
What the hell? That would be great. But I just checked, there's no PAL version released yet, so the date is wrong. Last I heard the release date for Europe was Spring 2009. Thanks to the US version being region locked that's probably how long we have to wait for a release here :/ Thanks very much, Namco. The only reason I see for such a delay is a translation to German, French, etc.. But I don't care for a translation, damnit, why won't they at least release it in the UK already?

[darkchrono]

I've never played any of the Tales games (and if the storylines are rather kiddish I probably won't) but am wondering are all the games in the series connected or is it like final fantasy where each game takes place on a separate world and has a separate storyline.

[Roto13]

Some games are connected, but as far as I know, Vesperia isn't one of those games.

[Magixion]

Alright, well I am about 20-25 hours into it and I am loving this game! One thing that sets it apart from all the other Tales of games are the fact that they are touching on more mature subjects (murder, morals, and even a little bit of *ahem* sexual humor (albeit a very small amount.) There are quite a new features that make the battles a LOT of fun! The fatal strikes, burst artes, over limits, they are just a blast! I don't have any problems fighting monsters whenever I encounter them and I am a pretty impatient guy.

I really, really recommend this to anyone with a 360. It is easily the best JRPG out on the system. I would even consider it more fun than Oblivion. (I never did get hooked onto Oblivion like other people though)

[JKTrix]

I'm really enjoying this a lot more than I thought I would too. Symphonia (the last/only other Tales I've seriously played) I thought was merely 'good', but I've been really impressed with Vesperia's features by comparison. Forget what I said about this being 'kid-friendly', this is definitely more mature.

The sexual humour really surprised me too :P They're really pushing the 'Suggestive Themes' thing.

When I got Judith, she became my favourite character to use next to Yuri. Some of the victory quotes/poses/conversations are really cool, they add a lot to the charm. One I just saw: Karol, Judy and Estelle do a cheesy victory pose while Rita just says "I can't... I just...can't..."

Yuri himself, the main character, is pretty refreshing for not only the Tales series but JRPGs in general. He's not a child, he's not emo, he's not wimpy/whiny, he's not clumsy, he's not naive, he's not obnoxious. Right now, he seems to be building up to a pretty major and dark decision. Should be interesting to see how that plays out--especially with his white Pimp hat I have him running around in.

Game is good stuff.

[Cookie]

I really like the cover.

Release date(s)
JP August 7, 2008
NA August 26, 2008
EU Spring 2009

Looks like I've still got quite a wait, but I can see that it will be worth it.

[Magixion]

I'm really enjoying this a lot more than I thought I would too. Symphonia (the last/only other Tales I've seriously played) I thought was merely 'good', but I've been really impressed with Vesperia's features by comparison. Forget what I said about this being 'kid-friendly', this is definitely more mature.

The sexual humour really surprised me too :P They're really pushing the 'Suggestive Themes' thing.

When I got Judith, she became my favourite character to use next to Yuri. Some of the victory quotes/poses/conversations are really cool, they add a lot to the charm. One I just saw: Karol, Judy and Estelle do a cheesy victory pose while Rita just says "I can't... I just...can't..."

Yuri himself, the main character, is pretty refreshing for not only the Tales series but JRPGs in general. He's not a child, he's not emo, he's not wimpy/whiny, he's not clumsy, he's not naive, he's not obnoxious. Right now, he seems to be building up to a pretty major and dark decision. Should be interesting to see how that plays out--especially with his white Pimp hat I have him running around in.

Game is good stuff.

After every event that happens, Yuri becomes more and more badass. It is -very- refreshing having a main character that actually isn't whiny and does what he thinks will make a difference. I should be beating this game either tonight or tomorrow, but all the costumes and titles you can unlock are very addicting so I am stuck doing sidequests. :P

[JKTrix]

I spent like 2 hours on Sunday just doing the Waiter/waitress missions for everybody. As an extra bonus there's a fun scene that plays afterward where everybody makes fun of Yuri.

I'm at the point where I can meet Phaeroh, but I've gone around exploring all the places I've been to to see if there is any new stuff. And there is a *lot* of new stuff. I should probably get back to the story soon though, which I probably will because I'm running out of weapons to learn skills from.

Corinne :'(

[LunarWeaver]

I'm about 30 hours in and enjoying it. The tales series is a bit worn down for me at this point I must admit, but it's a really good game with one of the most likable casts around. Except maybe Estelle. I didn't think it was possible for me to be indifferent towards a pink-haired healer that pokes things with a sword, as that is what I aspire to be in life, but somehow they managed. Oh well, compared to Collette she's a blessing. And Yuri really is very nice as a lead. He dodges all the usual bullcrap but also doesn't feel like a forced "badass" type desperately trying to appeal to 14-year-olds. He is, le gaspeu, a normal well-adjusted adult.

Alright now I'm going to be a bitchy bitch. I do have to say watching chibi characters with thought bubbles is getting rather tiresome at this point. We're at the 10th main entry and the power of a 360. The sprites are pretty and everything, don't get me wrong, but I'm just straight up spoiled by cinematic cutscenes and motion-capture. The cutscenes in this game look like a little kid is reaching down and moving around his legos.

Although when I expressed this to a friend and in another forum I got a bunch of backlash ranging from "That's just how Tales is, deal with it" to "STFU and don't play it if you don't like it". I'm not saying it ruins the game, but I don't see what's wrong with wanting advancements in the series. It depresses me that not only have gamers quit expecting more from subsequent titles in a series, the developers have them tricked into craving the same thing. And yes it's anime style and not realistic but so was Xenosaga and they pulled it off. Just saying :(

[Jiro]

I'm actually interested in this game now. Thanks guys, my bank account's going to be empty now :D
I enjoyed Tales of Symphonia a lot, so I'm willing to give this one a shot too. And a bit of a turn away from "kid-friendly" is very welcome.
All in all, this looks interesting, so as soon as poor Australia gets it, I'll pick it up :D

[JKTrix]

See, I rather prefer Vesperia's method than most games. The majority of the actual story sequences take place in-game, so the characters look consistent throughout. It's a little more than moving Legos around, though you don't really need much flair when people are just talking. I'd rather have that than have the characters look one way when I'm running on the map, another way when I'm in a fight, then look entirely different during a FMV. There are several actual fully animated cutscenes scattered throughout the game though for the really important stuff in either Cartoon animated form or in-game rendered CG.

If you're talking about the Talking Heads things (called skits) that come up when you have to press the 'Back' button though, yeah. That is just 'Tales'. Those are optional though, but they are purely for additional character development.

As for Estelle, yeah. I don't particularly care for her either. It's not that she's unlikeable, just plain. It's supposed to be part of her character so it doesn't bother me much. She's just the game's token moeblob.

Judy (game's token busty warrior) ftw.