Tales of Vesperia

Just got to that Guild place I can't remember the name of. I'm just going to call it Guildzilla

Story is getting more interesting, but still hasn't grabbed me as much as some others in the series. Karol and Yuri are both growing on me. Rita still is not, although I did like some scenes between her and Estelle. I like Estelle a whole bunch and that hasn't changed. I like her more as time goes on, actually

It was funny to me when Rita was like "What does Estelle think of me?" Because she's not been shy. She's made it very clear how she feels about everyone. She's not the one who's shy about her true feelings *coughRitacough*

I'm terrible at battles. Good thing I have it on easy. But yeah they've just given me a few tutorials and it just goes over my head. Something about buttons, I dunno

So are the Balstia things alive? Rita talks like they are but no one else does and they haven't elaborated. Or maybe they did and I just didn't understand it

Have to do some money grinding now because I just spent like 15000 at the last shop and then 5 minutes later there's a new shop with new stuff and I spent all my money

Also, everyone is horrible at cooking :stare:

You're not alone with the battles. I'm competent at them, but I don't have the core mechanics mastered. Mystic artes, magic artes, blazing artes, skills, etc. I just hit whatever combination of buttons do the moves I want. Real fans of the series have the battle systems down to an artform and can chain different artes and do the super moves and stuff. It took me so long to do that stuff in Xillia, which is the most accessible game for that kinda stuff, and it still took me forever lol So no worries there. Just mash buttons and enjoy xD

The game takes an interestingly dark turn around the area where you are I believe, so maybe you'll feel more invested then. I sure did. Sadly we quit shortly after lol But I liked where the game was going. And where Yuri's character and personality were going

I finished my second playthrough of this the day before yesterday. Such good. Though I flipped the difficulty to easy as well 'cause I was kinda in a hurry.

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So are the Balstia things alive? Rita talks like they are but no one else does and they haven't elaborated. Or maybe they did and I just didn't understand it

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Nah, Rita's just a bit obsessed with them! ^_^ Blastia == machines that use magic, basically. That's all they are. When characters reference 'Bodhi Blastia,' those are just the ones they wear that allow them to use artes in battle.

Regarding battles, you basically have two kinds of arte when you're not in Over Limit: Base and Arcane. You can combo a Base arte into an Arcane arte (it's possible this requires a particular skill but I am not certain). I like to keep all my Base arte shortcuts on (left stick + A), and my Arcane arte shortcuts on right stick. That way it's easy just to press any direction + A, then right stick in any direction, and I get a Base -> Arcane combo.

If you're looking through your Artes and you find something called a Burst Arte, that is something you can only use in Over Limit. Just hold 'A' while you're doing an Arcane arte, and then that will combo into the Burst Arte. Mystic Artes​ (if you ever get them. They require the 'Special' skill and Level 3 Over Limit) work the same way but with 'B'.

That is super helpful. I don't know why they make it sound so convoluted and complicated in the game tutorials and even on GameFAQs I never really bothered to breakdown what they were saying to implement in-game because they, too, made it sound more complicated than it has to be

Yeah Vesperia's tutorials are pretty bad. They tell you a lot of stuff before you have the chance to practice it, which is just dumb.

You can also set other arts to the second analoge stick right? I allocated like 8 main spells to both control sticks. So many spells~

Yeah I have 8 spells allocated.

Anyways so now we just made Brave Vesperia. I do like how it ties in with the title because it makes the game feel like a story or something. I'm really not sure how some of the other Tales games got their names

The story is getting more interesting. I have Judith now and she's my new favourite to use. I think she's very quick and easy to use. Which is good because Rita is gone. I am so conflicted because there's an Archer character (:jess:) that I hate (:nonono:)

Also that weird gear dungeon was awful

Funny fact about my very first playthrough. I used Yuri, Rita, Estelle and Raven as my team. I used the second analogue stick to control the Rita, Estelle and Raven's Spells like Meteor, Holy Rain and Tempest at the start of the battle so they all cast simultaneously.

Doing this crashed and red ringed my 360. It was repaired and I still use it xD.

Judith is also my girlfriend's favorite. So once we got her, I started using Yuri, and the game got SO much more enjoyable. He seemed so much faster and more fluid and easier to manage than the others that I'd tried

Played some more. Things happened

Also, having a terrible time ranking this game because its pretty much tied with Tales of the Abyss and I can't decide which I like better. Going to keep playing and that might decide for me but right now it is a tie

Might please you to know after some more playing and consideration, Tales of Vesperia has been ranked :bigsmile:

I have a million and one games to play though and the Xbox 360 is here for only a short while longer, so I'll have to watch the ending bits on the youtubes. I imagine the gameplay stays relatively the same throughout

Every time I read the name Rita in this thread I picture this:

http://i.imgur.com/RB5Lo3G.jpg

And am sad when I know that's not who you're talking about.

Would shion recommend this for a Tales newbie?

I would say so.

I honestly don't like it as much as most other Tales games I've played, but its still a really good game and worth the time. Overall I've found the series to be very high quality so when I say I like one of them less than the other ones, I still think very highly of it anyways

From speaking to others about the series and also based off of my own opinion, though, I would say Xillia is the best starter game, but this one is still a very good game too

Throwing out my two cents on the question as well :)


Just take note of the conversation Fox and I just had about the battle system. Vesperia is pretty newbie friendly, but if you want to master the battle system, and the tutorials don't help, it may require some research. But I don't think any of the Tales games actually require you to be more competent than any other turn based JRPG, it's just that attacks, spells, and item usage happens in real time. It's just the special moves that require some extra attention. That's really the only thing a newb would have to be concerned about. And if all you have is a 360, it's a pretty stellar choice if you're itching for a JRPG