I've only played the third one!

Time for the top 30!

30. Tales of Vesperia (Xbox 360)
cmI8aJR.jpg

In Tales of Vesperia, the towns and cities are protected by magical barriers of sorts to keep the monsters outside. At the start of the game, former Knight Yuri decides to track down the thief of an aqua blastia core, the absence of which is causing some water problems for his friends. While tracking down the thief, he meets a young lady named Estelle and learns they have a friend in common. Soon they have to venture out in search of the thief and their friend Flynn, learning that there's more going on in the world than they knew.

This game is played similar to most Tales games with finer details I couldn't describe because I couldn't pull them off. You attack with the B button and perform arts with A, which consumes TP. TP is restored by attacking or winning a battle (or by using items). Abilities are learned through equipped items. You can change your on screen character and which character you use in battle. They don't have to be the same character. You can also find recipes and have your characters cook to restore HP and TP and such. There are 4 characters usable in battle at a time. There are 7 playable characters in this version with one guest, but there's some extra stuff in the PS3 version.


General impressions:
This is one of the Tales games I'd heard the most about, but I don't have a 360 so I couldn't really play it. But eventually I got some other games to play on the system and my boyfriend let me borrow the 360 from work, so I got to try it out a few months ago! I wasn't sure what to expect, I just knew that people love Yuri and Rita and it's the favourite of a lot of people. Overall I think it's a great game, look how high up it made it on my list, but it wasn't my favourite Tales game. There was a bit too much politics and I have a hard time keeping up with that type of story so I was a bit lost at times. But it does have an interesting story, it's fun to play, and has a strong cast of characters. Also the skits were a bit weird in this one.

Story:
The story isn't bad or weak by any means, but I did have a hard time keeping up with some of it because there was a lot of political drama and I just don't have a mind for politics. I was always getting people confused and I'd get lost at certain points. But the parts I did understand were great and the game wasn't all politics. The more fantasy storyline very much had me excited and interested and there were some great moments and some really touching and sad ones.


Gameplay:
The gameplay is the same as most Tales games but I liked it a bit less because they didn't do a good job of explaining the finer details, and there were a lot of them, and so it just became a big confusing mess at the end and basically all I had down was attack and skills. Not to mention the button reversal on a controller I wasn't familiar with made things more difficult than necessary.

s4ME7XW.jpg
I wish I'd known how to keep her
Princess outfit

World:
Pretty strong. There were some gorgeous areas, there was good diversity, the places felt alive. There were a great many places I looked forward to seeing and exploring and they were all very cinematic in how they were presented as well. My favourite was Halure because of the beautiful tree and the unique style of the homes and such.

WLbiLWB.jpg
So pretty!

Characters:
Very strong cast of characters and great relationships. One of my favourite things about Tales games is how each character relates to each other and not just to the main two. They truly feel like an ensemble. I didn't like Rita like I was expecting to, but there were some awesome characters.

Favourite character: Estelle Eoz9Lvp.png
Honourable mentions: Repede, Judith, Yuri 9OHtD3D.jpgTrGpWRy.pngW4kKFIW.jpg

Yep, lot's of favourites, I had trouble narrowing it down. Estelle was just great. She was sweet and kind, although a bit naive. She was just such a good friend and she grew a lot during the journey. And her pink hair was cute. Repede was just a cool dog with an attitude. I wasn't expecting to like Judith but she became my favourite to use and I did enjoy her scenes and found her very interesting. Yuri was just well written, good voice acted, and brought a certain depth and change from most protagonists.

Overall strong game with an interesting story, beautiful world, and awesome cast of characters. Gamepay is a bit bloated and not well explained though.