tommy_lop's Full Review: Tales Of Vesperia for Xbox 360
I got Tales of Vesperia about a month ago, I heard that it was no longer being produce so I thought it would be a good time to pick it up. After playing and finishing the game I can say Tales of Vesperia is probably the best JRPG you can pick up for the xbox 360. Everything seems to work and work well in this masterpiece.
Story The story follows ex-night and vigilante Yuri Lowell in his misadventures. Yuri used to be a night in the service of the empire but he got fed up with the corruption and quit and now makes a living doing favors for the folks who live in the empires lower quarters. When the lower quarters water blastia gets stolen and Yuri gets arrested for breaking into the house trying to get it back it leads him to meeting a young woman named Estelle while trying to break out of the castles dungeons. Yuri decides to leave the protection of the empire and the barrier in order to get the water blastia back, and to find out answers to a few other problems that popped up, like why are assassins after his best friend Flyn.
Along the way he meets Karol a young kid who dreams of one day starting his own guild, Rita a blastia mage with a one track mind, Judith a woman from the Krityian tribe who’s hobby is to destroy blastia, and Raven an old man who always seems to have something up his sleeves.
The game story is told in 3 chapters but the game doesn’t feel to episodic has the chapters are woven together nicely. Each chapter has a main villain and after you defeat him another villain pops up too make life miserable for Yuri and the gang of misfits that follow him. To give the characters a little fleshing out there are little skits that happen on the world map that can be viewed by hitting select whenever they appear. The characters have a lot of depth and get a lot of development has the game moves forward. Next to the little skits there are several different victory posses that also outline the relationship between each character.
The story while interesting does occasionally delve into Japanese RPG story cliché. Yuri and the gang will have to save the world by the end, and it’s an evil that is happening because humans aren’t taking care of the environment, I have lost track how many times this has been used in JRPG’s since FF7, doesn’t help that the final guy is basically a more well meaning version of Sephiroth.
Graphics. Like Bandai Namco’s other JRPG on the console Eternal Sonata, Tales of Vesperai is again a cel shaded game with anime character designs. But then it works the colors are beautiful and the cinematic scenes that use both in game and traditional anime animation look gorgeous. This is a beautiful game.
Sound. The sound is also a great with music that is epic in scope. The English voice over are also top notch in the dub.
Gameplay Tales of Vesperia game play is unique. It’ an action RPG to the fullest. Whenever you encounter a monster on the battle filed you enter a battle. You control Yuri while the AI pretty much controls the rest of the team. Pressing the X button allows Yuri to swing his sword while pressing the A button allows Yuri to release special moves and arts that can be learned and equipped. There are several moves that can be learned and not all the time is it wise just to stick the most powerful arts on Yuri has some of the animations can last several seconds and may mean you won’t be able to do another move in till after it’s done.
To add even more depth into the battle system there is the over limit gage which allows Yuri to temporarily be able to pull off powerful art combos. And then the fatal strike if Yuri hits an enemy with an art just right a special sympbol appears hitting a trigger button will allows Yuri to finish off the opponent and give stat boosts to the rest of the group.
There are also stat altering skills that can be learned from weapons that are equipped in similar ways to FF9. If a weapon with a skill gets equipped and the characters earns enough experience through battles with it they earn that skill. Of course there is also a limit on how many skills one can have equipped at a time.
Now the one thing that could have killed Tales battle system is the all ready mention you control Yuri while the computer AI controls your allies in battles. How many otherwise good RPG’s have been killed by similar ideas. Nothing like having to babysit a computer AI with an IQ of a 3 year old with down syndrome, while trying to save the world to make an RPG frustrating. Fortunately Tales avoids this mess has your helper characters help you out. They usually cast the right spells when you need them and battle along nicely right next to you. If you need a character to do a special move or if you want to tinker with what spells and techniques each member of your party can do the option to customize each characters ai. There were only a few times were the AI members screwed up and got me killed, usually it went with using an item in battle. When items are used you can’t used another for 2 seconds. And while using an antidote for a poison AI character is a good thing, it’s not a good thing when there is a character lower an health that you would rather give a healing gel to.
The dungeons that Yuri goes in has some simple puzzles that revovle around either Zelda like puzzles of pushing boxes. Or using his magic ring to zap stuff out of the way. Yuri can also zap monsters in dungeon areas. Zapping them will either confuse them for a bit giving you an opening if you want to battle with them. Or enrage them to were they chase after you faster.
On the replayabilty end the game will last 50 hours but there is a new game plus option. But it doesn’t work like an ordinary new game plus. Rather then starting the game over with all the levels and items from your previous play through. You have to purchase them back through the use of special grade points you pick up in battle. Want all your items back 1,000 grade points, want double the exp the next play thorugh another 1,000. You can also pay to make the game harder by giving you less then half the exp. I like the way this is handle the second time through will be easier but you can still make the game hard if you want to.
Xbox live and achievements. The game has no online play not that it needs it. However there are plenty of stuff out in the market place but it falls into the category you can earn these in the game for free you just have to play and quest for awhile. Basically for the impatient who would rather throw away real world money rather then do an extra side quest.
For achievements it’s rather rounded out. There are achievements for completing the map, for playing a hundred hours, for maxing out a characters level etc. Each chapter you complete in the game also nets you a good chunk of gamer points to add to that all important gamer score. There are also achievements for finding and using a bosses hidden weakness. In the end most of the achievements are reasonable for an RPG and hard core RPG nuts won’t find to much to complain about if they want to collect them all.
Final Recommendation. The demo on the xbox live market place is crappy compare to the real game, don’t let it turn you off the complete tales of vesperia is well worth 60 dollars for anyone looking for a really great JRPG.
Next Gen sights and sounds - First Tales RPG game with high-definition graphics, broadcast quality animation, and Dolby surround sound. Evolved real-t...More at Amazon Marketplace
Next Gen sights and sounds - First Tales RPG game with high-definition graphics, broadcast quality animation, and Dolby surround sound. Evolved real-t...More at Amazon
The debut of the Tales series on the Xbox 360, Tales of Vesperia launches the series to new heights of interactive narrative and engrossing gameplay w...More at eBay
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