Ginzaki reviews Tales of Vesperia

Game: Tales of Vesperia
Genre: RPG
Developer: Namco Tales Studio
Publisher: Namco Bandai
Platform(s): Xbox 360



It will become evident to the seasoned Tales player that I am new to your franchise so I'm just gonna say it up front. I've never played a Tales game before Vesperia, though I do have Abyss sitting on my "things to do eventually" side of the shelf.

This context seems to be necessary because all of my friends who are glued to this franchise have a healthy dislike of this game for some reason. Though from the small bit of Abyss and Symphonia I've played it's probably because Vesperia isn't S***.

The major difference seems to be that in the older games in the series they have a habit of starting slow and making you work to get to the likable bits/ Whereas this game starts you out with some likable characters and gets the story rolling as fast as possible.

Vesperia starts you out as a well to do guy in a slum with a flooding problem, and you have to find the solution. This starts out a rolling romp across the world that eventually leads up to you saving the world.

Given that every RPG ends up with you saving the world at some point or another I find it great when a game gets to that point as well as Vesperia does it. You start off small and build up little by little, instead of just having the being set out against the evils of the universe straight from the get go.

The characters are surprisingly well rounded for a JRPG and come off as actually
humanm though at times you feel like they were trying way too hard to make you feel this way. The enemies are also quite well done in the department of having reasons for doing what they do. The evil people are never truly evil, though in one instance the antagonist is revealed to only be as he is because of an extreme case of ignorance. Which makes it feel like this adventure could be taking place in the real world, and people wouldn't notice anything...until the giant whale flies overhead.

The game play is an interesting stadium style hack and slash setup, in which you enter battle and are put into a little bubble where the fighting takes place. The options take a bit of tweaking to work for you, because the default is setup for people who've never picked up a controller. The controls are tight, and the fighting styles are nice and innovative.

If you don't like playing as a sword wielder there is a nice option for you too. Your party can have up to four people in it, and you don't have to control the main character. This allows for even more customization, and brings in the ability for you friends to join in on the three, normally computer controller, characters.

The problem with playing with you friends is you run into limitations. They must have never played the game before or they must really like the game. Also they have to be fine with having no control over anything outside of battle, and the story sequences can really take a while.

The music is really up to standard, but isn't really praise worthy as there are no pieces that really stick with you. This game doesn't have it's own One Winged Angel, so even now I can't remember the beats. So while none of the music is bad it won't exactly enthrall you either.

As for the graphics this is where I truly don't understand the fan base for these games. The graphics of Vesperia are not only well done and appealing, but they are way above Abyss and Symphonia in definition. Add to that that the art style is the same and you would think they would sing it's praises, right? Right? Wrong, everyone I talk to about this game trash talk it's graphics, but never do they have a good reason...I just don't get it.

Overall the game is good, and if you're a JRPG fan it's a must have. If you aren't, give it a go anyway. I think this could serve as a good ambassador from kookie land that would make you fairly interested in others. Though it probably wouldn't sell you on the vast majority of Japan's crazy adventures it might make you consider some from time to time.

And a last mention to the Tales series fans, if you don't like this game your sense of coherence was probably killed by your series, and that makes me even more wary.

As a bonus I should mention that the game got a PS3 port that enhances just about everything, but this version wasn't released outside of Japan. I hate them so much.

Ginzaki wrote:As a bonus I should mention that the game got a PS3 port that enhances just about everything, but this version wasn't released outside of Japan. I hate them so much.

lol, damn japs.