Tales of Vesperia

[Flawless]

Re: Tales of Vesperia

To Battle!

Hello all. I’m Yoshimasa Enji, battle system programmer for Tales of Vesperia. In the past, I worked on Tales of the Abyss and the PS2 version of Tales of Destiny. Within the battle system, I’m in charge of backgrounds, camera work, effect controls, and arte implementation.

Today I’m going to introduce Skill-Change Artes and Overlimits. These two key elements carry the brunt of something I call “combo extensibility,” which was a driving focus of my work on Vesperia’s combat system.

First, Skill-Change Artes. These exist alongside the conventional base artes and arcane artes. Specific artes will change when certain skills are equipped.

The most significant point to note about Skill-Change Artes is that they are categorized as neither base artes nor arcane artes. Normally only usable by themselves, certain requirements must be met in order to chain Skill-Change Artes into combos.

What this means is that you have yet another option when forming combos.



Next up is Overlimits, a traditional Tales series system. This time around, during Overlimits you can chain together normal attacks, base artes, and arcane artes with no restrictions. You can also cast magic artes with no casting time.

Combining these two elements together allows for a wide variety of combos. All that’s left is for you to put together your own favorite combos and go to town.

That wraps it up for my introduction to these two systems, but we’ve packed plenty more gameplay elements than that into in Vesperia’s combat, and we hope you’ll enjoy all of them to their fullest.

[Flawless]

Re: Tales of Vesperia

IGN Review - 8.2

Although that story plays out in a linear fashion, Tales of Vesperia encourages exploration, particularly after the halfway point. Once your party gains access to the Field Map overworld navigation and becomes more mobile, side quests will pop up, new areas will be accessible and there are sub-stories and extra missions to tackle. Each player will have a different approach to experiencing Vesperia, but in our experience following the main storyline, listening to every line of dialogue along the way and doing a few side missions here and there, we put a good 60 hours or so into Tales of Vesperia before all was said and done.

Tales of Vesperia is a strong anime-style Japanese RPG with a wide-ranging story, compelling characters and an intense real-time battle system that keeps you on your toes. Although it has a somewhat inconsistent visual style and is relatively low on graphical details, the character designs and animations are very good, and there’s a ton to explore in the world. The storyline isn’t breaking any new ground and begins to unravel somewhat at the end, but there’s power here, and the characters will definitely stay with you after the battle ends.

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[jfsolo]

Re: Tales of Vesperia

I figured that IGN would dock the score pretty heavily for the Cel-Shading, so I imagine that for those of us who don't put that much weight into graphics, the game will probably be more in the 8.5-8.9 range.

[Spectre]

Re: Tales of Vesperia

8+ for what has been to this point a niche JRPG is a great score

[Flawless]

Re: Tales of Vesperia

Some impressions from another forum (same person).

Got mine this morning and have been playing it. So far it's meeting and surpassing all my expectations as the true followup to my favorite rpg of 2005(4?). I didn't play the demo because of the bad word of mouth and I like going into rpgs fresh, but man the graphics are SOOOOO gorgeous. This game is beautiful. There's also a TON of polish. Does not feel rushed at all, but rather fine-tuned, which is a surprise for a next-gen title sadly.

Am SO HAPPY the d-pad AI shortcuts are in. Too many Tales games don't have these and it's ridiculous. I love Tales games where I can tell the party to CHARGE and then when you see the enemy windup a close quarters major attack I hit left on the d-pad and tell them to RETREAT and the AI doesn't get ****ed up and I have to heal them like SO MANY STUPID GAMES where you hate your AI friends.

Also the battles have a little more depth and challenge than usual for Tales games. I am surprised! ...and it's fun! The secret missions by beating certain battles certain ways is pretty cool if your not an achievement crazed person who is going to try to get them all and instead you just get rewarded sometimes when you do something cool

Do titles do anything? I like when titles have real effects, but I don't see any.

Like always the sound mix is really bad on default and you can hardly hear the voices when there is music or sound effects. Luckily during music/SE down a notch remedies that.

My only complaint so far is that Yuri runs a little slow. I wish he had a turbo sprint like in LO. Also 60fps exploration would have been nice but...I'm really happy with the visuals so I'll take what I've got.

Next-gen TALES IS HERE!!

One thing that seemed small but is a HUGE benefit is the party member item system in battle. When it makes sense to use an item, a party member will say what item they're about to use and you have like 3-5 seconds to hit LB to cancel it if you don't want them to. While it seems like a small thing, when you die and instantly one of your members is signaling they're using a life bottle on you...that's really nice and saves the time of pulling up the menu and doing it by hand.

Same thing with them supplying you with orange gumis as you're playing so you don't even have to think about your TP as long as you have a lot of orange stock.

The AI options are nice and numerous: target to attack, distance yourself at what hp %, chill on attacks at what TP %, what kind of actions, what kind of position, item usage, etc...

I've found the AI to only be a help so far and not a detriment.

The synthesis system works pretty good since it mainly comes from enemy drops and in combination with the skill system it's worth messing with. A lot of the weapons you can make through synthesis have good skills to learn off them.

Pacing is good so far, in the first few hours you'll go through 3-4 dungeons, 2-3 cities, a little field exploration time. It's pretty good. Nothing feels like it's dragging. There are plenty of skits, lots of short cutscenes, but the story isn't long sections of non-gameplay. While not much happens with the plot at first, the characters are solid. Yuri is a likable lead and the rest of the cast is a little generic but alright.

But man is the game beautiful. This is what I've always wanted an anime-style jrpg to look like every since the day we moved into the HD-realm. The animation is really good and the enemies, weapons, characters, environments look awesome. In motion the game looks like you're playing animation cells from a Ghibli film. Even the fonts are really nice and fitting and fairy-book like. I love how the weapon you have equipped is not only shown in battle but when you're walking around town it's bouncing around strapped to you as well. There's really a ton of detail in everything, which is something the best of rpgs have had over the years.

Finished the first major turning point and have pretty much a full party now. Story is in gear and the characters play off each other well. Judith is probably the most interesting character in the cast since she's a little older and very badass. Kinda like Tear but more badass-ish.

I almost feel like there are too many sub-systems to the battle system. Abyss was like free run + FOF. Vesperia has free run + skills + overlimits + bust attacks + fatal strikes (which is confusing as hell and at the start pretty rare like FOF) + skill changed attacks, secret missions, etc...then outside battle there is all the synthesis, the night/day/weather cycles, the new cooking system where you can't invent new recipes by getting good at current ones with certain characters. There's just a lot to take in. I have a hard time right now figuring out what is the most efficient way to fight because there are just so many options. Overall I think this is a good thing, but it's just overwhelming for a while.

Also one thing that's really cool is not only does your weapon show up visibly when you're fighting. But every weapon has a unique sheath model for when you walk around town. Also your sub-weapons visibly show up in town/battle/cutscenes as well. Plus special accessories like glasses and stuff...but those are a pain to synthesize and have no gameplay value so I dunno about those.

So I'm like 23 hours in and I take back what I said about the game not being dark. Yuri's plotline is pretty dark for anything Japanese. Definitely moreso than any other Tales story so far.

I think as long as they don't mess up the 2nd half of the game, there's a very good chance Vesperia could have the best Tales story yet. The writers are doing a good job though there is a little Tales filler here and there in terms of "let's go to B, but on the way we run into situation C and have to deal with that, and then situation D, and then we finally get to go to B" that seems to plague Symphonia/Abyss.

Oh and the battle system is flat out awesome. Man, once you get the skill modifiers and the arial attacks (which make it like Destiny-R) and combine them with everything else, the battles are really nuts. It's interesting how they spread out the systems across your characters at first so it makes it interesting playing the other characters. Like for instance Judith is the first to get Arial skill which allows tokugi & ougi air-version. Plus she gets double jump and 4 hit air strings and other air skills along with that. So when you switch to her you're doing all this crazy stuff in the air and then when you switch to Karol you're doing weird charge up moves and wind modified versions of attacks and then with Yuri you're doing other stuff. As you go along the skills begin to mix over so by endgame I'm sure everyone can be doing air combos, elemental tokugis, charge attacks, etc...

Great game. If I had to nitpick anything it'd be that the music is totally unremarkable (which is normal for Tales). Abyss was a little better than an average Tales score, but Vesperia really isn't.

[jfsolo]

Re: Tales of Vesperia

Thanks Flawless, those impressions got me fired up. The football RPG(Head Coach 09) is going to be sharing the 360 with a couple of traditional fantasy RPG's for the next 6 weeks.

[Pared]

Re: Tales of Vesperia

Anyone know what's up with the voices in the American version? Are we getting new voice actors or just subtitles?

Game looks freakin' great.

[Flawless]

Re: Tales of Vesperia

1UP Review - B+

Long after we forget the details, we remember the feelings certain games of our youth evoked. Though it's difficult to put into words, Tales of Vesperia (the latest entry in Namco Bandai's long-running action-role-playing franchise) manages to recapture -- even if only for fleeting moments -- some of those elusive intangibles that led to lost RPG weekends on the Super Nintendo and PlayStation 1. It's not some complex, inscrutable formula we're talking about here, either -- just fun, fast-paced combat; a charming, likable cast; a colorful, inviting world that begs exploration; and quick, seamless pacing that's always got you on the move and tackling something fresh. Vesperia feels like what Tales of the Abyss, the previous franchise entry on PS2, was always meant to be.

With its choppy, chugging overworld and interminable loading (one of the few RPGs where I actively avoided combat -- not because I dreaded the enemies, but rather, the loading screen!), Abyss felt like a modern jet trapped in the chassis of a WWII fighter plane -- an intended epic constrained by antiquated hardware. Vesperia takes that otherwise solid foundation and crafts perhaps the finest franchise entry to date. It hits the ground running from the start (literally ? you're hot on the heels of an artifact thief) thanks in large part to badass, charismatic ex-knight protagonist Yuri, a vigilante on a one-man crusade against a corrupt empire.

Yuri's simply more relevant and relatable than Luke, Abyss' whiny teen noble lead; I think it's safe to say that no 1UP reader has ever been a constantly kvetching amnesiac aristocrat, but we've all had those moments where the deck feels stacked against us and we fantasize about taking the law into our own hands -- and Yuri's the embodiment of that vigilante spirit. Sure, Vesperia's filled with traditional tropes (plucky princess, sly trickster, buxom warrior chick), but most of them are inoffensive at worst and wholly charming at best. And, yes, many "surprises" are telegraphed right from the start -- but not all of them. Yuri's tale of vengeance includes some surprisingly mature themes and twists, and I actually felt some empathy for the final foe during the requisite last-battle speech -- not because I actively disliked the heroes, but because the antagonist had an actual point. Vesperia doesn't go quite as far with the grown-up themes as I'd like, and some intriguing plot points should've been fleshed out a bit more -- but for the normally candy-coated Tales to "go there" at all is commendable.

Whatever disagreements Vesperia's narrative might inspire -- and, to be sure, some will find it cheesy and meandering -- most should agree that its combat and exploration are some of the finest in the RPG genre. From the snappy, strategy-laden, fighting-game-style combat (more Soul Calibur than Suikoden) to the no-hassle, streamlined menus to the extensive character-customization options, it's just plain fun -- even after 60-plus hours, I wanted more...and was slightly disappointed that Vesperia didn't offer quite enough endgame goodies for my liking. That's what makes the recent news that Namco Bandai plans on offering downloadable level upgrades in Japan so absurd -- this is about as enjoyable and painless as RPG "grinding" gets.

Vesperia's highs shine so brightly that any extended criticism -- of the technical elements, at least -- feels silly. In fact, my biggest complaint doesn't relate to the Japanese development side at all but instead lies with the English-language localization. North American Tales games have typically released about six months to a year after the Japanese version -- see the upcoming Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World on Wii as an example. Vesperia debuted here less than a month after the Japanese release, though...and it shows. The English script feels somewhat rushed, and it's clear that some lines of text were translated without any context at all, leading to quite a few awkward, stilted exchanges. Some segments are very well written and acted, though, which just makes the weaker moments stand out all the more. My guess is that the culprit's a tight, unrealistic schedule, not a lack of translation talent. Still, Namco Bandai's flagship RPG series -- especially a standout entry like Vesperia -- really deserves an English-language script that complements the game instead of debasing it.

For years, detractors have labeled the conventional Japanese RPG a dated genre that simply doesn't have a place among the likes of Gears of War and Halo. Tales of Vesperia exposes that assertion for what it truly is: a load of bunk. Traditional elements -- an anime-styled cast, a lush, expansive overworld, and a familiar fantasy setting -- will always be welcome, so long as they're done well. And Vesperia succeeds as well as any Japanese RPG this generation.

[Spongedaddy]

Re: Tales of Vesperia

I finally (after figuring out over limit controls) beat the boss in the demo today. I really am excited to pick this game up on Wed.

[ChaseB]

Re: Tales of Vesperia

I think I need to read up more on the combat because I still don't get it yet.

[Flawless]

Re: Tales of Vesperia

Gamespot Review - 8.5

At its core, Tales of Vesperia isn't very different from its predecessors, but it's easily the best game in the series thanks to its great cast of characters and clever balance of storytelling and gameplay. It's beautiful, it's engaging, and it's fun, and while it won't challenge your combat prowess, it will challenge what you should expect from a modern RPG. This is, by any standard, the best recent example of how an aging series can be updated for contemporary consoles while still delivering what fans expect.

GameSpy Review 4/5

We've seen a few solid JRPGs on the Xbox 360 (Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey and Eternal Sonata), but until Tales of Vesperia none have really exploited the raw graphical power that the system offers. Vesperia may not deliver a totally fresh plot, but well-written character dialogue and a great combat system go a long way towards mitigating the cliches. A superior blend of style and production values, Tales of Vesperia is the best JRPG on the 360 thus far.

TeamXbox Review - 8.1

There are a certain amount of gamers –and you know who you are– that will be purchasing Tales of Vesperia simply due to its franchise’s legacy; you guys will not be disappointed with Tales first HD/Xbox foray. Tales of Vesperia will also be satisfying to those that didn’t even know that Tales of Vesperia is a late-model part in a long lineage of stout JRPG titles; that is, as long as the end user can put up with a few of the game’s quirks. If gads of dialog, characters that ooze personality and freer form combat sounds like an RPG delight to you, then order up Tales of Vesperia pronto.

[Flawless]

Re: Tales of Vesperia

Probably haven't played enough (if at all) to post impressions, but did anybody pick this up today?

I will be picking it up either this week or early next week.

Here's some more impressions I came across.

I am loving this game.

It turns out that my love for Tales hasn't diminished, I just couldn't get into Legendia or Abyss at all.

+ Really interesting story and characters. The main character Yuri, just as I knew when I first saw him when the game was revealed months ago, is really something special. The guy is a sarcastic, positive, all around good guy without being a total goody goody. Yuri's an everyman. I never get tired of him and he's immediately likable. The character interaction is really swell so far. Estelle, like Yuri, has her own thang going on. She's a typical princess, but her naivety is taken into overdrive so she can be an amusing character. Repede is a ****ing dog with a pipe. HOW CAN YOU HATE THAT? I can go on too! This cast is wayyyy better than Abyss', or any other Tales game's so far for me.

+ Excellent script so far, that doesn't throw a bunch of stupid terms in your face at all times (Abyss), or have ******** story scenes in general that make you want to turn the console off (Legendia). Not only this, but it's really funny too. I've found myself laughing more than a few times, not only because of the script but because the character interaction. It really stands out and the characters are immediately likable. Yuri throws rocks at guards in the face in order to get by them, Estelle tries hitting Yuri in the face with a vase when they meet, and even the battle victory dialogue and skits are well done too. "You'll never beat me in 100 years." "Is this because you're...older?" "Not really."

+ Battle system. I could not get into Abyss' or Legendia's. The characters weren't fun to use, their move lists were boring ect. In this game however, I am even playing as more than the main character. Repede's REALLY fun to play as. Yuri is the BOMB. Estelle's okay, but I'm not a big fan of mage's in Tales anyways.

+ Unlike Abyss, the game isn't hack and slash and button mashing. There are a few variables that make it so that you can't get by with just button mashing, especially on hard mode. One of which is the encounter link system, something I have not heard people even bring up yet in reviews or impressions. If you see multiple enemies on the field, you can bunch them up together and fight them all at once. It's really neat, because you will be fighting an upward of 8-9 enemies at once, and you CAN'T button mash to get by. You have guard and know when to combo. It's REALLY neat and it reminds me of Blue Dragon, although done probably more interestingly.

+ The game gives you a lot of reasons to check out new weapons and have fun experimenting with skills. Some weapons have certain skills. It really reminds me of Final Fantasy IX, and it's sososososo addicting.

+ WEAPON SYNTHESIS!!!

+ Music is REALLY good so far, and this is coming from someone who's usually not impressed with Tales music.

+ Voice acting is great so far. I'm not a big fan of this version's intro music, I prefer the Japanese one. I guess I really am a homojapual.

+ Unlike Abyss, the game doesn't feel on rails so far. There is actually incentive to explore. You can find inns on the way to town, or secret items you can't find anywhere else by exploring. They are easily missable if you don't go out of your way either.

+ The game has excellent pacing thus far and starts out with a bang. Unlike Legendia or Abyss, the game doesn't turn me off right from the beginning.

+ The graphics. After Symphonia, Abyss and Legendia's more 3d graphics and art style didn't really interest me. I'm so so glad they brought back the cel shading.

Negatives? Hmmm. The battle controls could be a lot more smooth, but I'm used to them now. Jumping is still weird though.

Color me shocked. Impressed.

[Cyros]

Re: Tales of Vesperia

I have it, but I haven't opened it. Honestly don't know when I will since I need to finish Too Human, have school, have football, and I have an online dynasty.

[jfsolo]

Re: Tales of Vesperia

Put in a little over an hour so far, just enough time to play through the first town. Yuri is so different then the typical JRPG main male protagonist. So far he comes across like an American college aged kid, paradoxically cynical and idealistic at the same time, who is just trying to find his place in the world.

No matter how advanced technology gets, I think there will always be a place for cell shading. It immerses you in the universe in a way where nothing that happens on screen ever pulls you out of the game.

Combat is my least favorite part of the game so far, not because its bad, the hyper-kinetic semi side-scrolling style just isn't my preferred way of fighting in RPG's. Its fast and engaging though.

This is a game made for established fans of the Tales games. If you've ever liked any of the games in this series, then this is a game for you.

[DLaren]

Re: Tales of Vesperia

I'd like to hear more impressions on the exploration aspects of the game...It's good to know that the game isn't totally linear, but how much freedom and incentive do you have to explore the world independantly of the main story? That's really the only thing keeping me from grabbing this game...