The enhanced Battle mechanics and excellent pacing make Vesperia the finest and impressive tale in the series yet.
Platform: X-Box 360
Developer: Namco Tales Studio
Publisher: Namco Bandai Games
Genre: Fantasy Role Playing Game
Age Rating: 12+ PEGI
Release Date: 26th June 2009 (UK)
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Game Score: 9.0/10
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Summery:
The enhanced Battle mechanics and excellent pacing make Vesperia the finest and impressive Tale in the series yet.
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The X-Box 360 has seen worthwhile Japanese Role Playing Game like Eternal Sonata but ones like Blue Dragon and The Last Remnant didn't make much of a leap towards the English audiences. Making it's European release for the first time since it's release in 2008 for Japan and America, Namco's Tales of Vesperia hopes to make a change of pace while delivering an RPG experience that fans will come to little to know about this rarely done series.
Tales of Vesperia's storyline takes place in a world where citizens utilize the power of Crystals called Blastia to support everyday life and to ensure the safety from monsters with Town Barriers. It begins where a Former Knight named Yuri Lowell tries to track down a Blastia Thief who has stolen the Aqua Blastia Core, causing the river to leck and flood the Lower Quarter. Refusing to let the Law handle the situation, Yuri's dissension to take matters into his own hands lands to his arrest. During his breakout he meets an inside Castle Princess named Estelle who agrees to accompany Yuri on his Journey while also allowing to discover the far reaches of the World. It starts out with a simple adventure only for other disasters around the world to grow worse leaving the dissensions of Yuri which both the relationships of his friends and the laws of the people. Like other Tales of games the plot develops as you advance through the game till soon you'd be able to realize the true faze of the Tale. There's plenty to see and like about the game's world including the immerse characters which drives plenty of Fanfare and Interest.
Tales of Vesperia is an action RPG which balances it's segments out between the Storyline, Exploration and Combat. Players will spend their time Traveling through location to the next to either a Dungeon or stop at a friendly town to recover and restock on Items and Buying better Equipment. You'll also find Wonder Chefs which will give you the ability to Cook Food for your party to restore their lost HP or TP as well as giving Boosted Stats for the Next Battle. In Dungeons you'll explore each area to reveal hidden Treasure, Puzzles to solve in order to advance to the next area and to face off against Monsters as well as a Boss Encounter at the end. Vesperia's encounters require Players to touch a Monster on the Field to start a battle allowing Players to choose their Battles carefully. New to the series is the Encounter Link which allows you to 2 or 3 Monsters you see on the field into a Single Battle which helps out with Leveling easier but also getting touched from behind will mess with your Formation and switch your Non Controlling Allies around. Puzzles start out with simple pieces like moving boxes around to Harder ones like Finding certain switches in order to reach the top and using the Sorcerer's Ring to brake boulders and Activate hard to reach Switches. The ring can also stun Monsters for you to make Battles easier or to slip by them to Escape. Boss Encounters start out with simple rivalry to tough Bosses which all your Allies must combine their abilities in order to win. Tales of Vesperia does an excellent Job of keeping up with the games pacing allowing players pick up easily where they last left off. The game balances each of the segments that you go through the game with and it's good that you'll won't feel that you never take to long to do whatever although it does plays a little similar to other games like Tales of Symphonia in Terms of Design and Gameplay. You'd expect the game to be finished in about roughly 50 to 60 Hours of playtime if you're going through the main storyline but if you're interested in Side-Quests with Titles to unlock, Minigames to play and unlocking 50 Achievements then you'd expect the game to finish about 90 or More and there's plenty of New Game Plus Options which allows you to add new methods of challenges for your next Play-through.
When exploring around the world you'll enter into the games random encounters. Tales of Vesperia uses the Linear Motion Combat System that was used in another Tales Game called Tales of the Abyss. The system allows you to move around in the Battle Arena by Holding the Left Trigger Button and you can attack monsters on the battlefield by pressing a button to use your normal attack or the other button to use your skills known as Artes. Although you'd might think that the Battle Systems a simple button masher but the system goes way deeper then that. You can combine Artes and Magic to deal punishing combos then normal attacks. As you'll progress through the game you'll find better Weapons that hold skills which can be Learned and Equipped and each character has their own Weapon Types and Sub Weapons which has own unique Weapon Skills for them to acquire as you progress. Later on you'll also be able to use other Battle Skills which help out with most of the encounters later on such as the Fatal Strikes, by attacking your opponent a certain amount of times a Flashing Symbol will appear prompting you to hit the Right Trigger Button which Launches the Fatal Strike. This Attack kills regular enemies instantly but does Major Damage to Bosses as this helps to gain advantage of Harder Battles. You'll also gain the Over Limit Boost in which combining Arcane Artes to Trigger a Burst Arte and eventually Triggering a Powerful Mystic Arte. Each has their own unique properties and you'll need to Master the use of each one since some Monsters will either be either weak against either Elemental Attacks, Ground Attacks or Aerial Attacks. Tales of Vesperia provides a deep combat system which has a balance of depth and simplicity which will give Players a worthwhile challenge on the Default Normal Difficulty and additional players can also Join in locally anytime by simply plugging in another controller.
Tales of Verperia's Impressive Cel-Shaded graphics are the finest detailed for the system along with CG Rendering cut-scenes along with some Anime cut-scenes mixed in. The impressive detailed of both Characters and Environments are also impressive as well with detailed animations and amazing effects on Environments and Magic Spells used in the game. The voice acting is solid and the dialogue writing is well written but the game only has an English Dub available and has no option for the original Japanese. The soundtrack is outstanding with each track following each has their own feeling of each event that follows in the game including the Battle Themes which are amazing.
Although it's very similar to Tales of Symphonia but Tales of Vesperia accomplishes a lineup of Impressive Characters, a great Storyline to follow and also the more engaging Battle System for any Role Playing so far. Although it's hard to imagine that games like this one would end up being overlooked by some other games like Star Ocean, especially when some games like this one gets a very late European localization. If you're looking for a well paced Action RPG for the 360 then for a rough price of £39.99 this Tales is most certainly worth telling.
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The Pros:
1. Well Paced Segments of Combat and Exploration
2. Deep and Engaging Combat Engine
3. Impressive Cel-Shaded Details, Anime, CG-Cut-scenes and Soundtrack
The Bads:
1. It does play a little similar to other games in the series.
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Reviewed by: Anthony Hayball (BlaZer91)
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