Tales of Vesperia

[Xellos2099]

If you like Vesperia but don't like the storyline, you should try Tales of the Abyss. I am not saying Vesperia is bad but Duke is boring..... seriously.

 

[thecoolnessrune]

I enjoyed the game (started playing it around January with a friend and finished it up in late April).

Really hard to get 100% though. Just too much to go wrong in that long of a game.

 

[Schfifty Five]

I wasn't impressed by the game. I disliked the battle system, which, in a JRPG, is pretty much a fatal thing. Plus the plot wasn't very intriguing in the short time I played it. Also the lack of Japanese voices (iirc) was annoying.

There was the option to use japanese voice/audio track.

 

[Dumac]

There was the option to use japanese voice/audio track.

Really? I don't remember that...

Also

http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/945075-tales-of-vesperia/53526936
http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/945075-tales-of-vesperia/52160712

Question: Does this come w/ optional Japanese language track?
Answer: No

This is for the 360 version.

 

[Kabob]

I enjoyed the game (started playing it around January with a friend and finished it up in late April).

Really hard to get 100% though. Just too much to go wrong in that long of a game.

Don't think I'm even going to bother with that...

 

[Schfifty Five]

Really? I don't remember that...

Also

http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/945075-tales-of-vesperia/53526936
http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/945075-tales-of-vesperia/52160712



This is for the 360 version.

F, I could have sworn the game had a Japanese track. I may be confusing myself with Eternal Sonata.

 

[Dumac]

F, I could have sworn the game had a Japanese track. I may be confusing myself with Eternal Sonata.

Eternal Sonata had one (thank god), although it wasn't very good (but light-years beyond the English VA)

 

[Schfifty Five]

Eternal Sonata had one (thank god), although it wasn't very good (but light-years beyond the English VA)

Yeah, Eternal Sonata, while a great game, wasn't nearly as good as ToV.

Man, talking about ToV really makes me want to play a new Tales game. I wonder what the next big Tales game will be.

 

[Kabob]

If you've got a Gamecube or Wii and haven't played Symphonia you need to give it a whirl. Very similar to Vesperia but I liked the characters/combat a little more.

 

[Schfifty Five]

If you've got a Gamecube or Wii and haven't played Symphonia you need to give it a whirl. Very similar to Vesperia but I liked the characters/combat a little more.

Yeah I played ToS on the GC. That was my first taste of the tales series....one of my favorite RPGs ever.

Heard ToS 2 on the Wii is really good too, but not quite as good as ToS1.

 

[Kabob]

I don't know if it's ToS 2, I thought it was just the original game with a little extra content but I could be completely wrong.

 

[FeathersMcGraw]

I don't know if it's ToS 2, I thought it was just the original game with a little extra content but I could be completely wrong.

Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World is not a director's cut remix of the Gamecube Tales of Symphonia. It's a new game, with new (IMO fairly annoying) characters and cameos from the Gamecube ToS.

If you liked the gameplay in the Gamecube version and can live through the game-engine cutscenes, the Wii version is a no-brainer pickup.

 

[Ionizer86]

I played Vesperia a few months ago. It's very good. I wouldn't say the storyline is deep in terms of complexity, philosophy, etc, but there's certainly a lot of cliffhangers and plot elements that kept me moving along, wanting to play the next dungeon, town, etc.

The battle system is a bit better than in Symphonia: there is a way to move freely in the 3d battle arena, Yuri can swing his sword up to 6 times later in the game, and the arte evolution and chaining seem to be more advanced than in Symphonia. With that said, Symphonia has the stronger story and the more engaging characters, I'd say.

In Vesperia, there's a whole lot of collectibles: titles, artes, assorted side-quests etc. If you're a completionist, you're in for a huge treat.

 

[Kabob]

When all was said and done, ToV cost me $14 out of pocket. Not bad for a game that's getting tough to find for under $45.

I was just thinking of Vesperia vs. Symphonia...both are good but I do prefer Symphonia a bit more. The humor in Vesperia is a bit more grown up (little kid referring to one of your characters as "Flatty McChesterson" and another as "Mrs. Bouncy Bouncy..." but overall it's still a bit juvenile. The overall gameplay and battle systems are alot of fun.

The characters are better as a whole in Symphonia and the overall plot is easier to follow (I'm pretty far into Vesperia and they're talking about people/organizations that I have no clue about...I musta missed something).

 

[Schfifty Five]

I played Vesperia a few months ago. It's very good. I wouldn't say the storyline is deep in terms of complexity, philosophy, etc, but there's certainly a lot of cliffhangers and plot elements that kept me moving along, wanting to play the next dungeon, town, etc.

The battle system is a bit better than in Symphonia: there is a way to move freely in the 3d battle arena, Yuri can swing his sword up to 6 times later in the game, and the arte evolution and chaining seem to be more advanced than in Symphonia. With that said, Symphonia has the stronger story and the more engaging characters, I'd say.

In Vesperia, there's a whole lot of collectibles: titles, artes, assorted side-quests etc. If you're a completionist, you're in for a huge treat.

I never got a chance to do that labyrinth of memories area b/c I didn't read up on how to unlock it until it was too late. Other than that, I tried to collect/complete as much as I could and there is definitely a shit ton of stuff to do in this game.

 

[thecoolnessrune]

I never got a chance to do that labyrinth of memories area b/c I didn't read up on how to unlock it until it was too late. Other than that, I tried to collect/complete as much as I could and there is definitely a shit ton of stuff to do in this game.

And that was a peeve of mine. Not because of the collectibles (that was great), but the sheer amount of things that were *conditional*. In such a huge world, without a walkthrough guide it would be mostly luck to stumble on many special parts of the game without being super lucky. There's way too many "do this before doing that, and go way out here before going on with the main story" that is simply going to drive a "completionist" crazy. If there were clues I think it would have made the "completing" fun, but on my first play through I missed alot and that was mostly because aside from the main story line there is NO hints as to different things to witness in the game that HAVE to be done before other parts of the story occur. (Warehouse cleanings, special encounters with the Duke, special arte developments, territory marking, weapons upgrades, heck, even one of the FIRST weapons you get in the game has to be upgraded in a non-conventional way otherwise you miss the chance to get a different weapon much later in the game).

Indeed, there's much to do, but I disagree that the game is for a completionist, I think it would drive a completionist crazy. There's no way you'll do 100% without some sort of guide.

 

[Dumac]

Indeed, there's much to do, but I disagree that the game is for a completionist, I think it would drive a completionist crazy. There's no way you'll do 100% without some sort of guide.

Yeah, that is a fault of a lot of JRPGs. They'll have crazy secret stuff that there is no way you could have thought to have done if you didn't have a guide. Stuff where if you miss one little hidden thing in the first section of the game, you miss out on the best weapon at the end of the game.

 

[Kabob]

OK, so hearing what you said I went to Gamefaqs to see how much stuff I've missed...holy cow, there's like 28 things I needed to do to unlock random things later on in the game.

Unfortunately this playthrough I missed one of the secret missions early on so I won't be able to get some other stuff (I tried so hard to get it too!)...oh well. Guess I'll have to save it for playthrough #2!

 

[Kabob]

Still on my first playthrough although I think I'm near the end. Game has been alot of fun, not quite as good as Tales of Symphonia was.

 

[Aikouka]

I wasn't impressed by the game. I disliked the battle system, which, in a JRPG, is pretty much a fatal thing. Plus the plot wasn't very intriguing in the short time I played it. Also the lack of Japanese voices (iirc) was annoying.

I bought this game a month or two ago when it was on sale at Newegg. So, when I was hunting for a game to play today, I decided to finally try it out. The game itself certainly looks nice, and it seemed to have a lot of promise, but my two complaints mirror your own. After watching a modest amount of anime in Japanese (with subtitles of course), it's just weird to hear something this anime-related (referring to the art style) in English. Essentially, if you give me a Japanese sound option, I will probably enable it.

I really wanted to like the battle system, and maybe the problem is that I'm just not that good at it (yet), but I simply wasn't having fun with it. I found most non-boss encounters with a single mob to be really easy, but significantly more dangerous when there's more than one. In some ways, the whole system reminded me of a neutered fighting game.

I might try it again or just go to another game in my backlog