#I helped a dude perfect this game on his xBox 360 account so I think I can talk about this

[demonfox38]

Completed - Tales of Vesperia

World, hard. TItty, soft. Even man titty.

So, life can be a bummer sometimes. Not even in an outwardly splashy way, like with disasters and death. It’s just…well. Nostalgia. A bittersweet twinge of pain from time passing.

I was visiting my sixty-year-old parents, sitting in the living room they have had since 1993, left the only human conscious as they napped from enduring a long, exhausting work week. My entertainment was either what I could get on my mobile phone or what I had packed with my Nintendo Switch. One of the games I had on hand was the Definitive Edition of “Tales of Vesperia.” It was a game I had fond memories of—a game I had purchased for a university buddy who was getting married within a few weeks. I hadn’t touched it since 2010—certainly, not the fancy new version. I figured, what the hell? Why not give it a replay?

“Tales of Vesperia” is one of Namco’s Tales action-styled RPGs, as the name suggests. Originally released in 2008, it was notorious at the time for being one of the few games that actually could get the xBox 360 sold out in Japan. Granted, it wasn’t released in the best shape initially, having many pieces of cut content (including an entire damn character they didn’t have the time to work in) and some fun bugs that could break the game in multiple ways. Like with “Tales of Symphonia,” “Tales of Vesperia” was later reworked for the Playstation 3, re-releasing with the Definitive Edition years later to several consoles, Steam, and probably a couple of toaster ovens. Not sure if they too will lock up if you abuse particle effects, but hey. Anything’s possible!

This particular iteration deals with the world of Terca Lumireis and its subfactions—particularly, an empire and a conglomerate of independent groups called the Guild Union. The characters scurrying atop this world are living in the aftermath of a Great War which almost completely wiped out a magical species called the Entelexeia (pronounced en-till-eh-kay-uh, FYI). Whatever’s left of humanity lives within cities protected by magical stones called Blastia, which consume a crude form of magic called Aer to function. Also, the emperor’s dead, nobody knows who is taking over what’s left of the empire, and the magic sword that would pick the empire’s ruler is gone.

Okay. Got your vocab all written down?

Into this setting, you are handed the main character of Yuri Lowell, a sardonic drop-out ex-knight who enjoys all too well taking justice into his own hands (and dunking people into rivers when they get in his way.) Initially motivated to fix a plumbing problem, of all things, he ends up getting jailed several times, rescuing a princess, chopping his way back through half of the globe to get a magic rock back, then escalates shit a bit by killing twisted bureaucrats when imperial law fails to hold them accountable. And yes—this eventually extends to the head of the knights too, because this is an RPG, after all. Then, when that’s not enough, he and his buddies get together to fix the ultimate plumbing problem of their planet by not only changing how magic is used, but by recreating the summon spirit ecosystem seen by default in other Tales RPGs.

Honestly? Best Tales lead protagonist.

Like, I’ve got other favorite Tales characters. (I have a weakness for…let’s say, a particularly regal man.) But, in terms of the lead character that the game expects you to play by default? Best one of the franchise. The dude’s not book-smart—frankly, he might have low-grade ADHD—but he is both insightful and willing to get shit done. He not only figures out other people’s secrets within milliseconds of meeting them, but is willing to keep cover for them, even when it puts him at odds with other party members. He also gets his hands really, really goddamn dirty, especially when no one else can or wants to. Dude helps someone commit seppuku. Like, someone he respected. Also? He cooks pretty well, too. And then, there’s the open shirt situation. Guy’s a champ.  

Really, this is a solid set of characters and locations, all around. If I praise “Tales of Symphonia” more than this game, it’s because “Symphonia” caused a change of character within myself. Frankly, “Vesperia” aged better than it had any right to. Like, all of the corrupt politicians and bum knights are supposed to be over-exaggerated in their evil and/or incompetence, right? Fuck. I survived/am surviving a global pandemic, U.S. president #45, a regressive Supreme Court, and several economic collapses. A dude feeding kids to monsters might be more than our reality can emulate. But, hey. How far off is that from separating migrant kids and putting them into camps? Nobody’s just using rattlesnakes or mountain lions to torment them. Just dudes with guns.

Yeah, I know. Ha, ha, video games! They aren’t real or reflective of reality, right? It’s just really hard not to throw a copy of FF7 like a shuriken into the head of the brilliant executive that decided Square needed to focus on crypto blockchain bullshit. Know what I mean?

The best RPG players are just a talking tree and a magic sword away from going full tilt.

Right! Swords. Gameplay. “Tales of Vesperia”, like its kin, is a fighting game built into the engine of an RPG. While there are healers and mages, it’s assumed that a human player is going to want to take combat sharply/bluntly by force, chaining moves together to make flashy, effective combos. All of the available characters in this game are built in such a way that someone could go full melee, if they wanted. Yes—even the main party healer, who packed her own sword and shield. The average Tales player is likely to stick with Yuri, but switching to maining Repede (Dog! Dog! Playable Dog! Good boy!), Flynn (Cress standard build), or Judith (aerial combo enthusiast) is also feasible. Your A.I. buddies are likely to be Estelle (healer), Rita (mage), Raven (ranged whatever unit), Patty (manic pixie whatever unit), or Karol (slow fighter), but hey. The dude I bought this game for really liked Rita. That, and hard-locking his xBox 360 by spamming spells.

Word of warning—this game does commit the grand Action RPG sin of locking you into a boss fight with the slowest character available. (See also: “Rogue Galaxy.”)  Even if you don’t like Karol, you might want to do a little prep work on him.

Like “Tales of Symphonia”’s exsphere system, “Tales of Vesperia” has its own skill system that controls a character’s abilities and statistics. Instead of sponging off magic rocks, the game grants skills based on using weapons enough to make a bar go ding. This also includes elemental modifiers to change your artes (and yes, I do want to call them techs! I am that old and busted!), which can be permanently learned by spamming their base moves either 50 or 100 times (spells vs. melee.) To offset the outrageous cost of weapons/armor and maximize equipment manufacturing, the game also has a crafting system to make items cheaper using crap picked up in battle. And trust me—you’re gonna need a fair amount of this extra crap. (Or, when in need, you can always hock the extra crafting materials for 100 gald a pop. Weird that it's a flat rate, considering the intrinsic value difference between pelts, ore, insect gunk, and gemstones, but okay.)  

You know what the batshit thing about this weapon focus is? Weapon strength in this game is literally inconsequential!

How can this be? Well, the game added a system called Fatal Strikes that allows a player to instantly kill (or highly damage) an enemy once an internal combo bar has been depleted. This breaks down into three different colors, of which each monster has different levels of resistance (red, green, and blue.) Use the right moves, drain a color bar, and then squeeze a trigger to do ‘em in! Bonuses and grade are granted upon their use, so if you are a combo pro, you may want to switch on the Minimum Damage skill and farm this system for all it is worth. It feels weird, but it can be rewarding, particularly if you plan on doing a New Game+ run.

Recipes are still around as well, with a nice little deviation. With this game, certain characters will modify certain recipes to create whole new meals! It’s cool, particularly when you see how one character’s modification can be used by another person to make a completely new dish. Like, one chain goes Sandwich -> Rice Ball -> Beef Bowl -> Pork Stew -> Japanese Stew -> Sukiyaki. Wild! Though, pro-tip: all Repede makes is dog food. And you know what? Yuri’s okay with that. Dude’s totally gone home drunk and eaten some Purina is what I’m saying.

Titles are still present, as well as costumes. Hell, the Definitive Edition throws you a bunch for free. The big controversy around this back in 2008 was that several of the titles could be purchased in DLC kits to skip the events necessary to trigger them. Honestly? I was okay with this. You could still earn the titles in game via certain events or minigames. It’s when they were taken out completely in later games as DLC exclusives that I started having problems.

Oh. Best get a spoiler-free guide for this game. There’s definitely some Guide Dang It! threads here.

As for changes from the default game? Honestly, the only thing I was 100% pleased with was including Flynn as a playable character for…well, more than a handful of battles. Granted, it’s not until the end game before you can run with him entirely as you please, but the game does try to give you a few opportunities to use him in each act. (I didn’t get the opportunity to hit up the bonus dungeon tacked onto this port post playthrough, but I figured I could talk about this game well enough without that.) There are a lot of improperly balanced audio files in the English tracks, which is a bummer on otherwise pretty solid voice acting. (The “Tales of Symphonia” Playstation 3 ports had a similar issue. Guessing that someone wasn’t checking the volume balance and left everything too quiet.) Probably the biggest disappointment is Patty, the character that was undeveloped and dropped from the xBox 360 release. It’s one of those situations where her backstory is cooler than she is. We could have had a rough, bitter middle-aged pirate queen, but ya know. Market trends demand little girls hitting on adult characters, so boop goes a plot spoiler. Hooray. (Although, I do love that Yuri drops her flat on her ass every time she tries this.)

Man, the balls on this game to pull a Samus three times!

Having said that, I think this game has aged significantly well. Better than the rest of the planet, anyway. Its systems are complex and smooth, and its audio/visual elements remain strong. (Frankly, Yuri’s hair animation is perfect. It’s not focusing on every little thread from his head. Just a little polygon sway! All that’s needed, particularly with this art style.) There are probably a few translation elements that may have been handled differently now, but it’s all good and clear. Maybe heavy on the vocab, but hell. I’m not giving you a quiz.

If you felt the need to play “Tales of Symphonia” after my rattling about that game, check out “Tales of Vesperia” as well. There are a lot of elements here that I think outshine “Symphonia” and Tales RPGs that followed “Vesperia”. At the very least, it is equal parts slick and in-depth when it comes to fighting and its systems. “Vesperia” doesn’t have the same nostalgia sting as “Symphonia” does, but a good game’s a good game, you know? At the very least, maybe watch for a Steam sale on this one (although, apparently some people have controller issues with it, so mind the gap.)

Yes, I did use the Switch controller shaped like a Gamecube controller for this one. How did you know?