Tales of Vesperia

Ascendancy · 30 Jun 2009 at 13:47

Well, I finished the game on Sunday night. Took me about 35 hours just blasting through the main storyline. I really enjoyed it, but the incompetence of Estelle's healing made me mad during a lot of bosses.

Also, the last boss is a total rip from another well known RPG last boss lol, made me chuckle.

jcb33 · 30 Jun 2009 at 14:00

Ascendancy said:
Well, I finished the game on Sunday night. Took me about 35 hours just blasting through the main storyline. I really enjoyed it, but the incompetence of Estelle's healing made me mad during a lot of bosses.

Also, the last boss is a total rip from another well known RPG last boss lol, made me chuckle.

35 Hours

Thats a little sad, I am on way over 40 on Star Ocean and only just got onto disk 2....

Jcb33.

eggyoke · 30 Jun 2009 at 14:07

Well 35hrs is pretty good considering most modern or western RPGs are lucky to be over 20 hours.

Surfer · 30 Jun 2009 at 14:14

eggyoke said:
Well 35hrs is pretty good considering most modern or western RPGs are lucky to be over 20 hours.

Out of curiousity - which ones?

Abooie · 30 Jun 2009 at 15:33

Surfer said:
Out of curiousity - which ones?

I guess neither Fable 2 or Mass Effect had a main quest longer 20 hours; though both certainly offered more than 20 if you succumbed to the many other distractions on offer.

I'm about 7 hours into Vesperia and I must be either a) a lot slower or b) a lot more thorough or c) a bit of both as I've hardly started yet.

Afran · 30 Jun 2009 at 22:24

Would probably play most of the games mentioned (LO, ToV and SO) not going to buy a 360 for them though :mad:

Ascendancy · 30 Jun 2009 at 23:30

Afran said:
Would probably play most of the games mentioned (LO, ToV and SO) not going to buy a 360 for them though

Tales of Vesperia is heading to the PS3 with a hell of a lot more features if you have one of those.

Gas Panic! · 30 Jun 2009 at 23:44

Finally get a chance to play this tomorrow - can't wait.

If you're interested, the PS3 version has:

* Full voice acting
* Flynn as a playable character
* Tie-ins with Tales of Vesperia: The First Strike[13]
* New playable character, a pirate girl called Patty Fleur
* New Cutscenes
* New Subplots
* New Costumes
* New Bosses (Including the Sword Dancer)
* New Dungeons
* New Towns
* New Hi Ougi/Mystic Artes (including a combo Mystic Arte with Yuri and Flynn)
* New Skits
* New Animated Scenes
* Old Animated Scenes have Patty added in
* New Sidequests
* New Songs
* New Artes
* Repede and Flynn as selectable on-screen avatars

MikGriff · 30 Jun 2009 at 23:57

eggyoke said:
How did you do it? I've tried killing the little ones first and using the plants, but my party just get wiped out by the time I've finished.

Also what level where you? I think I'm lvl13 atm.

14-15 I think, make sure you have lots of Life Bottle's and Gel's, I also used Rita instead of Rapede on this fight as she does a crap load of damage and its from distance so she can avoid more damage from the boss.

eggyoke · 1 Jul 2009 at 08:57

Surfer said:
Out of curiousity - which ones?

From the top of my head of modern western RPGs: Mass Effect, Fallout 3, Fable 2 (thats if you leave the non-essentials). Also I found the Xenosaga trilogy to be stupidly short games.

Rivey said:
...

Yeah its dissapointing that the PS3 version gets all those things. Especially when you consider we EU region players had to wait for a year to get the game after the Americans did, and we never got anything extra.

Has it been confirmed for UK release yet? I doubt it'll be here in 2010 considering how crap Bandai are with us.

MikGriff said:
14-15 I think, make sure you have lots of Life Bottle's and Gel's, I also used Rita instead of Rapede on this fight as she does a crap load of damage and its from distance so she can avoid more damage from the boss.

Yeah I finished him last night, I had a proper playing session last night and leveled up (to 16) and it seemed to do the trick.

So far the game seems to have really taken off. The battle system is much better now and seems to be very similar to Star Ocean on the PS2. The characters too are really enjoyable, although pretty JRPG typical. The story is developing nicely and I'm hoping my room isn't roasting again today so I can have another play

Oh and I want to try the synthesis out as I havent bothered with it so far.

Surfer · 1 Jul 2009 at 10:50

eggyoke said:
From the top of my head of modern western RPGs: Mass Effect, Fallout 3, Fable 2 (thats if you leave the non-essentials). Also I found the Xenosaga trilogy to be stupidly short games.

Might as well add Oblivion to that list as well then if you are just counting the main quest and nothing else. Which if you are is a bit bizarre for a RPG as free-roaming adventure is uhh part of it....

Gas Panic! · 1 Jul 2009 at 11:01

Played this for about 2hrs this morning - it's awesome! I know that's hard to say having only played 2hrs, but it feels and plays just like Tales of Symphonia did. I can't wait to really get stuck into this.

eggyoke · 1 Jul 2009 at 13:05

Surfer said:
Might as well add Oblivion to that list as well then if you are just counting the main quest and nothing else. Which if you are is a bit bizarre for a RPG as free-roaming adventure is uhh part of it....

I left Oblivion out because of this. Oblivion is different because it has guilds, whole storylines that relate to the game world and lore and your character. Fallout 3 is nowhere near as big as Oblivion and the sidequesting is simply just that, a few scattered quests.

As for Fable 2... well its down to your preference I suppose. Getting married, making babies and buying a house is not my idea of RPG gaming. Its more like the sims and thats why I said its one of the shortest because the actual main quest line is tiny.... actually thinking back over it, overall playtime was still tiny even if you did those things I mentioned!

Mass Effect was a very short game. Had no character development other than a quick conversation, and the side-quests where just quick little occursions that probably dont add up to an hour of the overall game time.

Surfer · 1 Jul 2009 at 19:34

eggyoke said:
I left Oblivion out because of this. Oblivion is different because it has guilds, whole storylines that relate to the game world and lore and your character. Fallout 3 is nowhere near as big as Oblivion and the sidequesting is simply just that, a few scattered quests.

As for Fable 2... well its down to your preference I suppose. Getting married, making babies and buying a house is not my idea of RPG gaming. Its more like the sims and thats why I said its one of the shortest because the actual main quest line is tiny.... actually thinking back over it, overall playtime was still tiny even if you did those things I mentioned!

Mass Effect was a very short game. Had no character development other than a quick conversation, and the side-quests where just quick little occursions that probably dont add up to an hour of the overall game time.

Utterly disagree with how you are justifying leaving Oblivion out but yet Fallout 3 is in as being a really short game. I thought Fallout 3 had more richness, variety and lore than Oblivion.... and uhh Fallout 3 has a *few* scattered sidequests???? :eek:

Lets just say i dont agree that most western rpgs are 20 hours or less gaming experiences... maybe if you are trying to speedrun an RPG....which is kinda blasphemous lol but nm.

Its not about the "missions" its about being there. But i think you prefer JRPGs length/story "adventuring" format. So lets just agree to disagree.

eggyoke · 2 Jul 2009 at 09:43

Surfer said:
Utterly disagree with how you are justifying leaving Oblivion out but yet Fallout 3 is in as being a really short game. I thought Fallout 3 had more richness, variety and lore than Oblivion.... and uhh Fallout 3 has a *few* scattered sidequests????

Lets just say i dont agree that most western rpgs are 20 hours or less gaming experiences... maybe if you are trying to speedrun an RPG....which is kinda blasphemous lol but nm.

Its not about the "missions" its about being there. But i think you prefer JRPGs length/story "adventuring" format. So lets just agree to disagree.

I'm not justifying anything

If you prefer Fallout 3 over Oblivion then thats upto you. However you cannot compare Fallout to the Oblivion: Elder Scrolls lore. Its like saying Mad Max has more lore than Lord of the Rings. Its simply not true whether you prefer one over the other.

As for the being there, instead of doing actual story related questing... well I suppose we will have to agree to disagree :cool:

Well, Tales of Vesperia; it took time to get into but its really becoming a great game. The characters are really quite humerous and I like the Yuri as a main character. He's much more interesting and real compared to the 16 year old, sav the world angst ridden kid.

The battle system has opened up as I had hoped it would. However I dont know about anyone else, but its still quite awkward and confusing to use. Personally I'd have preferred a more traditional combat system with this game.

I understand why JRPGs are trying to escape the turn-based system, however unless a game is going to completely escape the "warp" battle screen, then I'd prefer the old and refined way... I guess I'm just not the biggest fan of the Star Ocean type battle system. a lot of button mashing can get tiresome when your trying to get out of a dungeon and flying parrots appear out of nowhere... it can be annoying and this is my biggest gripe with the game.

~Divine~Wind~ · 2 Jul 2009 at 10:07

Hmm this or Star Ocean,

35 hours does seem short

Star Ocean sounds as if it may last longer

Surfer · 2 Jul 2009 at 12:55

bizarrely enuff kinda miss the turn-based system. Star Ocean combat is fast like an action rpg but you kinda miss out on the wonderful spells and attacks. It goes by too fast to appreciate i guess. Still fun but different.

Jase · 2 Jul 2009 at 13:10

I'm really interested in this one, but couldn't at this time play it for weeks. Hearing that it can be done in 35 hours is actually good news for me, and I guess that time would be increased a bit by exploring, side missions etc.

Gas Panic! · 2 Jul 2009 at 16:32

*spoilers*

So I'm loving this game. I've just saved after doing the basement in the port town, and am about to follow that dude onto his boat. I found Gattuso (haha, I can't believe they named a boss after a footballer) to be moderately easy - he beat me the first couple of times but then I sorted out my tactics and it was all good.

eggyoke · 6 Jul 2009 at 10:19

I think I'm just over half-way through the game and I gotta say, I'm really loving it. Its so far been the best JRPG I've played since the PS2 days.

Its traditional in the JRPG sense and the story seems to really be developing nicely. Its kind of like a cross between Suikoden and Breath of Fire (pretty much a Tales game

)

I actually can't believe that the story was pointed out as being a negative when game sites reviewed the game. IMO its got a better story than most RPGs within the last 4-5 years. It does take a little while to open up but its really interesting when it does. In some cases it reminds me of FFVII.

Yuri is right up there as a favorite main character since Geddoe from Sui3 and Yuri from Shadow Hearts (must be a Yuri thing). He's not a moaner, seems laid back and doesn't let anyone give him crap.

The game really surprised me with some of the themes its dealt with so far. I guess the cutesy anime style can be be deceptive:

****WARNING spoiler****

Ragou (spelling?) feeding people, kids, to monsters. Cumore sending people into the desert to die, and then Yuri secretly killing them mercilessly as punishment outside the law.

What other main character from a JRPG has done this type of thing? Not even Yuri from Shadow Hearts did anything like this.

Tales of Vesperia

Can't type for toffee