VesperiaBack when I restarted What Goes Here I mentioned something about doing game reviews. Recently a comment made by the lovely hea777 made me reconsider my priorities and I figured, ehh, why not? So without any further ado, my first ‘review’:

One of my favorite games on the Gamecube is Tales of Symphonia. Back in the day the only RPGs I was familiar with were Pokémon and Lufia. Needless to say my knowledge about them was lacking at best. Until one day, a very clear day I might add, I saw the light. Sitting there in the store shelf was Tales of Symphonia. Now, back then I wasn’t really into Anime, but having watched both Dragonball Z and Pokémon, the anime styled boxart peaked my interest. The game was priced at 50 Euros, which was quite steep for a 15 year old student to pay, but with the few funds I had earned stocking shelves like a lifeless robot, I left the shop with a game that would change my views on RPGs forever.

As you may or may not have noticed, Symphonia was – and still is - one of my favorite games for the Gamecube. While the game wasn’t perfect, it had a pretty good balance between action typed RPGs and traditional RPGs. The one thing that really made me love it was the combat system. Unlike Pokémon and Final Fantasy where you have to wait in an unrealistic manner – it’s like waiting to get your hamburger at Burger King -, Tales of Symphonia offers an interactive and fast-paced combat system. Rest assured that when selecting skills or items the game will briefly pause gameplay, so that you can select it at your own pace. The story, while riddled with clichés manages to stay interesting somehow. This is quite a feat considering the game spans two discs combining a total of 40 hours of solid gameplay.

Quite some time has passed since then and as console come and go, the new Tales game was no longer exclusive for Nintendo consoles. Indeed, the next Tales game, Tales of Vesperia, would be an Xbox 360 exclusive. I can safely say that I bought my 360 just for this game, which is on second though quite sad… Oh well, enter Vesperia. Nearly a full year after the North American release, we shoddy Europeans get to taste the sweet, yet bitter taste that is Tales of Vesperia.

The game is devided in three segments. Your first goal is to reclaim a stolen Blastia core, your second goal is to prevent the EDN OF TEH WORLD, and your last goal is to SAVE ZE WORLD. See what I did there? The story, like many RPGs, is heavily based on clichés, much like its predecessor. However I find myself wanting to finish it again. As strange as it seems, I like these stories. The game is luckily on a single disc (unlike some other games like *coughstaroceancough*) and takes about 40 hours to beat. This includes a lot of cinematics, but there’s more than enough gameplay as well.

I should mention that Mana does not exist in the world of Tales of Vesperia, instead we have Aer. Also, Blastia are crystals that are powered by Aer that provide basic functionality like water and some other stuff. Then we’ve got the different formulas and CORES AND– I’ll stop here since I can tell I’m not making any sense. Just remember that Blastia is important, I guess.

Let’s start with the good things first. This game looks jawdroppingly (is that a word?) amazing. If you don’t have an HDTV you’re really missing out. Every character, location, item, heck, ILLUSTRATION looks beautifully made. Animation is for the most part smooth and the game doesn’t have any framedrops at all. Even when fighting 8 baddies at the same time the game does not stutter. It’s enough to make me wonder what’s fueling this game! It’s maaaaagic, I’m telling you! Sound effects are for the most part nicely done and the music, while nothing amazing, fits the game pretty well. Now, the one thing that I really love about this title is the voice acting. Normally I’m one of those people that prefers NO voice acting over BAD voice acting, but in Vesperia… The voice acting is done wonderfully. Save for a few characters that are REQUIRED to have annoying voices – think prepubescent boy, teenage girl – the rest of the cast shines.

That brings me to another point. The main protagonist, Yuri Lowell, is a total badass. He’s unlike any standard anime character you’ve seen before. No, he’s not the ‘we fight for freinds!1!!’ type. No, he’s not the ‘I lost mah parentz so imma kil u now!!11! ‘ type either. No, Yuri’s smart, funny, has wit and a sense of logic! Someone save me, I think I’m in love! Seriously though, Yuri’s character really develops throughout the story in a good way, he keeps his attitude and actually becomes a likeable character. The other characters are a mixed bag…

Oh boy, first we’ve got Estelle. She’s a princess and heir to the throne or some shit like that. Anyways, she probably deserves the title of  ‘most high pitched ADULT FEMALE heard in a video game, ever’. She’s okay at best and has her moments in-game. I’m not going to spoil anything though! Then we’ve got Rita, a mage from Aspio. She has this holier-than-thou attitude going on which is slightly amusing at first, but really got on my nerves as the game progressed. She is kinda cute though… Err, never mind that. Next up we’ve got Karol, a member of the Hunting Blades. A general requirement in anime is that all boys under the age of 12 MUST have a high-pitched voice. And trust me, Karol is no exception. He’s got an interesting backstory and actually becomes a likeable character near the ending of the game though. Even his fights with Rita are funny, for a while…

Okay, now that we’ve got the so-so characters out of the way, let’s get this party going! Raven joins your party pretty late, but he’s totally worth the wait. This self-proclaimed old man has some of the best lines in the game, and his voice actor did an amazing job saying them. I mean, check this battle quote out:

Estelle: Our weapons are…Love!

Yuri: Justice!

Raven: Sexxuuualllitttyyy-AH!

Rita: Would you stop!?

Totally amazing right? His character really develops near the ending of the game and is even– … Oops, I nearly spoiled it for ya’ll there. Moving on we’ve got Judith. This lovely, scantily clad– Err, I mean, ‘well dressed’ Krityan is the last member to join your party. Unlike other Krityans she does fight and is actively pursuing– Err, I almost did it again! She has a goal, let’s put it like that. Lastly we have Yuri’s dog, Repede. He has some of the most emotional lines in the game. That ‘Woof!’ gets to me every time I hear it.

The antagonists are diverse and change throughout the game. As I mentioned before, the game consists out of three segments that each have their own epic bosses.

The battle system is extremely similar to Symphonia’s. It’s just like my daddy always said: “Never change a winning team.”But then again… He also says stuff like “Cows are bad for the environment, son!” err, let’s ignore that for the time being. You’re now given the option to assign skills to your party members. These range from doing extra physical damage to doing minimal damage and give the game a nice strategic point of view. Oh, you can change the position and battle characteristics of your party members as well. While not really necesarry, they don’t hurt the game either. Another fine addition is the Fatal Strike attack. Once you’ve hit a certain enemy with a certain type of attack with a certain pair of socks– Just kidding folks, anyways, once you’ve done the former, enemies will flash for a sec and a symbol will appear. Pressing R simply defeats these enemies in one blow. Of course this doesn’t work on bosses, but it still does a substantial amount of damage even then.

Does Vesperia match up to Symphonia though? This was a question I found very hard to answer at first, but when I started playing Symphonia again a few weeks ago I realized how dated it really is. The graphics look pretty bad and the battles give you less options. Even worse, I didn’t enjoy playing it all that much. The skits – funny scenes between characters that appear over time – are not voiced and extremely boring. In Vesperia there are over 300 of these and they all feature full voice acting. Vesperia is an evolution to Symphonia in a sense. It refined its formula and made it better, way better.

Now, back in the beginning of this review I mentioned how Vesperia was also bitter. I’m guessing you’ve been pondering about that for a while now, huh? No. Ack, let me explain. Vesperia WAS an Xbox exclusive. EXCEPT now it’s coming to PS3 with MORE. EXCLUSIVE. CONTENT. It’s enough to make me mad. Seriously, not only do they get more sidequests, they also get a NEW PLAYABLE CHARACTER. The list of changes is HUGE. I LIKE CAPS. This makes me wonder if the 360 version is even a complete game! You can’t change the story when another console port is released! It-It’s not fair! I… I feel ripped off. Especially considering we Europeans only got it like three months ago… Argh…

Enough rambling for now. I hope you enjoy reading this semi-review, I know I enjoyed writing it. I would’ve written more, but I feel that I’m only rambling on about nonsense. Until next time!