Tales of Vesperia Review by: EvilAlu - 10/10
Vesperia Discoverd Tales of Vesperia was released on August 26th 2008, and bought to you buy Bandai Namco Games. As many people might know, the Tales series of games has been around for some time. Tales of Vesperia is but one of the many games to take the title. And I was among the first at my local game store to grab my copy of this amazing game.
Plot - Tales of Vesperia circles around the character Yuri Lowell, He joined the Imperial Knights along with his best friend Flynn Scifo, but soon quit upon finding corruption within the Imperial Knights. Now he spends his days living how he pleases down in the lower quarter, helping to solve peoples troubles. One day Yuri comes across a mysterious girl named Estelle, she explains to Yuri that she wants to meet with Flynn, and hearing that Yuri agrees to accompany her. Little does Yuri know, that this is only the beginning of his strange and wild adventure to rid the world of an upcoming danger.
Story - Lets talk about the story, as a whole the story is very well put together. And not unlike many other Tales games, offers plenty of in depth story to each character in the game. And with a mighty seven playable characters at your disposal, you wont be let down for story lines. While playing thru the individual stories, you will discover many things along the way that make this game great. Like other Tales games, Vesperia offers you "Skits" that will randomly show up through your adventure or at the appropriate time. But what are skits you might ask? Skits can be anything from crucial information regarding the part of the story you are playing, general chatter among your party and even some humorous events can take place. Each skit provides something different, so you will get a new part to the story every time.
Gameplay - The gameplay is not unlike any other start to a Tales game, you travel the world visiting different towns, staying at various Inns, maintaining your weapons, armour, and any skills you learn, and solving peoples problems along the way. Something refreshing about Tales of Vesperia, is that Level and skill advancement is more of a background feature. If you decide to skip post fight scenes, you will fail to notice your characters level up half of the time. I found this to be more of an advantage, it made the game feel more realistic, compared to having the usual giant flashing "Level Up!" appear on screen.
Combat - The combat in this game is top notch, it can be challenging but its also extremely fun. There are no random encounters like in some RPG games, every battle you fight is by choice. You see the enemy in front of you, you can then chose to avoid it or encounter it. In some cases if you aren't fast enough, you will get attacked from behind, giving the enemy an advantage. But unless the enemy is very strong and your level is not sufficient, this should pose no problem, as you are able to select how to control your character. If you have it set to "Manual", you can easily run around until you are able to attack, and in doing so avoid enemy hits. Accompanying manual mode, you have "Semi-Automatic", where the computer does half of the work for you, such as automatic running when pushing a button. And there is "Automatic" which will pretty much do all of the work, I would not recommend Automatic to anyone wanting to play this game at its best. You have two different types of attacks in this game, you have standard attacks using weaponry, and magic attacks using spells. Any moves or magic you learn can be easily assigned to directional buttons, so performing attacks on enemies quickly is never a problem. This also helps when wanting to make a high combo number. Acquiring new moves and spells can sometimes take a while to get, unless like me you grind in one spot until you are ready to move on. But in general they are not to hard to attain. And finally we get to A.I, this is by far one of the best A.I systems you will see for any game out today. Unlike some A.I in games, where you could be hurt and your support takes ages to help you, or you may be fighting and your A.I companion is just standing there doing nothing. This does not happen in Tales of Vesperia, the A.I is quick to react when you need them, if you are hurt almost instantly a team mate will start a healing spell, and they will always fight the enemy in front of them without delay.
Graphics - As a whole the graphics are remarkably good, but there are some places that could use work. For example the faces of the characters can have a simple anime look about them, and in some locations the detail could have been better. Any skits you may watch may have amazing text, but the art work are simple moving heads at times this could have been improved in my personal opinion. Besides those few minor things, Tales of Vesperia offers stunning cut scenes, like most RPG games that rotate around an anime style, the cut scenes in this are no different, throwing amazingly well done anime scenes at you that almost make you feel like you are watching a show. Also boss battle scenes have some rather nice graphics implemented, such as when performing special moves, you get treated to a very well done character image, of the action being started. All in all the graphics aren't as bad as some other games I have seen, so players of the game shouldn't be disappointed with their experience.
Sound - The sound in Tales of Vesperia is very impressive, in every aspect of the game. The voice acting is some of the best I have heard, for every character usable and not usable in ToV. And it really pulls you in as the player, the excellent script work plays in to this also no doubt. Accompanying Tales of Vesperia is the always fantastic opening music, it never fails to disappoint and fits each game perfectly, this one is no exception. Besides that, each piece of music used in different locations of the game, fits very well and creates the right kind of atmosphere to each environment.
Depth - Any player of Tales of Vesperia, or any of the Tales series of games, will know that the depth in them is fantastic. The main story alone if a little over 49 hours worth of gameplay, and that doesn't include any of the extras within the game. For any players that enjoy hunting down all the little side quests and extra items, you can look forward to a rough play time of 67 hours. However if you are like me, and are a completionist, Tales of Vesperia players get to enjoy a huge 162 hours plus of gameplay. Which is more than enough for any gamers needs.
Addictiveness - Tales of Vesperia is by far one of the most addictive games I have ever played. Once I started I found it near impossible to tear myself away from the stunning visuals and amazing story. That mixed with the action and adventure side to the game, players will get an all around overwhelming experience from ToV. The voice acting alone was enough to pull me in to the game, and keep my attention held throughout.
Difficulty - The difficulty in this game is like most RPG styles. The deeper you get in to the game, the more challenging it becomes leaving you surprised at times in battles. Needless to say this isn't really a big problem, as like other games the more you fight the more you level up. Which in turn makes getting from the start point to the final battle that much easier. And if like me you are a player that will spend up to 6 hours in one spot, as soon as you are able to move to beast up your characters stats, then you shouldn't encounter to much of a threat until quite late in the game. Mastering the combat system can be at first rather tricky, for people who are not used to this style of gameplay combat. But fortunately in Tales of Vesperia, a player can pick up how to use the combat rather quickly, and it is made in such a way that you can easily remember how you set your actions. So combat difficulty is far from a problem, the highest amount of difficulty you will get in this game is from various enemies, some which are so powerful, they put some of the main story boss battles to shame. Despite its tough spots, Tales of Vesperia can be conquered in due time, and with enough patience to level up for hours on end.
Over all - All in all, Tales of Vesperia is a good all round game full of action, adventure, and story that will have you fixated for hours on end. Not to mention the stunning sound track that accompanies the game, and the amazing visuals along the way. I would highly recommend this game to anyone who loves a good RPG game, as it would meet all the players needs and more. There may be some slight things, that don't make this game as great as what it could be. But when put against all the positives it far outweighs them. I personally rate this game very highly, and give it a full score of 10.
Graphics
9 Sound
10 Addictive
10 Depth
10 Story
10 Difficulty
8
User Notice 
