Written by: Ian

 

 

 

The Tales series has been one of Japan’s most successful RPG exports over the years, without ever really gaining the rabid fanbase that the Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest series enjoy over here.

 

However, upon release, "Tales of Vesperia" propelled the 360 to its most successful week ever in Japan, testament to its success. After a huge delay of around a year, the game has finally hit Europe, but does it hold up against newer competition?

 

 

ToV is set on the lush planet of Terca Lumireis, where an ancient civilisation used ‘blastia’ to power huge contraptions. Fast forward to the present, and the current inhabitants of the planet still rely on them, but no longer have the technology to create new blastia, and maintaining what’s left is a struggle in the face of mounting monster attacks on outposts and cities.

 

Like many a JRPG, the game starts inauspiciously. However, I found the plot to be far more charming (and almost believable, in a way) than the average JRPG. You play as Yuri (who’s a teenager, but unlike stereotypical JRPGs, Yuri is none of the following: angsty, emo, has massive hair, has massive sword- these things alone contribute towards a more refreshing experience. Things start to go well when a guy imposing as a mage comes and steals the local aqaue blastia, and Yuri has to go off into the world beyond his home to get it back to help the locals.

 

 

Typically, the quest leads into a much larger one to save the world, but the quality of the storytelling and script are far better than in your average JRPG, and most of it is also fully voiced to a really high quality too- overall, I was really impressed by the story- whilst occasionally clichéd, it’s both entertaining and epic, whilst Yuri (and his awesome, pipe smoking, dog Repede) is an excellent lead.

 

 

Tales of Vesperia may be a JRPG, but the Tales games have never played like a traditional JRPG normally would. This makes for a nice change compared to your standard turn-based-combat RPGs. There are some fairly standard elements to the game, however.

 

Firstly, ToV is a (mostly) linear game. Whilst the world map does give you some freedom to explore, and whilst there are some sidequests, you can mostly progress through the story without ever feeling like you missed anything wonderful or interesting. And secondly, whilst the world map is refreshingly open, at the same time, if you try and progress anywhere that isn’t on the main storyline, you’ll probably get a short cut-scene that forces you back out into the field map.

 

ToV also goes for the more modern approach of not having real-time battles, but despite having a real-time combat system, you still have to load up a combat screen (thankfully loading times are pretty small & infrequent throughout, and even smaller if installed to the 360 hard drive) by walking into whatever you want to fight. Personally, I preferred the approach of Infinite Undiscovery which had all the monsters/ bad guys already loaded into each map area. Also, you can expect several other standard approaches- save points, a four-person party, inventory and skill screens, and fairly quick levelling up. There’s not much new or innovative here, although the levelling system is nice and simple, leaving you to focus on combat and the epic storyline, and the skills you can learn through the use of certain weapons is kind of interesting.

 

 

Combat is certainly the talking point for me. Personally, I think it’s a kind of love-it or loath-it, marmite system. Having played Infinite Undiscovery and Eternal Sonata, another couple of RTRPG games, I was fairly used to what the game was expecting of me. And to be honest, I think that the system presented here is far better in either of those two games. This is mainly thanks to your partner AI system. In IU, your team would use up all their magic and items too easily, whilst in ES they felt rather ineffective at times. Here, your team use a good deal of magic without ever seeming to run out or waiting too long to help.

 

Combat orientated characters, whilst no substitute for a human are also effective in picking out targets and attacking. If a character does ever go down, chances are the AI will resurrect him/her before you can pause and select an item yourself. In a way, there can be the odd frustration due to AI sloppiness or the odd animation that goes awry, but it’s by far the best real-time solution to combat that I’ve seen in a JRPG, and at the same time, offers nearly as much strategy as many a turn-based game given the wealth of moves, spells, items and characters available to both play as, and team up with. Conveniently as a result (I believe) is also the fact that the game isn’t as difficult as many turn-based titles due to the real-time combat. I find many JRPGs to be too tough, requiring way too much frustrating grinding to level up your team in order to take on the next boss.