Tales of Vesperia (Xbox 360) Review

The stories of Tales of games usually have a central theme of some sort, and in this one it's two friends that strive for justice in their own way. Not only is the story well told, but it also features a particularly great - and quite unusual - protagonist called Yuri Lowell and an endearing cast of other characters. On top of the regular scenes, optional skits between the party members provide backstory on a lot of things and are generally a good way to get to know the characters better.

The structure of the game is very much classic Tales of, featuring a big overworld map that contains all the relevant locations. There's not a whole lot to do on the overworld beyond going to the next destination, but there are enemies and search points to harvest materials from. Dungeons regularly make use of the Sorcerer's Ring item for puzzles to break up the action, and it's just the right amount of them, too.

Battles start when the party leader comes in contact with one of the roaming enemies. It's a real-time action battle system that's far more refined than the one in the games before it, but still holds up quite well compared to the improved systems in newer instalments. Its only flaw is that it takes a bit too long for battles to really shine, as accessories that decrease the amount of TP used for Artes and additional skills that grant useful extra abilities to make combat more smooth take quite some time to show up.

The Fatal Strike system is quite unique and well done. All Artes are assigned one of three affinities and continuously using them on the same enemy eventually fills a meter. Once ready, a cool looking blue, red or green Fatal Strike can be performed on the enemy after an Arte, resulting in an instant death of regular foes and a large amount of damage dealt to bosses. Different enemy categories such as beasts or birds are susceptible to different Fatal Strike types, while the rewards for triggering them can vary between increased experience, skill points or Gald. On top of that, blue Fatal Strikes provide temporary offensive buffs to the party while the red variety grants defensive buffs instead. Naturally, as they are caused by using Artes on enemies, this feature really starts to shine later in the game, once high TP consumption from Artes isn't much of an issue anymore. It simply feels really good to finish off an enemy after a string of Artes, and getting more opportunities to perform them later on is very welcome indeed.

Dealing or taking damage increases the Limit Gauge, which goes up to Level 4 and can be activated by any character with the desired intensity by pressing the D-pad in one of the four directions. The most basic Overlimit mode drastically decreases the recovery time between Artes and their casting time for magic users, while allowing the use of a powerful Burst Arte if the button is held down after performing an advanced Arcane Arte. Only a Level 3 or Level 4 Overlimit with the Special skill equipped enables the use of a powerful Mystic Arte after a successful attack with a Burst Arte. It's most definitely satisfying to land a fancy Mystic Arte on a boss, something that can prove to be quite tricky, especially when only the highest level of Overlimit prevents staggering from enemy attacks and the temporary nature of the mode doesn't allow for more than a few attempts at best.

While there are a variety of playable characters with different play styles ranging from sword or bow users to spell casters, most players will very likely be the most comfortable playing as the main character , as they often are the most balanced option. The AI of the computer-controlled characters is fairly competent and less desirable duties such as keeping the party alive can easily be left to them. There is also the option to further customise their strategy, and they can easily be changed during combat, from an offensive to a defensive strategy, for example.

Further customisation of the characters is done by learning skills from various weapons that can be found, bought or synthesized. It's not until post-game where skill points are plentiful, so some thought has to be put into what skills to go after. Most of them aren't just generic stat boosts, either, and can drastically change how a character plays in battle. Some of them even alter certain Artes when equipped, which can eventually be permanently learned and used alongside the original version of the Arte.

Side quests are plentiful in this game and many of them are well worth doing, be it for additional bits of story about the characters or some sweet rewards, either in the form of equipment or titles. Some titles have costumes attached to them, many of which are quite cool to wear. Certain accessories can also be created and put on the characters. Speaking of creation, enemies and search points on the overworld map provide materials, which can then be used to synthesize new equipment, or upgrade existing weapons for more skills.

Cooking is still present in its old form in Tales of Vesperia, where characters can cook various meals based on recipes to restore HP/TP or gain temporary stat boosts for the next battle. It's entirely optional, but using it as a way to restore some TP over using up more expensive healing gels is certainly quite handy.

There are three initial difficulty options called Easy, Normal and Hard. The only things they really change, however, are the strength and HP of enemies. There is little incentive to play on Hard, as the only reward is a x1.5 modifier to all obtained Grade in battle. Playing on Easy, on the other hand, doesn't award any Grade at all. Grade can be used in the Grade shop, another staple of the franchise that allows players to enter a New Game+ with certain perks.