First Impressions: Tales of Vesperia (Xbox 360)

For the most part, I'm a firm believer that if a game doesn't grab you in the first few hours, it's time to collect your ass and move on. More than once I've waded through the beginnings of heralded j-rpg's, just to find myself saying, "Well, that was just stupid." Girl with bunny ears? "Stupid." Twelve year-old moron yearning for self discovery? "Fucking stupid." Whatever I might think of the genre, it is populated with the above examples to a disappointing degree. The closest I've come to actually enjoying myself was with last year's Lost Odyssey, but eventually the turn-based combat drilled a hole in my face and I could no longer continue playing due to massive blood loss. It's too bad, really, because I thought the story had promise. I'm not a big fan of amnesia (if you don't know who you are, you can fuck off), but Mistwalker seemed to be creating something that wasn't going to tank itself halfway through.


I didn't forget the title of this post; I just think that in order for me to explain what I love about games, I also have to explain what I hate. And, if you're Lost Odyssey, what could have been good, if not for the painfully old-school combat. So, these are my two criteria for playing and enjoying an RPG:


1 ) No annoying crap characters that I would rather use their skin for lamp shades than listen to them blather on about blah-de-blah; fuck off.

2 ) Updated combat. I understand there are a lot of people who enjoy turn-based combat. I'm just not one of them. That's the end of that story.


So, Tales of Vesperia. I got burned before with Eternal Sonata, so I wasn't initially looking forward to this. I've never played any of the Tales games, and in a strictly aestethic sense, it looked like another Sonata.

Well, I was wrong.

The first thing that impressed me was how clean and crisp everything looked. It's one of those art styles that will still have girls blushing ten years from now. Very sexy. After my initial fawning period was over and I started learning what the story entailed, I discovered something previously thought of as myth: I'm not playing as some douche who couldn't tell his ass from a hole in the ground. It's an adult story about adults, doing things adults would do in an adult world. I hate kids, by the way. At least the ones who think they're mages or warriors. There is a kid in Vesperia who could easily have been annoying as shit, but thankfully, he's toned down enough to where he doesn't bother me. It's too bad there's no option for Japanese dialogue, but the English cast does a decent job. I like the conversations the two main characters(so far) have with each other, and nothing feels forced or badly translated. Plus your dog smokes a pipe. That's called Instant Awesome.




The combat is equally as promising as the story. Gone is the watch-me-as-I-do-this-totally-magical-attack-to-your-face-while-you-stand-there-like-an-idiot style. No, here you'll have to move around in real-time while your enemies do the same. And unlike Eternal Sonata, there's no action meter, so you can move about for as long as you want. There are a few attack buttons that do different things, as well as a block and jump button. Depending on the weapon you're using, you can learn new abilities and skills as you go along. I haven't dug too deep into the combat system yet, so that's pretty much the height of my knowledge at this point. Regardless, it's fun and satisfying to get a ten-hit combo going and finish a battle in under five seconds (which, yes, I Have Done).


I'm only about six hours in as of last night, but I'll make more posts about my progress as I go along. I kind of wish I'd played some of the Tales games before, but at least now I can go back and see what I missed out on. If they're anything like Vesperia, I'll gladly pick up some used copies.


( I'll put up some media later, probably once I'm set up to capture video. )