Tales of Vesperia hits Europe in June

By Tom Bramwell Published 25 March, 2009

Atari set to release 360-exclusive RPG.

Atari has announced plans to bring Namco Bandai's Xbox 360-exclusive Tales of Vesperia to Europe in June.

The latest in the long-running RPG series puts you in the role of Yuri Lowell, a former Imperial Knight, who lives on the planet of Terca Lumireis, where the people exist in an uneasy bubble of protection afforded to them by the Empire's control of an ancient technology, "blastia".

As you'd imagine, Yuri "will explore the complex relationship between blastia, the government and its people, setting foot outside the safe confines of the cities to explore a mysterious and dangerous world", according to Atari.

Then he will of course do some punching, using an upgraded version of the Tales of the Abyss real-time battle system, which now includes encounter-linking (bringing roaming enemies into battle) along with the old surprise encounter system, and special objectives within boss fights.

You will be able to chain together attacks, deliver commands to others in your party as you fight, and take advantage of Fatal Strikes, Burst Artes and a multistage Overlimit (see Tales of the Abyss and Tales of Symphonia). Later you can do some cooking, which is something of a series mainstay.

Tales of Vesperia has been out since last August in Japan, where it made a decent impression on the charts and picked up some impressive scores (35/40 in Famitsu), and also came out in the US around the same time, doing likewise.

For some reason we didn't take a look at it at the time, which is unlike us. Why else did we buy that US Xbox 360? We'll grab a copy soon and let you know what we reckon.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (32) Latest comment 3 years ago

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  • Colin8703 #1 3 years ago

    Not too far behind the US and Japan then.

    Great game though so can highly recommend it.
    Edited by 1 at 25/03/09 @ 11:48

  • berelain #2 3 years ago

    At bloody last!

    Can;'t wait for this. Tales of Vesperia looks incredible, and I've enjoyed a lot of the other Tales games. Plus, the 360 hasn't had a decent JRPG for a while. Last Remnant does NOT count.

  • Vanmunt #3 3 years ago

    great, my memory isn't brilliant but isn't Star Ocean out in June as well....... good work everybody, no RPGS for weeks then two in the middle of summer.
    Edited by 1 at 25/03/09 @ 12:26

  • stevetuck #4 3 years ago

    about damn time :D been lookinf forward for this for ages i could prob of learned japanese and imported this by the time its been released tho haha :D

  • andywilkie35 #5 3 years ago

    I've been wondering for ages if this was ever gonna come out, I've even asked as much in the forums!

    Fantastic news though, Symphonia is probably my favourite Gamecube game and I've been looking forward to this for ages. Only problem for me is its gonna clash with Star Ocean 4...

  • FabricatedLunatic #6 3 years ago

    Awesome news.

  • Mockerre #7 3 years ago

    Oh, God, finally.

  • alimokrane #8 3 years ago

    About bloody time .... thanks for taking your sweet a** time Namco!!!!!

  • Ranger_Ryu #9 3 years ago

    Finally but still Tales of Vesperia and Star Ocean coming out in the same month.....ugh what a pain......

  • NonniR #10 3 years ago

    Awesome! I've heard a couple of rumors about it being released but it's still good to have it officially announced.

    I'll be buying both Tales of Vesperia and Star Ocean 4

  • Monkey_Puncher #11 3 years ago

    Sweet!

    Was wondering when this would get a release.

  • toythatkills #12 3 years ago

    Vesperia is so far ahead of every other RPG on the system it's unreal. Amazing game. You're all going to have a lot of fun!

    Protip: If you have to choose one of the two, Star Ocean IV isn't it.

  • Colin8703 #13 3 years ago

    @ toythatkills

    I second that.

  • Mockerre #14 3 years ago

    Well, for one, it's the first jrpg (that I know of) that features CO-OP. Will definitely play it with gf.

  • menage #15 3 years ago

    Nice, will probably buy it if nothing big gets in the way.

  • muscleblade #16 3 years ago

    "Not too far behind the US and Japan then. "

    Europe usually get 360 games the same week as the US so i think this is VERY far behind tbh.

  • toythatkills #17 3 years ago

    Well, I didn't miss the sarcasm anyway.

  • BillyBrush #18 3 years ago

    I'm looking forward to this..co op, animation courtesy of production I.G ...they're taking their sweet time with it though, i wonder if the US ver plays on a Pal console?....a visit to play asia is in order..

  • anomagnus #19 3 years ago

    about fucking time

  • spekkeh #20 3 years ago

    Well, for one, it's the first jrpg (that I know of) that features CO-OP. Will definitely play it with gf.

    You mean on the xbox, or..? Secret of Mana still ranks as my favorite RPG of all time because of the co-op. I loved Tales of Symphonia on the Gamecube to death because of the co-op and will definitely buy this one to play with my gf. Co-op adds so much to the experience of RPGs that I'm absolutely baffled as to why so few games incorporate it.

  • Jasugun #21 3 years ago

    @Crofto
    Why do you even read EG if they're so wrong you wish they stopped reviewing games?

  • menage #22 3 years ago

    @Crofto

    You're comparing an medieval action RPG with a turnbased occult high school sim. Apples and oranges.

    I own both but Fable 2 kicked ass, so much so that it's the first game in years I actually played through 2 times.

    Oh and Eternal Sonata was Co-Op as well I think, at least in part.
    Edited by 1 at 25/03/09 @ 13:53

  • koji_m #23 3 years ago

    Good stuff!

    WANT!

  • Irien #24 3 years ago

    Great news!

    Eternal sonata also had co-op and worked really well - you could choose who controlled each character, so each player could pick their favorites and control shifted around automatically, across however many controllers/players were hooked in. As someone else said, the GF loved it, and we've even talked about a little chopin at the wedding ;)

    Tales still my favorite series, so this is extremely happy-making!

  • Colin8703 #25 3 years ago

    @Billybrush

    You won't have any joy with any NTSC version on a PAL console I'm afraid.

    I took the plunge and bought a Japanese console and my US version works on that but not on my PAL machine.

    Play Asia does say that but thought I'd reaffirm so you don't waste your money.

  • hiddenranbir #26 3 years ago

    Hooray! Another generic JRPG!

  • Ninja_Tino #27 3 years ago

    Crofto, when Daily Mail reporters tried to ask David Walliam some questions, he gave a great reply that also fits perfectly with you, 'fuck off and die'.

  • Scimarad #28 3 years ago

    At last! We might finally get a decent 360 JRPG...

  • kissthestick #29 3 years ago

    about fucking time, oh and fuck namco

  • metallicorphan #30 3 years ago

    been wanting to play this for ages...so i downloaded the demo from i dunno,the HK marketplace or the US marketplace...and i absolutely hated it...even though i hated the Blue Dragon demo but loved the full game i dont think i will be shelling out for this,no matter how much i love my JRPGs

    Star Ocean 4 gets my money that month

  • toythatkills #31 3 years ago

    Please, please don't write this game off based on the demo. It's an absolutely shocking demo. It's about the worst demo I've ever played, chucks you into the middle of the game, doesn't tell you how to play, and gives you a boss to fight that's difficult to beat even when you know how to play. It's awful.

    The full game is absolutely amazing though, there's not a better way to spend £40 on the Xbox 360, trust me.

  • metallicorphan #32 3 years ago

    @Toythatkills


    hmm,......as thats exactly how i felt with the Blue Dragon demo/game i may be swayed nearer to release date...depends on the money i have i suppose