Tales of Vesperia Review

By Simon Parkin Published 6 May, 2009

Yuri update?

Version tested: Xbox 360

In a genre obsessed with world-threatening crises, Tales of Vesperia's initial focus on a local emergency is refreshing. It's the fantasy equivalent of a burst water main: a magical fountain whose powering gem-stone has been stolen, causing water to flood the lower district of Zaphias, the medium-sized city in which your character resides.

Yuri is on the far side of adolescence, one of the more prominent young men from this, the poor side of town, and he leaps at the chance to help out his people. After all, the soldiers whose job it is to protect and serve Zaphias have no interest in the plumbing problems of the underclass, particularly when there's an aristocracy to pander to. In time, the theft of the gem turns out to be a small cog in a greater plot machination, but the game never forgets its small-scale, neighbourhood beginnings.

That said, it would be untrue to claim Tales of Vesperia's themes stray too far from the deep narrative furrows along which most JRPGs tread (although it takes a few hours for that global crisis to step out from behind the dramatic curtain), or to imply that its scale is anything but grand. But it'd be equally unfair to chastise the game for cliché. It may do little to reinvent its series' template, as, in contrast to Square-Enix, Namco is happy for its flagship RPG series to stick to its long-established form, but the execution fizzes with creativity. The solid, dependable framework allows the developer to concentrate its efforts on crafting a witty, engaging script, characters with depth and intrigue, and a world of detail and some nuance, which it does.

Yuri, in particular, is a strong protagonist. Old enough to be appealing to any player past their teens, yet flawed enough to be believable, he remains heroic enough to provide the leadership his role requires. Especially notable is the voice acting, which, while universally American in casting, is unusually well-acted, elevating the dialogue to something more engaging than genre fans will be used to. As if to capitalise on this, characterisation is shoved to the fore - an optional press of the back button at almost any point triggers a 'skit', a conversation between your team-mates about the current plot concern (with an Achievement for listening to all 500-odd of them).

'Tales of Vesperia' Screenshot 1

Along with his dog, Repede, Yuri is joined by a range of other adventurers, whose diverse backgrounds allow the game ample opportunity for mild social commentary.

Tales of Vesperia is a traditional JRPG in most other ways. You chase the storyline from city to city, battling monsters en route across the overworld map and fighting your way through dungeon areas to trigger the next cut-scene. Cities are relatively small despite being filled with NPCs just dying to tell you about nothing in particular, and this geographical succinctness allows the story to canter along at a decent pace, even if you do get caught up in the numerous side-quests and mini-games.

Enemy encounters are all visible in the field, so there are no random intrusions to interrupt your progress and inside battles the mechanics are unusual. You enjoy direct control over Yuri, with the other characters in your squad competently controlled by the AI (whose behaviour can be influenced by menu choices). You have free roam of the battle area and can attack in real time, where the B button performs standard linked attacks and the A button pressed in conjunction with directional inputs executes more powerful combos known as 'artes'.

Crucially, you'll need to block regularly, an action which halves the damage you take from an enemy strike and, while the system is not without its clumsiness, the to-and-fro patter ensures fights are engaging. Later in the game you gain access to an overlimit, triggered by filling a gauge through both taking and dealing damage, which allows a character to attack incessantly for a short amount of time. These long chains of attack are both fun to execute and watch. Fights are graded on factors such as the amount of damage taken, the amount of TP remaining at the end of the battle, your effectiveness at blocking, and so on, and the emphasis is always on perfecting techniques for better rewards.

As new artes unlock naturally during play (as well as being learned from special weapons), extending the length of potential combos, there's enough of a long-term reward structure to keep things interesting. The system really blossoms during boss fights, where the freedom that comes from 360-degree movement around a battlefield facilitates positional tactics. It's kind of thing that action games have been doing far better for years but, still, the integration of these systems into a JRPG is uncommon and the experience is all the richer for it.

Elsewhere, Namco takes the mid-budget graphical approach, approximating a cel-shaded look (faked through the clever use of shaders) that falls just short of the quality of Eternal Sonata's similar aesthetic. Without motion capture, the character animations are stiff and awkward, and the pregnant pauses in cut-scene camera cuts are only just rescued by the quality of the voice acting.

'Tales of Vesperia' Screenshot 2

It's possible to switch out party members mid-fight and even to take over control of a different character at any one point.

Nevertheless, the game's wonder is in its incessant supply of micro challenges and diversions: the Fable II style character titles that you're encouraged to collect; the poker games on Nam Cobanda; the perks that smooth progression in a similar way to LEGO Star Wars' red bricks; the encyclopedia of monsters whose pages you must fill by scanning every enemy you encounter; the item synthesis challenges; the cookery mini-game and nine legendary (and optional) Giganto monsters provide the game's biggest challenge as well as its most rewarding achievement.

There's no denying that Tales of Vesperia lacks the big-budget feel of a Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest, or that its innovations are designed only to pique the interest of erstwhile genre fans, not to inspire genre converts. But Namco is to be applauded for updating the series with no small amount of consideration and flair, an effort that has resulted in the strongest entry to the aging series yet, and one which makes up for its lack of polish with an abundance of detail, character and, dare I say it, soul.

8 / 10

Tales of Vesperia is due out for Xbox 360 in June. It came out in the US last August.

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About Simon Parkin

Simon Parkin is an author and journalist on video games. A regular contributor to Eurogamer since 2005, his work has also appeared in Edge, The Telegraph, Gamasutra and Boing Boing.

Read more articles from Simon by visiting the Simon Parkin archive page.

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Comments (50) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • ilmaestro #1 3 years ago

    Not enough Yuri content for my liking.

  • paul_haine #2 3 years ago

    "no random intrusions"

    Thank fuck.

  • ZuluHero #3 3 years ago

    i didn't really enjoy the US demo - is it one of them game great, demo not so good, deals?

  • siro #4 3 years ago

    How long is the game? Does the US version run on PAL?

  • ZuluHero #5 3 years ago

    @siro

    according to playasia - no :(

    [link url=http://www.play-asia.com/paOS -13-71-dh-77-1-49-en-15-Tales+of+Vesperia-70-2oyi.html ]http://ww w.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-dh-7...[/link]

  • menage #6 3 years ago

    I would have been all over this 2 years ago, now my backlog and upcoming "do want" list is just to big.

    Shame it got released so long after the US one, I'll pick it up when it hits 30 euro's
    Edited by 2 at 06/05/09 @ 08:50

  • malmer #7 3 years ago

    This is so much a must buy that it hurts! Release can't come soon enough.

  • Zomoniac #8 3 years ago

    The demo was one of the worst games I've ever played. Is the full game completely different or do the reviewer and I have very different standards?

  • malmer #9 3 years ago

    Zomoniac: According to well everyone ToV will rock!

  • Colin8703 #10 3 years ago

    This game does rock.

    I think the voice acting is pretty average actually but the game is great.

    Also, it's a bit strange that the review is so late in coming as it's for the import that's been out ages in the US.

    In response to previous comment: This game will not work on a PAL machine.

  • Banksy #11 3 years ago

    Yuri nation?

  • chrisno21 #12 3 years ago

    If only they hadn't already told me that the PS3 version will have extra content. Now I've got to wait even longer...

  • andywilkie35 #13 3 years ago

    Looking forward to this

  • systems #14 3 years ago

    @chrisno21 - same here. I was just about to preorder the 360 version but I'd rather wait for the bigger PS3 one.

  • EmiliasHorse #15 3 years ago

    I am so angry about the DF review, so very... Oh hang on wrong review.

    I am so happy with this review, so very happy. Wants

  • JohnnyWashnGo #16 3 years ago

    When is the PS3 version due?

  • siro #17 3 years ago

    Thank you ZuluHero.

    Now, how about the length of the game? I really like RPGs, but all the hours you need to plough into them...

    And, does someone know if it's also in all-Japanese, incl. screen texts if you turn your xbox to Japanese?

  • viper_h #18 3 years ago

    Bandai? Visible enemies? 360 degree movement in battle? Blocking and attack combos? Cel-shaded graphics?

    All seems a bit "Eternal Sonata" to me, and that game was dull as sin after a few hours.

    Is ES a fair comparison to this game?
    Edited by 1 at 06/05/09 @ 09:34

  • Ninja_Tino #19 3 years ago

    @viper, I couldn't say but Tales of Symphonia (the gamecube game, and at the time the greatest Tales game by a country mile) isn't really that similar to ES. The fighting was much quicker and did require some skill with a controller rather than knowing what move to select next. Although, that was on a 2d plane, so it's hard to say but I'm sure it's closer to ToS than ES.

  • systems #20 3 years ago

    @JohnnyWashnGo - there is no PS3 release date yet, only that it will be in 2009. Could even be a Christmas release. So do we give the 360 one a go first and then pick up the PS3 one later? Or sit and wait? Tough call, not decided myself yet.

  • figaro7 #21 3 years ago

    Still no AU release date,....

  • Darren #22 3 years ago

    Sounds great and looks gorgeous graphically like the charming Eternal Sonata. Deffo interested in the UK version when it arrives here in June. At long last another good J-RPG arrives on the Xbox 360, after the depressingly dull Lost Odyssey and the technically shoddy/mediocre The Last Remnant, I was beginning to think that Eternal Sonata and Blue Dragon were flukes! :)

  • Darren #23 3 years ago

    Forgot to add... no random battles = awesomeness! Everyone and next door's cat knows that random battles suck big balls. :D

  • NegativeZero #24 3 years ago

    @viper_h: it's far more accurate to say that Eternal Sonata's battle system is ripped from Tales. Vesperia uses basically the same system as Tales of Symphonia, Tales of Legendia and Tales of the Abyss. It adds better framerates, higher level of detail, and a bit of polish.

    Eternal Sonata is the prettier of the two cel-shaded Namco JRPGs, but the tradeoff was that the character models are static, there are only a small range of enemies, and the environments are restricted and very linear. To mark Vesperia down because it's not as nice to look at is really losing sight of the big picture. Vesperia is the best JRPG on the 360, bar none.

  • neonxaos #25 3 years ago

    There is a wolf smoking a pipe in this game? Sold.

  • Toothball #26 3 years ago

    I really enjoyed Eternal Sonata. Picked up Tales of Symphonia on Cube, but haven't got round to playing it yet. Perhaps I'll get to this some day.

  • albertofustinoni #27 3 years ago

    On one hand, I do want really badly, on the other one I seriously want to boycott this as a F*** YOU to Failco for their handling of the PAL release.
    What to do, what to do.....

  • Matt_Edwards #28 3 years ago

    With both Tales of Vesperia and Star Ocean: The Last Stand coming out around the same time, I can't decided which RPG I want to play first?

    Star Ocean: The Second Story and Tales of Symphonia are two of the best RPG's I've ever played... however, I'm leaning towards The Last Stand at the mo. But Vesperia does sound better than Legendia or the Abyss...

  • Monkey_Puncher #29 3 years ago

    Albert I don't think you not buying the game will make much difference to the eventual sales figures, no point in cutting off your nose to spite your face.

  • muscleblade #30 3 years ago

    I dont feel like paying full price for an old game. If it had been released over here at the same time as the US it would have been in the bargain bins by now.

  • muscleblade #31 3 years ago

    "When is the PS3 version due? "

    In Europe. Not for a very long time i guess.

  • NonniR #32 3 years ago

    I was just about to buy this when I saw the additional content for the Ps3 version. I'll be waiting =/

  • monkeywithnoeyes #33 3 years ago

    points should be marked off for them giving it us a year after the US release, and announcing the ps3 version will hit in a few months time with aload of extra parts to the game

  • WJF #34 3 years ago

    Crofto, not to be a nit-picker or anything, but when have you /ever/ trusted an EG review?

  • migasUK #35 3 years ago

    not bad at all!

  • Drakron #36 3 years ago

    I am going to give a pass on this.

    I watched it on YouTube and not only have a meaningless Simon-says button press sequence but I found the whole story rubbish, I am going to go with SO4 since even if they story is also not not to write about, at least there is humor and I did not spot any Simon-says button press sequence.

    Also I am not a fan of Namco that continued to give us the middle finger in Europe and also the PS3 version does not really sit well with me.

  • Scimarad #37 3 years ago

    It took bloody ages for the 360 to get a decent JRPG but it looks like one has turned up at last. Looks very reminiscent of Tales of the Abyss which was fantastic.

  • SharksInYourMouth #38 3 years ago

    I'm elated this actually got an EU release in the end :D Characters look great, how's the soundtrack though? Not that that's something huge to me that will impact my undubitable purchase, I'm just curious

  • Scimarad #39 3 years ago

    It's by Motoi Sakuraba as far as I know. He did most of Eternal Sonata, the Star Ocean games, quite a lot of Tales of the Abyss, the Valkyrie Profile games, Baten Kaitos and countless others.

  • Hypercube #40 3 years ago

    Lost Odyssey which has terrible technical faults

    I can honestly say I've not experienced any faults at all while playing LO. Maybe I've just been lucky. Enjoying it a huge amount.

    Think I'll give this one a go!
    Edited by 1 at 06/05/09 @ 19:37

  • menage #41 3 years ago

    @Hypercube

    I agree, apart from some texture pop in and some long loading LO was pretty decent.

  • Wastelander #42 3 years ago

    I just completed Lost Odyssey and never saw any technical faults apart from a lot of loading screens.

    Pissed off that my Immortals have reverted back to level 50 with all my hard earned items gone on New Game+ though.

  • Rash' #43 3 years ago

    Great! Now I can look forward to the PS3 version.

  • neonxaos #44 3 years ago

    Lost Odyssey had a large number of techical issues - did any of you notice the atrocious framerate? It was, however, a very decent game, and the ingame written stories were fantastic.

  • Wastelander #45 3 years ago

    I was playing from HDD too and never noticed any frame-rate probs.

  • Scimarad #46 3 years ago

    I had plenty of problems with LO but I can't say any of them were technical in nature.

  • rashy #47 3 years ago

    I have to ask after the darkfall inaccurate review, that was largly written on bias, and with disputes about the reviewer actually playing the game for any length of time can I trust this review as truth? or is this review actually written by someone with an interest in the product or an opposing one?

  • onyx_elite #48 3 years ago

    Judging from the demo I thought it was graphically sloppy, ludicrously contrived to the point it was almost a parody of the genre (of which I am a fan), the combat suffered from ill-concieved mechanics and poor collision and the menus and interface were ugly and over-complicated.

    This will be in the bargain bin in weeks. If you don't already have it get Eternal Sonata because this is a poor copy.

  • onyx_elite #49 3 years ago

    rashy ignored for dragging that crap outside of the DF related pages. FFS get over it.

  • fjharps #50 3 years ago

    Have top admit i was a bit skeptical about this game and was doubting to buy it after the last few JRPGs on the 360 who wouldn't be. The Last Remnant was poor Infinite Undiscovery was good but very average and Star Ocean got that last month and after 20 hrs of game the story just didn't grab me. So then i saw this game on a local supermarket for £29.99 and i thought i'd give it a go and I have to say that this game is great. the graphics are good the story is very good and the characters are great highly recommended if you like JRPGs.