The Tales of Brave Vesperia

My previous post was a bit awkward, but hey, here's something different.

I managed to beat Vesperia a bit after the PS3 announcement. A little frustrated that there's more content and the fact that you can possibly use Flynn. I don't particularly care for the new pirate girl but I do like more costumes, scenes and full voices! I'm not sure if I'd want to redo all the grinding I've done though.

Story 4/5
A relatively linear storyline but the characters did make a big difference. There were those little unexpected plot twists here and there which made the world of Terca Lumireis a lot more interesting. I think my attempt to complete as much as I can added to that as well. Again, I swear it's because of those damn achievements.

Characters 5/5
I must say, it's rare to find an RPG with characters you all like - even the bad guys! Firstly, the protagonist a la Yuri - you can't help but like the guy and everything he does is so awesome. To him, there was still that justice but his way of executing that justice perhaps is what made all the difference. It's also refreshing to have a hero that isn't clueless when it comes to other things that does not pertain to "justice" and "saving the world."

The rest of the characters and their interactions with each other were all pretty amusing. Seems like the later the Tales series go, the more humorous the script writer gets. My second favourite character's probably Raven. I was worried for him throughout the whole ending. One who has played it would know why that is. Then there's Repede. It's awesome how a dog responds to the conversation at hand, especially during skits.

Cameos were rather interesting in this series. Gentlemieu, Gentlereplica and Gentlesinger were Gentleman enemies wearing Mieu, Luke and Tear (TotA)'s faces as a mask. There was also Judasey (ToD2) which was a frog monster with Judas's mask and cape. Then they threw in the bad guys from ToD, ToP, ToE and ToS into the 200-man melee at the coliseum. Then there's a bunch of other random ones like Harold's mask is an attachment, love note in the Nam cobanda locker room, Tokunaga the boat driver...

[spoiler]Lastly, there's Duke. Duke was so cool, minus his final forms which then just felt very Tales last boss boring. It was a bit sad to know that he was alone at the end, even though the world did get saved. He doesn't have his best bud anymore 'cept now he has squirrel friends. Makes me sadface. :( [/spoiler]

Sound 3.5/5
Not very impressive but there were a few good, memorable tracks. The last dungeon bgm sounded very Star Ocean. Didn't help that the whole place was crystally, transparent and very SO-like. The most annoying track would probably be the bgm that plays when you played poker. I had to grind that damn minigame, so I ended up muting it.

The voices fit with their characters rather well. For the most part, dialog was consistent minus some strange places when the tone would suddenly change rather awkwardly... but that's not much of a surprise now is it.

Graphics 4.5/5
The cell shading in the game made it 3D and yet still anime-like to call itself a Tales game (Tales of Hearts CG Movie version is blasphemy). The FMV's used both CG and animated scenes, and where they chose to use either of them were good. The world map surroundings would flicker when I'm in certain places, which worried me a bit, thinking it might overheat and RRoD on me or something. The character models and the actual character designs matched quite well.

Gameplay 5/5
The battle system was an advancement of the TotA battle system, and it becomes quite complex with the skill settings. The skills gave the game another level of customization and that was quite fun. You learn skills from using certain equipment long enough and then you set those skills a certain way for certain situations.

I grinded a lot. Not so much leveling, but to get certain titles/costumes/synth items/*cough*achievements. And as much as I hate grinding, the grinding was actually really fun (...maybe except the item farming). One grind used a "Minimal Damage" skill which reduced all your damages onto enemies to 1. That way, you could easily execute fatal strikes and hit combos. Certain fatal strikes also gave you bonuses at the end of your battle. I needed a certain number of this bonus for learning more skills, so I spammed that for quite a while. Dangerously addictive.

Speaking of which, the EX Dungeon reminded me of FFXI all over again. Grr to random drops and treasure chests.

I only have three small complaints: my character getting stuck in a corner of the battle field (b-but the battle field is ROUND?!) when he/she's auto-running to the enemy. That drives me insane and it seems to happen frequently. 2nd is lag. It's minor but it happens... it's the most obvious during the 100/200-man melee when there's a crap load of people on screen doing a crap load of stuff at the same time. 3rd, the sorcerer's ring doesn't always like to hit. Sometimes it's because of the elevation, other times it just goes right through the enemy. Frustration.

Overall 4.5/5
I've clocked in at around 110 hours with a single playthrough and completed a big chunk of the optionals. What's left before I finish and put it away is to let Ba'ul fly for a few hours to get two more achievements. Rather tedious to just watch the game fly forever so I'm kinda meh about finishing that up. Really though, achievements are just evil.

After getting all the other goodies at endgame, I wish there was an additional ending or something so I can put them to good use... and no, EX New Game is not an option :b

Vesperia was a fun ride and I think it's safe to say it's my favourite tales in the series overall (though I have yet to play ToR, ToI, ToH, TotT, ToS:KoR, and the Radiant Mythologies). I wonder when that special edition code with come into play though. Perhaps that allows the 360ers to get what the PS3ers are getting?! Wishful thinking but then again I'll probably grab the PS3 version if it comes out here anyways.