The world of Terca Lumireis is in transition. Ten years of peace have led to an uneasy truce between the Empire and guilds, which desire to live by their own rules. Controlling the ancient technology known as “blastia,†the Empire has provided safety and prosperity to its citizens, but the people have grown uneasy with the heavy hand of their government. As former Imperial Knight Yuri Lowell, players 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.
GenreRole-Playing
Platforms xbox360
DEVELOPER Namco Bandai Games | PUBLISHER Codemasters | RELEASE DATE
Tales of Vesperia Reviews xbox360
gamechronicles.com review
Surprise Encounters are a wicked way of keeping the action intense at every corner. If you get attacked from behind in a dungeon or world map, a surprise encounter occurs. When this happens your team’s formation in reversed and often times some teammates are switched out with another. This is a pretty cool way of keeping a player on their toes as they have to constantly readjust their tactics if this occurs.
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ztgd.com review
Graphically, Vesperia is wonderful in its HD glory. While not as beautiful as Eternal Sonata, Vesperia chooses not to compete in the “Wow, that is lovely water!†arena. Vesperia’s characters are well drawn and expressive. The environments and overworld Yuri and his group explore are equally well done. Again, Vesperia has retained what fans of the series love and improved upon it.
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videogametalk.com review
Tales of Vesperia is a fantastic RPG that isn’t to be missed by lovers of the genre. It is one of the better action-oriented RPGs to come along in a while and is arguably one of the best titles in the Tales library. This is a solid game from start to finish and it’s a finely polished effort. Consider it highly recommended.
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gamezone.com review
Aside from a likeable cast of characters and a good story, Tales gives you the freedom to interact with its world anyway you like and you can even pick and choose your battles. One of the best things about the Tales games (well, in my opinion, anyway) is the fact that there are no random battles so you can avoid confrontations by going around an enemy or staying away from their line of sight. Say you would like to reach an area right away and don’t want to get stuck in a battle … just avoid coming into contact with an enemy.
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gametrailers.com review
Towns serve as resting points for the party, where they can stock up on inventory and purchase new gear. Interacting with the various NPCs unveil clues to the next objective, as well as leads on various secret missions that serve as side-quests. These lively areas are just the right size and density, and far more organic due to the refined presentation.
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cheatcc.com review
It may sound like a bit much without having experienced the game for yourself, but, unlike the dark and plodding Lost Odyssey, Tales of Vesperia is a very lighthearted and fast-paced title. The characters have a very soft look and virtuous countenance that sets the tone. Additionally, the combat action is not the slow, turn-based battles of classic JRPGs; rather, the use of new and more powerful combat Artes and skill combinations in real-time makes for far more engaging battles. Though monsters litter the world, but players have a reasonable ability to avoid lesser fights and progress through the story rapidly
gamingtrend.com review
Unfortunately, ToV has one glaring, ugly, nasty weakness: the skits. Anyone who has played a Tales game before is familiar with these skits. They are short narratives used to divvy out plot points or develop characters, and are presented using extremely basic 2-D talking head portraits. While the idea behind them is fine, their presentation is ToV is awful. In comparison to the rest of the graphics, these talking heads look as if they were drawn by a 10-year-old. Quite frankly, they look terrible and it is extremely jarring to be pulled away from the lush gameworld to watch these amateurish portraits spout their dialog. For me, the skits were the huge hair-covered mole that sits squarely on the otherwise beautiful face of ToV. I know the developers were probably going for the nostalgia factor, but they really needed to update the graphics in these skits to match the graphic style of the rest of the game.
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planetxbox360.com review
The amazing voice work gives characters depth and personality in a genre that too often regurgitates the same archetypes with each new offering. There is a wealth of smart, witty dialogue here, which the genre typically lacks. The characters still feel based on the standard RPG stereotypes, but they were used as a starting point for each characters’ back-story and blossom into vibrant, enjoyable characters from there. The game delivers the major plot points in interesting cut scenes and occasional anime clips, with some additional side tidbits to fill in the details in optional panel-based skits. Chances are, you will care enough about the story to give them a look when you see the on-screen cue, but those who just want to power through are free to skip them. Unfortunately, the same is not true of the cut scenes. While they are great, having to take on a boss multiple times can be even more annoying when you have to watch the same three-minute scene before each battle.
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consolemonster.com review
The audio portion of Tales of Vesperia is a bit of a mixed bag. Whilst at no point during the game did I think to myself that any of the music sounded bad, after I had came away from the game I didn’t really remember any of it, which is a bit disappointing. Most RPG’s usually tend to have some really memorable music, but the Tales of Vesperia score was simply average. However, the sound effects and voice acting are top notch. Weapons and spells sound how you would expect them to, and during your fights your characters are constantly speaking to you and yelling out what is going on. All of this really helps you feel involved in the battle, which is something that is often lacking in JRPG’s.
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xbox360achievements.org review
Achievement-wise, you’re looking at a long haul if you want the full thousand from this one. As of this writing, I have put in about 45 hours and have not finished all the side-quests required for many of the character titles, weapons and items that all have associated achievements. I would estimate 80+ hours easily, and only if you don’t miss any events during your first play of the game, of which you will most likely need two or three minimum. About half the points are simply given through story progression, the other half requiring many hours of grinding to acquire all the unique character titles, weapons, and items. There are also twenty-three 5-point achievements for successfully completing a hidden requirement during various boss fights, such as attacking while they are taunting or surviving long enough without killing the boss that they will use every skill they know.
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gamespot.com review
At its core, Tales of Vesperia isn’t very different from its predecessors, but it’s easily the best game in the series thanks to its great cast of characters and clever balance of storytelling and gameplay. It’s beautiful, it’s engaging, and it’s fun, and while it won’t challenge your combat prowess, it will challenge what you should expect from a modern RPG. This is, by any standard, the best recent example of how an aging series can be updated for contemporary consoles while still delivering what fans expect.
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msxbox-world.com review
Tales of Vesperia isn’t a game that has a lot of modes, and to be honest once you complete it there probably isn’t much an incentive to go back to it. As an RPG, other than the free-to-roam map, it’s very linear, but the actual length of the game has more than enough potential to make up for all of that.
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extremegamer.ca review
Tales of Vesperia tale of trust, friendship, adventure and justice should be enough to bait in most JRPG fans. The linear gameplay and repetitive combat aren’t the most memorable elements to come out of the JRPG genre of gaming; however the clichés and standard gameplay are almost instantly forgivable with the warm hearted cast of characters, beautiful graphics and quality audio delivery. For all those who are on the fence, Tales of Vesperia is a beautifully rendered experience that is worth a rental at the least. If you are a fan of Japanese styled role-playing games then you’ll need to head down to your local game store and hope they have a copy of Tales behind the cash, it will be worth the drive. Tales is one of a kind.
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gameplanet.co.nz review
I won’t give away too much of the plot, but to get you started, someone steals a magic stone called a blastia, which controls the cities lower area defences. Yuri sets off after the thief accompanied by Repede his dog, and Estellise. Once out in the world adventuring, the initial plot unfolds into something much larger, and you realise the game is going to be longer than you thought.
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gamingxp.com review
No Synopsis Available
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spaziogames.it review
No Synopsis Available
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mygamer.com review
All of these factors make the game a very slow climb towards being enjoyable, which is not helped by the almost predictable plot laid out during the first dozen hours of the game. While helped along with a cast of ever more interesting characters, the game doesn’t manage anything more than predictable goals and developments until signifigent progress is made. The game manages to stay rather close to the heart of a true Japanese RPG but it probably isn’t going to win anyone over who can’t power through hours of gameplay before the game starts to become vigorously enjoyable and note worthy.
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gamerevolution.com review
Musically, everything sounds like a rehashing of Final Fantasy music, changed just enough to not land Namco Bandai in a copyright infringement lawsuit. As old and tired as those ambient keyboards with synth-harp arpeggios are, they do add some nostalgic familiarity.
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gameshark.com review
To fight, there are three main face buttons which are used in almost every battle; B performs a basic melee attack, A performs a special artes move (magic, special hits, etc.), and X blocks incoming attacks. It sounds simple, right? It is, until you realize that every direction pressed in conjunction with a face button performs different actions. Press up and B, and you’ll perform an upward rising melee attack; forward stabs, and down performs a sweep type maneuver. As you gain experience and win fights, your characters unlock different artes which can be equipped to either LS+A or RS+A combinations, allowing for a total of seven special attacks available in any battle. (Left and right + A perform the same skill.)
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destructoid.com review
Tales of Vesperia resides in this transition period. It’s obvious that the developer, Namco Tales Studio, has tried to integrate part of the Western experience into its game. There are marked improvements in the genre itself, changes that were needed for the betterment of the series as a whole.
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