Tales of Vesperia Review

Tales of Vesperia Review | February 1, 2013
Xbox 360, PlayStation 3

Tales of Vesperia is a action RPG that is in the same style of earlier Tales games. On the planet Terca Lumireis the people have used an ancient technology called "Blastia" to survive. This powerful item has to ability to provide them with water, power their ships and it can create barriers around the cities and towns to protect them among other things. Blastia has also been modified to be used by the Imperial Knights and Guilds in combat but it can be fatal if you are exposed to much. Someone is stealing Blastia and Yuri a mercenary goes after the thief. He is shortly joined by his childhood friend and Imperial Knight Flynn, the two have had a falling out in their past. The problem is much bigger than one town being robbed and the Imperial Empire and the Guilds must work together and find out who is doing this and why now?

The game breaks up the dialog and action by adding some cut scenes where everybody is in square boxes and talking about what’s going on. They don’t change the story but they do give you a lot of information about the characters and you don’t have to watch them if you don’t want to. As much as we loved the story and the voice acting there is way too much dialog to read and stuff to listen to sometimes. There were a few plot twists where you had to read what was going on while fast pace action music is playing and it would have made more sense to have voice actors do those parts. There are times where the story is hard to follow because they use a lot of big made up words that seem to sound the same Ex. Blastia, Adephagos, Apatheia, Entelexeia, Zaphias, and Nordopolica. It’s a little bothersome but does not hurt the game but pay attention or you might get lost on what you need to do or where to go.

The gameplay is good mostly. You can choose manual, auto and semi-auto style combat style (semi-auto was the best because it locked on the enemies better and the combat was faster). Tales of Vesperia did have two problems. First, even though semi-auto did help with locking on to enemies there are still to many times where you are just swing at the air because you were out of position. Second, you would start one of your super combos and one of the other group members would knock down whatever you were attacking and once again you are just swing at the air. It’s minor and annoying and it did drive us crazy when you get a 27 hit combo and then nothing because your target is no longer there. The problems are all minor. The main quest takes about 45 to 50 hours so there is a lot here to do. Are there some awesome side missions like giant monsters and optional dungeons yes, are there some weird side stuff like organizing warehouses. We never got bored playing his game so enjoy. The game is worth paying $40 or less for but you can wait for sales and get it for way under that price point once in a while.

9.0 out of 10
Worth Your Money

9.0 out of 10
Worth Your Money

Rated
T for
Teen

Rated
PEGI 12