Tales of Vesperia Review - IGN (2024)

Like its predecessors, Tales of Vesperia has a real-time battle system with no random encounters. In Vesperia, you're in control of when you fight and how you go about winning once swords cross. There are times when you're ambushed or otherwise forced to fight because you're path is blocked by an Ice Bat or some such other fierce beast, but for the most part you can fight when you choose and flee when you'd rather. And once battle ensues, Tales keeps things intense and action-packed.

Because characters and enemies aren't taking turns attacking, battles are less about strategy and more about knowing your fighter's moves, chaining together combos and using special attacks at the right times. As the game progresses, characters acquire better weapons and learn new attacks and skills, and figuring out just how all these work together is the secret to success. It's an approach that turns RPG battling into something more akin to a sophisticated fighting game -- complete with blocks and jumps -- rather than a series of attack-and-wait turns.

But just because battles are real-time, that doesn't mean there's no strategy involved. Each character in your party (there can be four on the battlefield at a time) can be custom-tailored to fit your style. You can either choose one of four presets or make your own, name it, and set it to a hot-key. Our custom strategy, "Fly, U Fools!," had the main character Yuri on full attack, Estelle the damsel in distress staying toward the back healing the party, Rita the mage (wielding her Lovely Cat Dictionary, of course) attacking the weakest enemies and Repede the trusty pipe-smoking dog fighting by Yuri's side at all costs.

In addition to standard melee, ranged and magic attacks, which are handled via the B button, the characters in Tales of Vesperia also have access to specialized Artes and Skills, which can work both separately and together in battle. Artes are specific to each character and can be mapped to the left analog stick and used in conjunction with the A button. As your characters use Artes, level up and gain experience, they'll get access to more advanced Artes, which can then become altered over time to become even more powerful. Then you can link base, altered and arcane Artes together for extra damage.

Artes can also be affected by Skills, which characters learn by using weapons with Skills attached. If Estellise picks up a Grand Scepter, for example, she'll instantly have access to the Immunity Skill, which reduces her chances of receiving status effects. If she uses the weapon long enough, she'll be able to use that Skill without having the weapon equipped, and she can move on to the next, more powerful weapon imbued with even more new Skills. That weapon may also work in concert with her Artes, making the interplay among her Skills, Artes and weapons even deeper. Until you see a shy, pink-haired anime girl jumping around with a giant mace launching evil unicorns into the air and crushing them with a yell on the way down, you haven't truly lived.

Later in the game, you can choose which character you control in battle, but most of the time you'll be playing as Yuri Lowell, a hard-headed former knight from the wrong side of the tracks who has a bone or two to pick with the Empire that rules the land. Early on, he meets up with the aforementioned Estellise Sidos Heurassein, a soft-spoken and kindhearted noble who has been thrust into a destiny she can't control. Together they meet up with a colorful cast of like-minded characters who must save the world from a dark corrupting magic and discover who they really are in the process. Along the way, they'll fight a menagerie of monsters and become ensnared in a web of political intrigue.

If that general story sketch sounds vaguely familiar, you've probably played a Japanese RPG in the last 15 years. Clearly, Tales isn't breaking any new ground in terms of story. Mysterious magic, warring guilds and monster attacks have been staples of the genre for years. But beneath the surface, Tales of Vesperia explores themes of corruption, betrayal, honor, virtue and how quickly all the above can blend and heave when life hangs in the balance. At times, that exploration is handled clumsily in Tales (perhaps something is lost in translation) but the overall effect is strong. Once the story truly takes off several hours into the game, the characters gel, their problems take on weight, they begin to subtly change and grow, and the story begins to feel like a true journey.

That journey unfolds in the world of Terca Lumireis, a land ruled by a monarchical Empire that is at constant odds with the Guilds, which have split from the Empire's rule and have set up their own fiefdoms. Each major city in Terca Lumireis is protected by a barrier blastia, a glowing protective ring built on an ancient and little-understood magic that keeps the wandering monsters of the world at bay. As our heroes begin their journey, something nefarious is happening to the blastia that threatens to throw the land into chaos. And that would be a bad thing, because the cities, forests, dungeons and vast landscapes of Tales of Vesperia are quite beautiful. The character designs and animations are also impressive, and it's rewarding to watch their look evolve as you outfit them with special gear you pick up along the way. The changes you make to your characters, including the weapons they carry, show up in cutscenes and important moments, which is a nice touch.

However, there's a certain level of detail missing from the world of Tales of Vesperia that makes it seem a bit on the blasé side. Eternal Sonata, another recent Bandai Namco-published Japanese role-playing game, was incredibly rich with visual detail, from the fruit-cluttered tables of the townspeople to the intricate embroidery on the characters' garments. Tales of Vesperia has its graphical details, too, but not to the extent of tri-Crescendo's music-themed effort. Both pull from a similar illustrated cel-shaded anime style, but Vesperia falls short of Sonata's obsessively rendered images. While Vesperia does reflections and water effects well, the lighting and shadows are also somewhat lacking in parts.

To be fair, they are two completely different games with separate approaches to telling a story. What Tales of Vesperia may lack in this detail-rich environmental storytelling it more than makes up for with dialogue, and lots of it. There are literally thousands of lines of conversation here, and the narrative relies heavily on constant interaction among the characters in your party, an impressive amount of which is spoken dialogue. If you like a lot of character-driven story in your role-playing games, then Tales of Vesperia is calling your name. If you're the type who gets bored or annoyed with constant chatter and would much rather fight than talk, then steer clear of Tales of Vesperia.

But if you do, you'll be missing out on some good storytelling, providing you can bear with the always-bumpy translation road Japanese games travel on their way to English-speaking audiences. As with many Japanese role-playing games, there are several moments in Tales of Vesperia where it becomes all too clear that there simply is not an adequate translation for a given piece of exposition from Japanese to English. The result is an awkward section of dialogue in which you can almost visualize the translators scratching their heads and shrugging their shoulders. Did the Japanese writers really intend for a character set in a medieval-themed kingdom to pose the question, "Do I really seem that emo?" It's hard to say. Regardless, there are a few moments like these in Tales of Vesperia, but they don't diminish the overall scope and impact of the story.

Although that story plays out in a linear fashion, Tales of Vesperia encourages exploration, particularly after the halfway point. Once your party gains access to the Field Map overworld navigation and becomes more mobile, side quests will pop up, new areas will be accessible and there are sub-stories and extra missions to tackle. Each player will have a different approach to experiencing Vesperia, but in our experience following the main storyline, listening to every line of dialogue along the way and doing a few side missions here and there, we put a good 60 hours or so into Tales of Vesperia before all was said and done.

A good chunk of that time was spent watching the quick "skits" that punctuate the game. Accessed by the back button, these little vignettes aren't always important to the story but build the relationships among the characters. Unfortunately, they consist of smallish rectangles with semi-static manga-like images of the characters with voiced and subtitled dialogue beneath. The device has been used in past Tales games, but it feels dated and passé on the Xbox 360. With such crisp anime characters running around in a 3D world full of vibrant color, the skits are a bit tough on the eyes.

Luckily, the ears have it very easy. The sound design in Tales of Vesperia is very impressive. From the opening theme to the last set of boss battles, the music is catchy and strong, lending an air of gravity when needed and providing emotional release throughout the tale. And the sound effects are expertly done as well -- voices echo where they should, battle cries rise and fall in accurate surround sound and the footfalls of townspeople can be heard all around you as you go about your business.