There tends to be a few common trends when it comes to JRPGs, some of them are complete preferences to certain styles and game mechanics, and other elements are just damn right better in comparison to western equivalents; a lot of these qualities aren’t really appreciated or even noticeable until you play the game yourself. However, it’s becoming more and more popular in JRPG’s today that these conventions are broken for the hopeful enticement of a larger audience.

The ‘Tales’ series was somewhat the starter of this fad by introducing a real time combat system, and tries to build upon it in Tales of Vesperia while successfully keeping its most prominent qualities; it’s charming characters and social ventures. But does this twist in combat mechanics really make it a more alluring experience?

Gameplay:

Tales of Vesperia does a lot of what it does best, inviting you to a world full of bright and rich colours that reflect the light and very honest character relations. What Tales of Vesperia doesn’t do very well though – a trait of many JRPG’s – is also introduce the player to the world around them, at least, not in the most desired of ways. It’s noted that this is just a chapter in the ever evolving Tales series, nonetheless to players who haven’t had the welcomed opportunity to play previous instalments won’t have a clue what’s going on around the players, but thankfully due to the jumping character sub-plots, they shouldn’t care.

Tales of Vesperia jumps off to a quick start and gets you stuck in to the major plot. Yuri Lowell (the protagonist) wakes up to find commotion in the lower district of Zaphias and the sacred Blastia core, which powers the magical barrier of the city, stolen. Yuri Lowell then tasks himself with the retrieval of the ancient piece by following clues leading him to new partners, sub-plots, and catastrophes for an overall epic adventure.

If there is one thing I can’t emphasise enough about Tales of Vesperia is that this game sells itself with the charm of the people that you meet, it becomes the yang of the Tolkien fellowship. This is a quality that very few western titles can meet.

Along the road you’ll bump into some very different and opposing personalities, some of which jump on board and join you on your journeys. One of the first characters you’ll meet is called Estellise, she is of royal descent of the capital and has a very provided and sheltered history making her vulnerable to the outside world and harsher moments in the story, where as Yuri is at the opposite of end of the spectrum, and has a much harder shell because of it. These stark contrasts are brought up in the storyline and pose for some quite witty and amusing conversations. Something that a lot of JRPG’s capture very well.

The other half of the game – being the player controlled sections and the combat – I wish I could speak as highly of. Unfortunately the simplified and more player active combat mechanics suffer dearly, designs of which try to be sophisticated with the actually very basic combat, instead become overly cumbersome in practice.

One of the new additions to the Tales combat experience tries to make the gameplay a little less ‘hit and miss’ with the inclusion of allowing the player to optionally move about the battle arena. By holding ‘L2’ you’re able to freely move around the restricted arena and gain an advantage of attacking enemies from behind. This in theory makes it easier and more strategic, and when it works properly it can do, but when you have to hold up to 3 buttons plus moving your character with the analogue stick, things start to become tricky. You’ll find yourself running into other enemies you’re unable to see on screen due to the automatic camera angles, and then temporarily stopping to heal yourself talking up a couple of seconds of crucial time.

Battling foes in this game tends to take two extremes. You may be able to cope with the convoluted control scheme when fighting common monsters you stumble across, but when it comes to the decisive boss battles, there’s a lot of trial and error involved. In Tales of Vesperia you are unable to directly control characters other than Yuri himself, but you can assign priority status. This means the characters in your party can be issued stances of where they’re most able to perform, e.g. a healer being more supportive and defensive and a sword wielder being more aggressive. However, that doesn’t mean they will stay in these stances at all times, and so key characters may be taken down during particular boss battles, and you’re pretty much helpless. It’s not unusual that you’ll find yourself wanting to get to the next cutscene or progressive part of the story, as this is probably the strongest component of the game.

Another annoyance – but this time in design choice – is the overmap feature you’re brought to when moving about the world. I suppose it’s nice to get an overview of what the world looks like, but when it doesn’t really offer anything substantial to the game itself, and the map being fairly lifeless anyway, you start to question the point of it being there. It seemed it was quite plausible that the game could have followed the linear route all the way through by offering you just roads and areas to travel across, instead of traversing yourself aimlessly through fields avoiding irritating monsters. This is more of a personal issue however, and it’s expected that some may like the overmap feature for the bigger perspective of the world that you’re in.

Graphics:

If you ever wanted to know the definition of expressive art, then this is it. Tales of Vesperia is a game full of life in every sense of the word, and it doesn’t falter with its graphical style. This isn’t a game of technical achievement, but it proves a game doesn’t need a fancy graphics engine to be visually stunning. Tales of Vesperia is very colourful game all over, and it’s also very sharp to look at. What is odd about this game though is that somehow the graphics and/or art style seems to make the game’s environments completely separate from the characters roaming it. It might have been something to do with the static camera shots, but it makes the world look pre-rendered. Each character’s design is unique and stands out, further complimenting the look of the game. Even the supposed poor people of the game have some extravagant clothes and character designs; you’ll find it hard to pick holes in the way this game presents itself that’s for sure.

Sound:

It was certainly surprising to hear pop tracks during the introduction cinematic, it felt very clichéd at first, but once you’ve played a good chunk of the game and understood its nature at least partially, I think you become to understand why it’s there, and it may grow on you.

In game music consist of very upbeat/fast tempo tracks, and suit the pacing of the game very well. You’ll have the typical melodic tracks during travelling moments, and then battles cut to something a little faster and more explosive.

Tales of Vesperia is a well rounded uplifting title, almost everything about its atmosphere gives jubilant vibes, and the voice acting is no different. The accents and responses are exaggerated, and the game is hard sometimes to take seriously, but it won’t be long until you realise that this is what Tales of Vesperia is all about. It’s an enlightening and joyful experience rather than a grizzly and gritty one that we’ve all come to know.

Longevity:

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.

Just like your every day JRPG, the standards of saga length are quite disproportionate to any western RPG, so to complete this game you’re looking at a good 40 hours or so. If you enjoy story and character driven games, then you’ll very likely get your money’s worth from this title.

Overall:

With Tales of Vesperia, I can’t assure you’ll be playing anything distinctively different to any other JRPG out there. The only part of the game that is far from usual JRPG expectations are the real-time combat mechanics, unfortunately though they cause more of a frustrating and unsatisfying button romp rather than bringing anything enjoyable to the table. If you’re looking for an RPG that centres itself around an involving combat system as well as an intriguing storyline, then you’re almost definitely best looking elsewhere. However, as an interactive and immersive charismatic drama, Tales of Vesperia has more than enough to keep you occupied.