LTTP LTTP: Tales of Vesperia Definitive Edition

[Abzeronow]

Ever since I've gotten the Switch in 2019, I've been trying to play games and series that I had missed out on. And so in late April 2021, I had begun my first playthrough of a Tales game. As much as people complain about late ports especially from Bandai Namco, I don't really see that as an issue. I've never been an early adopter and RPGs take a lot of time sometimes so there is no rush to beat them. I was aware this was a remastered port of a PS3 game (I've been playing some PS3 ports lately anyway) and that Tales was slightly different from other JRPGs that I had been playing.

At first, getting used to the battle system was a little rough. But I adjusted and soon I got used to using Artes and items like it was second nature. I liked the protagonist, Yuri Lowell, right away. I was warned by a friend of a certain infamous early game boss fight that is considered difficult. That boss fight took me 4 or 5 tries, but at least you can skip cutscenes. That is a good feature for some of this game's more challenging fights. And so after the difficult fight at Emmead Hill, I proceeded along through Act 1 rather easily. At first, I really didn't like Patty. Her introduction scenes are just pandering trash but thankfully as the story goes on, she becomes a lovable character and the pandering stuff generally doesn't happen often. I was also warned or prepared myself for a certain 1 vs 30 fight but that was easier than that other fight as I did that fight in one try. I didn't think at first that I'd use Judith as much as I had, but she was almost always on my team when I could select her. Her aerial Artes are just so good.

Act 2 was when the story really starts to kick in, and I liked the twists and turns but honestly it was a little bit of struggle not having my main healer for a while (Karol does make a decent backup healer though). But man, I hated the fights where you have to fight your friends and I didn't like that fight at the end of Act 2 because that boss kept healing himself. It took me a few tries to figure out which party to use to keep damaging him so he couldn't heal himself fast enough. Act 3 was also good. There were a few grindy minigames that I kinda didn't like but I completed them too. Final dungeon was good even it was labyrinthine and I enjoyed the final boss fight as it gave the right amount of challenge, and I liked the ending, and I really liked how the big crisis was a metaphor for global warming.

And so I had spent nearly 100 hours playing this. I didn't really do the postgame stuff as I felt satisfied enough by finishing the main story. My main four throughout Act 3 were Yuri, Estelle, Rita and Judith. I really enjoyed the variety of skits that I saw and there were some interesting costumes for the characters as well (I enjoyed that Karol got a Klonoa DLC costume). I would definitely play another Tales game if it came to Switch so please Bandai Namco, I just want to play your games. I didn't think I'd enjoy Tales of Vesperia almost as much as I loved playing Ys 8. I'm definitely glad I persevered through the rough parts of this game. And so, your feedback on this game, Fami?

 

[em]

When I played through the game back on the 360, I was wowed by the gorgeous graphics/style and found Yuri to be a breath of fresh air as a character. The entire cast was pretty likable and well designed, and combat was both fun and manageable. Vesperia was a high water mark for the series post-Destiny, and I feel it remained unmatched until Arise. That said, I have no real desire to replay it. There’s no shortage of great jRPGs/action-RPGs available these days.

 

[Weiss]

This a pre-Arise take, but Vesperia felt like the last time any of these games cared.

Maybe it's from being an early HD RPG and not knowing the hell about to be unleashed.

 

[Deleted member 1615]

I quit ~18h in. I found the combat to be very, very stiff and not particularly fun. I didn't have a terrible time with it, but I think Tales games might just not be for me.

 

[SammyJ9]

This a pre-Arise take, but Vesperia felt like the last time any of these games cared.

Maybe it's from being an early HD RPG and not knowing the hell about to be unleashed.

In terms of dungeon design and map design, I might agree with this (and that didn't change with Arise, sadly). But in terms of characters, plot, and combat, there have been games better than Vesperia since. IMO Berseria has some of the best characters, and the most heart, the series has ever had. And combat has been better in nearly every game since Vesperia, to varying degrees. In fact combat is what really makes Vesperia feel dated, at least to me. Going back to the definitive edition, most everything else clicked with me, but the combat just FELT old.

 

[Weiss]

In terms of dungeon design and map design, I might agree with this (and that didn't change with Arise, sadly). But in terms of characters, plot, and combat, there have been games better than Vesperia since. IMO Berseria has some of the best characters, and the most heart, the series has ever had. And combat has been better in nearly every game since Vesperia, to varying degrees. In fact combat is what really makes Vesperia feel dated, at least to me. Going back to the definitive edition, most everything else clicked with me, but the combat just FELT old.

Oh god I can't stand the Xillia and onward combat. Just spammy, toothless nonsense.

Vesperia feels like something I could improve at playing, spread across nine party members. Everyone in Berseria just feels like a fast combo guy.

 

[SammyJ9]

Oh god I can't stand the Xillia and onward combat. Just spammy, toothless nonsense.

Vesperia feels like something I could improve at playing, spread across nine party members. Everyone in Berseria just feels like a fast combo guy.

That's because combat got faster, and that's a good thing! Combat in Vesperia feels absolutely glacial compared to anything that came after it. The usual fan ranking is that Graces has the best combat in the series (but I haven't personally played this one), while Xillia/Xillia 2 and Berseria is also quite good, and I think the general opinion of Arise is around here as well, it's well-liked and one of the game's best features. Zestiria is a bit below that due to how it does the character linking thing.

I guess to me, the main reason is elemental weaknesses becoming more of a thing later in the series, and I love exploiting those. Also, the 'big build up to a massive combo attack' is what I love most, and the games after Vesperia all do that better.

Essentially, the less normal attacks matter the better. Getting rid of them (or mostly rid of them) is the best thing the series has done, combat-wise.

 

[xghost777]

I really dug Vesperia on the 360 and bought the definitive edition day one, but I haven’t played it. So I can’t speak to Patty who didn’t exist then, but yeah I really loved the characters (especially Yuri and Estelle) and the combat at the time. The best part was having the 360 degree movement when you wanted it which you couldn’t do in Symphonia.

I hope they at least port Graces F next. Story is fine, it goes places and ended well, but the combat is amazing. It doesn’t play like any of the other games. Really loved the title system in that game though it’s been so long I don’t exactly remember why lol.

Porting the Gamecube version of Symphonia would be super cool, the HD version on PS3 based on the PS2 version was bad.

 

[Abzeronow]

That's because combat got faster, and that's a good thing! Combat in Vesperia feels absolutely glacial compared to anything that came after it. The usual fan ranking is that Graces has the best combat in the series (but I haven't personally played this one), while Xillia/Xillia 2 and Berseria is also quite good, and I think the general opinion of Arise is around here as well, it's well-liked and one of the game's best features. Zestiria is a bit below that due to how it does the character linking thing.

I guess to me, the main reason is elemental weaknesses becoming more of a thing later in the series, and I love exploiting those. Also, the 'big build up to a massive combo attack' is what I love most, and the games after Vesperia all do that better.

Essentially, the less normal attacks matter the better. Getting rid of them (or mostly rid of them) is the best thing the series has done, combat-wise.

I guess I disagree there. I like mixing up normal attacks (which conserve my TP) and Artes (I like arcane Artes a lot) and later on I only use normal attacks against weak enemies when I'm grinding for materials. I didn't really care for elemental weaknesses much, I mostly was trying to get as many Fatal Strikes as possible.

 

[Leica]

Vesperia still has my favorite combat after Graces. Berseria's was way, way too mashy for my taste. Vesperia felt "sluggish" in the same way some fighting games might feel sluggish but it felt like something I visibly got far better at over the course of a playthrough while I was still just mashing at the end of Berseria/Xillia.