Thoughts on Tales of Vesperia
It’s ironic that I started playing Tales of Vesperia not long after I left Midnight Hearts, a group whose defining characteristic was that the whole lot of the people who are and were part of the group were fans of the Tales series. I originally started up my current run when I first found out that PSN was down and killed my motivation to play any PS3, PS1, or PSN games. I figured, I should work on my recommendation station, so I started up the game that Ayaikun recommended, Tales of Vesperia.
I’ve had this game for as long as I’ve had my 360, which was about 3 years ago, along with Eternal Sonata, Soul Calibur IV, and Gears of War 2. I got the game around the time that it came out, and was pretty much my introduction to the Tales series. But the thing was, I only played it for a few hours before I moved on to Eternal Sonta and completely forgot about Vesperia. I’d go on to play Symphonia for the Gamecube about 2 years ago, and I haven’t really played a Tales game since then.
As of right now, I am about 25 hours into Vesperia. I’m trying to do as much as I can in one playthrough, which means do all the secret missions, get as many items as I need to, get certain achievements for doing things, getting titles, and grade farming. Since I’m taking my time on my first playthrough, it means that I’m doing as much level grinding as I can. I’m having my roommate help me out in battles. I usually play as Yuri while he usually plays as Judith. Hopefully, we can get through most of the game before graduation and we have to go back home. Thankfully, we’re both done with classes so we can both play as much as we can before graduation comes up.
So here are some of my thoughts on Vesperia since I’m about 1/4 through the game.
1) Vesperia has to be one of the most broken RPGs I’ve played in a while. The thing is, I haven’t gotten to some of the more broken moves and spells in the game. Rita is the most broken mage ever in the Tales series. Not that I’m complaining. At least she acts less of a derp than Estelle. I like Estelle, but she aggravates me from time to time in battle. And of course, there are Fatal Strikes. It’s just a matter of trying to pull them off, really.
2) Karol is my favorite character in Vesperia so far. Not Yuri, but Karol. I though that I wouldn’t stand him when he first joined my party, but I ended up liking him right away. Kind of a shame that I don’t use him a lot in my party at the moment. Karol is probably going to remain my favorite character for the rest of the game.
3) I’m constantly afraid that I’m going to mess up and miss some item or sidequest. But that’s why my roommate and I have the guide at hand whenever we play Vesperia.
4) I like this game a lot better than Symphonia. Symphonia was a nice intro to the series since it seems to be the gateway for a lot of people into Tales, but free running among other things make this game an already better experience.
5) I’m not looking forward to doing some of the secret missions.
6) I’m keeping the black fedora on Yuri for the rest of the game. That and when I get the Dark Enforcer costume.
You left MH? Did I miss out something? o_o
But putting that aside… Have fun with the game =) I liked it better than Symphonia, too, but it’s only my 4th favourite Tales game.
PS: Nothing wrong with liking Karol, is it? He’s not my fav, but I do like him.
I left after some drama that went on in the group last month. You can always IM me on MSN if you want to know more about what went on.
I’m really enjoying Vesperia, and having someone else to play co-op with in battles makes things a lot better.