threevue

After a 64-hour jaunt through the Nintendo Gamecube game Tales of Symphonia last month, I didn’t plan on playing its sequel, Tales of Vesperia for quite some time. Lo and behold, I got bored one day and started it up, and it dominated my Xbox 360 until I finished it this past weekend.

Tales of Vesperia takes place on a planet that is plagued by monsters. In order to keep their cities safe from attack, they use an ancient technology from crystals called blastia that protects the city gates like a shield. Your quest centers around these crystals and what makes them work. One of my favorite elements of this game is that the story itself starts with a very narrow scope, and doesn’t widen until you’re well into your journey. Too many RPGs start out too heavy too fast. The gameplay is nearly identical to Tales of Symphonia, and no complaints here – it feels like a mixture of the beloved PSOne Final Fantasy games and The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker (but without all the sailing). It follows a traditional save-the-world storyline with the same local/world maps we’re used to, but the battles are done in real-time, which is my favorite thing about this series.

Although this game feels a lot like an updated version of Tales of Symphonia, there were a few elements to it that made it stand apart. First, the game is actually shorter; I finished it in 42 hours without spending too much time on side-missions. The game has three difficulty levels this time around (cleverly hidden in the options menu), which pretty much means I played through it on the easiest level and won every single battle the first time up. I like it that way. The battle system is much more complex, with each weapon possessing abilities that your character will learn if they use that weapon long enough. It’s a rich system, because sometimes you’ll stumble upon a weak weapon that has an ability you want, and you have to decide from there. The tone is darker than its predecessor, although it remains firmly asexual, like most JRPGs. How can a bunch of fit, attractive people travel the world together, risking/saving each others’ lives left and right, and not happen upon a bit of the ol’ bump ‘n grind one night by the campfire? I’m just sayin’.

Achievement-wise, this game is beyond challenging. Apart from the 450 story-based points you get just for completing the game and the other achievements that are next to impossible (play the game for 100 hours just for 20G? No thanks), the majority of the achievements come from triggering a “secret challenge” while fighting certain characters/monsters. These achievements range from knocking the enemy down after it uses its most powerful attack, to destroying certain enemies in a particular order, etc. I unlocked a few of them by happy accident and I can’t imagine actually reading up on each challenge before a battle. That would take the fun out of the game, if you ask me. They’re only 5G each, although that does add up.

In retrospect, I wish I had waited longer between the two Tales games, because 100+ hours between two games is just too much. I was happy to see the ending come and that’s my own fault, not the game’s. That being said, this is a game that requires patience and probably a hefty nostalgia when it comes to last-gen RPGs. I had a good time with it, even despite getting bored with the whole series by the end, and recommend it for anyone that’s looking for a good JRPG to try out.