Tales of Vesperia

[CronoTriggerfan]

Anyone else as psyched as I am? I love the Tales series, and Abyss de-throned Kingdom Hearts II as my favorite game in recent history. Comes out this Tuesday, the only struggle I'm having is whether or not to pick up the Collector's Edition.

[eurddrue]

I've never heard of this series, but I am psyched for banjo-kazooie, nuts and bolts, even though it's gonna suck compared to the first 2.

CTFan, do you have the whole series?

[CronoTriggerfan]

You mean the whole Tales series? Just about. I've got all the main ones, but I don't have a lot of the spin-off games for the handhelds. I also don't own Tales of Symphonia for the Gamecube, as I never owned one until I got the Wii. I've always wanted to get the PS2 version of Symphonia, but alas, it's a Japanese-only game. I also don't have the Tales of Destiny remake for the PS2, which was also a Japanese exclusive.

Anyways, just preordered through Play-Asia, I ended up going with the special edition. After my $10 off coupon, it came out to just over $90 (ouch), but worth every penny, or so I hope!

[lovablechevy]

do you own the other japan only tales games? like tales of destiny ii for ps2, tales of rebirth for ps2, and tales of innocence for the ds?

it always has ticked me off that they don't bring all these awesome games over to us. and the only official us release of phantasia is the rather crappy gba version.

[CronoTriggerfan]

do you own the other japan only tales games? like tales of destiny ii for ps2, tales of rebirth for ps2, and tales of innocence for the ds?

it always has ticked me off that they don't bring all these awesome games over to us. and the only official us release of phantasia is the rather crappy gba version.

No, unfortunately. It really pisses me off that the series never caught on here, too, they're great games. I'm hoping with how hyped Vesperia is and how much time and money has been poured into it by Namco and with the Microsoft partnership, more of the games will start coming over here.

Plus, this is the first time the theme song will be the same! Though the song, Ring A Bell, sucks IMO. If only they could've done this for Karma for Abyss.

[lovablechevy]

yeah, i have of the us released games. but i don't have a 360... so i guess this will be one more reason to get one!

[palmertech]

Is this a series I should be playing? My current consoles are only DS, PSP, computer, and a ton of retro ones. Can you play them without having the whole series and still enjoy it?

[lovablechevy]

Is this a series I should be playing? My current consoles are only DS, PSP, computer, and a ton of retro ones. Can you play them without having the whole series and still enjoy it?

yes. most of them have nothing to do with each other. they are great games!

[CronoTriggerfan]

Is this a series I should be playing? My current consoles are only DS, PSP, computer, and a ton of retro ones. Can you play them without having the whole series and still enjoy it?

Yeah, you should definitely be playing them. As chevy said, the stories aren't really connected; sequels are handled like Final Fantasy, they're each a new game in the series, but have nothing to do with one another.

I dunno about the DS, but PSP has some good Tales games, whether it be through re-release or PSX emulation. It's pretty much your standard RPG fare, but when you get kicked into battle, it essentially becomes a 2D fighter. In later games, the mechanic is updated to include three dimensions, but combat itself still takes place in a linear fashion. It's really fun and ensures strategy is employed instead of mindless button mashing found in most action RPGs.

[grahf]

I've been a Tales fan for a while. I imported the original Tales of Phantasia like 8 years ago. I live in Japan now, so I've played the DS releases. The first one for DS (Tales of the Tempest) was pretty.... crude. It was also really unfinished feeling. It had a lot of problems, but still worth it if you can get it cheap. The second DS Tales is AWESOME (Tales of Innocence). It was just about as much fun as Tales of Symphonia. There is a third coming out soon, if it isn't out already. It's too bad you guys wont get them in the US.

[Rekarp]

meh. Me and JPNRPGs never get along. Hell most RPGs tick me off.

[CronoTriggerfan]

meh. Me and JPNRPGs never get along. Hell most RPGs tick me off.

I'd agree for the most part, but I like Tales because it's heavy on the action and minimally grindy. To tell you the truth, Tales, Star Ocean, and Kingdom Hearts are the only RPGs I've enjoyed past the 16-bit era, I think FF7 kinda killed it for me.

[grahf]

Some of the mediocre tales games can get tedious, but the well done ones are awesome to play. I mean you CAN just mash buttons, but you get nowhere fast. If you take the time to learn the combos, it battles almost play like a fighting game. Tales of Symphonia was the first one I played that really felt like a fighting game. TOI on DS feels just about as good.

This series is a good trade-off. You get the story of an RPG without the tedious battles.

BTW, I can't understand why people hold FFVII in such high regard.. the story is great, but the game play and world/level designs are just average. I think its a case of nostalgia for most people.

[CronoTriggerfan]

Grahf, I agree with every word of that, especially the FFVII bit. I don't see what the big deal is, personally, the story was good but it's no FFVI. It's probably because the twist was so blatant in FFVII, in VI you actually have to dig deeper to find the past of many characters and read a bit more into the text to appreciate some of the intrinsic metaphors presented.

Anyways, Play-Asia delayed my damn order! They've changed the shipping date three times now, currently it's set at September 2nd. I was hoping I could get a few hours of playtime before school started on Wednesday, I guess not. Oh well.

[ShockSlayer]

Well, my friend is totally psyched for ToS 2 for wii, and I never stop hearing about Kratos!

Anyways, great series, I'll be hearing of it for the next tw years probably.

SS