Tales of Vesperia

ElecGuts · Posted: Fri Jun 26, 2009 2:02 pm Post subject: Tales of Vesperia

So... Tales of Vesperia today got its EU release, and I'm liking the game thus far. Thus far, the only complaint I have is the lack of combos between Yuri's early Artes (which was present in Lloyd on Symphonia, the last full on Tales series game that I played)

So... discuss?

HeatShadow · Posted: Fri Jun 26, 2009 3:00 pm Post subject:

Vesperia's awesome, especially if you're a fan of more traditionally-designed RPGs. The plot, the characters, the villains, everything has an instance of making fun of or subverting the usual cliche, and it's hilarious.

Also, don't let the early lack of combos put you off; once you start learning new skills and artes, most of the characters will be able to pull off some absurd attack combinations.
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Kaji Motomiya · Age: 33 Joined: 11 Jun 2009 Posts: 22 Location: NJ/NYC

I stopped playing that game when I failed to get a certain achievement fighting a certain boss midway the game. I got annoyed, so I stopped. But I might do it again, just to beat it. =3
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**Ryouko** · Posted: Fri Jun 26, 2009 10:48 pm Post subject:

Oh man, don't even get me started on Vesperia. XD I'm about to hit my 100 hour mark on that game. @_@;; and I'm still on my first playthrough...

Once you get most of Yuri's skills and artes, he's probably the most broken character in the game in regards of pulling off unbreakable combos. It's quite ridiculous, really, but absurdly fun.
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**Sol** · Posted: Fri Jun 26, 2009 10:57 pm Post subject:

Somewhere near the end of the game, a certain Arte + Skill combination will make Estelle completely invincible to everything in battle, so I'd say she's pretty broken herself. XD
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HeatShadow · Posted: Sat Jun 27, 2009 3:47 am Post subject:

Oh, they certainly have their moments. Yuri + a suitably-powered-up Abyssion = PAIN. One-shotting entire crowds of enemies in the coliseum is fun, though. And I definitely beat the 100-man melee with Estelle just by lazily repeating the same combo over and over again; her defense gets so absurdly high that she ended up shrugging off everything they threw at her. That's actually one of the averted cliches I mentioned earlier, and the one that amuses me to no end: you get this typical sweet-and-gentle female protagonist, figure "sure, I'll keep her around for the healing she'll provide, but that's about it." Then you get further into the game and you realize she has the highest defenses out of the entire party, even higher than the designated brawler Yuri...
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Kaji Motomiya · Age: 33 Joined: 11 Jun 2009 Posts: 22 Location: NJ/NYC

Midnight · Posted: Tue Jun 30, 2009 6:39 am Post subject:

Sigh. I was hoping that the combination of "all artes cost 1 TP" and "cast spells practically instantly" was an oversight on the Symphonia team's R&D team. Surely including even the 1 TP clause is powerful enough on its own--there's a reason that in the first game TP costs could only be reduced by 50% at most, and they did not stack.

I mean, a sufficiently developed endgame in ToS2 would have Emil going infinite, with each volley of combos paid for with the original hits, and Marta instantly casting Photon, Prism Sword, Divine Saber, and whatever spells have you. That made the game ridiculously unsatisfying in the end (in addition to the other qualms I have with the game.) I still find myself oddly drawn to keep playing the game, oddly enough...a guilty pleasure, perhaps?
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**Sol** · Posted: Tue Jun 30, 2009 12:27 pm Post subject:

To be fair, there's only one item that allows TP cost to be 1, and that's the Risky Ring--which, as its name implies, is a pretty big risk as it cuts your Physical Defense down by 3/4. It only takes a few hits by a strong enemy while wearing it for a character to die.

The only time spells can go off instantly is during Overlimit, and even then it's pretty limited. Sure, there are some accessories post-game that can dramatically shorten spellcasting time, but by the time you get it, your team should already be powerful enough to defeat anything.

And in addition, post-game bosses have inflated HP and stats to compensate, so it still takes a bit of fighting to defeat them. On Normal, it's very common to find a lot of them with 1 million+ HP.
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Midnight · Posted: Tue Jun 30, 2009 1:17 pm Post subject:

Perhaps, but even so the whole "TP = 1" lends such an advantage to its user that the current drawback that is associated with it in that game seems relatively minor in comparison. Put said item on a mage, and he or she casts until the cows come home, so long as said mage is adequately defended (which is usually the case.) Put said item on a well-developed character on the frontlines, and the defense penalty is not terribly significant--who cares about defense if the player is continually on the offense with chains of artes that barely give the opponent a chance to respond with some of his own?

As for instant casting, I suppose I should have clarified myself on that. Symphonia II allows one character (Marta), through innate skills, equipment, and other factors to layer 12+ levels of Speed Cast. With that on, spells are for all intents and purposes, instantaneous--there's probably a second of down time, but that's practically negated when the opponent is trapped in the attack during this cooldown time. I suppose that's a small compensation for the fact that none of the PCs in this game can go overlimits, but still.

In this game, if I recall correctly, Marta can have both TP = 1 and instant spells, but only through a lengthy search and efficient leveling (including one side dungeon that requires a host of other dungeons to have been completed as well as featuring a "dry run" of one of the bosses of the game), and Emil does the same. Yes, I want to feel like I have gotten something significant in all of my work, but it still feels somewhat mitigated by combat afterwards. Much of the challenge--micromanagement, intelligent use of artes, zone strategies--all go out the window.

Granted, I haven't played Vesperia. I'd love to, but I don't have the console. However, seeing as how it has brought over quite a few of the skills and whatnot from the Symphonia sequel, I'd like to think that it works much the same way.
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**Sol** · Posted: Tue Jun 30, 2009 2:19 pm Post subject:

It is an advantage any way you look at it, but it's not very smart to put it on a frontline fighter on the higher difficulties, especially if you're doing post-game dungeons. The enemies hit very hard and it isn't uncommon for one of those fighters to bite the dust just from a couple of hits if you're not careful. Hell, only one character gets Glory in the game, and that character doesn't even have the highest defense out of everyone.

The main difference here is that there is significant cooldown time for spellcasters, so they can't just constantly fire off artes. While they do have Lucky End and some skills, they'll be lucky if they can use any more than 4 advanced-artes during an Overlimit. It actually takes them a few seconds to be able to cast again. And as much as you can have Rita abuse Tidal Wave for GRADE farming, it's still nowhere near as broken Marta can get with Photon-spam. It's even funnier considering that since there's only one accessory slot for each character, you have to choose between lower TP costs or speed-casting.
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Hardcore Hecxz · Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2009 3:56 am Post subject:

I'm up to 14 hours on it and honestly I'm really enjoying it, I haven't enjoyed a RPG this fun since really Final Fantasy VII that's also considering that i'm not a big RPGer. However I tried Tales of Symphonia on Gamecube and I did like it but I suffer from sidetracking and backlogging. Heck I still havent completed Dragon Quest VIII or Megaman X: Command Mission (even though i'm on the final mission) and I recently purchased Infinite Undiscovery for 360 during the $10 game sale at Best Buy a few months back.

Yeah so i'm trying to get back into the swing of things here on the RPG front
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Kaji Motomiya · Age: 33 Joined: 11 Jun 2009 Posts: 22 Location: NJ/NYC

You know, reading these makes me wanna play it again. But with my two new games (take a wild guess), it's gonna be a LONG time before I even complete it...
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Neozero.exev3 · Joined: 17 Mar 2005 Posts: 38 Location: ???

You know i hope we get the ps3 version since its got so much more .
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**Ryouko** · Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2009 3:50 pm Post subject:

So do I... there are rumors it is coming, such as Yuri's voice actor saying at a convention that he had been called back to voice more lines. We shall see.
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tuxdev · Net Savior Joined: 27 Dec 2005 Posts: 139

I was excited about the PS3 version as ever since they released the preview with playable Flynn. It's enough to make me actually think about buying a PS3 just for it.

Bushin Soutenha is by far the best and most epic Hi-Ougi in the whole series *points to avatar*.
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