Current Events > Tales of Vesperia is finally starting to take off story wise. Well, a little.

(+) Yeah! (+)

For the past like, 20 hours, the story just doesn't go anywhere. The characters and plot just sort of meander from town to town, with retrieving the aqua blastia for the lower quarter being the closest thing to an objective this game has.

Half the time I even forget that apparently there's a thing with the empire and the guilds, and something about councils and knights. Thing is we keep hearing about this stuff, but the game doesn't show us. Keeping my fingers crossed it's only a matter of time.

Well now the bridge at Dahngrest is destroyed and a monster that can talk appeared, so that's pretty much the closest to a story the game has done.

It's funny because I otherwise like the characters for the most part. Yuri is definitely one of the better jrpg protagonists, he's more like if they gave a leading role to the Balthier types in a jrpg. Estelle is sweet. I definitely didn't like having so many kid characters tag along like Karol and Rita, but I like how Yuri humors Karol which is nice of him, and Rita's seeming tsundera crush on Estelle gets the occasional half grin out of me. More characters in the party like Flynn and Judith were definitely needed for some variety. Also I simultaneously find Patty super annoying and super hilarious at the same time, it's such a fine line.

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I started off liking Vesperia a decent amount and then it kept going downhill. The cast I initially liked, I started to get really annoyed with, except for Yuri. The story got intensely boring and I stopped giving a damn. Ended up dropping it 30-40 hours in or something.

everything about it feels super dated despite it only being a ps3/360-era game, the people who think it's the best tales game are blinded by nostalgia

graces f for combat, berseria for story/characters

Its the best Tales game

It's my first Tales game in over a decade, hadn't played one since Abyss so a bit rusty on the mechanics and it took a bit to remember how annoying it was that they do things like 15 item limit thing and you can't hit downed enemies. But otherwise it's alright.

Been wanting to play this game ever since we were waiting for a ps3 port that never came, so a lot of initial high expectations that had to be curbed substantially. I'm just fine with an enjoyable experience and to remember what Tales games were like which takes me back to a previous era of jrpg goofiness and fun.

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I don't think it's too controversial to say the game has a bad story but good characters and character interactions

You can hit/OTG downed enemies

Yuri's Free Run Attack picks up Downed enemies, and Lv2 Overlimit does it too.

Is Rita still OP

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SSJGrimReaper posted...

Is Rita still OP

Yes

I think it feels that way because the party doesnt have a unified goal the first half of the game and apart from Yuri they get multiple changing reasons to stick around. The Blood Alliance shows up a little late to really carry a sustained conflict.

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Kaiganeer posted...

everything about it feels super dated despite it only being a ps3/360-era game, the people who think it's the best tales game are blinded by nostalgia

graces f for combat, berseria for story/characters

Dated how? I'm actually still getting a hang of all the mechanics the game is throwing at me like burst artes and fatal strikes.

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I remember most of the secret missions being annoying

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PowerOats posted...

You can hit/OTG downed enemies

Yuri's Free Run Attack picks up Downed enemies, and Lv2 Overlimit does it too.

Free Run Attack as in pressing L2 to free run and then the attack button? Because I don't think it's working, I've tried to hit a couple of knocked down enemies that way and they never take any damage.

The worst part is when a burst arte or (even more infuriating) a fatal strike misses completely because an enemy was knocked down.

On the subject of fatal strikes should I just mash R2 or do they require well timed button presses to work

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The best part of that game was the character interactions.
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saspa posted...

Free Run Attack as in pressing L2 to free run and then the attack button? Because I don't think it's working, I've tried to hit a couple of knocked down enemies that way and they never take any damage.

The worst part is when a burst arte or (even more infuriating) a fatal strike misses completely because an enemy was knocked down.

On the subject of fatal strikes should I just mash R2 or do they require well timed button presses to work

Player characters and enemies are invincible while they are in the process of getting up ( such as Yuri's little handstand animation after being knocked down) If you use a free run attack before this animation, the enemy will be hit and forced to stand up, thus continuing the combo.

For Fatal Strikes and in general anything, its best to turn off artes that can knockdown (mainly Karol artes). Everyone can knock down, but this at least allows you control the pace of combat by being ready to continue combos should they get knockdown by other means.

The Fatal Strike Attack must be timed. A glyph will form, and you gotta wait until its complete. Best to time it by half a second to let it rip

I've been enjoying it, but I recognize that there have been boring lulls in the story. I'm something like 55ish hours in, trying to ensure I get all the sidequests done

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Your supposed to back track pretty much after everything to everywhere before to trigger all kinds of crap or you missed it.

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PowerOats posted...

Player characters and enemies are invincible while they are in the process of getting up ( such as Yuri's little handstand animation after being knocked down) If you use a free run attack before this animation, the enemy will be hit and forced to stand up, thus continuing the combo.

For Fatal Strikes and in general anything, its best to turn off artes that can knockdown (mainly Karol artes). Everyone can knock down, but this at least allows you control the pace of combat by being ready to continue combos should they get knockdown by other means.

The Fatal Strike Attack must be timed. A glyph will form, and you gotta wait until its complete. Best to time it by half a second to let it rip

Oh thanks that must be what I was missing, by the time I remember to free run attack the enemies were in process of getting up so it must one one of those invincible frame things.

I had a feeling FS were timed. Also do you know if my AI characters do FS of their own volition? In the tactics settings there's an "aim" option so I was wondering about that. Sometimes I do see the glyph form but Yuri is too far away to possibly attack the enemy even though I press R2 anyway on the offchance it will trigger a strike.

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Yes, The Ai will perform a FS if their Strategy is set to do it. 'Aim' means they will do it if they are in range and have the chance so do so (like not being in the middle of attack). You can also turn it off if you want

that games a great big stinky fart

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I'm currently using Yuri, Estelle, Rita, and Patty. Judith instead of Patty, but usually never Karol if I can help it because I just don't like him.

Don't understand how Patty's moveset works, sometimes she screws me with her attacks and sometimes I find my party members magically healed with near full TP to boot.

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Patty's gimmick is mode changing and randomness, and most chance related artes have a chance of failure. There are skills that reduce the bad outcomes, remove the bad AND great outcomes, and make the good outcomes a bit better I think.

I think it takes a while to get those skills, so its best to keep in mind how much you/she uses those artes.

Lairen posted...

Your supposed to back track pretty much after everything to everywhere before to trigger all kinds of crap or you missed it.

That's always been true of all the Tales games, and you pretty much have to play with a walkthrough every step of the way because of the very specific ways to either get or do certain sidequests.

I'm honestly just playing for the story and to finally beat this game after waiting for it so many years. Decided to just play blind and if I miss sidequests, so be it. Just want to at least know if there are any non obtuse sidequests that will give me some ultimate weapons or techniques.

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You have to find the ultimate weapons, some are in the final and optional dungeons. If you want to unlock their true power however, you have to find them all.

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One of my least favorite Tales. Combat feels terrible, characters feel generic, and I couldn't give a less of a fuck about the story.

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Now I'm at the Nordopolica coliseum. Tried to explore the world a little, but decided to wait until the inevitable airship type craft the Tales games usually have.

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Around the next few dungeon/Towns is when you start coming around skills that allow you to use elemental burst artes, and learn new artes altogether

the only tales game that manages to tell a decent story or hit the mark on its theming is Abyss, but it also suffers from all the typical JRPG pacing problems


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karol keeps missing his artes .....so i had to disable them and use the shortcuts to make him stop wasting tp

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Wait until post game when all the story consists of is "Blah blah blah Tidal Wave!!" spamming to farm Grade.

If you choose to pursue it.

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I started off really enjoying that game, then 30 hours in, it gets really old. By the time I beat like 60, I wanted nothing to do with it ever again.

Like you said, the game barely has a plotline. The party never really has a unified goal for longer than 10 minutes. An that game is REALLY bad with technobabble. Some of the dialogue is borderline unintelligible cuz of all the made up vocabulary for the game.

@TC, did you play Dragon Quest XI yet? Playing that game after Vesperia was SUCH a breath of fresh air.

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I'm regretting trying to Let's Play this game with sidequests. So much grinding and shit to do

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Vesperia has about 5 or so terms of technobabble, two of which are established early game.

And yeah, trying to hit every sidequest in a 1st playthrough is bad for any rpg, unless you plan for it

Ive played like 3 times and have yet to do Judiths spear quest correctly

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CapnMuffin posted...

Ive played like 3 times and have yet to do Judiths spear quest correctly

Between that, the Dark Enforcer, and some stuff in the final town, those are the most strict/ finicky quests.

Well I'm back at Nordopolica.

Man it's a real shame the story is just nonexistent and kinda there, because the characters are so well presented for a jrpg. I don't mind angst, but definitely appreciate how the characters react appropriately to situations and don't yell all their lines.

Are they going to explain "the great war" or not? Seems like it should have been something they touched upon in the intro to the game. And they mention the empire but we never see a governing body. I feel like with just some better exposition, world building and sense of urgency to the plot in the beginning, it would definitely be great.

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I fucking HATE Rita.

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I don't think they go into super details, but you will learn pieces about it. It's not really super important except for like a small selection of characters

Leanaunfurled posted...

I started off liking Vesperia a decent amount and then it kept going downhill. The cast I initially liked, I started to get really annoyed with, except for Yuri. The story got intensely boring and I stopped giving a damn. Ended up dropping it 30-40 hours in or something.

I specifically remember you giving me shit for saying I didn't love tales of the abyss on the 3ds after 25 hours because I didn't beat the game yet. This was years ago during 3ds drought and the Nintendo defense force was out in full for every somewhat decent release.

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Makeveli_lives posted...

I specifically remember you giving me shit for saying I didn't love tales of the abyss on the 3ds after 25 hours because I didn't beat the game yet. This was years ago during 3ds drought and the Nintendo defense force was out in full for every somewhat decent release.

Abyss is even worse than Vesperia. So much traveling back and forth between towns for 2 minute cutscenes and easily of one the worst casts in any JRPG.

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The_Scarecrow posted...

Abyss is even worse than Vesperia. So much traveling back and forth between towns for 2 minute cutscenes and easily of one the worst casts in any JRPG.

Which is what I said back then. But what was told if I wasn't slurping the game endlessly, my opinion is completely null and void until I beat the game.

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The_Scarecrow posted...

Abyss is even worse than Vesperia. So much traveling back and forth between towns for 2 minute cutscenes and easily of one the worst casts in any JRPG.

What a terrible opinion.

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Vesperia has really good characters, and the story has some spots where it really shines when setups pay off, but other than that are definitely some lulls in the story where it can feel boring.

I loved the combat in Vesperia. Savage Wolf Fury is the coolest Mystic Arte.

Vesperis probably has the worst ending of any Tales game though.

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I thought people hated Xillia 2s ending, or maybe I'm thinking of something else

Perascamin posted...

Vesperia has really good characters, and the story has some spots where it really shines when setups pay off, but other than that are definitely some lulls in the story where it can feel boring.

I loved the combat in Vesperia. Savage Wolf Fury is the coolest Mystic Arte.

Vesperis probably has the worst ending of any Tales game though.

Oh man I can't wait to do mystic artes. I can do altered artes now. I now have lightning blade on Rita! It's a cool move. Having altered artes really opens up the game's battle system.

At first I was completely bewildered by fatal strikes but I think I finally get them now a little bit. Basically if I perform moves of a same color I can get that fatal strike glyph of the same color and press R2 for the fatal strike right?

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Yeah basically. When targetting enemies you can see three bars indicating how close the enemy is to a fatal strike based on the color of the glyph

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Yes, and depending on the monster type and color, you will get a small bonus of either EXP, LP for skills, or a higher item drop rate

Vesperia's strength is its characters definitely. The plot is... servicable. It's not as much of a mess as Abyss or as comprehensive as Symphonia's, but it works. The last arc is kinda eh but it's not enough to completely ruin my judgement of the game as a whole.

...

Judy has the big bap.

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I basically do a base arte and an arcane arte combo of the same color over and over and hope it triggers a fatal strike, especially if my party members happen to do spells of the same color.

Like I'd do Azure Edge and then Dragon Swarm right after and if it gets a fatal strike, perfect. Those are both green. I chose green because in overlimit I do the Divine Wolf burste arte and since that one's already green, I may as well have both my base and arcane arte be green to best trigger a fatal strike.

So it goes base arte, arcane arte, burste arte, fatal strike. Definitely helpful for bosses but I hate when my combo is interrupted because someone hit me.

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You get most of your important story bits in a huge exposition dump at the end of chapters 1 and 2, with it dumped sporadically through the third chapter.

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