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[ZealousD]

Well throughout the entire game I couldn't figure out how to use those throws so maybe it was just my stupidity

The throws are kinda weird. The game only let's you pick up really small enemies at first, and you eventually get abilities to pick up larger enemies. You really can't consistently throw enemies until later in the game.

 

[Rpgmonkey]

It was decent. Not as good as Symphonia or Abyss but decent. The battle system could've used some work, but I liked the characters (Normaaa!), the music was great, and the character quests were a cool idea although maybe executed wrong. The story was a bit weak and again, the battle system felt sluggish to me.

I pretty much agree with this, though my opinion of the battle system is just that HP's a little unbalanced, so fights take longer than they should, and I enjoyed most of the characters more than Symphonia's cast.

 

[Datschge]

ToV staff list (work in progress)
As Cedille noted already notable is the absence of composer Shinji Tamura who was replaced by a newcomer. Furthermore this game continues the series of Tales games defying the formerly strict separation between Team Symphonia and Destiny, something that started with ToDr and continued with ToS-R and what's already announced for ToH: this time the battle programming staff is new, and aside a couple new people plenty graphic designers from previous Team Destiny games joined. (Also at the last Tales conference Bandai Namco head honcho Ishikawa reportedly noted that Tales Studio hired ~50 new employees lately which fits well with all the new people continually appearing in Tales games and the prospect of at least a DS and a Wii Tales game by Tales Studio appearing within the coming year.)

 

[FateBreaker]

ToV staff list (work in progress)
As Cedille noted already notable is the absence of composer Shinji Tamura who was replaced by a newcomer. Furthermore this game continues the series of Tales games defying the formerly strict separation between Team Symphonia and Destiny, something that started with ToDr and continued with ToS-R and what's already announced for ToH: this time the battle programming staff is new, and aside a couple new people plenty graphic designers from previous Team Destiny games joined. (Also at the last Tales conference Bandai Namco head honcho Ishikawa reportedly noted that Tales Studio hired ~50 new employees lately which fits well with all the new people continually appearing in Tales games and the prospect of at least a DS and a Wii Tales game by Tales Studio appearing within the coming year.)

interesting. who's the newcomer? I just see Motoi Sakuraba under music on your site. I'm probably not looking good enough, so I apologize in advance

they replaced Shinj Tamura then, I suppose. That's good. Now we just need them to put Go Shiina back in the mix.

...mmm, Motoi Sakuraba + Go Shiina for a Tales OST. A man can dream....

 

[Rpgmonkey]

Well I don't think his proper name has been put into English, but I assume 青山 響= Aoyama Hibiki?

Oh, and I didn't notice they added so much staff. Wonder if that's so they can make more individual projects or to help with other various things?

 

[Datschge]

interesting. who's the newcomer? I just see Motoi Sakuraba under music on your site. I'm probably not looking good enough, so I apologize in advance

It's 青山 響 which may be romanised as "Hibiki Aoyama", but other variations are also possible so I prefer to wait for the official romanisation in the English staff roll (all romanisations already on the site are from past English Tales staff lists).

Searching for him didn't turn up anything useful.

Hoping for Shiina working on a Tales Studio game is a pipe dream imo. Him doing the theme for ToF2 and joining for the next RM is likely the best one can realistically expect.

I wouldn't be surprised if they now have continually four project going on concurrently.

 

[Datschge]

Looks like I killed the thread...

Another notable part of the staff roll is that besides the disappeared battle designer & programmer the other former Team Symphonia programmers are mostly credited to research and development programming (another news in a Tales game). This implies they were/are not working on one (this) specific project but on a more generic engine. So a PS3 Tales game could already be well underway with the disappeared battle designer & programmer on board. Hmm...

Spoiler

dur dur

 

[Rpgmonkey]

Looks like I killed the thread...

Another notable part of the staff roll is that besides the disappeared battle designer & programmer the other former Team Symphonia programmers are mostly credited to research and development programming (another news in a Tales game). This implies they were/are not working on one (this) specific project but on a more generic engine. So a PS3 Tales game could already be well underway with the disappeared battle designer & programmer on board. Hmm...

Spoiler

dur dur

So if I understood this right, they're possibly working on an engine that works across both the PS3 and 360?

 

[ZealousD]

So if I understood this right, they're possibly working on an engine that works across both the PS3 and 360?

I think he's just throwing it out there as a possibility. They could also be involved in Wii or DS projects for all we know.

 

[Mr Killemgood]

So is there an actual verdict on ToV compared to Symphonia and Abyss yet?

 

[Firestorm]

So is there an actual verdict on ToV compared to Symphonia and Abyss yet?

If you liked Symphonia and Abyss, you will like Vesperia.
If you didn't like Symphonia and Abyss, you will not like Vesperia.
If you liked Symphonia but hated Abyss, you are Himuro.
If you liked Abyss but hated Symphonia, ???.

 

[Datschge]

It's it looks, sounds and supposedly also feels like a consequential evolution from ToS and TotA. I wish they would finally un-break the battle system, but otherwise I think they achieved what they less successfully tried to reach with ToS and TotA.

 

[Sagitario]

I love the developer info... thanks ...

But... un-break?

 

[kiryogi]

I love the developer info... thanks ...

But... un-break?

Check out the Rita and Nore combo videos.

 

[kaizoku]

this game borrows from One Piece or even remotely reminds people of One Piece??

Fucking sold baby.

 

[kiryogi]

Okay, whoever said the dragon from the demo would be much easier in the actual game needs to be shot. Bad enough I'm playing on hard, but even switching back to normal, the guy is a total pain. And there's no fatal strikes or lvl2 overlimit this time.

 

[Firestorm]

Okay, whoever said the dragon from the demo would be much easier in the actual game needs to be shot. Bad enough I'm playing on hard, but even switching back to normal, the guy is a total pain. And there's no fatal strikes or lvl2 overlimit this time.

http://blogs.ign.com/NB_TalesOfVesperia/2008/07/16/96262/

=P

 

[Bebpo]

The plot post-major turning point has been pretty good and I'm actually into the story now. I guess they wanted to do it just like they did in Abyss, 12-15 hours of wandering adventure gaining party members and then BIG EVENT and then story is in gear and you're hooked.

So is there an actual verdict on ToV compared to Symphonia and Abyss yet?

I think it's safe to say it's on par with the other two but with gorgeous HD visuals and a more complex battle system.

 

[dark10x]

Now we just need them to put Go Shiina back in the mix.

I'd really like to know why Namco doesn't put him to better use. Perhaps the music he has created in the past required more time and money or something? I know that some of the music in Legendia actually used real instruments.

Legendia featured the shortest soundtrack of the series so perhaps they have this wierd obsession with making certain that their games have massive soundtracks? Sakuraba is generally a very good composer as well, but his work on the Tales series is always very bland for some reason.

There must be some reason for this. Perhaps the Tales studios simply place an order for a huge amount of music and only provide minimal information on how that music will be used? Even in the case of Legendia where the soundtrack was amazing, it was never really used all that well within the game itself. It's as if there is some massive disconnect between the music composers and the design team.

 

[Firestorm]

I'd really like to know why Namco doesn't put him to better use. Perhaps the music he has created in the past required more time and money or something? I know that some of the music in Legendia actually used real instruments.

Legendia featured the shortest soundtrack of the series so perhaps they have this wierd obsession with making certain that their games have massive soundtracks? Sakuraba is generally a very good composer as well, but his work on the Tales series is always very bland for some reason.

There must be some reason for this. Perhaps the Tales studios simply place an order for a huge amount of music and only provide minimal information on how that music will be used? Even in the case of Legendia where the soundtrack was amazing, it was never really used all that well within the game itself. It's as if there is some massive disconnect between the music composers and the design team.

Yeah, some parts of Legendia had the most epic music for areas that really weren't that special.

 

[ZealousD]

The plot post-major turning point has been pretty good and I'm actually into the story now. I guess they wanted to do it just like they did in Abyss, 12-15 hours of wandering adventure gaining party members and then BIG EVENT and then story is in gear and you're hooked.

I guess in Abyss you're referring to

Spoiler

the destruction of Akzeriuth?

 

[kiryogi]

So, turns out there's an achievement for finishing the game under 15 hours. And there seems to be tons of 2nd playthru only content. I can confirm the achievement myself as I've seen the leaderboards with clear times of 13-14 hours.


Oh.. and more interesting details on the cameo spoilers from an earlier post.

Spoiler

From Kouli @ namco tales forums: Not quite. Arena is a bit different, you just participate and kill 30/50/80/100/200 enemies. The last two entries are need to be unlocked. The entry with 200 enemies will need to be unlocked for the four cameo. After, at 150 is Dhaos, 170 is Shizel, 190 is Barbartos and at 200, Kratos. Anyhow, its too much work for anyone at this point.

 

[Blackjack]

The plot post-major turning point has been pretty good and I'm actually into the story now. I guess they wanted to do it just like they did in Abyss, 12-15 hours of wandering adventure gaining party members and then BIG EVENT and then story is in gear and you're hooked.

Hm...is it exactly like Abyss where the main guy goes from being really cool and an interesting change from the norm to Whiny McEmopants?

 

[Brandon F]

The first post doesn't contain the information, but can someone please indicate which retailers will be selling the LE edition in NA? Is it exclusive to a specific outlet, I can't seem to find where to pre-order.

 

[kiryogi]

The first post doesn't contain the information, but can someone please indicate which retailers will be selling the LE edition in NA? Is it exclusive to a specific outlet, I can't seem to find where to pre-order.

So far amazon. But I hear gamestop sometime this week or next.

 

[ZealousD]

Hm...is it exactly like Abyss where the main guy goes from being really cool.....

Woah woah woah. Hold the phone there. Luke was not "really cool" at the beginning of Abyss. He was a spoiled brat.

 

[Bebpo]

Hm...is it exactly like Abyss where the main guy goes from being really cool and an interesting change from the norm to Whiny McEmopants?

No. It's more Shakespearean. It's actually a very non-Japanese/non-anime twist and I like that.

 

[dark10x]

Since I'm stuck buying the NA versions (thanks Microsoft), does anyone know if they will at least include the Japanese audio (and all skits)? The only NA Tales release I've played was ToS on the Gamecube so the quality of the NA version is of great concern. The English VA in the demo was f*cking awful.

 

[Bebpo]

Since I'm stuck buying the NA versions (thanks Microsoft), does anyone know if they will at least include the Japanese audio (and all skits)? The only NA Tales release I've played was ToS on the Gamecube so the quality of the NA version is of great concern. The English VA in the demo was f*cking awful.

Duckroll said both versions are on the disc. So maybe they're planning on releasing Japanese audio as DLC, lol

 

[dark10x]

Duckroll said both versions are on the disc. So maybe they're planning on releasing Japanese audio as DLC, lol

Oh shit, they'll probably lock it out. :\

I believe Trusty Bell had dual language options (haven't played it, so I'm not sure) so I would hope they might take the high road and offer both once again.

 

[Blackjack]

Woah woah woah. Hold the phone there. Luke was not "really cool" at the beginning of Abyss. He was a spoiled brat.

Yes, he was. And that was really cool.

 

[cress2000]

CD Universe has a listing for the premium edition of Vesperia now. I guess it isn't limited to select stores. Works great for me; Amazon charges me tax and an arm and leg for decent shipping options.

http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=7731762

I ordered Abyss from them when it came out and got it in fine time. It was sent first class, not media mail.

 

[ivysaur12]

Yes, he was. And that was really cool.

I almost stopped playing the game because Luke was so annoying in the beginning. And the man had a right to be emo.

 

[Mejilan]

Just preordered it from Amazon. I'm a bit concerned that there was no image to go with the product page, and the product page itself didn't come up in a search. But... *shrugs*

And I DID stop playing TotA because of the stupid fucking characters. Especially Luke. I need to give that game another shot one of these days.

 

[yeoz]

Just preordered it from Amazon. I'm a bit concerned that there was no image to go with the product page, and the product page itself didn't come up in a search.

When i search for 'Tales of Vesperia', it shows up as #13 on the results list

 

[Mejilan]

Ah. I stopped looking when it stopped listing Tales of games/guides/OSTs.

 

[FSLink]

Duckroll said both versions are on the disc. So maybe they're planning on releasing Japanese audio as DLC, lol

The movies are dual audio, yeah (they did say there would be a way to hear Ring a Bell in Japanese in the English version and vice versa somehow on the official blog) but are there battle voices and event voices hidden in the disk in both languages as well?

 

[Blackjack]

I almost stopped playing the game because Luke was so annoying in the beginning. And the man had a right to be emo.

Okay. I disagree. Anyone know the answer to my question?

 

[Wizpig]

Wait, i thought that guy on eBay selling Vesperia [and claiming it was region-free] was selling the US version?
If so, why don't we know yet if it is really region-free or what?

Could it really be it got delayed just to slap a region-lock on it...? jesus christ, i was joking when i said this before, but now i fear it could be true...

2009 TBA.

Damn it.

 

[clashfan]

I think it's safe to say it's on par with the other two but with gorgeous HD visuals and a more complex battle system.

SOLD!

 

[Firestorm]

Just changed my pre-order to the Collector's Edition at EB Canada today. Oi. I'm spending close to $80 for this game @_@

 

[Cedille]

ToV staff list (work in progress)
As Cedille noted already notable is the absence of composer Shinji Tamura who was replaced by a newcomer.

It's rumored Tamura = Aoyama, though.

You actually thought it'd be Tamura's when hearing the website track?

 

[Datschge]

You actually thought it'd be Tamura's when hearing the website track?

The simple sustained melody with the slow arpeggio backing made me think that, yes. That style is very easy to copy though, I'm pretty sure Takeshi Arai made some tracks in that style in ToS as well... From listening to the music in the videos at nico douga I don't think Aoyama is Tamura, Aoyama seems a little more competent with rhythms but also more conservative with melodies.

 

[CAVE343]

Just changed my pre-order to the Collector's Edition at EB Canada today. Oi. I'm spending close to $80 for this game @_@

I want that LE too :-(
I'm not going to take the risk though, it might me region locked.
Please be region free!

 

[Mejilan]

I don't understand why the LE is still not showing up at most retailers' websites. It just seems to unusual to me.

 

[Feep]

Does this game feel INCREDIBLY generic jRPG to anyone else? The Tales team is absolutely terrified to do anything out of the box they created with Phantasia and Destiny. I'll be passing on this game.

 

[ivysaur12]

Does this game feel INCREDIBLY generic jRPG to anyone else? The Tales team is absolutely terrified to do anything out of the box they created with Phantasia and Destiny. I'll be passing on this game.

Really... because the impressions from people who have, you know, played the game, say differently.

 

[gregor7777]

Does this game feel INCREDIBLY generic jRPG to anyone else? The Tales team is absolutely terrified to do anything out of the box they created with Phantasia and Destiny. I'll be passing on this game.

What is this feeling based on? The demo?

 

[FateBreaker]

Does this game feel INCREDIBLY generic jRPG to anyone else? The Tales team is absolutely terrified to do anything out of the box they created with Phantasia and Destiny. I'll be passing on this game.

You know, I know it's hard to believe, but some people like conventional JRPGs. I swear. Srsly.

 

[crowphoenix]

Does this game feel INCREDIBLY generic jRPG to anyone else? The Tales team is absolutely terrified to do anything out of the box they created with Phantasia and Destiny. I'll be passing on this game.

Well, I'm still a sucker for Tales games, so I'm looking forward to it.