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The Tales of Vesperia |OT|

Blader

Member
This game was made by Team Symphonia, right? If so, is it safe to say that if I loved Symphonia and Abyss, I'll love this game?
 

Jonsoncao

Banned
the secret missions are fine on the first playthrough I think, I just followed the strategies on xbox360achievements.com and I got them all except the first one (I dunno anything about this secret mission back then)
 

grandjedi6

Master of the Google Search
Blader5489 said:
This game was made by Team Symphonia, right? If so, is it safe to say that if I loved Symphonia and Abyss, I'll love this game?
Yes. In fact the general consensus is that Vesperia surpasses the other two by a healthy margin.
 

Relix

he's Virgin Tight™
Blader5489 said:
This game was made by Team Symphonia, right? If so, is it safe to say that if I loved Symphonia and Abyss, I'll love this game?

Much better, and thanks to heavens... faster paced.
 

Firestorm

Member
AGH. Secret Dungeon Boss :mad: KOed my entire party with a mystic arte. I'm LV85. It'll take an hour to get to him again :( He does like 10 attacks per second... I took away 50% of his HP really fast but he's freaking relentless.
Relix said:
9 hours in.
Judith is awesome
. I am on the Gears tower or something like that, the scenes before that kicked some major ass. I am loving this game :D
If you think the scenes before kicked major ass...

Blader5489 said:
This game was made by Team Symphonia, right? If so, is it safe to say that if I loved Symphonia and Abyss, I'll love this game?
Yes. Yes.
 

kiryogi

Banned
Shouta said:
So after playing like 12-13 hours. This game's start is ridiculously similar to Abyss and not just because it's the same team. Anyway, the cast is a lot better than Abyss so far. A lot more amusing to watch and silly. Repede is awesome.

Same team yeah, but not the same writers.
 

Firestorm

Member
FUCK YOU SECRET DUNGEON FUCK YOU.
I have 14 Fake Gald. That run gave me 0. adflahdkfalkdfhad

At least I have my 100 hit combo achievement now. Got 130. All from Yuri and one well timed Tidal Wave from Rita =) Nice to get it a fair way before I start grade farming and get like 1000 hits or whatever.

If you transfer over your Records, does time played transfer over as well? Does this stop you from getting the <15 hour achievement?

Edit: WHAT THE HELL? I did it again. 0 fake gald AGAIN.
 

Firestorm

Member
I made a spoiler-free Secret Mission guide by copy+pasting Xenogirl08's stickied topic on GameFAQs. I just spoiler-tagged the spoilers. I added some comments as well.

Secret Mission 1 (
Zagi
):
"Defeat
Zagi
while protecting
Estellise
from
Zagi's
attacks." You'll get the achievement if you minimize the damage she takes.

Secret Misison 2 (Goliath[/spoiler]):
"Downed
Goliath
by attacking its Achilles' heel while it charges X buster." Aim for the markings one the back of its right leg. When it crosses it's arms, it's charging for an attack, so slash at those marks as soon as he does this.

Secret Mission 3 (
Gattuso
):
"Use the Billybally plants to stun
Gattuso
." Self explanitory.

Secret Mission 4 (
Zagi 2
):
"
Lured Zagi
to the side of the ship and knocked him overboard." Wait for him to attack with his Cyclone Shot, Savage Flight, or Light Spear so you can move under him. While under him trigger the over limit so the burst will knock him over.

Secret Mission 5 (
Dreaded Giant
):
"Downed the
Dreaded Giant
when it reared back and left itself wide open." Wait for it to stand on its hind legs, at that moment run in and slash at them.

Secret Mission 6 (
Gigalarva
):
"
Raven
used Serpent to set a trap for the Gigalarva[/spoiler] and prevented it from healing itself." Use once
Gigalarva
has less than 24,000 HP. [Firestorm: You have to use Serpent on the pond in the middle.]

Secret Mission 7 (
Barbos
):
"You took out the bridge supports, thus keeping
Barbos
from calling out more of his thugs."

Secret Mission 8 (
Zagi 3
):
"Let
Zagi
absorb too much energy, destroying his bodhi blastia." Simply stand back and don't attack, let him absorb aer till his blastia explodes.

Secret Mission 9 (
Pteropus
):
"You defeated the Leader Bat and prevented
Pteropus
from recombining." Basically target and defeat the Leader Bat first.

[Firestorm: Important: When you hit The Sands of Kogorh, exit right away and go back to Mantaic. Sleep at the inn until you receive "Mother's Memento" or you won't be able to do a later Secret Mission.]

Secret Mission 10 (
Outbreaker
):
"Destroyed the core and prevented magic from inverting day and night." Destroy the core, but you have to do it before you defeat
Outbreaker
. [Firestorm: Try Tractor Beam]

Secret Mission 11 (
Belius
):
"You lit up all the candlesticks and eliminated the illusions of
Belius.
" Use Yuri's Destruction Field arte to relight the four candles once the
Belius
double appears.

Secret Mission 12 (
Nan & Tison
):
"Timed your strikes between
Nan and Tison
's attacks to knock them down."
Tison and Nan
have a magic attack which causes their weapons and arms to get stuck in the ground. Wait for them to use this attack and hit them while they are stuck. Must down both.

Secret Mission 13 (
Schwann
):
"Downed
Schwann
by attacking when he was clutching his heart after his mystic arte." Guard against his mystic arte and run up and hit him while he's panting and such.

Secret Mission 14 (
Zagi 4
):
"Use Karol's Nice Recovery Smash arte to force
Zagi
to recover from poison." Self explanitory.

Secret Mission 15 (
Baitojoh
):
"Hit
Baitojoh
3 times during its Ice Edge attack and fighed it out of the water." Watch for
Baitojoh's
fin for the Ice Edge attack. When you see it, attack it. If you can hit it before Ice Edge is complete it gets hurled out of the water.

Secret Mission 16 (
Estellise
):
"Use the item, Mother's Memento,
on Estellise.
" Do this during
Part 2 of the battle

After this battle, head to
Phaeroh's Crag
and
enter the portal there to get to Yormgen. Go to the Sage's house and listen to his story
. Otherwise you will not be able to access the secret dungeon later in the game. You must do this before Secret Mission 18.

Secret Mission 17 (
Yeager
):
"Make
Yeager's
heart explode by using
Raven's Rain arte.
" When
Yeager reveals the hermes blastia
in his heart during the second half of the battle, guard break him, then have
Raven use his Rain arte
. [Firestorm: This is the most bullshit SM in the game.]

Secret Mission 18 (
Alexei
):
"Downed
Alexei
by attacking him when he was tired after his mystic arte."

Secret Mission 19 (
Gusios
):
"Attacked
Gusios's
tail then downed him while he stood on his hind legs." Attack his tail. When it retracts,
Gusios
will stand on his hind legs and pound his chest. Use this opportunity to knock him down.

Secret Mission 20 (
Khroma Dragon
):
"Downed
Khroma
by timing your strikes between a certain group of her attacks." When
Khroma
uses her earthquake attack rush towards her while rocks fall from the cieling. Slash her after she slams the ground.

Secret Mission 21 (
Flynn
):
"Allow
Flynn
to use every arte he could, including his mystic arte." Stay back and don't attack, let
Flynn
use all of his arte's. Attack him once he uses his mystic arte, which will force him to use his healing artes. [Firestorm: He will use his Mystic Arte only once you use yours]

Secret Mission 22 (
Zagi 5
):
"Downed
Zagi
by attacking him between his Blastia Bane." Guard against Blastia Bane, then knock him down as he recovers. Simple.

Secret Mission 23 (
Duke
):
"Defeated
Duke
using a mystic arte." Do this during the
second battle.
 

Jiggy

Member
About 8 hours in, just got rather slaughtered by the fourth boss. (Playing on normal.) Kind of cool to still be killed, since I'm pretty sure I've been consistently overleveled for the entire game--I've enjoyed the battle system in conjunction with the non-existent load times so much that I explore every piece of land I see and fight nearly every enemy that shows up before me. (Exactly every enemy in dungeons.) Even that one boss that seemed to be giving people fits (
the third boss
) only took two tries for me, and usually when I get to a new area the characters are already pulling out their "lol, weak enemies" quotes right from the start.


Anyway, I'm not up for any kind of truly detailed breakdown right now, but I'll just say that if Vesperia keeps up its current pace, then in spite of its (very few) flaws, it has a legitimate shot at becoming not my favorite game of 2008, but my favorite game of all-time. Usually when people say things like "a success on every level," they're exaggerating, but I mean no exaggeration here. It's been an amazing adventure so far.


On a total tangent, I wonder if Team Symphonia will ever make a game world in which the party doesn't increase its strength by equipping small orbs that not everybody can get their hands on--Exspheres, capacity cores, blastia. Not complaining, but just wondering if it's an intentional theme by now, akin to the Sorcerer's Ring.
 

Jiggy

Member
Short form:
I don't know which of these best briefly expresses how much I'm loving Vesperia, so I'll just post each.

1) This game is a miracle on a disc.
2) I don't hate Judith; in fact, I like her a lot. :O (You who know me know why this fact is amazing.)
3) Symphonia is my third favorite game ever, and yet Vesperia is on track to end up* making me like it even more.



*Currently I'm liking it more, but I'm someone who values replays not only as much as but more than my first times through, so I can't render a verdict without playing at least twice. And, especially keeping in mind that one of the things I'm really adoring is how many skills there are to learn, how many items there are to collect, etc. (and you better believe I'll learn and collect all of them eventually) and that this element of the game will fade on replay, I hesitate to jump the gun or declare anything more than hypotheticals and possibilities.

Even moreso because we're talking about Team Symphonia and I'm sure some plot twist or game mechanic is going to come into play and fundamentally change the structure of the game for better or worse. (And given the plot twist of Symphonia, late-game air travel in Symphonia, and all-too-early-game air travel in Abyss, historically it's been for worse with me. :p) So, while I'm hoping that it's going to keep up its current pace even on replay, I'm prepared for the possibility that it won't.



Long form:
Coming later. Like flip I'd take time out of my Vesperia to write impressions. :eek: Adventures of Natalia The Sequel (Estelle) and Zelos The Sequel (Raven), go!
 

careksims

Member
Finally beat it Friday. I LOVE IT.

I consider this my RPG of the Year and one of the best RPGs I've played in a long time.

I love all the characters. No one was really annoying. The story was great. It's fantastic that me and my friends can play this game together. It never gets dull and the skits are awesome. I wish other RPGs used the skits.

Though I wish we got someone else for the music. That wasn't too memorable except Ring a Bell.

Oh yeah...
Rita and Estelle 4 EVAR! Best Tales game ever!
 
Is there a list of where all the giganto monsters are and when they appear?


BTW, I agree with all the GOTY comments. This game definitely needs word of mouth to help its sales.
 

Diablos

Member
Man,
Heracles
is a pain in the ASS. Why can't I control the panel by the box that you move? And where the hell am I supposed to move it anyway? (*&#(*&$#%
 

Jiggy

Member
Well, I'm in part 3--haven't done much in it story-wise, but merely been sidequesting and grinding skills and synthesizing materials--and I just want to say one thing. For me Tales of Vesperia has been scale-redefiningly amazing. And here's why I use that term.




1) As a lot of you probably know, I truly adore Tales of Symphonia. It had been one of my three favorite games--one of my two favorites among games that don't have competitive multiplayer. And so when people in here were talking up Vesperia and saying it beats Symphonia by a huge margin, in the past (i.e. before I played ToV) I just kind of rolled my eyes and assumed they were dirty Symphonia-hating heathens and whatnot. :p

...But no. No, for where I am right now I feel this thread is spot-on: Vesperia beats Symphonia by a huge margin. This wouldn't mean much from some people; it means everything coming from me. How can a game beat something I already value so highly by a huge margin? Well, I don't know. And that's why "scale-redefining" is the only way I can describe it.




2) Prior to now, any game that I don't believe has great music, or at the very least great music where it counts*, couldn't hit higher than a B+ on my scale. That's just my value--some people's game experiences owe a lot to visuals, while mine has historically owed virtually nothing to visuals and very much to audio.

But I don't love Vesperia's music. And not only do I not love it, I barely even like it. It's primarily bland, without doing me the service of being bland in the campy kind of way that I can appreciate. It's astoundingly forgettable--I mean, I can't remember any of the battle themes and I've run through over 1500 encounters. Can't remember any of the boss themes. Only remember three of the town tunes. There's this one moonlit night kind of song that I like in all of its cornball quality, but even with that I have no idea how it goes except when I'm hearing it. About all I do remember is "Around the World."

Nonetheless, game's so amazing that it just doesn't matter to me. :O I mean, putting aside the music and a cast who I think mostly shined only at the beginning**, ToV covers basically everything I want in gaming:


  • It has pick-up-and-play value because of its fast battle system, but it can also be played for ludicrous numbers of hours on end.
  • It has an enormous degree of customization.
  • It requires thought in some areas--I was stuck on the fourth warehouse puzzle for over an hour, for example.
  • It throws dozens of numbers and statistics at me with its skills and LP management and item synthesis and grade formulas and expects me to juggle them, like any good complicated Excel spreadsheet (thanks Drinky) should.
  • It allows exploration without demanding (requiring) it nor handholding.
  • It avoids a realistic aesthetic.
  • It has story, but the great majority of it (skits) is both optional and skippable.
  • And when it's not skippable, it still at least lets me stick random accessories onto my characters so I can at least entertain myself by making it all semi-parodical like I want it to be, and get Estelle trying to be serious wearing bunny ears while Yuri's off in the corner like "Hey, check my shades."
  • It provides incentives to replay with the series-standard Grade Shop.
  • It offers players a bunch of optional challenges in the secret missions. (A couple of them are stupid (and only a couple, really) but I'm just saying I love the idea of optional challenges--whether that's Tales of Vesperia or Mega Man 9 or anything else.)


So yeah, the music issue doesn't matter that much to me, and this is the only time I've ever said so for a game. That's another reason I say Vesperia is scale-redefining to me--I'm being perfectly literal. I've never before said "Eh, forgettable music, but I don't care about that," and yet now I have.



*Hi Symphonia. Your battles and your overworld are almost the only things that sounded good, but thankfully that's where most of my time is spent.


**(up to part three spoilers)
First off: what did you do to my Estelle, you game? :( She used to be a charming Natalia clone (except locked in permanent nice mode and naive mode) and say things like "These are the threads that weave our future," but now she's all "More honor for this blade" and "I will fight until we crush the menace" and "I will fight--for the world." D: Argh.

Also, I liked Yuri at first, but that was when the story was about really simple journeys like tracking down a thief or finding Phaeroh. In its current world-saving direction, he's been seeming progressively more out of place to me with his pragmatic, down-to-earth attitude. That personality worked when he was against human opponents and they were on a level playing field, but against ancient beings and spirits it just... Doesn't work for me at all. (That's not a knock on the current direction of the story. I mean, if I had it my way then all RPGs ever made would involve journeying to elemental dungeons with elemental spirits and nothing more complex than that. :p I'm only saying that the way Vesperia started off doesn't feel contiguous to what it's doing now, and I think that's largely because I felt that the characters fit in more with the original focus--and Yuri most prominently of all.)

Then there's Judy, who made a really positive impression on me at first because of her voice acting and because all of her actions prior to finding out who she was made her so ambiguous. I love characters with hidden motivations who always act friendly but could turn on anyone at a moment's notice, and she was certainly that, but once everything about what she was doing got explained, her intrigue faded and she just became a relatively static character. I still like her for her melllow-yet-killer personality, which has the kind of contradictory quality that I ask to see in all characters ever, but I'm just saying I'm disappointed there was loads of potential for her story arc to go in any number of directions and in the end not much happened with it... She tends to merely go along with everything the rest of the party does.

Will comment on the other characters another time, maybe, but Estelle, Yuri, and Judy are just the ones who I wish had done different things. That said, I will give special mention to the cast as a whole, because I think their interactions with each other are so thorough that I actually have difficulty imagining what any of these characters would be like if they weren't in a group together, which is great.
 

Jonsoncao

Banned
Unregistered007 said:
Hey guys is this game noob friendly ? I would love to get into JRPG genre
very RPG noob friendly, button smashing and nice anime cut-scenes

and the battle system is pretty deep and rewarding if u wanna do your homework about how to config different artes, strategies, and skills

also very time-consuming if you wanna get all achievements
 
Jonsoncao said:
very RPG noob friendly, button smashing and nice anime cut-scenes

and the battle system is pretty deep and rewarding if u wanna do your homework about how to config different artes, strategies, and skills

also very time-consuming if you wanna get all achievements

are you sure man because I have never played a JRPG before and I have only played WRPGs like Oblivion, Fable, Jade Empire and right now I am going through Mass Effect...
 

Firestorm

Member
Unregistered007 said:
are you sure man because I have never played a JRPG before and I have only played WRPGs like Oblivion, Fable, Jade Empire and right now I am going through Mass Effect...
I don't play many jRPGs. Buy this game. They ease you into the battle system at a good pace. Don't play on Easy, play on Normal. Other than the third boss, everything is at a balanced level.
 
Firestorm said:
I don't play many jRPGs. Buy this game. They ease you into the battle system at a good pace. Don't play on Easy, play on Normal. Other than the third boss, everything is at a balanced level.


okay I am getting this game as soon as I am done with Dead Space. Thanks for the advise.
 

Diablos

Member
I'm towards the end at the
Estellise
battle. My level is 45. Is that too low? I get owned, every single time. I ended up throwing my controller on the ground.

Where do I get that
memento
thing? I'm supposed to have it, but I don't think I do...

Please help :(
 
Diablos said:
I'm towards the end at the
Estellise
battle. My level is 45. Is that too low? I get owned, every single time. I ended up throwing my controller on the ground.

Where do I get that
memento
thing? I'm supposed to have it, but I don't think I do...

Please help :(
you dont have it by now then your not going to be able to get it until another playthrough, unless you have saves from a long time ago

advice from me: Overlimit then spam AZURE EDGE
 

Ermac

Proudly debt free. If you need a couple bucks, just ask.
Diablos said:
Oh, whatever.

Y'know, it would be really nice if you could skip all of the dialog and cutscenes before a battle like this. So stupid.


Yeah, it's pretty stupid you can't do it until playthrough number two. BTW, the music during the second part of the
Estillese
battle is awesome.
 

Diablos

Member
Ermac said:
Yeah, it's pretty stupid you can't do it until playthrough number two. BTW, the music during the second part of the
Estillese
battle is awesome.
WTF?

So you can do it, but you have to wait until the second playthrough? Who the hell thought of that?! :lol

Yeah, the music is awesome. Reminds me of the VP2 title screen music for obvious reasons.

I really do love this game, it's just that there are a few little things that irk me (convo length at times can be almost unbearable and you are spamming the A button, not being able to skip them before challenging fights, etc.)

Not sure where I'd place this for sure yet, though. It's definitely top 3 as of right now; we'll see what happens once I play Valkyria, Last Remnant and of course SO4. Blue Dragon remains my favorite JRPG this gen (lolz all you want, it's so underrated), but this is definitely better than Lost Odyssey and I'm pretty sure IU.
 

Relix

he's Virgin Tight™
Llyranor said:
Hmm, okay, how does a player-controlled Estelle select which character she casts her spells one?

Same way you choose targets? Just RB and choose.

BTW, I am still not done with the game. Gears 2 stopped me, but I shall be back=P
 

Firestorm

Member
Llyranor said:
No, I mean, I want to target party members for healing.
I know that with Rita you can aim your spell by (I think it was) letting go of the spell button then holding it again then moving it with the left analog stick. Try that?

Edit: Guess I was wrong.
 

KurowaSan

Member
doubt there are many europeans browsing this thread but... do we know when are we gonna be honored with the game being released over here? other than 'sometime next year', that is. I sure hope the release date is not that "26 Jun 2009" I'm seeing on play.com.

Damn you Bandamco for not releasing the asian version completely region free, it's compatible with both NTSC US and JP systems, but obviously it had to be region locked for our poor PAL ones. Just when you'd think the PS2 era of getting pal games 4-6 months later was over... god, even SquareEnix is releasing games on the same week worldwide.

And yeah, one would say 'well, maybe they started translating the game into different languages pretty late and they couldn't do a worldwide release'... seriously, I see it coming, they'll have the stones to release the game in english only. I wouldn't mind at all, and english is not even my first language, but it would be a freaking bad joke if after all these months, all they do is release the same version they published in the US (and charging us almost double the price : D!)
 

Jiggy

Member
You know, I can't believe I'm saying this, but Tales of Vesperia is actually so good that I forgive Namco for not translating Tales of Innocence, nor PSP Tales of Rebirth, nor PSP Tales of Phantasia. And for actually translating PSP Tales of Eternia into English (among other languages) but still not releasing it in America. Namco is absolved of all past and most future sins just because I love Vesperia so much. &#9829;

It does so many things I appreciate, and operates at such a high level with most of those things--I really can't explain how much I love it. ToV's not perfect, mind you, and maybe another time I'll elaborate on some things it really could have handled more effectively. (Hi, error-laden English script text.) But right now I just want to comment on something I appreciate immeasurably. And it's odd coming from me because I don't really care about story in video games, but...




At the very end of the game, I truly appreciate the way that any character can take up
having the final conversation
with the last boss, depending on who the party leader is. I think it's great specifically because, by that point in the story, I truly felt that every character (except possibly
Judith--not that I don't like her anyway
) had perfectly strong reasons and motivations for being there--that nobody got spotlighted to a degree that would make the others look like blatantly lesser characters. And so in the very end, when I could
basically make the main hero whoever I wanted it to be
, I have to say I like things that way.

And it also nullified my earlier criticism that by part 3
I didn't feel that Yuri's personality was suited to the new story direction and that it made things a bit less effective
. I thought
Estelle and Rita
had particularly well-suited scenes for that point --actually better than Yuri's in my opinion--and I assure you they'll be the ones I watch most often on replays.

Also, the mere fact that they thought to include this really shines a light backward on Symphonia and Abyss and how much I wish they'd had similar features. When the inevitable remakes come, be they in 2011 or 2014 or what-have-you, I hope they add such a thing. It's a rather small touch that Vesperia has created, but (at least as far as story in games will ever go with me) I consider it a very nice one. Kudos to the writers or to Team Symphonia--whoever had this idea.
 
Jiggy37 said:
You know, I can't believe I'm saying this, but Tales of Vesperia is actually so good that I forgive Namco for not translating Tales of Innocence, nor PSP Tales of Rebirth, nor PSP Tales of Phantasia. And for actually translating PSP Tales of Eternia into English (among other languages) but still not releasing it in America. Namco is absolved of all past and most future sins just because I love Vesperia so much. &#9829;

It does so many things I appreciate, and operates at such a high level with most of those things--I really can't explain how much I love it. ToV's not perfect, mind you, and maybe another time I'll elaborate on some things it really could have handled more effectively. (Hi, error-laden English script text.) But right now I just want to comment on something I appreciate immeasurably. And it's odd coming from me because I don't really care about story in video games, but...




At the very end of the game, I truly appreciate the way that any character can take up
having the final conversation
with the last boss, depending on who the party leader is. I think it's great specifically because, by that point in the story, I truly felt that every character (except possibly
Judith--not that I don't like her anyway
) had perfectly strong reasons and motivations for being there--that nobody got spotlighted to a degree that would make the others look like blatantly lesser characters. And so in the very end, when I could
basically make the main hero whoever I wanted it to be
, I have to say I like things that way.

And it also nullified my earlier criticism that by part 3
I didn't feel that Yuri's personality was suited to the new story direction and that it made things a bit less effective
. I thought
Estelle and Rita
had particularly well-suited scenes for that point --actually better than Yuri's in my opinion--and I assure you they'll be the ones I watch most often on replays.

Also, the mere fact that they thought to include this really shines a light backward on Symphonia and Abyss and how much I wish they'd had similar features. When the inevitable remakes come, be they in 2011 or 2014 or what-have-you, I hope they add such a thing. It's a rather small touch that Vesperia has created, but (at least as far as story in games will ever go with me) I consider it a very nice one. Kudos to the writers or to Team Symphonia--whoever had this idea.
I agree with this. Even Repede had his own little discussion with the final boss.

My favorite Rita/Estelle skit was
Ristelle, when you get Levitation. So awesome. Whee flight~
 

Zzoram

Member
Questions:

Is it possible to get all achievements in 2 playthroughs?

Is local co-op drop-in/drop-out?

How does New Game+ work? Can you change difficulty, so say, start on Normal and then New Game+ on Hard?
 

eznark

Banned
All right, I've tried a handful of times and am nowhere near beating
Nan and Tison

I'm level 39 with everyone, and am getting my ass absolutely handed to me. I've been able to beat everything handily to this point. Any tips?
 
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