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The Tales of Vesperia |OT|

Firestorm

Member
$35 on Amazon for another 50 minutes!
Zzoram said:
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?
You'd have to do 2.3 playthroughs at the very least. Probably 3.3. One normal playthrough, one speed run for the <15 hour achievement (should take about 10 hours), one low level part 1 run (so that's the .3), and then one for 100% titles and stuff since I doubt you'd do it first playthrough without a walkthrough. You could do 2.3 if you follow the Kouli sidequest guide I guess.

Co-op is just your friends can control the other characters in battle. Just set to Manual when they're playing and switch back to Auto when they're not. So yes, it's drop-in/drop-out.

Yeah. You can play Normal or Hard on first playthrough and use your grade to unlock Unknown on the next playthrough. You can switch between difficulties at any time in the game.

eznark said:
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?
You're 4 levels higher than I was so should be possible. I had to go back down the mountain (use some holy bottles, it's not that far). Stock up on items, then run back up for the fight. Was much easier that way.

Lonesome_Raod said:
Any word on the PAL version?
No.
 

ampere

Member
Firestorm said:
$35 on Amazon for another 50 minutes!
Just got it this way. Anything to say to someone who has never played a Tales game before? I like the demo for Vesperia, the art especially.
 

Firestorm

Member
ciaossu said:
Just got it this way. Anything to say to someone who has never played a Tales game before? I like the demo for Vesperia, the art especially.
The game does a pretty good job of easing you in (unlike the demo). Just give up on being able to 100% it on your first run and enjoy the ride. Only thing I tried to do was use a magic lens on every monster and do every secret mission.
 

eznark

Banned
Firestorm said:
You're 4 levels higher than I was so should be possible. I had to go back down the mountain (use some holy bottles, it's not that far). Stock up on items, then run back up for the fight. Was much easier that way.

Yeah, I think the problem is I never took the time to really figure out all the systems so I just bash away. This is the first time it seems to have come back to bite me in the ass. I ran down and stocked up, but only tried it once since then. It would be a million times less annoying if I could skip the absurdly long cut scene right before the fight. I'll give it another try or two but this relatively easy game may have gotten the better of me and I'll be selling it back...mostly because of the cut scene.
 

Firestorm

Member
eznark said:
Yeah, I think the problem is I never took the time to really figure out all the systems so I just bash away. This is the first time it seems to have come back to bite me in the ass. I ran down and stocked up, but only tried it once since then. It would be a million times less annoying if I could skip the absurdly long cut scene right before the fight. I'll give it another try or two but this relatively easy game may have gotten the better of me and I'll be selling it back...mostly because of the cut scene.
Hold X and A during the dialog. Goes a lot faster. Take down one enemy at a time. Go to strategy and get them all to target the same enemy as you're targetting. I think
Nan
first is the way to go as she can heal. If you're using Estelle too, map her Nurse or Nightingale attack to your right stick (go to Artes and scroll down until you get another page of buttons to map to) and spam that.
 

eznark

Banned
Man I feel dumb. Just went in, adjusted the strategy and boom, smoked em in the first try.

Thanks for the help, now I can hopefully finish the game!
 

john tv

Member
Finally got around to playing this for fun, and I'm absolutely loving it. I'm about 30 hours in, up to the fight with
Belius
, and I've been finding it hard to put down.

It's a little different playing these games when you already know everything there is to know about the story, but the fact that I'm still completely hooked speaks volumes about the game design IMO. Tales games have always been loaded with content, but the amount of stuff to do in this one is just ridiculous. It's a completionist's dream come true, for sure.

Tales of the Abyss was one of my favorite PS2 RPGs, but the technical issues (especially the loading) really hurt the experience for me, which is another reason TOV seems so nice. I can't be the only one wishing they'd take TOA and remake it on 360 using the TOV engine... :)
 
john tv said:
Finally got around to playing this for fun, and I'm absolutely loving it. I'm about 30 hours in, up to the fight with
Belius
, and I've been finding it hard to put down.

It's a little different playing these games when you already know everything there is to know about the story, but the fact that I'm still completely hooked speaks volumes about the game design IMO. Tales games have always been loaded with content, but the amount of stuff to do in this one is just ridiculous. It's a completionist's dream come true, for sure.

Tales of the Abyss was one of my favorite PS2 RPGs, but the technical issues (especially the loading) really hurt the experience for me, which is another reason TOV seems so nice. I can't be the only one wishing they'd take TOA and remake it on 360 using the TOV engine... :)
ToA is too recent


they need to remake ToP, I havnt played it all the way through

and I mean remake with the ToV engine, full voiceovers and 3D engine
 
john tv said:
Finally got around to playing this for fun, and I'm absolutely loving it. I'm about 30 hours in, up to the fight with
Belius
, and I've been finding it hard to put down.

It's a little different playing these games when you already know everything there is to know about the story, but the fact that I'm still completely hooked speaks volumes about the game design IMO. Tales games have always been loaded with content, but the amount of stuff to do in this one is just ridiculous. It's a completionist's dream come true, for sure.

Tales of the Abyss was one of my favorite PS2 RPGs, but the technical issues (especially the loading) really hurt the experience for me, which is another reason TOV seems so nice. I can't be the only one wishing they'd take TOA and remake it on 360 using the TOV engine... :)
Yeah, that would be nice. TotA is still my favorite in the Tales series, so seeing it remade at a later date with more advanced tech behind it would be awesome.
 

cress2000

Member
john tv said:
Tales of the Abyss was one of my favorite PS2 RPGs, but the technical issues (especially the loading) really hurt the experience for me, which is another reason TOV seems so nice. I can't be the only one wishing they'd take TOA and remake it on 360 using the TOV engine... :)

This is the thing about Tales games. They're always refining the design, making previous titles look and feel outdated. You can't help but wish you'd see old favorites remade with the newest engine.

I definitely agree with seeing a new, definitive version of ToA. It deserves it. I'd be happy even with just a freaking Wii port (with CC support) that fixes the technical problems (and sees a US release with the skits voiced).
 

eznark

Banned
Allright, I am heading to the final fortress thing now. What level do you guys suggest? Is this like a Final Fantasy where I should level a shit load more because the final boss battles are terrible?
 

Firestorm

Member
eznark said:
Allright, I am heading to the final fortress thing now. What level do you guys suggest? Is this like a Final Fantasy where I should level a shit load more because the final boss battles are terrible?
Unless you collected all the fell arms, you shouldn't have to worry too much. I finished the game at around 46 or something. If you did get all the fell arms, hit like lv70 or it's all over because you can't skip the optional boss once you've got them.
 

eznark

Banned
I don't know what any of the fell arm stuff is, but I beat the game. Made it through the final dungeon without dying, which was pretty dope.

Very, very good game.
 

Piper Az

Member
Just beat the game. Got all the costumes for Estelle, missing one for Rita and Judith. Learning skills for Raven is a pain...


Great game. Reminded me of fun I had playing SNES jRPGS.
 

john tv

Member
Actually, ARGH. I can see he's using Mighty Charge + Attack Arte Charge to charge up Devil Rage Rise, but what's he doing to get the glowing yellow ball thingy? I can't break this asshole's guard and it's driving me nuts.
 

yeb

Member
john tv said:
Actually, ARGH. I can see he's using Mighty Charge + Attack Arte Charge to charge up Devil Rage Rise, but what's he doing to get the glowing yellow ball thingy? I can't break this asshole's guard and it's driving me nuts.
The yellow ball thingy is Charge Hold or whatever it's called. He needed to have a charge ready to land Devil Rage Rise quickly enough.

Also, "Guard Break" is an actual mechanic in the game, and a hidden feature of certain artes. I think Destruction Field only works if you're strong enough to Guard Break him through raw power; it doesn't seem to have a percentage chance like other artes, especially some of Karol's.
 

john tv

Member
Firestorm said:
I remember the tip being to use overlimit with Yuri, six Destruction Fields in a row, then switch to Raven and spam Rain. It didn't work for me but seems to have worked for a lot of others.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCJ8BTQpyR8
Yeah, I'm trying that now. I keep cancelling the animation after breaking his guard. What a pain in the ass. :)

EDIT: Fiiiiiiinally got it. Damn, that was frustrating! But MAN did it feel good to beat the living snot out of Yeager once I got the secret mission out of the way. :D
 

john tv

Member
Shouta said:
That's a tough one to do. I just spammed the shit out of rain for awhile and finally got him. :lol
I ultimately did it with Destruction Field; the problem was I'd break his guard but then hit him again before he did his little heart-grasping animation, which cancelled it, but somehow I finally managed to land the proper timing and got him.

Thank God that's over. :p
 

Firestorm

Member
Before you finish the dungeon, remember to visit
Phaeroh's Crag
if you want to do the secret dungeon once finishing the game.
 

dfyb

Banned
i must be playing this wrong. i find the combat pretty boring, and that's pretty much all this game has going for it. when can i start making items? i seem to have collected lots of random items but have no way to use them. i'm at the part of the game that's in the demo.

edit: gamefly, so no manual

edit2: and is it just expected that the allies are going to suck really bad against the dragondog boss thing? it is impossible for them to really avoid being killed, and i'm about to make them not use items so they just die and wait for me to finish.
 

Papercuts

fired zero bullets in the orphanage.
dfyb said:
i must be playing this wrong. i find the combat pretty boring, and that's pretty much all this game has going for it. when can i start making items? i seem to have collected lots of random items but have no way to use them. i'm at the part of the game that's in the demo.

edit: gamefly, so no manual

Collecting the ingredients for the tree in Halure was the intro to it, you've been able to freely do it since then.
 

dfyb

Banned
Papercuts said:
Collecting the ingredients for the tree in Halure was the intro to it, you've been able to freely do it since then.
where is it in the menus? i can cook, but iunno how to make anything else.

and is it just expected that the allies are going to suck really bad against the dragondog boss thing? it is impossible for them to really avoid being killed, and i'm about to make them not use items so they just die and wait for me to finish.

also, how do i change strategy on the fly? seems to be d-pad shortcuts, but they don't seem to do anything.
 

Papercuts

fired zero bullets in the orphanage.
dfyb said:
where is it in the menus? i can cook, but iunno how to make anything else.

and is it just expected that the allies are going to suck really bad against the dragondog boss thing? it is impossible for them to really avoid being killed, and i'm about to make them not use items so they just die and wait for me to finish.

also, how do i change strategy on the fly? seems to be d-pad shortcuts, but they don't seem to do anything.

You can only synth stuff at stores.

The allies can be idiots at times, for that fight I had Estelle and Rita to keep distance while Repede was set to attack the same enemy. Then I went after the pups first to focus on the big one.

I never really dabbled with on the fly strategies, I'd always just manually do it. :p
 
I'm afraid of reading anything in this thread lest I be spoiled, but so far I'm really enjoying it. I'm pretty sure I can see the major twist coming, though. I called it really early in Tales of Symphonia and I think I'm calling it again here. We'll see if I'm right, though.
 

dfyb

Banned
ratcliffja said:
I'm afraid of reading anything in this thread lest I be spoiled, but so far I'm really enjoying it. I'm pretty sure I can see the major twist coming, though. I called it really early in Tales of Symphonia and I think I'm calling it again here. We'll see if I'm right, though.
there's a twist early on in the game. yuri's a man.
 

RetroMG

Member
dfyb said:
there's a twist early on in the game. yuri's a man.

My wife insisted on watching the opening over and over. (She still does. She loves it.) And we had a long argument over whether or not he was a guy. So when he spoke for the first time, I was like, "Hah! Told you!"

EDIT: Quick question. Is it possible for a player with a second controller to play as one of the other characters? I was just thinking if I picked up another controller, my wife and I could both play at the same time, which would be kind of fun.
 

Firestorm

Member
dfyb said:
where is it in the menus? i can cook, but iunno how to make anything else.

and is it just expected that the allies are going to suck really bad against the dragondog boss thing? it is impossible for them to really avoid being killed, and i'm about to make them not use items so they just die and wait for me to finish.

also, how do i change strategy on the fly? seems to be d-pad shortcuts, but they don't seem to do anything.
You synth stuff under "Synthesis" in stores.

If you mean the wolf from the demo, yes. I don't know why but that this just completely ramps up the difficulty all of a sudden. The rest of the game doesn't do that.

You can set strategies using the main menu before battles under either Strategy or Tactics. I forget what they called it in this game. You can then assign those to your D-Pad. Then you can use the D-Pad to give your party instructions in battle.

You can also set artes for different party members (ie. Estelle's healing spells) to your controlled character's right analog stick. Go to the artes screen and keep scrolling down.

Your combos right now will only consist of attack-attack-attack-free run attack-base arte-arcane arte I think. Later you can pull off more elaborate combos. Hopefully you're using those weapons you get from stores to learn skills. Don't be stupid like me and miss Recover or whatever it is that lets Yuri press X to recover from being hit. God >____> I was so confused as to why I hadn't got it for so long until someone here told me I'd missed it in the second freaking town.

RetroGamer42 said:
My wife insisted on watching the opening over and over. (She still does. She loves it.) And we had a long argument over whether or not he was a guy. So when he spoke for the first time, I was like, "Hah! Told you!"

EDIT: Quick question. Is it possible for a player with a second controller to play as one of the other characters? I was just thinking if I picked up another controller, my wife and I could both play at the same time, which would be kind of fun.
Yes. Just go to the strategy window and set the character you want playable to Manual. The second player can control the character during battles. Up to four players.
 
ratcliffja said:
I'm afraid of reading anything in this thread lest I be spoiled, but so far I'm really enjoying it. I'm pretty sure I can see the major twist coming, though. I called it really early in Tales of Symphonia and I think I'm calling it again here. We'll see if I'm right, though.

this game has thrown a lot of people for a loop
but thsi thread should be spoiler safe..


I am curious to know what you think the twist is...
 

yeb

Member
dfyb said:
also, how do i change strategy on the fly? seems to be d-pad shortcuts, but they don't seem to do anything.

1. Select Strategy from the menu (in battle or out of battle).
2. There will be a long list of strategies on the right, and you can assign 3 of them to D-Pad shortcuts on the left.
3. Highlight a strategy on the left and hit X to bring up the detailed tactical options for each character, like TP consumption and target selection.
4. Bring up the menu in battle and hit the assigned D-Pad shortcut for your strategy.

Just make sure you hit the blue X button, unlike the other person I explained this to. >_>
 

dfyb

Banned
RetroGamer42 said:
EDIT: Quick question. Is it possible for a player with a second controller to play as one of the other characters? I was just thinking if I picked up another controller, my wife and I could both play at the same time, which would be kind of fun.
yeah i was trying it out last night. pretty cool, but when you want to play alone again i had to reconnect the 2nd controller and press 'back' to set it to auto again... it doesn't automatically put them back to AI controlled.
yeb said:
4. Bring up the menu in battle and hit the assigned D-Pad shortcut for your strategy.
aaaah, in the menu. yeah, because i just use my overdrive if i try to do it when i'm fighting.

Firestorm said:
You synth stuff under "Synthesis" in stores.

If you mean the wolf from the demo, yes. I don't know why but that this just completely ramps up the difficulty all of a sudden. The rest of the game doesn't do that.

You can set strategies using the main menu before battles under either Strategy or Tactics. I forget what they called it in this game. You can then assign those to your D-Pad. Then you can use the D-Pad to give your party instructions in battle.

You can also set artes for different party members (ie. Estelle's healing spells) to your controlled character's right analog stick. Go to the artes screen and keep scrolling down.

Your combos right now will only consist of attack-attack-attack-free run attack-base arte-arcane arte I think. Later you can pull off more elaborate combos. Hopefully you're using those weapons you get from stores to learn skills. Don't be stupid like me and miss Recover or whatever it is that lets Yuri press X to recover from being hit. God >____> I was so confused as to why I hadn't got it for so long until someone here told me I'd missed it in the second freaking town.
thanks. i had set my own skills to shortcuts, but didn't think about setting other people's. and yeah, i guess i should have checked out the store. i'm just using stuff i've found.
 

Firestorm

Member
dfyb said:
yeah i was trying it out last night. pretty cool, but when you want to play alone again i had to reconnect the 2nd controller and press 'back' to set it to auto again... it doesn't automatically put them back to AI controlled.
aaaah, in the menu. yeah, because i just use my overdrive if i try to do it when i'm fighting.


thanks. i had set my own skills to shortcuts, but didn't think about setting other people's. and yeah, i guess i should have checked out the store. i'm just using stuff i've found.
You should be able to set them back to Auto with the first controller, shouldn't you? Just go to the Artes screen or whatever it was, go to the second character and then set it back to Auto?
 

dfyb

Banned
Firestorm said:
You should be able to set them back to Auto with the first controller, shouldn't you? Just go to the Artes screen or whatever it was, go to the second character and then set it back to Auto?
ah maybe. this is obviously my first tales game.
 

Firestorm

Member
ProTip: When grinding grade, it's nice to have a podcast running. Makes time go by much faster. Just got around 2200 I think. 1910 hit combo with Tidal Wave spam.

Is there any way to disable Burste Artes? I keep activating them by mistake and it kills my combo =( I know it doesn't matter for the grade, but it's nice to see how long I can go.
 
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