Tales of Vesperia is the second major RPG release from Namco-Bandai to debut on the Xbox 360. Unlike last year’s innovative Eternal Sonata, however, Tales of Vesperia is a more to-formula release than Eternal Sonata was. That doesn’t mean the game is without its appeal, only that it’s less innovative and experimental.
Tales of Vesperia is the tenth main title in the Tales series, and is, to date, the most appealing of the series. The anime-style graphics have the right look and feel, and are relatively consistent throughout the title. The combat is smoother than usual and, like its predecessors, is an action-based RPG that keeps all the action on the main screen, rather than switching to a special “encounter” screen.
The story revolves around Yuri, a former member of the Imperial Knights who quit when he became unhappy with how the Empire treated its subjects. Accompanying him is his intelligent dog, Repede, and Estelle (Estellise, to be more formal), a successor to the royal throne who has never been outside of her castle walls and never known anything less comfortable than a modern sofa.
Their society revolves around an ancient technology called “blastia,” which has properties that can be used in a wide variety of ways, including enhancing battle skills, but also mundane tasks such as maintaining the water supply of a city. Blastia to the world of this game is pretty much what petroleum oil is to our real-world society: a lifeblood element. And viewed as a parable of our society’s dependence on oil, Tales of Vesperia takes on an extra level of unexpected depth.
As the story gets underway, a thief steals the aqua blastia responsible for the lower city’s water supply, and Yuri pursues the thief to the castle of the royal family. He is unable to capture the thief, but there runs into Estelle, who accompanies him, eventually joining his party.
The action-based battle system remains challenging throughout; it is one of those rare games that is balanced well enough that you actually have to use the defensive moves to limit your opponent’s damage on you, while still allowing you to get in some offensive maneuvers at the same time. Estelle’s entrance into the game as an ally is a particularly well-designed element early in the game; in a battle with your first boss-level character, you have to survive your encounter with him long enough to cut him down to about half of his unrevealed hit point total.
Once you get to that point, Estelle enters and provides some much-needed healing spells so you can attack your opponent a bit more freely. You’ll still need some defensive moves, but you can attack with less hesitancy and take your opponent down much more quickly than in the first half of the fight.
Using this as an example without revealing more spoilers, let’s just say that further boss-level encounters are similarly well-designed, making the experience all the more satisfying when you come out the victor.
In the end, Tales of Vesperia is much improved from previous series installments, but still has a way to go before it can be considered on-par with the top RPG offerings available today. As a second-tier RPG series, however, it delivers a satisfying experience that offers plenty to appreciate in between the bigger RPG releases.
