The Tales series has always been one that I looked suspiciously at, not because it’s a japanese RPG (jRPG) series but for more on how it plays. The first Tales game I played was Tales of Symphonia on the Gamecube, and to be honest I didn’t enjoy it too much. It wasn’t that the game was bland or bad, it was that the characters of the game were annoying and unlikeable, at least in my eyes. Fast forward probably about 4 years later and I find Tales of Vesperia.  I see the title and I figure why not at least try it, because games in a series can improve from their predecessors.

The first thing I can tell you right off the bat is that the game is well made and quite beautiful to look at. The characters are cell-shaded (although that is the tradition in the 3D Tales games), and the landscapes are artistic, colourful, and quite pleasing.

With that said, I can move on to the story, character, and gameplay of the game. Though the whole “LET’S SAVE THE WORLD!” business is the same as it always has been in any jRPG, the game adds a fresh blend to an old formula. The battles are as they always have been (real time action), but the system feels more complete than when it was in Symphonia, and the combat is actually fun. Usually in a jRPG, you’ll be scrolling through menus picking attacks and watching minicutscenes as they occur, I’ve played my share of those kind of  jRPGs and they can get boring sometimes. The Tales series allows you to play as if you were playing God of War, except on a more limited plane.

The character have vastly improved, and anyone who has played Tales of Vesperia will probably tell you that the characters are what make the game so good. There is no doubt in my mind that by the time you finish playing it you’ll have grown fond of at least one member in the party, if not more. You have a new take on a protagonist as well. Instead of being a goody-two-shoes, everyone abide by my morals, kind of protagonist (as jRPGs protagonists usually are), you’re given a man who lives by his own creed, who acts as a true hero by slaying the evil to protect the just, and allows everyone their own opinion and their own morals. Of course you do have you’re white knight in the game, but this time you oppose that type of person instead of being that person. I find it to be a fresh outlook. One thing that’s a major bonus about the game is that you have skits as the game progress that build character development and this time around they’re voiced. It’s like having mini-cutscenes, and I have to admit, they’re well written and quite often humurous. The voice acting in the game is superb.

My only quarrels with this game is the way they set up side quests, because finding them all on your own without a guide is damn near impossible, unless you’re into the talking to everyone in every town after every cutscene kind of thing. Side quests are rewarding when done, but most of them are on a time bases (meaning you come back later in the game and it’ll be gone forever), and frankly if they eliminated the “be at the right place, at the right time” element of the side quests, the game would be better. Another quarrel is the length of the story, 40 hours is long but Tales of Symphonia was 60 hours and it’s 4 years older, I would have thought that with a bigger medium of data storage we’d get a longer adventure, I must have thought wrong.

Tales of Vesperia may be very similar to other games in terms of plot and story, but for what it lacks in story it makes up in character value and rewarding gameplay. It’s a shame people avoid these kind of titles because of the general stigma behind jRPGs. If you were to start playing the Tales series, I’d recommend Vesperia be one of the last that you’d visit because it’s regarded as the best of the Tales series, and it’s always nice to leave best for last.

By the way, if something goes wrong during your adventure, you can always buy a level up or some Vesperian cash.