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Tales of Vesperia
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| List Price |
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CDN$ 59.99 |
| Our Price |
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CDN$ 56.99 |
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CDN$ 3.00 (5%) |
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| 1 Used |
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| 4 New |
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| Editorial Reviews: | |  |  | A New Generation of Tales Unfold A power struggle begins in a civilization dependant on an ancient technology, the blastia, and the Empire that controls it. The fates of two friends traveling separate paths intertwine in an epic adventure that threatens the existence of all. Tales of Vesperia marks the first Tales RPG release in high-def with detail and graphics never before seen in the series. Now, real-time battles are more exciting than ever with over limits, the ability to unleash fatal strikes, combinations and burst artes. The next evolution of the revered role-playing series comes to the Xbox 360. 
| Key Features
- A classic series returns: The newest installment of the Tales RPG series keeping the established gameplay formula that fans love
- Next Gen sights and sounds: First Tales RPG game with high-definition graphics, broadcast quality animation, and Dolby surround sound
- Evolved real-time battle system: New refinements and additions to the trademark Tales real-time battle engine making for dynamic, action-packed RPG fighting
- Fan favorite character designs: Characters designed by famous manga artist, Kosuke Fujishima, responsible for popular series' Ah! My Goddess, Sakura Taisen and You're Under Arrest
- Immersive look and feel: Detailed environments, animation and an artistic style so good, it's like playing a cartoon
- Dramatic story: Gripping tale of a young hero on a quest for justice, trust and friendship filled with unexpected twists and turns at every step
- A decade of Tales: The first game celebrating the Tales 10 year anniversary
|  Characters designed by famous manga artist, Kosuke Fujishima View larger image
 A classic series returns. View larger image |
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| Custom Reviews: | |
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| Your Ticket to JRPG Goodness on the 360 | |
|  | If you're itching for your JRPG fill, Tales of Vesperia will help you satisfy your urge.
Story: Unfortunately this game suffers a bit from your typical JRPG elements and stereotypes. However it redeems itself with its melodramatic story and amusing characters, and not so much on dwelling in deep dark pasts as it may have been in any of the previous Tales.
Graphics: Vesperia's graphics were heavy on cell-shading, however don't let the cartoonyness scare you off. The visuals are diversely attractive and bright and it also features CG and animated scenes. One might find the graphics in general to be too cutesy, but you'll get used to them in no time.
Sound: This game comes alive with full voiced dialog and a diverse cast with a sense of humor (as it's a bit of a running theme for Tales characters - but who doesn't love humor?). There's a number of great memorable BGM pieces, once again mainly composed by Sakuraba Motoi. They all bare that unique Tales charm you'll immediately recognize if you follow any of the other Tales games.
Gameplay: The battle system is what makes Vesperia (and the Tales series for that matter) stand out of the RPG crowd. It may be seen as button mashing, but button mashing itself will not win you the game without proper strategy. As the player, you control one of the characters on screen actively and execute attacks which you assign to your controls. You can successfully make combos and with the right requirements, unleash lethal attacks at your enemy.
Overall: The localization could have used a bit more work in certain places however the hype definitely lives up to its name. One does not need to be familiar with the Tales series to pick this 360 exclusive gem up.
| |  | Tales of Vesperia, part of the popular JRPG series, Tales of...blah, blah, blah, there's a lot of Tales games, has come to the 360. And I have to say finally a decent JRPG has been released on the 360, this game on its debut actually put microsoft and 360 tops in sales, and rightfully so. Tales of Vesperia just has that something to make it fun and interesting. While not being a presentational power-house opting for the traditional anime cell-shaded that is the preferred method of presentation on all Tales games. The voice-acting is good and so is the music. The combat is real-time but can be made more turn based if the party characters are controlled, the attacks and combos look great when in combat, and the characters become extremely powerful. If you consider this game in comparison to other JRPGs this game lacks in presentation and originality, but this doesn't make this game bad, this game is actually better because of the less pretencious presentation.
As I stated Tales isn't the best with graphics, but then again the focus wasn't presentation alone, a mistake that other JRPG developers have made previous. Tales focuses on the things that make a game fun and great, a great story, interesting and evolving characters that not only change through battle, but interpersonally. Yes the characters are templates of previous characters but the interaction they share with each as well as the evolving, dynamic personalities of each make for interesting and immersive character progression, there are many times where the characters have dialogues with each other to discuss the current situation and their friendship which is made even more interesting by the difference in character personality.
The main character, Yuri, your average rebel and former soldier is thrust into a journey of discovery after the theft of the lower quarter's aqua blastia. Blastia as the life sustaining and protecting ancient tools used to create barriers around cities, help bring up water, make weapons, and even learn new character based techniques. Yuri follows the thief to the upper quarter and eventually arrested. The story begins really after Yuri escapes the prison with the help of Raven, a playable character later in the game, as Yuri makes his escape he runs into Estelliese a healer with an interesting backstory. From there the journey to retrieve the aqua blastia takes place, but the story twists an turns from the aqua blastia to a whole global issue. To some the game might pace a little too slowly but I really enjoyed it, the game plays for roughly 60-70 hours with a great adherence to the story and character progression, which did not disappoint me once when I played through it except for the linear nature that the story takes, but to have the story move forward a linear progression has to happen.
Tales of Vesperia is not only a great treat for JRPG fans, but it is a great indication that some developers of JRPGs understand that presentation is not the only thing that makes for a great game in this current generation of games, there is also story, mechanics, and characters, which is promising and hopefully a trend that maintains. I really enjoy and love this game and hopefully this is the first of many Tales games to come to the 360.
| |  | If you played any Tales game or if like me you only played Tales of Symphonia and liked it, you're going to love this one. I'm not that far into the game but I already can't stop playing it. Storywise so far I can't say much but I like what I saw. Something I find quite nice is that the voices are done by the same people who made Tales of Symphonia so you'll recognize them the minute you hear them. The combat is in realtime like in Symphonia but you can now move around in 3D instead of just left and right. The graphics are anime style like the other games but with the power of the 360 everything looks really great.
It's been a long time since a game hooked me like that. This is a must buy in my book. If you're not convinced, rent it and before long you'll be back to buy it.
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