Talesof Vesperia (360)

[Winnow]

Played this last night for a little over 2 hours last night.

Overall, it seems like an average Japanese type RPG.

Positives:

-the graphics are well done, if you like the anime style cell shaded look.
-combat system is a little bit of a change with the ability to roam around the during real time combat
-a few lines of dialog are semi-funny (nothing close to Lost Odyssey)

Neutral:

-mobs and encounters remind me of Blue Dragon. While traveling, you see mobs and can encounter or avoid them.

Negatives:

-shit-tons of dialog that you click through which isn't very interesting
-I leveled eight times but don't really know what that did for me besides increase HPs, etc. So far, no points to assign or many decisions to make
-the menu graphics/UI is uninspired
-world doesn't feel very open and the locked camera views in most of the game don't help with that.

After around the two hour mark, you finally get out of the opening "act". Your camera view is locked unless you're in an outside zone. (kind of like the FF series)

The game isn't horrible but it's also not very interesting so far. Looks nice (in a kiddish anime style) but that may turn people off even more than Blue Dragon's kiddish look did.

There appear to be a lot of characters in this game and so far I only have two in my group so things look like they improve over time in the game. There's some sort of skill attachment to weapons that was just being introduced when I quit for the night.

Early Impressions: Not looking like it would be worthy of your $60 although, like Blue Dragon, could be an excellent time waster. Story looks like it could improve as well as the combat system over time.

[Funkmasterr]

Neutral:

-mobs and encounters remind me of Blue Dragon. While traveling, you see mobs and can encounter or avoid them.

I don't know why, cause there really isn't any difference, but I really don't like it when the mobs are visible and chase you around. For JRPG'S I just prefer to have it completely random and have the fight screen pop up like FF, LO, so on.


I think I have decided to skip this one, and maybe get it later once I've gotten through all the games coming out this fall.. Have to save money where you can with the next few months looking like this:

Mercenaries 2: World in Flames - 8/31

Infinite Undiscovery - 9/1

Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway - 9/23

Golden Axe: Beast Rider 10/14

Rock Band 2 - 10/19

Fracture - 10/7

Dead Space - 10/20

Fable 2 - 10/21

Far Cry 2 - 10/21

Guitar Hero World Tour - 10/26

Fallout 3 - 10/28

End War - 11/4

Gears of War 2 - 11-7

Prince of Persia - 11/18

The Last Remnant - 11/20

[Winnow]

Neutral:

-mobs and encounters remind me of Blue Dragon. While traveling, you see mobs and can encounter or avoid them.

I don't know why, cause there really isn't any difference, but I really don't like it when the mobs are visible and chase you around. For JRPG'S I just prefer to have it completely random and have the fight screen pop up like FF, LO, so on.

The mobs don't chase you so much in this game and so far, even if agro, you can run away and avoid the encounter.

This is one of those games that you could wait on until the busy, quality game season is over and then pick it up cheaper during the dead months of May-July of next year.

[Sabek]

I tried the demo of this after E3.
I was completely underwhelmed. Personally I thought Eternal Sonata was much better.

[Fairweather Pure]

Infinite Undiscovery 9/2/08
Rock Band 2 9/08
Mega Man 9 9/08 (Xbox live)
Star Wars: Force Unleashed 9/16/08
Silent Hill: Homecoming 9/30/08
Guitar Hero: World Tour 10/1/08
Fallout 3 10/7/08
Ghostbusters 10/21/08 - Delayed
Dead Space 10/21/08
Left 4 Dead 11/4/08
Call of Duty: World at War 11/4/08
Gears of War 2 11/7/08

Dead Island Fall 08
Bionic Commando Winter 08


Resident Evil 5 3/13/09
FF 13 TBA
I Am Alive TBA
Star Ocean TBA

It didn't make my list. I'm on the fence about IU too. We'll wait and see.

[Funkmasterr]

Last I checked Fair, the new Bionic Commando was pushed out til' at least next Feb I'm looking forward to that one, multiplayer should be pretty badass.

[Fairweather Pure]

I made my list about a month ago and recheck the release dates and delays on occassion. I use it more as a general guideline.

I'm curious about a whole bunch of games, like Fracture, Legendary, Rage, and plenty more. I've never had a video game holiday like this one. IMO, it's the best season ever, which is a blessing and a curse.

Lots of games are going to slip through the cracks.

[Fairweather Pure]

I'll add that there is a plethora of JRPGs hitting the market right now. It seems to be feast or famine with that genre.

Tales of Vesperia looks pretty cool, but I will wait on reviews from others here before I take the plunge.

My DVD collection is nearing it's end. That means I focus pretty much on new releases and deals only. My back catelogue is virtually complete, which frees up a lot of my petty cash for games. I've actually been saving my petty cash for the past 2 months so I can buy all the games I want, guilt free

[Funkmasterr]

I made my list about a month ago and recheck the release dates and delays on occassion. I use it more as a general guideline.

I'm curious about a whole bunch of games, like Fracture, Legendary, Rage, and plenty more. I've never had a video game holiday like this one. IMO, it's the best season ever, which is a blessing and a curse.

Lots of games are going to slip through the cracks.

Yeah that's what I don't like too.. I'm gonna miss a lot of games simply cause I can't spend 1500 dollars on games in the next four months

[Fairweather Pure]

Well, I'm trying to limit myself to the games I am really looking forward to. The rest, I will wait and read reviews and such instead of blind buying them. If it were the summer or spring gaming drought, I would just blind buy any game that caught my eye. However, having about 20-25 games thrust on you within 3 months makes me have to be much more selective.

It's pretty sad when you add up all I've spent on my 360 since last Christmas. Well, everything combined is less than 1/2 of what I paid for my computer 4 years ago, so I guess it's all relative.

I look forward to lots of late nights on the 360 this winter!

Also, I have a really good friend that is going to be getting a 360 soon. I look forward to lots of joint purchases and game swapping. All these JRPGs will be split between us and exchanged once we're done with our respective games. It's nice to have a really good friend to split costs with and share games. I just wish he would've gotten a 360 earlier

[Funkmasterr]

That's nice to have someone to trade with. I can't do that though.. Not sure why, lol. I need to have the game (I don't even like renting) and I don't ever even consider trading games in even if I don't think I'll ever play it again.

[Winnow]

I'm closing in on six hours of game play.

I can at least say the game's getting better, not worse.

Much like Blue Dragon, ToV drags out introducing elements of the game to you. I was over four hours in before they explained what Synthesis is, added the last few books, and cranked up the story a bit.

This game is has some a cooking skill that can waste all sorts of ime and you can also collect all sorts of mob drops that allow you to create new items. It takes multiple hours of playing it to start to get a grip on what's available for customizing your characters and how to set up your strategies. Since you usually only control one character in your group, there's a rather complex set up for directing how your NPCs will battle. There's the three main ones of Aggressive, Defensive and Moderate, with each of those having 6-10 settings for each NPC if you want to get that specific, which you might for casters/fighters, etc.

The story itself is still pretty childish or simple but the dialog is entertaining and I do see some character development. There's still a crapload of dialog but it's not as bad as it started out at the beginning of the game, and on top of the mandatory dialog, there's additional prompts to watch even more dialog (mini automated scenes with just the character heads popped up on the screen making expressive facial gestures)

Of the five characters I've been introduced to so far, I like Repede the best. He's a dog that smokes a pipe and uses human type weapons in battle but doesn't speak (might be why I like him).

This is a good example of what this game looks like:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJv0ZLU6ys8

If that appeals to you then try the game out.

I think for once, that setting the game on easy is way too easy for me. I haven't come close to dying. I might have to crank it up to medium! I don't think I'd even have to fight yet in situations where there's more than just my character in the group.

Example of the head pop-ups dialogs:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTvzU2dIhl4

The actual combat feels more like a button smasher fighting game than a FF type game with different key combos setting off special attacks.

I'd still describe this game as, "you'd play if it there was nothing else to play and you were in the mood for a traditional Japanese RPG, but it can wait until you've exhausted the better games coming out this holiday season" I'll be setting this to the side to play Infinite Undiscovery when it comes out early next week.

[Kwonryu DragonFist]

Do you always have the camera on that dog in that first youtube-vid Winnow?

You can switch who the "main protagonist" with the camera spotlight is, yes?

[Winnow]

Do you always have the camera on that dog in that first youtube-vid Winnow?

You can switch who the "main protagonist" with the camera spotlight is, yes?

You can switch the main character you play. I have the "Yuri" character as my main. You can also freeze time whenever you pull up a menu to select an item (like a potion) to use on yourself or party member.

[Fairweather Pure]

I had this in my hands today, but passed. I'll look for it in the cheapie bin. I figured with IU right around the corner, I would rather have that. I also preorderd Rock Band 2 and Fallout 3.