Tales of Vesperia

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Tales of Vesperia

Videogames - Reviews

Written by Murphy Simmonds

Tuesday, 11 August 2009 11:41

Tales of Vesperia
X360
Atari

Japanese role playing games, or JRPGS as they are known in circles that also say things like "RTS" and "FPS" and "MMO" - that means us - are a bit of a rarity on the X360. It's Microsoft's fault. The company forgot that Japan existed when it made the first Xbox, busying itself with shooting and driving and sports to keep its western audiences happy. So it fared pretty badly in the East, where people prefer playing dating games, train simulators and JRPGs. The size didn't help. Urban Japan is not renowned for its abundance of living space and owning Xbox was like having a tank under your telly.

The X360 has fared better, but Tales of Vesperia is still among a pretty short line of traditional JRPGs available for the console - and the line of exclusive ones is even shorter. This upshot of this relative drought is that a decent by-the-numbers title is very welcome. Vesperia is certainly that.

So, what's it like? Well, it's a JRPG, which means it follows this recipe: take one feminine manboy with unusual battle prowess, add a caring posh girl who's not seen much of the world but does magic, throw in a pet with combat use and a guy with a massive axe, then send them all on an adventure. Along the way they visit lots of towns, shops and dungeons, fight a ridiculous number of monsters, gradually level up and get new powers and party members and, ultimately, thwart some terrible evil doer, thereby saving their home and the rest of the world while they're at it.

So far, so formulaic. What does Vesperia do differently? Not a lot, really, but it doesn't really need to. The story and all-American voice acting is surprisingly good - we didn't even skip through most of the audio conversations, which is a first - and there's a ton of extra-curricular stuff to hook you in: cooking, collecting, crafting and tinkering with the abilities of your group are all solid extensions of the obsessive compulsive levelling appeal which drives RPGs.

The fighting is interesting too. Traditionally stationary and turn-based, Vesperia follows the innovations of more recent JRPGs like Final Fantasy XII with a semi-realtime approach: you control one character and button mash a bit in 3D while your party fights automatically (with manual overrides). It's not perfect but it keeps things a bit fresh after the thousandth brawl. Battles are optional rather than random, presentation is user friendly and the look, while obviously lacking the Final Fantasy budget, has more than enough charm. A few anime cutscenes certainly help.

Tales of Vesperia veers occasionally close to being the exclusive JRPG the console has been lacking. But it's no killer app. As it stands, it's a much needed dip into spells, swords and monsters for Microsoft customers who've been missing their fix.