Tales of Vesperia is teh awesome.

[ott0bot]

For seriously. Great game. The only other one I played was Tales of Symphonia, and while it was kinda cool... the characters weren't all that interesting.

If you've got a PS2, I definitely recommend picking up Tales of the Abyss. I didn't care much for Symphonia myself, but TotA is one of my favorites for the console. The characters are great, and while the story starts out a bit cliche-ish, the plot, fairly quickly, throws a curve ball at you, taking the cliche and turning it on its head.

TotA, like Vesperia, also lets you move around freely (after gaining a skill near the beginning of the game) during battle by holding down one of the buttons. That was one of my biggest gripes with Symphonia's battle system.

And if you haven't played them, try the PS1 titles, Tales of Destiny and Tales of Destiny II (actually Tales of Eternia). While I prefer ToD's characters (especially Stan, Rutee and Mary), ToD II's combat feels smoother.

I conquer. Abyss was one of those rare games I actually sunk 90 hours into the first time through. WHy? Because it was actaully fun. THe battles are 3d beat em ups and the amount of side quests and exploration is great. I agree the plot started out a bit weak, but it picked up after a few hours. Plus the dialoge was really funny, something i think is essential to a good rpg. My only real gripe is the load times. They are a bit annoying, but you get used to them. If you load it on a hard drive you can cut down on them quite a bit.

[BulletMagnet]

Last warning - UFO, you started this one. Take it to PM or I take this to the admins.

[dave4shmups]

That comment was uncalled for UFO, consider yourself warned.

I'm glad someone else finally noticed the trolling. Thanks!


dave,

Here's what I posted about Infinite Undiscovery on my message board dealie:
"I put a little bit more time in it. Thankfully I read the 1UP review, which, unlike IGN's typical drivel, was actually informative.

So, thankfully, I understand what I'm going through isn't the norm. Its still really weird though.


And honestly, "really weird" is the best description for Infinite Undiscovery. Its very unlike any JRPG I have ever played. Its like, a JRPG hack'n'slash action game or something. Its neat, and there are certainly a lot of neat ideas floating around here... but I'm just wondering if its all going to hold together.

Also, the entire premise is kinda lame (in so far as the main character and why he's involved). And the main character is really lame as well (like, WOW, you are fucking dumb) and I REALLY have a hard time enjoying JRPGs when the main characters suck (see: Every Final Fantasy after VI, Eternal Sonata (since Chopin, the ONLY decent character in that game, ISN'T really the main character).

I don't know. There's promise. I'm still testing the waters. IU is going to be on the back burner for a minute though while I finish up Tales of Vesperia, so it could be a little bit before I can give accurate impressions.

I will say the graphics are weird. Like, you can tell they're good, but the lighting in the game is fucking horrible, so everything looks like shit. Its really bizarre. Animation is really wack too."

Ok, thanks for the impressions! What about the slowdown, which I did see in IGN's video review?

Tales I and II on the PS1 look great, but are ridiculously expensive; let's hope they make it onto the PSN store.

And, BTW, I'm not arguing UFO's case here, but a lot worse things have been said of me, most recently in the "GameStop SUCKS" thread. If modding is to be effective, it needs to become more consistent around here.

[Elixir]

My copy arrived yesterday and I've already put 5 hours into it. I can't remember the last time I did that with any game. So far, the story is pretty interesting and the battle system is fun to use. I actually want to fight enemies instead of just avoiding them/only fighting them when necessary.

The only thing I dislike so far is the character portraits in the skits, which look dumb. Whoever made these can't draw ears or expressions very well. As for fully voiced skits.. there isn't as many of them as seen in Abyss, but they're still interesting to listen to given that they're voiced.

I can see myself playing through this game until the very end.

[honorless]

jp, what region is your 360 and copy of ToV?

P-A says that a US ToV will work on NTSC-U & NTSC-J systems, which sounds a little too good to be true. If you (or anyone else in this thread) has a Japanese/Asian 360 and a US ToV, could you please test this?

The only thing I dislike so far is the character portraits in the skits, which look dumb. Whoever made these can't draw ears or expressions very well.

Aw, sounds like another halfassed job from Production I.G.. I really wish Namdai would switch animation studios.

Hell, getting Kousuke Fujishima to draw static portraits would probably look nicer and cost less...

[Elixir]

If it helps any, I have the Asian English release of the game, which is in full English. I also really like the box art in comparison to the US one.

Anyway, I spent a good few hours with Vesperia just now. I'm up to the part where you have to fight Zagi on the boat. Rita is my favorite character and I absolutely love constantly spamming fireballs. English voice acting is pretty decent, but since I'm not american, I can't really tell bad English voice acting from good.

But I'm a little disappointed since I can't get a Gold membership for now. I finally decided to go for it, but it seems like the thing doesn't want to accept my credit card, so now I have to go out of my way to order a Gold subscription online. And it's cheaper if I just used my credit card. How lame.

[Etrian]

But I'm a little disappointed since I can't get a Gold membership for now. I finally decided to go for it, but it seems like the thing doesn't want to accept my credit card, so now I have to go out of my way to order a Gold subscription online. And it's cheaper if I just used my credit card. How lame.

If you have the cash handy, I think I can help you out. My credit card works without a hitch. Oh wait.. you can't remove credit cards from Xbox 360s once you enter them, right?

That sucks dude. You oughta phone Microsoft and see what's up with that.

In any case this game is pretty neat. I enjoyed Abyss a lot & even played the post-game which was massive. The style didn't interest me at all in the demo but my friend's a MAJOR Tales fan so I decided why not.. so far I'm 3 hours in, & enjoying it quite a bit. Abyss was a really long game though.. I hope I can beat this before Fable 2 and Fallout 3 comes out..

[Elixir]

If you have the cash handy, I think I can help you out. My credit card works without a hitch. Oh wait.. you can't remove credit cards from Xbox 360s once you enter them, right?

Something like that. I didn't see any options to cancel your membership, so I'm guessing I will have to end up phoning them sometime.

Does anyone else's 360 go nuts while playing this game at times? Sometimes mine will randomly wind down or make clicking noises as if it's trying to read the disc. Funny thing is, I'm rarely ever getting disc read errors from it, and it actually makes my 360 sound quieter. Then it'll wind up again to load a new area or something.

Also, this game feels like I'm playing Abyss all over again. I'm only 9 hours in, but the characters in this game have very similar personalities to the characters in Abyss. Yuri = Luke, Estelle = Tear, Flynn = Guy, Rita = Anise, Ioder = Ion. Or something like that.

[Vexorg]

If it helps any, I have the Asian English release of the game, which is in full English. I also really like the box art in comparison to the US one.

Anyway, I spent a good few hours with Vesperia just now. I'm up to the part where you have to fight Zagi on the boat. Rita is my favorite character and I absolutely love constantly spamming fireballs. English voice acting is pretty decent, but since I'm not american, I can't really tell bad English voice acting from good.

But I'm a little disappointed since I can't get a Gold membership for now. I finally decided to go for it, but it seems like the thing doesn't want to accept my credit card, so now I have to go out of my way to order a Gold subscription online. And it's cheaper if I just used my credit card. How lame.

If you can get someone to grab a 12-month subscription card, they can just send the code.

[honorless]

If it helps any, I have the Asian English release of the game, which is in full English. I also really like the box art in comparison to the US one.

Yeah, though that's kind of my last resort. Still kinda hoping that I'll find someone who can confirm or deny the alleged dual regioning on the US release, because it's a little easier to get and cheaper than the Asian English version.

(...and maybe it'd help convince Namdai USA that Tales sells well enough to bring over Innocence? Haha, I can dream...)