Board 8 > Tales of Vespeakupdia

(+) Yeah! (+)

picked English dub

watched anime opening

talked to a wall

fought the tutorial battle

son woke up from nap so that's it for now

playing on switch
---

also i wish this (and all games) had auto-advance for dialogue
---

Enjoy the best Tales of game.
---

TheRock1525 posted...

Enjoy the best Tales of game.

i played Symphonia and hated it

I played zestiria and it was whatever. edna was cool. didn't finish it

this one has always been on my radar

and berseria I'll have to play sometime too

if i am lukewarm to vesperia and berseria then i feel like I've given this series a fair shake
---

also i didnt know ky kiske was in this game pretty neat crossover
---

TheRock1525 posted...

Enjoy the best Tales of game.

Berseria
---

Berseria has nowhere near as good of characters.
---

Vesperia's not my favorite Tales game, probably not even top 3, but I feel like your feelings on it generally indicate your feelings for the rest of the series. If you don't enjoy it then yeah I'd say it's a pretty safe bet you won't care for any Tales games very much.
---

Enjoy the third best Tales game!
---

Enjoy the second best Tales game

TheRock1525 posted...

Enjoy the best Tales of game.

---

TheRock1525 posted...

Berseria has nowhere near as good of characters.

Oof, can't agree! ESPECIALLY after replaying both over the last few months. Berseria has the best cast of any jRPG, especially when viewed as a group.

I cooled a lot on Vesperia after coming back to it for the first time in a decade. It's still fine, but it's probably a solid third. That last bit is real rough, I dropped it pretty close to the ending because of how much it falls off. Of course, that's from the view of it being a replay, wouldn't have dreamed of it on a first playthrough.

Berseria is the full package. Easy reigning champ. So yeah.

Xiahou Shake posted...

Enjoy the third best Tales game!

---

this one aged pretty poorly. this used to be my third favorite (behind berseria and graces f) but I'm not sure anymore.

Vesperia's kind of weird in that (at least gameplay-wise) its earlier sections aged completely horribly but its later sections are still handily among the best in the genre's history.

Basically through the entire game it's very slowly evolving from Symphonia/Abyss gameplay into an actually super mechanically deep game. It was mind-blowing at the time to see it constantly open up more and more, but now that we've seen games like Berseria that are mechanically interesting, fun and exciting right out of the gate, its unbearable to have to wait 30+ hours for something resembling modern gameplay.
---

And by the time the gameplay reaches its highest point, the story and presentation has tanked.

Not, like, Zesteria tanked where it's a complete joke for the last third. Just dull and messy.
---

hey at least you get the play as the second best Yuri in all of JRPGs
---

Berseria has the better story and combat.

Vesperia has better world, towns, dungeons, and music. And personal preference I like how short the skits are, while in Berseria skits were used most of the time as replacement for cutscenes.

Both casts are excellent. Vesperia with the better lead and cast chemistry, Berseria with better developed characters.
---

Berseria combat isn't really clicking for me, I remember graces f being a lot more enjoyable in the actual battles.

But the berseria cast is incredible and I'm really satisfied with how they handled the characters joining the party.
---

Graces f to me is the only game with better combat in the series. Shame about the rest of the game. Not awful, but sure as heck middling. Berseria is easy number one for characters and group dynamic, though Abyss has the better story, and the group dynamic there is fantastic for a very different reason.
---

The emphasis on dodging in Graces is fun as heck so I'll give it points there, but I feel like every other aspect of the combat was improved pretty enormously in Berseria so I'd be interested to hear what the Graces camp prefers about that system.
---

CC system to me is the pinnacle of the genre.

Also the dodging is just THAT good.

The Berseria system is also excellent, but unlike CC there is a real risk of getting into a situation where your character is basically worthless, and it's not always easy to get back into the fight. Graces thrives on being simple to understand and master while still being very engaging, while Berseria is a bit too complex if you want to get everything out of it.

Plus, and this is HUGE for me, I can't think of any game with a more rewarding and better feeling progression up it's difficulty levels than Graces. Every other Tales game just makes it harder and usually less fun the higher you go, and generally does so by reducing rewards. Graces rewards you and ENTICES you to increase the difficulty with various bonuses. Truly best in class.
---

Ahh, interesting - very well put! I can totally respect that.

I'm personally the sort who likes to go as deep as possible with the systems so Berseria's more complex nature definitely appeals to me, but the simple beauty and, erm, grace, in Graces' approach is hard to deny! Thinking on it that way I suppose it's easy to see why a lot of folks would prefer it. And yeah, Graces does indeed have the best difficulty system in the series. I think most Tales games shine brighest at their highest difficulty but Graces does such a great job of making it feel "worth it" beyond just the satisfaction from the challenge.
---

Yeah, that's put a lot better than I could have said. Basically, the CC system made battles feel more like duels, whereas the Berseria system makes me feel like an absolute wrecking ball just swinging wildly into things. It makes sense from a narrative perspective, I'll give it that!

I think the other thing that grinds my gears, and this is only tangentially related to battles, is that the loot system (and by extension, the equipment system) feels like a crapshoot with very few clear strengths & weaknesses except for specific pieces. Why am I trying to do so much math, this isn't path of exile.

Edit - since I'm only playing on moderate difficulty, and given my earlier statement of feeling like a wrecking ball, it might just be that all the secondary stat stuff isn't necessary for me to spend much thought on. In which case, the lack of clarity regarding strengths and weaknesses of weapons/armor feels frustrating at times.

I don't recall feeling like this for previous tales entries, but it has been half a decade since I played any.
---

Berseria definitely has the problem of having way too much stuff going on overall mechanically. Even if you dig the in depth battle mechanics, the loot system is an over complicated and honestly boring mess. It's stuff like that that keeps making me swap between it and Abyss as my #1, but at the end of the day the Berseria cast is just too universally strong.
---

Graces F has probably the best combat in a JRPG. So fun. Shame about all the other stuff.

Berseria's biggest issue is that the overworld/environment/dungeon design sucks ass, but that's been an issue in the series for a long time, it's just more obvious in 2018 instead of 2003 or whatever.

Vesperia's biggest issue to me is actually the music. It's not a good soundtrack outside of one or two songs.
---

Kind of shocking how bad the Vesperia OST is. I didn't even notice at first until the Dahngrest theme kicked in and I realized it was the first noteable track in the whole game....and is basically the only noteable track other than Fury Sparks. And even FS is pretty middling coming back to it! Even Dahngrest gets tiring from overuse.
---

why did i just sparkle after a battle
---

Like, in the world map?

If so, that's a holy bottle effect to repel enemies.
---

LapisLazuli posted...

Like, in the world map?

If so, that's a holy bottle effect to repel enemies.

but only right after a fight and only for a second or so
---

Yeah it's so you don't get jumped on the first frame after a battle and have time to go to a menu.

Think of it like when you flash for a bit after spawning in a beat em up and can't be hurt.
---

man it is super apparent that this dub was recorded line by line with no context for thr VAs.

at least the party chats flow better?
---

And sometimes the English voice actor for a character changes in mid-scene.
---

Team Rocket Elite posted...

And sometimes the English voice actor for a character changes in mid-scene.

I thought the original dub was pretty darn good but this shit drove me so bananas that I had to switch to JP audio for the remaster.
---

LapisLazuli posted...

Kind of shocking how bad the Vesperia OST is. I didn't even notice at first until the Dahngrest theme kicked in and I realized it was the first noteable track in the whole game....and is basically the only noteable track other than Fury Sparks. And even FS is pretty middling coming back to it! Even Dahngrest gets tiring from overuse.

I like the Tarqaron theme quite a bit.
---

Also yes the VA work is really obvious and distracting and it's all Patty's fault because Patty ruins everything.
---

NBIceman posted...

it's all Patty's fault because Patty ruins everything.

That's colder than the jellyfish that live on the sea floor.
---

NBIceman posted...

it's all Patty's fault because Patty ruins everything.

Can't get behind this one, matey. (Nanoja)
---

should i restart in Japanese
---

The message that you can't change voices after beginning seems to be total bullshit. I think what the message means is you can't change voices after loading a save.
---

You just need to quit the game and go back in to change the voice language. It isn't tied to the save file.
---

oh that's good to know, thanks. what a silly message.
---

Snrkiko posted...

man it is super apparent that this dub was recorded line by line with no context for thr VAs.

at least the party chats flow better?

Worst part is Troy Baker wanted to come back and reprise his role but they never contacted him
---

i played a bit in Japanese but switched back to English. i think i like estelle's Japanese voice more (the way she muttered her new nickname was endearing but in English not so much), but overall i think the odd flow of the English dub has its own clunky charm to it.

also, just saved the tree after estelle did some anime
---

lmao um

i can't beat the two knights in the burst arte tutorial
---

Snrkiko posted...

lmao um

i can't beat the two knights in the burst arte tutorial

I actually died on this fight too my first time because I didn't have any healing items

spam azure wolf from a distance

oh ya i forgot to react:

WHAAAAAAAAAA? Estelle is a PRINCESS??

and why is no one really bothered by the fact that the dragon dude just tried to assassinate her in the hotel room?

"WHAT! IT'S HIM! AHHHH. okay let's rest now." and no one bothered to alert Flynn or alexei the day of or after? lol
---

man these non-yuri characters are pretty meh to control so far
---

You don't like playing as Repede? Although, I guess I don't recall what Artes Repede would have at this point of the game.
---

haven't tried repede, but the rest were meh
---

Vesperia's non-Yuri cast spend the majority of the game being overwhelmingly "meh" gameplay-wise if not outright bad (Judith), but as long as you keep up with their skills there's a point late mid-game with each of them where they become some of the best playable characters the series has ever had. (Judith especially becomes fucking amazing, funny enough.)
---