Just like Tales Of Symphonia, this game boasts a great gaming experience and does it ever come through!
~Story~
Each town has a power source called a Blastia, to run anything. Whether it's controlling fire, or making a barrier to keep monsters out. The world depends on Blastia. When the Blastia responsible for controlling the well that resides in the slums of a capital city, knight dropout Yuri Lowell decides to get it back. He is caught in the nobles house responsible for taking the Blastia and is thrown in prison. A stranger gives him a key and Yuri makes his escape, but he runs into a pretty noble girl named Estelle, who turns out to be a princess.She is looking for a friend of Yuri's and ends up escaping with Yuri. Yuri then has to leave town to found the criminal and Estelle comes too, hoping to run into the Lieutenant named Flynn. This simple task becomes instantly complex when the party gets larger and they seem to have their own problems.Eventually, Yuri and his new friends will soon be responsible for saving the world from the dark shadow looming in the sky:Adephagos.
*Pretty*
~Gameplay~
This game follows the same gamestyle as Symphonia. You can run side to side and if need be, you can free run. The battles are all active time, and every character uses "Artes" to deal damage in new and exciting ways. Each Arte is their own and can be used with the "Overdrive" bar to deal even more damage. A low class Arte can eventual become a Burst Arte and when if there is enough Overdrive, that can become a Mystic Arte which essentially is a cutscene of a Character doing mountains upon mountains of damage.
Character development is determined by EXP and level ups. But a player can tweak the characters to their liking by equipping skills. Skills are the knowledge hidden in weapons and armor that are learned by using them. A skill could add more strength,add another attack to the usual 3 hit chain,allow Tp to return by moving around in battle and so on. Outside of battle, are many tasks a player can do whether it's waiting on tables, or participating in a coliseum. Other tasks are usually the normal fetch and bring back quests.
*The weapons are amazing! They show up when you change them and they are BOSS*
~Visual~
The visuals follow a distinct anime style which isn't seen much (IMO I think this style is distinct to Tales, I could be wrong). The world and surrounding elements also compliment the characters and don't seem out of place.
*Halure is the prettiest place to be*
~Audio~
The audio is decent in this game. The musical score great and the battle sounds are very well made and fit perfectly. The voice overs for the characters also don't clash but gives the sense that the character and voice belong with each other.
*A decently voice over ed game, great!*
~Re-playability~
..Is definitely in this game! A feature that I have not seen in a long time is on the 360:EX NEW GAME! Yes, ladies and gentleman, I present to you a feature that was usually only seen on the Playstation console with Playstation 1 games! After you beat the game, Grade(The minuscule points given to you after every battle and is well over 1000) is used in the Grade shop to unlock certain things for the new game. Whether it's x2 exp,x2 Gald, or all your items and weapons from the previous game. Wouldn't you like to destroy that boss at the start of the game so easily and laugh at him while he does 1 damage because you have plate-mail that is from the last scene of the game? You can do it.
Note:The enemies will have more health and more damage mounted on them, don't expect a walk in the park later in the game.
*I owned the first boss so hard*
~Summary~
Tales of Vesperia is easily the best Rpg out for the 360 and will have old school Rpg fans relishing the old days where playing for 30 hours achieves more than a finished game. It achieves the hidden things that include new costumes and weapons but sadly, you're unable to beat the game in under 4 hours, so no rocket launcher for you! *Resident Evil reference*