Tales of Vesperia Game Discussion

[Varion]

Originally Posted by Lebron

Oh and yeah, most of the music is pretty mediocre. Makes me wonder how much Sakuraba actually contributed to this one.

I get the impression just from the general feel of the music that he didn't do a huge amount - possibly just the battle themes and some of the event music, leaving Aoyama to do the rest. I'm not surprised really, considering he had Infinite Undiscovery, Star Ocean 4 and probably Valkyrie Profile DS to do at roughly the same time, all for which he's traditionally the sole composer. It is disappointing though, but then again much of his music is getting pretty mediocre these days, too. I'm glad the third battle music is actually good this time though, Abyss's was so bland it kinda took a bit of the fun out of the late stages of the game but Vesperia's third is probably my favourite. The final boss theme is a lot better too, Abyss's felt more like town music or something

I just passed on IU. The very first video of it seemed to have potential but the first gameplay trailer just totally unenthused me and I've never managed to muster any actual interest since.

Grr, it's going to be a while till I finish ToV though. Took my friend around 70 or so hours he said. With college actually starting to pick up, yeah, going to be long. Not to mention more games coming out...

Depends how fast you play, I remember a lot of people complaining that us players of the Japanese version were saying 60 and they rushed through it and took 40 or whatever. Took me 75 on my first play though I did a bunch of extra stuff, and I've mostly finished my second playthrough at 160. Oh well, pretty much got financial worth out of the 360 with that alone.

[Sety]

Originally Posted by Valdra

I'm not surprised really, considering he had Infinite Undiscovery, Star Ocean 4 and probably Valkyrie Profile DS to do at roughly the same time, all for which he's traditionally the sole composer.

Throw Etrian Odyssey 2 into that list. He did a guest piece for the EO2 Super Arranged.

But to be honest I'm mostly dissapointed by Vesperia's music I actually think Knight of Ratatosk's music was much better overall as was animation For all the prettiness of Vesperia everything looks really stiff and lifeless compared to KoR. Though I believe the director mentioned they were experimenting with motion capture in KoR which resulted in the better animation. Actually funny enough I'm pretty sure most of the battle themes in Vesperia are ripped from older pieces Sakuraba has done, some songs were just too uncannily similar for my liking. About the only really memorable new song 'Fury Sparks' does eventually get old.

[TrueKnight]

Lol, I only clocked around 26 hours or so with around level 46. Seems like I have 20 hours again to spare. Anyway decent game and all with the battle system more refined than Abyss. The music as some of you already mentioned is just flat mediocre. With the characters, while Yuri is definitely my favourite Tales lead so far but for the rest of the bunch (with the exception of Judith ), I can't help but think that Abyss had far superior character lineups in terms of personalities..... No Jade-like character, No Guy, man Vesperia's characters just seemed sore compared to Abyss'. Decent story so far though it starting to get cliche. But hey maybe that's just me.

[Asamidori]

Originally Posted by Valdra

Took me 75 on my first play though I did a bunch of extra stuff, and I've mostly finished my second playthrough at 160.

95 on my first, crafting almost everything available. Rushed through the second one and finished that at 110:48. (15 hours is doable. Just you totally need to skip everything and have to Holy Bottle through the whole game. I say get 2x Exp if you're not planning to lower this down to Easy.)

[Lebron]

Originally Posted by Valdra

I get the impression just from the general feel of the music that he didn't do a huge amount - possibly just the battle themes and some of the event music, leaving Aoyama to do the rest.

Yeah, that's what I figured. Funny enough, his work in IU was pretty awesome. Actually wished they released an OST in that regard.

Actually funny enough I'm pretty sure most of the battle themes in Vesperia are ripped from older pieces Sakuraba has done

Yeah, one of my friends thought this as well. I heard a few examples during my playthrough that makes me think they did this as well. It's like you'll hear what sounds like trademark Sakuraba, only to have it quickly fade into "meh". Maybe they mixed it up or something. Whatever the case, it definitely felt like he didn't contribute much to this project. It makes sense though due to his busy schedule as Valdra pointed out. Him and Shimomura must be living like Kings/Queens

[Narumi]

Originally Posted by kujoe

Like I said before, previews of this game really reminded me of my experience with Radiata Stories... which is quite comparable to IU actually. Radiata Stories

Which might not be surprising, as most of the tri-Ace staff were the ones that worked on Radiata Stories.

The game just feels like it was pushed out too soon. Though knowing it was the Radiata Stories staff and that parts were outsourced (MGS, feelplus) should have tempered people's expectations.

Though most of the issues people are 'complaining' about seem to stem more from general tri-Ace work than Infinite Undiscovery specifically. As good as a developer as they are, they still have their weaknesses.

[krisslanza]

Did I mention since I bought Vesperia I haven't been able to make myself play anything else because ALL I WANT TO PLAY IS VESPERIA? >.>;

And I badly want the OST. Wish I pre-ordered... I <3 almost all the music.

[RisArk]

While Abyss had more interesting genre characters, Vesperia felt more of a "Slice of life" rpg. I've never enjoyed a main character like Yuri since Zidane, and really the first time I didn't hate any of the characters.

They were used sparingly well and not all over the place like some (like say Raine and Gene were a bit forgotten in the last 4th of the game, IMO) I'm not sure if it's because they use less characters than previous games, but yeah.

Abyss felt more like an epic drama with twists and turns.

Vesperia was more of a friendly camping with your closest friends/family (except Flynn sucks. Seriously, Guy clone fails.)

[kujoe]

Originally Posted by RisArk

Vesperia was more of a friendly camping with your closest friends/family (except Flynn sucks. Seriously, Guy clone fails.)

I know Fujishima likes certain designs. But come on... He was just lazy with Flynn.

[problemedchild]

Anyone else take Repede on an epic peeing quest? That quest plus the chef quest sucked so bad......

[krisslanza]

Flynn only makes me think of Guy in appearance. In fighting-style he's closer to like... Combining Lloyd and Zelos.

I missed a LOT of side quests on my first run. Trying to get more of them now... Kind of lonely since I got lots of the "early" skits and they don't pop up again if you carry over skits

[Asamidori]

The marking quest was annoying, but as long as you remembered which areas you slept in, it's not that bad.

[Sety]

Originally Posted by krisslanza

Flynn only makes me think of Guy in appearance. In fighting-style he's closer to like... Combining Lloyd and Zelos.

Thats abit redundant since Zelos was a clone of Kratos who in turn was a Red Mage spinoff Lloyd. Then Guy was Lloyd 2.0.

[Xellos]

What's been everybody's favorite group setup so far? I'm about half-way through the game and I rather like the Yuri, Rita, Estelle, Judith combo. Judith is substituted sometimes, but I usually keep a Yuri, Rita, Estelle core. Gotta have that melee dps, nukes, and healing.

Also what's your favorite character to control? I admit that I've mostly stuck to Yuri with switching to Rita for OLs. I tried Judith for a bit, but I missed the fast style, i.e. me smashing buttons, of Yuri. I'll give everyone a decent round before picking my favorites for the second play around.

[problemedchild]

My team is the same as yours. Rita in OL is really overpowered though, you can pretty much beat any boss in the game without taking more than 2k damage after you get some of her higher tier spells.

On another topic...... I HATE the AI in this game. Rita casts Champagne... realizes it's resistant to water, now she'll decide to follow it up by Splash and Tidal Wave. Estelle's AI is the real kicker. Even if you set her to heal, keep distance and avoid risk she'll still run up to the enemy and attack them. Of course, this is very very detrimental to you during a boss fight when she gets stun locked or decides to cast ontop of the boss.

[Xellos]

Originally Posted by problemedchild

On another topic...... I HATE the AI in this game. Rita casts Champagne... realizes it's resistant to water, now she'll decide to follow it up by Splash and Tidal Wave. Estelle's AI is the real kicker. Even if you set her to heal, keep distance and avoid risk she'll still run up to the enemy and attack them. Of course, this is very very detrimental to you during a boss fight when she gets stun locked or decides to cast ontop of the boss.

I hate that as well. It gets to the pointwhere I just use the shortcuts so I can avoid the GRADE penalty when Rita keeps attacking with a resistant element or when I'm about to die because Estelle is casting Photon instead of Nightingale.

[krisslanza]

I wonder why people keep saying that about Estelle. I've had her heal me perfectly and only attack enemies if she was low on TP O.o

I had more issues with Rita constantly using the resistant elemental magic (or absorb!) all the time.

[Captain Yoruichi]

If I hear Rita say "That didn't work" during battle, I use a magic lens to see what element the enemy is resistant to, and I turn it off from the artes menu. ^_^

My main party is pretty much the same as yours; Yuri, Estelle, Rita, and Judith. For a while I was playing as Judith (my best 30 man melee time is with Judith, actually), but I went back to Yuri since I was more familiar with him. I will probably start using Judith again, though, just to mix things up a little. XD

I haven't really had too much trouble with Estelle, although sometimes it bugs me that someone will have the poison effect and instead of using Restoration to get rid of the poison, she'll do a quick fix with First Aid and just give them HP. -_-

[problemedchild]

Originally Posted by Captain Yoruichi

If I hear Rita say "That didn't work" during battle, I use a magic lens to see what element the enemy is resistant to, and I turn it off from the artes menu. ^_^

That's just annoying to do. You'll see why when you go into the EX dungeon when every single enemy you fight have different attributes.

The AI attacking with a resistant attribute is acceptable when the monster hasn't been lensed, but there's no excuse for her to keep spamming slash on a water monster that's been IDed.

Originally Posted by krisslanza

I wonder why people keep saying that about Estelle. I've had her heal me perfectly and only attack enemies if she was low on TP O.o

Here are my settings

Full Artes
Avoid Risk
Keep Distence

some other stuff I can't remember. I have ALL of her attack artes turned off during major boss fights and yet she STILL insists upon meleeing the boss instead of healing. She could cast barrier on her team members, but no, she needs to add her pitiful attack.

I can live with the problems, but that still ruins the overall experience of the game. Although I have to say that the Fell Arms are quite amusing to tinker with, 8.5k P. Atk on Yuri.

[Captain Yoruichi]

Originally Posted by problemedchild

That's just annoying to do. You'll see why when you go into the EX dungeon when every single enemy you fight have different attributes.

That's true, but when there's an enemy resistant to many elements, or many enemies resistant to different elements, you would just keep non-elemental attacks like Tractor Beam on, and turn all the elemental attacks off. The non-elemental attacks might not be as powerful, though, which would be the major drawback to using that strategy.

Sometimes I found it easier just to use Raven instead.

For Estelle, I'll have to double check to be sure, but I think I had mine set like this:
Heal
Moderate (use 50% of TP)
Moderate (keep distance at 50% of HP)
Keep Distance
Use Items: When HP low

Sometimes during boss battles I would allow her to use up to 75% of her TP. I gave her the Emerald Ring to help with TP consumption.