Finished Tales of Vesperia!!

The Tales of series has to be one of the most underrated JRPG franchise out there. I mean most of the gamers I know don't have any interest in playing any game from the series for some inexplicable reason. Personally I cannot get enough of this superb franchise. I got my first Tales fix when I played Tales of Legendia for the PS2 and become a fan of its anime-esque visual and its fast and flashy game play and since then I have played and finished Tales of Symphonia and Tales of the Abyss and both these games were amazing. Even games which have scored a bit on the lower side have not been ignored in the form of Tales of Symphonia 2 and Tales of the World. This series is that awesome!


Tales of Vesperia caught my attention when it trailers hit the Internet in the summer of 07 and needless to say I was smitten by is amazing production values. No seriously, the incredible anime like visuals were totally out of world and the classic Tales game play was back in full force... in glorious HD. But to my dismay it was a 360 exclusive. The thing is as soon as the trailer and announcement of a US release came to the fore, my 360 got its first RROD attack and soon enough the machine was died. I was really annoyed and vowed never to buy another 360 again. Sure that mantra changed when the game was released to glowing reviews by the gaming fraternity for its inspired visual and the classic JRPG strappings. Every day I would browse the net watching video reviews and read reviews. And then I snapped. Soon enough I got a new 360 (a UK one) in late 2008, thinking that the UK release was around the corner. As it turned out I had to wait 8 months for the damn game, and that was infuriating as best!.

It was love at first sight the moment I put on the game and the introduction played out. Every cut-scene felt like an episode from a high class anime series, all the characters facial animation were astounding. I mean this game is easily the best looking game ever made which have anime like aesthetics (Naruto games included). Some of the backgrounds of the dungeons and towns are stunningly good, like the forest ruins of Kiev Moc or the town of Halure. Look, I am all for realistic looking games and all but when a game looks this good with its cartoony presentation I just can't help myself for wanting more games to look like Tales of Vesperia. There was one moment in the game when my party reaches a cliff hanging over the vast ocean which totally made the game's visuals stand out.

Turn-based battle systems are good if they are done with some pizazz and panache, but sometimes an action orientated system takes the cake. Same is the case with all the Tales games as the pioneer of action based game play in an RPG. Tales of Vesperia takes the formula to great heights as the battles are fast. Most battles don't even last more than 2 mins and that makes the monotonous element of RPG fresh and fun. Controlling a single character and having indirect control of the AI party members and doling out massive combos. My combo meter reached 43 hits once but I have seen monster combos of more than a 100 hits. The bosses were the most fun as implementing attacking tactics made many boss encounter outrageously fun. Oh yeah Tales of Vesperia has one feature which have been missing for sometime: a world map. The world of Terca Lumireis is vast and travelling on foot or a boat was truly epic!

Characters in Tales of Vesperia are really good. They deftly avoid the arch types of JRPGs and come off as human. Yuri, Raven and Judith were the stand out characters with their deep storyline yet the remaining characters were also very well fleshed out. Character interactions were awesome with often witty and amusing banters that the main leads have with each other. I have not heard such natural dialogue delivery in a JRPG since Persona 4. The voice acting, thank God was top notch. There are no annoying voices in the game. All the characters were voice appropriately but I loved the gentle yet sultry voice of the buxom Judith (who was also as my favorite character in the game for obvious reasons).

As many JPRGs are trying their best to present focused storyline (i.e Final Fantasy XIII), Tales of Vesperia's plot is involving and rewarding, The story is rife with twists and turns, ancient technology and races and political angles. Such plot lines were usually found in many JRPGs of the PS2 era, but in the HD era such twisting plot lines have been replaced. Many game sites nominated the story of Tales of Vesperia in the Best Story category, much to my surprise (my conspiracy theory, which will be discussed in another blog post), but after playing through the game I agreed with such an assessment.

Anyways 2 years of dedicated play, I finally finished the game I (re)bought a 360 for with a grand play time of 57 hours and 29 mins, and was greeted to a great ending. It will be a shame if Tales of Vesperia becomes the last localized game in the series after Namco Bandai reported punishing losses in 2009. With a PS3 exclusive just being announcement in the form of Tales of Xillia, I really hope that game does make it out in English. Till then I look back fondly with the time I spend with Tales of Vesperia. My rating: 9.3!!

Games of the Year Awards 2010 Day 9

2:

Mass Effect 2 (360, PC and soon PS3):

I hate WRPGs (Western RPGs). I dont like how their narratives are told, I dont like the usual fantasy setting of about 96% of WRPGs, and I don't like the non-linear exploration. Hence Mass Effect 2 was a massive choice on my list as this is the only WRPG that I actually thought was darn terrific. Something about the space setting instantly clicked with me and I have become a fan (the game series not the WRPG genre). The plot and how it is told makes all the difference as the narrative of the game is Hollywood-esque, the characters are particularly fleshed out and every decision you make has an instant bearing on the flow of the game. Its the reliance on the plot is what separates Mass Effect 2 from other games in the genre. Dare I say it seem to have taken a leaf out of Eastern RPG manuscript on how it handles the story.

And what is story it is, I mean the epic scope is just awe-inspiring. John Shepard's massive quest of saving the Universe from an indestructible threat is treated with panache and vigor as the plot is complete with intense moral decisions and a sense of grandour of the almost impossible situtaion the heroes find themselves in. This is also helped by briallant characters made up of disaprate personalities and backgrounds which makes for intriguing viewing. I consider the character of the blank slate John Shepard to be the best maybe due to how much control I have over his actions but whatever it is John Shepard felt as the complete character. Mass Effect 2 has easily the best story-line and some of the finest characters (Miranda Lawson FTW!!) this year and that says a lot in the face of some great games with stellar plot and characters released this year.

Mass Effect 2 takes the moniker of WRPG very lightly as the RPG mechanics are pretty sparse but that is off set with the feeling of actuall 'role playing' as the player is left to make any choices when conversing with many NPCs or on how the main character reacts to a given scenario which give a whole lot of independence to the player. As I rule I freak out when games give me a lot of options to think about and this is esp true when playing dense WRPGs. but Mass Effect 2 is nothing like that. I felt at ease when making tough decisions and although many decision were really hard to make, I was never over-awed, rather felt as I was IN the game. The game play itself is a major improvement over the original game with Bioware making a lot of tweaks. On a personal level the action bit in the game were awesome as the game felt like an action game even though there is a lot number crunching underneath the hood. The last time I tried a Bioware game (Knight of the Old Republic) I was bored out of my wits as the game play was pretty slow but not in Mass Effect 2.

Another aspect which made me a fan of the game was the entire presentation. The graphics are positively epic. The game uses in game engine in many of the cut scenes but boy the game still looks awesome. Even the characters all look really good (Miranda Lawson FTW!!) with real life facial expressions and animations and all environments lend a lot the the space theme. As I mentioned earlier I dont like WRPG with fantasy setting, so Mass Effect 2 sci-fi strapping just look amazing and this is why this game stands apart from rest of it contemporaries. The sound track is really strong and the voice acting is very easily one of the best due to a) a large number of good actors were hired and b) all the voice performance are uniformly good. Such polished games are not that common.

Games earn full marks from me when a particular game get a hold of my attention and doesn't let go..EVER!. Mass Effect 2 is one of two games this year which I would think about almost constantly. Calculating how to do a mission, on how to be become the best captain/hero for my crew or on how to be become the perfect saint, Mass Effect 2 had my number. This game was epic!

I am very impressed by Mass Effect 2 as the number of improvement made over the first games are so high that in comparison Mass Effect 1 feels broken, buggy and glitchy (which it isn't). Xbox 360 has an awesome game library and Mass Effect 2 is it best game (so what if the game is about to come on the PS3, its still a year late, I mean everyone has played it already!!). It doesn't have online multiplayer nor is the game overly lengthy, but it packs a massive wallop!

So finally we come to the Game of the Year which will be unveiled very soon.

Zombie Dreamcast!!

I never owned the Dreamcast as I was bitten by the Sony 'bug' and my entire gaming existence was on the PS1, but I always admired Sega's Dreamcast from afar. First off the graphics were some of the greatest, I mean sure the PS1 did had some cool looking games, but Dreamcast was churning out loads of eye-candy. Gamspot and IGN would visited rather frequently where I would gaze at Dreamcast games screenshots and tried my level best to watch a few video clips (dial-up sucked!). Sure I was happy with my PS1 but when Sonic Adventure came out and got some really awesome reviews, I was stunned. I had a Sega Mega Drive whilst I was growing up, so a couple of Sonic games were always in my library, but the new 3D look of the hedgehog made me desperate to own one.

My attempts to make my dad get me a Dreamcast would usually be shot down as the whole concept of video games was still a little alien to him. Usually it was Crash Bandicoot who had become a marquee character for Sony that would get me through the rejection and soon the Dreamcast fever faded away. But in late 2000 another game made me go 'Sega crazy' all over again. Skies of Arcadia came out during the time when I had developed an acute liking for JRPGs, and before any of you guys start listing down the amazing JRPGs on the PS1, back then any good JRPG was the one I would want to play. And so my dad gave me a choice, either get a Dreamcast or wait for the PS2 (yeah I made it a point to make my dad aware of the impending release of the PS2), and hence I let go of my Dreamcast obsession (oh come on don't give me that look) and soon become embroiled with the PS2.

PS2 was an awesome system, but the thought of the Dreamcast would haunt me from time to time and Sonic Adventure become an elusive dream. So imagine my bewilderment when Sega came out to announce the revival of the Dreamcast which I dubbed (in my head) as Zombie Dreamcast through digital distribution on the PSN and XBOX Live, and Sonic Adventure was one of the first title to be released. I mean just when I though I was out (of playing the Dreamcast version of Sonic Adventure), Sega pulled me back in!!!. Seriously... I almost jumped out of my wheelchair with glee and since then have started counting days to the Fall release of the game. To be honest I was never sure how of digital distribution of games would actually work but PSN and XBOX Live and the Wii Shop has proved that digital distribution may well be the future of games retail. Exciting time ahead.

As a footnote to this post just want to share my thoughts on Project Natal or rather the

"KINECT". I mean seriously?!?!. Making a new word just for a piece of hardware??. I understand how they may have reached the name: KIN taken from the word kin or kinship, and ECT derived from connect, hence KIN CONNECT...KINECT?!!?!? No I meas SERIOUSLY?!?!. Look the XBOX brand has carved a massive niche in the gaming market that once was dominated by the Big N and Sony, but making up a totally new word is kinda...boorish. Back in the day the word "Wii" sounded weird but it still made sense (Wii = We), but the KINECT??!. WOW! But what is certain that Kinect will need to have some proper games for the traditional gamer unlike Wii's many shovel ware titles if they want to compete with Playstation Move as Sony are still targeting the gamers market along with the casual with games like the new Ape Escape, anyways as I said, interesting time ahead indeed!!