Yeah I suppose I should say a bit more about Vesperia seeing that it is my favorite console game atm, I mean I pretty much bought a 360 just for this one game.Ghostwise said:
Characters: This game has some really good characters, there's Yuri, who despite having long hair and being an anime male hero (which tend to look a little androgenous), is acted out as one of the most masculine and macho characters in a JRPG I've ever seen. In a genre where lead heroes are often whiners and full of doubt, Yuri is confident to the point of being outright cocky, decisive, and has a well developed personality from the moment you start the game. He is a vigilante, a chaotic good hero, who does what he knows is right, disregarding the law because he knows the law won't accomplish what is needed. His voice acting is great (in fact most of the English voice acting is really good in the game, which is apparently not that common to find). You can pretty much sum up Yuri with him about to get into a fight with an enemy saying "You want to fight then? Okay, bring it!" and leaving the battle saying "Yeah, I just beat you into next week"
Repede:
Repede is Yuri's dog. He's intelligent, carries a pipe in his mouth (but doesn't smoke), and fights using a dagger in his mouth. Yes, he's an animal in a JRPG, but he's not anthropomorphized, he doesn't talk, he's just your ordinary dog who happens to kick ass at fighting and despite not talking, he gets the gist of what's going on. Woof!
Flynn:
Flynn is Yuri's childhood friend and is an imperial knight (which Yuri left after being jaded about how restricted he was in being able to dole out justice, too many regulations and laws, criminals getting away because they're nobles, knights not caring about the lower quarter residents because they're poor, etc.), Flynn is also an idealist like Yuri but has stuck to trying to do things the lawful way (lawful good). Flynn agrees with the motives Yuri has but condemns his methods of dealing out justice, as it breaks the law and forces Flynn to try and arrest Yuri at some points in the game.
Raven:
Can't say too much about him because he's just loaded in spoilers, but he's awesome, he's a decade or so older than everyone else on the team so they call him "old man", which sometimes he resents and other times he brings it on himself. He's also a womanizer, he's generally really amusing to bring along as he flusters the ladies (especially Rita).
Estelle:
Some hate her because she's moe, and she is, but she's not a moeblob.. there's more to her and she's essentially the focus of the game (so far as I know). She's a noble lady who has never seen the outside world, been stuck in a castle all her life. She ventures with Yuri to find Flynn early in the game, and then well, she likes traveling so much that she keeps finding excuses to keep traveling rather than returning to the castle. She's a very talented healer (best one in the game) and frankly that talent makes her the focus of a lot of hostility and she ends up being very torn and indecisive (which some people really dislike, it sorta bothers me too but I can sorta understand why she's like that). She also has an obsession with high fives after being shown what one was by Yuri, and an obsession with Repede, who dislikes her in the beginning of the game but gets along with the other party members.
Rita:
She's the tsundere character, very brash and young, but a "genius mage", once you start getting her more powerful spells she really fucks shit up. She also has a mean backhand and likes to use it against Raven and Karol.
Karol:
I hate him but some people like him. He's an annoying kid that grows up during the course of the game, starting out as a coward but finding courage and responsibility along the way.
Judith:
she's a Krytian (just call it elf and be done with it) who fights with a spear. She's kinda emotionally distant but she likes to tease the men by wearing skimpy clothes and she's got a big rack (which is brought up several times). Her main draw for me is that she's an amazing aerial fighter. She has multiple jumps and can do a lot of her skills in mid air, which will juggle enemies for 50+ hit combos.
A few other things about the game that are awesome (aside from the combat system which I mentioned in another post):
Resource caches you find on the world map for synthesis materials (to create new stuff), sometimes you can find some rare stuff in the nodes and craft a sick weapon or something.
The item based skills system. You equip an item that has a skill on it, and you get the skill, after you earn so many Learning Points (from battles) while using that weapon, you'll permenantly learn the skills and can equip them while using another weapon. It allows for a degree of customization with your characters without making all of your characters essentially the same (the problem with materia and guardian forces in FF VII/VIII)
No random encounters, you see them all on the map (as with most tales games). If they catch you from behind they do a surprise attack on you, making your party members random. In dungeons you can use a tool to stun enemies and get a surprise attack on them, as well.
You can earn various titles for your characters, some of which give them alternate costumes. There are also attachments you can find or synthesize for your characters, you can give Yuri a black pimp hat (which he wears cocked slightly to the side which looks pretty pimp) for instance or Rita a pair of bat wings.
There are secret missions in boss fights, if you can figure them out and pull them off, not only do you get an xbox live achievement and a boost to your GRADE for the fight, but you also get additional rare items from the boss.
The GRADE shop is a thing in Tales games that adds replayability, allowing you to start a new game plus and then you buy certain upgrades (or downgrades) like either 10x experience gain or 50% experience gain, you might keep your artes, titles, recipes, skills, expand your capability to carry items from 15 of each type to 50, etc. You get GRADE points from doing really well in battles, like performing a burst or mystic arte or fatal strike will add to your grade, doing 10, 25, 50, 100, and I think 150 hit plus combos will increase your grade too, finishing a fight in 20, 10, 5, and 2 seconds or less will give bonuses to grade. Dying, using items, getting hit, and using elements the enemy is resitant to will decrease your grade.
Anyway, brilliant game.
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