Tales of Vesperia - Review @ Heavy

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HiddenX

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Heavy has reviewed Tales of Vesperia:

Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition Review

Gamers are currently living in an age where the games from years past are getting remastered or completely remade. While some of the more underrated titles from the last two generations of gaming receive unexpected remasters, a good number of standout classics also get their just due in that category. In a surprising (and highly celebrated) move, Bandai Namco Entertainment announced a remaster for one of the best entries in its long-running JRPG franchise. Fans not only look towards that game as the entry that set the bar for the releases that came after it, they also regard it as one of the best JRPG's of all time. If you consider yourself a fan of that sub-genre, then Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition is an easy recommendation to consider.
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This JRPG remaster does right by its legendary source material. The original version of Tales of Vesperia is still worth returning to on its own merit. But the Japanese PS3's features that are a part of this remaster's current-gen package turns it into a must-play for series fans. The extra characters/party members, skits, battle abilities, and costumes do a lot to endear itself to those in the know and those who want to experience it for the very first time. The lack of quality of life improvements hamper the experience a bit for current-gen gamers, but Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition still maintains the lofty praise the original version garnered in years past.

Score: 8.75 out of 10
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9/10? What's Berseria then? 20/10?
 
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Uggh, I'd give Berseria a five out of ten, maybe, on a good day. Symphonia though, that was a fifteen out of ten, in my opinion. As for this one, I'm still on the fence about it, a friend picked it up recently but I've not heard any feedback as of yet.
 
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Sorry man but Berseria is IMO a musthave game. Others from franchise I really can't see anything I'd want to experience on my PC, not to mention one of them has a decent anime series to avoid grindthrough.
 
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For me, Vesperia is a very decent game, thanks to Yuri, a very likable hero, and his ragtag companions (Repedeeeee!).
Gameplay-wise, I think Symphonia was the best (best dungeons in the series!), but story-wise, Berseria was the most enjoyable for me in the whole series.
 
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Berseria did have an excellent tale to tell, I'll grant that, but I really enjoyed the exploration and combat in Symphonia. I'll likely pick up Vesperia at some point simply to have played them all.
 
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Berseria is button-mash fest to the point where you don't even need to look at the screen during fights with boring trashmobs thrown into repetable level design. You can beat entire game with two buttons - devour + x. The plot is oke-ish, characters are fine (though they should just merge pirate guy with samurai guy, nothing would be really lost here). It is 5/10 at best, but it gets more points because if you compare it to painfully plain Zestiria, then it looks much better. I liked Abyss more, need to check Vesperia next.
 
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Yeah, you nailed it with the frantic button pushing that is the only thing required of Berseria. That's a huge part of the reason why I think that and Zestiria pale in comparison to Symphonia.
 
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Sadly, I have to remind everyone once again. I don't care for combat, anything works for me. And I don't quite remember any buttonmashing, I played the game on keyboard where IIRC you map 4 consequtive moves on 4 arrow keys and that's it, press the arrow with 4 skills you need against some trashmobs type and it instakills whatever, move on. Some people might like it, some might hate it, I didn't care - all of my Berseria playthrough was think what combos I want to have that nail everything as fast as possible just to see what happens next in the world. And it delivered.

What Berseria has is the evil main protagonist with crazy sidecast including a girl who's trolling the game mechanics, levels and designs, trolls all NPCs and breaks the 4th wall to troll the player too. The mainstory about misfocused vengeance sometimes pales compared to juicy sidestories from sidequests, yet it redeems itself ending a tragedy.
Cliche? Copycat? Name me at least one game that has a similar setup.
 
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FYI, nearly all Tales games allow playing on Auto: that is, set your main character control to Auto, and all combat will be automatic, without any user input whatsoever.
And YES, the game is totally winnable this way.

So if you are a story junkie, this is the perfect setup to play these games.
 
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