Tales of Vesperia

Tales of Vesperia is a Role Playing game created for the Xbox 360 by Namco Bandai Games. The Xbox 360 version was released August of 2008 in Japan and North America while the European release was on June 26, 2009. However on April 4 it was confirmed that an enhanced port of Tales of Vesperia was being developed for the PlayStation 3 for release on September 17, 2009 in Japan, it contains many new features not included in the original Xbox 360 version.

Bandai Namco has stated that the CG scenes will set records for the Tales series. Additionally, the main theme, Ring a Bell, will be sung by Bonnie Pink in both Japan and North America. The Monster Encyclopedia makes its return as well. For the second time in the main games of the Tales Series, the skits are fully voiced in North America; Tales of Legendia was the first to offer this feature.

Additionally, both release dates were planned to be a close as possible to each other.

Online Content
Though Tales of Vesperia is the first main game to have online content, it doesn't do too much with the capabilities. It features only worldwide rankings on minigames, hit count, and completion time. Additionally, useful rare items can be bought, though nothing that cannot be acquired in the game will be available for download.

Battle System
The battle system is an "evolved" form of Tales of the Abyss' FR-LMBS, having many new features. For instance, in battles, more monsters may come on the battlefield after the start if they're nearby, meaning eight monsters could be fighting at once. However, in the place of FOFs, there is the ability to take out non-boss enemies if certain button combinations are used, regardless of HP. The Skill System allows the player to backstep, execute artes in midair, increase attack and defense, and other, similar effects. Weapons are the key to unlocking skills; blastia are used to bring them out (weapons, however, have no effect on artes).

Overlimit
Four overlimit gauges can be stocked up. They can all be used on one character or shared with the party. Each Overlimit Lvl stacks the bonuses of the previous ones. Four additional overlimit gauges have been added for the enhanced PlayStation 3 port of Tales of Vesperia. Even though the Overlimit Gauge can go up to Lvl 8, the same character can only use 4 at once.

Overlimit Lvl 1 - Raises Attack Power. No restriction on Artes Chains.

Overlimit Lvl 2 - Attacks force enemy to stand.

Overlimit Lvl 3 - Mystic Arte can be activated. No TP consumption.

Overlimit Lvl 4 - Invincibility.

Setting
When the aque blastia core is stolen from Zaphias's lower quarter, denying water to the lower class that lives there, a young swordsman named Yuri Lowell attempts to chase down the thief, but is arrested and jailed in the castle. During his escape, he meets a young girl named Estelle who is searching for Yuri's close friend and rival Flynn Scifo. Along with Yuri's faithful dog Repede, the three leave the safety of Zaphias' barrier to chase after both Flynn and the thief. On their way they encounter Karol Capel, a young boy who joins them to catch up with his guild, the Hunting Blades, and Rita Mordio, an intelligent, mature but temperamental blastia researcher who takes great interest in Estelle's healing magic. On their journey, Yuri learns about the state of the world and the philosophy of the guilds, who gave up their Imperial citizenship in order to live free from the rule of the Empire.

Along with Raven, a high-ranking guild member, and Judith, a mysterious Krityan woman who is hunting and destroying blastia, the group stop the machinations of an evil guild leader named Barbos and recover the aque blastia core. Yuri turns the core over to Flynn and announces his intention to form a guild with Karol, later christened Brave Vesperia.

Estelle discovers that she is known as the Child of the Full Moon, an omen of the end of the world. Unlike the rest of the world, who require a blastia in order to reconstitute aer into magic, Estelle can reconstruct aer on her own: this is how she uses her healing artes. Unfortunately, this method of conversion is so inefficient that it puts a great strain on the aer resources of the world, threatening to bring forth a disaster known as the Adephagos, a being that feeds off aer and would convert all life on the planet back to pure aer. The party also learn that the excessive blastia culture of the world is also threatening to strain the aer resources to breaking point, and that Judith's mission was to destroy the blastia that were causing the most damage to the environment.

Meanwhile, Yuri, seeing how the laws of the Empire are powerless against the corruption within its officials, takes matters into his own hands and murders two corrupt officials: Ragou, a conspirator in Barbos' plot; and Captain Cumore, a high-born knight who was using his power to commit atrocities. This brings him into conflict with Flynn, who joined the Knights in order to change the system from within instead of rebelling against it from without like Yuri is doing.

Estelle is suddenly kidnapped by Raven, who is revealed to be Imperial Knight Schwann Oltorain. Commandant Alexei is revealed as the mastermind who funded Barbos' schemes in order to create a replica of the legendary sword Dein Nomos, an aer-manipulating treasure of the royal family that can open the way to a powerful weapon known as the Enduring Shrine of Zaude. Chasing after Estelle, Yuri and the party are forced to fight Schwann, who has been blackmailed with his life by Alexei for ten years. Taking back control of his life, Schwann sacrifices himself to allow Brave Vesperia to escape a trap set by Alexei, and they pursue the Commandant. However, Schwann is rescued by his loyal subordinates and rejoins the party, shedding his previous life as Schwann to pledge his new life to Brave Vesperia as Raven.

Alexei takes control of Estelle's aer-manipulation powers and, along with his False Dein Nomos, succeeds in reviving Zaude. Yuri rescues Estelle and they pursue Alexei to Zaude, where the Commandant, tasked with saving a world that he knew was killing itself through excessive blastia use, intends to use Zaude to rewrite the natural laws of the world, destroying and recreating it. Despite the best efforts of Brave Vesperia, Alexei succeeds in activating Zaude. But to everyone's surprise, it is revealed that Zaude is not a weapon but a giant barrier blastia that Alexei has inadvertently de-activated, allowing the Adephagos to seep through into the world. Realising that his fatal mistake has doomed the world, Alexei commits suicide.

Rita researches a way to stop the Adephagos, and discovers a method to transform apatheia, which make up the cores of blastia, into spirits, which can convert aer into a safe substitute called mana. By converting every blastia core in the world into a spirit and using it to power a massive weapon, she theorises that it would have enough strength to destroy the Adephagos. Realising that such an action would irreversably change the entire world, Brave Vesperia meet with the leaders of the Empire and Guilds in order to ask permission to carry out such an act, and to discuss ways to prepare the world to survive without blastia: most notably, without the barrier blastia that have been protecting the major centres of population from rampaging monsters.

During this time, Flynn, who has been promoted to Acting Commandant, confronts Yuri in order to settle the outstanding issue of Yuri's double homicide and Yuri's willingness to let Flynn take credit for all of his accomplishments (such as retrieving the aque blastia). Their swords and beliefs clash in a fight to resolve these issues. Yuri tells Flynn that he is the leader that the world needs right now, and that Yuri is happy to be a criminal in the shadows to achieve that end. Flynn accepts this, but warns that if Yuri continues to break the law then Flynn will have no choice but to stop him; an ultimatum that Yuri gladly accepts.

Brave Vesperia receive the blessing of the worlds' leaders to carry out their plan. Unfortunately, Duke, a veteran of the Great War who has lost his faith in humanity, has revived an ancient weapon called Tarqaron with the intention of sacrificing the lives of every human in the world in order to power the weapon and destroy the Adephagos. Brave Vesperia confront him at the peak of Tarqaron, but neither can stand down due to their shared desire to save the world in their own ways. Duke and Brave Vesperia fight to resolve their conflict of beliefs, and Yuri manages to convince Duke that humanity is willing to give up their blastia to save the world. With the aid of Duke and the power of every blastia-core-turned-spirit in the world, Yuri forms a giant sword that allows him to cleave the Adephagos in two, converting it into hundreds of thousands of spirits itself and revitalising the world.

Characters
Unlike many main characters in the Tales series, Yuri has a more fully-formed personality. He's extremely empathetic, choosing to solve smaller problems from individuals rather than the larger problems. Yuri was once a knight, and therefore had traveled a little out of the city he was born in, however, he didn't do it as regularly as Flynn. Eventually, his envy for Flynn led him to decide to see the world for himself. He eventually became part of the Guild, an organization that opposes the kingdom, Brave Vesperia, named after a star.
 * Yuri Lowell

Estelle has but a few things known about her. She encounters Yuri after he sneaks in the castle she lives in. Because she was largely confined there, she was taught to use swords, and often read books (which she loves to do), giving her a great deal of knowledge.
 * Estellise Sidos Heurassein

Flynn, in contrast to Yuri, is a knight who would solve the larger problem before the smaller ones. In other words, he has a similar sense of justice to Yuri, but would rather solve them through politics. His differences in idealolgy will cause him to clash with Yuri, although the two aren't really at odds with each other.
 * Flynn Scifo

Yuri's partner, who wields a dagger. He carrys a pipe and a chain as mementos of his former masters. He is friendly around those he trusts, but dislikes it when approached by people he does not know. He's the first non-humanoid playable character.
 * Repede

A brunette-haired girl who wears goggles. She is a researcher that studies Blastia, and hates to be interrupted during her research. She is eccentric and has a poor social disposition. In battle she wields scrolls, whips and a book and is capable of using various magical attacks.
 * Rita Mordio

A little boy who wields a giant hammer and various other large weapons. He says that he is from the Hunting Blades guild (魔狩りの剣)). Due to certain circumstances he accompanies Yuri on one journey.That leads to him joing the party for the majority of the game and is the leader of The Guild Brave Vesperia
 * Karol Capel

A beautiful woman that wields a spear. She is a member of the Kritya (クリティア, Kuritia?) tribe, a minority race. She appears to be one of the more mysterious, mature and rational members of the team. She is gentle-looking, perceptive, composed, receptive, and often acts without explaining her actions, thus she cannot get an impression of the current situation. She is also decisive, persistent, witty, somewhat impulsive, and quite bold, apparently prefering to wear several revealing outfits, particularly her default outfit and her bunny outfit. She is also very flirtacious and apparently enjoys teasing the male members of the team, especially Raven and Karol, and often makes suggestive comments about 'showing a little more' of her already-impressive figure. She has also stated that she is "not a very good liar".
 * Judith

A frivolous and shady-looking old man that wears a long purple coat, and uses a bow that can fold into a sword-type weapon, he also weilds a knife. He first appears in a jail cell next to Yuri's early in the game (though he does not join the party until much later). Raven often complains about his age and doing hard work. He sometimes mentions being in the great war, and his bittersweet relationship with an unnamed girl.
 * Raven

A young adventure seeking pirate girl. She is looking for the lost treasure of the legendary pirate Aifread. Even though she's only 14, she acts much older than she is. She is skilled with guns and can also use short swords. She didn't have a role in the Xbox 360 version, so it's unclear of her role in the PS3 port, but she will be a fully playable character.
 * Patty Fleur (PS3 only)

PlayStation 3 Port
An enhanced port of Tales of Vesperia is confirmed for the PlayStation 3 and was released in Japan on September 17, 2009. This version of the game features a new playable character, Patty Fleur, and several other additional content, including new bosses such as the recurring Sword Dancer fights from previous Team Symphonia games, and Mystic Artes and full-body cut-in images. A recent trailer features the use of a two-character mystic arte by playable characters, involving both Yuri Lowell and Flynn Scifo. Flynn joins at more points of the story and is permanent by the end of the game. The theme song will remain the same as the Xbox 360 version. Also each character gets a new mystic arte for their collection. These Mystic Artes have special conditions like in Tales of the Abyss.

As of January 2010, there are "no plans" for a localization for the US and EU.

Cameo Costumes
New costumes in the PS3 port include that of cameos from characters of previous Tales games. In addition, these costumes grant a signature arte that the character can use while wearing the costume and becomes a separate arte after enough uses:
 * Yuri: Judas (Tales of Destiny 2)
 * Estelle: Chloe Valens (Tales of Legendia)
 * Flynn: Cress Albane (Tales of Phantasia)
 * Repede: Caius Qualls (Tales of the Tempest)
 * Rita: Mao (Tales of Rebirth)
 * Karol: Lloyd Irving (Tales of Symphonia)
 * Judith: Rutee Katrea (Tales of Destiny)
 * Raven: Ricardo Soldato (Tales of Innocence)
 * Patty: Anise Tatlin (Tales of the Abyss)

In addition to these cameo costumes, three more are available through preordering the game:
 * Yuri: Asch (Tales of the Abyss)
 * Estelle: Tear Grants (Tales of the Abyss)
 * Flynn: Luke fon Fabre (Tales of the Abyss)

And in addition to those, there are more cameo costumes available as downloadable content.


 * Yuri: Creed Graphite (Tales of Hearts)
 * Estelle: Elraine (Tales of Destiny 2)
 * Flynn: Lukius Bridges (Tales of the Tempest)
 * Repede: Asras (Tales of Innocence)
 * Rita: Walter Delques (Tales of Legendia)
 * Karol: Milhaust Selkirk (Tales of Rebirth)
 * Judith: Richter Abend (Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World)
 * Raven: Van Grants (Tales of the Abyss)
 * Patty: Mithos Yggdrasill (Tales of Symphonia)

New Content
The PlayStation 3 port of Tales of Vesperia contains an extensive list of new content exclusively for the PlayStation 3, these include:
 * Full voice acting which will be twice as long as the original script
 * Tie-ins with Tales of Vesperia: The First Strike
 * New playable character, Patty Fleur
 * Flynn Scifo as a fully customizable, playable character
 * Repede and Flynn as selectable on-screen avatars
 * New main game quests
 * New cutscenes
 * New subplots
 * New sidequests
 * New dungeons
 * New towns
 * Remodeled towns
 * New soundtracks
 * New bosses
 * Boss fight replays at Nam Cobanda Isle, in an area called the Door of Memories
 * New Overlimit Levels 5, 6, 7 and 8
 * New Mystic Artes (including a dual Mystic Arte with Yuri and Flynn)
 * New artes
 * New skills
 * New equipment
 * A key item known as the "Artes Ball," which allows characters to assign up to eight artes to the left stick, and eight arte shortcuts to the right stick for a new maximum of sixteen artes.
 * New costumes (including a Sgt. Frog costume for Karol )
 * New skits
 * A scene-skip feature
 * Connectivity with Tales of VS..
 * New Coliseum battles and challenges