Tales of Vesperia

Tales of Vesperia (テイルズ オブ ヴェスペリア) is the tenth mothership title in the Tales series. It was developed by Namco Tales Studio and published by Namco Bandai Games for the Xbox 360. The title was announced on December 22, 2007 at Jump Festa, and was released on August 7, 2008 in Asia, and on August 26, 2008 in North America. Additionally, both release dates were planned to be a close as possible to each other. On June 26, 2009 Tales of Vesperia was released in Europe making it the second console game in the Tales series to be released there. Tales of Vesperia's characteristic genre name is RPG to Enforce "Justice" (「正義」を貫き通すRPG). It is the first and currently only game in the series to support high-definition.

Setting
Vesperia takes place on the planet Terca Lumireis. The people of Terca Lumireis have come to rely on "blastia," an ancient civilization's technology with a wide array of capabilities, such as providing water, powering ships, or creating barriers around major cities and towns to protect them from monsters. The Imperial Knights and Guild members also use "bodhi blastia" to enhance their abilities in combat. The blastia, created by the elf-like Krityans, are fueled by a substance called "aer" that lends its power to the blastia's ability, but can be fatal to humans in large concentrations.

Plot
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 but anti-social 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, the brightest star in the night sky.

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 learns 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 Captain 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 by allowing Zaude to collapse upon him.

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 irreversibly 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 is a fully playable character. Dialogue between her and Seifer implies that she herself might actually be Aifread.
 * Patty Fleur (PS3 only)

Presentation
Bandai Namco stated that the CG scenes will set records for the Tales series, using more cell shaded characters looking less rough like in Tales of the Abyss to more anime like. Additionally, the main theme, Ring a Bell, will be sung by Bonnie Pink in both Japan and North America. 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.

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.

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.

Tales of Vesperia: The First Strike

 * Main Article: Tales of Vesperia: The First Strike

Tales of Vesperia: The First Strike is the official name for the anime adaptation of Tales of Vesperia which will be released as an animated feature film in Japan in Autumn, 2009; this is the same season in which the PlayStation 3 port will be released. The movie will be a prequel to the game showing Yuri Lowell's time as an Imperial Knight.

PlayStation 3 Port
Tales of Vesperia was ported to the PlayStation 3 and released on September 17, 2009. The PlayStation 3 version of the game features full voice acting which is almost double the size of the script in the original 360 version. The game also features various new characters such as Flynn as a fully customizable, permanent playable character as well as Patty Fleur, a young girl with blond hair, who is an entirely new playable character. The game also features several unplayable characters from Tales of Vesperia: The First Strike which the game ties-in with. In addition, Repede, Flynn and Patty are selectable as on-screen avatars with new mini-games such as a racing mini-game for Repede, new subplots, skits and main game quests as well as side quests. The game also has new songs added to the game's soundtrack together with remodeled towns and new towns and dungeons. The game also includes new bosses such as the Sword Dancer from previous Tales games, Don Whitehorse and Clint/Tison/Nan, players are also able to replay boss fights at Nam Cobanda Isle.

In addition there are also new gameplay elements such as higher Overlimit Levels up to 8, more Mystic Artes including a dual Mystic Arte with Yuri and Flynn, new Artes, skills and equipments for characters. A new key item has also been added called the "Artes Ball" which allows an additional 8 Artes Shorcuts to be assigned to the previous 8 slots combined with the L1 button, which allows for a maximum of 16 Artes. The game also features a wide variety of new character costumes which include cameo costumes based on characters from previous Tales games, as well as costumes based on characters from other series, such as Xenosaga and Sgt. Frog. Also included is a scene-skip feature, a Team Arena in the Coliseum which also has new battles and modes together with Pre-Order Bonuses which are Tales of the Abyss character costumes. The game also features connectivity with the Tales spin-off, Tales of VS. for the PlayStation Portable.

On January 27, 2010 Namco Bandai stated that they currently have no details regarding this issue at the moment to release the port outside Japan. As recently as June 25, 2010, Nippon Ichi Software's Marketing Coordinator Nao Zook said within an unofficial blog post that if there is an opportunity for NIS to try to localize the game, they would love to do so.