Tales of Vesperia

Tales of Vesperia is a 2008 role-playing game developed by Namco Tales Studio and published by Namco Bandai Games in Japan and North America, and Atari in Europe and Australia. An enhanced port was released exclusively in Japan for the PlayStation 3 a year later, which was also released in the West in 2018 as Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and Microsoft Windows.

Plot
In the world of Terca Lumireis, the people make use of a technology called blastia, which powers various appliances and utilities like barriers, water purification, and fighting. Blastia functions by drawing an energy called Aer, which is extracted from aer krenes, wellsprings scattered across the world. Most people in the world live in the Zaphian Empire, which controls most blastia devices, though the knowledge to replicate the technology was lost long ago. As a result of the Empire's divisive politics and social discrimination, several people broke away from it and created independent organizations called Guilds, which specialize in various types of activities (like trading, shipping, killing monsters, excavating blastia devices and making maps) and value the individual over everything else. In the Imperial capital, Zaphias, the Lower Quarter's aque blastia, used to purify and clean the water, is stolen, prompting former Imperial Knight Yuri Lowell to set out and find the thief. During his search, he is arrested, but is freed and runs into the heiress to the Imperial throne, Estellise "Estelle" Heurassein, who is looking for Yuri's best friend Flynn Scifo. After the two manage to fight off an assassin who mistook Yuri for Flynn, they flee the capital city and begin their search for him, as it may be connected to a succession crisis plaguing the Empire, which turns out to be deeply connected with Estelle's past.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) The game sports what is easily the best incarnation of the traditional Linear Motion Battle System, further improving the system created in Tales of the Abyss.
 * 2) * The Over Limit and Mystic Arte system was massively revamped:
 * 3) ** Instead of having one Over Limit gauge for each party member, there are four useable levels of Over Limit, which require an equal amount of Over Limit gauges and give increasing bonuses. The OVL gauge is also shared between party members, and there are some skills and even Artes that affect the strength of OVL.
 * 4) ** When a party member is using an Over Limit, they can use a Burst Arte: a weaker Mystic Arte that is used by holding down the Arte button after using an Arcane Arte (thus ending a combo). If the player's OVL level is 3 or above, they can use a Mystic Arte by holding down the attack button after using a Burst Arte. This massively simplifies the use of Mystic Artes and finally turns them into the powerful attacks they are meant to be.
 * 5) *** Tier 2 Mystic Artes are also easier to use, as they are simply altered versions of Mystic Artes.
 * 6) Altered Artes can now be learned by having one of nine AD Skills equipped (Dispersion, Great Deluge, Chain, Athenor, Crucible, Hellfire, Gale, Alembic, Bastion) and can be used permanently after being used 100 times, effectively doubling the amount of Artes available to each character.
 * 7) Another new mechanic is Fatal Strikes: these are special attacks that instantly kill the enemy and deal great damage to bosses, and can be chained together in a streak, not unlike normal attacks and Artes are chained into combos.
 * 8) * Fatal Strikes come in three colors: Red, Green and Blue, each corresponding to one attack type (Upper, Middle or Lower), and each enemy has a secondary health gauge for each attack type. Once one of these gauges reaches zero through repeated attacks, the corresponding Fatal Strike will become available and marked by a color-coded circle. At this point, the player can press a button to use the Fatal Strike, or let the other party members use one if they're told to.
 * 9) Unlike Tales of the Abyss, AD Skills are learned by fighting a series of battles with a certain piece of equipment, and are limited by an Ability Point score, encouraging the player to creatively mix and match abilities to build up each character. AD Skills can also be automatically equipped if the weapon they are learned from is equipped without spending AP, encouraging the player to choose carefully their equipment.
 * 10) The game has 9 party members, each with their own utility and niche in battle.
 * 11) Another new feature that was introduced in the PS3/Definitive Edition versions is that the player has access to two different Arte lists, for both analog sticks, giving them access to a total of 16 Artes. The second set of Artes can be used freely in battle by just holding down a button of the player's choosing while pressing the Arte button, and greatly increases comboing potential.
 * 12) The difficulty and control scheme can be changed at any point in the game from the main menu, which makes the game more accessible. The ability to change control scheme is also available in the console versions, which let you choose what each button does.
 * 13) Just like Tales of Symphonia and the PlayStation 2 version of Tales of the Abyss, the game has a co-op feature where up to four people can play together, each controlling a different party member. Each of them can also make their own control scheme, which, as stated above, can be changed at any time for any player.
 * 14) There are tons of sidequests available, which help enriching the setting. Not to mention, most of them give very worthwhile rewards, from access to new dungeons to new Artes for a character to hidden items.
 * 15) The story is also pretty good. It is divided in three acts, each focusing on one of the various factions that populate the setting until everything comes together in Act 2.
 * 16) * The story is also very dark, and explores different themes like morality, laws, freedom and even the exploitation of natural resources.
 * 17) The cooking system was also massively revamped, as repeatedly cooking some dishes with a certain character will unlock new ones. Four dishes can also be mapped to the analog stick to be cooked immediately after a battle is over.
 * 18) The game also sports a popular new mechanic called Hidden Missions, which are secret tasks that can be accomplished by the player during a boss battle, resulting in a massive Grade boost and a unique reward. Some of these Missions are simple to figure out, while others require you to build an elaborate strategy around them, which is a good incentive to prevent the player from just sticking to the same few builds and tactics. In the Definitive Edition, you can also repeat old boss battles in case you failed to complete their Hidden Mission (albeit players won't be able to acquire the exclusive items when doing so).
 * 19) After beating the game, you can use your total Grade to purchase rewards in the form of content carried over to a New Game + run.
 * 20) Fon Slot Chambers from Tales of the Abyss are replaced with Skill Symbols: by equipping the correct AD Skills, you will obtain a Symbol, which offers a passive boost in battle as long as the correct skill combinations are active, creating, again, a sort of skill tree for each character.
 * 21) The crafting system was also revamped from Tales of the Abyss, as you can now access crafting services (called "Synthesis") in every shop, and there are some unique items that can be crafted, too. You can also see the items that can be crafted instead of receiving a random item based on the raw materials you turn in.
 * 22) * The Search Point system return from Tales of the Abyss, and is made easier to figure out. Not to mention, Search Points now blend within the environment, so the player must keep his/her eyes peeled.
 * 23) The PlayStation 3 (and Definitive Edition) versions of the game adds a ridiculous amount of new content not seen in the 360 Version; including Flynn as a reworked and permanent party member, a brand-new character named Patty Fleur who join as a playable character, the return of the Sword Dancers, the ability to refight previously defeated bosses, new bosses (including The Hunting Blade's boss Clint), and a new bonus dungeon. Not only that, but it also introduces some new music, new dungeons, new weapons and skills, and several cutscenes were revised and edited.
 * 24) The game also lets you fast travel to places you already visited once you have the airship, which cuts a lot of filler walks between one place and another.
 * 25) The anime cutscenes (a highlight of the series) are as good as usual for Tales Of standards and were animated by Production I. G., which did animations for a lot of other games (including the Tellius Fire Emblem games).
 * 26) Some online features are also present, such as a leaderboard to share high scores on minigames, and costumes based on other games in the series or other Namco titles are available for purchase as DLC (the Definitive Edition adds new DLC costumes based on the feature film The First Strike). Despite this, the game still has a lot of content and doesn't go overboard with the DLCs (i.e.: most content is still accessible by playing the game).
 * 27) The game also had a feature film that serves a prequel which pretty good (albeit suffering from a few continuity errors) and does a good job of depicting Yuri's days in the Imperial Knights while showing us the growth of Flynn and Yuri into the characters they are in the game.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) The Xbox 360 version released back in 2008 was seen among then-Tales fans as being incomplete and half-baked in comparison to fellow Team Symphonia developed made games such as Tales of the Abyss and Tales of Symphonia. Evidence of this version being a rushed job is the fact that half of the main story is not fully voiced acted (including important parts where they should be voice acting), Flynn not joining the party (despite being an essential character in the plot and even joining in one fight near the end), aspects of the main story like the Ghost Ship being irrelevant and quickly forgotten soon after, not being able to scan enemies without using the Magic Lens more than once, certain areas of the game that were clearly meant to be accessible, and a cameo fight against other Tales Of characters in the Coliseum with the party instead of one-character only that was missing in the 360 version but was put back in the PS3/Definitive Edition versions.
 * 2) The Definitive Edition had faced some technical issues that include muffled audio in the new skits and frame dropping in certain areas.
 * 3) Hidden Missions aren't told by the game, requiring you to look them up on a guide. Some of them require the use of mechanics that are poorly explained or can be rendered impossible to complete:
 * 4) * In Zagi's second fight, the Hidden Mission is to knock him off the boat. The existence of his mechanic is never even hinted at, and even by looking it up, actually completing it is very hard due to Zagi's erratic attack patterns.
 * 5) * In the fight against Estelle, you need to use the Mother's Memento item during her second phase, which is obtainable as a reward for accompanying her safely to Mantaic. However, this item is available only by sleeping at the inn in Mantaic after you first arrive in town but before setting foot in Myorzo, just before the boss battle.
 * 6) * The battle against Yeager requires you to break his guard, then use Raven's Rain Arte on Yeager. This is extremely hard to do unless you use a very specific set of Artes (like Flynn's Beast), but most importantly, Raven isn't a mandatory party member for the battle, meaning that if he isn't in your party, the mission cannot be completed.
 * 7) Sidequests aren't marked or explained, requiring you to use a guide to find them. This move is also somewhat baffling, as Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World, a spin-off/sequel game to Tales of Symphonia which was released a few months before, did give you directions for the sidequests and warned you when they were going to expire.
 * 8) Search Points don't respawn, unlike Tales of the Abyss.
 * 9) Though the introduction of a common Over Limit gauge is a good mechanic, the AI tends to overuse it and dry up your supply of OVL gauges rather quickly, especially if you instruct them to use Lv. 3 OVL or higher to use Mystic Artes. Unlike Tales of the Abyss, you can't tell your party members when to use OVL, which can be problematic in battle. It is recommended the player turn the option off and manually do it themselves unless played with other players.
 * 10) Titles do not have noticeable effects on your character's performance in battle, making them mostly just cosmetic. Some Titles are necessary to unlock some Altered Artes, but most of them do not have other effects, unlike in Tales of Symphonia and Tales of Graces.