[Multiplatform] Tales of Vesperia announced, next main Tales

The boss managed to beat me down my first time through, but I really enjoyed the demo. Music's not bad and I don't see the big deal about the controls either. It took maybe one battle to get the hang of attack and Artes being switched, but it didn't bother me really. There should be an option to change the config in the full version anyway.

I'm just pleased to get another Tales game similar to Abyss' systems and with likable characters. Playing Legendia after Abyss had kinda sapped the excitement over the upcoming Tales games for me until now.

I was speaking idiomatically.

I've always loved the Tales series, since playing Phantasia on the SNES [via emulator, sadly], I think. Actually, that's a lie. I think I played Destiny on PSX first. Either way, I grew to love the Tales series.

With a slight disdain for Legendia. It just didn't grab me like the others did.

Anyway, Vesperia looks fantastic. Not having a 360 kind of sucks in that regard, as it's supposed to be released in August. Maybe somebody will buy me on for my birthday [which is the week before] and I'll get lucky. Heh.

So, not having a 360, I'd still like to preview the music that everyone's been bashing. Is it really that bad? Personally, I think Sakuraba's [sp?] Tales music sounds very similar from game to game... Is it any different this time around?

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

The music isn't bad at all; just standard RPG fare. It sounds the same as other Tales games to me, but then I don't generally pay much attention to who the composer is unless I happen to know the name already.

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by Sousuke

So, not having a 360, I'd still like to preview the music that everyone's been bashing. Is it really that bad? Personally, I think Sakuraba's [sp?] Tales music sounds very similar from game to game... Is it any different this time around?

I disagree that Tales music sounds the same between games, that may be the effect of its usual unobtrusive genericness as well as the cue/style borrowing Sakuraba does from his other games around the same time.

There are plenty movies of the demo at nicovideo (needs registration, full demo playthrough, battle themes without sfx), I counted 6 pieces:

Title Screen (full): usual supershort orchestra theme, sounds sufficiently nice for what little there is
Field: takes strong cues from Trusty Bell, quality and development are very nice imo
Danger: sounds very annoyingly out of place, bet it's Tamura with his troubles with instrumentation he showcases in Tales since forever (more easily to catch since the move to streamed music in TotA)
Battle: rock theme, nicely mixed similarly to Sakuraba's Kirby remix in SSBB
Boss: only surprise in the demo, Golden Sum cues in a techno electronica style before only used on the Valkyrie Profile Voice Mix album as well as in the ToE arranged track Mid Boss 2 from the Peach Gumi preorder DVD
Cliff: nice use of string ensemble, something Sakuraba usually likes to hide with a louder brass ensemble

So overall considering the circumstances (only 6 tracks while soundtrack is to have 110 plus whatever ToS-R gets, music required to have usual Tales blandness, being rushed unpromoted throwaway work compared to IU and SO4) I like what I heard.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

They have a d/l for it on X-Box Live? *Makes note to look for it later. Just got Live about a month ago and I keep forgetting to d/l previews even though my brother does it all the time*

But I imagine it'll be hard to really tell about the story and characters just off a demo. I find it funny the complaints about "not as cool as the Abyss crew" considering when Tales of the Abyss first came out, I heard everyone bitching about how they weren't as cool as the Sypmphonia crew and the same complaints when Symphonia came out about previous Tales games. The only complaints that seem to have stuck are the ones from Tales of Legendia.

And Tales has always had bland music that's neither good nor bad. Just forgettable. I hope that we'll be allowed to set the controls how we want them in the final product. Seems like something that should be included as standard in games like this.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

It's not on the US marketplace yet, but you can grab it from the Japanese marketplace using a free Silver account. I have one for grabbing some early demos and other free things from there on the occasion.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Celisasu

They have a d/l for it on X-Box Live? *Makes note to look for it later. Just got Live about a month ago and I keep forgetting to d/l previews even though my brother does it all the time*

But I imagine it'll be hard to really tell about the story and characters just off a demo. I find it funny the complaints about "not as cool as the Abyss crew" considering when Tales of the Abyss first came out, I heard everyone bitching about how they weren't as cool as the Sypmphonia crew and the same complaints when Symphonia came out about previous Tales games. The only complaints that seem to have stuck are the ones from Tales of Legendia.

And Tales has always had bland music that's neither good nor bad. Just forgettable. I hope that we'll be allowed to set the controls how we want them in the final product. Seems like something that should be included as standard in games like this.

Symphonia (the original), Abyss and now Vesperia are all made by the same team, the Namco Tales Studio. It's only Legendia that was made by a totally different team and they are also now developing the Symphonia 2 title for the Wii.

Played the demo, dug it for the most part but something seems off about the battle animations. I can't really place it but it seems to me like the weapons are out of proportion or something and its just throwing the animations off where everything isn't flowing as well as they did in Abyss. Minor complaint mostly over something I'll probably get used to.

I'm just really hoping for a good cast and a massive amounts of side content that made Abyss so awesome.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Hearing that Tales of Symphonia 2 is going to be done by the team that made Legendia worries me. Seeing how I like the original Symphonia as well as Abyss, this gives me high hopes for Vesperia.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Ratatosk is made by an entirely new team, different from Tales Studio and Team Melfes (Legendia).

Well, it's a mix of Namco Tales Studio and a completely new team. They don't have an official name yet.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Lacerta

Ratatosk is made by an entirely new team, different from Tales Studio and Team Melfes (Legendia).

Well, it's a mix of Namco Tales Studio and a completely new team. They don't have an official name yet.

No Tales Studio members worked on Symphonia 2 as obviously they are working of Vesperia. It was most of Team Melfes and the Soul Caliber Legends team to fill in some gaps. I'm expecting very little from it as they removed the world map which is effectively like removing the linear battle system from a Tales game as far as I'm concerned. It also recently got a 31/40 review making it the lowest rated console Tales game ever and even a point lower than Legendia got.

It's a good thing Vesperia is going to be released soon after Symphona 2 is.

How ya doing, buddy?

Symphonia 2 was composed mainly by Tales Studio. The people who filled in the gaps were NBGI staff and Mineloader, the developer that also worked on Abyss and Phantasia PSP.

The roles of Character Design, Character Design Support, General Producer ,Producer, Director, Scenario Production Manager, and Scenario Editor were not held by Tales Studio staff, all the other staff roles are.

FELIPE NO

I'm curious where you are getting this information. You just mentioned the game was mostly composed by Tales Studio but just listed every main role in video game development as being held by someone outside of the Tales Studio staff. Those roles are also all held by the same people who took that roll in Legendia. The only major role I know of that was actually filled by a Tales Studio member is the battle planner so I take my previous comment back that there are no Tales Team members.

Programming was mostly handled by the Soul Caliber Legends team as they had former experience with the platform. If you have information contrary to this I'd love to see it but I think you are confusing the development team with production team. Many Tales Studio members are part of Symphonia 2 production, but production does not deal with design and engineering of video games and the production team was brought on late during Symphonia 2s development in order to wrap up the logistics of getting the game complete and shipped.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Unfortunately, my only source on this information is from the guy who manages and operates a section of his website detailing projects Sakuraba works on (he also transcribes staff lists for almost every tales game, star ocean game, pretty much anything that Sakuraba has ever touched or one of his colleagues has touched, and at times staff lists from series he himself is just interested in transcribing). He is still in the process of transcribing the staff list from ToS-R.

It is possible that I misinterpreted what he was saying though. In which case I will feel stupid and apologize ahead of time!

Getting back on topic. If anyone hasn't noticed Vesperia demo was put up on the US Marketplace yesterday (for those who are too lazy or cannot be bothered to make a JP account). is no longer on the US Marketplace

Out of all the information I've seen so far, the only thing I do not like is Estelle's hi-ougi confirmed to be the same as Philia's -- Sacred Blame. Or Namco could have put that screen there to screw with me.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Don't know why ToS-R was discussed here instead getting an own thread, but whatever... I've put up the Tales of Symphonia: Knight of Ratatosk staff list, feel free to decide yourself whether Tales Studio is involved or not.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Cetra

It also recently got a 31/40 review making it the lowest rated console Tales game ever and even a point lower than Legendia got.

...I really question Famitsu sometimes.

Regardless, I'm still looking forward to DotNW more than I have any other game before. Symphonia's one of my favorite games. Namco wants to give me a sequel with TotA's graphics and combat system, plus motion-capture cutscenes? Hey, no complaints here. I'll be buying it the day it comes out stateside.

As for Vesperia, I'll get it as soon as I get a 360, which is... Someday. The graphics are gorgeous, the battle system improvements seem like a lot of fun.

Most amazing jew boots

You don't need to respond to Cetra's comments, they follow a certain pattern anyway.

That Famitsu review also had very little in the way of complaints with Knight of Ratatosk, which has confused more than a few people who follow Famitsu reviews-- there's no strong indication as to why the score was so "low."

But why are we talking about Symphonia 2 in here? I'm almost positive that a thread was already made for it.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

There are no threads for Symphonia 2 or I would happily bitch about it there.

How ya doing, buddy?

According to Tales of Vesperia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, it's Xbox 360.
sigh... I can't play it...

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Uh, yeah. That's the console we've been playing the demo on, and such.

FELIPE NO

For me, this' perfect timing. As I just got a 360 just a week after my birthday.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

It looks like they were waiting until E3 to put up the Vesperia demo on the US marketplace. Anyone who hasn't already gotten it by now could get it now, I guess.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

There's also a newer trailer up on the Japanese marketplace showing some animated cutscenes, some more ingame scenes, and character Hi-Ougis.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Thanks but no thanks. Why do that when Vesperia is close to being released in North America?

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

So, if anyone else is having trouble ordering the LE from their local gamestop or EB, it's been found out why.

Most Tales of games would show up as, well, "Tales of XYZ" on the EB database when the employee is doing a search. The regular version of Vesperia shows up like this.

However, the LE is retarded and appears in the system as "Vesperia CE", so your employee is going to have to search for just "Vesperia", not "Tales of". If you went in there asking and the employee couldn't find shit before, this is why.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by Pew pew pew

So, if anyone else is having trouble ordering the LE from their local gamestop or EB, it's been found out why.

Most Tales of games would show up as, well, "Tales of XYZ" on the EB database when the employee is doing a search. The regular version of Vesperia shows up like this.

However, the LE is retarded and appears in the system as "Vesperia CE", so your employee is going to have to search for just "Vesperia", not "Tales of". If you went in there asking and the employee couldn't find shit before, this is why.

Do you know how much the Limited Edition is compared with the regular version? or what sort of stuff is included in the LE?

How ya doing, buddy?