Tales of Vesperia

[Busu-Otoko]

Repede doesn't attack any faster than Yuri's, but combining his attacks with his teleport move to his opponents back makes him better than Yuri's.

You cannot skip the skits, just be greatful that they now have voice dialogue. In Symphonia and Abyss when they didn't have dialogue, you had to sit through text after text and that made me want to smash my t.v. b/c it took so damn long.

Fighting on the battle field is indeed slow, i've used almost all the characters that i currently have and DAMN!!!!!!! they're all freakin slow. The slowest one is Karol (he's using a huge axe or hammer; so its a given). Each characters have horrible combo's compared to the previous tales series and for some reason, they all like to do some type of 1 sec pose after you finish mashing the attack button, which pretty much leaves you WIDE open for an attack. So i agree with RedCoKid

art, graphics best looking tales, since its on hi def.

cast

, dialogue, humor (i like the humor, but i wish the dialogue was in japanese)

battle speed

[Frogacuda]

You can skip the skits...

[Mikhal]

Not being able to skip the skits would be stupid as it's been a feature since the Tales series had skits.

I've yet to play this but I will get it soon.

[Seik]

You can skip the skits no problem, yeah. But you can't skip anything else. Like long, overblown boss monologues.

[VividAriah]

Finished this the other day. The Clear Save landed me at 50:01, which includes a fair bit of idle time and synthesis ingredient hunting but not much sub-events or sidequests. I'm currently running around doing sidequests preparing for a New Game+. The Grade Shop is really expensive this time around.

Yeah, you really notice how slow everyone is in the beginning of the game. Once I got to the point where I had a decent base -> arcane arte chain (and to a much greater extent, when I started learning the Super Chain skills for even longer combos) it didn't really matter since at the end of my combo they were either stunned or knocked down. Being able to use Fatal Strikes later is really nice too for forgetting how slow they can be. Note that I don't have much experience in controlling anyone except Yuri or Judith, and my party pretty much consisted of Yuri, Estelle, Rita, and Judith whenever possible.

There were a lot more anime cutscenes than I'd expected which was really great, but with that nice quality I'm always inclined to say it could have used more of it.

Aside from the wolf boss which provided the slap in the face with which I remembered the usual Tales strategies, I can't really say anything else after that was difficult. Which isn't to say that everything is easy. There are plenty of bosses that can mess you up if you let them have the chance. As long as you've been keeping up with fighting dungeon monsters and have a decent amount of consumables left you'll be fine. If you're having trouble even with that you're probably just doing something terribly wrong and need to change something up. Most of the time it's just figuring out how to lock the boss up. Magic Lens is your friend on most of the non-humanoid bosses.

Overall I think I liked it a lot more than say Abyss or Symphonia, especially over Abyss since there was much less backtracking.

[Mikhal]

You can skip the skits no problem, yeah. But you can't skip anything else. Like long, overblown boss monologues.

I read you can hold X+A to make it move a bit faster. At the very least, it's easier than mashing a button repeatedly to skip each line.

[Klonoa]

i'm having way too much fun with this game, hope everyone is playing this on an hdtv.

[RedCoKid]

Hm... Here I've played ToV 17 hours, yet still I haven't given this game a score. Not to worry, I know I can pull off the Reviewer Arte with some effort. We all love a challenge! Ok, to do the Reviewer Arte, I first have to acquire the Critical, Fanboy, and Graphics Whore skills. Those skills each can be learned by fighting ten battles while wearing the equipment Nerd Glasses, Pacman Shirt, and Replay Watch. Too easy, eh? Don't worry, we have to synthesize them first, and that means hunting for ingredients!! YAY! Alright, the glasses and watch both require 3 Silica Crystals, a common drop from Slime Pushovers on the previous continent. All I have to do is travel back there... Oh wait, the storyline sank the ferry boat connecting the two continents! I won't be able to revisit until 50 hours from now! Alright, I guess my final score will have to wait until then... Boo... Anyway folks, stay tuned!

[Busu-Otoko]

I'm about 15 hrs into the game and i just got Judith and OL 2. Another problem i found with this game is when you knock over your opponents and they're lying flat on their backs, my attacks won't connect with them until they get back on their feet.....WTF ??

Dammit....in symphonia and abyss, that was the best part, especially when you're fighting a boss or a strong monster, you can spam the attack button while in overlimit when you knock them over and that was the best way to refill your OL gauge. I still enjoy playing TOV, but i wish i could still keep attacking monsters and bosses when they're knocked over.

[Seik]

Another problem i found with this game is when you knock over your opponents and they're lying flat on their backs, my attacks won't connect with them until they get back on their feet.....WTF ??

Yeah i bitched about that exact issues a few posts up. It blows. It makes some fights harder than they need to be.

Example: I knock boss down, continue to do awesome mega hit combo, but nothing connects because he is knocked down and in his recovery animation. I stop the combo just as soon as he gets up and my character has to pause, meanwhile the boss just goes to town on me with an overlimit or combo or both.