Tales of Vesperia finally gets a EU PAL release date

[Aboobie]

It's finally got a confirmed release date:

NAMCO BANDAI GAMES TO BRING 'TALES OF VESPERIA' FOR XBOX 360 TO EUROPE AND PAL REGIONS

Leading Role-Playing Series Makes High-Definition Debut in Europe and PAL Regions this June, with Incredible Anime-Inspired Graphics, Action-Packed Battles and New Gameplay


CERGY-PONTOISE, FRANCE – 25 March 2009 – NAMCO BANDAI Games Europe today announced that acclaimed role-playing title Tales of Vesperia is heading to Europe and PAL regions in June 2009 for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft. Tales of Vesperia delivers majestic storytelling and compelling gameplay on a massive scale as players embark on a grand adventure of discovery and intrigue.

The world of Terca Lumireis is in transition. Ten years of peace have led to an uneasy truce between the Empire and guilds, which desire to live by their own rules. Controlling the ancient technology known as “blastia,” the Empire has provided safety and prosperity to its citizens, but the people have grown uneasy with the heavy hand of their government. As former Imperial Knight Yuri Lowell, players will explore the complex relationship between blastia, the government and its people, setting foot outside the safe confines of the cities to explore a mysterious and dangerous world.

The first high-definition installment of the renowned Tales role-playing series, Tales of Vesperia brings a decade of gameplay heritage and storytelling pedigree to Xbox 360. Featuring an action-packed real-time battle system, players can chain together powerful attacks to create combos on the fly and give detailed commands to the rest of their party to create cohesive battle strategies. All-new battle features such as Fatal Strikes, Burst Artes and a multi-stage Over Limit provide more tactical depth to each encounter, while series traditions such as cooking and skits return with new twists to delight longtime fans.

It's excellent news as it's apparently the pick of jrpgs on the system and there were a lot of rumours flying around it wasn't going to get a release.

Anyone else interested in this?

[leowyatt]

After reading about this on wiki I might be interested :) Sounds like the combat system is real-time :)

[Haly]

Woooooooohooooooooo :D

Awesome news \o/ \o/ \o/

[NokkonWud]

Oddly enough, I am interested.

[Daz]

Great news :) Summer game sorted!

[Creature]

Sweet, will pick this up after Lost Odyessy and Eternal Sonata are complete.

[Ol!ver]

Yay yay yay yay yay and so on.

Me and the missus have been waiting for this for months. Can't wait.

[Wossi]

Ooooh, might have to have a look at this.

[Aboobie]

I nearly missed this but there's a demo up on XBL!

[Haly]

Oooh excellent :D

Edit: http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-GB/games/media/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d8024e4d07e9/ is the link :)

[NokkonWud]

Thanks Ste, thanks Jen. Downloading now.
If it sucks I hold you both responsible.

[Daz]

Yoink!

Ta :)

[Ol!ver]

Great work on the demo find. Can't wait !

[Aboobie]

Despite not even starting Star Ocean 4 and being 100 points shy of the full 1k in Sacred 2 (my god though, after 5 playthroughs I feel I deserved a break!) I gave in, ordered Vesperia yesterday and put 2 hours in today.

All I can say is I absolutely love it. The art direction is so different to Square's offerings so far (IU, LR, SO) and Mystwalkers that it helps it really stand out (it's closest to ES). The dialogue is quirky, the characters have actually interested me and the story seems worth following (shock horror!)... So far I'm not fully convinced by the combat but this is probably mainly due to being an old fart who prefers my fighting turn based...

I know Nokkon's picked this up, anyone else?

[Haly]

Noooooo, don't love it :p That means I'll probably love it too :/

I couldn't get into Star Ocean so I traded it in a few days ago while it still had value. So be interested to see how good ToV is although not sure when I'll manage to play it, unless I get lucky and Lovefilm send me it.

[Dunketh]

Gah, Got so much on the go but really want this too! :/

[Creature]

unless I get lucky and Lovefilm send me it.:D

[NokkonWud]

Gonna play it tomorrow. Was gonna play some but a friend came around to borrow a few of my Xbox360 games, ended up staying about 6 hours playing Football Manager and chatting Football.

I know, I'm a total sports jock-cum-nerd. A Jord.

[Streeteh]

Jerd

[NokkonWud]

So far I'm not fully convinced by the combat but this is probably mainly due to being an old fart who prefers my fighting turn based...

I'm convinced. Convinced it sucks ass.

[Streeteh]

I'm convinced. Convinced it sucks ass.

?!

So you don't like the game? I heard it was fantastic, was going to be my first 'new' 360 game purchase (as in, relatively recently released)

[NokkonWud]

No, the combat. The game itself is absolutely stunning and I'm actually really loving what I've played so far. Great characters, voice work that's actually decent (z0mg!) and the stylings are simply beautiful.

The combat doesn't "suck total ass", I just got frustrated with losing a fight at the time :p, but there is a slight delay that does annoy me and after Star Ocean the combat doesn't feel as good as it should. If this had the combat from Star Ocean it would be phenomenal.

But yes, very impressed with what I've experienced in the first hour and 40 minutes. (just left the city).

[Streeteh]

Sweet, gonna get lost odyssey, blue dragon and this i think. Star ocean can wait, for some reason it doesn't appeal to me much, when it comes to RPGs storyline is king and apparently vesperia has the stronger plot.

[NokkonWud]

Star Ocean has a plot? :p.

From what I've played of RPG's, Lost Odyssey and Tales of Vesperia start off strong in the way I found FFVII and FFVIII to start off. I hate slow starting RPG's. I will say that the start of Star Ocean is probably the most underwhelmed I've been with one. I loved the music and combat, but I had no idea what the story was.

[Pickers]

Well I go the demo, got into 3 fights, then died terribly at the hand of some massive tiger dragon beast thing so it booted me out of the game. No way in hell I could figure out how to kill it. Hence I concur the fighting sucks balls. May give it another shot another time, but I felt conned out of 30 minutes :(

[Aboobie]

Well I go the demo, got into 3 fights, then died terribly at the hand of some massive tiger dragon beast thing so it booted me out of the game. No way in hell I could figure out how to kill it. Hence I concur the fighting sucks balls. May give it another shot another time, but I felt conned out of 30 minutes :(

Both this and the Blue Dragon demos were truly awful. Throwing you into the game without any explanation of how the combat mechanics work is just stoopid and both did more to hamper the game than sell it.

[Dunketh]

So what are the top RPG's so far on the 360? I'm possibly interested in getting sucked into a jRPG soonish, Lost Odyssey is looking good, is that the best?

[Streeteh]

After asking around pretty much everyone told me to get Lost Odyssey.

[Aboobie]

So what are the top RPG's so far on the 360? I'm possibly interested in getting sucked into a jRPG soonish, Lost Odyssey is looking good, is that the best?

That, Tales of Vesperia and Blue Dragon. Or if you want Western Oblivion, Mass Effect, Fallout 3 and Fable 2 are all superb. Sacred 2 is great if you want a diablo clone and Two Worlds is probably worth ignoring although I really liked it.

For jrpgs:

Lost Odyssey > Tales of Vesperia* > Blue Dragon >>> The Last Remnant >> Infinite Undiscovery >>>> Eternal Sonata > Enchanted Arms >>> Phantasy Star Universe

*only 3 hours in and Star Ocean not played yet.

You're spoilt for choice really. What do you fancy?

[NokkonWud]

Mass Effect and Fable 2 are great for Western ones, you already know about Fallout 3.
Loved what I've played of Lost Odyssey and Tales of Vesperia.

My personal recommendation. All 4.

[Creature]

I'm enjoying it so far, haven't played that much (same as Nokkon) but getting the general gist of where to go. Got 1 achievement so far, gonna be fun when I get a day off and can finally play the damn thing properly.

[Haly]

Go for Lost Odyssey Dunketh :) That'll fill up your time plenty, then move onto another one. No point buying lots of RPGs at once :D

[Creature]

Lost Odyssey is the clear winner, when i'm done with ToV, i'll go back to it for a second play.