Tales of Vesperia added to 360 Games on Demand for €30

This is quite literally a “super bargain”. £19.99 for the downloady version, or up to £100 for the disc version on eBay. eBayers am cry!

Best news EVAR!

Well, for my wallet anyway

@Blerk – I just checked eBay. It’s £300 if you want to buy it on the spot. O_O

I am SOOOOOO happy. This game is available only at some INSANE prices.
I was hoping for a PS3 version release (with several add-ons) but todays’ news is fine too n_n

I’ve edited it to reflect the eBay madness. I’ll probably buy it and download it, given the disc situation. Just because I can.

If you buy it with discounted points cards it’s even cheaper, too. £19.99 is 2400 points and you can get 2100 points for about £15 from Play and the like.

This is quite possibly the only time I have ever seen a game on Games on Demand that’s actually cheaper than it is to buy the disc.

One of the best RPGs of this generation, and also one of the very few JRPGs of the last five or so years actually worth playing, in my opinion.

Anyone who enjoys JRPGs will love this.

AND IT DOESN’T EVEN HAVE A ANGST RIDDEN SPIKEY HAIRED LEAD CHARACTER! PRAISE THE LORDS!

Is the game any good? It looks like standard jrpg fanfare here, what makes it stand out?

Just asking, I haven’t played or tried it.

Think it’s english dub only though. ;_;

The original disc version didn’t have the Japanese voices, so this one won’t either.

@8 It really is. Seriously, its up there in my top three RPGs of this generation.

The Tales of… games have always had deceptively intelligent plots hidden under their cartoonish exterior.

Tales of Vesperia is one of the best. It’s cast of characters is extremely strong and ignores or completely bypasses numerous cliched conventions of the genre.

There’s no angst ridden teenager lead, no super evil bad guy, and the story is fairly down to earth until the last chapter. It’s very character driven, and every character is consistently well developed.

If you’re really concerned, there’s a demo of the game on the Marketplace. I know you’re a bit adverse to JRPGs, and lets just say that the graphics are very… bright and vivid. =P

Here’s a question O.G. Which guy in the banner would you guess is the lead character?

Actually, the demo’s not very good. It throws you in at some point after the start with no instructions as to how to play, which makes the battle system something of a challenge.

I also seem to remember that the demo’s only available on the US version of the marketplace. No idea why.

@12 Yeah, I was gonna mention that. Gives you some idea of what to expect, but I heard it had a lack of instructions and was quite tricky. Never played it myself though – I just went out and bought the game on day one. =P

There’s a lot to that game’s mechanics. How they didn’t think to explain them in the demo is beyond me.

Man I neeeeeeed this for PS3 in the US! Please Namco, I hate beggin all the time!

I’m sure I played the demo and as you mention Blerk it throws you in and as such doesn’t come across well. It’s £19.99 in the UK too Pat. Was it turn based or real time combat – can’t remember.

@6 Blerk – MSP as discounted prices don’t help when MS charges in real money for GoD – or is there a way to pay in points that I’m missing?

I have a spot open in my gamefly que, so screw it, I am going to place it on top of my que. I haven’t played a well done jrpg in a long time. The last “Great” one I enjoyed was Grandia. But I haven’t played a Tales game yet so I will give it a spin in my xb360.

@15 There’s been a “Pay Using MS Points” option for Games on Demand for aaaaaaaages!

I think I’m actually going to have to buy this.

Potential buyers should take note that the download is over 6gb, btw.

@19

I can hear my poor 20GB crying from here.

@17
Ah ok ta – might reconsider this at some point then – maybe I should just stick it on my rental list.

£48 for a 250gb drive from Amazon at the minute, Stolen!

250gb hdd

@22

Awesome! Cheers for the HU Blerk!

Upgrading from a 60gb to a 250gb drive was one of the best things I ever did. So nice not to have to think about ‘space’.

@25

You rolling with an ‘old’ unit presumably?

Yeah, it’s a late-model “fatty” 360. I picked up a 250gb drive in a ‘bonkers’ sale for £42 about a year ago.

@27

Ahh fair enough. I’ve had to return mine to MS once already and so i’m not sure how long she’s gonna hold :/

Some pretty amazing deals on ‘slim’ consoles at the minute, too. A smidge under £150 at GAME last week, and you can get trade-in on your old machine. Almost tempted.

@29

Aye, as soon as my finances straighten out i’ll be sure to grab one.

#8: Yes, and sort of. The game is unapologetically a JRPG, complete with cliches both tired and godawful.

What makes Vesperia different is the way it explores and deconstructs these cliches. And I mean it deconstructs all of them. The surly, rebellious teenage lead, the eye-smiling cutesy girl, the wordless stranger, the secretive rogue, the Macguffin crystals, even the random monsters which the citizens take for granted. All the usual things that make you stop playing a JRPG are presented, analyzed, and reassembled into an original work. As the game progresses, everything has a reason for the way it is. By the late middle of the game, the only truly cliched characters are dead. When I realized that the main character’s redemptive arc was going to be completed with just one ironic sentence and no further Japanese hamfisted exposition, I almost jumped out of my chair and cheered.

There are a couple caveats. The game takes a good long while to warm up. For the first six hours or so, while it’s presenting these elements, it’s not terribly different from any other JRPG. There’s also an extended section in the middle where, moving from town to town, the plot gets repetitive, even episodic. And you’ll probably want to put Karol in the back of your party once you get a 5th member and just wince when he starts talking in a cutscene.

But speaking as someone who hadn’t liked a (edit) JRPG in well over a decade, I’m very glad I pulled Vesperia out of the bargain bin. Give it a chance.

@32 Eh, you know, I like Karol.

He may be a kid, but his heart is in the right place. What I like about Vesperia is that you can tell the characters realise he’s young, completely naive, and as impulsive and stubborn headed as any real child would be.

But they don’t patronise him for it. I love how Yuri constantly encourage him and help him feel like his influence is important to the team, even though its really the grown-ups making all the big decisions.

It’s probably the first kid character I’ve ever actually liked in a JRPG, full stop. Hahahaha!

And Yuri is just the best lead character I’ve ever seen in a JRPG, full stop.

@33: It’s really his specific lines and the voice acting that drive me crazy more than his abstract character. And the party characters interact with him right, but what the hell is up with the rest of the world? He’s a pariah outcast treated with contempt for his past cowardice and (edit) regretful over a failed romance…at what, like age 10?

Come to think of it, I think a lot more would make sense if everyone in the game’s official age was 8 or 10 years older. Yuri’s dark outlook, Rita’s genius reputation, Karol, Judith’s well-stamped passport, Estellise’s comparative naivete…

And yeah, since JRPGs started having lead characters, there hasn’t been one better than Yuri.

I’m 12 hours into this now and I love it, I just wish I could of had it sooner. It’s a real shame the PS3 version hasn’t been done in English, as that would have been alot nicer since that version is fully voiced.