Gaming I'm trying hard to like 'Tales of Vesperia', but the battle system is wearing me down. Please help.

cloudfe

Well-Known Member
OP
Member
Joined
Feb 24, 2013
Messages
387
Trophies
1
Age
39
XP
2,094
Country
Belgium
Let me start by saying I'm not judging the quality of the game. Many people love the series and its combat system. I just want to understand if I can be one of them (i.e. there's something I'm missing) or not (i.e. it just isn't my cup of tea).

I gave the game a try many years ago on the X360, and gave up after an hour or so.
Being a fan of second chances with games, I basically forced my hand by buying it for the Switch, feeling confident I would "get" its combat system this time.
But nope. I just can't.

I keep circling around the enemies in order to closely avoid their attack, and then attack a couple of times, before retreating and/or jumping around. If I don't do this, I'm forced to block, or simply to attack while being interrupted by my current target or its friends.

I know there is something I'm not getting. And I didn't advance much in the game. But I don't have much free time, and I'd rather play something else than trying to swallow something not made for me.

So please, if anyone had the same struggle, or knows how to convince me to give the game a third try, I'm all ears.
 

Arch Feline

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
May 7, 2007
Messages
306
Trophies
1
XP
616
Country
United States
Well, I bought Smash so I will learn it and you cannot be doing any worse than I am with Smash. On the other hand I am not quite sure what to say as I played Vesperia XBOX 360 and plated Vesperia PS3.

Maybe you are overthinking it? Where are you in the game? Have you tried using the special techs which take TP (or is it MP) ? Chests have upgraded weapons and armor. Be an item whore until you figure it out. You end up with loads of party members to choose as your alter ego. If Yuri is not your style,
Raven or Patti
may be more you.

Anyhow get back to me. With Smash I raised the difficulty to hard at the beginning and shortened the matches to the min. Hard mode did not make it any harder. Now I am playing on easy and button mashing. Try some button mashing.
 
Last edited by Arch Feline,

linuxares

The inadequate, autocratic beast!
Global Moderator
Joined
Aug 5, 2007
Messages
13,099
Trophies
2
XP
17,743
Country
Sweden
I can say right away that I HATE the battle system. Coming from Tales of Beseria where battles where more fast paced, free movement and fun. This is just clunky as all hell.
 
  • Like
Reactions: MUDD_BR

Drake1427

Well-Known Member
Newcomer
Joined
Sep 8, 2017
Messages
52
Trophies
0
Age
36
XP
1,327
Country
Mexico
I haven't played much Vesperia since the 360 (and never beat it because I got lost and lost interest), but I have vague memories of the combat and a lot of experience with an earlier game in the franchise (symphonia).
First of all, don't worry about taking a bit of damage; IMO guarding and keeping your positioning is better than running around and trying to evade every enemy attack. You can heal in and out of battle with gels (which are cheap) and at least one character should have healing artes.
Also, I dunno if it's the same as in Symphonia, but after battles you should be able to cook food to recover HP/SP and get some temporary buffs.
Enemies usually have openings in between their attacks, that's when you should try to attack. doing this generally makes them flinch and gives you an opportunity to attack multiple times and even chain your artes (there should be a tutorial explaining how to chain the multiple tiers of artes).
A little thing that I remember is that you can sneak in an extra hit between Yuri's normal 3 attack combo and his artes if you do the "Free running" slash.

I'll try playing Vesperia DE to see if I come up with something else. I hope this helps if only a little bit.
 

KyleHyde

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Dec 10, 2018
Messages
195
Trophies
0
Age
30
XP
441
Country
Puerto Rico
If you're still not feeling it after having a full party of characters and/or trying to play as those instead, then it's probably just the combat system what you're struggling with. Most of the games past Graces (ie. Xilia, Zestiria, Berseria, Hearts R) have had a faster pace of combat and additional mechanics added to them to keep the flow of battle moving smoothly.

how do the battles compare to tales of symphonia?
The battle basics are similar to Symphonia and Abyss, iirc. Granted, I only played the PS3 version for a couple of hours (can't recall where I left it exactly, but I know I had a full party by then) and dropped it as soon as the official localization was announced. There's probably more battle system mechanics unlocked past the point where I left off.
 

Fates-Blade-900

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Jan 5, 2018
Messages
244
Trophies
0
Age
22
XP
662
Country
United States
I can't say much because I haven't played Vesperia yet, but I don't think you should give up, try attacking and linking it into artes. Also it's probably one of the most tedious Tales games in the series (meaning you have to repeat the same thing over and over I think this cos I found Abyss tedious which is right before Vesperia), if you can I recommend getting Symphonia or Dawn of the New World on Normal mode it'll probably be more enjoyable, you can get Tales of Symphonia on PC.
 
Last edited by Fates-Blade-900,

Kioku

猫。子猫です!
Member
Joined
Jun 24, 2007
Messages
11,973
Trophies
2
Location
In the Murderbox!
Website
www.twitch.tv
XP
16,023
Country
United States
I can say right away that I HATE the battle system. Coming from Tales of Beseria where battles where more fast paced, free movement and fun. This is just clunky as all hell.
I'm the opposite. Berseria had the 2nd worst battle system of any tales game I played, with Graces f taking a huge lead at 1st. Vesperia was slower, but the further you get the more you learn and the more you can do.
 

DJS1N1ST3R

New Member
Newbie
Joined
Jan 17, 2019
Messages
1
Trophies
0
Age
52
XP
53
Country
United States
Let me start by saying I'm not judging the quality of the game. Many people love the series and its combat system. I just want to understand if I can be one of them (i.e. there's something I'm missing) or not (i.e. it just isn't my cup of tea).

I gave the game a try many years ago on the X360, and gave up after an hour or so.
Being a fan of second chances with games, I basically forced my hand by buying it for the Switch, feeling confident I would "get" its combat system this time.
But nope. I just can't.

I keep circling around the enemies in order to closely avoid their attack, and then attack a couple of times, before retreating and/or jumping around. If I don't do this, I'm forced to block, or simply to attack while being interrupted by my current target or its friends.

I know there is something I'm not getting. And I didn't advance much in the game. But I don't have much free time, and I'd rather play something else than trying to swallow something not made for me.

So please, if anyone had the same struggle, or knows how to convince me to give the game a third try, I'm all ears.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

I never sign up for forums but I signed up for this one because your post sounded like I had written it word for word. I had the SAME EXACT experience as you, where I purchased TOV for the 360
but never got past the first hour or two. When I saw it on the eShop this time I decided to give it a second chance, especially since it seems to get nothing but praise. But I completely agree with the battle system from what little time I've played so far. I'm pretty decent at RPGs and I've played a few Tales games before but this battle system seems to be anything but fluid to me. After reading some of the replies I would like to give it another chance but then there's a second problem. I'm personally having audio issues with TOV on Switch. Every first word that my character or an NPC speaks is cut out and you can only hear their sentences from the 2nd word on. I don't know if anyone else is having this problem but it's hard to overlook. Anyways, I would like to hear how you've progress in TOV because that might give me the push I need to stick with it.
 

Fates-Blade-900

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Jan 5, 2018
Messages
244
Trophies
0
Age
22
XP
662
Country
United States
Well I played Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition and I can safely say the game is slow concerning battle at least at the beginning (they nerfed a lot of things, but being OP probably comes later unlike Symphonia) I think since it's your first tales game you should play through it on Easy, it will probably be a LOT more enjoyable that way, I also really don't think you should give up on it. (I recommend getting Tales of Symphonia on PC though it's just perfect for getting used to the series)
 
Last edited by Fates-Blade-900,

Syphen_Freht

Member
Newcomer
Joined
Feb 25, 2014
Messages
6
Trophies
0
XP
295
Country
United States
To me, Vesperia's seemed like it was supposed to be a little more strategic than it appears to be. I've played all the Tales titles (and beaten most), and to me Vesperia's seems to be more focused, more analyzing during battle than the others. Grace's f and Xillia's battles systems really made the transition between more on-the-fly strategy that was Vesperia and (lesser than) Symphonia, and the faster battles we have in more current titles, where most of the strategy is done on the menu, setting up individual artes and whatnot, leaving the battles more focused on finishing the battle as quickly as possible.

I do know that, the longer you stick with Vesperia's battle system, the more rewarding it gets. Later on you'll have access to a bunch of artes, including normally learned artes, hidden artes, altered artes, and mystic artes. So if you don't mind a bit of clutter, you'll have a great opportunity to alter how each character operates in battle individually, much less as a party.

Sometimes the battles do a little repetitious, but I also think that was in favor on focusing on the story (it gets *really* good later on), so if you can make that forgiveness, that might help too.

But on the other hand, it might not be your cup of tea. Vesperia's combat is in the middle of a stark contrast between what the series started, and echoed as, and what it's evolved too now. You might just be on an opposite spectrum, or just indifferent to that kind of battle system. No harm, no foul either way
 

Coto

-
Member
Joined
Jun 4, 2010
Messages
2,979
Trophies
2
XP
2,564
Country
Chile
The game is good. Battle system feels more like tales of the abyss (battle system is slower, hitbox detection frame time is slower and makes battles less fluent) but the updated combo system ( later in the game) makes up for it.

The only issue i am having is the game crashing and closing randomly. Definitely an issue with Tales of Vesperia Definitive Edition (the switch one i am playing) since no other physical game (such as mario kart 8 or smash) or other digital games I have behave like this. It's sometimes frustrating. I have had 3 crashes in a span of 8 hours of gameplay.
 

Coto

-
Member
Joined
Jun 4, 2010
Messages
2,979
Trophies
2
XP
2,564
Country
Chile
Oh btw, if you feel the battle system clunky give it a go to L2 + Right + Guard (manual cancelling) , also the controls must be set to manual.

I kinda regret finding this out about 17 hrs of gameplay. The battles are way smoother now.
 

Site & Scene News

Popular threads in this forum

General chit-chat
Help Users
    S @ salazarcosplay: @Purple_Heart was a SSD worth it? Did it make a significant diference?\