Vesperia an hour later...

[Kevassa]

Maybe my memory's already failing, but I don't recall Legendia having anything to do with Spirits. But even then it's not a Tales studio game...

There were Oh look Grune went crazy talking with stuff party members cant even see... OMG Celsius seed is planted!

[Cless]

I beat it. Absolutely amazing game.

Disappointed in the ending. I wanted to see some final character interaction and maybe some reflections after that FMV. The FMV was certainly pretty, but I was expecting something after the end credits. :/

But hey, I find it interesting that for the first time I can ever remember, the final boss lives after you beat him. Duke was always a mysterious one...

Also, I actually thought they were pulling my leg about the "final battle" just once more. I thought it kind of odd that those rock formations strewn across the world map had nothing to do with the story? And I still can't burn down those bushes in the Quoi Woods and Keiv Moc, so I was thinking there was still one more Sorcerer's Ring upgrade to get. I never came across it though.

EDIT: I combed through the strategy guide looking for stuff I missed. I found out about those "rock formations." They're really just natural, undiscovered aer krene not used in the storyline, and the Sorcerer's Ring (not the Sleazebag Ring!) gets upgraded not once, but twice in these places optionally. I was also wondering why I hadn't found any more Fell Arms. I had gotten Abyssion, but never visited the aer krene south of Nordopolica after getting it.

I got pretty overleveled at some point from my (long) treks of gathering synthesis items and mastering skills. From there on the more balanced challenge of the game subsided. Hard mode looked crazy with that 2.5x HP multiplier, so I didn't want to use it. It seems geared towards someone who can really master the battle system (esp fatal strikes in normal encounters), but I'm not THAT good. I never had an actual game over once at all during the game, but I came REALLY close a number times when my level balance was in check.

I was under the impression that each of the three acts were going to be of similar lengths. The game ending where it did caught me off guard. The last "third" of the game probably isn't even half as long as the first or second act. With my expectations that way it almost felt like it ended too soon, despite the fact my clock when I created my clear save to be 131 hours or so (30-40 of which I had spent farming synthesis items and mastering skills).

[Kevassa]

With my expectations that way it almost felt like it ended too soon, despite the fact my clock when I created my clear save to be 131 hours or so (30-40 of which I had spent farming synthesis items and mastering skills).

How come... even without those 40 hours of farming its still 90hs of gameplay... thats a huge more than the commmon gameplay time 
Looks you took your time

[Cless]

Another 10 or 15 was just leaving the system on doing nothing (and forgetting to pause the game). Plus I tend to be slower at games than most people. I like to absorb an RPG's atmosphere. And the game is quite long anyway, just like the other Team Symphonia games.

Some people have managed to beat the game in under 8 hours (most likely with all the grade shop bonuses), but there is an achievement for beating it in under 15.


The post game gets really, really, REALLY easy once you start hitting level 80-90. Levels seem to carry a lot more weight in this game than they do in previous Tales games for some reason. The whole 200-man fight in the coliseum was an absolute cake walk for my Yuri who was at level 104. None of the boss fights in the bonus dungeon would ever last over a minute, especially if I chose to go overlimit and spam Destruction Field.

Also, auto-grade farming for the win!



Woo. That gave me enough to buy out the grade shop. I could have gotten over 9000(!!!) or so if I had let the entire battle run its course, but I cut it short when one of the enemies was half HP. I wanted to play.

I love this game and really, really, really want to play through it again. But I need to get back to my projects.

I actually did start a EX New Game and not sure how much I will play, but I question a couple things about the story:

Why the hell do the knights draw their swords on the princess!? One of the people next in line to lead to empire? It's like they hold a higher authority than she does...

She wants to leave the castle to warn Flynn that he's in danger. But do we ever learn what this danger is? Zagi? I don't know if I'm 100% convinced by that. Maybe I missed the detail or forgot, but I don't remember this being explained.

And why is Estelle's room always locked? Is she hiding something!? I thought maybe I'd be able to go in at some point to retrieve an item or something. Or at least get her princess outfit...it's perfectly functional in battle since she wears it in the fight with Zagi.

[Cyllya]

Why the hell do the knights draw their swords on the princess!? One of the people next in line to lead to empire? It's like they hold a higher authority than she does...

IIRC, she had her sword out first. They seemed to only have their weapons ready in case they needed to parry her attacks.

She wants to leave the castle to warn Flynn that he's in danger. But do we ever learn what this danger is? Zagi? I don't know if I'm 100% convinced by that. Maybe I missed the detail or forgot, but I don't remember this being explained.

Zagi was definately after Flynn. Apparently sent to assassinate him since he didn't know Flynn on sight. There was a Leviathan's Claw guy with him at the time, and it's later shown that Leviathan's Claw was working with Alexei. So... ultimately, Alexei sent someone to have Flynn killed.

Now the questions are...
1) Why the heck was Alexei trying to kill Flynn? From what they say about his underlings, it seems more likely he'd try to recruit Flynn, and even if he didn't expect Flynn to want to help, Flynn was a fairly low nonthreatening rank at the time, wasn't he? And later Yeager was making use of Flynn in Nordopolica (I forgot why).
2) How the hell did Estelle know about it? Even more puzzling is that she knows he's in danger apparently without having learned anything about Zagi, Leviathan's Claw, or Alexei.

This plot does seem a little disjointed. Maybe I'll play again and find it's like Symphonia (tons is explained through implication and/or some obscure optional scene) times a bajillion.

And why is Estelle's room always locked? Is she hiding something!?

They didn't wanna model it. ^_^;

[Cless]

I haven't had a whole lot to do on ToP the last few days so I started my replay of Vesperia til more stuff comes in from other staffers.

I'm finding I'm loving how they pulled off Raven's whole spy thing the more I play this. It almost seems like it should have been obvious, but then they throw in the whole double agent thing to keep you distracted from figuring out that he's actually Captain Schwann.

I mean, he does a whole lot of fishy things, and the group even calls him out on it numerous times, but I never really had any second thoughts about it.

I had a good laugh this time through realizing why his "ATTEN-TION!" worked so well on the lackeys when you're trying to get through the blockade at Cados. The first time through, I just kinda thought...heh...they're dumb enough to fall for that, aren't they...

There's a lot more foreshadowing of this than I thought there was.

[Joseph]

Finally beat the game. My characters were in the early 100s, and the final boss's second form was still pretty tough. It was mostly due to the status effects he casually inflicted, a big achilles' heel of mine. The secret third form was awesome and intense.

I thought the ending itself was alright. Like Cless, I wish there had been more character interaction. Maybe a small walk-about part after the final battle? The credits were nice, especially the artwork that showed the various post-game adventures of the characters. Reminded me a bit of the Lunar games.

[Cless]

This was bothering me a bit...

The boss of the Blade Drifts of Zopheir enables the aer krene to trap the group. But what I don't understand is...why wasn't Dein Nomos used to neutralize it? Sure it's fun watching Karol play Superman, but not too long after that you access Zaphias which is enshrouded in thick aer.

Don't know why, but I'm also liking Raven a lot more in this playthrough than I did during my first.

[Cless]

Apparently NPD data suggests this game has moved a total of around 70,000 units in five weeks, putting it above Tales of Destiny PS1's lifetime sales, effectively making it the second best-selling Tales game in the US. It will probably reach six digits before it stops selling completely. Would like to see it at least hit at least 120k. Another 360 Tales would be awesome.

Wonder how much the terrible DLC the game is pulling in though. I support Tales, but I didn't buy any of that BS. They didn't even put up anything simple that would appeal more to the hardcore base, like gamer pics.

[Cless Aileron]

Apparently NPD data suggests this game has moved a total of around 70,000 units in five weeks, putting it above Tales of Destiny PS1's lifetime sales, effectively making it the second best-selling Tales game in the US. It will probably reach six digits before it stops selling completely. Would like to see it at least hit at least 120k. Another 360 Tales would be awesome.

Wonder how much the terrible DLC the game is pulling in though. I support Tales, but I didn't buy any of that BS. They didn't even put up anything simple that would appeal more to the hardcore base, like gamer pics.

I was thinking about how it's faring on the system.  Nice to hear that it's doing okay.  I forgot, though, what was Tales of Symphonia's lifetime sales again?  I really hope for another Xbox 360 installment myself.

No matter how much I got caught up with with a, "You'll be sorry!" moment against the final boss (statement in quotes best read with a Looney Tunes-esque sing-song style), I resisted paying for extra level and grind instead.  Sure I hate grinding but it's a necessity I have to deal with when it's called for.  Besides, I am not fond of the DLC myself.

Not to mention, I was one of those people hoping for Tales of Vesperia gamer pics and themes but they never actually have those.