It’s hard for me to say this, but this was my third attempt to finish Tales of Vesperia, and once again I had to drop it after around 20 hours. I don’t enjoy writing negative reviews for games like this, especially because I don’t want to ruin anyone’s experience. But since I try to review most of the games I play, I feel it’s only fair to explain why this one ultimately didn’t work for me.
I recently finished Tales of Berseria Remastered, which I absolutely loved, and it actually motivated me to give Vesperia another shot. I couldn’t even fully remember why I had dropped it in the past. Just that I lost motivation at some point. And to be fair, the first 10 hours pulled me in again. The presentation, art style, and animations are fantastic. Visually, the game is very appealing, and the environments in particular feel crafted with a lot of care and charm.
Compared to Berseria or Arise, I also appreciated the return to a more traditional overworld where you travel between locations. Items aren’t highlighted by obvious markers but instead reward actual exploration, which I consider a big plus. The combat system starts off simple but gradually opens up and becomes more complex over time.
However, my biggest issue and ultimately the reason I quit again, is the overall pacing. Both combat and movement feel incredibly slow. Everything takes longer than it should, which makes the game feel dragged out. Even after 20 hours, I hadn’t unlocked any meaningful way to speed up overworld traversal or avoid frequent enemy encounters. On top of that, even enemies far below your level will still aggressively chase and engage you.
Other games in the genre handle this much better. Either by letting you automatically defeat weaker enemies or by making them ignore you altogether. In Vesperia, enemies are often faster than the player, making them hard to avoid unless you constantly use a specific consumable item, which you also have to keep buying. It quickly becomes frustrating rather than engaging.
When it comes to characters, the main character Yuri clearly stands out and carries much of the experience. The rest of the cast, however, feels comparatively flat, and only a few managed to hold my interest. The DLC character Patty in particular feels unnecessary and out of place. The same goes for the skits. Compared to Berseria, I didn’t find them nearly as well-written or entertaining. I still listened to all of them because I didn’t want to miss anything, but more often than not, they disrupted the flow of the game and felt unnecessary rather than adding meaningful character moments.
The story never fully hooked me either. There are moments of genuine tension, especially when the tone becomes more mature, but those moments are too rare. Overall, the characters, narrative, and even enemy designs lean heavily toward a more childish tone. That might be a matter of personal taste, but coming from Berseria and Arise, which explore more mature themes and characters, the contrast is hard to ignore.
Enemy variety is another aspect that starts strong but quickly falls off. Early on, you encounter new enemy types with unique movesets, but before long, the game relies heavily on recolored versions with higher stats. Boss fights are a notable exception, they offer good variety and were consistently highlights for me, as they required actual strategy and made full use of the combat system and party settings.
I can’t shake the feeling that a lot of potential was left unused. The game also lacks clear indicators for quest objectives, leading to a lot of unnecessary wandering and guesswork, hoping you talk to the right NPC or enter the correct building. The main story is at least partially documented in a journal, which can give you a rough direction, but side quests are not tracked at all. I don’t mind a more old-school approach and not being guided every step of the way but when it results in frustration and artificial padding, it becomes a problem. Especially for a “Definitive Edition” released in 2019, this feels like a missed opportunity to add some much-needed quality-of-life improvements.
As much as I wanted to like this game, I ultimately can’t recommend it from a personal standpoint. It looks great and shows a lot of promise in the early hours, but it wears thin quickly and struggles to stay engaging. It’s a shame because I really wanted to feel differently about this as a JRPG fan.
