I was just recently struck with a bit of nostalgia listening to a really good opening song to one of the best RPGs out there: Tales of Vesperia!
It’ll hopefully set a high standard for all future ‘Tales‘ games released here in North America, but who knows? This game came out last year and is the biggest reason to why we bought an Xbox 360. <_< It lived up to all of our expectations, plus some! It’s a very fun game and the art is amazing! I mean the game itself is like playing your very own adventure in anime style. It’s very cute and rather fun; challenging to boot, which is a rarity these days. I guess it really depends on the difficulty level you set it on, but it’s not really just your easy button-masher game. It takes decent skill to learn the different combos!
The PS3 port (which isn’t out in N. America… yet) even has a new character (featured in the picture I have up — that little girl pirate isn’t in the original Xbox 360 version unfortunately T_T). It looks like her name is Patty Fleur and she’s after the pirate Aifread, which is an on-going “gag” character in the Tales series. :P She seems cute, but eh. Nothing to be all crazy about I guess. I still love the art since it’s by one of my most favorite mangaka: Kousuke Fujishima!
There are so many little extras in this game that you can’t find them all on your own! We played and beat it without any help the first time through, but the second time we sought out a FAQ and discovered how much of the side stories and quests we missed out on! O_O It was crazy! But it made playing through the game a second time very worth it. The (Xbox 360) accomplishments range from really easy to ridiculously hard! Some you can get without even trying… and some take several reloads and re-tries to get it down. @_@ I think we reloaded the one for Schwann at least 20 times. x_x Ugh.
Anyways, one of the best aspects of the game is the opening song. It’s called “Ring a Bell” by Bonnie Pink. I just found a FULL edited version of the song (it includes some of the anime clips from the game) and thought I’d post it up here for anyone to enjoy. The lyrics are cute too! I mean some of it doesn’t make much sense, but meh. It’s Engrish. :)
Reaching up for no man’s land
To take a breath and take a chance
I walk a thousand nights to change the world
Where to go? When to stop?
Who to trust? What to say?
Found them all, just need someone to shareIt’s now in the dusk every day to everyone
Ain’t so strong, I ain’t so strong to go
Living in life as it’s not the way to live
I wish you could hear me say that I miss youWhy were we there back to back?
Why were we there face to face?
I must be the light when you’re in the dark
If you lose me somewhere, and your tears are in the air
I will ring a bell until you feel me by your sideLooking up into the sky, looking for the reason
Why I’m here, and why you can’t be here
Who’s to hate? Who’s to blame?
Who’s to hurt? Who’s to love?
Who decides? Why we can’t we be the same?Try to believe walking down the lonesome road
Ain’t so far, I ain’t so far from you
Staying the way you are means solitude
I wish you were here and shook off my fearWhy were we there back to back?
Why were we there face to face?
I must be the light when you’re in the dark
If I lose you somewhere, and I’m still hanging in there
I will ring a bell until you feel me by your sideWhat has been in the mix too long?
There’s the peace when you’re at war
Heads or tails, You and I
Light and dark, Ups and downs
What has been in the mere goal? What’s there to divide us?
If you’re hurt, cry and say can’t you see your might of the heartWhy were we there back to back?
Why were we there face to face?
I must be the light when you’re in the dark
If you lose me somewhere, and your tears are in the air
I will ring a bell until you feel me by your side
Compare to the original English and Japanese openings:
- English: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weCx-uQavps
- Japanese: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rb3JUb2K3p4
Here’s a cute fanart I found! ^_^
This game has pretty weak villains, but all of the main characters (well, not sure about the Pirate Girl) are pretty awesome. I wish for the PS3 version they would have made it so Flynn joins permanently rather than a new character. That would have been cooler.
The nice thing about Tales games, unlike Final Fantasy, is that it’s often hard to pick who gets to be in your active party because they’re all pretty cool and it’s hard to decide.
The best part about this game is that it is a total blast to play, and I think it represents the finest refinement of the Tales Battle System (at least so far). The only problem with the Battle System is that at higher levels, Rita is crazy broken OP, something I wonder if they’ll address in the PS3 version. It’s still a ton of fun though.
If you have a 360 (or PS3 provided they localize the PS3 version), I recommend this game!
Also, ToV is the only Tales game I can think of where Namco hasn’t completely butchered the opening sequence for the US release. ToS and ToS: DOTNW had their original tracks replaced with orchestral music. For ToA they used the Karaoke track of the original song, which just sounded off.
ToV is the first one where they did it right, having an English version of the song sung by Bonnie Pink. And after you beat the game, the opening sequence will alternate between playing the English and Japanese versions of the opening song.
I hope that the trend set in ToV continues.