My apologies for getting this intro post up so late, but lots has been going on in the real life of ProofCat. I've had to drive back and forth from Jupiter to Boca about 4 times over the past few days, and I'm working on reading four novels simultaneously for college as well as writing three essays for next week. And then today I volunteered at Quantum House with some friends for several hours. I AM TEH STRESS.
So, FINALLY, the Tales of Vesperia (ToV) playthrough has begun! :D Not gonna lie -- it was TOTALLY fun (even if Little Miss Squish kinda totally sucks at casting any spell besides First Aid).
Anyhoo, insults aside...
Hooray for pretty anime-style openings!
We started our playthrough this evening by admiring the hotness that is Yuri Lowell ('cause who doesn't love seeing a guy in an almost open shirt?)
I DIGRESS.
I'm not going to detail every event of the game. Just major plot points will be covered and whatever funny crazy moments we want to include. There will be spoilers, so here is your warning.
SPOILERS. AHMYGAWD.
During the beginning of the game, we are introduced to both Yuri and his faithful canine companion, Repede. And yes, the dog has only one eye, carries a pipe and fights with a dagger.
Your Fluffy is inferior.
Yuri more or less doesn't give a crap about anyone besides himself, but you see that's not true as more dialogue plays out. He doesn't give a crap about ANYTHING. Seriously, he must be the most apathetic protagonist in any RPG EVER. He gets the job done, but I really don't think he could care less about it all.
Either way, he gets arrested since he's the lousiest criminal EVER when it comes to breaking-and-entering. He kinda just stands there and lets himself get taken in. OUR HERO, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN.
After being reprimanded, Yuri breaks out of prison and we meet our damsel in distress: Estellise!
Or, as Yuri calls her, "Estelle." Though it takes her about 20 years to understand "Estelle" refers to her.
Estelle needs to get a message to Flynn Scifo, Yuri's blonde knight friend (that sounded a little sketch), and so she tags along with Yuri to the world outside the capital city -- he's hot on the trail of a blastia thief. (Blastia: see generic magical device that makes life awesome with it and suck without it.)
We also meet Karol, a really annoying young boy who masquerades as bravery incarnate who actually wets himself at the first sign of trouble. Though, this sets us up for one of the BEST lines in all of RPG history.
Note the magic that is Yuri's Karol imitation:
Little Miss Squish and I concluded our intro to ToV in Aspio after Rita the PMS (Pissy Mage Spectacular) joined the party. Next we play, we're off to investigate some ruins! OH JOY.
Long story short I managed to lock myself out of my room today in the rain. I needed a certain edition of Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf for my Brit Lit class...and the only copy I could find was in Boca. And of course I only find out AFTER I put it on reserve that my professor waived the edition requirement. AWESOME.
Or, y'know, the exact opposite of awesome.
Then registration fun was tonight. 2 bloody hours to sign up for classes, and then I wasn't able to sign up for one without "college permission." Wonderful. Now I get to drive back to Boca in a few hours to go to classes...and Little Miss Squish and I couldn't even start our playthrough today.
Hopefully some Vesperia will happen tomorrow -- I need some violence right about now.
On the bright side, though, I had delicious food for dinner. Mmmmm, hibachi chicken and steak~. And I got to see my cat. Keebie makes everything happier.
Yes. You heard me. Tales of Hotness. But I digress about the hotness...for now. Let's start by diving straight into one of my favorite games: Tales of Vesperia!
Tales of Vesperia is one of the more recent additions to the lengthy Tales series of games. They come from -- you guessed it -- Japan. However, it's a much lesser known series than Final Fantasy or pretty much anything by Squeenix. And why, you may ask? Well, it's not really localized seriously over here in the U.S...and as such, Japan doesn't always release the rights to American companies for translations and English dubs. And that really sucks for those of us (like me) that can't read fluently in Japanese.
And here's where my maximum RAEG comes in.
Tales of Vesperia was originally released for the XBox 360. Totally rad, yeah? Well, get this: Japan released a new and totally beefed up version of Vesperia for PS3...but it's not going to be localized over here. Wow. Way to make life suck.
Imagine getting your Wonka chocolate bar...and inside the wrapper is a Golden Ticket! Huzzah! Now imagine that ticket being torn away from you with the only explanation being, "THIS CONTENT IS UNAVAILABLE IN YOUR REGION." Totally the opposite of huzzah...so...hazzuh, I guess.
So, for the record, I will be reviewing Tales of Vesperia on the XBox 360 console. No epic version for me. Booface.
Well, whatevs. Let's get some backstory on this game.
The game is actually a sequel to a movie...though the game came out before the movie. So the movie is a prequel that came out afterward...and the movie only makes sense if you played the game first...but there are lots of events that only become clear once you've seen the movie. SO MUCH CONFUSING. Either way, the movie is called Tales of Vesperia: First Strike.
The movie's pretty rad. The music and animation are both very pretty, and maybe I'm biased but I love the characters, too. It's only available with Japanese audio and English subs at the moment, but I totally recommend it.
On to characters!
You see the lovely looking gent below this sentence?
Yes, this one (and yes, this is a gent.)
This is Yuri Lowell, the sword-wielding protagonist of the Vesperia story. Joining him on his adventure are his loyal, pipe-carrying dog Repede and the princess of the kingdom, Estelle. Normally I hate princess characters, but she's a Healer-type who wields a sword and shield. Bad.ass.
Anywhoo, most of the motley crew is pretty standard. There's the whiny young boy Karol, the spear-wielding curvacious Judith, and hot-headed mage Rita.
I love Rita as much as any other BAMF, but if she was the main heroine, I'm pretty sure it'd have to be renamed Tales of PMS.
Other random characters include the ever loyal knight, Flynn and PS3-exclusive pirate girl, Patty.
BUT MY FAVORITE OF ALL TIME IS THIS SKETCHBALL:
BEHOLD THE GLORY THAT IS RAVEN.
I LOVE this guy. He keeps appearing everywhere around your party, playing the part of the "pervy old man" of the group. Don't believe me? Watch this clip from the game:
If this doesn't haunt your nightmares, nothing will.
Even with all his sketchiness, Raven is a really awesome character. He fights primarily with a folding bow, a weapon he can fold out into a full-length longbow as well as condense into a compact sword. Oh, and he ALSO gets a dagger. Freakin' sweet. His style is pretty ridiculous, too.
And I mean like, "Let's defy some physics!" level ridiculous.
So, once the playthrough starts, expect me to use him nonstop once he becomes available to the party.
SPEAKING OF THE PLAYTHROUGH. The lovely Little Miss Squish will be doing a dual review with me. We shall play alongside each other as we progress through Tales of Vesperia...and it will be freaking awesome. So stay tuned for when that will begin! Hopefully we can get it off the ground tomorrow, but college often gets in the way. What can you do.
I sincerely look forward to playing through this game again after about 3 years -- and with one of my best friends, nonetheless! Hope to see y'all there!
Hey, y'all! The name's ProofCat, and I'd like to introduce you to my new blog, 100 ProofCat! Yeehaw! *copious amounts of confetti*
Yes, just like that.
Anyhoo, here's a brief run-down of what I intend to do with this blog:
Whatever I want. Ha.
But in all seriousness, I think this is going to be a blog primarily dedicated to video game reviews...and no, I don't mean MMOs. I mean console games.
So, now I'm gonna hush and move on to the real post: an intro to the first game I intend to review. Check my next post to see what it is! (Secret, secret.)
