As the game progresses, characters acquire better weapons and learn new attacks and skills, and figuring out just how all these work together is the secret to success. Because characters and enemies aren't taking turns attacking, battles are less about strategy and more about knowing your fighter's moves, chaining together combos and using special attacks at the right times. And once battle ensues, Tales keeps things intense and action-packed. There are times when you're ambushed or otherwise forced to fight because you're path is blocked by an Ice Bat or some such other fierce beast, but for the most part you can fight when you choose and flee when you'd rather. In Vesperia, you're in control of when you fight and how you go about winning once swords cross. Like its predecessors, Tales of Vesperia has a real-time battle system with no random encounters. The end result is a formidable RPG with loads of intense action, an ensemble of memorable characters and a grand, if somewhat meandering, story. In bringing Tales to current-generation consoles, Namco Tales Studio stuck to most of the conventions it has created for the series over the years and added some new elements to spice things up a bit.

Longtime fans of the Tales games will see much they are familiar with in Tales of Vesperia, and newcomers to the series will get a solid introduction to what all the fuss is about.