Tales of Vesperia

The cast clockwise from bottom-right: Raven, Flynn, Yuri, Karol, Estelle, Patty, Judith, Rita, Repede

Brave Vesperia. The brightest star in the sky.

In the world of Terca Lumireis, Blastia are a part of everyday life. From drawing water to animating robots, Blastia's purposes are plentiful and its utility is vital. One of the most important uses of Blastia is to project gigantic barriers that protect towns from the armies of wild monsters roaming the world. Only Imperial Knights and guild members are allowed to leave the protection of these barriers, and as a result, most people never experience the large, expansive, and undiscovered world that lies outside.

Yuri Lowell is a former Imperial Knight who lives in the lower quarter of a metropolis called Zaphias, capital of the Empire which regulates Blastia use. Yuri often witnesses the injustices that the people living in poverty experience at the hands of the ruling class, and because of government inaction he often ends up taking justice into his own hands. But he realizes that this is not enough, and wishes to change the world so that such injustices never occur in the first place.

One day, a thief steals a fountain Blastia vital to the people of the lower quarter and Yuri lands in jail while attempting to catch him. After escaping, he meets Estelle (Estellise Sidos Heurassein), an intelligent but naive noble curious about the outside world and desperate to reach Yuri's childhood friend and Imperial Knight, Flynn Scifo. After escaping from the clutches of The Empire, they decide to venture past the barrier, catch the thief, track down Flynn, and see the world for themselves.

In their quest to find the Blastia thief, Estelle and Yuri encounter many people from different backgrounds and cultures, who include:

Tales of Vesperia is the first HD game of the Tales series. It was first released in 2008 as an "exclusive" for the Xbox 360, which led to the system selling out... in Japan. Seriously. In April 2011, to address the extremely rare amount of physical copies of the game in circulation, it was released on the Xbox Live Marketplace as a Game on Demand for only $20.00.

It later received an Updated Rerelease for the Play Station 3, which in turn led to an extreme amount of outrage from people who had bought an Xbox 360 specifically for Vesperia. Debate rages on whether or not Namco Bandai released a deliberately unfinished game (or Dummied Out parts) with the intention of releasing the "complete" version for the Play Station 3, where it was expected to make the majority of sales. A Fan Translation of the Play Station 3 version is also in progress here, by the same team behind the ill-fated Tales of Graces Fan Translation.

The Play Station 3 version still broke opening-day sales records in Japan, and narrowly missed the number two spot (held by the commercial juggernaut that is Pokémon) by less than 5,000 copies.

In terms of critical reception, the game is widely considered to be the best Tales title since Symphonia, and there are some who consider it possibly the best overall. It was certainly a darling of reviewers on both sides of the Pacific, and is the second-best-selling (and best-reviewed) title overall in the franchise, behind Symphonia.

There is also a prequel movie, Tales of Vesperia: The First Strike, licensed by FUNimation, which focuses on the brief period of time that both Yuri and Flynn were members of the same Imperial Knights brigade, the Nylen Corps.

Tropes used in Tales of Vesperia include:
  • Adam Smith Hates Your Guts - During the attack on Zaphias, the shopkeeper apologizes for still having to charge you money for items, even though you're liberating them. Also on the Ghost Ship, which Kaufman herself lampshades: "What, you expect me to give you supplies for free? You're kidding! You're gonna have to pay up!
  • The Alliance - The Guild Union.
  • Alternate Character Reading - "Vesperia" is written as "Tomorrow Star" in kanji.
  • And Your Reward Is Clothes - And occasionally a towel...
  • Anime Hair - Zagi's hair is as bad as Yugi's. Although interestingly, everyone else with strange-colored hair has some plot justification for it.
  • Anime Theme Song - Ring A Bell by Bonnie Pink.
  • Anti-Villain - Many of the antagonists. Heck, any antagonist who is not is a Complete Monster.
  • Aristocrats Are Evil - Most nobles in general, but truly exemplified in Cumore. Subverted with Duke.
  • Armor-Piercing Question: Played straight and then it backfires. Flynn asks Yuri "Would you kill me too?". Yuri answers back "If you became a villain I would have to." Pretty much Yuri is telling Flynn not to lose himself.
  • Artifact of Doom - Hermes Blastia.
  • Artificial Brilliance - Estelle has an arte that gathers most enemies into an area. Combine this with Rita or Raven who have spells that affect certain areas, and...
  • Backstory - Unusual for a Team Symphonia Tales game, Raven is the only one with a significant past. The party members do have backstories, it's just that they're not that important to the plot and you have to go out of your way to find out about them. And even then, you have to piece a lot of it together yourself. For more information on Raven`s past, check the novel and drama CDs.
  • Back from the Dead: Phaeroh, Belius, Khroma and Gusios come back from death as Elemental Spirits.
    • Raven and Yeager fall under this as well, given the Blastia heart backstory.
  • Badass - Yuri. Lowell. How badass is he? He's the first main character of the Tales (series) to come in first in Namco's popularity polls, and has over fourteen Badass tropes applied to him on his Characters listing.
  • Badass and Child Duo: Yuri and Karol.
  • Badass in Distress: Yuri and Flynn each suffer it at least once. One example for each: Yuri needed Raven's help in the beginning of the game. Flynn needed Yuri's help when he was put in jail because of a fake letter. Though, the Don planned to release him anyway for specific reasons.
  • Badass Mustache - Yuri and Karol (and in the Play Station 3 version, everyone) can obtain and wear attachments that highly enhance the manliness of the game with the power of the 'stache.
  • BFS - Karol's sword and hammer weapons are pretty gigantic considering he's like... twelve. One of Yuri's weapons - the False Dein Nomos, aka Alexei's sword - is awkwardly large. Clint also uses a gigantic axe/sword thing. And then there's the gigantic spirit-powered energy blade used in the ending, which is large enough to be seen from orbit.
    • In the Play Station 3 version, Yuri's new Mystic Arte Tenshou Kouyokuken is this. Seems like he's trying to cover all his bases; his original Mystic Arte was a Spam Attack and he and Flynn can do one hell of a Sword Beam in the form of Bushin Soutenha.
  • Big Bad Duumvirate - Barbos and Ragou in Part 1 and Cumore and Yeager in Part 2. They all turn out to be Starscreams to Alexei.
  • Big Eater - The waiter minigame has customers ordering up to 100 plates of food at once. One can only imagine what happens when they have to go to the restroom.
  • Bigger Bad - The Adephagos.
  • Blind Idiot Translation: The unvoiced dialog is riddled with typos and refers to Don Whitehorse having died long before the event in question actually happens.
  • Block Puzzle - Four of the damned abominations against all that is good in a game.
  • Body to Jewel - What happens to the souls of Entelexeia upon their deaths.
  • Bonus Boss - Cameo battles, Giganto Monsters, Gauche/Droite, and, if you collect all of the Infinity Plus One Swords, Duke's new final form.
    • The Play Station 3 version adds two more Giganto Monsters, three fights against the Sword Dancer, Clint, and the Spiral Draco which is level 200 and arguably the most difficult boss ever to appear in the Tales (series).
  • Bonus Dungeon - the Labyrinth Of Memories, and in the Play Station 3 version, the Necropolis of Nostalgia and Abyssal Hollow.
  • Book Ends - The opening song is Ring a Bell and the ending credits song is a remix of Ring a Bell.
  • Boss Rush - The Memory Dungeon, where you'll fight every single boss in the game (even all the human ones... including Raven/Schwann).
  • Button Mashing - A few characters get skills that reward this. Yuri gets one that adds more hits during his Mystic Arte the faster you mash the attack button, and Rita similarly gets one that shortens casting time.
  • Calling Your Attacks - In typical Tales (series) fashion, though this time characters say different lines sometimes. For example, Yuri will only say one word sometimes when doing attacks. Yet he`s got pretty long lines during Mystic Artes.
  • The Cameo - Dhaos, Shizel, Barbatos, and Kratos are all opponents in the coliseum's 200-Man Melee. Kratos also serves as the "Traitor to Heaven," the final boss of the Bonus Dungeon.
  • Capital City - Zaphias, capital of The Empire, and Dahngrest, capital of The Union.
  • Combos - If you ever aren't comboing the enemy, you're probably getting hurt pretty badly.
    • This is even more prevalent on Unknown difficulty. If you stop your combo and give them an opportunity to attack you, you'll die in a few hits. When they go into Overlimit, they can kill you in the blink of an eye.
  • The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard - Using a mystic arte requires the player to first hit the enemy with an unblocked mid-level arte. Bosses can use them from standstill. They can also break free of your combo very easily unless you manage to stun them partway through.
    • It gets driven to even greater proportions in Yuri's final duel with Flynn, when the latter is able to actually block your mystic arte and counter with his own.
    • Alexei is able to pull his own mystic arte without even going into overlimit or after you stunned him!
  • Comically Missing the Point - There's that one part where you can use Estelle to seduce a guard to get him away from his post. After Yuri knocks him out, he points out that it may have been bad for Estelle if he hadn't jumped in just then. Estelle agrees, but she thought Yuri was talking about how the guard almost recognized her as the princess. That's not quite it...
  • Conflict Killer - One word: "Adephagos."
  • Conveniently an Orphan - Erm, entire main cast, anyone?
  • Covers Always Lie - Yuri has a katana on the cover-his official weapon, but it comes rather late in the game, is the only such blade in the game, and isn't anywhere near his best weapon. It looks cool, though.
  • Death by Origin Story - Two in The First Strike: Repede's father, Lambert, is turned into a monster and Yuri is forced to literally Shoot the Dog; Yuri takes in Repede out of guilt afterward. Captain Nylen is also forced to sacrifice himself, arguably due to the fact that Alexei refused to send reinforcements to save the town, inspiring Yuri and Flynn to walk the paths they walk.
  • Deconstructor Fleet: Vesperia takes aim at Protagonist-Centered Morality. What gives a hero the right to completely and utterly change the world based on their own individual view of morality, completely discarding the opinions of the millions that also live in their world?
  • The Dev Team Thinks of Everything: Similar to Tales of the Abyss, the Final Boss has a conversation with the party leader. And yes, this even happens if Repede is the party leader.
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu? - The ending. More specifically, "Yuri, did you just slice a giant space octopus with the Biggest Fucking Sword of all time?"
    • Well, in the voice tracks of Tales of Magic Carta, Yuri states that he can`t see its shape clearly given the fact that he`s right under it.
  • Different As Night and Day - Granted, they're not twins, but still: Yuri has long, dark hair, wears dark clothes, is a Deadpan Snarker, and wields his sword in his left hand. Flynn has short, blond hair, is clad in shiny white-and-blue armor, is honorable to a fault, is unfailingly polite to almost everyone, and wields his sword in his right hand.
    • Perhaps to emphasize this point, a preorder bonus for the PS3 version (in Japan, at least) gives Yuri and Flynn Asch and Luke costumes respectively, who are also Different As Night and Day.
    • Raven and Schwann.
    • To a lesser extent, Gauche and Droite.
    • The twin knight sisters in The First Strike, Hisca and Chastel, are this way as well in terms of personalities, although they're physically identical...aside from Chastel being much larger.
  • Difficulty Levels - 3 flavors, plus a 4th one for the masochists with a maxed out Infinity+1 Sword.
  • Difficulty Spike - The difficulty gap between Duke rounds 2 and 3 is simply staggering.
    • After sweeping all the bosses in the game in the Bonus Dungeon and making it to the end, it's slightly surprising to find that the final boss at the end is more difficult than any other before him. Only slightly because, well, this is Kratos Aurion we're talking about here, and the difficulty may be ameliorated by the possibility that the player had to run through the dungeon several times and level up a ton in the process.
    • The boss fights in this game are, on average, a tad harder than other Tales (series) games, at least when it comes to difficulty spikes. Zagi, for example, hits 60,000 HP when he's a Mid-game boss...whereas in other Tales (series) games, 60,000 HP for a boss at that level is something you usually only find on the harder difficulties. (This is on standard)
  • Disc One Final Dungeon - The Enduring Shrine of Zaude
  • Doomed by Canon - In the prequel movie, it is pretty easy to guess who won't make it.
  • Downloadable Content - The first of the Tales (series) to offer it. A unique and surprising approach: it's in the form of buying giftboxes that contain item sets, skills, costumes, level-up bonuses, and gald - nothing you couldn't get in-game, just a quick way to obtain them for impatient people. Inevitably led to Internet Backdraft about people "paying to cheat."
    • The Play Station 3 version includes even more DLC in the form of more costumes: the Tales of the Abyss costumes for Yuri, Estelle, and Flynn, a hilariously scene-breaking Sgt. Frog costume for Karol, and Yuri and Flynn's Imperial Knight armor from the prequel movie The First Strike.
      • Recently there was also a new set of DLC costumes for the Play Station 3 version, called the "Strongest" armor. Any character who is wearing their best customized armor will have special costumes showing off said gear.
  • Dual Boss - Adecor and Boccos, Belius and her double, Tison and Nan, Gauche and Droite.
  • Dude Looks Like a Lady - When forced into seducing a town guard, one of the options for the feminine wiles is Karol. The hilarity of the situation is not lost on the game.
    • At first, a lot of people confused Yuri for a woman before playing the game. Also, if you enter the Inn in Zaphias and talk to an male NPC, Yuri gets offered a drink.
      • In Nam Cobanda Isle, you can find two NPCs that comment on your party top's costumes. The guild warrior NPC wonders if Yuri is secretly a woman, and the female NPC drops a line about his feminine features for almost all of Yuri's costumes, going as far as mentioning that his face looks prettier than the girls'. Developers were obviously having fun.
  • Duel Boss - Yuri fights Flynn and Estelle. Not at the same time, thankfully.
    • He also challenges Don Whitehorse to a duel in the Play Station 3 version. At that early point, though, he's a Hopeless Boss Fight, and you get a rather piddly reward (a Diamond) if you do beat him (usually only possible with overleveling or on a New Game+).
  • Elite Mooks: There's an army of them, the Royal Guard. They can take much more damage, dish out far more damage, and come in numbers far greater than the standard mooks. In short, they are easily the strongest non-boss human enemies in the game.
  • The Empire - The... Empire.
  • The End of the World as We Know It - And the only apparent solutions are to wipe out humanity or make one of the largest BFS of all time.
  • Everything's Better with Spinning - Nan's Mystic Arte has her spinning around a lot. Yuri also spins his sword around for no reason sometimes. Indeed, Yuri's most popular artes appear to be Shining Fang (he spins his sword vertically) and Dragon Swarm (he spins himself around slashing and kicking).
  • Evil Smells Bad - Ragou's basement isn't exactly known for its minty freshness.

Karol: Something smells rank...

  • Evil Sounds Deep: Subverted with Duke, who in the English dub, has one of the deepest voices. Although he's the Final Boss, he's an Anti-Villain. Generally, the higher voice an antagonist has, the more likely he's a Complete Monster -- case in point, Cumore, whose VA is downright squeaky.
    • This is, however, played straight with Alexei, who has a voice deeper than just about everyone in the game.
  • Evil Tower of Ominousness - Tarqaron.
  • Evolving Attack - Not only can you get really good at spinning that blade, you can also learn how to spin it after another skill or transform it into an entirely new blade spin.
  • The Exit Is That Way - Occurs during a skit at Baction. Karol can't manage to read the map that he made. Judith comes to the rescue.
  • Facial Composite Failure - Yuri's wanted posters. He does take more offense at how low his bounty is though.
  • Facing the Bullets One-Liner - Yuri, after passing out in the Sands of Kogorh and believing he is about to be eaten: "Heh...go ahead. Hope you choke...on my bones..."
  • Fantastic Racism - Humans and the Entelexeia, best exemplified by the Hunting Blades Guild and their attitude towards all monsters. It also works both ways: the Entelexeia considered humans to be too foolish to control their use of Blastia, and that's why they fired the first shot in the Great War.
  • Field of Blades - The Blade Drifts of Zopheir are appropriately named.
  • Fighting Your Friend - Estelle, when she is being controlled by Alexei. Also, Raven, as Schwann.
    • Yuri fights Flynn at several points during the game, but they're never actually trying to kill each other -- just play out their roles or work things out between them.
    • Karol fighting Nan also counts.
    • The Play Station 3 version adds a few such fights to the coliseum: notably, Yuri and Flynn are the 100th man in the other's 100/200-man melees, and a team battle mode is added in which a helmeted Karol fights alongside the Hunting Blades, Raven as Schwann fights alongside Leblanc, Adecor, and Boccos, and the rest of your party fights the four you chose!
  • Finishing Move - Fatal Strikes.
  • Five-Man Band
  • Flash Step - Yuri's Ghost Wolf, then his Mystic Arte for the Overkill version of this.
  • Friendship Moment - There's one between Yuri and Estelle, Rita and Judith, and Karol and Raven (and Flynn and Patty in the Play Station 3 version) before the final dungeon.

"'Does it matter? I am SO gonna kick your ass!' 'No no no no no no, I'm gonna kick YOUR ass!' 'Oh-ho, it's ON NOW!'"

  • Gambit Pileup: They do this, which leads to that, while they were already doing something else, which brings out new problems, which leads to another problem, while this is going on behind the scenes, which throws this in the way of that, which causes this to happen in the middle of that other thing... Getting it yet?
  • Get on the Boat - Get on the boat, they said... Fight some mermen, they said...
  • Genius Book Club - Rita and Estelle, but mostly Rita. Her unique secondary items are books, her reading of books is mentioned in a few skits, and her level up animation shows her reading a book. If and when Estelle sees something in the real world that she had only read about in a book, she'll point it out. In a skit while leaving a crystallized cavern, Estelle says that the cave looks like something out of a fantasy novel.
  • Genre Savvy - Yuri; he notes Estelle's White Princess status (even using the word "textbook"), comments on how he's cursed when they keep running into trouble, and rarely, if ever, loses his cool because he tends to know what he's up against. May be a side-effect of being the oldest Tales (series) protagonist so far-and the preference from staff.
  • Ghost Ship - The Atherum
  • The Glasses Come Off - Recurring character Wonder Chef does this every time he is found.
  • God Mode - It'll take forever and a day to charge it up, but that level 4 Overlimit is oh so sweet.
  • Good Is Dumb / Evil Is Cool - Raven. As Raven, the good guy, he's the dumb pervert whom everyone loves. As Schwann, the bad guy, he's the extremely suave knight with a much cooler fighting style.
    • Also played with any party member you fight during the course of the game - notably, there is a very small length of time between the one battle Flynn is in your party and his duel with Yuri, and he's much stronger in the latter, Brainwashed and Crazy Estelle is able to take on the entire party, and the team battle mode in the Play Station 3 version's coliseum concludes with a fight against the rest of your party, who have been boosted in strength. Whew.
  • Good Republic, Evil Empire - Heavily subverted - they're both pretty decent for the most part, and there is major corruption on both sides.
  • Gratuitous Greek: Adephagos is Greek for "gluttonous". "Entelexeia" refers to a theory of being in Aristotelian philosophy.
  • Green Aesop - Blastia, aer, and the Adephagos are a pretty straightforward metaphor for technology and pollution. The final battle of the game is over the hotly-debated-in-real-life issue of Geo-Engineering to solve environmental problems vs. Preservation of Earth as it was before humans altered it.
  • Guide Dang It - The time windows for sidequests pretty much require a guide to fully complete. Not to mention the requirements for some of the Secret Missions, for instance, having Raven use his "explosion on guard-broken enemies" arte against Yeager, whose guard is very difficult to break. Who figured that out on their first try?
  • Hair Contrast Duo: Yuri and Flynn.
  • Halfway Plot Switch - We start with a Succession Crisis and ruminations on the nature of justice, and then a giant malevolent octopus from beyond dimensions breaks in to deliver a Green Aesop.
  • Hannibal Lecture - Phaeroh, Alexei and Duke all give one at different points, and Yuri shoots them all down.
  • Happy Fun Ball - Estelle and Judith's joke weapons, which are capable of infinitely comboing bosses.
  • Harder Than Hard - Unknown. Prepare to die a lot. Even some normal enemies can instantly kill you with multihit attacks and some bosses can potentially kill your entire party with a single Mystic Arte, e.g. Schwann, Alexei, Zagi 5, Radiant Winged One, Kratos.
  • Hello, Insert Name Here - You can rename the party, but the voiceover will still call them by their normal names.
  • Heroic Sacrifice - Captain Nylen sacrifices himself to get Chastel to safety in The First Strike.
  • Heterosexual Life Partners - Yuri and Flynn, even after Yuri's desertion and brushes with the law.
  • Hold the Line - The safest option to take in the first round of the fight against the Baitojoh. Attacking it can potentially end the fight faster, but offers no additional reward.
  • Honor Before Reason - The party, especially Estelle, has elements of this. This is also evident in the guilds, culminating in the scene where Don Whitehorse commits seppuku to atone for Belius's death.
  • HP to One - Lampshaded by Duke after every Big Bang: "You still stand?!". More ridiculous is his true final form when the player has obtained the Fell Arms, because a single Big Bang does over 12,000 damage to EACH party member.
  • Human Resources - Though Blastia are made of Entelexeia, rather than humans.
    • Additionally, Zaude's Blastia core, which is made from the souls of the Children of the Full Moon.
  • I Can Still Fight - Pretty much all of your party members will do this at some point in the game.
  • Identical Twin ID Tag
  • I Did What I Had to Do - Judith's reasoning for crippling the party's ship; she's actually right. Not to mention Yuri's explanation for killing Ragou and Cumore, especially since he knew no one else would punish them.
  • Idiot Hero - Karol. Yuri, on the other hand, is a refreshing aversion.
    • Even Karol doesn't qualify entirely. He's shrill and cowardly, but (comparable to Estelle's knowledge of history and geography) he does contribute a great deal of wilderness lore and insight into the workings of the Guilds.
    • To be fair, there really is no Idiot Hero in this game. Raven plays the part, but it's all a facade.
  • "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight - The Party vs. Brainwashed and Crazy Estelle.
  • I Know You Know I Know: Flynn and Yuri. Justified even more so with:

Flynn: Yuri, we need to talk.
Yuri: I know.

  • Improbable Weapon User - Rita attacks with scrolls and books. Some subweapons are pretty weird as well, like Karol's bag.
    • Nan attacks with some kind of really weird giant bladed boomerang that she holds behind her with both arms - and she attacks mostly by either spinning or throwing it.
  • Inexplicable Treasure Chests - In one area your party comments that the continent has never been explored before, yet there's still chests in the local dungeon...
  • Infinity+1 Sword - A couple of varieties: each character gets a most powerful normal weapon in a sidequest, and then there are the Fell Arms (Devil's Arms), as usual. Storywise, in the Play Station 3 version, Yuri gets a sword called Vesperia No. 2 that, while not his most powerful weapon, does grant him access to his second Mystic Arte.
  • Item Crafting - If you can use it, you can probably make it using convenient materials from your fallen foes.
  • It's Up to You - Yuri might insist that Flynn gets the hard job of dealing with the nobles, but we all know who gets the short end of the stick.
  • Leaning on the Fourth Wall: One of Karol's costumes is nothing but a towel. Leaving it on for long enough starts a skit where all the girls avoid him. At one point he says "You're mean! You made me wear this because you thought it would be funny!", and the other party members deny making him do anything, much to Karol's confusion.'
  • Library of Babel - The libraries in Aspio are so big resident mages have made a habit of sleeping on the shelves.
  • Limit Break - Mystic Artes.
  • Load-Bearing Hero: Raven, as Schwann does this to allow the others to escape when a building is collapsing.
  • Lost Forever - Many sidequests can only be triggered at certain points in the main quest, and failing to do so will prevent you from gaining the rewards.
  • Lost Technology - Vesperia is a Deconstruction of this trope: Blastia are widespread, well researched and the solution to the party's problems is not using them.
  • Love Interest - Karol and Nan.
  • MacGuffin Delivery Service - It's awfully rude for Duke to not thank you for it.
  • Mad Science - It seems that after the Blastia are gone all the Mages switched to this. In the ending credits you see Rita nearly blow her face off with chemistry. She also invents a Steampunk propeller backpack so she can visit Estelle.
  • Magical Incantation - Required for most magical artes, and get longer for more powerful spells. Subverted by Rita in Overlimit, when all she says is "blah blah blah."
  • Meaningful Name - Gauche and Droite mean left and right in French. The guild's name is also important, as it's Brave Vesperia. Also, Raven/Schwann, whose two personalities are both named after birds.
    • Regaey is Yeager backwards.
  • Mega Corp: The Guilds. However; they're actually a rather rare benign/benevolent portrayal of the trope. Most of the guilds are headed by nice people despite some moments where the guilds are on the antagonistic side. Despite Barbos, the Hunting Blades at times, and Yeager, the rest are pretty good. And even Yeager has his moments, but this is a Tales (series) game so you should have probably expected the latter two.
  • Marshmallow Hell: A light example in First Strike where Chastel accidentally (but persistently) pulls Flynn's face into her assets as she's trying to heal him. Chastel doesn't notice, but Flynn does.
  • Mercy Kill: The party has to deal one to Belius.
  • Mind Rape: Alexei to Estelle.
  • Mind Screw: In-game: After the illusion of Yormgen falls you can later visit the ruins. If you do so in Act 3 you find a journal belonging to the girl who you gave the Clear Ciel Crystal to. You find out that she gave up waiting for the Ghost Ships Captain and moved on. The party debates wither the town was an illusion or if it actually exists since they actually interacted with it.
  • Murder, Inc.: Leviathan's Claw.
  • Murdering the Hypotenuse: What Sodia attempts on Yuri at the end of Zaude.
  • My Fist Forgives You: Raven. Four Five times in a row.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: A variety of characters experience this at one point or another. Examples are Estelle when she was the cause of Belius' death, Flynn after he realized everything he did for Alexei resulted in negative consequences and that he was being used, Patty after she kills Seifer, even though he asked her to, Alexei after bringing the Adephagos back into the world, and Sodia after she stabs Yuri, causing him to fall from the edge of Zaude.
  • Nature Spirit - as usual in the Tales (series).
  • Nerf Arm: Estelle gets a duster, Judith gets a broom, and Repede gets Grilled Chicken. Estelle and Judith's gag weapons allow them to perform new attacks such as cleaning the enemy off or sweeping them up, but they're a lot more painful than they sound.
  • New Game+: In which you can use all that Grade you earned in your previous playthrough to buy various rewards to spice up your new one.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Villain - Inverted from the standard heroic version, as indicated. Alexei's plan has the unintended side-effect of releasing the Cosmic Horror and Sealed Evil in a Can.
    • The heroic version is also played straight, when Estelle's healing artes drive Belius mad and the party's forced to kill her, leading to tension among the major guilds and more unwanted deaths.
    • The game also uses another variation: Nice Job Breaking It, Player. If you collect all the Fell Arms, the final boss will absorb their power and gain an extra form that is one of the most powerful enemies in the game.
  • Noble Male, Roguish Male: Yuri is the Roguish Male, while Flynn is the Noble Male.
  • No One Could Survive That - Yuri falls from the top of Zaude after Sodia stabs him, easily a fall of at least a mile. Duke saves his life.
  • Not So Different - Yuri and Phaeroh, arguably.
    • Alexei makes this argument about himself and Flynn.
    • In a skit after beating Zagi for the final time at Tarqaron, Rita muses about herself and Zagi being this.
  • Now Where Was I Going Again? - The synopsis, done in the style of the Wonder Reporter writing articles about Yuri's recent activities. It does however, lie about the location of at least one dungeon: the Manor of the Wicked.
  • The Obi-Wan: Captain Nylen Fedlock in The First Strike acts in this capacity to both Yuri and Flynn. Complete with Mentor Occupational Hazard.
  • One-Man Army: The optional 100- and 200-Man Melees pits one of your characters against, well, one hundred and two hundred enemies. Gameplay-wise, Yuri is also one of the most broken playable characters in Tales (series) history, boasting a well-known infinite combo.
  • Our Elves Are Different: The Kritya race, of which party member Judith is a member. They are pointy-eared, long-lived, intelligent, and share a psychic connection with Entelexeia. They are also very pacifistic and have Cloudcuckoolander tendencies, which makes Judith a definite Black Sheep.
    • Uniquely, the Kritya race are not shown to be innately any better or worse than normal humans, being just as prone to abusing Blastia without regard for the environment. For example, Hermes, the inventor of the aer-guzzling Blastia of the same name, was a Krityan.
  • Our Monsters Intelligent Non-Humans Are Different - The Entelexeia.
  • Outside Man, Inside Man: Yuri and Flynn, respectively.
  • Panacea - Yuri, Karol, and Estelle try to use a panacea bottle to heal the big cherry blossom tree in Halure and, from then on, it becomes a regular item that cures both physical and magical ailments.
  • Parental Abandonment - None of the main cast members have living parents. Most of the supporting cast lacks them too. Though there is a refreshing lack of angst about it.
  • Precursors - The Geraios Civilization.
  • Preexisting Encounters - Both types are present in this game. You can run around, freeze, or stun most encounters, but there will be an occasional tight path with a monster conveniently placed in the middle of it. You can get past some of the monsters in tight paths by using a Holy Bottle, though.
  • Put Off Their Food: One of the skits has this happen to Rita and Raven, who were enjoying their croquettes... until Raven asks Yuri about the recipe, and Yuri reveals his "secret ingredient". Rita and Raven's reaction say it all.
  • Ragnarok Proofing
  • Ramming Always Works: The Flynn Brigade saves Zaphias from Heracles with a heavy dosage of this.
  • Retcon - The Play Station 3 version does this to a few events of the 360 version, mostly to account for things like Patty's or Flynn's presence. Notably, two fights against a monster called the Wandering Skeleton are added, Sodia takes Flynn's place in several cutscenes, and Flynn doesn't get shot until after the battle with Alexei, which he takes part in.
  • Ring Out - One of the Secret Missions requires this.
  • Running Gag - Yuri is cursed.
    • The sign of victory!
  • Sad Battle Music: A slow melancholic rendition of the game's theme song, "Ring a Bell", plays during Yuri's battle with Estelle; during which, she pleads with him to kill her to save himself and the others.
  • Samus Is a Girl - Done twice. First time with Rita Mordio. Later on with Judith. Amazingly enough, they do not get chickified. Done a third time in the Play Station 3 version with Aifreed, who Patty calls grandfather, who is actually Patty herself.
    • Slightly subverted in Rita's case, since she wasn't the one that Yuri was after.
  • Say My Name - As is contractually required for Tales protagonists.
  • Scratch Damage - Fortunately, they don't allow those 1-point hits to interrupt you.
  • Sdrawkcab Name - Regaey/Yeager
  • Sealed Evil in a Can - The Adephagos
  • See You in Hell - Barbos and Don Whitehorse, though in a kindred manner, both to Yuri.
  • Self-Mutilation Demonstration - Inverted by Yuri after Belius' death, giving Estelle a metaphorical slap in the face by slicing his own arm open not so he would heal himself, but knowing she would heal him.
  • Shifting Sand Land
  • Ship Tease - Rare for a Tales game, Vesperia doesn't focus much on any romance, barring a line of dialogue here or there that hints one character may like another. Despite the two main characters being male and female, they don't very much resemble an Official Couple. Cue a massive amount of fan pairings.
    • It may also have something to do with the fact that most people don't consider the two main characters to be Yuri and Estelle; they consider them to be Yuri and Flynn.
      • With the way the story plays out and how it always comes back to Yuri and Flynn, they're most certainly the protagonists. There's little doubt about that.
      • The games also goes it's own fair share of implying Yuri/Flynn and Rita/Estelle, right down to Yuri being the domesticated one because Flynn can't cook, and in the Play Station 3 one "Ristelle" looking after a baby together.
  • Shoot the Dog - Yuri often takes it upon himself to punish those who are above the law, even if it means killing them, because he knows Flynn and the rest of his party aren't willing to do it.
    • Also applied literally whenever Repede gets hit with a projectile in battle.
    • Even more literally here.
  • Shout-Out - Multiple, including the Fiertia's pilot being named Tokunaga and a couple of kids in the desert town of Montaic being named Alph and Layla.
  • Shut UP, Hannibal - Yuri to Phaeroh.
  • Sorting Algorithm of Weapon Effectiveness - Largely averted through the synthesis system and regular upgrading of shops.
  • Space Whale Aesop - If you don't use environmentally friendly technology, a technicolor interdimensional ghost squid will come down from space and eat everybody.
  • Sprint Shoes - You can synthesize an item that increases your running speed early in the game; it will save you a lot of time.
  • The Starscream - Barbos, Ragou, Cumore and Yeager are all working for Alexei, but are all seeking to overthrow him. He uses the party to kill them to save himself the trouble of killing them himself.
  • Start My Own - After being kicked out by the Hunting Blades, Karol decides to make his own guild.
  • Succession Crisis - Forms the main plot for Act One. As the previous Emperor had no direct heir, Estelle and Ioder are the top candidates for the currently-empty throne of the Empire. They are supported by the Council and the Knights, respectively, driving a wedge between the two ruling force of the government. Ioder is supported for his political expertise and ambassadorial work, and Estelle for her powers as a Child of the Full Moon; vanishingly rare even in the royal family. It is all resolved rather abruptly when Alexei's insurrection and the Adephagos crisis catapult Ioder into the role of acting Emperor. His performance nets him the support of both the Council and the Knights, making him as-good-as-permanent Emperor. Estelle seems rather relieved at this turn of events, as it allows her to continue her travels and pursue her dreams of being a writer.
  • Suspicious Videogame Generosity - If you see a save spot, especially one that heals, you better save.
  • Sword of Plot Advancement - Dein Nomos.
  • Take Up My Sword - Yuri's bodhi Blastia, Flynn's sense of morality, and Repede's pipe are all inherited from Captain Nylen from The First Strike.
  • Take Your Time - YOU KNOW HOW I HATE WAITING, YURI LOWELL!
  • Taking the Bullet - Flynn shoves Yuri out of the way of a laser beam fired by Alexei. In the 360 version, it happens before the fight; in the Play Station 3 version, it happens afterwards with slow motion. In both versions, it's the motivation for Sodia to stab Yuri.
  • Talking Is a Free Action - Several boss fights have the characters chatting it up or arguing in some way, despite the fact that it's an action-oriented RPG and they're already knee-deep in Calling Your Attacks-goodness.
  • Tap on the Head - As demonstrated by Yuri, all you need to down an Imperial Knight is a small rock and good aim. If you're in close, use a karate chop to the back of the neck.
  • This Is Something He's Got to Do Himself: How Yuri feels about dealing with Ragou and Cumore.
  • Three Act Structure: Highly obvious in this game, ending with a Disc One Final Boss. Act 1 is setting up the tension, introducing us to the characters, with the Disc One Final Boss being Barbos, Act 2 is the confrontation where the Disc One Final Boss is Alexei, and Act 3 starts after Alexei unleashes the Adephagos by mistake and cleaning up the mess and resolving everything.
  • The Three Faces of Eve - Estelle, Judith, and Rita.
  • Time Travel - Yormgen is supposedly an illusion made by Phaeroh, but a sidequest later in the game suggests that did actually travel back somehow.
    • Also, Dhaos, the the Time Traveling Big Bad from Tales of Phantasia, makes a cameo.
  • Title Drop - Estelle christens the newborn guild Brave Vesperia, one of the few times the Tales (series) has pulled this trope.
    • Also, although it isn't in English (or any other discernable language), the book that Estelle is writing during the end credits has a title composed of 3 words, each of which look suspiciously similar in length and shape to the words "Tales," "of," and "Vesperia" in English. Since the book is likely a story about their own adventures, it makes perfect sense that it would be titled as such.
  • [[Too Long; Didn't Dub]] - Repede gets the Sinful Sidekick title after Yuri kills Ragou. It actually means something like he who knows of the sin.
    • Judith gets the title Trophy Wife after taking care of the party's overlooked needs in Mantaic, while in the Japanese version the title means something along the lines of "Perceptive Woman." This also doubles as a serious case of Unfortunate Implications. Really, Bandai Namco USA, you couldn't have called her Team Mom or something a little more appropriate?
  • Translation Convention - Played with in the sidequest where Repede marks his territory. Whenever Repede meets his rival, they exchange a few harsh perfectly understandable words which are rendered (in parenthesis, like this), and the player believes it's this trope coming into play. A comment made by Raven later in the sidequest, however - something akin to "Why do I always gotta be the voice of the evil dog?" - suggests that the party themselves are roleplaying out the confrontations between the two non-human-speaking dogs.
    • Rita plays the cat.
    • The spoilered fact is unfortunately revealed at the beginning of the sidequest in the Play Station 3 version, but it's been supplemented by the "actor" standing next to the animal they're roleplaying, complete with violent gesticulations, so it's well worth it anyway.
  • True Companions - Notably more so than a lot of JRPGs, actually; in addition to the Japanese version beating you over the head with the trope's original title (nakama), this appears to be the main reason Yuri's so determined to save Estelle in the second part, rather than any romantic feelings towards her:

Yuri: She may be a bumbling, sheltered excuse for a princess, but she's one of ours!

  • Turns Red - Overlimit is not an ability that is exclusive to your party; bosses can use it too. This prevents attack interruption, and allows instant casting and infinite combos. They also get access to their powerful Mystic Artes. Running away is strongly encouraged.
    • Yeager has a more traditional Turns Red moment when he reveals his heart Blastia.
  • Updated Rerelease - The Play Station 3 version adds Patty Fleur to the adventure early on, more chances to have Flynn as a party member, new attacks, bosses, and new events that tie the game to the Prequel anime movie. There's so much new content, in fact, it's almost on the level of a full remake.
  • Unexpected Gameplay Change - During the party's first attempt to use an apetheia to condense an aer krene, you randomly have to play a rhythm game to help Rita and Estelle "concentrate." None of the other attempts require this, which makes it all the more jarring.
  • The Unfought - Raise your hand if you thought "Oh crap, am I going to fight THAT?" when the Adephagos appeared.
  • The Un-Reveal: Unlike previous Tales games, the goal of Vesperia's Big Bad is never revealed. Alexei makes many a grandiose statement about how he intends to change the world and save it from the empire but how unsealing Zaude is supposed to assist him in this is never actually explained, nor is it explained how Yuri killing Ragou and Cumore was able to help him work without any interruptions, nor is it explained why he's doing any of this beyond a vague "The empire is corrupt" motivation, nor is it ever explained why, if he thinks the empire is so corrupt, he didn't just removed the negative elements from it with his power and authority: being the Commandant and all.
  • Unwitting Pawn - Harry Whitehorse
  • Up to Eleven - You thought being able to use 8 artes and party level 4 Overlimit was cool? Try 16 artes and a party level 8 Overlimit in the Play Station 3 version (allowing multiple party members to go level 4 Overlimit!).
  • Urban Segregation - The Lower quarter and the Noble quarter of Zaphias.
  • The Very Definitely Final Dungeon - Subverted, as the Tales series usually does, with Zaude. The real one is Tarqaron, floating city.
  • Victory Pose - After every battle.

Estelle: They're...bouncing...
Judith: What are you looking at?
Estelle: I wish I could bounce...

Estelle: Our weapons are love!
Yuri: Justice!
Raven: Sexualityyyy!
Rita: Would you stop?!

Karol: Victory pose!
Estelle/Judith: Me too!
Rita: ...I can't. I just...can't.

Raven: This is my VICTORY POSE!

  • Violence Is the Only Option - After Ragou and Cumore reduce their punishments using their positions in the government, Yuri takes it into his own hands and murders them. Also Duke, who resorts to sacrificing humanity in order to destroy the Adephagos.
    • Played for laughs in a scene where either Judith, Estelle, or Karol attempt to seduce a guard and lure him away from his post as an alternative to simply attacking him...only for Yuri to knock him out when his guard his dropped. Karol is not amused.
  • Violation of Common Sense: On the parts of the developers - why on earth would you give a Staff Chick with only a pittance of a strength stat (albeit high defense) melee artes?
  • Visible Silence - When Rita asks why Judith didn't tell the party about her problem, a gigantic bubble pops up in a dramatic moment with only "..." in large, large font.
    • Judith does this all the time. It's like big red arrows going SHE KNOWS SOMETHING. If only the rest of the cast could see her speech bubbles, we could have avoided this.
    • Also happens on occasion with Raven, in particular just before the party has to travel back through the Weasand of Cados, and there's a blockade of Imperial soldiers.
  • "Wake-Up Call" Boss - Gattuso.
  • Weather Control Machine - Several villains use blastia in order to change the weather.
  • We Sell Everything - Healing items, potions, armor, hats, bags, shoes, gloves, books, cloth, knives, glasses, flags, pieces of stone...they sell it all!
    • What do you expect from Fortune's Market, Terca Lumireis' equivilent of Costco?
  • We Will Meet Again:

Cumore: We'll get you next time!
Judith: What an original line.

  • Wham! Episode - Ragou's death sets a major tone-change, setting Yuri as a figure willing to be his world's equivalent of The Punisher, brutally murdering the corrupt Councilor. He then provides Cumore with a Family-Unfriendly Death by quicksand, getting chewed out by Flynn just afterwards. That is the setup. The Wham! Episode is in the middle of the Hunting Blades attacking Nordopolica to murder Belius, Estelle trying to heal Belius, only to drive her berserk, forcing the party to put her down. Then the Knights' entire blockade trying to capture Estelle and the crystal that represented Belius' remains - including Flynn personally, and LOUDLY, confronting Yuri on both murders, and asking if Yuri would kill him, too, shocking the entire party. And if that wasn't painful enough, Judith, OUT OF NOWHERE, goes back to destroying blastia, leaving the party adrift in the ocean after they had only BARELY escaped. All of this in about fifteen minutes of cutscenes, only one fight in the middle.
  • What the Hell, Hero? - Flynn does this when he confronts Yuri about him murdering Ragou and Cumore. Yuri throws it right back in his face when Alexei reveals his true colors, calling Flynn out for blindly following orders without question - the very thing the two hoped to avoid when they joined the Knights.
  • Years Too Early - One of the victory quotes uses this.

Yuri: It'll be a hundred years before you can beat me!
Estelle: Because you're a lot older, right?
Yuri: ...Not exactly.

  • You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Cumore.
    • Most characters have natural hair colors, but Estelle has pink hair and Judith has indigo hair. However, Judith isn't human, and Estelle's pink hair is implied in the Play Station 3 version to be common with Children of the Full Moon. Which leads to the party's own Fridge Horror at what that implied about Zagi...
    • Yuri's hair is considered black, but definitely has purple highlights.
  • Xanatos Roulette: Alexei. Specifically, it turns out he was the one (along with Yeager) who orchestrated the Hunting Blades betraying the Union by attacking Nordipolica so that the Guild Union would fall into civil war.
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