Tales of Vesperia/Trivia

• Actor Allusion: Karol in the Play Station 3 version gets a Klonoa outfit and a Sgt. Keroro outfit. Gee, I wonder why...
• Defictionalization: The "overdrive dolls", plush versions of each party member that can be equipped to Repede so that they ride on his back. Yuri's, Flynn's, and Rita's have been released as actual plushies.
• Expy
  • Flynn looks a lot like Guy and Cless, from the original Tales of Phantasia. Even their armor is the same. In the Play Station 3 version, he gets Cless's armor and even the Jigenzan. In Radiant Mythology 3 a skit showing them exchanging clothes results in Tear and Estelle`s confusion about their true identities.
  • Jade Curtiss, possibly due to his massive popularity, gets two Expies (three if you count Yuri), both based on different aspects of him: Rita represents his intellectual, magic-studying and snarky side, while Raven represents his savvy, 35-year old and military side.
  • A nihilistic Death Seeker Stepford Smiler who covers up his issues by acting like a Casanova, but gets treated as the cast's Butt Monkey? Check, check, check, and check, Raven is an expy of Zelos Wilder.
  • Alexei is basically a less sympathetic version of Van from Tales of the Abyss - they're both Commandants and their motives and plans are very similar.
• Hey, It's That Voice! - Starring...
  • Spike Spencer as Yeager.
  • Roger Craig Smith as Zagi.
  • Michelle Ruff as Rita.
  • Liam O'Brien as Cumore.
  • Wendee Lee as Nan, Droite, and Witcher.
  • Danielle Judovits as Estelle.
  • Julie Ann Taylor as Karol.
  • Mona Marshall as Belius.
  • DC Douglas as Alexei.
  • Laura Bailey as Gauche.
  • And, ironically, Troy Baker as Yuri. Hilariously, Yuri Lowenthal was not cast as Yuri Lowell.
    • Arguably this (or Persona 4, they were released at around the same time) is Troy's Star-Making Role, as after this, he went from a no name anime dub actor, to appearing in many, many video games ranging from Batman: Arkham City as Two-Face and Marvel vs. Capcom 3 as Nova, to The Last of Us as Joel and BioShock Infinite as Booker DeWitt.
• Mythology Gag - Tons of them, mostly in the form of cosplay outfits and accessories.
  • The Pop Quiz in Nam Cobanda tests your knowledge of the Tales (series). In a nice touch, the American and European releases removed questions on games that had not been released in their respective regions.
  • The "Gentlemieu", "Gentlereplica", and "Gentlesinger" monsters are clear references to Tales of the Abyss. They are also the only monsters that drop Cheagle Fur, Fragments of Hyper-Resonance and Fonstones, respectively.
    • There's also Judassey, a large frog-type enemy...with the color scheme and mask of, you guessed it, Judas.
  • Yeager uses extremely subtle Title Drops of previous Tales (series) games. Pay close attention to the conversations at the beginning of the two halves of the fight. It's taken directly from the Japanese version, where he pronounces the words in English, so it's most likely done intentionally. Also to be noted is that he also throws in "Rebirth" there, which the English dialogue skipped out on because it was never localized.
    • Perhaps even more subtle is Tison from the Hunting Blade's attack, Rising Dragon: Ratatosk. It's hard to catch, since it only flicks up on screen for half a second.
  • Alexei talks about destiny and rebirth during the battle and the scene preceding it.
  • A particularly memorable callback, especially to Tales of Eternia and Tales of Phantasia, in the Play Station 3 version: Rita unlocks her second Mystic Arte (Indignation) by re-enacting the opening to Tales of Phantasia in the 200-Man Melee against Dhaos. If she gets Dhaos to under half his HP and casts Thunder Blade in Overlimit 4 or higher, she'll cast Indignation instead. Dhaos will utter "Sonna...sonna bakana!!", and the spell will instantly kill him.
  • The Play Station 3 version adds a ton of bonus cosplay outfits. Not only do Yuri, Flynn and Estelle get to cosplay from Tales of the Abyss as a pre-order bonus, but every party member gets a cosplay outfit (and associated skill) from a previous Tales (series) character as a reward for completing the 200-Man Melee. If every party member puts on their cosplay outfit, there's even a skit where they start acting like their "characters" against their will.
• Name's the Same: Yuri Lowell. Every voice actor in the industry thought that Yuri Lowenthal would definitely get the role (to quote Troy Baker, "Well if they're just naming characters after us...") but missed out because he had voiced the main character of Tales of the Abyss, and the producers didn't want each game to start sounding the same.
• Names to Know in Anime:
  • Mai Nakahara - Estelle
  • Aya Hisakawa - Judith
  • Mamoru Miyano - Flynn
  • Chiwa Saitou - Patty
• No Export for You - Namco-Bandai have stated they have no plans to localize the Play Station 3 Updated Rerelease.
  • The apparent reason is that Microsoft holds exclusive rights for the western releases.
    • Which is because Microsoft paid Namco Bandai to keep it exclusive to the 360.
• The Other Darrin: The dub of The First Strike keeps the actors for the main duo but replaces the ones for everyone else that appears in the game.
• Shout-Out - Many references to older games in the series, Namco games in general, and pop culture in Japan.
  • Also a few humorous references to several fighting games during the coliseum tournament, including Guilty Gear and Soul Calibur.
  • One of Rita's weapons, the Sword Whip, is a fairly obvious reference to Ivy's Valentine Blade from Soul Calibur, as well. She also gets an upgraded version of it, called Ivy Blade.
  • Karol can equip a weapon called the "Spinning Drill Hammer". According to its description, you can use it to "raise your spirits!"
  • Japanese Play Station 3 owners can download a Sgt. Frog costume for Karol.
  • Namco has since released an entire Namco-character-themed costume set as DLC for the Play Station 3 version in Japan. Yuri gets Heishiro Mitsurugi, Estelle gets Valkyrie, Flynn gets Frederic Chopin, Repede gets a character from Family Stadium, Karol gets Klonoa, Rita gets Haruka Amami, Judith gets KOS-MOS, Raven gets Heihachi, and Patty gets Mr. Driller. Unfortunately, each costume costs 300 yen individually...
  • At least in the English language version, during one sidequest, Raven says word for word, "I love it when a plan comes together."
  • Rita's Indignation attack, in the English version, has her turn her back to the camera and say "You're already dead".
  • There's a set of 3 toy dioramas in Nam Cobanda Island, which start moving and playing sounds when you examine them. One of them displays the gameplay of Bravoman, an old Namco game with a Salaryman as the hero who's transformed into a cyborg with stretching limbs by an alien. The other two games displayed aren't known yet, though.
  • You can also collect various capsule toys from vending machines placed around the game: these display characters from Rally-X, Mappy, Klonoa, Valkyrie's Adventure and various other games.
  • Yuri's Lethal Joke Weapon teaches him a downward stab attack called Dragon Buster, a reference to the signature attack of the hero of a similarly named old Namco game.
• What Could Have Been: The three letter player-character identifier PAT appears in a few places on the Xbox 360 disc, so Patty was probably cut fairly early into production.
  • Yet they ended up keeping her in the end anyway.