The Repede Obfuscation Station (Tales of Vesperia) - RIP Fatler

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Let's Play! > The Repede Obfuscation Station (Tales of Vesperia) - RIP Fatler

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Admiral H. Curtiss: May 11, 2010; I think there are a bunch of people who can create trailing images. I know some who could do this as if they were just going out for a stroll.

Oh this will be neat. As you might be able to tell because of my SSLP, I love this game, mostly because of the great main character cast and their interactions. That's not to say that this game isn't without its flaws (certainly not!), but it's overall very fun.

# ¿ Sep 7, 2013 03:10

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 03:58

Admiral H. Curtiss: May 11, 2010; I think there are a bunch of people who can create trailing images. I know some who could do this as if they were just going out for a stroll.

A note regarding your basic battle system attacks that I believe you missed, if you attack normally while holding the Free Run button (the one that allows you to run around the entire battlefield), you do an extra attack that's not included in the basic combo. You can chain it at the end of a normal combo and before an Arte. Yuri's is pretty useful, so maybe keep it in mind.

# ¿ Sep 7, 2013 03:53

Admiral H. Curtiss: May 11, 2010; I think there are a bunch of people who can create trailing images. I know some who could do this as if they were just going out for a stroll.

darealkooky posted:

It's a real shame the only version available in english is a beta version of the game.

The PS3 version really doesn't add that much. A (boring) dungeon, a new playable character, a couple (bad) story additions to give that new character a story arc, a couple side quests, and an absolutely infuriating post-game dungeon. Also like three artes for every character, they already have a ton and adding three more doesn't change much. Plus you get to experience longer loading times and worse performance in battle when a lot of effects are going on. The 360 version is far from a beta.

Ometeotl posted:

As for the Yuri thing, the VA is named Yuri Lowenthal and the character Yuri Lowell, and he couldn't voice him because he voiced the main character in the previous game and I guess they didn't want a similar voice for two protagonists in a row.

Troy Baker is a much better fit for Yuri anyway, so I'm glad for this decision.

# ¿ Sep 7, 2013 13:37

Admiral H. Curtiss: May 11, 2010; I think there are a bunch of people who can create trailing images. I know some who could do this as if they were just going out for a stroll.

You can't get either of those until near the end of part 1, unfortunately. But yes, they're very helpful and it's kinda dumb you don't have them by default.

# ¿ Sep 7, 2013 15:51

Admiral H. Curtiss: May 11, 2010; I think there are a bunch of people who can create trailing images. I know some who could do this as if they were just going out for a stroll.

Singh Long posted:

drat, guess my memory was off. It's been 3 years since I finished ToV. By the way, I forgot if your LP addressed this, but does completing the FA sidequest trigger the FU moment even on a first attempt or does Kuvo have to beat the game first? That would totally make this LP awesome.

It does, indeed, trigger on the first attempt if you do the FA sidequest first.

# ¿ Sep 7, 2013 23:44

Admiral H. Curtiss: May 11, 2010; I think there are a bunch of people who can create trailing images. I know some who could do this as if they were just going out for a stroll.

It's the thing they use to cast magic and throw shockwaves and poo poo, basically most Artes.

# ¿ Sep 9, 2013 21:47

Admiral H. Curtiss: May 11, 2010; I think there are a bunch of people who can create trailing images. I know some who could do this as if they were just going out for a stroll.

RareAcumen posted:

Doesn't Vesperia also have a journal thing in it like Symphonia did? I could've sworn it did which was great for when you leave the game alone for a while and then come back with no idea what to do.

It does, and it's a very helpful resource when you don't remember where to go or what you did last time, but the way it's written, well, it kinda tries to imitate a newspaper article or something and it doesn't really work.

Vicas is doing a much better job at summarizing the events.

# ¿ Sep 9, 2013 23:19

Admiral H. Curtiss: May 11, 2010; I think there are a bunch of people who can create trailing images. I know some who could do this as if they were just going out for a stroll.

Dastardly posted:

It's honestly more of a newgame+ thing. Having all the extra health, armor, artes and the likes helps a lot.

Anyway here's the best picture I could find of the actual ingame costume if you really want to see what it looks like.

http://imgur.com/IGKucYG

Front shot, back shot. (minor spoiler warning: future party members are visible in these screenshots)

Admiral H. Curtiss fucked around with this message at 17:34 on Sep 11, 2013

# ¿ Sep 11, 2013 16:29

Admiral H. Curtiss: May 11, 2010; I think there are a bunch of people who can create trailing images. I know some who could do this as if they were just going out for a stroll.

Yeah that's literally stuff that's on the game's box art and opening cinematic. But alright, I'll add a warning.

# ¿ Sep 11, 2013 17:33

Admiral H. Curtiss: May 11, 2010; I think there are a bunch of people who can create trailing images. I know some who could do this as if they were just going out for a stroll.

I hope you ended up buying weapons in here before moving on, because as far as I remember it's the only source of the very useful Backstep skill for quite a while.

# ¿ Sep 15, 2013 21:51

Admiral H. Curtiss: May 11, 2010; I think there are a bunch of people who can create trailing images. I know some who could do this as if they were just going out for a stroll.

Singh Long posted:

Also, I can't remember what it's called, but will the Strategy/Tactic/Formation menu thingy be addressed soon? There's a rather funny fan art that sort-of demos Estelle's notoriously bad AI.

Oh yeah, I wanted to mention that but forgot: Estelle's AI is dumb, but you can make it a bit better by setting it to 'Artes Only' instead of the 'Healing' it is by default, and manually turning off all non-magic artes in the Artes menu. That makes her no longer run up to the enemy when everyone's got high HP, but also reduces her likelyhood of healing; it's kind of a tossup, but I prefer the Artes Only style.

# ¿ Sep 17, 2013 15:47

Admiral H. Curtiss: May 11, 2010; I think there are a bunch of people who can create trailing images. I know some who could do this as if they were just going out for a stroll.

Not even, it's just a textbox when you examine something:

code:

There's a woman's pirate's hat inside the drawer.
There's a name on it, but it can barely be read.
"Pa...?"

There's some references in system strings and similar that make it seem like she was meant to be in the 360 version of the game as well, and some NPCs refer to Siren's Fang in a way that can be put into relation with her, but for whatever reason she's not actually in the game. Which ends up being a positive!

Admiral H. Curtiss fucked around with this message at 01:19 on Sep 19, 2013

# ¿ Sep 19, 2013 01:15

Admiral H. Curtiss: May 11, 2010; I think there are a bunch of people who can create trailing images. I know some who could do this as if they were just going out for a stroll.

Fingers of Fury posted:

Also I'm pretty sure the reason you couldn't cast any spells with Estelle was because she was out of tp.

Kuvo posted:

I noticed this when editing the videos. I wish the game would give you some sort of cue that this was the case instead of just doing nothing.

This is a huge balancing problem with Tales games in general. In the early game, you run out of TP super fast and super easy. In addition, the UI doesn't help you at all in informing you what is making your arte usages or commands fail, which just increases the previous issue since people new to the game/series need that help the most.

Strangely enough, Symphonia was the only game that actually did something about informing you why you couldn't use Artes, all other games just silently fail. I have no idea why they dropped that.

The CC based Tales games fare far better, because you're only dealing with small auto-regenerating numbers anyway, though you could probably improve that there too.

# ¿ Oct 1, 2013 20:18

Admiral H. Curtiss: May 11, 2010; I think there are a bunch of people who can create trailing images. I know some who could do this as if they were just going out for a stroll.

They do sometimes, not always. I have no idea what triggers it.

# ¿ Oct 2, 2013 22:50

Admiral H. Curtiss: May 11, 2010; I think there are a bunch of people who can create trailing images. I know some who could do this as if they were just going out for a stroll.

The Moon Selector (switch character in battle), Special Flag (switch character on the map) and Winged Boots (move faster) are indeed all synthesis items. The annoying thing about synthesis in this game is that when items show up for synthesis is kinda arbitrary, I'm not entirely sure when they decide to show up. I think it's some combination of story progress, how many items you've already synthesized, and how many synthesis ingredients you have that are needed for the item in question, so your best bet is just progressing in the plot and fighting random battles until it shows up.

# ¿ Oct 7, 2013 16:53

Admiral H. Curtiss: May 11, 2010; I think there are a bunch of people who can create trailing images. I know some who could do this as if they were just going out for a stroll.

Rita also has a reason for coming with you, minor spoilers. In the scene before the Shaikos Ruins boss fight, when Estelle heals Rita, Rita noticed something weird with Estelle's blastia -- just like Yuri did back in the castle.

# ¿ Oct 7, 2013 21:40

Admiral H. Curtiss: May 11, 2010; I think there are a bunch of people who can create trailing images. I know some who could do this as if they were just going out for a stroll.

Rita didn't cast any spells because the default AI options tell characters to keep at least 25% of their TP at all times. Go over to Strategy and change it, it's dumb. (press X on a strategy to actually see and edit what the strategy is doing)

# ¿ Oct 9, 2013 20:18

Admiral H. Curtiss: May 11, 2010; I think there are a bunch of people who can create trailing images. I know some who could do this as if they were just going out for a stroll.

LeafyOrb posted:

Edit: turning them off doesn't stop characters from running up to bosses like an idiot though.

Strategy -> Action -> Artes Only.

# ¿ Oct 9, 2013 22:00

Admiral H. Curtiss: May 11, 2010; I think there are a bunch of people who can create trailing images. I know some who could do this as if they were just going out for a stroll.

Clean image of the wanted poster, can someone decipher what the text in the middle is?

# ¿ Oct 9, 2013 23:59

Admiral H. Curtiss: May 11, 2010; I think there are a bunch of people who can create trailing images. I know some who could do this as if they were just going out for a stroll.

The game files have a 10k Gald poster so I have no idea why they don't use it here.

(The description still says 5k.)

# ¿ Oct 17, 2013 21:06

Admiral H. Curtiss: May 11, 2010; I think there are a bunch of people who can create trailing images. I know some who could do this as if they were just going out for a stroll.

By the way I'm pretty sure that wasn't a serious request but have this texture anyway.

I also found what seems to be an unfinished render of Nor, no clue why that is in the files.

# ¿ Oct 19, 2013 16:20

Admiral H. Curtiss: May 11, 2010; I think there are a bunch of people who can create trailing images. I know some who could do this as if they were just going out for a stroll.

Vesperia's files are pretty ridiculous because they're big archive files that contain other archive files that contain other archive files and so on. Many of those archives or resulting files are compressed using either comptoe or tlzc (technically someone else in our team figured that out but it somehow ended up on my github) -- occasionally a compressed archive even contains a compressed archive which seems pretty questionable from a performance standpoint.

Most of the archives are FPS4 archives, my hacky solution that I'm sure isn't accurate but seems to work well enough.

Textures are standard DXT with custom header.

I'm sure the 3D models are in there somewhere but I haven't spent any time figuring out what format they are in. The skit portraits are just textures so I do have those, although the way they're stored is pretty annoying (every skit has a separate set of textures, presumably to reduce seeking times).

All of this is based off the PS3 version, I think the Xbox 360 one uses some official Xbox 360 SDK compression and textures. Thankfully the PS3 version still contains pretty much all the files from the English 360 version so that's not a big issue apart from needing access to the PS3 disc.

Admiral H. Curtiss fucked around with this message at 00:11 on Oct 20, 2013

# ¿ Oct 19, 2013 23:06

Admiral H. Curtiss: May 11, 2010; I think there are a bunch of people who can create trailing images. I know some who could do this as if they were just going out for a stroll.

Minifoo, in-battle you can open the menu as not-Player-1 and change around your own artes and equipment in case you don't want to bother Kuvo all the time.

By the way, a helpful tip for further equipment reference:

Admiral H. Curtiss posted:

I also find an Iron Circlet, which allows me to show off something neat about the menu in this game that I wish more games did. In this case it's fairly obvious, but let's assume for a second that we don't know who could equip this Iron Circlet or if it's actually an upgrade over your current stuff. What are we gonna do? Just open the menu, go to Items, switch over to the "New Items" category...

...select the Circlet...

...and we can see who can equip it and how much it in- or decreases our stats! Let's select Estelle here, and...

...we get brought over to the Equipment menu, with the Iron Circlet highlighted! A very useful feature that can save you a lot of menu navigation time.

The Equipment menu also has a "just equip the stuff with the best stuff" button (R3) if you want to do that instead.

Raven is great and the best character.

# ¿ Oct 21, 2013 10:50

Admiral H. Curtiss: May 11, 2010; I think there are a bunch of people who can create trailing images. I know some who could do this as if they were just going out for a stroll.

Haha, wow, I don't think I've ever noticed that dude in the background in the scene at around 34:10, how did I miss that?

Also, re: toddler pirate, Brunom1 summed it up pretty well:

Brunom1 posted:

Alright, then. I'll summarize her "arc" (I'll put tags just in case people have started reading the other LP and don't want it spoiled):

Patty's an amnesiac, gun/playing cards-wielding, 12-year old (who speaks like an old person) pirate that is searching for Aifread's, legendary pirate, treasure because he might have been her grandfather; all guilds hate Aifread because of him dishonoring them over a massacre that happened - ergo, they hate Patty and she spends a good bunch of her screentime being a pariah.
She just takes it, though, because "WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH, THE TOUGH DON'T CRY!".

Some of the more wizened characters comment on how she's really, REALLY similar-looking to her grandfather.

There's also a giant, PS3-exclusive, skeleton pirate (wielding a gun/anchor-sword-thing combo) that triggers latent memories; more latent memories are triggered when Patty finds the graveyard of Aifread and his crew, showing that they're all really dead (which bums her out until around one hour later, when she goes I HAVE FRIENDS with Yuri and co. and everything's better) - she also remembers a Seifer, after seeing the graveyard.

Fast-forward until the last act of the game, Patty found a single piece of the treasure but it is THE treasure, which allows her to summon the old anchor skeleton, fight it again, and get the reveal that will blow your mind: Patty's actually the some 50-year old Aifread, transformed into a kid by plot-magic by her dead first-mate/husband/boyfriend/thing Seifer, who died when killing their crew and passengers to prevent them from turning into monsters after a bad experiment - thus making everyone blame Aifread for it (the magic saved Patty from turning but taking away her memories, too).

She gets her memory back, kills Seifer and the plot carries on without any significant changes from the original game.

One detail he missed is that in a postgame bonus dungeon, it turns out that the way Patty was turned into a kid was with a medicine called Amrita. I quote, "The nectar of immortality, Amrita, is made from pure aer, and as such, has various side effects." Which arguably makes the whole thing even dumber.

# ¿ Oct 24, 2013 21:15

Admiral H. Curtiss: May 11, 2010; I think there are a bunch of people who can create trailing images. I know some who could do this as if they were just going out for a stroll.

The reason your Fatal Strikes weren't working against the two knights was because you were targetting the wrong guy. Fatal Strikes only work on your current target.

On that note, make sure you set the AI to "Aim" for Fatal Strikes in the Strategy menu. The default setting only makes them use Fatal Strikes on bosses, which is dumb.

# ¿ Oct 31, 2013 17:38

Admiral H. Curtiss: May 11, 2010; I think there are a bunch of people who can create trailing images. I know some who could do this as if they were just going out for a stroll.

(The PS3 version actually does have a couple good improvements.)

Also you could have synthed both secondary weapons, the UI for synthesizing is a bit stupid and only allows you to synth one thing at a time despite looking exactly like the shop UI that allows you to buy multiple things.

Also I'm pretty sure the Insert Horn is from Keiv Moc, not the Quoi Woods. Maybe both.

Admiral H. Curtiss fucked around with this message at 17:22 on Nov 7, 2013

# ¿ Nov 7, 2013 17:04

Admiral H. Curtiss: May 11, 2010; I think there are a bunch of people who can create trailing images. I know some who could do this as if they were just going out for a stroll.

Yeah, again, I have no idea what actually unlocks the ability to synthesize specific things, it seems completely random. Progress the story and synth more other stuff, I guess.

Do note that if you have multiple controllers, you can use those to completely negate the requirement for the Moon Selector by switching P1 to Auto and P2 or whatever to Manual mid-battle. The Back button quick-swaps the control mode without having to enter the menu, too. It's kind of cumbersome, but it works.

Also, in case that confused anyone, this game displays the synth material requirements as X/Y where X is the stuff you need and Y is the stuff you have, so make sure you're actually reading that right if the game doesn't let you synth an item.

# ¿ Nov 7, 2013 21:41

Admiral H. Curtiss: May 11, 2010; I think there are a bunch of people who can create trailing images. I know some who could do this as if they were just going out for a stroll.

The jukebox is one of my favorite things in the game, because as soon as Rita fixes it, the regular Dahngrest music comes back. I have to imagine that the Dahngrest music actually plays on full blast throughout the entire city.

# ¿ Nov 9, 2013 21:36

Admiral H. Curtiss: May 11, 2010; I think there are a bunch of people who can create trailing images. I know some who could do this as if they were just going out for a stroll.

Edmond Dantes posted:

How far are we into the game, hours-wise? Because I remembered Raven being available as a party member waaaaaaay sooner. Either that, or this game is longer than I remember.

Like 10-15, maybe? Percentage wise I'd say we're at about 20%.

Raven is the best.

If you use an item in-battle and you get interrupted before the item goes off, including interruptions by your own input, the character will use the item the next time he stands still (don't touch the stick); there's no need to re-input the item use. You can use this to creatively delay healing items, though I dunno if it has any actual use.

Admiral H. Curtiss fucked around with this message at 04:19 on Nov 12, 2013

# ¿ Nov 12, 2013 04:13

Admiral H. Curtiss: May 11, 2010; I think there are a bunch of people who can create trailing images. I know some who could do this as if they were just going out for a stroll.

RareAcumen posted:

When the boss threw you up in the air, press the guard button (X) to flip and land on your feet. I'd have a gif of Repede and Raven doing if, if I could figure out how to make one of the drat things.

This is a skill (Recover), so they might have missed it for some characters.

(Well, I say missed, but you can go back to most shops most of the time if you really wanted to.)

# ¿ Nov 12, 2013 06:57

Admiral H. Curtiss: May 11, 2010; I think there are a bunch of people who can create trailing images. I know some who could do this as if they were just going out for a stroll.

PS3 version gets an unwinnable boss fight against the Don here, for some reason. It's (Arte/Skill/Equipment spoilers in this!) still pretty tough in New Game+, but technically winable.

# ¿ Nov 14, 2013 15:46

Admiral H. Curtiss: May 11, 2010; I think there are a bunch of people who can create trailing images. I know some who could do this as if they were just going out for a stroll.

LeafyOrb posted:

The game pulls the old ditch everyone, now find and talk to them to advance the plot in pretty much every city in the game. It's loving annoying and there is always one or two in very non-obvious spots.

One party member also has an annoying gimmick with this as well.

Often, though not always, you can just simply ignore everyone and rest at the inn to advance the plot. And honestly, the towns in this game are fairly small, it's not a huge deal to find your party members.

# ¿ Nov 15, 2013 02:25

Admiral H. Curtiss: May 11, 2010; I think there are a bunch of people who can create trailing images. I know some who could do this as if they were just going out for a stroll.

The PS3 version changed Barbos' fly-away animation. It's even sillier:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Du93OBsM78&t=361s

The whole scene has completely redone camera work, and I'm not really sure why.

Regarding Judith and Judy, Japanese Yuri just drops the last kana ( ジュディス　→　ジュディ ). I don't know if there's an actual reason besides the stated "it's easier to say". And yeah, all the names are pretty much the same.

# ¿ Nov 19, 2013 19:52

Admiral H. Curtiss: May 11, 2010; I think there are a bunch of people who can create trailing images. I know some who could do this as if they were just going out for a stroll.

And yet they forgot to add a cutscene skip feature. The majority of a "speedrun" playthrough is spent holding A+X in cutscenes.

# ¿ Nov 24, 2013 15:25

Admiral H. Curtiss: May 11, 2010; I think there are a bunch of people who can create trailing images. I know some who could do this as if they were just going out for a stroll.

Brunom1 posted:

Finally, the PS3 version lets everyone but Repede equip those swanky hats - Rita is (as usual) the odd one, though, in which her White Hat turns red when equipped.

Not any. Black Hat goes on Yuri, Karol, and Raven. White Hat (which I just noticed is actually called something more like "Hat (other color)" in Japanese) goes on Yuri, Estelle, and Rita. No hat for Repede, sadly. Also remember that for all the neat things the PS3 version adds, it also has Patty and noticeably longer loading times.

You can't set Repede as on-screen character in the 360 version because he lacks animations for things like climbing ladders and opening doors. On that note, try hitting... LB or RB, I think? while standing still in town/dungeon for an idle animation, it's completely useless but kinda charming.

But anyway, Yuri really is the best JRPG hero.

# ¿ Nov 26, 2013 17:27

Admiral H. Curtiss: May 11, 2010; I think there are a bunch of people who can create trailing images. I know some who could do this as if they were just going out for a stroll.

AnotherGamer posted:

Another thing that seems weird is that I've only seen a single "Level Up!" notice so far, I assume they skip through the post-battle summaries so quickly that they don't have the time to pop up.

If you press B at the battle result screen it skips through all the level up, skill learned, title get, arte learned, ... messages. You have to press A to make them appear.

# ¿ Nov 28, 2013 14:55

Admiral H. Curtiss: May 11, 2010; I think there are a bunch of people who can create trailing images. I know some who could do this as if they were just going out for a stroll.

Or just look at this instead of a blurry low-res capture with audio only on the left channel.

e: Hey, I have a video of this too.

# ¿ Dec 10, 2013 21:11

Admiral H. Curtiss: May 11, 2010; I think there are a bunch of people who can create trailing images. I know some who could do this as if they were just going out for a stroll.

It's certainly a reference, especially since I don't think the Dark Wings ever actually show up in Vesperia.

# ¿ Dec 10, 2013 23:00

Admiral H. Curtiss: May 11, 2010; I think there are a bunch of people who can create trailing images. I know some who could do this as if they were just going out for a stroll.

I want to say that they show up in Destiny too, but it's been a while since I played that.

But it's not like they're the same characters, it's kinda like Final Fantasy reusing the name Cid for an airship mechanic.

# ¿ Dec 10, 2013 23:04

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 03:58

Admiral H. Curtiss: May 11, 2010; I think there are a bunch of people who can create trailing images. I know some who could do this as if they were just going out for a stroll.

The music composer is Motoi Sakuraba, and yeah, his work for Tales has been very mediocre for a while. Which is unfortunate, because Sakuraba can actually do some incredible soundtracks if people let him.

The only main Tales game he hasn't done is Legendia, Go Shiina was responsible for that one, and what do you know, it actually has the best music in the series.

# ¿ Dec 16, 2013 17:12

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Let's Play! > The Repede Obfuscation Station (Tales of Vesperia) - RIP Fatler

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