The End is Nigh | Tales of Vesperia
By Martin Gaston
‘The End is Nigh’ is a new column by Play.tm’s Martin Gaston, pondering the nature of videogame endings and why we do or don’t choose to finish the games we play. This week: Tales of Vesperia and why, despite the entertaining game that precedes it, Martin’s finding it difficult to see through for a second time.
I recently started my second playthrough of Tales of Vesperia.
I’ve spent 40 hours playing it already. It’s riddled with thousands of unskippable cutscenes and dialog boxes, and even while I’m playing I can think of no discernable reason for wading through it. But I enjoyed it the first time, so why can’t I now?
My frustration stems from the fact that Tales of Vesperia, like many of its genre brethren, trails off into some kind of barren narrative obscurity about two-thirds of the way through the game. The problem is pacing: the developers had been dangling all their juicy story threads directly into my face for thirty hours, fully expecting me to react with the same delight as if they were the keys to a bottomless Oreo dispenser. In reality, the excessively histrionic narrative padding had, after yielding painfully few moments of resolution, reached critical mass. My brain buckled under the pressure.
Like so many games, Tales of Vesperia flubs the ending. It employs a standard three-act dramatic structure: setting up the party and their environment in the first act, confronting the main antagonist (after their reveal) and uncovering the truth about the planet in the second act, and resolving the story in the third and final act. They even handily signpost the end of each act with achievements. Namco’s tragic flaw is that they make the final battle lean towards shrewd narrative denouement rather than thrilling climax, subsequently causing the whole story to fall apart.
Are we really expected to be shocked when the chap with the sinister outfit and peculiar somewhat-British accent turns out to have been the bad guy all along? His motivation is also nothing more than simple megalomania; compare that to the ever-appealing grandiose villainy of Final Fantasy VI’s Kefka and VII’s Sephiroth – still the two greatest sods from the genre – and you realise what a weak antagonist Namco have produced. And by robbing players the satisfaction of thrashing a dastardly ne’er-do-well, they’ve removed a crucial dramatic element from the structure of the game’s narrative.
Despite all this, I would still recommend playing Tales of Vesperia. It’s a well-designed game definitely worthy of your time. But its unspectacular ending has inadvertently marred the whole experience in my mind. Now that I play Tales of Vesperia a second time, I know I’m never going to get that satisfying nemesis I desperately crave. What’s left is its po-faced ethical message about the global cost of using technology. If it’s trying to declare a moral, it’s that we should burst into tears at the insurmountable horror of science every time we flip the kettle on.
Tales of Vesperia isn’t the first JRPG to eschew character development in favour of a ham-fisted environmental message in its second-half. But by forsaking the characters, and subsequently denying the narrative its dramatic climax, the developers have forgotten what’s been spurring most gamers forward in the game in the first place. Tales of Vesperia’s script and voice acting are even competent enough to often be humorous and emotionally touching. The mistake is simple: by focusing so heavily on exposition, they’ve completely forgotten (or perhaps run out of the required time) to include a satisfying finale.
Gamers are an especially fickle bunch at the best of times. Maybe that’s what Namco were expecting, and subsequently chose to funnel their creative vision (and budget) into the first twenty hours of the game. But without a decent sense of progression and resolution, how are we supposed to want to complete Tales of Vesperia in the first place?
A classic story can be retold indefinitely. I’m tired of this one, and I haven’t even finished it twice.
Hmmm, I’ve been toying with picking up Tales of Vesperia for a while now. As a fan of previous iterations this seemed right up my alley. My major concern was the mixed reviews though and after reading this I’m left feeling more torn than ever.
For me, if an RPG can’t deliver a good story with a satisfying climax then is it really worth bothering with? I mean, is that not why we play RPGs? To be engaged in a story, albeit mostly clichéd nowadays. Though this is hardly the place to tackle the downfall of one of the greatest genres (thought I may call dibs on such a feature).
I do think Tales of Vesperia is worth picking up, despite my grumblings. Its voice acting and script are a cut above your average JRPG, so ultimately I would say it depends on how fond you are of the genre. Essential? No, I don’t think so. But it’s quite a robust adventure, even if it does spend a lot of time meandering about plot developments.
As for a feature on modern JRPGs, do it! As far as genres go it’s an interesting one: far too many titles seem to lack direction, and it’s only made worse when the critical darlings almost always fail to sell.
Contrary to the subject of this article, you’ve actually renewed my interest in picking up Vesperia at some point. Not quite sure why that is, as I’m not even a particular fan of JRPGs. Perhaps it’s because I can recognise the genuine frustration of a game you enjoy shooting itself in the foot to the point that you can’t recommend it wholly?
Good post! I actually disagree with you a little bit regarding the game’s climax — it was satisfying, but it was in the wrong place. You sort of dispatch the real villain and then get involved in another battle that stems from a disagreement between two groups trying to accomplish the same thing (i.e. the obligatory planet saving). It’s like the game ends … and then it keeps going just a little bit more.
I also wish JRPGs would incorporate sidequests a little better into the narrative (as contradictory as that sounds). “Hang on, this world-destroying event is about to happen but we’re off finding recipes in our free time?”
I don’t think it’s just JRPGs that suffer from that problem really, Ludwig. Pretty much every one I can think of falls into that trap – save, perhaps, something like Planescape, which is all about the self-discovery etc.
Mike, I think plenty of us are drawn to flawed games. Vesperia is great for that.
Lewis is, of course, completely right about the problem RPGs have with working side-quests into a coherent narrative. The casino trope is always my personal favourite: if you’re going to die from a giant monster/asteroid/tidal wave/Sephiroth, you might as well blow some cash on a good time. I did find Vesperia’s sidequests particularly bizarre, though, such as the one that had you traipsing around collecting titles to exchange for wacky accessories. But this is a game where your faithful pooch smokes a pipe, after all.
I actually enjoyed the cute-yet-corny ending to the story. The only problem I have with these games is that, after 80-120 hours or so, I don’t want the game to end. No matter how epic the ending, I’m still sad it’s over.
If you want to see a horrid ending then play Fable 2.