I have never played Tales of Vesperia. But for a rather long time, I wanted it quite badly, because it was one of the games I couldn’t have. Ten years ago, early in the lives of both the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3, Microsoft scored a coup when it secured the latest game from Namco’s long-running Tales franchise – which had been almost exclusive to PlayStation since Tales of Destiny in the ’90s.
Things got even more heated after Tales of Vesperia eventually did end up on PS3, in even better form, with new content and characters. But much to PS3 fans’ consternation, Namco Bandai opted to keep the enhanced port Japan-exclusive. For years overseas, fans would beg the publisher to at least consider putting it out in English, only to be quickly shut down.
Until last year, when Tales of Vesperia Definitive Edition was announced for all extant platforms. Now everyone, not just jilted PS3 loyalists, has the opportunity to play what Xbox and import partisans have hailed as one of the best (if not the best) titles in the nearly 25-year-old franchise.
The question remains: Was it worth the wait?
Source: Destructoid A decade later, Tales of Vesperia might still be the ideal Tales game