Tales of Vesperia



"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 realises 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:


 * Flynn Scifo: Yuri's childhood friend and perpetual rival. Flynn joined the Imperial Knights with Yuri with the same goal of changing the world for the better, but while Yuri quickly quit in disgust, Flynn rose through the ranks with the aim of improving the Empire from within. Is extremely talented. His name is said to mean "Friend".
 * Repede: Yuri's trusty dog, who carries a pipe from his previous owner. He's the calmest member of the group. Fights holding a dagger in his mouth. Name also means "quick" in Romanian.
 * Rita Mordio: Aspio's spunky and eccentric "genius mage" who, before meeting the party, spent most of her time researching Blastia and Aer. Has no social skills whatsoever, and is blunt, sarcastic and mean. Because she never had any friends in her town, her most familiar friends are Blastia. Fights using a sash, chain, whip, yo-yo and a book.
 * Karol Capel: A young boy who's trying to prove himself to his guild and his town. Although enthusiastic, he often finds himself cowering in the face of uncertainty and dangerous monsters. Fights using a gigantic hammer, gigantic sword or a gigantic axe.
 * Judith: A busty young lady who speaks without restraint and is a member of the Kritya race. As a Kritya, she is intellectual and down-to-earth, but also very nonchalant (and a little spacy) towards everything, even towards fighting and destruction. She fights with a spear or staff.
 * Raven: A shady-looking "old" man who is the confidant of a famous guild leader. Often dispenses wise advice, even if no one's listening, and likes to complain about keeping up with the group. Fights using a bow, arrows, and a dagger. All at once.
 * Patty Fleur: A young Pirate who talks like an old person. She travels the world searching for the treasure of the legendary pirate Aifread while suffering from Laser-Guided Amnesia. Fights using gambling-themed attacks, a knife, and laser pistols. She is exclusive to the Play Station 3 version.

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 -- which focuses on the brief period of time that both Yuri and Flynn were members of the same Imperial Knights brigade, the Nylen Corps. This has recently been licensed by FUNimation.

Tropes include:

"Karol: Something smells rank..."
 * Adam Smith Hates Your Guts - During the attack on, the shopkeeper apologizes for still having to charge you money for items, even though you're liberating them. Also on the , 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.
 * Artifact of Doom -
 * 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:  come back from death as.
 * 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.
 * Make that two times. Actually, aside from the looks of it, aside from Top Mascot (which was, naturally, Repede), Yuri pretty much placed first in 'Ideal Older Sibling' and 'Ideal Combination' ...with Flynn.
 * 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
 * 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 - - is awkwardly large. Clint also uses a gigantic axe/sword thing. And then there's the gigantic  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.
 * 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.
 * The mental images burn.
 * I don't see what the big deal is. That was clearly the King of Town making a surprise cameo. He's there to cross promote the new game Tales of Strong Badia.
 * Bigger Bad -
 * Blind Idiot Translation: The unvoiced dialog is riddled with typos and refers to 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 -
 * Bonus Boss - Cameo battles, Giganto Monsters,, and, if you collect all of the Infinity Plus One Swords,.
 * The Play Station 3 version adds two more Giganto Monsters, three fights against the Sword Dancer,, and 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 ).
 * 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.
 * Blah blah blah... TIDAL WAVE! (See also: Rita is Broken)
 * The Cameo - Dhaos, Shizel, Barbatos, and Kratos are all opponents in the coliseum's 200-Man Melee. Kratos also serves as the
 * The Play Station 3 version gives every party member at least one previous Tales characters' clothing, one ingame and more as DLC. Yuri gets Judas, Asch, and Creed; Flynn gets Cless, Luke, and Lukius; Estelle gets Chloe, Tear, and Elraine; Repede gets Caius and Asras; Karol gets Lloyd and Milhaust; Rita gets Mao and Walter; Raven gets Ricardo and Van; Judith gets Rutee and Richter; and Patty gets Anise and Mithos. Get the members wear several of them and you will see a hilarious skit showing how they act like the previous owners of the costumes.
 * 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, when the latter is able to actually block your mystic arte and counter with his own.
 * 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:
 * 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: ; Yuri takes in Repede afterward., 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?
 * Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu? -
 * 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.
 * 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  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 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 -
 * 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 ingame, 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,  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
 * He also challenges 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 -
 * 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).
 * Shining Fang has become somewhat popular...
 * It's also Yuri's Link Attack in Tales of Hearts.
 * Evil Smells Bad - Ragou's basement isn't exactly known for its minty freshness.
 * Evil Smells Bad - Ragou's basement isn't exactly known for its minty freshness.


 * Evil Sounds Deep: Subverted with, 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
 * 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 -
 * Fantastic Racism - Humans and the, best exemplified by the and their attitude towards . It also works both ways:.
 * Field of Blades - The Blade Drifts of Zopheir are appropriately named.
 * Fighting Your Friend -
 * Karol fighting Nan also counts.
 * The Play Station 3 version adds a few such fights to the coliseum: notably,, and a team battle mode is added in which
 * Finishing Move - Fatal Strikes.
 * Five-Man Band
 * Yuri, The Hero
 * Judith, The Lancer
 * Karol, The Big Guy/The Kid
 * Rita, The Smart Guy
 * Estelle, The Chick
 * Repede, The Pet
 * Raven, The Old Guy
 * 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.
 * 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.

"Flynn: Yuri, we need to talk.
 * 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
 * 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 -  the good guy, he's the dumb pervert whom everyone loves.  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 and, and he's much stronger in the latter,  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 , 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 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, Who figured that out on their first try?
 * The requirements for some of the second Mystic Artes in the Play Station 3 version.
 * Hair Contrast Duo: Yuri and Flynn.
 * Halfway Plot Switch - We start with a Succession Crisis and ruminations on the nature of justice, and then
 * Hannibal Lecture - 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.
 * Hello, Insert Name Here - You can rename the party, but the voiceover will still call them by their normal names.
 * Heroic Sacrifice - 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.
 * HP to One - Lampshaded by 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.
 * If you're playing the Play Station 3 version on Hard or Unknown, that Last Chance Hit Point safety net gets removed. Hope you enjoy Total Party Kills!
 * Human Resources - Though  are made of, rather than humans.
 * Additionally,, which is made from.
 * 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 - reasoning for crippling the party's ship; she's actually right. Not to mention Yuri's explanation for, 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. plays the part, but it's all a facade.
 * I Know You Are in There Somewhere Fight -
 * I Know You Know I Know: Flynn and Yuri. Justified even more so with:

Yuri: I know."

"Yuri: She may be a bumbling, sheltered excuse for a princess, but she's one of ours!"
 * 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 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: 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 to not thank you for it.
 * Mad Science -
 * 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 . Also,
 * 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:
 * Mind Rape:
 * Mind Screw: In-game:
 * Murder, Inc.: Leviathan's Claw.
 * Murdering the Hypotenuse: What  attempts on
 * My Fist Forgives You:
 * My God, What Have I Done?: A variety of characters experience this at one point or another. Examples are Estelle, Flynn , Patty , Alexei , and Sodia.
 * 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.
 * The heroic version is also played straight, when.
 * The game also uses another variation: Nice Job Breaking It, Player.
 * Noble Male, Roguish Male: Yuri is the Roguish Male, while Flynn is the Noble Male.
 * No One Could Survive That -
 * Not So Different -
 * 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 Obi-Wan: Captain Nylen Fedlock in The First Strike acts in this capacity to both Yuri and Flynn.
 * 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.
 * 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.
 * 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,
 * 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 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,.
 * 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 . Later on with . Amazingly enough, they do not get chickified. Done a third time in the Play Station 3 version with.
 * Slightly subverted
 * 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 -
 * Sealed Evil in a Can -
 * See You in Hell - and, both to Yuri.
 * Self-Mutilation Demonstration - Inverted by Yuri after, 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 -
 * 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.
 * 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,
 * 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 -
 * Start My Own - After being
 * 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 It is all resolved rather abruptly when
 * Suspicious Videogame Generosity - If you see a save spot, especially one that heals, you better save.
 * Sword of Plot Advancement -
 * 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 - In the 360 version, it happens before the fight; in the Play Station 3 version, it happens afterwards with slow motion. In both versions,.
 * 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.
 * 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.
 * This Is Something He's Got to Do Himself: How Yuri feels about dealing with Ragou and Cumore.
 * Yuri tries to pull this when . He only makes it halfway before the rest of the party catches up and beats him up.
 * Arguably deconstructed with
 * The Glasses Come Off - Recurring character Wonder Chef does this everytime he is found.
 * The Three Faces of Eve - Estelle, Judith, and Rita.
 * 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, Act 2 is the confrontation where the Disc One Final Boss is , and Act 3 starts after and cleaning up the mess and resolving everything.
 * Time Travel -
 * Title Drop -, 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  It actually means something like
 * 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.
 * The spoilered fact is unfortunately revealed at the beginning of the sidequest in the Play Station 3 version, but
 * True Companions - Notably moreso 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 in the second part, rather than any romantic feelings towards her:
 * 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.
 * The spoilered fact is unfortunately revealed at the beginning of the sidequest in the Play Station 3 version, but
 * True Companions - Notably moreso 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 in the second part, rather than any romantic feelings towards her:
 * True Companions - Notably moreso 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 in the second part, rather than any romantic feelings towards her:

"Estelle: They're...bouncing...
 * 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.
 * 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.
 * Not that this matters to anyone not living in Japan.
 * Unexpected Gameplay Change - During the party's first attempt to, 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 appeared.
 * The Un-Reveal: Unlike previous Tales games, the goal of Vesperia's Big Bad is never revealed..
 * Unwitting Pawn -
 * 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 . The real one is.
 * Victory Pose - After every battle.

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!"

"Cumore: We'll get you next time!
 * "The sign of victory!!!"
 * Violence Is the Only Option - After
 * 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
 * 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:

Judith: What an original line."

"Yuri: It'll be a hundred years before you can beat me!
 * Wham! Episode -  That is the setup. The Wham! Episode is   And if that wasn't painful enough,   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 . Yuri throws it right back in his face when.
 * Rita, as mentioned above, chews out Judith by essentially saying "We Could Have Avoided All This!"
 * Years Too Early - One of the victory quotes uses this.

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
 * Yuri's hair is considered black, but definitely has purple highlights.
 * Xanatos Roulette: . Specifically,