Tales of Hearts PS Vita impressions

Late last week I was lucky enough to check out the first 40 minutes of Bandai Namco’s upcoming JRPG. The PS Vita’s long been my JRPG console of choice – mainly because it has a growing library of excellent content and, well, for games that take longer to finish, it’s a much more convenient piece of hardware for me.

 

That said, I’ve always felt its been missing a Tales game – something that will be rectified very soon with the release of Tales of Hearts R this November. Below you’ll find my Tales of Hearts PS Vita impressions from the early stages of the game. Even though these are these are my thoughts on the game’s opening 40 minutes, please bare in mind I am going to talk about story elements in here, just in case that bothers you!

 

Animation2_Kor obtains Soma_en_1397510656

 

Tales of Hearts R begin with a young couple Kohaku and Hisui being pursued in the rain by mysterious witch, Incarose. They’re finally cornered at a cliff edge. One is scared of heights, the other can’t swim – but in a last ditch attempt to save their own lives they hurl themselves off the cliff in to the stormy sea below.

 

After a little poetry about the a legendary hero and two moons destined to crumble and fall – we back in familiar JRPG cliche territory.

 

Plucky youngster Kor Meteor (yeah, that’s his real name) is training with his Grandfather Sydan – the object of this session? To master something called a Soma – a special weapon which, accessing a person’s ‘Spiria’ – a fancy word for their mystical insides, or ‘will’, or whatever you want to call it – will summon a weapon fashioned by their inner selves.

 

Tales of Hearts PS Vita impressions

 

In Kor’s case it’s a sword – because we couldn’t possibly have the the lead character wielding a mace, or a whip, now could we! Turns out Kor’s a pretty dab hand at this Soma summoning stuff – which is a good job, because I’m betting he’s going to have to us it to wail on all kind of stuff any time soon. And by ‘stuff’ I mean ‘low level enemies brought in for an impromptu battle system tutorial’.

 

Using the d-pad you can move left and right and jump, while using the analogue stick allows you to move freely in three dimensions. X attacks, circle performs you Artes – which you can combo of course – although how many times in succession depends on your TC, at the bottom of your portrait. Artes also use up TP, which you can replenish by connecting with Regular Attacks. You can also block using Square, and dash using double taps while blocking. You can switch targets with the right shoulder button.

 

Lastly you have your Spiria Drive. This is a gauge that fills up as you deal damage and take damage. Once full you activate it with the left shoulder button and D-Pad. When active, Spiria will prevent stagger from enemy attacks and will also reduce TC to Zero – which means you can spam Artes until your thumb falls off.

 

Battle1_Spiria Nexus_en_1402388865

 

And with that little tutorial over it’s time to head to your stereotypically sleepy little fishing village. It’s here that you start to hear rumblings of Bad Things Happening, namely a disease called Despir, which has broken out in a neighboring town. Sydan, your grandfather, is called on to use his Soma power to heal a friend of a fellow villager. Turns out that Soma is just as handy as a healing device as it is beating the crap out of the local wildlife.

 

So off he goes – but not before the dialogue emphasizes just how angsty and itching-for-a-world-of-adventure our main hero is. Mercifully for him things are about to get a lot more interesting than hitting Jellies in a field with a stick with Grampa. Because this happens.

 

Tales of Hearts PS Vita impressions (2)

 

After trying to stick his tongue down her throat in the name of first aid (yeah, yeah, we’ve all been there) Kor Meteor finds the equally impressively named Kohaku Hearts, the girl who just jumped off a cliff in the opening anime sequence. She’s been separated from Hisui and, coincidentally, also knows Kor’s grandfather Sydan. She’s not only looking for Sydan, but is also after Kor’s mothers Soma – for reasons unknown.

 

And so it is that Kohaku joins your party and you set off through the woods to a nearby shrine… when all of a sudden…

 

Animation4_Kor meets Hisui_en_1402388864

 

 

Yeah, it’s Hisui. Turns out it’s Kohaku’s brother – and he REALLY wants to know IF YOU’VE BEEN TOUCHING HER and honestly, you really haven’t – but he’s not going to trust you just yet. Which is just as well, because you totally were going to touch her. On her face. With your lips.

 

Anyway, he doesn’t need to know that – so off you go to the shrine where, without spoiling anything, something kinda bad happens. Well, actually, TWO bad things happen – involving that witch you were running away from. This is her, here – just before the Bad Things happen.

 

Tales of Heart R Incarose PS Vita

 

 

After beating a hasty retreat back to the village we learn of your Somas other useful function – that of being able to transfer your consciousness into another person’s Spiria as a means healing. What this basically boils down to is going inside the persons Spiria which is represented by a crystaline maze of corridors which you can navigate dungeon style. It’s here that you get your first proper taste of random encounters. You don’t see enemy encounters in the Spiria Nexux – rather you get the ol’ screen-smashy-smashy (TM) to herald the onset of battle.

 

One thing I will say is that these low level encounters are super-quick, with very little in the way of irritating transition or long-drawn-out victory dance – which bodes well for those of  us who like to grind.

 

Tales of Hearts R battle 2_1404224055

 

At the end of Kohaku’s Spiria Nexus you come across a flower of some kind, Kohaku’s Spiria Core – this is, essentially, her personality, her emotional center. After an altercation with Kor (who has moments when his anger gets the better of him – his Soma amplifying this dark emotion) Kohaku’s Spiria Core shatters sending fragments of her personality out over the world. Only her kindness remains and so, using Kor’s mother’s Soma, still in Kohaku’s posession, Kor, Hisui and Kohaku set out to rebuild Kohaku personality – closely pursued by the witch Incarose.

 

So that’s basically where the first 40 minutes take you up to in Tales of Hearts R for PS Vita. I have to say, sarcasm aside, it’s an intriguing and mysterious opening and sets up some likeable characters, even if you do feel like you’ve met them before. There’s the odd cliche in here as well – but there are also a few moments where I genuinely chuckled in amusement at some of the dialogue skits and overall the presentation (which features lots of decent voice acting) is really well done.

 

Naturally it’s not as immediately striking as Tales of Xillia 2 (only £29.99 on the Rice Store at the moment) or Vesperia – feeling more like a PS2 game in the simplicity of its textures , furniture and the opening maps – but I’m okay with this. It has a certain cleanness to its design which I find rather endearing.

 

Anyway, some light impressions for you – hopefully I’ll get an extended play with this soon. If I do, I’ll keep you posted. In the meantime, enjoy a whole bunch of screens from the English version of Tales of Hearts R on PS Vita.

 

Tales of Hearts R is now available to pre-order on the Rice Digital Store for just £29.99

 

tales-of-hearts-r-pack-shot-320x320

 

Tales of Hearts R event 5_1402388869

Animation1_OP_en_1397510655

Animation3_Kor meets Kohaku_en_1397510656

Battle2_Cross Chase Charge_en_1397510656

Battle3_Mystic Arte Cut-in_en_1397510657

Battle4_Mystic Arte executed_en_1397510657

Event2_Kor meets Kohaku_en _1397510659

Event3_Kor meets Hisui_en_1402388865

Event4_Spiria Nexus_en_1397510660

Tales of Hearts R battle 1_1402388866

Tales of Hearts R battle 1_1404224054

Tales of Hearts R battle 2_1402388868

Tales of Hearts R battle 2_1404224055

Tales of Hearts R battle 3_1402388869

Tales of Hearts R Event 1_1404224055

Tales of Hearts R event 2_1402388869

Tales of Hearts R Event 2_1404224056

Tales of Hearts R Event 3_1404224056

Spread the love!

Related post

This will close in 0 seconds