When I bought this guide, I was really disappointed. It advertised all sorts of features, but half of them were not elaborated or not helpful at all. Here are the top 5 things that I though were problems with this guide (they're not in any particular order):

1. Doesn't explain how to aquire all Titles
The guide lists them, but it doesn't explain how to get them.

2. Doesn't list all of the Artes
There are more Artes than the guides says there is, oh and it didn't even give the Mystic Artes. They're like the most damage dealing moves in the entire game. Kinda stupid to leave those out.

3. Items and Equiptment
Again, it lists them, but doesn't tell you where to get them.

4. Skills
There is no section for the skills. There are dozens of skills but this guide doesn't explain what each one does. It doesn't even list them. You have to look at them on each equiptment to see them...in tiny print.

5. Side Quests
I can't even begin to explain the number of side quests that this guide didn't include. The ones it did explain were ones that you encounter just by following the walkthrough. The ones that arn't included are the ones that you have to go waaaaay out of your way to complete.

So I found more helpful tips on the internet. This guide was a waste of money in a lot of ways.

I really don't know where to start with this guide.

There is some really nice information about the game mechanics and the items in the game. However most of the items, weapons, and armors do not have information about how to obtain them. You pretty much have to scour each page for shop data or the enemy log.

I typically buy a guide to RPGs for a few reasons, one being MAPS, two being side quests, and 3rd being information about gear. This "guide" lacks the MAPS and side quests information (for the most part) there is a small section about side quests but the guide misses a few quests and does not give much information about when they should be attempted.

This guide is also a pain for people who want to be surprised by the story elements of the game. Flipping through the pages you see huge pictures of each boss on the page that discusses the fights with those characters. You become almost afraid to even look on the next page. Furthermore, the text in the guide is horrible giving. Telling you exactly what you're going to see from scene to scene.

I would honestly suggest just following a guide online. It will probably make for a better less spoiling experience of Tales of Vesperia.

I qualify this the way I do when people see me buy a game with the strat guide from the get go. I love the stories and not necessarily the super hard puzzles or missing key items. The guide is good, you will play through the game and get explanations along the way with a fair amount of head up notifications of things to take into consideration. There are a few typos in the book but nothing that can not be cleared up with a 15s google search of other people running into them. Let it be known that this does NOT have -everything- to consider in the game, but it does have more than enough to let you enjoy it worry free :)

I usually like using the Bradygames guides for the Tales series games because they are usually very specific about side quests and sub-events that occur throughout the game. The frustrating thing about these sub-events are that many of them seem to appear in random locations with no clues from the main story as to how they are triggered. The Tales of Vesperia guide from Bradygames does include a lot of useful information from the game, but it also leaves out a great deal of side quests and contains some erroneous information.

First, the positives. It does an excellent job covering the main storyline. Granted, I never got stuck for too long at any particular point in the game, but if one were to find himself in a rut, the walkthrough can direct him in the right path. The boss guides are also useful in completing the game's Secret Missions. It has a comprehensive listing of most all of the items and enemies in the game, which is handy for completing the Collector's and Monster Books. However, it does not include any of the Valuable Items, which is required for completing the former.

Also, I found the arte listing after the walkthrough especially useful, mainly with learning the altered artes for each character. Mystic artes were excluded from the list, although I can understand that since they all have the same requirements from each character to use. However, some artes become more effective with increased usage, and it would have been nice to see a section on the evolution of these artes. Also, a couple of unlisted artes have very specific conditions from certain characters.

That about covers what Brady did right with this guide. One exclusion that would have been very useful in the guide is a complete skill listing for each of the characters. Yes, the skills are listed for each weapon in the item list, but none of that tells the effect of each skill. Also, there are some skills--not many of them, but they are important--that are not obtained through weapons but through sub-events.

Which leads to the next flaw in the guide: lack of sub-event coverage. Aside from the side quests covered in the last section of the guide, many of the game's important ones were omitted for whatever reason. The Tales of the Abyss guide did an excellent job of noting sub-events in the walkthrough as they became available. None of that carried over to this guide. Many of the game's titles, weapons, skills, and other rare items are obtained through the triggering of these events, but from just using the guide one would never know they existed.

For the content that is included, the guide mostly does well in explaining the specifics. Still, some essential information is either missing or incorrect, which can make for some time-consuming, fruitless exploration. For example, the titles section near the beginning would be more helpful if it actually told us how to get some of them. The coliseum battles section gives specific information on what you can win in the 100- and 200-man melee fights, but it doesn't give any clue about how to unlock them. The "Sea Maiden's Challenge" and "Strongman Challenge" items do not actually exist in the North American version of the game; the equivalent items are obtained through series of sub-events, which, again, are not included in the walkthrough.

In conclusion, the Bradygames Tales of Vesperia guide is good if you're just wanting to casually run through the game once, though you can do just as well without it. If you desire a deeper experience from the game and wish to discover all that exists in Terca Lumireis, do not spend your money on this guide. There are other free internet sources that do a better job of eliciting the game's ins and outs.

This guide is an enormous disappointment. It offers a good linear walkthrough, but you don't need a guide for that. Some of the boss strategies are useful, there is help for getting some of the Acheivements, and a few of the side missions are covered; but an enormous amount of optional material is mentioned in passing or not covered at all. It's that "optional" material that most people look for in guides, not pages and pages of weapon stats that are readily available when the weapons are.

The physical (paper and cover) quality is good, and everything seems accurate if it is included; perhaps I have high expectations, but simply "not being crappy" only merits two stars to me. The obvious work that went into it makes me feel like it was rushed, more than being a failing of the author. Good intentions don't make up for a product that isn't providing any value, though.

I normally purchase strategy guides for many of my role-playing games in order to master the game with little to no spoiling of the story. I have come to rely on companies such as Prima and Bradygames to deliver complete, spoiler-free strategy guides which are both attractive on my bookshelf and fully functional.

Unfortunately, I recently found myself very disappointed with the strategy guide for Tales of Vesperia. While very well-done in terms of strategy (tips, clarity of instructions, item lists, screenshots, etc.), the guide is chock full o' spoilers. I cannot tell you how many times I have tried to read ahead (in order to queue within my mind the next steps to take) and come across spoilers that ruin specific parts of the game for me.

An example (no worries, no spoilers): There is a part of the game where you are led to walk into a particular area of a town, get attacked, and then be saved by an ally. The guide not only tells you how to fend off your attackers, but mentions who saves you and what you discuss with them after being saved -- all in the same paragraph.

Instances such as these are present all throughout the guide, and I must say that I stopped using it halfway through the game. I am enjoying the game now, but am certainly missing out on key factors for full or near-full completion. I refuse to return to this guide, however, because I would much rather enjoy the story without reading a summary first.

All in all, it's a good guide, but this seemingly minor flaw may be enough for you to put the guide down and move on as well. I gave it three stars because I know the author did a great deal of work on it. It really deserves two for its spoilerage! Oh well -- hope this review helped you, and happy gaming. Tales of Vesperia is friggin awesome!

The Expectations of a Bradygames signature series guide are usually higher than that of other guides. Lately, it seems like the only real difference between signature series and not is the quality of the paper. The Tales of Vesperia Guide, while good, doesn't really feel like a "Signature Series" guide at all. Some of the things that detract from it are things that a Signature Series guide ought to have. And not just a signature series guide, but any strategy guide in general.

The guide begins with a prologue that introduces you to the story of the game. It's short and sweet. Although it's not really all that good for anything. After that we get into the characters. The guide shows you their titles as well as their stat growth. The title list would be helpful if it also noted anything special that they do. It's unfortunate, but probably not something most gamers will find to be a big deal in the long run. It is still, however, something very essential to the game itself.

We then get into the basics, which manage to be good for anyone new to the Tales games. Veterans of the Tales series (particularly Tales of the Abyss) will find that they don't need to take a peak at this section at all. Still, there's a vast amount that can be gathered for anyone who isn't familiar with the mechanics of a Tales game.

All this preliminary stuff is covered rather quickly. The walkthrough is where the guide has me divided. Its divided into chapters. Each chapter begins by talking about the story and showing a step by step breakdown of what you'll have to do for that entire chapter. Needless to say, there are spoilers in this guide. Each area you'll visit has its own little walkthrough that covers a lot of the game in great depth and detail. The boss strategies in particular, are excellent. The screenshots are crystal clear.

There are some things, however, the walkthrough doesn't do well. While screenshots are clear, some of them are rather small and hard to make out. Some screens were also taken before the final release of the game and could be missing details (something the author warns you of). I'd have gladly waited a little longer for them to get everything accurate first. On the whole, though, this problem rarely surfaces. There are also some sidquests that are covered in the walkthrough but it might say something like, "Come back when you're at a higher level." Unfortunately, you'll go through a lot of page flipping once you reach their prerequisite just to find the boss again. This wouldn't be such a burden if they at least directed you to the page number. What makes this problem worse, however, is that there are some side quests that are actually covered in their own section. It might've been best to just throw all of the sidequests in there.

The biggest problem with the walkthrough, however, is that there are absolutely no maps of the dungeons or areas in the game. By now including maps should be standard, especially in an RPG guide. The text in the walkthrough is really detailed, but maps to show where to find the treasures or where to go would've been much better.

Don't think for a second this walkthrough won't help because of those problems. There may be no maps, but the walkthrough is so detailed you probably won't need them (this doesn't excuse neglecting them). If you're having trouble with this game it's a great guide to get. It's just hard to let some of those problems go. The screenshot issue isn't so bad, but the side quests and maps can be a huge problem for some gamers who are interested in fully completing the game and finding everything.

Everything after the walkthrough is good, though. Every characters artes are covered and the weapon and items list is fantastic. All the weapons even show the abilities. It's a helpful resource in that area. We then get to the "Extras" chapter. It's good but it only covers what isn't in the walkthrough already. I already talked about how mashing the sidequests into the walkthrough may not have been the best idea, but here, there are some optional things to do that don't get nearly as much attention as others. It also would've been nice had they had a list to point you back to the optional areas in the walkthrough so that the player at least knew where to flip to. The worst part is that the game mentions about a Bonus Dungeon on the second play through but doesn't even bother to detail it at all.

The Tales of Vesperia guide can be summed up easily. It's not a horrible guide or even bad, but it is most certainly mediocre. For an RPG guide not to cover all the sidequests fully and lack maps is unacceptable. You'll get through the main game fine with this guide, but don't expect to master it.