The folding chairs in the Kallang resort happen to be 10-foot praying mantises in disguise. Who knew?

So I manage to sink in some time with Namco Bandai’s latest RPG Tales game, called Tales Of Vesperia, after a bit of R&R in the motherland. Here’s what I’ve learned and found so far in this latest installment.:

- In comparison with Tales Of The Abyss, Yuri isn’t as hateful as TOA’s spoiled prince Luke. Yuri is stoic without coming off as an asswipe. In fact, he’s instantly likeable, thanks to his unorthodox way of putting himself at risk for the good of others and his pessimism towards the government. Estelle might come off as Stereotypical Naive Princess Akin To A Fish Out Of Water, but her optimism and curious thinking is handled well so far. Yes, there’s also the Stereotypical Sassy Girl Probably Voiced By Michelle Ruff And Takes No Crap who’s also handled well. She seems a bit too fond of the game’s machines, called Blastias, to the point that she refers to them by gender.

- Hate all you want, but I dig the English voices. When they’re done well, it sounds good and fits the characters they portray. Sometimes, I feel that the Japanese voices sound too similar to each other, only with difference in voice pitches. While English dubbing might sound odd in a Japanese school setting, it sounds just right when you’re in a far away fantasy land or in a sci-fi setting.

- Bonnie Pink’s intro song totally rocks. I can’t really compare between Bump Of Chicken and her, as they have different styles of music and tone.

- If you played TOA and enjoyed its battle system, TOV’s about what you expect. In fact, apart from the removal of Fonon Area attacks replaced with an easier-to-execute Fatal Strikes attack, it’s almost a carbon copy of its predecessor, you’d swear they were using the same code of programming. Nonetheless, there are no random encounters and even if that’s the case, why fix something that isn’t broken at all? TOV’s battle system is fun and furious.

- Speaking of which, damn are the bosses hard. I died quite a bit just getting through the third and fifth bosses, I had to tone down the difficulty to Easy just to get past. Grades be damned, I want to see how the story unfolds.

- You get to fight as a Ninja Dog. No, not a title for a handicapped player, mind you. An actual Ninja Dog with a scar on his right eye and holding a pipe in its mouth.

Stick around for more impressions or personal gripes on the latest Tales exploitation. Seriously, I could do without the obnoxious tone of the "Stereotypical Kid With Guts" Karol. I so want to wring that f***er’s neck. Is this worth a venture or not, dear readers? Keep your comments spoiler-free.