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Fury Sparks - Tales of Vesperia

Genre: Video Game
Personal Genre: Inspiration/ Uplifting

Tales of Vesperia[Jp. 1] is a role-playing video game developed by Namco Tales Studio. The tenth mainline entry in the Tales series, it was released for the Xbox 360 and published in Japan and North America by Namco Bandai Games in 2008, and in European territories by Atari in 2009. An expanded port of the game for the PlayStation 3 was released in 2009 in Japan. An enhanced version, subtitled Definitive Edition, was released for the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch and Microsoft Windows in January 2019. The gameplay is similar to previous Tales games, featuring a new version of the series' trademark action-based "Linear Motion Battle System", while also introducing new elements such as online leaderboards.

Plot:

    The people of Terca Lumireis rely on an energy source called "blastia", devices created by the Krytia from using the crystallized remains of a powerful race known as the Entelexeia. Blastia are powered using a mystical substance known as "aer" and were used to provide resources and protection to major cities. In ancient times, misuse of blastia by the Krytia prompted the Entelexeia to absorb the excess aer generated by blastia abuses: consuming too much aer to handle, a group of Entelexeia transformed into a monster known as the Adephagos, which would consume every living thing on the planet by converting it into aer and absorbing it. Sacrificing humans with the innate ability to convert aer into magical energy, known as "Children of the Full Moon", they created a barrier to seal away the Adephagos. The remaining Children of the Full Moon and the Entelexeia decided on the new arrangement of the world: in future times, an unnamed Empire rules over large portions of Terca Lumireis, with the Children's descendants being its ruling family.[Game 3] Ten years prior to the events of Vesperia, a new form of blastia was developed that could seriously damage Terca Lumireis' ecosystem and potentially release the Adephagos. The Entelexeia attempted to warn humanity in vain, and when they attempted to destroy the new blastia, they were defeated in a war. One of the veterans of the Great War, Duke, is utterly disillusioned with humanity after his Entelexeia companion Elucifer is seen as a potential threat and killed.

In the present, former Imperial knight Yuri Lowell goes on a mission to retrieve his neighborhood's blastia core from a nobleman when their reservoir fails. While on his mission, he encounters a noble woman called Estelle, and flees with her from the capital in pursuit of the blastia thief. On their journey, they also meet Karol, a trainee hunter separated from his guild; a blastia researcher named Rita; Raven, a Great War veteran; Judith, a Krytia who seeks to destroy the blastia harming the aer balance; and exclusive to the PS3 version only, seemingly the descendant of a legendary pirate Aifread named Patty Fleur. Together, the group recover the stolen core from a corrupt guild leader and return it to Yuri's friend and former fellow knight Flynn. Yuri and Karol then decide to form an independent guild called Brave Vesperia. Shortly after this, Estelle is attacked by an Entelexeia called Phaeroh, who accuses her of poisoning the planet. After investigating and meeting a second time with Phaeroh, Brave Vesperia learn that Estelle is a Child of the Full Moon, capable of converting aer into magic without the aid of a blastia core, and that her actions are causing the aer krene, the sources of aer, to overproduce aer with deadly results. Alongside these events, Yuri sees that the Imperial authorities are powerless to act against powerful figures involved in blastia abuse: he takes matters into his own hands and murders two officials connected to the abuses. These acts put a strain on his friendship with Flynn.

After this, Estelle is kidnapped by Raven, revealed to be an agent of Commandant Alexei, leader of the Knights and the mastermind behind the blastia thefts: Alexei intends to use Estelle's power and the replica of a magical sword to activate an ancient weapon called the Enduring Shrine of Zaude and remake the world, erasing the harmful blastia. After Raven decides to remain with Brave Vesperia after helping Estelle to escape with them, the group travel to Zaude to stop Alexei. They fail, and as Zaude is activated, it is revealed to be a barrier generator which kept the Adephagos sealed off from the world. As the Adephagos is released, Alexei is killed as Zaude collapses and Yuri is separated from the group after one of Flynn's subordinates attempts to kill him without Flynn's knowledge. Rescued by Duke, Yuri decides to stop the Adaphagos. During his absence, Rita discovers a means of converting blastia cores into spirits, which can process aer into a less-dangerous alternate energy called mana, stabilizing the aer krene and keeping Estelle's powers in check. In turn, the mana could power a weapon capable of destroying the Adephagos. After receiving permission from the world's leaders to carry out their plan, Brave Vesperia must confront Duke aboard the city-sized weapon Tarqaron. Duke intends to convert all of human life, including himself, into energy to power the weapon and destroy the Adephagos, returning the world to a more primal state of being. While they share some goals, they are forced to fight due to their conflicting methods. After defeating Duke, Yuri attempts to use the converted blastia energy against Adaphagos, but it proves insufficient. Moved by Brave Vesperia's efforts, Duke provides the extra power and Adaphagos is destroyed. The Entelexeia that formed the Adaphagos are then converted into spirits to revitalize the planet.

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