Despite being a longtime fan of JRPGs, I didn’t play a Tales game until Tales of Vesperia was released on the Xbox 360. I enjoyed it a great deal, and I was happy that its later release on the PlayStation coincided with a plethora of figures from Alter. That satisfaction subsequently evaporated when they never released a figure of Judith, undeniably the best character in the game. Nonetheless, I’ve since bought a few of their figures, including Milla Maxwell, who looks very nice, and Alicia, whose low-key role in Tales of Zestiria kindled its own form of discontent. I’ve also obviously bought this figure, which is from Kotobukiya, curiously, rather than Alter.
Velvet Crowe is the protagonist of Tales of Berseria. That’s something of a departure from the norm for Tales games – and JRPGs in general, in fact, as most such games feature young males in the starring role. There have been more frontwomen in games in recent times, however, which is a nice change. Indeed, Velvet and Milla have been the main characters of two of the most recent Tales games, and the selection of female leads was fueled no doubt not just by an eagerness to rectify this gender inequity but also by the massive commercial opportunities afforded by attractive female characters.
This figure is manufactured by Kotobukiya in 1/8 scale and stands about 19 centimeters in height. This is not a large figure and Velvet’s relatively realistic body proportions (that is, her head isn’t gigantic) means that this figure looks even smaller than it is. That said, while I don’t have Milla handy for a size comparison, she might look okay next to Alisha, which was also a fairly small figure, as I recall. Like many Kotobukiya figures, Velvet comes already attached to her base; virtually no preparation is needed to get her ready for display.
Velvet actually came in two editions; the standard edition, which is what I have here, and an exclusive edition sold by Kotobukiya directly. The limited version featured an additional left arm, which looked rather oversized and demonic. I didn’t really care for that so I skipped that version.
Bandai Namco went with an interesting design for Velvet; rather than go with a refined and elegant appearance, Velvet looks grim and disheveled. Virtually none of her clothing is intact; her shorts, vest, socks, and coat are all badly tattered, making her look sort of like a particularly well-armed, medieval high school delinquent.
Her face emphasizes her particular cheerlessness as she conveys no particular emotion; neither happiness nor sorrow nor anger.
Despite her dour demeanor, the rest of the figure is rather more energetic. Her wideset stance gives her a threatening look – and emphasizes the length of her legs. Her massive ponytail is whipping around and her coat is splayed out behind her like a pair of wings. All in all her pose presents a nice contrast to her stoic expression.
There’s a peculiar and ongoing war in the entertainment industry against scantily-clad female characters, but fortunately Bandai Namco has ignored all the whining and given Velvet a sexy appearance. She’s showing a lot of bare skin, with exposed midriff, underboob, and thighs. Her shorts also have an interesting cutout in the front which plunges down towards her crotch; it doesn’t look like she wears any underwear, which is kind of neat.
A couple of other interesting aspects to her design are her weapon, which is a blade projecting out from her right forearm …
… and her left arm, which is wrapped up like that one Bakemonogatari character. It can apparently transform into some sort of gigantic demon-looking arm, which was incorporated into the limited edition version of this figure, as previously mentioned. Having not played the game I’m not sure what the significance of her transformed arm might be, but I don’t think it looks particularly attractive.
This is a great-looking figure that more than does justice to Velvet’s appearance. She looks fierce and sexy in equal portion, and her defiant stance shows a measure of aggression in spite of her dispassionate gaze. Pretty much the only thing I don’t care for regarding this figure is its size; it could stand to be a bit bigger, particularly since this figure received a fairly high price tag (it’s even more expensive now, admittedly). Nonetheless, I like this figure quite a bit; Kotobukiya did a fine job here.
Oh I didn’t know the demonic arm part is exclusive ahaha somehow reminds me with GSC shop Exclusive Bonus things XD.
I know nothing about her but, when you said She’s the main character kinda surprising 😀 not because she’s a girl, but more because her appearances
She does look kinda unconventional; it seems a lot of time that video game makers try to give the main character kind of a bland appearance, especially if the protagonist is male. Though I guess she could kinda pass for Squall Leonhart’s delinquent little sister.
I need to finish this game, it’s pretty fun, and the best Tales since Vesperia. The game was quite a bit of fresh air for traditional JRPG’s, and more than just having a female protagonist. Her demonic arm is pretty important, won’t spoil anything but the section of the game at the beginning when she gets it was pretty cool, had almost a survival horror atmosphere to it.
I agree on Judith in Vesperia, such a shame that Namco ignore her. Though that’s become a theme with Namco and females people actually like, I still laugh that they actually put Natsu as the only Soul Calibur rep in the Project X Zone series despite the backlash both her and SCV in general got. Plus Lili doesn’t have a single piece of Tekken 7 merchandise despite being the most used female in the arcade version and placing second in there Tekken X Street Fighter facebook poll, and her TTT2 kotobukiya figure was apparently one of the best selling if not the best selling according to amazon. Someone just needs to smack there employees around. (Sorry about mini rant.)
I guess I’ll be able to play it soon since I will finally be getting a PS4 to play Persona. It’s good to hear that the game is fun since I enjoyed Vesperia a lot (and I have Tales of Xillia sitting around here somewhere, along with a PS3 that I never actually took out of its box …).
Nah, I agree with your rant. I was hoping the PS3 port of Vesperia would come out in the US with the DLC, so I could dress up Judith like KOS-MOS, but that never happened (it would’ve been nice to get that DLC on the Xbox version, at least). And of course, there was that messy situation with Tales of Zesteria that I mentioned in the post. I did not watch the anime version but it seems like Alisha got more representation there, at least (though I am not positive about that).
I didn’t watch it either, but I hear it was better than the actual game. What was really bull about Alisha though is that with the Japanese version there was a week 1 paid Alisha epilogue expansion DLC that took place after the main game, that basically ended with a unfinished too be continued story. Supposedly Namco’s idea was getting Alisha popular before release after the series producer decided he wanted Rose to be the heroine over Alisha (he liked Rose’s VA better), and then use that popularity to get people to buy her epilogue DLC series. However, after huge backlash the followups were canceled and the DLC was made free day 1 DLC in the Western release.
Speaking of the mentioned producer (Hideo Baba), a little interesting fact. He has been the producer of the series since Graces (first game post Vesperia) until Zestiria. With Berseria they finally switched producers again and the quality shot back up. I found it interesting at just how important the producer role in video games can be.
I remember reading about the DLC fiasco; what a mess that was. I suppose the backlash did lead to some good things in that Milla was a selectable main character and Velvet was the default main character of their games. Hopefully they continue that trend (I haven’t been keeping on JRPG news and I have no idea what the Tales team is up to these days).
Ha, that is interesting; I enjoyed Vesperia a lot and I assumed that the other games would be of at least equal quality. I still do mean to play through Xillia one of these days but I guess I’ll keep my expectations tempered, then.
Forgot to mention one thing on Alisha, she used the same weapon as Judith, which is another thing that made her early departure such a disappointment, Rose uses dual daggers. 🙁
You also kept seeing Alisha’s weapons in shops far later in the game after her departure, so you could tell something fishy went on with development despite Baba original PR comments on the situation.
As long as they don’t bring Baba back. He actually said in a interview after Xillia released, I think with Gematsu, that he never had any intent of ever doing a single main female protagonist, then as soon as he leaves, that’s exactly what we get. With Xillia you can tell Milla probably wasn’t going to be a selectable main protagonist when development started. Her split up sections are less and shorter than Jude’s, and she misses major plot points during some of these, while in hers you never see much of importance. Plus the game still has a chapter where you’re forced to play as Jude for several hours even when you pick Milla.
Anyway, that’s all for my little facts about Tales of. XD
Only thing I know going on with Tales now is a Tales game is coming to Switch. Assumed to be a port of Berseria.
I saw recently that Alisha finished respectably on Namco’s popularity poll, whereas Rose was nowhere to be found. I can’t say I’m too surprised by that.
Well, that’s very lame, and does kind of discourage me from playing the game, though I guess I might never get around to it anyway, since my queue of RPGs that I want to play is absolutely gigantic. Berseria is definitely high in priority, though.
That layered ponytail though :E Fabulous
She does have nice hair! They did a great job with that and with other little touches like all those holes and tears in her outfit.
Mine is *finally* on her way. It’s one thing to be frustrated at having failed to preorder a figure featured here and another thing entirely to have had the good fortune to have preordred it yet still having to wait. Perhaps I should suck it up and take the shipping hit from ordering direct from Japan like I used to.
Ha, yeah, I think I ordered mine from Amiami and I got it right before they closed up orders (usually I order everything from Hobby Search). I still order all my figures from Japan and I still usually go with EMS shipping, and I wonder why I do that since it’s not like I open them up all that quickly.
Kotobukiya apparently did a good job with this figure
A “heroine” like Velvet Crowe is quite refreshing and so is her figure, you rarely see a bishoujo figure dressed in tattered and rather masculine designed clothes. That the boobs are accentuated that way gives her something attractive as well as the piercing eyes.
I was a big fan of Tales of Zestiria and everything I need to complete my happiness is a great figure of Lailah. She was so beautiful, she deserves a figure (｡♥‿♥｡)
Yes she does! Lailah was my favorite of that game too. Funny personality and great legs. Also I have bias for her English va too because of Satsuki from Kill la Kill.
Such a shame we learn nothing about her backstory in Berseria like a few of the other important characters in Zesty.
They did do a nice job with her, I’d like to review Alisha soon so I can compare the two (and Milla as well, if I can remember where I stored her box …).
Haha, I think that neither you nor I will have our wishes fulfilled. But I’ll hope that Lailah gets a figure, just as Judith should get a figure.
Beseria is a very good game, sure you will enjoy it once you get around to it. Ending was disappointing, but otherwise solid. Still not sure who I like more, Velvet or Magilou.
It’s annoying, but the final split up section, and the part where you are forced to play as Jude (and a little before it), are really the only ones that I remember being really really bad on Milla’s path in terms of her path coming off as a afterthought.
At least it wasn’t as bull as what Square pulled with Nier Automata.
That’s unfortunate but not at all surprising. Providing a satisfying ending is a hard thing to do, it seems. I’ve seen the game as low as $30 on Amazon so I’ll pick it up whenever it gets there again (or if I find it elsewhere for about that price).
Ha, now I’m a little distressed about that, I was going to pick up Nier on Steam (assuming the PC version runs okay compared to the console version). Though to be honest, I’d really mainly be buying the game to have 2B climb up and down ladders and stuff …
Yeah, I bought the game for 2B and Platinum’s fantastic combat, and that’s what I got…for the first of the games 3 campaigns…… Ever play Metal Gear Solid 2? Yeah……
In fact, I did! I bought MGS2 Substance on the Xbox after playing Splinter Cell. I don’t think I ever got off of the ship that you start on. I quit the game and re-played Splinter Cell after that, which I thought was the much superior game.
Oh, you kind of had to beat that part to get what I meant. Heh!
Basically it has 3 campaigns and goes like this.
Campaign 1 (about 10-15 hours of latter climbing fun): 2B
Hold R3 and L3 to blow up skirt for booty.
Campaign 2: Replaying campaign 1 from 2B’s sidekick 9S’, a ugly teenage boy android, prospective. Slightly shorter (only because his version of the split up section towards the end of the campaign is shorter) but adds additional cutscenes and has more sidequests. Gameplay now focuses on a repetitive asteroids/8-Bit shooter inspired hacking mini game with heavily stripped down melee combat.
Campaign 3: Sequel to campaign 1 and 2. Main story switches you between A2 (another girl, and boss during campaigns 1 and 2, easily the coolest and most fun to use of the 3 protagonists) and 9S at key points, however 9S still dominates these despite this being the only campaign with A2 (roughly 60% vs. 35% in 9S’ favor, with the other 5% for 2B, he also has more sidequests than her despite already having more than 2B during campaign 2). 9S also picks up a “emo” personality during this campaign and yells “Shut up! SHUT UP! SHUUUTTTT UUUPPPP!” several times.
Arena DLC: Introduces 3 arenas where each will unlock a Nier 1 throwback costume for 1 of the 3 characters upon beating it. 9S can be used in all 3, 2B and A2 only in 2.
The game barely letting you get to play as A2 probably bumbed me out the most.
That emo personality sounds … not too appealing. It reminds me of this one part in Star Ocean 4 that kinda made me stop playing (Edge makes a big mistake or something and starts screaming and crying; it’s kinda cringe-inducing). It’s a little disappointing that you have to play as the boy android but I guess I could get over that if the rest of the game is compelling.
2B’s campaign is one of the best action RPG’s I’ve ever played. Story of campaign 3 is pretty out there, which would be great if it wasn’t for 9S and him going more and more psycho, and you got to play as A2 a lot more. Campaign 2 is just needless filler/padding, and that budget should have went to creating more bullet hell mech sections (as his hacking mini game is jsut a waaay worse version of those) instead of rehashing campaign 1 with less fun gameplay, and no sexy, to make the game longer.
That is definitely good to know. It’s nice to learn that it’s a pretty good game, being that the first game seemed to be overlooked on both the PS3 and Xbox. That one of the lead characters is a telegenic android with an interesting costume Easter egg just makes it that much better.