At the time of this writing I'm 15 hours into Tales of Vesperia. I already wrote my First Impression on The Definitive Edition last week, and there are few other things I love to talk about in this game, for now I decided to write about the silly recurring boss: The Imperial Knights Trio (commonly known as The Schwann Brigade.)
This is a #BlindPlayOpinion post!
Writing my unfiltered thoughts while I play.
This might not reflect my final opinion on the game upon completing it!
One of the first fights in Tales of Vesperia is a tutorial battle against two of the incompetent Imperial Knights Adecor and Boccos, the battle servers as a tutorial for the game's battle system but the twist is that the protagonist Yuri Lowell is the one who teaches these guys instead of the other way around.
Tales of Vesperia introduces its battle system elements slowly throughout the game and does so mainly through Tutorial bosses. The Imperial Knights may not be the only tutorial boss in the game, but they're without a doubt the most recurring one.
Commonly referred as The Schwann Brigade: Adecor, Boccos and their leader Leblanc, show up at different points in the story, pursuing the protagonist (who ran away from Prison after committing a minor crime before getting accused with increasingly bigger ones.) Each time they fight, they're clearly stronger and use a new battle mechanic previously hidden from the player. They love to brag about it and explain how to use these techniques!
The thing about this trio of knights is that, they're very incompetent. They're not corrupted or evil, but they refuse to see the whole picture. I can't get it in me to hate them considering Yuri is actually guilty of the majority of his crimes, and beating them up isn't helping his case.
The Schwann Brigade's overconfidence while they try to beat/arrest Yuri is pretty amusing assuming their track record with fights against him. They keep improving and come up with a better strategy in each fight but they're always a step or two behind the player party.
Each of these three characters have their own personality traits and their designs complement each other. Boccos the short one. Adecor the slim guy who keeps using the words "I say!" Leblanc is the most well-rounded character of them but he's as overconfident as them and fails to see the reasons Yuri had to do what he does.
The Incompetent Tutorial Boss
This game isn't the first game I played that uses this type of a tutorial boss, the most memorable example is a game I played many years ago: Chrono Cross which had the exact same types of characters as Boccos/Adecor and I loved their battles despite how easy they were. The Nostalgia factor is one of the reasons that made me like the Schwann Brigade so much.
Now, I'm still playing the game and despite having a few theories I'm still not sure what's the game's end goal may be for now. But one thing for sure, I hope to meet The Schwann Brigade again throughout the game. I think my party is getting too strong for them though, (and I don't want them to magically keep up with the heroes,) but even if it's not a fight, I love their relentless justice upholding despite the many times they lose!
I'm currently enjoying Tales of Vesperia, and thinking as I enjoyed writing this article, I hope to write more #BlindPlayOpinion(s) for this game and other games I play in the future. For now, I hope you have a nice day and if you have any thoughts please post them in the comment section!