Tales of Vesperia is regarded as the best Tales game to date, and one of the most polished, "perfect" JRPGs available. Period.
The game is near flawless for what it brings to the table. No frame dropping issues, eye-popping visuals, flawless, deep battle system. It's head and shoulders above Eternal Sonata, and if you like Action-based RPGs, it is a MUST buy. Most ToV owners have it in very high regard - the story is OK, but the characters are deep, and actually good. There are no weak links with ToV characters. Even the cheezy guy (Karol) is fleshed out enough to be relevant.
It's easily in the top 2 or top 3 of all X360 JRPGs and RPGs in general.
IU...I can't say much. It's got mostly mixed reactions - praising the combat system that is fun and fresh (and a fresh step in the typical JRPG mix), but bashed for shortness (but there are multiple playthroughs required for everything), and the story can be tedious - as well as graphical slowdowns.
I look forward to playing IU, but ToV is awesome of another level. It may be the best JRPG on the X360, and is at a minimum a MUST play JRPG for any JRPG fan.
Back from the dead, I'm afraid.
