mrstickball said:
Tales of Vesperia is very well rounded - more so than any other JRPG on the 360. It doesn't have the storytelling of a thousand years' of dreams, or re-invents the wheel with combat (at least from a Tales perspective), but it does what a JRPG should do, flawlesslely. Graphically, the game is a dream on HDTV. Every time I turn it on my 50" HDTV, I feel like I'm watching a very good anime. On the technical side of the graphics, loading times are better than some JRPGs with the HDD installed - without installation (at max, load times are 3-4 seconds. After the 1st battle, they are all instantaneous. No frame drops). Musically, the game is great. It's not the best ever (I'm a sucker for Nobou Uematsu), but it's up there with Dragon Quest VIII, which I thought was very atmospheric. Story wise, the game is good, but not earth-shattering. What makes the story great is there's actual character development and progression. Characters' personalities change inside the game, and evolve into smarter people, while others flesh out their feelings of morality. Yuri and Karol are both on opposite ends of the spectru, but evolve in incredible ways. Yuri turns from being the steriotypical JRPG protagonist into a very mixed man in a wonderful way, while Karol, the steriotypical whiny youth is made fun of, derided, and beaten up until he comes a more tough, balanced youth character - a similar way that Kaneda (Akira) evolved from student to savior. Gameplay is great. I'm 30hrs into ToV, and from what I've seen, I've missed a ton of side quests and optional story-buidling activities, and I'm only halfway through the game. Battle system is deep, and I'm still learning how to make my combos better. Item creation is fun, and battles are never, ever a chore. Skill sets are varied, and each person brings a unique set of powers into the team, although everyone will have thier preferences (Yuri, Judith, Estelle and Rita are usually the best combo, but Repede is a good mix-in for some quick, insane combos). The game is probably the only JRPG this gen that's in my top-20 of all time. All in all, it's not trying to be the best JRPG ever, but it is among the best for most well-executed, as the game performs well beyond the flawed gems we've seen in virtually every other JRPG so far on the 360.
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What part are you in the game right now because if your only half way through then you have seen nothing yet in the actually story, It get waaaaaaaaayyyy better and has alot more plot twist.
