These are my own impressions of the game. I've played through a little over an hour now, and I have to say I love it so far. So, I'm going to break it down into categories.
Visuals: Absolutely incredible. There is nothing even close to this on the DS. The videos don't do the game's graphical quality justice. It is hands down the most graphically impressive game on the DS. The art style is the art style of all Tales games. Fans of the series should be familiar with it.
Audio: The music so far has been great. Maybe even the best I've heard out of the Tales series. One of my biggest complaints with it as a series has always been that the soundtracks were a bit too simplistic, but Tales of Innocence is out to change that.
The Voice Acting has been amazing! So far about 1/3 of the conversations in the game have been voice acted (not counting random ones with villagers) including some of the skits. I don't have to understand what they say to get the emotions and personalities out of the characters. I'll get into that more in the next section. I doubt we'll be able to get the original Japanese audio in the localization due to cart size limits, but hopefully they strive for the same standard of excellence they have achieved in this version.
Story: I'm not going to give spoilers, but from what I've picked up so far it seems very good. I already saw what seems to be a major plot twist. Ruca is an interesting character. He starts out the meek obedient boy. He listens to his parents and his friends boss him around, but when someone is in trouble you see something deeper... no spoilers though.
Iria is a great foil to Ruca. She's arrogant, self-rightous, and bossy. She's funny though, and she switches vocal tones and facial expressions between demonic and happy instantly. She seems to be a good person despite her attitude, and her conversations with Ruca are very funny.
Gameplay: Pretty much the same as Tales of Symphonia. You have left and right movement available but you can jump in this by tapping up on the D Pad. You can also dash (even to the other side of your enemy) by tapping the direction you are facing while guarding, and dodge backwards (just like ToS) by tapping the direction behind you while guarding. The A button is your standard attack and the B button is your special attack. Holding a direction with either attack will change that attack's effect.
I haven't tried controlling Iria yet (she uses guns) but Ruca is a fairly slow Melee fighter. He wields a broadsword much larger than he should be able to hold. You pause the game in battle to use items and retreat. I'm also pretty sure that's how you issue tactic commands, although I can't say I have tried yet.
Summary: The game is brilliant so far. It plays and feels like a great Tales game. The graphics are second to none on the DS, the music and voice acting are great, the plot seems interesting, and the gameplay is fun and action-packed. I'm looking forward to the US release, and I hope these impressions got you as excited as I am for the game.
