Hopefully the fact that they are doing a dedicated 360 edition will see a rise in 360 sales in Japan

I kinda expected lower scores for Tales of Vesperia, but glad I was wrong.

Good For ToV. the demo was cool.

new 360s don't die too. Be sure!

Oh yeah, lol, I've been meaning to download that. Heard it was really good, but my friend is kinda a Tales fanboy, so I didn't know if he was trustworthy, hehe.

ToV got a really good score but I do have a few concerns. Tales of the Abyss got straight 9s in Famitsu yet only got a 79% on gamerankings. And also, the score is lower than BD, LO, or ES yet those three games only got 77-80% on gamerankings. I hope it isn't anti-JRPG bias.

EDIT:Sorry, forgot this isn't real Famitsu

There are also examples at the other end of the spectrum. However, generally, JRPGs tend to get scored lower here in the states due to the presumptions of the genre "growing stale."

If ToV is the same game as ToS with a better story, I might consider it the best game ever, but you can bet your bottom dollar eurogamer, edge, and xplay will give it 7 and 6's out of 10s because they just don't like the genre and feel it isn't evolving.

It's not enough to improve your software anymore, you have to evolve it. For reviewers that is. In the JRPG genre. It appears to be just fine by them when games like Halo, Mario, or Zelda do it, great games all, but when JRPGs do it, you're looking at 7/10 at best.

All that said, Tales of the Abyss is freakin' awesome. It's almost as good as Tales of Symphonia, trust me when I tell you this, if Vesperia is as good as Abyss, we're very lucky, and in for a real treat. Abyss blows Lost Odyssey and Eternal Sonata clean out of the water. It's that good. It got its score docked for such intelligent reviewer gems as "slowdown in the overworld" and "This game is too much like recently released RPGs."

Blows away Odin Sphere also.

In fact, the only non final fantasy JRPG on the PS2 that I rank higher than Abyss is Persona 3: FES, and I've about played em all.

Please god let this game be as "bad" as Tales of the Abyss. That is my prayer.

FPSs are getting kind of stale but none of the reviewers are complaining. Why should JRPGs be treated any different? Didn't Famitsu admit to giving scores to gamea based on hype and what the community wants? That must of been why Persona 3 and TWEWY and main FF games managed to get high scores.

EDIT:The only reason that people think the genre is getting stale is because mainstream companies are sticking a little too close to conventions(with exceptions such as TWEWY and FFXII)

WTH, isno one upset about the NBA 2K8 score? That game is great!

Bolded:

I address that completely in my previous post.

Persona 3, TWEWY, and the main FF games might manage great reviews from Famitsu because fans demand it, but they manage great reviews from other sources because they're freakin fantastic.

That said, why don't you go back and look at the score Xplay gave the original Persona 3, and the reasons.

The games you've mentioned do their best to break the conventional JRPG mold.

However, games like Tales of Symphonia, which is a great game that fits into the current mold, are under-rated while games like Halo 3 are hailed as the second coming.

Not all sites do this, but some do. That's why you'll have wide ranges of reviews on JRPGs, always. Some reviewers just hate reviewing them, and a lot of playing a JRPG is how much you can get into it. You have to go in with the right state of mind. You know what I mean. Some reviewers are just spiteful they have to play a 60 hour game from a genre they dislike.

My argument is JRPGs ARE treated differently from the FPS genre. The JRPG genre is looked down upon with contempt by a lot of reviewers. That's just something you pick up after watching the business for a few....seconds. At least Famitsu tends to give them a fair shake.